Copyright © 2020 by Penelope Ward and Vi Keeland All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. This book is a work of fiction. All names, characters, locations, and incidents are products of the authors’ imaginations. Any resemblance to actual persons, things, living or dead, locales, or events is entirely coincidental. NOT PRETENDING ANYMORE Cover designer: Sommer Stein, Perfect Pear Creative Edited by: Jessica Royer Ocken Formatting and proofreading: Elaine York, Allusion Publishing Proofreading: Julia Griffis TABLE OF CONTENTS Other Books by Penelope Ward & Vi Keeland About the Book Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Chapter 34 Epilogue Free for Our Readers! Acknowledgements Other Books by Penelope Ward & Vi Keeland Connect with the Authors Before You Go! Chapter 1 Chapter 2 About Penelope Ward About Vi Keeland OTHER BOOKS BY PENELOPE WARD & VI KEELAND Park Avenue Player Stuck-Up Suit Cocky Bastard Mister Moneybags British Bedmate Playboy Pilot Rebel Heir Rebel Heart My Favorite Souvenir Hate Notes Dirty Letters Happily Letter After OTHER BOOKS BY PENELOPE WARD The Crush The Anti-Boyfriend Just One Year The Day He Came Back When August Ends Love Online Gentleman Nine Drunk Dial Mack Daddy RoomHate Stepbrother Dearest Neighbor Dearest Jaded and Tyed (A novelette) Sins of Sevin Jake Undone (Jake #1) Jake Understood (Jake #2) My Skylar Gemini OTHER BOOKS BY VI KEELAND The Invitation The Rivals Inappropriate All Grown Up We Shouldn’t The Naked Truth Sex, Not Love Beautiful Mistake Egomaniac Bossman The Baller Left Behind (A Young Adult Novel) Beat Throb Worth the Fight Worth the Chance Worth Forgiving Belong to You Made for You First Thing I See ABOUT THE BOOK Finding a good roommate through a classified ad isn’t as easy as it sounds. I was starting to lose hope. Until a knock at my door came and God answered my prayers. Except…uh…wrong prayer, God. I’d definitely requested the big guy find me a drop-dead gorgeous man on more than one occasion...just not as my roommate. Declan Tate talked me into interviewing him anyway. While he was amusing and charismatic, I wouldn’t have been comfortable living with a man, so I regretfully declined. Then cupcakes showed up at my door—freshly baked by Declan and just as sinfully delicious as he was. You could say he was persistent. I eventually folded. It wasn’t like I had another viable candidate anyway. Plus, I was interested in someone else. And Declan was into another woman. So it wasn’t like anything would happen romantically. After he moved in, the two of us became the best of friends. We even started to give each other advice on getting our crushes to notice us. Eventually, Declan concocted an idea: we should pretend to be a couple to make our love interests jealous. I was hesitant, but went along with it anyway. To my utter shock, his crazy plan worked. Now I was dating the supposed man of my dreams, and my best friend had the woman of his. But there was one problem. I couldn’t stop thinking about Declan. Those feelings we were trying to fake? Yeah…I wasn’t pretending anymore. CHAPTER 1 Molly “So, what do you do for a living?” The woman drummed her fingers on her thigh. “I’m a musician.” I glanced down at the renter’s application in my hand. Lyric Chords was the name listed at the top. I bit my tongue and tried to keep an open mind. This was the twelfth woman I’d interviewed as a prospective roommate. Just because she had a few safety pins in her eyebrow and what looked like a dog collar around her neck didn’t mean I should rule her out. “Oh. That’s nice. Are you a singer?” Lyric shook her head. “Drummer. Do you know the dimensions of the bedroom I’ll be sleeping in? I have two sets of drums I need to fit.” “Umm... I think it’s fourteen by fourteen. But you don’t practice at home, right? I wrote in my ad that I’m looking for a quiet roommate because I work nights.” “I do. But no worries. I’ll practice in my room.” My bedroom and my potential roommate’s bedroom shared a wall, so that was the end of interview number twelve. I sighed and forced a smile. “Thank you for coming. I have a few other people left to meet with before I decide. I’ll let you know.” “Great.” The woman stood. “Also, I know your ad said two months’ rent up front, but I’m running a little short right now. Would one be okay?” I smiled. “Sure, no problem.” Since you’re not going to be living here. After Drummergirl, I interviewed two more candidates. One wanted her boyfriend to move into the room with her, even though my ad had specified I was only looking for a single. And the other arrived twenty minutes late, reeked of alcohol, and slurred her words…at three thirty in the afternoon. Why in the hell was it so difficult to find a roommate in a city of almost three-million people? I needed my last interview of the day to be a miracle, or I was going to have to shell out money for another ad and start the entire process all over. And I definitely didn’t have the time or the funds for that. Rent was due in two weeks. If I got stuck paying the full amount on this place myself again, I’d be eating cat food for a month. When my last appointment knocked right on time, I took a deep breath, looked up at the ceiling, and asked the big guy in the sky for a little assistance. Opening the door, I blinked a few times. Uhhh. I think you answered the wrong prayer, God. A man stood in my hallway—and not just any man, an absolutely gorgeous one with a perfect, straight nose, cheekbones to die for, a masculine, square jaw, full lips, tanned skin, and the sexiest chocolate brown, almond-shaped eyes I’d ever seen in my life. “Uh.
