Her Fake Island Wedding Read online

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Notice

  Praise From Readers

  Other Works

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Author Notes

  Her Fake Island Wedding

  Island Escapes, Book 3

  by

  Caitlyn Lynch

  Copyright © 2018 by Caitlyn Lynch

  Ebook Edition

  All rights reserved. This ebook or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each reader. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  WHAT READERS ARE SAYING ABOUT CAITLYN LYNCH…

  "I have never read anything by Caitlyn Lynch before and if this is indicative of her writing style and work I am a fan. One word covers this short novella… SCORCHING!” – Sara, Boundless Book Reviews

  "A+ smut with the perfect amount of plot to tie it together! Do not attempt to read in public unless you count cards for a living in Vegas and can keep a straight face under pressure.” –Georgiagirlagain, Amazon reviewer

  “Holy piano benches, Batman! This story sizzled. I won’t lie” – Longandshortreviews

  “I have one complaint about this one, TOO SHORT! It was so hot, so engrossing, that I nearly cried when it was over.” – Alissa York, Amazon reviewer."

  "It can sometimes be a gamble to read/review the work of an author having never read any of their previous work but I must say that Caitlyn Lynch has utterly surprised me in the best way.” – Kathryn Dee @ CLiK Book Blog

  “Dana's Duo was one helluva raunchy ride (pardon the pun) from the first page to the last." – LongandShortReviews

  “This book was beyond hot. Who doesn't like hot alpha males and sweet smart woman in the mix?" – Jodi Bird, Amazon Reviewer

  “This was EXCELLENT! Loved the characters, the chemistry, the heat!” – Mariah O, Amazon Reviewer

  Other Works by Caitlyn Lynch

  DANA’S DUO

  HOT FOR HEATHER

  ELEVATOR ENCOUNTERS SERIES

  ELLIE’S ENCOUNTER

  JULIET’S ROMEO

  THE BEST MAN FOR LEAH

  RANGER HEAT SERIES

  FIRST SUBMISSION

  SECOND SURRENDER

  THIRD THRILLS

  SUNFISH ISLAND RESORT SERIES

  FINDING CORY

  THE RELUCTANT BILLIONAIRE

  HER FAKE ISLAND WEDDING

  COMING SOON

  IF WISHES WERE HORSES: AN IRISH ROMANCE

  Chapter One

  “It’s a disaster,” Lucy declared melodramatically, sliding her lunch tray onto the table. It was lunchtime, and Sunfish Island Resort’s staff cafeteria was busy, staff members hurrying in and out to grab a bite in between tasks.

  Lucy had joined a large group of friends, and several of them looked up at her words.

  “What’s up, girlfriend?” Olivia, the resort’s marketing manager, asked with an amused smile. Her American accent was just one of a dozen different accents in the room; although the majority of the resort’s staff were Australian, there were plenty of other nationalities represented.

  “You look as though someone stole your puppy,” Nessa, the resort’s best bartender and Lucy’s fellow Englishwoman, put in.

  “Worse,” Lucy said dismally. “My mother’s coming to visit next week.”

  That provoked laughter around the table. She scowled impartially at all of them.

  “You’ve only been here a month,” Olivia pointed out. “And why is she coming now? Did you warn her this is the hot season?”

  “I did, and she says she’s already booked her flights because she got them cheap. You don’t understand what a disaster this is, guys. She’ll spend the whole visit pestering to know whether I’ve found a man yet.” Lucy poked at her salad with a fork miserably. Her mother had always been both overprotective and demanding with her only child, and now that Lucy had turned thirty, the insistence that she needed to hurry up and find a man to father her children before it was too late had only intensified.

  At the same time, her mother liked to denigrate Lucy’s judgement, always telling her that she had terrible taste in men and she mustn’t rush things or she’d pick the wrong man and be literally left holding the baby.

  It took everything Lucy had to not retort “Like you were?” every time her mother trotted out that particular criticism. Escape from her mother’s constant nagging was just one of the reasons why she’d applied for the research position at Sunfish Island’s marine biology centre, and actually being awarded the post was literally a dream come true.

  “Is she really that bad?” Nessa asked sympathetically, and Lucy raised her eyes to meet the bartender’s.

  “You have no idea,” she said dismally. “I knew she’d come out, especially when the contract actually included four weeks’ free accommodation for visitors, but I really didn’t think it’d be so soon.”

  The few blissful weeks she’d spent on Sunfish Island had been among the best of her life. From the day she arrived, she’d been warmly welcomed by her fellow marine biologists and the staff of the wider resort alike. Her job, studying the effects of coral replanting and regeneration on damaged parts of the magnificent Great Barrier Reef, was quite literally her dream and had been ever since she was a kid picking up shells and starfish on the beach near her childhood home at Dover.

  “We’ll help distract her,” Olivia offered. “Won’t we, Cory?”

  Her boyfriend, Sunfish’s activities director, looked up from his lunch with a nod and a smile. Cory Gillette was one of the best-looking men Lucy had ever met; tall, blond and athletic, he looked like a fourth Hemsworth brother. And he wasn’t even the only one around the table who would fit right in with that famously attractive family.

  “Does she dive?” Bryce was the resort’s resident dive instructor, and had partnered with Lucy numerous times on her reef dives. “I can put her on the daily schedule, no charge… she’ll be too tired to nag you.”

