AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter 1
“I am not going to kiss a complete stranger,” Gina Allen declared. She frowned at her friend as if she were crazy, and not just half-drunk as the obnoxious club music swelled around them. The popular Denver hotspot wasn’t as crowded as she’d seen it in the past, but the Club 9 DJ always played like it was a record night for attendance.
“Why not?” Jayne demanded. “Jackson’s moved on—show him you have, too.”
A glance toward Britt Morgan for support netted her nothing more than a commiserating smile. Sure, great. Being that she was married with a new baby, her beautiful blond friend didn’t have to worry about some absurd dare.
Or more likely, she also wanted her to pick a hot guy and kiss him.
So much for a fun Girls Night Out. Gina lifted her wine glass, half-hiding behind it as she cast a surreptitious glance toward the back of the club where her ex-boyfriend was getting all hot and heavy with her former assistant. She’d found out this morning when Grace quit that the cheating jerk had moved on about six months before they broke up last month.
Hell, she’d found out a lot of things this morning, but none of them were a good enough reason to kiss someone she’d never met. Who did that? Who dared someone to do that?
Her buzzed idiot of a friend, that’s who.
Jayne’s heart was in the right place, but a kiss wouldn’t pull Gina’s business from the brink of bankruptcy, and keep her in her rented office space. It wouldn’t erase the fact she’d swallowed her pride this morning and asked her parents for a loan to pay the self-employment income taxes Grace had overlooked, only to have them respond with the proverbial ‘I told you so.’
Then again, they’d been waiting for GAllen Designs to fail for two years; she should’ve known better than to call them. The only thing decent about that part of her day was getting to say hello to Maria.
“Gross!” Jayne turned away from the exhibitionist couple and leaned in toward Gina until her brunette hair fell forward into her eyes. “Isn’t there just a tiny part of you that would like to stick a knife in him and twist?”
“How does me kissing a stranger twist anything when he’s…” She trailed off at the sight of Jackson’s tongue stuck in Grace’s ear. His professed dislike of public displays of affection seemed to have disappeared along with his morals. She’d like to twist something on him all right. Good and hard.
The vindictive thought surprised her, but before she could analyze why, Jayne waved her hand, demanding Gina’s attention.
“He’s doing it on purpose. You should’ve seen the expression on his face when they came in earlier. He saw your reaction before you turned away, and I’m telling you, he gloated.”
She frowned and set her wine down. “What?”
“He’s glad you’re upset.”
Her gaze narrowed. He was still mad because he blamed her for breaking up with him. If she’d know about his infidelity, they’d have been over long before she’d discovered he’d passed off some of her programming work as his own. Spoiled jerk needed to take responsibility for his own actions.
Thinking of the break-up brought all her doubts back. Was that the only reason he’d been with her for the past two years? To use her degree in computer software development while pretending to support her dream of being an interior decorator?
Britt leaned close. “Don’t let him get to you.”
Too late for that. He’d gotten into her head a long time ago, undermining her confidence until she barely recognized herself anymore. Even now, with his out of character actions on full display, she couldn’t help comparing herself to the woman he’d chosen over her. Her bleached-blond former assistant was tall, leggy, and possessed an hourglass figure men rented x-rated videos to view.
On the flip side stood Gina; short and slim, and the only significant curves she could lay claim to were in her shoulder-length, auburn hair.
“Listen, the longer you sit here, the more convinced he’s going to be that he’s won,” Jayne said. “There’s plenty of hot men here tonight, so I say just pick someone and go do it. Tell her, Britt.”
Inviting a second opinion, Gina raised her eyebrows at the woman who’d been her friend since her first summer in Colorado.
Britt laughed. “I’m not going to tell you to go plant one on some random guy.”
“Thank you.”
“But I will say, I really miss Bodacious Burgundy.”
Bodacious Burgundy? Her eyebrows rose higher. She’d gone back to her natural hair color at Jackson’s insistence that it was more professional. Granted, it had made a difference as she built her client base, but when her friend’s green gaze locked with hers across the table, her pulse picked up speed.
Jayne looked between the two of them with obvious confusion. “You want her to dye her hair again?”
Britt didn’t have to answer for Gina to understand the comment had nothing to do with hair dye and everything to do with the fearless person she’d been back then. Someone who followed her dreams and didn’t let anyone else pull her down. If she was being completely honest with herself, she missed that person, too.
When another over-the-shoulder glance caught Jackson’s hand brushing Grace’s breast, she downed the rest of the liquid in her glass. It made her sick to think she’d wasted two years of her life with him.
Britt was right. Even Jayne was right, in a roundabout way. And while kissing a stranger probabl
y wouldn’t make the jerk feel bad—right now, it might make her feel better.
She straightened in her seat and scanned the club patrons nearby, searching for a prospective candidate as the heavy base vibrated in her chest.
Too desperate looking.
Too old.
With someone.
Geeky glasses.
Slimy smile.
Too much hair product.
Married.
Too much leather.
Too—
She stopped short as her scan collided with a dark, intense gaze from fifteen feet away at the bar. The club lighting didn’t allow her to see the exact color of the man’s irises, but his thick lashes and prominent eyebrows added to the mysterious, brooding effect of his eyes. If the rest of him were half as gorgeous as his eyes… Her gaze flicked up, then swept down nice and slow.
At least six feet of sexy.
