Alec struggled through the next two weeks.

Preparing for a fake engagement was harder than he’d thought it would be. From health checks—as they wouldn’t need to be using condoms in order to be making a baby—to hiring an event planner, to choosing an engagement and wedding rings, and making all the other decisions on details for their so-called perfect day, Alec wondered what he’d signed up for with his biker alpha.

JT was taking all of this with stride…like he’d done it before. Which reminded Alec he knew very little about this man, and how he had just furnished a guest room for him in his home. JT was moving in, and thus far, all Alec gleaned from the enigmatic alpha was that he was a good kisser, and he was a member of a local biker club. Oh, and he gave the best blowjob, which didn’t say much as Alec was virginal in every sense of the description.

It didn’t help that their future marriage felt more real with each passing day.

I’m really doing this—marrying a stranger.

Alec closed the wedding magazine in front of him, his late lunch untouched, his stomach turning over as he acknowledged the activity in the kitchen. He’d hired a chef to prepare dinner tonight. Usually, he ate alone. His mother didn’t leave her room these days, let alone the house. But they were having JT over this evening, and Alec had an announcement.

Clearing the table, Alec checked in on the chef and her assistant.

“All is going well,” she said, smiling.

He left her to her business, heading upstairs to check on his mom.

Sitting up in bed, a book opened on her lap, Isolde glanced his way on Alec’s entry. The black veil obscured her features, but he heard the curiosity in her question. “What’s going on downstairs, Alec? Are you having a party?” she asked.

She knew him better—parties were her scene; he preferred his own company than that of her wealthy, snobbish friends. Well, so-called friends. Where were they now, after her accident? They’d made themselves scarce. All the better to feel no guilt when gossiping about her.

Isolde set aside the book, and she patted the space beside her.

Alec sat on the edge of the bed, close enough for her to reach out and grasp his shoulder, dig her nails in lightly enough to garner his attention.

“Something the matter?”

Alec clasped his hands in his lap, chewing on his bottom lip gently, his mind busy working out how to tell her about the engagement, the fast nuptials he’d planned two weeks from now, and the dinner with JT tonight, as well as the biker alpha’s moving in down the hall from her.

“Alec?” Isolde touched his hand, rousing him to fix his stare from the dark oak floorboards to her veiled face. It took a long time for her to allow him to look at her.

Isolde had always been a proud woman, and though she hadn’t exactly been maternal, she had cared for Alec, and put him first to the best of her ability. So after the accident stole her confidence, it had fallen to Alec to get her to this place where she could stare at her son again in spite of the bad scarring on her left side.

“What’s wrong, sweetheart?”

“I…uh, I’ve hired a chef,” Alec said, fighting with the right opening words. He had to ease her into this. And it had to be okay, because he needed JT here.

Of course, it would be much easier if Alec could tell her about his father’s will and the strange clause therein that kept Alec from inheriting the two hundred million. But he’d decided it was better that Isolde be left in the dark in this situation.

Despite what his half-brothers thought about their father’s mistress, Alec’s mother had loved William Edwards. She had been faithful to him even with their eighteen-year age gap.

Old Bill had made up a huge chunk of her life…and Isolde liked to say he gave her Alec, and Alec might have spent some dark teen years hating his existence, but his dad had given him Isolde, too, and he wouldn’t trade her for anything.

Cupping his cheeks now, she turned his face to her and she smiled, the veil not hiding its brilliance. She was still a beautiful woman, even with the scarring from the fire. Smoothing his choppy fringe, she said, “That’s nice. I always worry that you’re not eating right.”

“Mom,” Alec slipped into a whine, his cheeks burning, his tongue growing heavier with each thump of his heart. It was now or never. “The chef isn’t going to be a permanent employee. She’s here for tonight’s meal only.”

“Tonight?” his mother echoed.

