The King and the Pawn — Lyssa Layne

Francesca Frankie DiDominzio is an aspiring fashion designer. The opportunity of a lifetime falls in her lap to start her own clothing line but she has to come up with the start-up money. The trust fund her Noni left for her would cover the cost she needs but there's one little problem-she won't get the money until she's twenty-five which is six months away. Desperately wanting to follow her dreams, she has to figure out a way to convince her old-school Italian father to sign off on the trust, releasing the money sooner than later. Guy Sillars is fresh out of the military and not ready to face his family just yet. Instead of catching his flight to the South, he decides to spend some time in New York over the holidays. When Francesca approaches him with a proposition to pretend to be her boyfriend, he's too enchanted by her beauty to say no. Frankie has concocted the perfect plan to get her father to release her trust fund early. Bring home a guy that her father will hate, convince him they're in love, and then agree to dump him in exchange for the money. The only problem is, the more time Guy and Frankie spend together, the harder it will be to let him go.