Read Hope Entangles: A New Adult Romantic Comedy (Book 2 of 3) for Free Online Page A

out on her lawn.
    I stopped and was about to throw my
truck into reverse when I realized she was nose to nose with a
tall, dark, stranger.
    Another man…
    Don’t know why, but that set off a
switch inside me. It took every ounce of restraint for me to stay
in the truck and not go out there and deck the asshole.
    What the hell was going on?
    There was Hope, the asshole
stranger—getting way too close to her for comfort—Hope’s nosey
neighbor, Bette, and three other young women I’d never seen
before.
    Looked like Hope and the asshole were
arguing… but he was too damned close… and he kept moving
closer!
    Looked like Bette and “the girls” were
their audience.
    And then Hope leaned in and whispered
something in the guy’s ear.
    Shiiit, goddamn it straight to
hell!
    She was so close she might as well have
been touching him. And he’d frozen like a deer in
headlights.
    I knew that look. How he felt. It was
how I’d felt every time the woman had looked at me.
    She moved past him, and sauntered
around for a few beats. I couldn’t hear what she was talking
about…
    But then I saw the chainsaw in the
asshole’s hand and I suddenly opened my truck’s door. I was going
to beat the shit out of him. What the hell was he thinking
brandishing a goddamn chainsaw at my…
    At Hope…
    I froze though. Bette had turned around
and was staring at me, a wicked smirk on her pretty
face.
    I was busted. The nosey neighbor had
spotted me, and now she would tell Hope I was hanging around, doing
drive-bys like…
    Like the pathetic little stalker I
was?
    Just then Hope started to walk away
from the strange, chainsaw wielding asshole, and my nerve crumbled
like a rusted out exhaust system.
    I pulled the door to my truck closed
and hit the gas. Not hard enough to make the wheels squeal—I wanted
to get away without alerting Hope, even if Bette would undoubtedly
tell her all about it.
    But I ended up stopping just past
Bette’s property, looking through the back window to see Hope and
Bette and the pretty blonde all troop up onto Hope’s porch and then
into her house.
    I stayed for about thirty seconds
longer, watching to make sure the asshole—shit, he really was good
looking!—didn’t follow Hope to her house. He didn’t. He and the two
other women all headed to the dwelling on the other side of Hope’s
house.
    Well fuck me all to hell! He was her
new neighbor.
    That wasn’t good…
    That wasn’t good at all.
     

Chapter 6: Hope
     
    Clive was lying on my head when my
alarm went off.
    Eight a.m. Plenty of time to shower,
get dressed, and set up for the shoot.
    I already had decided to use the bed in
the guest room again. It had worked out so much better than the
couch in my studio had. I’d probably have them use the couch for a
few shots anyways.
    I had a red hooded cloak too. I thought
it would be interesting to have her wear it in at least a couple
shots.
    As he said, Billy showed ten minutes
early, wearing a t-shirt that read “Tequila Makes My Clothes Fall
Off.” I fed him powdered donuts and hot coffee. After Georgia was
twenty minutes late, Billy called her on his cell phone. He smiled
and told me she was running late.
    “ Girls…” he said in a put
out yet eager voice.
    He still looked too damn happy for his
own good. I took it that Georgia hadn’t told him she didn’t want to
go any further with him.
    When she did, I had a feeling Billy
wasn’t just going to shake it off with his usual cocky
jauntiness.
    So I decided to take a few solo shots
of Billy, up on the couch.
    I needed to keep him busy and engaged
until Georgia got here. Otherwise his sugar/caffeine high would
peter out, and then I’d have a yawning, sleepy Big Bad Wolf on my
hands.
    Billy, shirtless and beguiling as all
hell, his long, strong body sprawled across the couch, was any
woman’s wet dream come true. And that look he had on his face; like
he wanted to eat you up, and he just knew you’d like it.
    That you’d beg him to do it, and