TJ Michaels

Excerpt

Note for Readers: You must be over eighteen to read this excerpt.

She must be nuts. What the hell was she doing here waiting for a total stranger? Sydni hated to admit she’d been so engrossed in her work, she’d completely forgotten about the weird phone call from the DJ at KWQQ until one of their admins had called with a reminder of her “appointment with destiny”. God, could you get any more corny? And when the radio chick rattled off what her mystery man would be wearing, at her request of course, all Sydni could do was shake her head knowing she’d been cruel.

She checked her watch with a huff and felt the muscles in her stomach tighten. It was almost time. And though she wanted to have an attitude about the whole set up, Sydni couldn’t manage to get mad at her sister. Sure, Charli had signed her up for the stupid radio station’s blind-date contest, but the woman hadn’t tied her hands and feet to make her come here to meet the man. Well too late now. If there was one thing she wouldn’t do, it was stand someone up. It was simply too rude. But she could get rid of the guy tactfully. And quickly.

So here she sat at a stupid Starbucks instead of sleeping in, waiting for a man dressed in one of those stretchy workout shirts done in ghastly neon green, and a pair of black and white checkered golf pants. She shuddered at the ghastly image in her mind. Well, one thing was certain—any man with enough balls to walk into a busy Starbucks at a major intersection dressed like that must be as hard-up as she was.

Sydni laughed at herself, then ratcheted back to a semi-hilarious giggle when two women at the table next to hers flashed sharp looks. She should have been embarrassed to burst out laughing in the middle of a coffee shop while she sat alone, but after the week she was having, who gave a good goddamn? The only thing on her mind was getting this over with so she could go home, curl up on the couch with her favorite faux fur blankie and get some work done. Perhaps while listening to a rerun of the season opener of her favorite vampire soap opera.

“And pretend not to be lonely. Damn it.” Oops. She hadn’t meant to say that out loud.

Syndi snuck a peek at the two ladies who’d given her the stink eye seconds before. They were no longer eyeing her. Their attention was on someone across the room. When one of the ladies mouths edged open as if she were on the verge of drooling, Sydni had to see what the hell she was looking at. Was there a life sized piece of sculpted chocolate on display or something?

Sydni turned to look and her own lips eased apart. Oh god, this was so not happening.

There across the room, walking confidently in her direction was a man. Correction, a freakin’ hot studly construction worker mountain-type man…in a neon green stretchy workout shirt, hideous checkered golf pants. And a familiar face.

Sydni looked up at the ceiling and prayed. “God, just come and take me now, please. No? Well, how ‘bout opening the floor up and letting me drop through it? No on that one too? Damn.”

“Hi Syd.”

She was going to wake up anytime now, right? Right, damn it!

Then he spoke again. Sigh. Guess her prayers weren’t working today.

“I said, hello Syd.”

“Uh, hi, and it’s Sydni. Sid-nee. Fancy seeing you here, Mr. Caruth.”

“It’s Drew, and yep, definitely fancy.”

Now what were the odds that her recently acquainted lawyer would be the guy the radio station—correction, Charli, damn it—had set her up with? Why the hell hadn’t she figured it out sooner? Duh! And who would have thought the designer suits he wore in court hid such a fantabulous physique? Sydni’d thought he was only broad shouldered, but boy had she missed the mark by at least a football field.

The ugly shirt he wore left very little to the imagination, for goodness sake. Short sleeved, it showed off perfectly tanned, ropey muscled forearms and biceps sparingly dusted with black down. The shirt was stretched so tightly across his chest every can in the six pack was visible and his pecs were deliberately formed mounds of muscle. The whole lot tapered down to a trim waist and…

Nope. No way. I will not look down any further.

Okay, that declaration lasted all of half a second.