Checked Into Love (Bachelorette Party Book 2)

by Rochelle Paige

  Checked Into Love

  Bachelorette Party 2

  Rochelle Paige

  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgments

  Also by Rochelle Paige

  About the Author

  Copyright © 2017 by Rochelle Paige Popovic

  All rights reserved.

  Edited by Manda Lee.

  Cover designed by Elle Christensen.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing. For permission requests, please send your email request to me@rochellepaige.com

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used factiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons or living or dead, events or locales are entirely coincidental.

  The author acknowledges the trademark status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/ Use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owner.

  Created with Vellum

  Prologue

  Cee-Cee

  The second I caught sight of him across the crowded bar, I was hooked. He was exactly my type—his muscular arm flexed as he lifted a beer to his lips, drawing his shirt tight against his well-defined back. Shaggy blond hair that could use a cut and looked like he’d just rolled out of bed was matched with deep blue eyes that sparked with interest when they locked with mine the moment I walked in the door. He was smoking hot, and much to my amazement it appeared as though he was sitting by himself at the bar. Maybe he was a little on the young side for me, but he definitely rang my bell so to speak.

  A bell I didn’t want to be rung, I reminded myself as I forced my gaze away from him and searched the bar for the man I was there to meet. I wasn’t there to pick up guys. I was there for work and only work. It was the first time I’d needed a reminder of where my focus was supposed to be since I’d sworn off guys.

  My girlfriends thought it was a drastic move, but it was what I needed after the disastrous end to my last relationship when I found my boyfriend in bed with my neighbor. And when I said “in bed with,” I meant fucking her in my bed. In my home. He didn’t even bother finding his latest fuck-buddy in his own apartment building.

  The bastard tried telling me it wasn’t his fault. That the whore who lived next door to me came onto him. Not that I gave a damn who made the first move on whom. All that mattered to me at that point was kicking his ass out of my life, burning the sheets on my bed, and doing my best to cleanse him from my mind and my life. And to stop myself from throat-punching the girl in question every time I saw her in the hallway. Which luckily wasn’t very long since the rat-bastard asked her to move in with him about two weeks after we broke up.

  Yeah, apparently I wasn’t what he was looking for in a serious relationship, but the skank who slept with her next-door neighbor’s boyfriend because he played baseball for the local minor league team was exactly who he wanted. I tried to tell myself I was better off without him and that odds were their relationship would end with one of them cheating on the other. You know what they say—how you get him is how you lose him.

  Either way, it didn’t matter to me. I threw myself into my job as a public relations representative with Pied Piper PR. Promised myself I’d stay away from guys and focus on my career instead of men. So far, my new outlook on life had been serving me well and hadn’t really faced any obstacles until I locked eyes with the hottie at the bar.

  I managed to shake it off for about the first ten minutes of my meeting with Dane Edwards. He’d hired Pied Piper about six months ago, and I was the point person for his account. I’d been working with him to draw in bands, promote events, and bring in the crowds. Things had been going well, and he’d seemed to be happy with our services—or at least I thought he was until he started rescheduling meetings a couple of months ago. When we’d set up the time for tonight, he mentioned he had some news for me. I was hoping it wasn’t that he was dropping his contract with Pied Piper. It would be a major blow for me professionally if he did.

  “It’s good to see you, Cee-Cee.” I dragged my gaze away from the guy sitting by himself at the bar to focus on my client as he greeted me. His smile made me relax a bit since he didn’t look like he was about to fire me. In fact, he practically beamed with happiness.

  “You, too, Mr. Edwards.”

  “How often do I have to tell you to call me Dane?” He shook his head as he led me to a high-top table in the corner. “Mr. Edwards makes me think of my father.”

  “Sorry,” I laughed. “It’s a hard habit to break.”

  “If you’re trying to break it, you’d better hurry up. You’re not going to have much more time to do it.”

  Shit. My stomach fell. For a guy who looked so cheerful, he sure knew how to hit a girl where it hurt. “Are you unhappy with the work we’ve been doing for you?”

  He looked confused by my question for a moment, and then his hazel eyes widened in understanding. “No! Absolutely not. You’ve been great, but I put the place up for sale. I need your help to build as much buzz as possible in the coming months to help attract potential buyers.”

  “Ahh,” I sighed, relieved and disappointed at the same time. “I’m sorry to hear you’re selling the bar because it’s been fun working for you, but I can definitely come up with some ideas to step things up and get the word out there even more.”

  We spent the next thirty minutes brainstorming, but I knew I wasn’t on my A-game because my gaze kept drifting back to the guy sitting by himself at the bar. There was just something about him. Something that made me want to break my promise. As we were wrapping things up, an idea struck me.

  “I might be able to connect you with someone who’d be interested in buying this place.”

