Cosmo Red-Hot Reads Box Set: CakeFearlessNaked SushiEverything You Need to Know

by Lauren Dane

  “This fortysomething guy who lives with his mother in a one bedroom apartment—yes, I said one bedroom—is wrong for you.” Elle held a file. As she talked, she held up one page after another. “This one can’t hold a job for more than two months at a time is wrong. Then there’s the guy who keyed his ex’s car and wrote whore on it because she had the nerve to leave him.”

  Man, Jordan was so out of it she hadn’t even looked at the work information Elle had compiled and assessed tonight. That never happened. When she had a temp job, Jordan came home, relaxed and then spent some time in front of the television while she put in more hours on the site.

  She shook her head. “That crazy gal, whatever was she thinking dumping that prince.”

  “She’s probably thinking she needs a restraining order.”

  Jordan got the point, but that didn’t solve the Forest problem or her strange weakness for him. “There is a choice between that list of horribles and a controlling business guy.”

  Elle put down one file and grabbed another. The pages started flipping. “Sure, there’s the guy who plays the flute in the orchestra. Nice, but really hasn’t dated much, or ever, in thirty years. The hardworking and decent scientist who works about twenty hours a day and travels all the time. He’d be a lot of fun to schedule dates with.”

  As Elle moved on to the next choice, Jordan stepped in before the list put her to sleep. “They sound lovely.”

  “Boring is the word you’re looking for.”

  She’d had a front-row seat to a lifetime of excitement. Her mother met a man and fell in love in a second. Or she tricked her mind into thinking she did to justify moving in on him regardless of his marital status. If he had money, she gave him a shot.

  The cycle kept repeating and it wore Jordan down. “Is that so bad? Boring means safe.”

  Elle frowned, marring that cute face with harsh forehead wrinkles. “Boring means boring.”

  The truth was so much worse than the level of dullness. Jordan bit her bottom lip as she debated saying the words out loud. She didn’t care if Elle knew, but giving voice to her weakness made it more real somehow. “When I get near Forest, the hardwiring in my brain misfires.”

  “Good.”

  Leave it to Elle to boil everything down to one simple word. Jordan thought another word was more fitting—stupid. “How is that good?”

  “You’re attracted to him.”

  Jordan flipped the remote harder that time. It flew out of her hands and nailed her in the knee. She rubbed the unexpected injury. “I’ve been attracted to men before.”

  Elle sat back down, but not before reaching over and grabbing the remote out of Jordan’s hands. “But he’s good for you. He won’t take your shit and you can’t walk all over him.”

  “Uh, hello?”

  “He’s not hiding a wife and he’s not a covert abuser.”

  “Do we know that?” Jordan basically did. She’d spent far too many hours checking him out online and dropping small comments at work to get people talking. The employees found him fair but tough, which was her assessment, as well.

  “It’s called dating.” Elle smacked her remote against the palm of her other hand. “You started the website to help women find good men to date. Sure, you help them ferret out the assholes, but the goal is dating, right?”

  “Sure.”

  “There.”

  Clearly Elle thought she made a point. “There what?”

  “You found a good guy. Controlling but hot and not a weirdo, as far as we know.” Elle wiggled her eyebrows. “More importantly, a guy who seems like he knows how to use his hands.”

  Jordan remembered the combination of his finger and his mouth and heat flushed through her. “He definitely does.”

  “Then right now, my friend, you are winning the D.C. dating game.”

  Chapter Eight

  Subject Request for Seth Greenburg: He wants to make a video & insists I’m the first. —Member 4

  Response from Member 211: Oh, honey. Many have fallen for that line coming out of that beautiful face. He’s a liar.

  FOREST BARELY MADE it to seven o’clock the next night without dunking his head in an ice bath. Seeing Jordan sitting there, just a few feet outside his office door, had his body revving on high alert all day long. And watching her walk out at five, those hips swishing after she bent over and grabbed her bag out of the bottom desk drawer amounted to pure female-induced torture.

  That would teach him to keep his door open so he could sneak a peek at her face now and then.

  The only thing that prevented him from giving in early and changing their dinner to a late lunch was Ryan Peterson. That guy kept buzzing around, begging to be squashed. Now he had it in his head the damn website, Need to Know, had ruined his reputation and caused him to lose the waterfront deal.

  Forest knew the argument was a load of crap. Deep inside Ryan had to know it. Still, he kept whining about the dating website ruining his reputation and interfering with his business contracts. He threw around lawsuit threats against the site and even promised he’d drag Forest’s company into the mess. Basically, Ryan was doing everything possible to add to Forest’s already seemingly insurmountable work pile.

  The last place Forest should be at this time of the day in the middle of the week was a restaurant. He should grab a sandwich and hunker down at his desk. Should but wouldn’t.

  He was reaching across the table for his water, when movement at the end of his row of tables caught his attention. He knew Jordan stood there before he ever looked up, and when he did meet her gaze he almost swallowed his tongue.

  Sweet loving damn.

