Faking Ever After

3. Finn

CHAPTER 3

Finn

I didn’t dare to blink as if a forty-eight-foot-long and ten-foot-wide jet with Davenport printed across it could disappear if I took my eyes off of it for even an instant. My mouth opened automatically and then I closed it manually when no words tumbled out.

Kim’s mouth was letting words come out just fine. There was an abundance of sounds from her as she recited the itinerary. Something, something, stopping in Munich for fuel, something, Mykonos hangar and harbor, sailing to Naxos.

I successfully nodded.

“Let me show you in,” Kim said.

I scanned the tarmac but Kim’s was the only car around. Unless her mysterious and elusive boss was already on the plane — the thought made my palms sweat. I wiped them against my best black jeans — then I had to sit on board and wait for him. This, too, made my palms slick with cold sweat.

“And remember, Percy hates sucking up and hates it even more being treated like royalty.” This was the tenth time Kim reminded me that Percy Davenport was the good kind of rich. Perhaps she felt the need to hammer this into my brain because I had snorted the first time she’d informed me.

“Right. I’ll treat him like any old white trash.” I tapped my temple with a finger.

Kim glared at me and I hurried up the steps and into the jet. As we entered, whatever had been left of my breath was taken away. I wheezed at the sleek interior design of this flying five-star hotel room. Aside from the shut door to the cockpit, it was hard to tell we were inside a plane. The spacious airplane equivalent of a living room, probably called something like Cloud Nine Cabana or whatnot, sprawled before my eyes. The cheap, plastic and rubber coach seats held together with duct tape and prayer that I was used to were nowhere to be seen. Instead, there were four inviting armchairs with discreet belts, handy cushions, and fine, fixed tables in front of them. Each armchair had its little corner with a long sofa occupying the right side and a flat-screen TV replacing the windows on the left side. Who needed to witness the miracle of human flight when there was football in high definition? Or, if you’re feeling spicy, some green and red graphs with Jim Cramer screaming at you from the surround system.

“Percy will be here in half an hour,” Kim informed me. “Make yourself comfortable.”

“I don’t think it’s humanly possible to be uncomfortable here,” I whispered in awe. Beyond the Pampered Pod was another sitting area, but it was much more casual where chairs were in a semicircle, and the owners of the asses that would fill the chairs could see each other with as little strain on their expensive necks as possible. Finally, I pushed my head into the last large room and discovered a massive bed. Another flat-screen TV was mounted to the wall because, what the hell, why not have two? And beyond the bedroom was a literal first-class bathroom with a walk-in shower. “Erm…treat him like a normal human, you said?”

“Precisely,” Kim reminded me sternly. She had always been this way. Since we were in high school with our heads full of silly dreams, Kim had been the promising one. I, on the other hand, rolled with the motto that had gotten me into this whole mess. Things tend to take care of themselves , I had always told myself.

I eyed the bed. It was so seductively inviting that I swayed on my feet.

Kim, who knew I hadn’t slept last night because I had to pack the few things I owned, put a hand on my shoulder. We were of nearly the same height, so I turned lightly and looked into her eyes. “Why don’t you try the bed? Get a little shuteye before Percy joins you.”

“It’s his bed,” I pointed out.

Kim’s lips did something that was almost a smirk. “You do realize you’ll be sharing his bed for two weeks, right?”

“Oh.” It hadn’t crossed my mind. A lot of things hadn’t crossed my mind in the last two days. All I knew was that I had to turn my phone off because that dick had been calling me, and I’d kept the drive safe in my right pocket at all times. Then it hit me. We were playing boyfriends for two weeks in front of his family. I hadn’t had the time to think this through, seizing the first chance at escaping across the ocean until things settled down a little. Of course, I had to share his bed. “How old is he?”

“Thirty,” Kim said while lifting the blinds from the windows in the middle Sky Living Room.

I wasn’t sure if that was a relief or not. Asking Kim if her boss was a perv was high on the list of things that would get me smacked across the head.

While my friend finished inspecting the cabin, I found myself sitting on the edge of the bed. The mattress was hard, just the way I liked it, and the crisp, white comforter was tucked over it. A decorative throw was draped along the lower end of the bed.

“Right,” said Kim with satisfaction. “Any last-minute questions?”

I tried to think about it. Again, my brain focused on the sheer luck I was having. It was uncanny. My unlucky ass was sitting on the finest flying bed in the galaxy and I was leaving New York in the nick of time. This bought me two weeks to find a way into the flash drive and retrieve the evidence. And I would be in the company of one filthy rich man. Nobody would make a move, I was sure. So, having considered everything one more time, I shook my head. “I’m all set.”

“I’d say give ‘em hell, but that is exactly the opposite of what I want you to do,” Kim said with a half-smile. Then, softening a little, she raised her eyebrows. “It’ll be alright, Finn. Just keep it cool and follow Percy’s cues. You’ll do fine.”

