She needed a husband. He needed a wife. Neither expected the contract to become the most honest thing in their lives.
When a clerical error destroys Sloane Whitfield’s visa status just weeks before her dream architecture fellowship begins, everything she has fought for is suddenly at risk. Leaving the country would mean losing her career, her independence, and the life she built brick by brick.
Then her best friend offers a solution so impossible it almost sounds practical: marry Roman Hartley.
Roman is a powerful, reclusive billionaire with a company to protect and a board vote that could decide the future of his late father’s empire. To the trustees watching his every move, he needs to appear stable, settled, and untouchable. A wife would solve the problem. A fake wife with her own reason to keep the arrangement clean would be even better.
Sloane agrees on one condition: every term must be written, every risk accounted for, every exit protected. Roman adds only one rule of his own.
They can lie to the world, but never to each other.
At first, the arrangement is simple. Separate rooms. Public appearances. Carefully staged affection. A marriage built on paper, performance, and mutual need. But Roman’s quiet care begins to reach places Sloane has spent years locking away, and Sloane’s fierce honesty starts breaking through Roman’s carefully controlled life.
Soon, the marriage meant to protect them becomes the one thing that can destroy them, especially when a ruthless cousin finds proof of their agreement and Sloane’s past comes reaching back for control.
To save Roman, Sloane may have to tell the truth that could cost them everything. And Roman will have to decide whether love is still worth choosing when there is no contract strong enough to guarantee it.
The Unwilling Groom is a swoony billionaire fake-marriage romance filled with emotional tension, forced proximity, slow-burn intimacy, family secrets, corporate power plays, and two guarded people learning that being freely loved may be the greatest risk of all.
Perfect for readers who love marriage of convenience, best friend’s brother romance, protective billionaires, wounded heroines, high-stakes secrets, and heartfelt happily-ever-afters.