  She wore a short-sleeve black dress that hugged her waist, then flared out over her hips before coming to rest a few inches above her knees. And those legs. Long, lean and bare. Just when he recovered from the memory of his fingertips against those thighs, he noticed the spiky red heels.

  But the body, that walk, had nothing on her smile. It lit her face and brought a twinge of color to her cheeks.

  There was no way in hell he’d be able to choke down an appetizer tonight.

  He somehow got to his feet, but God knew he didn’t remember standing. A napkin dangled from his fingers. When she stopped across from him, he threw it down and pivoted around her to pull out her chair.

  The subtle whiff of orange wrapped around him as he leaned down to whisper in her ear. “That was quite an entrance.”

  She glanced up at him for the briefest of seconds. “I decided to be memorable this time.”

  His comment at the wedding about her dress came rushing back on him. How he ever thought this woman could blend in, even for a second, stunned him. He’d be able to pick her out in a room full of hundreds of women. Something about the way she carried herself and the confidence that swirled around her had him chasing and wanting and generally forgetting his usual rules about women.

  With a broken engagement on his scorecard, he preferred to keep his emotional distance. Not that he shunned commitment. He just preferred his life outside work as simple as possible and long-term dating struck him as the exact opposite of simple.

  Enjoy women, date when he had time and otherwise focus on building his business. He’d mapped out that three-part plan the day after his father had security escort him out the lobby doors of the family business. He hadn’t been back and, despite all his father’s yelling and threats, Forest never had to crawl back and beg for forgiveness, either.

  “Thank you for not wearing that dress to work.” Forest sat again, deliberately pushing all thoughts of his dysfunctional family out of his mind. “I would have violated more than one HR rule to get near you. Me and half the staff. No question about it.”

  “There’s nothing provocative about this dress.” She ran her fingertips across her exposed coll
arbone. “No plunging neckline and only a minimum of skin showing.”

  “That outfit is all about anticipation. A guy sees it and hopes he’ll be treated to more.” And seeing her fingers skim over her skin had him tripping over his words. “So that you know, that’s sexier than just about anything.”

  She unfolded her napkin and laid it across her lap. “Aren’t you the sweet talker?”

  “You should be impressed I can think at all at the moment.” Not that the babble running through his brain made any sense. He saw her and forgot about work and his responsibilities and even about that idiot Ryan.

  Forest wanted to talk to her, touch her, run his hands all over her. It had been a long time since attraction smacked into him this hard. The energy to fight it abandoned him almost from the beginning.

  “I’m thinking a guy like you can have his pick of any woman.” The amusement in her husky voice faded. A thread of anger weaved its way in.

  Normally he’d skip over the comment, but something about her tone had him stopping and investigating. “What kind of guy am I?”

  The waitress interrupted Jordan with what felt like a never-ending recitation of specials. Fish, lamb...fine. He got it.

  When the server left and conversations around them blended into a steady hum, Jordan stayed quiet. She studied her menu. As he watched her, Forest heard an occasional laugh rise above the crowd noise and the clink of silverware as the people two tables down dug into their steaks.

  “Well?” That’s all he said. He knew she ignored the question on purpose. No way was he letting this one slide.

  Jordan lowered the menu and stared at him over the top. She didn’t pretend confusion. “Rich, powerful. Born wealthy and used to getting what he wants.”

  All of it fit in a way, but didn’t in most others. “Sounds as if you’ve been checking up on me.”

  Her head tilted to the side, sending her hair slipping over her shoulder. “Would that offend you?”

  “No.”

  “Oh, come on.” She balanced her elbows on the edge of the table and leaned in.

  “Are you referring to checking me out on that website, Need to Know?”

  Her smile faded as her expression went blank. “Maybe.”

  “Look, I can understand a woman wanting to know about the man she plans to invite into her bed. Women do need to be careful. I just think a website can’t replace getting to know someone in person.”

  “Agreed. I poked around and got the vitals, like school and family and dating history.”

  He doubted she knew one sentence more than his PR department put out there. “Did your investigating tell you I’m the black sheep of the family?”

  Those sexy eyes narrowed. “You’re a successful businessman. Unless you killed someone, I have a hard time seeing why you’d be considered a disappointment to your parents.”

  He’d been disloyal, which was much worse in his father’s eyes. “You’d be surprised.”

  Jordan smiled as she took a sip of water. “What, you were a bad boy, so you can’t attend the annual family yacht race or something?”

  The way she said it pushed him to prove her assumptions wrong. “Being born into a family with money doesn’t solve everything.”

  Her hand froze in the middle of putting her glass down. When it finally hit the table it smacked against the wood with a sharp crack. “You never went hungry and always knew you’d have a bed to sleep in that night.”

  Looked like he wasn’t the only one with a messed-up personal history. He’d refrained from picking her life apart, thinking old-fashioned dating and getting to know each other might be an interesting twist, but now he regretted the decision. “Are you saying—”

  She waved him off. “Just offering a response to your general comment.”