I mustered all the courage I could find in my heart. “You know it.” Trying for my most disarming grin, I ended up giving her a soft smile.

Kim nodded as she pulled back from the door. With a few more words of well-wishing and safe-tripping, she left the plane.

I tested the bed with a little bounce, my ass lifting off and sinking into the mattress. “Who lives like this?” I whispered, looking around the flying bedroom. For most of my life — which was, admittedly, only twenty-six years long so far — I hadn’t had a chance to look into a grounded bedroom with this level of style.

If Julie could see me now.

I wanted to snap a photo for her, but I didn’t dare turn my phone on. And I didn’t dare get in touch with any of them until I had some bargaining power.

Sighing, I lay flat on my back, my arms and legs spread-eagled. I stared at the ceiling. To make it worthwhile, you probably had to fly this thing every time you went to Starbucks. Otherwise, it was just a really expensive real estate property. But I figured that my brain wasn’t wired the same way as Percy Davenport’s.

Who the hell was this guy?

My internal question was answered by someone clearing his throat. “Oh. Erm. Hello.” The words tumbled out of a naturally deep voice that wasn’t at all gruff or gravelly. It was smooth like an expensive whiskey, sparking a vague image of Armie Hammer for the shortest of moments until I lifted my head to look at him. “You’re already in the bed,” the man pointed out, his gaze averted as soon as I looked into his eyes.

I sat up with a sharp inhale and blinked as if the fog would clear at any moment and take away the hallucination that Apollo was standing in front of me. “Oh, excuse me,” I blurted. “I made myself too comfortable.”

“No, no,” the man replied, his deep voice crackling and rising. “Please. Relax.” He put a hand on the back of his head and scratched his dusty blond hair awkwardly, glancing at me, then quickly looking at his fine, brown monk shoes with double straps and brogue holes punctured decoratively. He wore a dark blue suit sans neck accessories, his crisp white shirt unbuttoned at the top. He was undoubtedly six-foot-three or taller, his broad shoulders hugged snugly by the suit jacket. I could tell the exact place where his biceps bulged in the motion of his arm.

Although Percy Davenport was handsome enough to do a catwalk, it was his face that made me pause. Elongated, sculpted by the angels, it had all the perfect proportions no money could buy. His lips were sharp and defined, with a little bow on the upper one and a fullness that nearly matched mine on the lower one. His nose had an elegant straightness and bore a gentle rise midway, an imperfection that only added to the distinct beauty of his face. His blue eyes would have struck me as cold except for the twinkle that was the opposite of frosty.

Fuck. Me. Sideways. I licked my lips as I realized I hadn’t spoken in some time. “You must be Mr. Davenport.” I stood up, wiped my suddenly slick palm against my black jeans, and thrust my hand out.

“Just Percy, please,” he said, accepting my hand. My pulse sped. “And you are…I’m sorry, I should have asked Kim.”

“Finn Connolly,” I said, finding the lightness with which I decorated my voice. My number one task was to put this guy at ease, or I would be waving goodbye to a very fancy airplane from the hot New York tarmac. “Your caring boyfriend.” I grinned my finest grin for Percy.

Percy swallowed a lump in his throat audibly, his face unmistakably flushed. “Yes. Of course.” He released my hand and turned his back to me. Ahead of him was the sitting area. Percy took a couple of steps away from me and I followed. He led us into the first sitting room, where armchairs had belts and small, secured tables, and he neared one of the cabinets on the right side of the room and produced a bottle of something undoubtedly expensive and visibly alcoholic. “Would you like a drink, or is that…not how this works?” His awkwardness was doing all sorts of things to me. On one hand, it made him far less intimidating. My previous experience with the rich and powerful was inseparable from the sense of having to be beneath them. Percy didn’t seem bothered by the fact that he was stammering and that his voice was cracking. On the other hand, I was hoping I wouldn’t have to hold the reins. This situation was bizarre enough already without me having to navigate the uncharted waters.

“Erm, I can have a drink,” I said, his question rattling through my head.

Percy proceeded to methodically spill the contents of the bottle around the glasses, snort-chuckled, and filled two fingers of the alcoholic beverage inside the glasses on his second attempt. “Sorry. It’s a little wet.” He handed me one glass, looked into my eyes, smiled abruptly, and looked away. “Ah, so, um.”

“Indeed,” I agreed as I accepted the glass.

Percy clenched his teeth, a frown rippling over his forehead for a short while, and he inhaled deeply. When he spoke again, it was like he was forcing very stubborn sentences to budge over his lips. “I apologize, Finn. This is just very new to me.”

“Relax,” I said. It was, I believed almost immediately, the most unproductive thing to say after, perhaps: try to be more tense . I summoned all my swagger before continuing. “I’m not exactly an expert on how this works, either. We can figure it out together.”

