by Lauren Layne
Not that Sophie realized the magnitude of the choice she was about to make. If someone were to ask her about the most important decision of her life, the feminine dilemma of shoe choice probably wouldn’t have been on her radar.
She might have thought it was the tearful junior prom date decision between Adam and Gary.
(Adam. Way cuter. Less acne.)
Or perhaps the melodramatic soul-searching about whether to pursue soccer or cheerleading.
(Cheerleading, totally. Boxy athletic shorts hadn’t stood a pubescent chance against a flippy little skirt.)
It could have been her long-deliberated college destination.
(Stanford. Yep, Sophie was one of those girls.)
Then there was the choice that had nearly ripped her heart out. Jon McHale had dropped to his knee their senior year of college with a diamond ring the size of her face and the promise of yuppie housewife security.
(Answer: No. Although that decision had been particularly rough. The ring had been Tiffany and the man had been sweet.)
Or perhaps most likely, Sophie might have guessed the proverbial fork was the debate over whether to finish her stint at Harvard Law or drop out and pursue a life of, well…aimlessness.
(Current occupation: cocktail waitress.)
And yet, none of these decisions would be as life-altering as the choice she was about to make.
Classic strappy black sandals, or…The Boots.
Clueless to the magnitude of what she was about to decide, Sophie teetered over to the full-length mirror of her Las Vegas hotel room, tugging at the hem of her black miniskirt. She extended the black sandal on her left foot for inspection and winced. Surely that white, flabby, and unshaven stump wasn’t her leg.
Damn. The testicle-shaped birthmark above her left knee said the limb was definitely hers. And the pasty complexion looked just about right for a lazy Seattle native in the middle of January.
As for the shoes, the delicate high-heeled sandals had potential. Sexy but understated. Very Audrey Hepburn. Very Jackie Onassis.
But on the other hand…
Sophie pivoted awkwardly to extend her other leg and inspected the boot option. They’d been an impulse buy (okay, fine, a slightly tipsy impulse buy) from the Lover’s Package sex shop for last year’s Halloween costume of Sexy Space Girl.
Alas, due to some unflattering Halloween-day bloating, the Sexy Space Girl had never made an appearance, and Sophie had tackled Halloween as the green M&M for the third year in a row.
The boots had sat abandoned and unworn in her closet, awaiting their destiny.
Sophie chewed on her lip and considered. The boots were certainly tacky, but wasn’t that kind of the point of a bachelorette party in Vegas? Particularly a bachelorette party for which the slightly unhinged bride had declared a theme of Totally Trashy? These boots were practically the poster children for trashy.
Not to mention they’d cover the glow-in-the-dark-white shade of her calves.
Decision made, Sophie flipped off her old standby black sandal. There’d be plenty of time to channel first ladies and iconic movie stars at job interviews and bridal showers.
The bride’s pouty voice echoed in Sophie’s ear. I want my bachelorette party to be hella skanky and memorable. If you’re going to be on your period that weekend, fix it.
Which was totally reasonable, since all women could totally just up and regulate their uteruses with a firm talking-to.
Sophie was a sucker for traditional wedding hoopla, bachelorette parties included. But she wasn’t looking forward to this one. Had the bride not been her cousin, and the maid of honor not been Sophie’s sister, she would have bailed. But family was family, so here she was in a hotel room she couldn’t afford, dressed like some sort of space-station call girl.
Grabbing her cosmetic bag, Sophie teetered into the bathroom and eyed the multiple mirrors. She pulled the magnifying mirror away from the wall and stared at herself in rapt horror. No pasty American female in her late twenties would have thought it a good idea to zoom in on skin that had been maybe just a tiny bit free with the gin and lax on the sunscreen.
Sophie pushed the judgmental mirror away and gave it the bird. She didn’t need a crappy little mirror calling attention to her flaws. She had a mother and a sister for that.
Turning toward the normal, less judgmental mirror, she began applying her makeup with a heavier hand than usual. And the last step in the transformation to tart?
Fake eyelashes.
They’d been deemed mandatory for all bridesmaids. A Totally Trashy uniform of sorts. Sophie squinted at the elaborate packaging. Not only were these things like an inch long, but they had little fake gemstones on them. She shrugged. At least they’d match her boots.
After twenty minutes and a good deal of cursing (Jackie O was long gone by this point), Sophie managed to attach something that looked akin to bedazzled pube clumps onto her normally pale, stubby lashes.
Lovely, she thought. Really lovely and classy.
