Pretending She's His: A Hard Feelings Novella
Read Pretending She's His: A Hard Feelings Novella Online
Authors: Kelsie Leverich
Also by Kelsie Leverich
The Valentine’s Arrangement
Feel the Rush
Pretending She’s His
A Hard Feelings Novella
Kelsie Leverich
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INTERMIX BOOKS
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
PRETENDING SHE’S HIS
An InterMix Book / published by arrangement with the author
PUBLISHING HISTORY
InterMix eBook edition / November 2013
Copyright © 2013 by Kelsie Leverich.
Excerpt from
The Valentine’s Arrangement
copyright © 2012 by Kelsie Leverich.
Excerpt from
Feel the Rush
copyright © 2013 by Kelsie Leverich.
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eBook ISBN: 978-0-698-15435-3
INTERMIX
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Contents
Special Excerpt from
THE VALENTINE'S ARRANGEMENT
Special Excerpt from
FEEL THE RUSH
This book is for my readers. Letting yourself get wrapped up in a fantasy, lost in a make-believe world, is why I love to write. Because sometimes, you just need to pretend.
Chapter One
“I told you to bring a date.”
Eva sighed and rolled back onto the oversized, king bed. Bring a date to the cabin for an entire weekend . . . an entire
wedding
weekend? Meagan really should know her better than that.
“Seriously, Meg?” She propped up onto her elbows and arched her eyebrows at her six-month-preggo best friend who was about to tie the proverbial knot. “Weekend getaways are one thing. Weekend getaways surrounded by wedding festivities is in a completely new realm of ‘hell no.’”
Meagan stepped into her swimsuit bottoms and shimmed them up underneath her dress. “Why not? If you had”—she pulled her sundress over her head and dropped it to the ground—“invited that cutie you went out with last weekend, then the whole Luke thing wouldn’t even be an issue right now.”
Ah, Luke. Eva had dated him for a little while, but they had been broken up for eight months now. He was fun. Well, he was more than fun. He was sexy and cocky, and just enough sweet to keep her interested—for a while. When she started her little rendezvous with him, she never anticipated him falling for her. Their relationship was easy, and completely, one hundred percent, built around sex. And that’s all it ever was for Eva—an attraction. But for Luke, it had been more than that. Okay, so yes, she cared about him. She wasn’t a heartless bitch, for crying out loud. But, she’d never loved him. It never reached that point for her. And she knew it never would. Eva didn’t fall in love easily. Actually, she was beginning to think she was incapable of feeling the little pitter-patter that pulsated around her heart as opposed to the one that pulsated between her legs. Physical attractions—physical feelings—she had down solid. It was the emotional ones she struggled with.
“Luke isn’t a problem. It’s just . . . awkward,” Eva admitted. Eva never had an issue being around her exes. But it was different with Luke. She had never been dumped before. She had a tendency to be the one to bail out of relationships. No need to rewind and take a walk down memory lane to Eva’s past to determine why she didn’t hang on to a man longer than a few months or why she always seemed to split before her relationships turned into relationships—because there were no reasons. No sappy story, no devastated, heart-wrenching breakup that destroyed her for all future men. She just never felt “it,” plain and simple.
But Luke dumped
her
, which, granted, she completely understood given his feelings for her and her lack of feelings for him, but it surprised her. It put a little trip in her step, battered her ego and took a nice little chunk out of her pride. He was pissed and hurt when he broke up with her and they didn’t leave things on the best of terms. Awkward was an emotion Eva was unfamiliar with, but she had a feeling she was going to perfect it this weekend.
Meagan laughed as she attempted to hook her bikini top. She had already been blessed in the boob department before she was pregnant—and now her fiancé, Reed, was in male heaven. She walked to the bed and spun around. “Tie this,” she said, handing the straps over to Eva. “Have you talked to him?”
“I didn’t have a chance to say anything. Your saint of a mother swept in and saved the day, pulling me away to help her set up for the rehearsal dinner. Then we all went into wedding mode, so I haven’t run into him yet.”
Eva finished tying the strap around Meagan’s back then swatted her on the ass. “You’re the only pregnant woman I’ve ever seen who could actually pull off a bikini.”
“And you’re the only single maid of honor I’ve seen who actually refuses to bring the hot man she just went out on a date with to her best friend’s wedding.”
Eva sighed, causing Meagan’s shoulders to slump and her eyes to soften. Bringing a date to a wedding felt too . . . serious. Love and commitment and everything else that went along with a wedding was just too much for a casual date. Bringing someone to a wedding was like staking your claim on your relationship. Giving it a title or a status—neither of which she wanted.
Standing up off the bed, Eva shimmied out of her shorts and panties and pulled on her bikini bottoms. “Just point me in the direction of the margaritas, and I will be just fine.”
“Have you heard from Trevor yet?” Meagan questioned, changing the subject, the slight hiccup in her voice catching Eva’s attention.
Trevor was Meagan’s best friend. He actually held the number one spot, Eva coming in a close second. Eva was a sergeant in the army stationed at Fort Drum when Trevor came down on orders to relocate there. Trevor and Meg had been best friends since high school when their parents were stationed together at the same army post and their friendship picked right back up where it’d left off. Eva became friends with Trevor by default. He was a cocky SOB who was the epitome of a player. He looked at women like they were a challenge that he had already won. And it worked. It. Fucking. Worked. Women flocked to him—batted their eyes and swayed their hips at him with the one little wink of his eye. She had seen it done time and time again. But as much as she hated to acknowledge it, he was a good guy. A little slutty, but a good, dependable man—although she would never outright admit that to him, or anyone else. Trevor didn’t need a boost to his ego, in fact, Eva thoroughly enjoyed knocking that ego of his down a few notches every now and again.
“Don’t worry, babe. That man has never let you down before. He’ll be here. When he called earlier, he said he hoped to be here sometime this evening.”
“It’s past this evening, Eva. He missed the entire rehearsal dinner. Are you sure he’s okay?”
Eva laughed. “Yes, he’s
fine
. If the dumb-ass hadn’t missed his flight he wouldn’t have had to drive here.”
“I still can’t believe they didn’t have any more flights to Atlanta until tomorrow.”
“Meggy,” Eva coaxed. “Stop worrying and enjoy your last night as a single woman.”
A smile trickled over Meagan’s already glowing features and the lines around her eyes softened. Eva pulled the elastic band from her wrist and wrapped it around her wild, red curls that seemed even more out of control in this Georgia heat. She locked her arm with Meagan’s and led her downstairs to the main level of the cabin that should have been classified as a five-star resort.
“There’re my girls,” Reed said as his eyes fell over Meagan when they stepped out onto the back deck. His arms wound around her and he pressed a kiss to her stomach before moving those damn sexy lips to Meagan’s. Eva had to give it to her, she’d snagged a good one.
Reaching behind him, Reed grabbed a Solo cup off the patio table. “Eva,” he lilted, handing the cup over to her. “I made a pitcher of my famous margaritas, just for you.”
Eva gladly took the cup from his hand and pressed it to her lips. Condensation from the sweating plastic coated her palm. Pulling the cup away from her mouth she smiled. “I knew you were good for something, Reed.”