I thought our arrangement was simple: pretend to date, keep our lives in order, and make it through this whirlwind unscathed.
Roman Nourizi—the charming, tech-genius son in a family obsessed with weddings and grandchildren—needed a “girlfriend” to stop his mother’s relentless matchmaking. And me? As a fiercely independent gallery owner, I needed a stable relationship on paper to impress a high-stakes client. Easy, right?
But pretending with Roman, with his disarming humor and maddeningly handsome smile, is anything but simple. One staged kiss at a family dinner feels a little too real, and those moments where he looks at me like I’m more than just part of a plan… they’re starting to feel like everything I’ve always been afraid to want.
Now, I’ve got a few problems on my hands:
Roman Nourizi—the charming, tech-genius son in a family obsessed with weddings and grandchildren—needed a “girlfriend” to stop his mother’s relentless matchmaking. And me? As a fiercely independent gallery owner, I needed a stable relationship on paper to impress a high-stakes client. Easy, right?
But pretending with Roman, with his disarming humor and maddeningly handsome smile, is anything but simple. One staged kiss at a family dinner feels a little too real, and those moments where he looks at me like I’m more than just part of a plan… they’re starting to feel like everything I’ve always been afraid to want.
Now, I’ve got a few problems on my hands:
- My carefully constructed walls are crumbling every time he makes me laugh.
The lines between fake and real are blurring faster than I can keep up.
His family loves me, and I’ve started to feel like I belong—for the first time in a long time.
We agreed to stick to our rules: no real emotions, no intimacy that isn’t for show, and an end date that kept us safe from heartbreak. But now that I’ve seen the man behind the humor, the one who goes out of his way to make me feel protected and cared for, I can’t shake the hope that maybe, just maybe, this could be real.
But falling for Roman means risking everything—my heart, my trust, and the perfect, safe life I’ve built around staying guarded. I swore I’d never let love in, but when it comes to Roman, you’d never expect what happens next… because I certainly didn’t.
Genre: Romance
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