  “Really? That would be fantastic. The sooner I sell, the sooner I can stop splitting my time between here and Atlanta.”

  “Atlanta? Is that why you’ve had to cancel our meetings lately?”

  “Yeah.” His lips tilted up in a shit-eating grin, and his eyes softened. “I met someone during a trip down there a couple of months ago. She’s working on her bachelor’s degree, so she can’t move to Chicago and I don’t want to do the long-distance thing.”

  “Wow, sounds like love to me.” For some insane reason, my eyes slid to the guy at the bar again.

  “No doubt about it.”

  “Well, then I’ll have to work doubly hard to see if I can work some magic for you. I have a presentation scheduled with Andrew Rourke, the owner of The Box, in about a week and a half. If things go well, I’ll be sure to mention your place to him.”

  “Any help you can give would be appreciated.”

  I started to pack up my stuff. “It sounds like our work here is done for the day.”

  “If you’re going to help me find a buyer, the least I can do is treat you to a couple of our new signature drinks. Maybe one of them will even inspire a new idea for promot
ing the club.”

  After the adrenaline rush from thinking he was going to fire me earlier, I could use a drink. “That sounds perfect.”

  He signaled to the bartender who headed our way, but then his phone rang. It didn’t take long for the bartender to make his way over to us, but it was already clear to me that the call was important. I figured it was my perfect opportunity to get out of there before I did something stupid, so I stood and got ready to go.

  “Hold on a second.” He moved the phone away from his ear and turned his attention back to me. “It’s my fiancée.”

  “No worries.” I flashed him a smile. “The drinks can wait for another time.”

  “Please stay and have those drinks first. I insist.”

  “I guess I’m staying for those drinks then,” I sighed, and followed the bartender… right to the stool next to him. The hottie I’d been trying so hard to ignore.

  Shit. Fuck. Damn.

  Maybe I could ignore him while I sipped a couple of drinks. Ten, fifteen minutes tops. I could handle that. Or at least that’s what I told myself while he made it hard as hell to ignore him. I felt the heat of his stare on me as I kept my eyes trained on the bartender while he mixed my drinks. When he placed three different concoctions in front of me, the hottie decided to make his move.

  “You must be an overachiever.”

  “Pardon?” I asked without looking towards him, lifting one of the glasses to my lips to take a small sip.

  “I’m familiar with double fisting it, but triple fisting is really going the extra mile. It’s like a ménage à trois, but with drinks instead of dudes.”

  I almost spewed the delicious pink concoction across the bar.

  “Or a ménage à quatre I guess since it’s you plus the three drinks.”

  I choked on the liquid I’d just barely managed to swallow down. The hottie reached over and patted me on the back until I caught my breath again. He didn’t lift his hand away though, sliding it down to my lower back instead. Holy hell, six months had been way too long for me and my vibrator to have a monogamous relationship if just the heat of his hand through my shirt had my panties getting damp. Then I turned to face him, and it only got worse. The pull I’d felt towards him from far away had been bad enough. Up close, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to resist, especially since he seemed to be pretty damn hilarious.

  “That’s one hell of an interesting approach.”

  His firm but lush looking lips turned up in a little grin. “With the way you’ve been ignoring me since our mutual eye-fuck when you walked into this place, I figured I needed to go the extra mile to get your attention back on me.”

  “I didn’t eye-fuck you.” I was so lying. It might have been the equivalent of a quickie, but I’d definitely eye-fucked the hell out of him.

  “Liar,” he whispered.

  It was hard to take offense when he was right, especially with the teasing glint in his blue eyes. I took another gulp of my pink drink before I did something stupid, like ask him to come home with me and turn that eye-fucking into the real thing.

  “How about you put the lady’s drinks on my tab?”

  The bartender smirked at him. “They’re already covered.”

  “Fucking A,” the hottie grumbled, not looking happy at all.

  It would have been safer to leave it at that, with him presumably assuming my drinks were free because I had a man paying for them for personal reasons. But I found myself offering him an explanation instead. “Only because the guy I was meeting with earlier is the owner and he wanted me to try a few of their specialty drinks, for business purposes only.”

  His expression brightened, and he turned on his bar stool to fully face me. He stretched his long legs out, one between my feet and the bar and the other behind me. The force of his stare made me shiver a little, and his lips tipped up in a grin again, letting me know he hadn’t missed my reaction to him.

  “I’m Jason Campbell,” he introduced himself, reaching his right hand out towards me. I lifted my own, thinking he was going to shake it, but he shocked the shit out of me when he lifted it to his mouth for a brief kiss along my knuckles. “And you are?”

  “Cecily Thompson,” I answered with a tug of my hand. He held on to it for a moment before letting go, and I swore I still felt the tingle from his lips against my skin as I moved it back into my lap.

  “And what exactly is it that you do, Cecily, which warrants so many free drinks?”

