The Sex Solution Read Free

true that you actually mix all this stuff up yourself?” Camille asked as she started to bag Maddie’s purchases.
    “I sure do.”
    “Amazing.”
    “I suppose so.” Considering the only thing Madeline had mixed up way back when had been batches of muffins and glazed fritters in the kitchen of her dad’s shop.
    “So what are you cooking up right now?” The woman’s eyes lit. “Is it a new lipstick? Why, I’m just a sucker for lipstick.”
    “Actually, my next project will be for our skin-care line. I don’t know very many details yet—it’s still in the developmental stage—but when I get something mixed up, I’ll drop by a few samples.”
    “Would you? Oh, I would love that!” Camille slid the mini lipsticks into her coat pocket and stifled a cough. “Excuse me, sweetie. I just can’t seem to get rid of this danged old croup.” She reached behind the counter for a glass of water. After taking a sip, she cleared her throat and smiled. “So what else can I get for you today?”
    Madeline glanced past the woman to the condom display and pointed to an extralarge blue box. “I’ll take a pack of those.”
    “Sweet and smart.” Camille winked and rang up the last item.
    “More like afraid.” At Camille’s questioning glance, Madeline added, “We’re decorating for Cheryl’s bachelorette party. If I show up without the condoms, Janice will tar and feather me. She’s a little obsessive.”
    After paying for her purchases, Madeline gathered up her bag of goodies and started for the front of the store. She’d made it two steps before her cell phone rang again. She shifted her bag to one arm and rummaged inside her purse for the blasted phone.
    “Trojan,” Janice said the moment Madeline managed to say hello.
    “Got ’em,” Madeline rounded the corner. “Would you please stop worry—hmmph!”
    Her breath caught as she came up hard against a solid mass of warmth. Her heart stalled. Her phone took a dive for the floor. Her purse hit with a solid thunk. Her bag crashed and the contents scattered.
    “I’m so sorry,” she started. “I didn’t see—”
    You lodged behind the sudden lump that blocked her throat. Her head jerked up and she found herself standing chest to chest with Cadillac’s most notorious bad boy.

2
    A USTIN J ERICHO’S EYES were even bluer than Maddie remembered. Deeper. More unnerving.
    They pulled her in and sucked her under like a cool river on a hot summer’s day. Sensation washed over her body, skimming her ultrasensitive skin, sneaking into every hot spot until she felt completely submerged and temporarily paralyzed and… ahh.
    “I thought I recognized you.” His voice, so rich and husky, slid into her ears and prickled the hair on the nape of her neck. Her attention shifted to his mouth.
    He’d always had great lips. Slightly full on the bottom. Sensuous. Just right for kissing, or so she’d thought every time he’d folded himself into the desk opposite hers and opened his book for their daily algebra les—
    “You recognized me?” she blurted as his words registered. “You recognized me? ” Sure, they’d spent every afternoon together for most of their senior year, thanks to Marshalyn Simmons, the high-school librarian, who’d recruited Madeline to tutor Austin. But otherwise, he’d barely acknowledged her existence.
    Except once.
    Standing in the shadows outside the football stadium on a Friday night when the Cadillac Coyotes had been slaying the Hondo Hogs in a record-breaking game. The first and last football game Madeline Hale had ever attended.
    She’d given up her usual Saturday night at the doughnut shop in favor of the chance to see Austin somewhere other than the school library. Not that it had been a date or anything like that. Just a chance meeting that she’d taken great pains to plan. They’d happened into each other near the concession stand.
    She could still smell the fresh buttered popcorn and hear the roar of the crowd and feel the