Page 3 of Her Fake Island Wedding

Olivia looked up from her texting to say “Stop by my place later and we’ll look through my dresses… though I’m thinking I might just get some designer samples flown in from Sydney…”

“Run away, while you still can!” Nessa said laughingly, and Lucy and Bryce took to their heels.

“Are you quite sure about this?” Lucy asked Bryce as the pair of them headed for reception and the general manager’s office located on the floor above. “I mean, you just volunteered for a fun prank and suddenly Olivia’s turning it into a production ofBen Hur.”

“Doesn’t worry me,” Bryce said with a shrug. “What about you? It’s one thing to tell your mom about a fake fiancé but quite another to go through with a major production of a fake wedding.”

“Yeah.” Lucy chewed on her lower lip as they walked, unaware of Bryce staring at her mouth in fascination. “Frankly, I’m looking forward to it. I might not ever even tell her it was all a fake… I’ll just tell her we changed our minds and got divorced.”

“Oh, you never know,” Bryce said. He put on an affected tone, making her grin at his lighthearted attitude. “You might find you like being married to me!”

Chuckling, Lucy aimed a light punch at his thick biceps muscle. “Sure, but being ‘married’ is gonna crampyourstyle!”

* * *

Lucy hadn’t the faintest idea how crazy he was about her, Bryce realized ruefully. He’d thought Cory had given him away when his friend slyly suggested the fake fiancé idea while staring pointedly at Bryce, but Lucy seemed completely oblivious to the giant-sized crush Bryce had nursed ever since the beautiful, brilliant scientist arrived on the island.

Some days it seemed as though everyone but Lucy knew about his crush, too. Nessa had even made a teasing remark about it being a good thing the seat next to Bryce was vacant when Lucy entered the staff restaurant, else he’d probably have pushed someone out of the way in order to sit next to her.

He’d wanted to protest that he wasn’t quite that much of a hormonal teenager, but Lucy caught his eye and gave her usual sunny smile, and the words died on his lips. Because where Lucy Manning was concerned, Bryce’s hormones were indeed ruling his head.

Trying to keep his eyes off the perfect curve of her bottom in her thin shorts as she trotted up the stairs ahead of him, Bryce once again chastised himself for perving on her. Lucy had made it clear he was in the friend zone right from the beginning.

Pretending to be her fake fiancé was probably a recipe for disaster, but there was no way he could resist the opportunity to spend more time with her, maybe even romance her a little, get her to look at him as something other than her young friend she dived with sometimes.

“I’m not worried,” he answered her comment about cramping his style. He hadn’t had a date in months; the resort had a strict no-fraternisation policy between staff and guests, and the only staff member he’d felt any sort of romantic interest in was Lucy herself, Lucy of the fox-chestnut hair and the vivid blue eyes. She wrinkled her pert, freckled little nose at him.

“Oh your own head be it, then. Just remember, youvolunteered,” she said in the English accent that always made his knees go weak, and opened the door to the general manager’s outer office.

Luke’s PA looked up from her computer and smiled at them both. “Can I help you?”

“Is Mr Collyer available?” Lucy asked politely.

“He’s between meetings at the moment; I’ll just check if he can see you. Please wait.”

Within moments, though, they were being shown into Luke’s office, large windows on two sides looking over the resort’s main pool area and the exclusive beach bungalows beyond it. Luke rose from his desk, piled high with paperwork, to greet them.

“Hey, Bryce, uh… oh God, I’m so sorry, I’ve forgotten your name.” He looked sheepish, which was a quite adorable expression on his handsome, tanned face, Lucy thought.

“Lucy Manning,” she said with a smile, waving off his forgetfulness. “Hey, you’ve got several hundred staff of your own here, no reason why you should remember someone who doesn’t even work directly for the resort!”

“I do know you’re one of our marine biologists,” Luke said, gesturing them both to chairs. “What can I do for the two of you, anyway? Some sort of diving issue?”

“Not at all,” Lucy said, looking sideways at Bryce. Deliberately, he folded his arms and grinned at her. Watching her fumble her way through this promised to be highly entertaining. She narrowed her eyes at him, but he wasn’t about to help out. It was her mother they were staging this whole show, after all. He was just along for the ride.

“We were wondering if you’d fake marry us,” Lucy blurted, and Bryce almost choked at the expression of complete shock on Luke’s face.

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