Playing Pretend
A Sapphic Fake Dating Romance
by Aurora North
📖 Free with Kindle Unlimited
Pairing: FF
Heat: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ Inferno
Tropes: Fake Dating, Forced Proximity, One Bed, Grumpy/Sunshine, Enemies to Lovers, Stepsister Taboo, Praise Kink, D/s Dynamic, Brat/Tamer, Sexual Awakening, Good Girl Corruption, Touch Starved
The lie was supposed to last a week. The fall was supposed to be fake.
Ivy Calloway has spent eleven years being the good daughter — the peacekeeper, the people-pleaser, the woman who says it’s fine and whatever you want while shrinking herself to fit inside her mother’s expectations. When her mom drags her to a beach house on the Outer Banks for a “family bonding” week with her new boyfriend and his daughter, Ivy expects awkward dinners and forced small talk.
She doesn’t expect Harlow Voss.
Tattooed, sharp-tongued, and radiating the kind of don’t-touch-me energy that makes Ivy’s pulse do dangerous things, Harlow is everything Ivy was raised not to want. When Ivy’s mother invites an eligible man to dinner, Harlow snaps — and tells the table they’re dating. It’s a lie. A game. A week of fake PDA to shock the parents and shut down the matchmaking.
Except the “practice” sessions in the sweltering loft get real. Fast. The silence game — where Harlow’s hands are between Ivy’s legs and the parents are right downstairs and one sound means she stops — becomes an addiction neither of them can quit. And somewhere between the ice cube on bare skin and the hot tub where Ivy comes on Harlow’s fingers while waving at her mother through the glass, the performance stops and the freefall begins.
Now Ivy has to choose: the safe life her mother planned, or the woman who saw through every lie she’d ever told and said tell me what you want and meant it.
You’ll love this if you enjoy:
✓ “Good girl” praise kink that rewires your nervous system
✓ The silence game (parents downstairs, zero auditory privacy)
✓ Grumpy tattooed top x sunshine people-pleaser bottom
✓ Silk scarf bondage with an escape knot
✓ Hot tub scene where mom waves through the glass
✓ A woman who catalogs your smiles and knows which one is real
✓ Ice cube scene at midnight in a 90° loft
✓ Under-the-table at a restaurant while discussing scallops
✓ Living room floor sex during a thunderstorm
✓ Guaranteed HEA with a move-in and a wedding
⚠️ Content Warning
This book contains explicit FF sexual content including praise kink, D/s dynamics, silk scarf bondage, edging/orgasm denial, exhibitionism (hot tub scene), multiple graphic sex scenes with emotional vulnerability, and a woman discovering her sexuality for the first time. Themes include parental emotional enmeshment, coming out, the taboo-adjacent dynamic of parents who are dating (not married), and choosing yourself over family expectations. Features a grumpy/sunshine dynamic with alternating dual POV. Both heroines find their HEA.
Reader discretion advised. This book is intended for mature audiences only.
🔥 Want an EXCLUSIVE Bonus Chapter?
“The Scarf” — A 7,000+ word scene TOO HOT for Amazon
Five months after the beach house. Ivy has a plan, a new scarf, and a question she’s been building the courage to ask. For the first time, she ties Harlow up — and takes her apart the way Harlow took her apart in the loft. Turnabout. Worship. The moment the last wall comes down. This scene was too explicit for Amazon.
More Sapphic Romance
Browse all Aurora North books.
Playing Pretend
The lie was supposed to last a week. The fall was supposed to be fake.
Snowed In With Her
Some storms can't be weathered alone.
The Triple Double
Two women. One freshman. Zero chance of playing it safe.
Oral Examinations
She spent twenty years building walls. It took three weeks to tear them down.
Oral Examinations
She spent twenty years building walls. It took three weeks to tear them down.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this book part of a series?
Playing Pretend is a complete standalone with a guaranteed HEA. Harlow and Ivy get their happy ending — move-in, a wedding (their parents’), and the road ahead. No cliffhangers!
How spicy is this book?
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ — This is a 5/5 heat level book with multiple explicit scenes throughout. Features include the ice cube edging scene, the silent game, silk scarf bondage, the hot tub scene, under-the-table teasing at a restaurant, the bathroom wall pin, and the living room floor scene during a thunderstorm. All scenes feature enthusiastic consent and alternating dual POV.
Is there a happily ever after?
Absolutely! Harlow and Ivy get their HEA. They navigate three hours of distance, therapy (both of them), Diane’s gradual acceptance, Greg’s first real hug, and ultimately move in together. The final chapter features their parents’ wedding, a coat closet, and the word “Drive.” No cheating, no cliffhangers, just two women who learn that the bravest thing you can do is say what you want out loud.
What’s the taboo element?
Harlow and Ivy’s parents are dating (and eventually marry). The women are adults who meet for the first time at this beach trip — no blood relation, no legal connection at the start. The “stepsister” element is taboo-adjacent and adds tension, but the story treats it with maturity. By the end, the family has (messily, imperfectly) come together.
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