by JM Stewart
Chapter One
Dread sank into Madison O’Riley’s stomach as the musical jingle of her phone announced the arrival of a message. Any other day, that sound would bring a smile. It would’ve meant that she’d gotten a text from one of her two best friends. Usually Christina confirming details for a girls’ night out or Hannah sending a picture of her three-month-old daughter, Emily.
Tonight, however, that sound meant the message she’d been waiting for had arrived. For a moment, she could only stare at the sender’s name, blinking on the small black screen. Was she really ready for this?
“Is that him?” Seated on the couch across from her, Hannah leaned forward, bracing her elbows on her knees.
Maddie lifted her gaze, peering across the coffee table. Hannah grinned, ear to flippin’ ear, her dark brows all the way up into her hairline. The rat. At least Christina tried to hide her excited smile. More refined, she sat with her long legs crossed and her hands folded in her lap. She looked calm and unperturbed, but the glimmer in her eyes gave her away. Both women were clearly waiting for the “deets.”
Maddie sighed and shook her head. “How did I let you two rope me into this?”
Okay, so she knew the answer. Both had found their soul mates. They were all so damned happy it made her flat-out jealous. At this point, she was stalling. This blind date they’d “encouraged” her into should be a good thing. She hadn’t dated in three years, and they were right. It was time. This hair-brained scheme provided a middle ground. After all, what harm could a little flirting do?
Hannah straightened, leaning back into the sofa cushions. “Because you’re lonely, babe. You said it yourself. But you also said that you weren’t ready for another relationship.” She shrugged. “It worked for me. I got to know Cade online. Start there. It’s just Gchat. If you decide you don’t like him, you don’t have to go through with the auction.”
Christina flashed one of her smiles, the soft kind that always managed to melt the nerves raging in Maddie’s stomach. There was something so calming about Christina.
“Hannah’s right. There will be hundreds of women willing to take him off your hands. But he’s nice. I promise. And he’s not a toad, as you so aptly put it. I gather only the best for my auctions.” Christina grinned, giving her a sassy little wink that had Maddie hard-pressed not to laugh.
Her two best friends couldn’t have been more different. Where Hannah was quiet and shy and often uncertain of herself, Christina was all elegance but bold as brass. Maddie had known Hannah since her days of working in the marketing department of Bradbury Books, long before they’d taken a walk on the wild side and opened their little bookstore four years ago.
She’d met Christina through Hannah. Christina was Hannah’s husband’s twin sister. They’d officially become friends when Christina asked for help planning Hannah’s bachelorette party. She’d made an instant lifelong friend that night.
Maddie hadn’t known it at the time, but Hannah had been having an online fling. One that eventually led to her falling in love and getting married. Hannah had taken a chance and met Cade in person, and what began as a two-week fling had become more.
Exactly how Maddie found herself staring at a Gchat message from a stranger, nausea swirling in her stomach. She wouldn’t exactly call herself celibate. After her breakup with Grayson three years ago, she’d sworn off men and dating. Which meant it wasn’t raining men in her world, either. It didn’t help that she’d trust another man when little pink elephants flew south for the winter.
Hannah reached out a socked foot and nudged her toe. “Oh, go on. Answer him. What harm can it do? He doesn’t have your number, just your email address, and believe me, nobody in the world is going to know who Mad Hatter Three Thousand is.”
Maddie’s mouth went dry, a dull pounding starting in her temples. “Oh, God, I think I’m going to be sick.”
Her hand trembled as she picked up her cell from the coffee table. She swiped her finger up the screen, then tapped the Gchat icon. The message that popped up was innocuous really, but her phone shook in her palm anyway.
BookNerd: Hey. Christina gave me your email address. Apparently, you’re my date for the auction this year. ;)
Christina came from a wealthy family. As the founder and head of a local charity, which her family made a sizable donation to every year, her “baby” was a bachelor auction, in the name of raising money for breast cancer research. It was where Maddie had met her. Cade had been one of the bachelors.
