Breaking the Bachelor (Entangled Lovestruck) (Smart Cupid) by Maggie Kelley Read Free Book Online

Because Charlie Goodman was the only man who’d ever gotten in the way of her commitment to love by criteria. The only one.
    Six months of distance should’ve made their chemistry fizzle, but that kiss in the Fluff ‘N Fold told a different story. Good thing she was still in charge of how that story ended.
    She pivoted away from the window to hail a yellow cab careening to her rescue.
    Breathing room.
    Starts.
    Now.

Chapter Five
    @smartCupid Don’t check out the cutie in the corner when you’re on a date with someone else. Ever. No take-backs. No do-overs.
    @AdamDatesRUs Kiss enough frogs, and eventually, one of them will say, I love you.
    Jane opened the top drawer of her desk and wrinkled her nose at the candy selection. One laundry cycle and she had been this close to giving it up faster than a quick rinse. One laundry cycle and she’d become an addict, strung out on Charlie all over again. All that kissing on top of the Maytag? Exactly why she’d been avoiding him. Passion led straight to unadulterated anguish, the kind ready to kick a girl in her teeth when love deserted her, and she wasn’t going to end up like her mother—on a love high until she was alone. Not. Going. To. Happen.
    She took a deep breath closed the desk drawer. It was only chemistry. She was smart enough to recognize the signs, the hypnotic pull. And, same way she’d put on the breaks six months ago, she could apply the e-break now. Granted, she hadn’t anticipated how difficult it would be to see him again, or how so many memories—a lifetime of them, really—would come crashing back. But awareness was ninety-nine percent of the battle. They called her SmartCupid for a reason, damn it.
    Her phone chimed and she snatched it up, glad of the distraction. “Morning, Smart Cupid. Smart choices, real love.”
    “You ready to admit defeat?” Adam Walters’ smug tone snaked its way through the phone line. It took everything she had not to slam down the receiver.
    “How the hell did you know I was here?”
    “I can see the light in your office. I’m outside your building.”
    She glanced at the window overlooking the Greenmarket and wondered if she should consider a restraining order. “You need therapy.”
    “Don’t flatter yourself. I met a prospective client in the District, figured I’d check on the competition. Any luck with the true love deal?”
    She opened the candy drawer again, raced down to the R’s, and ripped open a two-pack of peanut butter cups with her teeth.
    “I take it your silence means no?”
    “Take it however you want.”
    “I brought you coffee.”
    “One of the signs of the Apocalypse?” She walked over to the window. There he was on the sidewalk, holding two Dunkin’ Donuts cups in hand. The big oaf. Did the devil have no shame?
    “Funny.” He held up an orange and pink lettered cup. “Congratulate me. I’ve got six matches on the books already this morning.”
    More silence, followed by a little extra squint in the death stare she reserved just for him.
    “No coffee then?”
    “I’m a Starbucks girl.”
    “I’ll remember that. Keep me posted on the whole true love thing, Cupid.” He ended the call with a short salute and moved down the street. Watching him turn the corner, Jane swore violently under her breath. If she’d had a bow and arrow, he’d have taken one right in his camel-coat-covered backside.
    She dropped the phone on her desk and it skittered across the wood, stopping in front of the framed photo on the corner. Her thirtieth birthday party. Group shot, birthday girl, happy and smiling, front and center, and yet, as usual, the guy standing second from left drew her attention. Charlie smiled wickedly into the camera as if to say, “Meet me in the coatroom in three minutes.”
    Damn, she really needed to change out that picture.
    A sharp series of five knocks on the door interrupted her thoughts. She glanced up and smiled. Nick stood in the doorway, dressed to the nines in a