Last, she wound her blonde hair around a curling iron to create a mass of showgirl curls. Stepping back, she surveyed the overall results in the mirror. Not bad, considering.
This was not the Sophie Dalton who’d been dumped over the phone yesterday afternoon while standing in the airport security line as the TSA agents were disassembling her carefully packed bag.
A bag that contained The Boots. And a purple vibrator. Which the judgmental little security man had sooooo not believed was a gag gift for Trish.
But that loser version of herself wasn’t here tonight.
No, the Sophie in the mirror had her shit together. Granted, it was trampy shit. And she would have to blame the slightly red, puffy eyes on the dry Las Vegas air. Still, she thought she was hiding the pathetic pretty damn well. At least she wasn’t wallowing at home with a pint of Ben & Jerry’s.
Sophie yanked the curling iron plug from the wall and blinked back the tears that would probably send her fake eyelashes sliding down her cheeks. She wasn’t even sure why she was crying. It wasn’t as though Brian had been The One. He was the fun guy, not the husband potential you brought home to Mom. They’d only been dating for eight months and Brian had switched jobs no fewer than three times.
For once, Sophie had been the stable one in the relationship.
Which was why it stung when he’d told her yesterday that she simply didn’t have enough drive. That he needed a woman who knew what she wanted, whereas Sophie was just floating.
Floating, he’d said. Right before the Sea-Tac Airport TSA agents had loudly commanded her to hang up the phone and repack her “pleasure toys.”
Whatever. His loss.
Slopping on a glittery lip gloss that claimed to “plump” lips into a sexy pout with God only knew what kind of chemicals, Sophie took one final glance in the mirror.
Skirt the size of a Band-Aid? Check.
Scrappy halter top barely covering her nipples? Got it.
Pole dancer makeup? Definitely.
And the final touch: boots that belonged in a brothel.
Perfect. She looked like a girl looking for no-strings-attached sex.
Exactly what she needed.
ALSO BY LAUREN LAYNE
Only with You
Fall in Love with Forever Romance
UNLEASHED by Rachel Lacey—Cara has one rule: Don’t get attached. It’s served her well with the dogs she’s fostered and the children she’s nannied. But one smile from her sexy neighbor has her thinking some rules are made to be broken. Fans of Jill Shalvis will fall in love with this sassy, sexy debut!
MADE FOR YOU by Lauren Layne—She’s met her match…she just doesn’t know it yet. Fans of Jennifer Probst and Rachel Van Dyken will fall head over heels for the second book in the Best Mistake series.
Fall in Love with Forever Romance
SCANDALOUS SUMMER NIGHTS by Anne Barton—Fans of Tessa Dare, Julia Quinn, and Sarah MacLean will love this charming and wickedly witty new book in the Hone
ycote series about the passion—and peril—of falling in love with your brother’s best friend.
HE’S NO PRINCE CHARMING by Elle Daniels—A delightful retelling of the classic tale of Beauty and the Beast with a wonderful, sensual, and playful twist that fans of Elizabeth Hoyt won’t want to miss!
Fall in Love with Forever Romance
THE BURIED by Shelley Coriell—“It’s cold. And dark. I can’t breathe.”
Grace and Hatch thought they’d buried the past, but a killer on a grisly crime spree is about to unearth their deepest fears. Don’t miss the next gripping thriller in the Apostles series.
SHOOTING SCARS by Karina Halle—Ellie Watt has been kidnapped by her thuggish ex-boyfriend, leaving her current lover, Camden McQueen, to save the day. And there’s nothing he won’t do to rescue Ellie from this criminal and his entourage of killers in this fast-paced, sexy USA Today bestseller!
Fall in Love with Forever Romance
THE WICKED WAYS OF ALEXANDER KIDD by Paula Quinn—The newest sinfully sexy Scottish romance in New York Times bestselling author Paula Quinn’s Highland Heirs series, about the niece of a Highland chief who stows away on a pirate ship, desperate for adventure, and the pirate captain whose wicked ways inflame an irresistible desire…
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Contents
Cover
Title Page
Welcome
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Epilogue
About the Author
An Excerpt from Only with You
Also by Lauren Layne
Fall in Love with Forever Romance
Newsletters
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2014 by Lauren Layne
Excerpt from Only with You copyright © 2014 by Lauren Layne
Cover design by Oceana Gottlieb
Cover photography by Thinkstock by Getty Images
Cover copyright © 2014 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
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First ebook edition: October 2014
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ISBN 978-1-4555-4610-7
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