“Oh?” The genuine curiosity made his already painfully attractive face look brighter. “So, you are fairly new at this.”

I wasn’t sure if that was a question or a statement. “It’s not the most common situation.”

“Of course,” Percy said in a silly me manner like he had just remembered something embarrassingly obvious. “I would imagine you don’t often get hired to play someone’s boyfriend for long periods of time.”

“Hired?” I asked before I could stop myself. “Am I getting paid for this?” I’d assumed this was just my ticket out of the city for a bit.

“Aren’t you? I mean, that’s normally something Kim would have taken care of. I’m sure you are going to be compensated generously, especially since this is not the kind of service I imagine many, er, clients request.” Percy rambled on as I lifted a finger to stop him. When he didn’t notice it, I lowered my finger again. “Look, I just want to say, although Kim has probably looped you in, this isn’t the, um, standard order.” His gaze searched for help around the cabin while I set my drink on a secured table and crossed my arms. I was starting to have a strange, foreboding feeling in the pit of my stomach. “Not that I’m unhappy. Don’t misunderstand me. You are very attractive. And I’m not a caveman, Mr. Connolly. I think everyone should have a right to do whatever they want, so long as we’re not harming anyone, and I have, in the past, been an advocate for the legalization and stronger protection of, erm, your industry. That being said, I don’t normally hire, ah, professionals for these things. This is a very particular situation I found myself in. Having you join me was the only solution at such short notice. Kim has probably told you this, but I’ll risk repetition and underline that we will keep this strictly fake. I’m sure you are skilled in what you do, but I am only interested in silencing my family by bringing a date to this thing. So. There. I hope you understand.”

He smiled with relief at having gotten this off his chest. Then, as he discovered the horror on my face, his eyebrows rose curiously.

“Oh. My. God.” The words tumbled out of me without restraint. “ Ohmygod . No, no, no.” I shook my head and uncrossed my arms so I could shake my hands, too. There wasn’t enough of me to shake in denial. “Percy, I’m not an escort. Ohmygod.” I slapped my face in embarrassment and squealed. “Do I look like an escort?”

“P-pardon?” He was as surprised as me, except we were surprised by totally opposite things.

I ran my fingers through my thick, dark curls and stared at him. “Did Kim tell you I was a prostitute?”

“I’m sure she…suggested…or maybe…” He frowned, deep in thought. Then, after a heartbeat, his eyes widened in pure cosmic horror. “Actually, if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll just go and jump out of this plane.”

“Not if I jump out of it first,” I declared.

“Gentlemen, we are still grounded,” the pilot, who had opened the door of his cockpit, informed us in a voice that said he had been intently following the entire exchange.

“Hank, please,” Percy cried, turning partially away from me. The pilot chuckled and pulled his door nearly shut. In a dry, horrified voice, Percy spoke to me without looking into my eyes. “I am so sorry, Mr. Connolly. It seems that I have made a mistake. No, Kim hasn’t suggested that you were an escort. I believe I made that mental leap myself.”

His handsome face was becoming a screaming scarlet. “No, no, I apologize,” I said in a voice that was just as strained. “Hell, I was spread out on your bed when you arrived. Now that I think of it, it’s probably the easiest mistake to make.”

“Oh, dear God, I spent two days looking for ways to politely refuse your, erm, services without offending you.” He pressed his glass against his lips and drank like he was hoping to black out and forget this had ever happened.

I was tempted to do the same. “You certainly found the right way to do that.”

Percy choked on his booze. Clearing his throat, he finally looked at me. “I think I overdid it.”

I pinched my finger and thumb together. “Eeh, by this much.”

He laughed softly. As if he needed to be more attractive, Percy Davenport’s laughter was a warm, rich fountain of melted chocolate. You simply wanted to be near it, to reach toward it, to dip your fingers in it. “I hope that you’ll forgive my ignorance, Mr. Co…”

“Finn,” I interrupted him. “Just Finn, please. After all, you can’t call your attentive, loving boyfriend Mr. Connolly in front of your entire family.”

Percy’s smile was shy now. He looked at me with an innocent expression that said he had assumed he would call me by my name when others were around but that he owed me some kind of respect in private. “Finn.” There was firmness in the way he said my name.

“And there’s nothing to forgive,” I added. “Percy.”

Something about me saying his name widened his smile. He walked over to the nearest chair and set his glass on the small table in front of it. Before he sat down, he looked at me again. “I imagine playing a boyfriend isn’t your day job, then.”

“It’s never too late for a career change,” I pointed out, earning another sweet laugh from this increasingly more radiant man I would soon have to sleep next to. Something in my stomach felt hollow when that thought crossed my mind. “But no. Kim told me that her boss had a family reunion and, as these things happen, accidentally made up a boyfriend he promised to bring along.”

