Swallowing His Pride Read Free Page B

for a while.” He looked down at the floor for a moment, almost as if he were gathering his courage or something. “Listen, when I first saw you, I nearly landed flat on my face. Not exactly the best first impression. I’d really like the chance to get to know you a little, but if you don’t feel comfortable, I totally understand.”
    Standing there, staring at the epitome of male perfection before her, Samantha couldn’t decide what she wanted to do. Sure, she’d be with Lynn at the club tonight, but she was also supposed to be with her now , yet Lynn was nowhere to be found. What if she flakes on me tonight?
    She was just gearing up to tell him thanks but no thanks, when her horny hormones somehow managed to hijack her mouth. “We’ll be down at the XS Club later tonight. Maybe, we’ll see you there.” What?
    “Great!” Dylan beamed a killer smile her way, and Samantha nearly forgot her own name. “Liam and I will see you ladies there. I’m looking forward to it, so save me a dance,” he added before sauntering off to the men’s locker room.
    Feeling a little put out that her friend had bailed on her without warning, Sam headed to the women’s locker room ready to search out Lynn and demand to know where she’d disappeared to. The woman knew how nervous Sam got when men approached her, and with Dylan hanging close by after his brother had left, she shouldn’t have took off.
    As Sam reached for the handle to the locker room door, a hand grabbed her upper arm and she let loose a startled screech. She spun to see Lynn behind her with a guilty look on her face.
    “How mad are you?” Lynn asked, head down and shoulders hunched as if she were bracing for a beating.
    She should. “Seriously? I get cornered by a strange man, who you obviously knew about or you wouldn’t be asking, and you want to know if I’m mad?”
    “So you are mad?”
    “Yeah, and now, we have two sort-of dates tonight,” Sam threw back, pleased when Lynn’s eyes widened in surprise.
    “You accepted a date request? I’m impressed,” Lynn replied with a smile while giving a slow clap of her hands. “I saw the way you two eyed each other and figured he might not make a move with me around. Guess I was right.”
    “Well, he told me to bring you and that he’d have his brother with him, but I told him I didn’t think it would be a good idea.”
    “You what ? Samantha Cooke, that man is fine ! Not only that, but he even seemed to be a little shy, and that’s just what you need. Trust me, you don’t find men who look like him who aren’t arrogant pricks.”
    “Speaking from experience?”
    “Yes.”
    “All right, I guess it’s a good thing I told him we’d be at the XS Club later.”
    Lynn, much to Samantha’s annoyance, crossed her arms and smirked before asking, “So what made you change your mind? Was it because his shirt was off? That would have been enough for me.”
    “No, it wasn’t that,” Sam grumbled as she turned and quickly entered the locker room. She’d just managed to open her locker before Lynn was by her side again.
    “Oh, no! You better spill the beans, girlie. You’ve been like a hermit since the divorce proceedings began, so I want to know what finally brought you out of the cave.”
    Sam knew there was no way Lynn would let this go, because she was right. Samantha had mostly retreated to the comfort of her borrowed room at Lynn’s, and only left for groceries, exercise or the occasional outing with her friend. Thanks to her e-reader, she’d never felt lonely though. She could escape into the stories and live vicariously through the heroines for a while.
    Of course, all of those steamy romances probably had a hand in why she now had a date with a buff hunk of man-meat.
    “I’m horny!” Oh, hell .
    “Pardon?” Lynn’s eyes bugged out a bit and her mouth hung open.
    What? Did Lynn think she didn’t get horny? Hell, Sam was only twenty-nine years old. Of course, she got horny!
    “Ugh! I