Page 28 of Knockout (Whiskey Dolls 2)

He smiled down at me, the white of his teeth a contrast to his sun-kissed skin and all that sexy scruff on his cheeks and jaw. I wassoglad he’d chosen not to shave for his date tonight. The stubble looked incredible on him. “True enough, princess.”

I wasn’t sure if the elevator had decided to move at a normal speed for the very first time ever, or if I’d lost track of time in Jude’s presence—probably the latter—but before I knew it, the doors slid open with a ding at my floor.

I let out a breath and stared out into the hallway. “Well, this is me.”

“Yep. Guess so. Have a good night, Layla.”

“You too, Jude.” I started out of the elevator, then thought better of it. Turning back to him, I pressed my hand against the doors to keep them open as I lifted up on the toes of my heels so I could slide my lips against his cheek. “Thanks for tonight. It was a lot of fun,” I said softly as I lowered back down.

His eyes looked like they’d grown five shades darker in the past two seconds, turning nearly black as he stared down at me and inhaled deeply. “Same, sweetheart,” he said on what sounded a lot like a grunt.

With no other reason to stick around, I took two steps back, giving him a ridiculous finger wave as the doors closed on him.

The best first date of my life, I thought as I unlocked the door to my apartment and stepped inside,and nothing will ever come from it.

Wasn’t that just perfect?

13

Jude

Iblinked my scratchy eyes open at the sharp trill that had just pulled me out of a deep sleep full of dreams that starred none other than the smokin’ hot knockout, Layla Fox.

With an unhappy growl, I reached out and batted at my alarm clock, wanting to shut it the hell up so I could get back to the dream. I’d been right at the point of thrusting into her tight, hot pussy, and wasn’t ready to let that image go just yet. But the goddamn alarm wouldn’t shut up.

“Son of a motherfucking dick-hole,” I barked as I rolled to my back and sat up, discovering the blaring ring wasn’t coming from my alarm, but from my cellphone. “Fucking hell.” I still had more than a half hour before I had to get up, so whoever was on the other end of this call was going to seriously pay. I swiped the screen without looking, growling through the line, “Someone better be dead in a ditch, or so help me God.”

Gram’s voice filled my ear, a boner killer if there ever was one. “Is that anyway to talk to your poor, frail, delicate grandmother?”

Reaching up to massage the space between my eyes, I let out a sigh and grumbled, “Frail and delicate are two words that will never be used to describe you. You’ll be bossing people around and barking orders while you’re on your deathbed.”

Gram laughed. “Satan himself will send my salty ass back when I finally kick the bucket.”

Truer worlds had never been spoken. But still . . . “Your views on death are disturbing.”

“Eh. When you reach my age, you have to find humor in the little things. Death is just one of them.”

I ignored that and went back to the matter at hand. “It’s six in the morning. What was so important you couldn’t wait until a reasonable hour to wake me up?”

“What wasso importantwas that you didn’t call me last night to tell me how the date went.”

“Oh, for the love of—” I squeezed my eyes closed and pulled in a calming breath before throwing my legs over the side of the bed and standing. There wasn’t a chance in hell I was getting back to sleep now, so I might as well caffeinate. “And that couldn’t have waited until eight o’clock?”

“For all I knew, you didn’t call me because you’d been shot dead somewhere. Or was maybe locked up in some psycho’s sex dungeon. You’re welcome for caring.”

This woman was going to be the death of me, no doubt about it. “Did you forget that you were the one to set that whole date up in the first damn place?”

“How was I to know whether the woman you were meeting was a sex crazy axe murderer or something?”

I stayed silent, counting to ten as I filled the tank on the coffee pot and got it brewing. “I wasn’t shot dead or locked up in a dungeon. I came home and went to bed.”

Gram made a sound like she was disappointed. “I’m sorry the date was a bust, Joodle Bug. I was hoping the lack of a phone call meant you’d gotten lucky.”

“Fuck me, it’s too early for this.” I couldn’t wait for the coffee pot to fill. Pulling the carafe out of the way, I put my mug right beneath the steaming stream. “The date wasn’t a bust. It was really good, actually.”

“Oh, really?” She sounded way too excited, especially since it was only six in the morning. “Tell me all about her. Was she pretty? Was she nice? Was she pretty? What about her hips? Did they look like they could carry a growing baby without any problems?”

I made a quick switch between the mug and coffee pot and took my first fortifying sip. “Yes, she was pretty. She was nice and really funny. And as far as her hips go, I’m not even going to acknowledge the question.”

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