Alec felt the silly smile creeping over his face, a reflex of his growing discomfort. The weight of his secret sat heavy on his chest, and with great difficulty he said, “Yes. Because we’re actually having a guest.”

“A guest?” Isolde parroted, her hands slipping off of him. She leaned back into her pillows, tilting her head slightly, her hands now folded on her lap. It wasn’t his imagination that her voice was frosty when she continued, “Alec, who did you invite?”

“A friend.” Shit. Swallowing hard, he tried again. “Someone special to me.” Because JT was special right, in that he was making this possible for Alec, helping him even when he didn’t fully understand what that money meant to him, and how it’d help Isolde get the treatment she needed.

“Alec, are you seeing someone?” The shock raised the pitch in his mother’s question. She touched a hand to her chest, the melodramatic action not helping Alec sort out the rest of his announcement—the most vital part of his speech, really.

“Sorta,” he said, his gaze dropping back to his hands. They had grown warm with his nervous sweat. This was truly shaking him up. He’d seen what a relationship was like with his mother, and, no thanks, he actually wanted whoever his lover was being by his side always. Not that he swore off of love or anything.

And in this way JT had signed a contract of sorts…or he was about to. Hopefully if everything worked out tonight, the alpha would ink their formal deal and Alec could cross off yet another item on his long to-do list leading to the real-on-paper, but otherwise fake, nuptials.

His mother’s despondent sigh tugged Alec back into the present. Adjusting himself back, and turning his head to face her once more, she sighed again. “I haven’t exactly been very much of a good companion lately, have I? And dinner does sound nice.”

Alec shook his head. “This isn’t about you.” It was a lie, one he smiled off. He settled his hand over hers. Leaning in, he said, “The man dining with us is special to me…because he just is.”

“Are you happy at least?” she asked, worry tinging her voice.

Happiness had nothing to do with it. Was he satisfied in his choice? Yes. Would he rather have approached JT under other circumstances? Hell yes.

“I am,” he said, another bold-faced lie. Soon, the white lies would pile up and drown him. Until then, he kept smiling like a goof. “It’s happening at six.” Standing, afraid the longer he stayed by her side, the more his façade would crack and he’d reveal his tightly bundled anxiety, Alec said, “I only wanted to tell you, so you were prepared.”

“Alec…”

“Please,” he said. “It’d mean a lot to me.” He wasn’t a prick, so he didn’t add that she owed him, and that for once he wanted her to act as a normal mother would. It wasn’t like he’d ever brought someone home to her. And he’d imagined she would be excited for him.

But he also understood that he wasn’t dealing with the same mother anymore.

Reserved after her fiery accident two months ago, Isolde isolated herself from the world she once sprung into delightfully every day. The car accident changed that—altered everything.

The luxury vehicle had been totaled on a lamppost, and she’d been pulled to safety from the wreck by pedestrians. Alec convinced Isolde to check into an in-patient care facility for thirty days. He hadn’t wanted to lose her to her grief.

After her final psych evaluation, she was deemed less of a risk to herself and released into Alec’s care. Instead of doing what normal twenty-one-year-olds did, like going to college, he had gone from caring for his father to looking after his mother. Alec hadn’t even bothered questioning her about the fateful night, though he was plugged up with inquires. Now was never the time for them though.

At the moment, he wanted reassurance she’d be there when he sat with JT and enjoyed a culinary masterpiece of an evening meal.

“Mom,” he called to her.

She nodded slowly. “All right. I’ll have to find something to wear, but I’ll be down at six. I promise.”

“I’ll stop by to get you,” Alec promised, not trusting she would show all on her own. He nudged his head to her nightstand. “Did you take your medication?”

“I did,” she said. “If it’s all right with you, I’ll take a quick nap before our evening plans then?”

Heeding the cue, and knowing not to push her, Alec left the room.With a deep breath, he released her door handle and headed for the guest room that JT would claim soon. And not for the first time today, Alec thought, I’m really doing this—marrying a stranger.