Better Than You (The Walker Family Series Book 3) Read Online Free Page A

pavement by the streetlamps, her mind went spinning away, leaving her body and going back to that afternoon and Michael Walker telling her she was smokin’ hot .
    He was younger than Greg. Blonde. He was too tall and his hands were too big and his bomber jacket had been an abomination. He was determined, though – she’d give him that much. And he wasn’t half as cool as he thought he was. She’d pulled his card out of her pocket when she’d changed before dinner. She should have trashed the thing, but had propped it up against her dressing table mirror instead. Because apparently she’d lost her mind.
    Greg drove her home, walked her to her door; she saw him loosen the knot in his tie as she fitted her key in the lock and let them in. He’d pulled a wrapped package out of the backseat before they left the parking lot and he presented it to her after she’d closed the door and hung up her coat.
    “I picked it up at the newsstand at the airport,” he said, watching her as she slipped a nail under the paper flap and started unwrapping it. He had a pleased, handsome smile on his face. “It’s not much, but I know how you like to read.”
    She knew it was a book by the size and shape, but not which book until the paper fell away. “Thank…” you died in her throat and her smile froze. The cover that stared up at her was black, a silhouette of a stylized chain lurking along the bottom. Chains of Seduction . Sydney would have fanned herself and swooned.
    “Apparently it’s all the rage with women right now. My sisters are reading it.”
    “Yeah…” Delta scrambled for something sincere to say, and came up empty-handed. “Thanks. But, um, you know.” She dropped the ball of wrapping paper in her right hand and raked her fingers through her hair, making a show of massaging her scalp. “I’ve got a really bad headache all of a sudden.” She winced for effect. “I think I may need to call it a night.”
    “Oh.” He frowned. “You want me to get you an aspirin? Maybe you need to lie down for a bit.” He tugged at his tie again.
    “No.” S he forced a smile. “That’s fine. I think I’ll just take a shower and go to bed.”
    Translation: leave.
    He might have been oblivious, but he understood. He gave her a long look. “You’re sure?”
    I couldn’t stomach one second of sex with you tonight . “Sure.”
    She waited until he was gone, until his footfalls had receded down the plush carpet of the hall, then Delta drew back her arm and chucked the book as hard as she could. It collided with one of the French doors that led into the kitchen and fell with a thump and fluttering of pages to the hardwood. A sheaf of torn pages lingered, floating like leaves, before they collapsed.
    If the world’s definition of love was submissive women letting men brutalize them without reason, if her own romance was bad sex and empty, ineffectual gestures, if it was all for appearances…then when did happiness come into play? When was it okay to laugh? Where did perfection end and real life begin?
    Delta chewed at her perfect thumbnail, felt her teeth score her perfect three coats of nude polish, and stared at the night sky beyond her living room windows. Then she dug her cell phone out of her purse, crossed to her bedroom, plucked Mike Walker’s business card up off her dressing table, chastised herself, sat down on the edge of her bed, winced…and called him.
     

 
     
     
     
     
    3.
     
    “…n o, see, I’m not charming. I don’t believe in wasting valuable time trying to sweet talk some crying-into-her-Cosmo jilted date to take me home with her.” Jordan pulled a mug down from the overhead rack and put it under the Budweiser tap. “The trick is to find someone who wants exactly what you want out of the night. No clutter. No awkwardness.”
    “My brother the love doctor .” Mike shook his head and reached for his beer. “Dude, no offense – ”
    “Hey,” Tam said beside him at the bar, “you don’t