  Lucy smiled at him. If Bryce was only a few years older, she thought wistfully, she’d have made a serious pass at him, but he was only twenty-four and looked even younger. Blond, tanned and beautiful, she just had to appreciate him visually.

  “Unfortunately, she’s terrified of open water. Convinced there are sharks in it.”

  “Well, there are sharks in it,” Bryce said equably. “Mostly only the little reef sharks around here, though.”

  “Somehow I don’t think that would reassure her!”

  Bryce grinned cheerfully at her, and Lucy found herself smiling back. It was difficult to stay down around Bryce for long; he was too relentlessly happy.

  “We’ll just have to put you on the dive schedul
e every day, then,” he said.

  “Then I’d be accused of avoiding her. No,” she sighed. “There’s no winning with my mother, not unless I produce a fiancé out of thin air and promise to start popping out babies nine months to the day after the wedding.”

  “That’s the solution, then,” Cory piped up, a wicked glint in his eyes. “We’ll find you a fake fiancé!”

  Chapter Two

  “Wait, what?” Lucy blinked, startled.

  “Fake fiancé,” Cory smirked. “Just think how amazed your mother will be! She’d be completely thrown. Bet she wouldn’t hassle you at all.”

  “Better yet,” Bryce put in, eyes beginning to gleam in the way Lucy had already learned meant he was formulating some prank or other, “when she arrives, you should totally tell her that you have the best surprise ever for her - you’re getting married while she’s here! You were going to wait, but since she’s here, the opportunity is just too good to miss!”

  Everyone around the table, including Lucy, broke up laughing.

  “Oh, man. Mum’s expression would be epic,” she said wistfully. “It’d all fall apart when I have neither a boyfriend nor a fiancé to present, though.”

  “Why not? I’ll do it.”

  She gaped at him.

  Bryce grinned. “Most epic prank ever! C’mon, it’ll be fun. Mrs Heathers is a bit too stick-in-the mud to go for it, but Luke’s a registered marriage celebrant as well, for when she has her days off. He’ll totally play along, he could even fake up the registration and marriage certificates for you.” He was referring to Luke Collyer, the resort’s general manager.

  “D’you know,” Lucy said slowly, “I’m almost tempted to go along with you, just to shut Mum up.” She looked thoughtfully at Bryce. They hadn’t really spent a lot of time together, but she knew he had a wicked sense of humour and loved pranks. He was certainly good-looking enough to make any girl’s heart flutter, with his height, bronzed tan and sparkling blue eyes, though his shaggy fair hair might need a tidy up. Or maybe not, she mused. It made him look even younger and more boyish, which would probably offend her mother even more.

  “How old are you again?” she checked.

  “Twenty-four,” Bryce said easily. “I can be your toyboy!”

  Cory was roaring with laughter, Olivia and Nessa giggling as well, egging her on and saying she should do it. Olivia offered one of her rarely-used designer dresses from her days as a New York marketing guru to use as a wedding gown, and suddenly Lucy was in.

  “If Luke’s up for it, I’ll do it,” she said decisively. “I’ll owe you though, Bryce.”

  He grinned and gave her a cheeky wink. “I’ll think of some way you can repay me!”

  She couldn’t help but laugh. No, she had no doubts about Bryce pulling off his part; he was a born actor and could easily have made his living on the stage or in front of the camera if he hadn’t been so in love with the ocean. He’d play the besotted fiancé to the hilt, and all she would have to do was worry about containing her laughter and not giving the game away to her mother.

  “Are you really going to do it?” Olivia asked.

  “If Bryce is really up for dealing with my impossible mother, yes,” Lucy declared.

  “Charming impossible mothers is my speciality,” Bryce claimed, making her laugh again.

  “Right… well, if you are, I might be able to help with some of the stage setting,” Olivia said. “We wanted to redo the weddings pages on the website anyway, and if you were agreeable to having all the photos used for that purpose, I could get you the photographer for free, and flowers. Might be able to talk Luke into giving you a table at La Sirène.” She named the resort’s Michelin-starred French restaurant.

  Everything was moving a bit fast for Lucy, as Olivia pulled out her phone and started booking things into her diary. “Whoa,” she protested. “I didn’t even ask Luke if he’d go along with the fake-wedding plan yet!”

  “Then you’d better go find him, hadn’t you?” Olivia didn’t even look up from her phone. “When does your mother arrive?”

  Recognising Olivia was in full-on marketing guru mode, Lucy sighed and gave up the dates.

  “Excellent, we don’t have any weddings scheduled on the twentieth. I’ll get Terry and Jerome on the case.”

  “Olivia, I really don’t need wedding planners!” Lucy protested, starting to panic slightly.

  Olivia looked up. “You might not, but if we’re going to use this as a marketing opportunity, we’re going to use every resource the resort has.” She tilted her head, considering Bryce. “Including the hair salon… go book in for a haircut. I’ll get hair and makeup for Lucy arranged on the morning of the wedding…”

  “Last chance to back out,” Bryce told Lucy jokingly.

  “I think I should be saying that to you,” she pointed out. “There’s nothing in this for you but loads of hassle.”

  He smiled, showing the dimple in his tanned cheek. “Hey. It’ll be fun. Come on, let’s leave Olivia to her plotting and go find Luke. We should probably emphasise the marketing aspects rather more than the prank part…”

  “You’re not wrong,” Lucy agreed, giving up on her lunch. She wasn’t hungry any more anyway.

  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 of Ben 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 cramp your style!”

  ***

  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 had
n’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, you volunteered,” 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.