  Wen and a few others knew, but Forest rarely shared the details of his life with anyone, certainly not with a woman he just met and was trying to impress. But for some reason he craved honesty with her, so he supplied the barest of information. “It’s a well-kept family secret, something no one in the Redder family talks about at parties, but I assure you my younger brother is the heir. Except for some communication with my baby sister, I don’t have any contact with my parents or anyone else in the family. They no longer consider me their son.”

  Noise rattled around them, but a quiet settled around the table. Jordan moved as if stuck in slow motion. “Are you playing me?”

  “No.”

  After a few beats of silence, she reached across the table and covered Forest’s hand with hers. “In that case, I’m sorry.”

  He hated the sympathy he saw in her eyes, but the warmth of her skin mixed with his and he couldn’t pull away. “I’ve learned to accept it.”

  “Maybe one day you can tell me how to do that.”

  “What?”

  “Accept a rough family dynamic and not let it define you.”

  The longing in her voice got to him. “If you need me to, I will.”

  “You always seem to say the right thing.” She sat back in her chair, putting as much distance between them as possible in the small space. “I’m wondering if that’s practiced or real.”

  “What does the website say?” When her eyes widened, he continued. “I’m assuming you’re a member, since I’ve heard you use the tagline more than once and, well, from the article I read today about it, it sounds as if every single woman in town is on it.”

  “Hardly, but yes. I’m a member.” Her hands slipped from her lap to the arms of the chair and back again. “And no.”

  He was so busy watching her fidget, he missed whatever she said. “Excuse me?”

  “You’re not on it...yet.”

  The playful teasing came zipping back into her voice. He welcomed the break to the tension snapping at him. “Will I be after tonight?”

  She shrugged. “We’ll see.”

  “Then, let’s come to an agreement.” Since he had no intention of making a general announcement to the crowded restaurant, he leaned in. His finger traced the outline of her silverware against the stark white tablecloth. “After dinner I will drive you home, not because I think paying for dinner gives me rights with you, but because I’m not a dick and want to make sure you get back to your place without incident. I’m still kicking my ass for not insisting I see you home after our office run-in.”

  “Run-in?”

  “I thought you’d prefer that to me mentioning how close we came to having sex in front of the cleaning crew.”

  This time she wrapped her long fingers around the armrests. “Very sweet. Okay.”

  He ignored the “sweet” part because he feared that led them down the wrong path. One that didn’t finish in a bed. “And anything that happens after I drive up is your call. A kiss, me coming up with you—whatever—you have all the control. I’ve made my play and my intentions can’t be a mystery.”

  “You want me to be the aggressor.”

  “Oh, I’m happy to take the lead.” If she sent him the right look, he’d be all over her. “You’ll just need to tell me I can.”

  “I only agreed to dinner.”

  But she understood. He saw it in every muscle and the glint in her eye. She got his message. She was in charge.

  He nodded. “Then, let’s order.”

  * * *

  JORDAN HAD NO idea how she forced more than two bites down during dinner. Even as they chatted about safe topics, like Ryan Peterson’s loser tendencies or the state of Forest’s waterfront project, a part of her mind wandered to what would come later.

  It sucked for him, really, because he gave her his full attention. He didn’t stare at other women. Didn’t say or do anything inappropriate. He’d kept his word and at the end of the evening pulled up to the lobby of her building to drop her off...until she
invited him up.

  Not that the decision hit her in the car. No, she’d excused herself more than a half hour ago and texted Elle to go over and hide all website evidence in the condo. Jordan wanted Elle to shut and lock everything in the small den the real-estate broker had tried to convince Jordan was a guest bedroom. Never mind she’d have to fold the mattress in half to fit a bed in there.

  “Let me do that.” Forest reached around her and took the keys from Jordan’s shaking fingers.

  She didn’t realize a small tremor ran through her until the jangling of metal echoing in the hallway stopped and her front door opened. “Sure.”

  Despite her desire to remain calm and in control, she almost bolted inside. The goal was to get to the bedroom and hide the eleven outfits she’d tried on before this dress. Right now they lay scattered all over the floor and draped over the exercise bike she used as a very expensive hanger.

  He held the door for her to go in first. She walked down the short hallway past the kitchen on one side and den on the other and into the open family room. The place looked clean. Certainly picked up. That had to be Elle’s doing, because Jordan had long ago given up the battle with clutter. Working from home made stacks of papers inevitable. Not that you could tell at this moment.

  Jordan peeked into the bedroom to her left and saw a stack of pillows and a clear comforter. No discarded underwear. If Elle hadn’t been her best friend before, she’d have won the title tonight.

  Forest’s hands fell over her shoulders as he whispered against her hair. “I like your condo.”

  “Me, too.” Her breath stuttered in her chest. A few more minutes of that and she’d start wheezing. Not exactly the perfect setup for sexy times.

  His mouth found her neck. Hot breath skipped over her skin right before his lips went to work. The gentle suction had her knees buckling and her head falling back against his shoulder. The way her body melted into his should have embarrassed her. After all she’d made some sort of vow...not that she could remember a line of it right now.

  “Tell me what you want.” His voice vibrated against her skin.