Read In the Arms of a Stranger for Free Online Page B

coming to chastise her for all the things she’d done wrong that evening and offer helpful suggestions on how she could improve herself, Bri tried to mask her irritation as she opened the door.
    Jake grinned, holding up a bottle of aspirin.   “I’ve come to administer first aide.”
    Bri grabbed his hand and pulled him inside, quickly closing the door behind him.   “Have you gone completely mad?  Chad’s room is just down the hallway and if I’m not mistaken, yours is too!”
    He shrugged indifferently and led the way to the living room.   “Brandy took a couple of sleeping pills and probably won’t even wake up until noon tomorrow.”
    Bri crossed her arms.   “Well Chad doesn’t take sleeping pills.  What if he’d seen you at my door?”
    Jake snorted.   “Chad boy probably doesn’t take any type of pill that isn’t holistic in nature.  Tell the truth now, does he always order vegetarian meals and grill the waitress on what type of oil is used to cook it in?”
    She turned away from him, hoping he’d think she was angry when in fact she was trying to hide her smile.   “He’s very conscientious about his diet, unlike you who ordered half a cow for dinner.”
    “Steak, sweetheart, and it was only sixteen ounces.   What do you see in him anyway?  The man is so uptight I doubt he has a clue about how to relax.  He probably sleeps with his tie on, and I would bet my shiny new pickup that he doesn’t even own a pair of blue jeans.”
    Bri turned back around, intending  to deny his smug accusation, but now that he’d mentioned it, she thought he might just be right.  “I thought you came here to administer first aide,” she said, hoping to change the subject.
    Jake stared at her in astonishment.   “Oh, my God, I’m right; he really doesn’t own a pair of jeans, does he?”
    Brianne glared at him.   “What about your girlfriend,” she snapped.  “I’ll bet Malibu Barbie wouldn’t be caught dead in anything that didn’t carry a designer label.”
    His eyes moved appreciatively over the snug jeans Brianne was wearing.   Brandy wouldn’t have looked half as good.  “I wouldn’t know, we’ve never been on a casual date.”
    Before she could stop herself she blurted out, “You mean you don’t live together?”
    Jake looked as if he’d just eaten something sour.  “Good Lord, what gave you that idea?”
    “Well you brought her with you so I just assumed.”  
    Why did it make her so happy to know he wasn’t serious enough about the woman to live with her?   She shouldn’t care about it one way or another; shouldn’t being the operative word since she most certainly did care. 
    “So…how long have you been dating?”
    Jake set the bottle of aspirin on the coffee table and dropped down onto the sofa.  “Three or four months, I think.”
    “You think ?”
    He patted the cushion.   “Sit with me.”
    Bri eyed the spot beside him warily.   “Not until you tell me why you’re really here.”
    “There’s no ulterior motives, I assure you.   I just wanted to talk for awhile.”
    She could almost hear Chad stiffly informing her that the proper thing for a lady to do would be to sit in one of the arm chairs.  Feeling rebellious, she plopped down by Jake’s side.  He slid his arm around her shoulder and it seemed so natural to have it there, Bri didn’t bother to protest and simply let her head rest against his shoulder. 
    “So what do you want to talk about?”
    “What happened last night.”
    She jumped to her feet, shaking her head.   “There’s nothing to talk about.  We made a mistake, that’s all.”
    Jake grabbed her hand and pulled Bri down onto his lap, locking her there in a firm grip.   “A case of mistaken identity, yes, but it was not a mistake.”
    “Please don’t try to feed me any lines about it being fate.”
    “You don’t believe in fate?”
    “That we’re preordained to follow certain roads in our life regardless of the winding