Hand in hand, they walked up the driveway to the huge Colonial set back on a private street in his small hometown of Serendipity. And Mike thanked his lucky stars that she’d given him a second chance.
Cara was his and he was finally home.
And now a special excerpt from Carly Phillips’s next Serendipity’s Finest novel…
Perfect Fling
Coming soon from Berkley Books!
Erin Marsden had always been Serendipity’s good girl. As assistant district attorney, only daughter of the ex-police chief, youngest sibling of two overprotective brothers, both cops, one of whom was the current police chief, Erin always lived up to expectations. She’d never made a misstep, more afraid of disappointing her family than of stepping out of the stereotypical role she’d always, always fulfilled.
Until last night.
She blinked and took stock of her surroundings: a strange bed, walls she didn’t recognize, and a warm, nude male body beside her very naked one.
Cole Sanders.
She took in his too-long mess of dark hair and the muscles in his upper back, thought about the way her body ached in all the right places, and she shivered. No doubt about it, when she finally stepped out of the mold she’d created, she’d not only done a one-eighty but made the most un-good-girl-like move she could think of. A one-night stand.
A one-night stand.
The thought made her giddy and also slightly nauseous as she silently traced the path that had led her here. She’d started yesterday at her brother Mike’s wedding, surrounded by friends, family, and happy, loving couples everywhere she looked, making Erin the odd woman out. Not wanting to go home alone just yet, she’d stopped by Joe’s Bar on the way home. Misstep number one. She’d let Cole Sanders, the man with whom her sixteen-year-old self had shared a long-remembered kiss the night before he left town for good, interrupt her dance with an old friend. Misstep number two. He’d pulled her close against his hard body. She’d looked into his dark blue eyes and seen a world weariness that tore at her heart, then acknowledged the sexual tension they’d both ignored since his return. Misstep number three. Then she’d gone for gold, agreeing to join him upstairs in his room over the bar for an all-night session of marathon sex.
And, oh my God, sex with Cole had been phenomenal. She didn’t know two people could generate such heat. It had been that fantastic. In fact, Erin thought, she’d stretch and purr in contentment right now if she wasn’t afraid of waking the man snoring lightly beside her.
Although their parents were good friends, Erin didn’t know him well. Nobody did, not anymore. Not even her brother Mike, who had been one of his closest pals. Cole’s father had been her dad’s deputy chief of police until last year, but Jed Sanders never spoke of his son. According to Erin’s brother, Cole had dropped out of the police academy mere days before their graduation. What Cole did after that was anybody’s guess, but rumors ran crazy in their small town. Some said Cole had gotten involved in organized crime in Manhattan, others claimed he ran drug and prostitution rings. Having grown up around Cole, even if
she had kept her distance from the rough-and-tumble bad boy he’d been, Erin couldn’t bring herself to believe he’d gone so wrong.
Call her naïve, but she’d always seen something deeper in Cole, something good, even when he’d clashed with his tough-as-nails father. Even as the rest of the town basically shunned him since his return, Erin couldn’t bring herself to do the same. Not that he’d approached her, but when she’d seen him around, she’d always treated him to a hello or a genuine smile. Those steely eyes always looked her over before boring into hers with an intensity that put her off-kilter, but he’d never acknowledged her friendly overtures.
Until last night.
And good girl that she was, Erin still couldn’t dredge up an ounce of regret. She was long overdue for a night like that. Which didn’t mean she wouldn’t make her escape as cleanly as possible. What Erin didn’t know about awkward morning afters could fill a book. The quiet, tepid affairs in her past always ended the same way, with a polite “it’s not you it’s me,” before she’d walk away. She’d never had to slip out of a man’s bed undetected before.
She snuck one last glance at his broad shoulders, rising and falling with every breath he took. His arm muscles, sculpted from hard work and marked by ink, caused her to shiver anew.
Breathe, she silently ordered herself.
Think, she commanded next. Her clothes were scattered around the bedroom, if she called her bridesmaid’s dress clothing to sneak out in. With a last look at the man who’d made the earth move for her last night, Erin eased out from beneath the warm comforter and rose, searching for her dress. She bent over, stark naked, mortified her butt was in the air as she grabbed for her dress.
“I didn’t peg you as the type to sneak out,” Cole said in a lazy masculine drawl.
She snagged her dress from the floor and turned to face him, hugging the fabric against her for protection, suddenly feeling every inch the good girl she’d been a mere twenty-four hours ago.
“I’ve already seen every inch,” he reminded her, his heavy lidded gaze never leaving hers.
She flushed. Sometimes her lawyerly skills at deflecting came in handy and she opted to ignore the more humiliating comment, focusing instead on the first. “What type did you peg me for?”
He eased up against the headboard. Sexy, tousled and too handsome, one look had her wanting to crawl back into bed with him. That wasn’t happening for a number of reasons, the first being that a one-night stand had a shelf life and she’d used up hers. Second, to her extreme disappointment, he wasn’t asking. And third, bad-girl Erin was an aberration. This morning, with no champagne in her system, good-girl Erin had returned, more’s the pity.
He stretched his hands behind his head and leaned back, studying her. The sheet slipped below his navel and it took all her strength not to stare.
“You were pretty gutsy last night. I wouldn’t have pegged you for a coward.” He cocked an eyebrow.
Did the man never smile? “I wouldn’t have pegged you as a guy who’d want a woman to stick around…after.”
Which made her wonder why he hadn’t let her slip out unnoticed, even if he had been awake. It would have spared them both the awkwardness of…this. Then again, they’d have to play this conversation out some time. Might as well get it over with, she thought.