Pop princess, fake prince, real temptation—her big comeback just got wildly complicated. After a very public meltdown and a canceled world tour, my music career is hanging by a thread. And now, my record label is all but telling me to kiss pop-stardom goodbye. My PR team’s brilliant solution? A fake relationship with Hollywood heartthrob Grayson Hemsley—charming on camera, and absolutely insufferable behind closed doors. But there’s a bigger secret I’ve been keeping. A teensy detail about me that the tabloids would have a field day with: I’ve never actually…done it. There. I said it. And I’m starting to think my music is missing that authentic spark of experience. So, I hire an escort for a one-night solution. Taio Wilkes is gorgeous, kind, hilarious, and nothing like I expected. When he discovers my true intentions, he doesn’t take my money and run. Instead, he offers something I never saw coming—friendship, and lessons in the art of intimacy without rushing the main event. Just when things get comfortable, the paparazzi catches us together a little too close for casual. My solution to the storm of cheating accusations? Make Taio my new bodyguard. Now I’m caught between Grayson’s sudden jealousy-infused interest and my deepening connection with Taio, who is still suffering from the wounds of his past and claims he’ll never settle down. With the deadline for my big career comeback looming, I’m questioning everything—if the spotlight is really where I belong, or if my happily ever after might be waiting somewhere offstage. When your whole life is one big performance, how do you figure out which feelings are real, and which ones are just for show?

Her ex said she was past her prime. Her younger man begs to differ. \\\* Two decades designing couture for the elite, and building a billion-dollar fashion brand, should feel like success. Instead, I have an empty mansion, a fresh divorce settlement, and the sinking feeling that I traded everything meaningful for a life that looks better on social media than it does in the mirror. When my practically estranged best friend passes away, she leaves me with the one thing my ex-husband never gave me a chance to have—a baby. Well, a soon-to-be baby, currently residing in a surrogate’s belly. Surprise! Guilt-ridden, and scared to face this alone, cue my desperate funeral plus-one Saylor, an escort with bedroom eyes and a smile that makes me forget I’m supposedly “past my expiration date.” He’s over a decade younger and shouldn’t give me a second glance after the check clears. Only he does. And while I’m spiraling over surprise motherhood and the thoughts of launching a new fashion empire, away from the clutches of my ex, this way-too-young-for-me man has the audacity to look at me like I’m the only woman in the world. “Too old” is what society whispers about women my age starting over. Too old for babies. Too old for new beginnings. Definitely too old for Saylor’s salacious advances that make me feel like a teenager in lust. But what if the happily ever after isn’t lost, just fashionably late? And what if the unattainable escort couldn’t care less about earning his money, because he’s making a play for my heart?