Bedding The Bad Boy (Dalton Brothers Novels) by Virna DePaul Read Free Book Online

open to where I live only increases my chances of findin’ the perfect baby daddy, right?”
    Melina and Lucy said nothing, which meant they still weren’t on board with her plan. Grace forced a smile. “Let’s just table this for now. I’m goin’ to a gym by the hotel in an hour, but tonight… Are we still havin’ dinner together before Lucy and I leave tomorrow?”
    “Screw that,” Lucy said. “You have our support but we’re still going shopping.”
    “For what?” Melina asked.
    “For a bustier, a few lacy thongs, see-through bras and a black garter belt and silk stockings,” Lucy said. “You intended to get your big O here in Vegas and you’re going to get it. Whether it’s Max who gives it to you or not.”
    “Lucy, you’re not listenin’ to me. I’m not interested in sex anymore. I need to focus on what’s important.”
    “You can find a baby daddy tomorrow. You have one night left in Vegas. Make that night count. If you do, Melina and I promise we won’t mention the O word again. We won’t even mention the words Mr. Right.”
    Melina hesitated, bit her lip then finally nodded. “That’s right. One more night. What can it hurt?”
    Grace studied her friends and wondered if they truly believed what they were saying. But they only wanted the best for her. And the chances of her finding a man tonight that she’d willingly derail her baby plan for was nil. Even Max couldn’t convince her to get back on that roller coaster again. “Fine. One more night.”
     
    ***
     
    “I feel like an idiot,” Grace said a few hours later. After leaving Melina’s, she’d taken a drop-in class at a nearby gym and returned to her hotel feeling pleasantly exhausted and achy. She’d wanted nothing more than to shower and lounge by the pool, but Lucy and Melina had dragged her to one lingerie store after another. Now she was at a hip new club, squirming on her stool at the tall bar table, trying to adjust the silk stockings that kept threatening to pop off the garter. Somehow Kevin Costner had made a seductive show of taking garters off a woman in that ‘80s movie Bull Durham but as for her, well, she felt all trussed up like one of those Budweiser horses strapped to the big beer wagon.
    “Stop squirming.” Lucy was dressed up, too, working her red hair and compact, curvaceous body, and eradicating all hints of girlishness by covering the freckles on her face with make-up. Despite how sexy Lucy was dressed, Grace knew her friend wasn’t looking to score herself. While she and Jericho weren’t necessarily exclusive, Lucy barely drummed up enough interest to keep that relationship going as it was. Whether she wanted to admit or not, her heart had been broken. By a nice guy, no less.
    Last year, Lucy—who’d always been drawn to bad boys and moody artists, had accepted Grace and Melina’s challenge to give a nice guy a shot. A women’s studies professor at the same California university where Grace and Melina had worked, Lucy had spent months denying her attraction to Professor Jamie Whitcomb. To everyone’s surprise, she’d abruptly given in and the two had dated several months before he’d broken things off. The breakup had crushed her. She denied it, of course, but Lucy was like that. She’d sooner eat worms than admit—even to her best friends—that a man had the power to hurt her.
    Lucy pushed Grace’s dirty martini closer to her. “Drink up, Grace. We’re at one of the best clubs in Vegas, and men are looking at you. Men who probably want a night of Vegas fun before going back to their boring lives. They won’t want your phone number, or to see you again. These guys want to give you a night of sexual pleasure. Just pick one.”
    Lucy acted as if picking up a guy for a one-night stand was something Grace did all the time. Sure, it had happened a time or two in her life, but she wasn’t a pro. And she’d enjoyed the sex on those instances even less than normal. Sleeping with guys that