Meet Your Mate (A Good Riders Romance Book 1) by Jacie Floyd Read Free Book Online Page A

it, right there.”
    His eyebrows shot up. “What?”
    “ I’ll do it.”
    He spread his arms wide and awarded
her with a devilishly tempting smile. “Be my guest, babe.”
    Gripping his shoulders, Annabel
rose up on tiptoe and brushed her mouth against his. She gave him a reasonable,
respectable, acceptable kiss. Not long, not short, not wet, a little dry
actually, but heck, she barely knew him. And what she did know about him she’d
never liked, except for tonight. And tomorrow, she would blame her brief change
of heart on the champagne, remembering in great detail his many unlikable
qualities.
    She ignored the goose bumps his
hands produced as they caressed her sides, the way his lips clung to hers as she
pulled away, and the disappointment that replaced the heat in his eyes.
    “Did you get that?” she asked
Roger, unable to tear her gaze away from Max’s.
    “Every brief and boring second,” he
grumbled. “Is that really the one you want me to use?”
    “Yes, please.” Taking Max’s right
hand in hers, she pumped it with business-like detachment. “You’ve now
fulfilled your commitment to me, Carly, Tess and Let’s Talk . Thank you
for a lovely evening.”
    He shrugged. “You’ll have a honker
of a headache in the mornin ’.  Take something
for it before you go to bed. And drink lots of water.”
    “I will.” She swallowed back the
comments hovering on her tongue. To say anything more would be pointless. If
she hung on to restraint for a few more seconds, he’d be gone from her life for
good, except as the peripheral irritant he’d always been. “Good night.”
    “’Night, Morgan.” His hands slid
into his pockets, his jaw tensed, and yet he stayed. Waiting for me to go
inside. Even though he hailed from the South, she hadn’t expected him to
behave like such a Southern gentleman. She opened the door with a cautious
backward glance and stepped into her foyer.
    She closed the door firmly against
Max and any crazy desires he’d stirred up inside her. Disappointment settled
around her. “And that’s the end of my one and only date with Mad Max Williams.”
    The peculiar echoing silence of an
empty house confirmed Carly’s absence. Annabel made her way from foyer to
kitchen, setting aside her purse, kicking off her shoes, and pulling pins from
her hair. She gave her scalp a vigorous massage while she checked the clock.
Ten till twelve. Carly would be home soon.
    Upstairs, Annabel had finished
brushing her teeth when the teenager framed herself in the bathroom door.
    With bright and eager eyes, she
probed for details. “How was it? Tell me everything. When did you get home? Did
he come in for coffee? Did he kiss you goodnight?”
    “It was fine. He was fine.”
Annabel reached into her medicine chest for the bottle of Advil. “I had a nice
time.”
    “Oh, no.” Carly groaned. “How bad
was it?”
    Annabel washed the capsules down
with water. “It was fine, I told you.”
    “Did he laugh too loud? Talk with
his mouth full? Make stupid jokes? Snore during the concert?”
    Annabel laughed at the deluge of
questions. Carly often came into her room for date post-mortems, but this time
they’d switched roles. The date under discussion was hers, not her daughter’s.
Weird. “None of the above. Why do you assume the worst?”
    “You’re not taking regular aspirin,
you’re taking extra-strength,” Carly pointed out. “He must have done something
horrible to give you a headache.”
    “It’s preventive medicine.” Annabel
slipped a comfy flannel robe on over her favorite Lord of the Rings nightshirt. “I drank too much champagne.”
    “You?” Carly gaped as they moved
into the bedroom. “You always preach moderation. You never even finish a glass
of wine.” The girl plopped herself in the middle of Anna’s bed and crossed her
legs Indian-style. Moving a stack of folded laundry aside that Carly had
brought up earlier, Annabel sat in the overstuffed chair in the corner.