  “I handle the PR for the bar.”

  “Congratulations.” His eyes flashed, along with another grin. “I think that calls for a celebration, don’t you?”

  “Sure, why not?” I knew I was throwing caution to the wind, but I couldn’t help myself.

  We spent the next few hours drinking. He helped me taste test the drinks the bartender had served me before we split a very nice bottle of champagne he’d insisted on buying for me. We talked about nothing important, but the flow of conversation seemed to be endless. It was as if we’d known each other forever and were incredibly comfortable with one another. And the spark of chemistry between us hadn’t died down, not even a little bit. If anything, it had only intensified as the night went on.

  “I should probably switch to water,” I mumbled after finishing off the last of the champagne in my glass.

  “Me, too.”

  “I’ve got work in the morning. What’s your excuse?”

  “Early practice.”

  I tilted my head at him, surprised by his response since I’d expected him to say much as the same as me. “Practice for what?”

  “Summer training camp for the Cavaliers.”

  “So you’re a hockey player, eh?”

  He blushed a little, and it somehow made him even sexier. “Well, I was, back in college. I thought my hockey career was over when we won the Frozen Four last month. Then a friend of mine talked me into playing at a local showcase while I was here visiting him, and the next thing I knew I was being invited to play at the Cavaliers’ summer training camp.”

  “Wait,” I breathed out. “You just graduated college?”

  “Yeah, a couple of weeks ago.”

  “You don’t look your age,” I grumbled.

  “It’s not like I’m jailbait. I’m twenty-two,” he retorted. “I can’t be that much younger than you.”

  “I’m twenty-five, Jason.”

  “Three years is barely anything when you’re in your twenties, Cecily. It’s not like I’m sixteen to your nineteen. Not anymore, anyway.” The jackass actually winked at me at the end.

  “You’re going to have a smartass answer for everything, aren’t you?”

  “It’s better than being a dumbass.”

  “Thank you for proving my point,” I giggled. “Now if you’ll excuse me for a moment, I need to use the ladies’ room.”

  My heart fluttered when he stood up with me, like a gentleman. It kept fluttering the entire time I was away from him, too. By the time I’d exited the bathroom, I’d convinced myself that a six-month hiatus from dating was long enough. I wasn’t going to pass up the chance to see what could happen with Jason, even if he was younger than me. I needed to get home, but I was going to give him my number before I left. I hadn’t intended to stay so long, but he’d made me feel like I was the only woman in the crowded bar. And then the smile was wiped off my face when I was only a few feet away from where we’d been sitting and found him with his arms wrapped around a brunette.

  “Fuck this,” I muttered, turning sharply on my heel and heading for the door.

  I’d only spent a handful of hours hanging out with Jason, but it hurt like hell to walk away. The sting was enough to toughen my resolve to keep my focus back where it belonged—on my career and away from guys like Jason.

  1

  Jason

  “C’mon, let me fix you up with one of my friends.” My best friend’s fiancée, Aubrey, had been on a matchmaking kick the last few months, ever since she’d overheard Luka giving me a hard t
ime for my lack of a sex life since I’d moved to Chicago. I knew it was coming from a good place, but her persistence was starting to irritate me.

  “I don’t need you to find a woman for me,” I grumbled.

  “He really doesn’t,” Luka chimed in. “I get why you think he would, though. He’s been living like a monk lately. From what Alec has told me, he’s turned down every woman who’s thrown herself at him all season long.”

  “Puck bunnies don’t count.” Aubrey glared at Luka before dropping her gaze down to her hand to gaze at the big stone on her ring finger. “Can you blame me for wanting your best friend to be as happy as we are?”

  “Of course not, moya printsessa.”

  I smiled at how Luka’s slight Russian accent became thick when he used his pet nickname for Aubrey. As his roommate, I’d had a ringside seat to them falling for each other during our senior year of college. Luka had finally popped the question six months ago, after taking a shit ton of time to find the perfect ring and decide on exactly how he wanted to ask her. I was damn happy for the both of them, but that didn’t mean I wouldn’t use the wedding that was going to take place in four months as a distraction. “Shouldn’t you be so busy with your wedding plans that you don’t have enough time to worry about my love life?” I asked.

  “Oh, please,” she sighed. “I’m a good multi-tasker.”

  “I can vouch for that,” Luka confirmed with a wicked gleam in his eye.

  “Sure, taunt the guy who isn’t getting any with how good your girl is in bed.”

  “Shut the hell up, motherfucker.”

  Oh, yeah. I figured my little taunt would drag my best friend’s attention away from the topic at hand since his caveman tendencies were so predictable. Only, I hadn’t counted on Aubrey being like a dog with a bone.

  “I’ll let it go for now, but once the season’s over in a couple of months I’m going to fix you up on some dates whether you like it or not.”