How to Resist Prince Charming by Linda Kage Read Free Book Online

think you need to run your own company, then so do I.”
    “Shit, if you’d leave those stuffy old auto parts and come back to me, I’d make you my partner.”
    Braxton ignored the leap in his pulse at the very idea. But how cool would it be to help Greg run ProTech? The very idea made him salivate—
    But he had obligations he couldn’t ignore.
    Though his buddy couldn’t see his face, Braxton forced a grin. “And leave my cushy office here? Sorry, bud, but this is where the money’s at.”
    Not that he’d been making nickels and dimes at ProTech, but yeah, he did get a higher salary at Farris. It was too bad money had nothing to do with his reasons for filling his father’s shoes. If it did, he’d be a lot happier about the decision he’d made.
    “You say that now,” Greg said in a cajoling voice, “but in another two months you’re going to start missing us over here.”
    Braxton didn’t need another two months. He already missed them.
    “And do you know what I’m going to say when you come crawling back to me?”
    “Welcome back. It’s about time,” Braxton guessed.
    Greg laughed. “Oh, hell. You know me too well.”
    No, they’d merely repeated this same conversation one too many times.
    “Anyway,” Greg went on. “That’s not why I called.”
    “And here I thought that was the only reason you ever cared to talk to me anymore.”
    He could almost see his friend roll his eyes. “Ha, ha. But seriously, I need a favor.”
    “Yeah, I know. You need me to return to ProTech.”
    “Besides that.”
    Smile slipping, Braxton grew alert to the distressed sound in Greg’s voice. “Sure thing, pal. Name it.”
    “Well, you see, there’s this girl,” Greg started.
    Braxton paused. Greg needed help with a girl? That didn’t sound right. Greg never needed help with women. He was always bragging about his latest score. “Yeah?” he asked slowly.
    “Okay, here’s the deal. We met. We clicked. And I asked her out. But—and this is the kicker—she never goes out with a guy for the first time without doubling with her best friend. It’s some kind of personal security thing they made up.” Seeing exactly where this was headed, Braxton instantly blurted out, “No.”
    “Hey. You haven’t even heard my question yet.”
    Yeah, well Braxton didn’t need to hear the question. “I don’t do blind dates,” he stated firmly. “Especially with guard dogs.”
    “But—”
    “No,” Braxton repeated.
    “Brax, my man,” Greg coaxed. “Trust me on this. I’ve seen the girl you would be with. She’s not the usual guard dog. Her name’s Erica and she’s a complete babe. A real beauty.”
    Braxton highly doubted it. Besides, if Erica was so gorgeous, then Greg would be after her instead of her friend.
    “Mmm hmmm,” he murmured. “Then why’s she still available?”
    There was a pause and Greg said, “Hell, I don’t know. Why is any hottie ever available?”
    Lenna Davenport’s face appeared in his head, and he conceded his friend had a point. It didn’t seem possible a girl like Lenna didn’t have guys following her home from the supermarket.
    A horrifying thought struck him. Oh, shit.
    What if she did have a man? What if she was serious with some great guy who bought her lots of presents and treated her like—
    “Did you just hang up on me?” Greg’s voice growled in his ear.
    Braxton sighed. God, he had to quit thinking about Tom’s daughter.
    “Okay, fine,” he muttered. Maybe a night out with a “hottie” would take his mind off Lenna.
    “But you owe me big time.”
     

 
     
    CHAPTER 4
     
     
    He was four days into the New Year, and Braxton had a premonition it was going to be one sucky-ass year.
    He sat slumped in a chair at a small table of the Wild Side Night Club and fiddled with the label on his Heineken bottle, already dying to get home.
    Braxton needed to murder his good ol’ pal, Gregory. Erica, his date for the evening, was on the dance floor, gyrating to the