Twelve hunky guys were being auctioned off for a good cause. Any other time, she’d have been all over that. She had no desire to date, or God forbid, fall in love again, but she was a woman, after all. With needs and yearnings, and she missed things like sex. She had a sore need to get laid. She wanted the weight of a man’s body pressing her into the mattress, yearned for a real cock pounding into her, hot and hard and not made of rubber. She wanted the huff of his warm breath on her neck, and by God, she ached for the luscious rush of an orgasm she didn’t have to give to herself.
She’d grown damn tired of her own fingers, but sex with a real man meant complications, which she flat out didn’t do. Flirting with a hot guy, though, could make her whole night. Knowing the men Christina chose for her auctions were all successful, with muscles on top of muscles, didn’t hurt, either. Christina had excellent taste.
This year, Maddie had a date with someone she’d never met and wouldn’t until the night of the auction. Exactly two weeks from today.
She glanced down at her phone again. His username seemed harmless enough. It hinted that they had something in common—books. Her stomach still wobbled all the same, and she cursed her nerves. It wasn’t like her to be so nervous. She was a people person, damn it. Besides, she couldn’t stay single forever. If she truly wanted a night of hot, sweaty sex, she had to get back up on that horse. And it started with this damn message.
Her thumbs hovered over the on-screen keyboard. “What on earth do I say to him?”
Christina gave a soft, airy laugh. “You could start with hello.”
“Hello.” Maddie nodded. “Right. I can do that.”
Oh, God help me, here goes nothing. Her fingers shook so hard she had to type the word twice.
MadHatter3000: Hi
She swallowed past the lump of fear stuck in her throat, punched SEND and waited. His reply popped up almost immediately, sending the butterflies in her stomach into an uproar.
BookNerd: How are you?
Maddie grinned. Okay, this was easy. This she could do. She punched in another quick reply.
MadHatter3000: Good, thx. U?
BookNerd: Oh, I’m fairly certain my night just got a whole lot better.
Maddie rolled her eyes. Oh, that was cheesy.
MadHatter3000: Ur a flirt, aren’t u?
Once again, his reply was instantaneous.
BookNerd: Guilty as charged.
Across from her, Christina arched a brow in silent question.
Hannah sat forward again, bouncing on the couch like an excited child. “What’d he say?”
Maddie pursed her lips and lifted her gaze. “He’s flirting with me.”
Hannah’s grin nearly split her face in half. “That’s not a bad thing, Madds.”
Maddie shrugged. The knots in her stomach weren’t so convinced. “I suppose.”
Christina smiled over the top of her wine glass, her eyes gleaming with playful impishness. “This is where you flirt back. If you want some company after the auction, you’re going to have to leave a trail of breadcrumbs for the man.”
Maddie laughed and shook her head. Christina was right, of course. If she wanted an orgasm from somebody other than her Battery-Operated Boyfriend, otherwise lovingly referred as to B.O.B., she’d have to come out of her shell a bit. After all, wasn’t that what she’d told Hannah to do? When Hannah had been in the same place two years ago, trying to decide if a fling with Cade was what she wanted, Maddie had urged her to live in the moment
or else she’d regret it. And Maddie had a lot of regrets. What would that weekend with Grayson have amounted to, had she not gotten cold feet?
She sighed. “Okay, okay. Let me think. I’m rusty at this.”
She tapped her finger on the side of her phone, thinking. The words popped into her thoughts seconds later, and Maddie typed and hit send before she lost the nerve to say them.
MadHatter3000: Confident aren’t we? Don’t think a date means ur automatically getting into my pants. ;)
She stuffed the nail of her index finger into her mouth and waited. Had she been too rude? Too presumptuous?
Seconds ticked by before his reply came back. Just long enough for the doubts to close around her throat. She had to be insane for agreeing to this.
BookNerd: Are you challenging me?
