Page 1 of Biker's Fake Engagement Ride

Chapter One

I want you to know that fucking Jonathon isn’t part of the plan at all. It has nothing to do with the plan and even kind of breaks the rules we set in putting together the plan in the first place. The whole point of our arrangement is that there isn’t going to be anything real. We’re pretending. It’s not about romance and love. It’s not even about sex. But we end up screwing like crazy anyway. It’s not part of the plan and it’s against the rules. However, it’s because of the plan that we end up doing it.

Okay, I’ll back up a little and make things clearer, okay?

Jonathon is my fiancé.

Except he’s not.

What I mean to say is that I’m pretending he’s my fiancé. It’s a kind of complicated situation so I’ll just tell you how it happens, okay? I’ll give you a little background. I grew up in a tiny little mountain town called Pinecrest Peak. I love this town. Think about every cliché about happy little towns, and it probably applies to this place.

About the only thing unexpected about Pinecrest Peak is that it’s home to an outlaw motorcycle club. The club is called the Midnight Avengers. The club members are what bikers call one-percenters. I guess that’s from some quote at a rally or something. Someone was defending motorcyclists and said that ninety-nine percent of all motorcycle riders were law-abiding citizens. I guess those who can’t be described that way (because they are not law-abiding) use the name one-percenter as a badge of honor.

I’m telling you about the Midnight Avengers because Jonathon is one. He’s an outlaw biker.

Anyway. Although they’re definitely a criminal organization, everyone in town loves the Midnight Avengers because they protect the town. They not only keep their own business far from home but they also won’t allow any criminal enterprises into town. Really, about the most the police have to deal with in Pinecrest Peak is teenage shoplifting, occasional Saturday evening drunk in public stuff, and that kind of petty crap.

Okay. So, now you know a little about Pinecrest Peak.

I move away at eighteen just to go to college in the city. I move back to twenty-two years old, degree in hand, and ready to live in the town I love. I already have a marketing and consulting company going. It’s how I got extra money in college, working through freelance sites and stuff. Now, I’m ready to take it to a whole new level.

And I get home and discover my great-grandmother’s estate is worked out. She died when I was seventeen but everything was very complicated. It’s taken years to figure things out, I guess. I never cared. I loved my Nana, and I never wanted anything anyway.

But… Well, she left me her house and a substantial sum of cash. The reason that’s important to me is because if I don’t get her house, it will be sold. I don’t want it going outside of the family. I can’t tell you I don’t care about the cash at all but I can honestly say that it isn’t the most important thing to me. I already know that I’ll be distributing a lot of it to other family members. Nana used to tell me she didn’t trust lawyers. She wanted to leave her money to someone she could trust and that person could give it to her loved ones.

Anyway. Here’s the catch.

I have to be engaged or married.

For six months. After six months, everything transfers to me and it’s done. It’s irreversible at that point.

See, Grandma always told me that I was too serious and too giving. She said I never lived life for myself and never enjoyed what I deserved to enjoy. She particularly pointed out that I avoided any real romance. I had a boyfriend in high school but she knew right from the outset there wasn’t any real emotion involved. She knew that we were both just having fun.

I think she wanted me to experience the kind of life that she experienced when she was my age. I know for a fact she wanted me to stop taking life so seriously all the time. She wanted me to focus on enjoying life more than figuring out how to accomplish all I could in whatever time I had.

You know, back when I was a kid, I thought she had charming ideas that just didn’t fit. It’s amazing how coming back from college changes my perspective though. I’m not even talking about the house and all that. Even when I think I’m going to just live in my parents’ house, I realize that there’s a balance I need in my life. I need to learn to enjoy life and not just focus on goals and targets and all that.

Okay, so anyway, I have to be engaged or married for at least six months. After that, the house will be turned over to me and it’s done. The problem, though, is that it has to happen within sixty days (because it has to happen before my twenty-third birthday, and that’s two months away.) The engagement, I mean. Or, I suppose, a wedding.

So, there it is.

I really want to keep my great-grandmother’s house in the family. It’s just not going to be an easy thing to do.

Chapter Two

So, I’ve got two months to find someone to be engaged with and then I have to wait six months. Tony is back in town. He’s my boyfriend from high school. We broke up amicably after graduation because we knew there was no future for us.

But I consider that we could make a future happen. I mean, it’s not the life I want but it could be a good life, right? You have to understand how important it is to me that Nana’s house remains in the family. It’s a very nice house, of course, but even if it were just a shack, I would want it to stay in the family. So, that’s a possibility. I actually called the lawyer and asked if I needed to be engaged to a man. I have a friend from college who’s bisexual and has always been interested in me.

I actually think about an arranged marriage!

Yeah, I’m going fucking crazy. While that’s happening, I hear noise in the backyard. This house has been vacant for years so I don’t know why it sounds like work is being done. I step out into the backyard and see a man.

Or a complete biker god. You can decide what to call him.

I see him from behind. He’s naked from the waist up. I see his cut (his sleeveless biker vest) draped over his shirt draped over his motorcycle. He has a hammer and nails and he’s doing something with the backyard fence. The man is broad-shouldered and so damned muscular! I mean, he’s muscular from work, not from working out. He doesn’t look like a bodybuilder.

He looks perfect.

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