Percy shot me a tight smile as if to scold the teasing tone I used. “Who hasn’t made up a boyfriend now and then?”

“My thoughts exactly,” I agreed. “And it sounded like a cheaper way to tan now that inflation is driving up the price of sunbeds.”

Percy, whose confidence had been steadily returning since we cleared up whether I was a hooker or not, nodded. “Let me get this right, then. We’re not paying you?”

I shook my head. “It’s endearing that you have no idea,” I teased him. This approach seemed to work best with Percy Davenport.

He smirked as he sat down and strapped in. “This will be hard to believe, but I am lost without Kim,” he said conspiratorially.

“You don’t say.” I sat in the chair so I would face him directly and I followed his lead. With my belt fastened, I lifted my glass to my lips.

“How do you know Kim?” Percy asked in a purely conversational tone.

I had an easy time believing that Percy didn’t have a hidden agenda. Unlike you , a sneaky voice told me. “We’re from the same small town in upstate New York. When she moved to the city, it inspired me to do the same. Let’s just say Kim’s much more capable of fighting her way up.”

“That city can be a lot,” Percy agreed.

I wondered if Percy had ever faced any of the challenges of New York City the way the rest of us did. I couldn’t find it in me to grudge him that. He seemed like a nice enough person after a few minutes of talking and a blunder to break the ice. “Who are you?” I heard myself asking.

Percy didn’t react in any sort of way to the question.

An instant later, I inhaled sharply and explained myself. “I mean, your name is on the plane, but I’ve never heard of you.”

“You probably wouldn’t have,” Percy agreed. “I’m no Jeff or Mark or Elon. I don’t think I’d last a day if I put myself out there so much. No, I prefer to keep my privacy and my sanity.” He swirled the drink in his glass and looked at it like he could read his future in there. Then, he lifted his blue gaze gently to my face. “I’m nobody important.” He shrugged. “Ten years ago, I lucked out with a piece of software. We sold the company, me and my college buddy, which helped me start something more niche and more successful. Unless you’re very familiar with network optimization solutions for telecommunication companies, you wouldn’t have heard of me.”

“That explains it. I don’t even know what language you just spoke,” I said.

There was that laugh again. “To tell you the truth, some days, I’m not sure, either. That’s why I took a step back from that, too. These days, I mostly look for promising ideas in need of funding.” He said it in a way that was almost apologetic. I wondered why.

I didn’t get a chance to ask because Hank, the pilot, announced from the speaker that we would be taxiing onto the runway in a minute. The copilot stepped out and did the final checks before shutting himself and Hank in the cockpit.

Percy, however, gripped the armrest with one hand and balled the other into a fist, which he pressed against his mouth.

“Are you alright?” I asked, panic spiking instantly.

Percy gave a stiff nod. “I’m not a big fan of taking off. Or landing. Or, for that matter, of being thirty thousand feet above the ground for extended periods of time.”

“Oh.” If a private jet with a walk-in shower and a luxurious bedroom couldn’t cure it, I doubted anything I said would help. “Hey, at least it beats the low-budget coach.”

“Don’t remind me,” Percy said with a laugh. “Still, we were lucky just to be flying.” As if he was remembering something fondly, he smiled. As the jet backed up and turned around, Percy’s hand relaxed on the armrest.

“No way you flew in the back,” I said, keeping him distracted.

He barked a laugh. “Finn, I couldn’t afford extra legroom ten years ago. Had they had a standing option for one dollar, that’s where you would have found me when I was flying from one meeting to the next.”

“What?” I squealed, not believing a word he said.

Percy shook his head, entertained and positively distracted. “I maxed out my parents’ cards on a gut feeling that I was about to make it big. I’ll never forget the time Richie and I flew to Austin in rented suits because we didn’t have enough cash for overhead luggage.”

“Damn. I was sure you were from old money,” I mused. “You have a bit of that style.”

“You can blame your friend for that,” Percy joked. “If it were up to me, I’d be here in gray sweatpants and a plain T-shirt.”

“Mm. I can see Kim calling the shots, yes.” We exchanged another laugh over the fact that we both knew what Kim was like. And by the time the plane took off, Percy was barely breaking a sweat. At cruising altitude, we unbuckled our seatbelts and sighed a breath of relief. “The worst is over,” I reminded him.

Percy shook his head with a trace of amusement and a healthy note of warning. “You haven’t met my family yet.”

I threw my head back and laughed out loud. What the hell had I gotten myself into? But at a single touch of my right pocket, I knew this was the best — and, let’s not kid, the only — choice I could have made. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

Percy agreed. “For now, let’s just try to figure out some sort of a plan.”

Tipping my whiskey into my mouth, I swallowed and nodded. If I were to be a convincing boyfriend, the very first thing we needed were details. I’d already thought of this. Luckily, this was going to be a long flight, and we had enough time to align our stories.