Her head filled with visions of what he must look like. Tall, dark, and handsome, like Cade and Sebastian. Full of muscles, for sure. And sitting somewhere doing exactly what she was—his phone in his hand, waiting on her replies. The thought had her heart hammering a giddy beat, and her palms sweating, but damn. This could be addictive. It was the most fun she’d had since…well, since Grayson.
Thoughts of her ex had the beginnings of panic clawing up her throat. Hands shaking in earnest now, Maddie leaned forward and set her phone down on the coffee table. “I can’t do this. This isn’t me.”
Hannah set down her glass of soda and pushed off the couch, coming to perch on the arm of Maddie’s recliner. She looped an arm around Maddie’s shoulders, hugging her tightly. “Yes, you can. You’re the first person in the store to pounce on any halfway decent-looking man who walks through the door. You’re an incorrigible flirt. Why does this one make you so nervous? It’s just a date.”
Maddie shook her head, memories rising over her. “When I flirt with the guys in the store it’s just fun. I haven’t had an actual date in three years.”
Grayson Lockwood wasn’t the first guy she’d fallen in love with, but that breakup had hit her the hardest. Discovering his lies had taken from her everything she swore they had and made her feel like a hopeless fool. She’d discovered on the front page of a local newspaper that he wasn’t just another editor working his way up through the rungs of the publishing company they’d worked for at the time. He owned the company.
Her phone pinged again from the coffee table. She and Hannah both turned. Another reply flashed on the black screen.
BookNerd: Nervous?
“Do what you do best, Madds. He’s just a guy, and you need this. You want this. You said so yourself.” Hannah squeezed her tight, then released her and resumed her seat on the sofa. “Try being honest with him. Always worked for me and Cade.”
Maddie sighed. She had to admit, Hannah had a point. Cade was good for Hannah. He’d opened her up and given her confidence. Hannah no longer hid the scars that cut across her face. The two of them were so damned happy Maddie couldn’t even envy them. Hannah deserved to be happy. More to the point, if honesty worked for them, maybe it would work for her, too.
She picked up her phone, typing in a more honest reply.
MadHatter3000: I don’t usually do this sort of thing.
BookNerd: Honestly? Me neither.
This reply soothed the knot in her chest. His confession, however, filled her with questions.
MadHatter3000: So y r u?
BookNerd: Because I told Christina the only way I’d participate was if she made sure I didn’t end up with some 80 y/o woman or her lonely daughter.
Ah, now they were getting somewhere.
MadHatter3000: So, u don’t want to do this, either.
Knowing her date didn’t feel so certain either wasn’t the most promising prospect she’d ever had, but the nausea swirling in her stomach eased by a large degree. At least she wasn’t alone in her nervousness.
BookNerd: Not originally. I don’t usually participate in these things. I have no desire to end up as someone’s plaything. But I have to admit I’m enjoying this. I’m betting you’re feisty. And clearly you don’t trust easily. Truth is, neither do I.
Maddie smiled. Beginning to finally relax, she couldn’t resist teasing him.
MadHatter3000: How do u know I’m not an ugly hag?
BookNerd: LOL I’ve known Christina since high school. I trust her judgment.
Hold the phone. Christina had distinctly left out that little detail.
Maddie peered across the coffee table at Christina. “You know him?”
Christina smiled. “Of course. You didn’t think I’d set you up with someone I didn’t? I’ve known him since high school. Gr—I mean, Dave is a nice guy.”
Maddie narrowed her gaze on Christina. It had almost sounded like Christina was about to say another name. In fact, since this whole thing began, Christina and Hannah had secret written all over them. Their heads were always bent together, and they often exchanged grins that ceased the minute Maddie joined the conversation. She’d let them convince her it was nothing, but this time, she had to know.
She pursed her lips and pointed a finger. “All right, what is it you’re not telling me about him?”
Christina held up her free hand in mock surrender. “Nothing, I promise. You just picked an excellent wine is all. I’m afraid I haven’t indulged in a while, and this Moscato is delicious. It’s going straight to my head.” Christina glanced down, brushing invisible bits from her lap, and lowered her voice. “Thought I might be pregnant there for a while. False alarm.”
