A Not So Meet Cute

Lottie Gardner has lost her job and has almost no money left. In a last bid to get back at her old boss, she walks through a wealthy Beverly Hills neighborhood looking for a man willing to pose as her husband and stir up some jealousy.

She meets billionaire Huxley Cane instead, who is muttering over a business deal that is slipping away. To win over a client, he needs a fiancée who is visibly pregnant, and Lottie needs cash. They sign a contract.

Lottie moves into his mansion and plays her part on double dates and at public events. The act takes constant effort, and it gets harder to tell where the performance stops and real feeling starts.

Banter runs through the fake-relationship setup, and the love scenes are open-door. The book is positioned as a modern take on Pretty Woman and opens the Cane Brothers series. The question it turns on is what happens when a paid arrangement starts to feel genuine.