Trish Wylie - The Wedding Surprise

Immediately her mind jumped to Aisling, the friend of a friend she’d spent most of yesterday evening on the phone with. Aisling had had a proposal to put to her. One that Caitlin had laughed about for hours.

Suddenly it didn’t seem so ridiculous.

Now it was an escape route.

Nodding at the decision she’d silently made, she pushed the chair back from the desk and walked around to wrap her arms around her father’s neck. ‘We’re going to get through this, Dad. You wait and see. You’re the one who taught us that we’re stronger together than apart.’

The breath he took was shaky. ‘There’s no way out of this one, sweetheart.’

‘Yes, there is. There’s always a way. Everything happens for a reason.’ She leaned back from him, her face barely inches from his, and smiled, ‘No more secrets, Dad. That’s what family is for. Someone wise told me that once.’

He nodded with a small smile at her words. ‘All right. No more secrets.’

She kissed his forehead, her eyes closing. No more secrets. Apart from the massive one she was going to have to carry to get them out of this.

‘God, I’m thrilled you’re doing this.’ Aisling hugged her tightly after she’d walked into the airy office. ‘You’re going to be just amazing.’

Pulling back from the embrace, Caitlin looked at her with narrow eyes. ‘I don’t know about the amazing part, but I’m glad one of us is thrilled.’

‘It’s an exciting project for all of us.’ Aisling moved back and sat down on the large sofa that took up half of one wall in her office. ‘It’s taken eighteen months to set it running, and I for one can’t wait to get started.’

‘Mmm.’ Caitlin moved across to join her. Taking a breath, she turned on the sofa, tucking one of her legs beneath the other. ‘Can we just go through it again?’

‘You’re not nervous?’

‘Me?’ She laughed. ‘Nah. Hell, I always lie to my family and friends for money from a TV show.’

‘You are nervous.’ Aisling smiled a smile that said Trust me. ‘That’s understandable. It’s nothing out of the ordinary. I’d be nervous too.’

‘You’re not the one who’ll be living a lie.’

‘Why do you think I was so keen on it being you?’

Caitlin raised an eyebrow at the question. ‘Because as someone you already know I’m less likely to sue you if it all goes pear-shaped?’

Aisling laughed at her reasoning. ‘Well, that’s one I hadn’t thought of, but I guess I can tick that box now too.’

‘I tick off boxes?’

‘Tons of the things.’ She started counting them out on her long fingers. ‘You’re single and unattached; you’ll be sensational on camera; you have this amazingly close family and you have good reason to want the pay-off at the end.’

Dark eyes widened ever so slightly at the last ‘tick’. ‘What good reason, exactly?’

Aisling looked surprised she’d even asked. ‘What a strange question.’ She frowned. ‘You do still want that restaurant of yours, don’t you?’

It was all she’d wanted ever since she’d trained as a chef. Her own place to be creative in. But her priorities had changed now. There were other things, much more important, that needed the money.

Another lie wouldn’t make much difference, though. ‘Sure I do.’

‘Well, then…’

‘What about the guy?’

‘Aiden?’ Her face lit up, ‘Oh, he’s a blinder. We all just adore him. Wait ’til you meet him…’

Caitlin cringed at the thought. She didn’t want to meet him. Ever. Given the choice.

If he was as unsuitable for her as Aisling thought he would be then she was going to hate every moment of being around him.

But that was the whole premise of Aisling’s new show. Two completely different people pretending to be in love. All they had to do was persuade their families and friends that it was true. Then, to collect, they had to say their fake ‘I do’s with all of their family and friends present. Easy as pie, right?

Three months. Three months of living a lie with a camera crew following their every movement. But it would be worth every torturous moment of invasion of Caitlin’s precious privacy if it saved her father’s business and the magical place called home.

Caitlin’s chin raised a notch. She could do this. She had to. Even while her stomach churned and her hands were clammy. It was only three months.

And, after all, how bad could this Aiden guy really be?

AIDEN FLYNN turned as the door opened and then stared at the woman who was now his ‘fiancée’ for the next few months.

She was stunning. Not a bit of wonder they’d chosen her from all the candidates suggested. He’d bet she’d look great on screen. A hell of a lot better than he was looking anyway. But six months in front of a computer, within arm’s reach of billions of calories, hadn’t exactly helped any.

And he could tell she wasn’t impressed. When she’d opened the door she’d been smiling openly. But now, as her eyes moved over him, he could see that smile fading in her dark eyes.

Suddenly he wished he’d bothered to remove the abnormal amount of hair on his face. That he’d taken maybe ten minutes to visit a barber in the last week. But Aisling had been fairly adamant that he stayed the way he was. He was perfect the way he was, she’d said.

Shame that Caitlin Rourke didn’t think so. Because she really was stunning.

His eyes moved down from the urchin cut of her rich brown hair, over flawless creamy skin to the sensual bow of her mouth. Then they dared to move further, down over her long neck to the curve of her small breasts and the inward sweep of her slender waist. Oh, yeah. She was something. And way out of his usual league if the designer cut of her clothes and the swanky place she lived in were anything to go by.

His eyes moved back up as she smoothed her short hair behind one ear and smiled at him again before moving forward.

She then stunned him completely by throwing her arms around his neck and pressing her slender body tightly against his. Blinking in confusion, he wrapped his arms around her waist with jerky movements.

‘You’re here at last!’ She tilted her head back to look up at him. ‘I’ve missed you so much.’

Aiden’s eyes widened. ‘Well, I’ve missed you too.’

Her eyes jerked to her left and he followed the movement until his own found the camera pointing at him. Aha. Straight to business, then…

She leaned in to kiss his cheek above the line of his beard, leaving her cheek there and whispering, ‘My sister is here.’ Then she leaned back again to look at him.

Tightening his arms around her waist to signal he understood, he then did what any self-respecting fiancé would do and leaned down for a kiss. After all, her sister would expect it…

Caitlin’s eyes widened as the realisation of his intention hit her. She ducked her head further back and laughed slightly. ‘Oh, no, you don’t. Not with that beard.’

She thought he’d grown that beard overnight? If they’d only recently got engaged then she’d have been kissing him with that beard for some time now.

‘You didn’t complain about where this beard went last weekend, honey.’

A dark eyebrow quirked at his response and a spark entered her eyes. A challenge? he wondered.

Her voice came out like warm honey. ‘You have no idea the places I ended up with beard rash.’

A challenge indeed.

His eyes sparkled back at her. ‘Maybe you should show me later.’

‘We’ll have to see about that.’ And as quickly as that the spark was gone from her eyes and she pulled back from his embrace. She glanced towards the living room, then her eyes flickered back to meet his as her voice dropped. ‘That beard has to go.’