Hannah nudged her sister-in-law with an elbow and shot her a grin. Christina flushed to the roots of her dark hair.
Momentarily distracted, Maddie couldn’t resist a giggle. This was what had drawn them all together in the first place. They were all so much alike. Teasing came easily, and the laughter flowed freely. Now it had her mind shifting gears. Christina and Sebastian had been married almost a year now. Christina had married her brother’s best friend. Having known each other most of their lives and been in love with each other for half that, the two were the poster children for typical newlyweds. They had a penchant for disappearing together. Christina always returned a little flushed. Sebastian usually came back with a swagger and a grin, like he’d conquered the world.
“The point being…” Christina narrowed her gaze, eyeing them one by one. “…I’ve known him for a long time. He was always a bit of a loner. We’re a lot alike in that respect. Growing up, he was a fellow nerd. Smart, worked hard to get good grades. I’ve been trying to get him to participate in the auction since its inception, but he’s always refused. This year I managed to convince him, but only if I promised to fix the game for him. He didn’t want to end up with a date he’d regret or someone who’d make his life hell afterward.”
Maddie arched a brow. “Isn’t that cheating?”
“Yes, but it’s for a good cause. The purpose is to raise money and awareness.” Hannah shrugged. “Besides, everybody always has fun, and there are eleven other bachelors.”
Her phone pinged again, another message flashing on the dark screen. Maddie squeezed her eyes shut, afraid to look. “I still don’t know if I can do this. Grayson took a lot out of me.”
“You have to get back on that horse sometime, Madds. If you want to find Prince Charming, you have to kiss a few toads.” Hannah nudged her with a socked foot again. “Go on. Pick it up and flirt with the man. Have a good time. See where it takes you. It doesn’t have to be any more complicated than that. What’s it going to hurt?”
Maddie opened her eyes and sighed. They were right. She’d never be able to move on by playing celibate and dead. She leaned forward, snatched her phone off the coffee table, and peered at the message.
BookNerd: Did I scare you off already?
She arched a brow at Christina. “Is he really good looking or was that just lip service? Be honest.”
Christina winked, mischievous and amused. “Oh, I think he’ll make a mighty fine horse.”
Maddie laughed softly. “You two are
terrible, you know that?”
Only between the three of them would they ever say something so audacious, but it was what she loved about Hannah and Christina. They could relax around one another, and say things they might not otherwise. It made them excellent friends. She never held back with them. It was also what had made her give in to this date, despite everything inside her screaming what a bad idea it was. They’d always have her back, no matter what.
Hannah pursed her lips and waved a hand at her. “Oh, come off it. You’re thinking it and you know it.”
Maddie shook her head. “I am getting awfully tired of my B.O.B.”
Christina and Hannah broke into a fit of giggles. Maddie drew up her inner vixen, beaten and worn out though she was, and typed in the first halfway playful thing she could think of.
MadHatter3000: I don’t scare so easily. U just better have ur A-game on.
His reply arrived seconds later.
BookNerd: Ohh, sweetheart. Consider that challenge accepted.
Acknowledgments
Special thanks to my critique partner, Sharon, for going above and beyond. I could not have gotten through these edits without you.
And I have to give thanks to my editor, Jessie, as well, for challenging me to see outside my box and teaching me something along the way. Thanks for helping me make my baby shine.
About the Author
JM Stewart is a coffee and chocolate addict who lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband, two sons and two very spoiled dogs. She’s a hopeless romantic who believes everybody should have their happily ever after and has been devouring romance novels for as long as she can remember. Writing them has become her obsession.
Learn more at:
AuthorJMStewart.com
Facebook.com/AuthorJMStewart
Twitter: @JMStewartWriter
Also by JM Stewart
Bidding on the Billionaire
Thank you for buying this ebook, published by Hachette Digital.