She asked me to be her pretend boyfriend... and I forgot it was all supposed to be an act. I'd learned the hard way that happily ever afters didn't exist. The woman I'd planned to marry walked away from me without a second glance, and I swore I'd never make the mistake of giving another woman my heart. Casual. Temporary. No strings attached. Those were the only rules I lived by. Then Peyton Bishop asked me to be the boyfriend she'd invented. One little lie had convinced her overprotective parents she was safe living in New York. Now they wanted to meet the man she'd been talking about for the past year. Playing the role of her devoted boyfriend for a week sounded easy enough... until every kiss, every touch, and every stolen moment started to feel real and walking away no longer felt like an option. Somewhere between the lies and the longing, I stopped pretending. Now I had to decide whether to keep protecting the heart I'd already lost once... or risk everything for the one woman who'd believed in us before we'd even begun.