AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Of course they would, since many of the men in attendance were overweight, middle-aged, balding, or married. The pickings for single women were slim to none, so bring in a hot young guy like Jed and any available woman—hell, even the unavailable ones—started salivating.
She’d like to think she wouldn’t have pounced on him like the current pack of circling wolves. She was focused on her business, not trying to find a man. She ran into good-looking available men all the time and her pulse didn’t jump in the least.
Until she’d met Jed.
Poor guy. He was surrounded, though seemed to be holding his own, drink in hand, engaged in conversation with no less than six women. Every one of said women were doing the hair flipping, lip licking and lash batting like tomorrow was Armageddon and tonight was their last chance to get laid.
And these were solid, upstanding, levelheaded businesswomen, many of whom were her friends. She didn’t understand how the presence of hot testosterone could reduce them to fourteen-year-olds.
Then again, as she watched Jed slide one hand into his pocket and affect a casual stance, then laugh at something one of them said, maybe she did understand it. There was something about him that captured her like no man ever had before. Part of her wanted to storm into the middle of the pack and plant her mark on him, to declare him off-limits to the rest of the sex-starved she-wolves before any of them got their claws into him.
Wow. Get fucked recently, Elena?
No, and that was obviously her problem.
“Who’s the guy?”
She looked up to see Todd Bishop next to her. “Jed Templeton. Just moved into town.”
“Boyfriend?”
She laughed. “No. He installed a new security alarm in my shop so I offered to bring him with me to the meeting tonight and introduce him around. He’s trying to get his new business off the ground, and with the recent string of burglaries in the area, I figured he could meet some of the owners.”
“Huh,” was all that Todd said, no doubt irritated to be usurped as resident cock of the block. One of the few decent-looking single men in the association, Todd was usually popular, but he was a manwhore, and rumor had it he’d slept with quite a few of the available women in the group. He’d tried a few times to get Elena to go out with him. She’d always declined.
He was good-looking—tall, with dark brown hair and a great build. The problem was, he knew it and made no bones about the fact that he enjoyed the single life, which normally wouldn’t bother her, but she hated his attitude toward women. He owned several car dealerships in the area and he had the whole slick salesman mantra down a little too well for her liking.
“We have a good alarm system already,” was all Todd said.
“That’s what I thought, too, until my shop got hit last night.”
Todd raised a brow. “You did? That’s too bad. Did they take a lot?”
“A few pieces of jewelry. Made a mess of the shop.”
He picked up her hand. “I’m so sorry, Elena. I should introduce you to our security team. They’re the best around.”
“That’s nice of you, Todd, but as I told you, Jed installed a new system today, so I’m up and running again.”
His gaze narrowed. “But you’re not dating him, right? Because there’s this weekend trip to Orlando I’d love to take you on.”
Ugh. How many times was she going to have to tell him no before it sank into his thick, Neanderthal head?
“Actually, she’s dating me.”
Shocked, Elena could only stare as Jed moved around Todd and put his arm around her waist. He put his hand out. “Jed Templeton. And you are?”
Todd didn’t look at all happy, but shook Jed’s hand. “Todd Bishop.”
“Of Bishop Motors? I’ve seen your dealerships all over the place.”
That puffed Todd’s chest out. “Yes, that’s me.”
Really, it was Todd’s father who owned all the dealerships and had all the money. Todd was just good at spending it and putting his perfect hair and football player body and God only knew how many thousands of dollars in orthodontia to get those perfect teeth in front of the camera to do the commercials she saw on television every day.
“Business must be great for you,” Jed said, affecting a casual, couldn’t-give-a-shit stance.
Todd nodded. “We do all right. So you have an alarm company?”
