For Seven Nights Only - Sarah Ballance Page 0,5

giggle not likely to be the only fake part of the package—tumbling out of the elevator with him more times than she cared to remember, and Kelsie definitely didn’t qualify. To solidify that point, he hadn’t looked at her with an ounce of interest, but that was fine. Not being targeted by him was more of a bragging point than a downside. Frankly, she didn’t want to devote another moment of her life—let alone seven dates—to that womanizer, but the utterly pathetic alternative was to dig her current rut a little deeper, which would accomplish even less.

She rolled over in her bed, squinting blindly at the morning light. She wasn’t ready for this. How could she be? Sawyer was so far out of her league… Well, wait. That wasn’t true. He just wasn’t her type. Not that she had a type. She couldn’t get a date, let alone establish a type. She had just seen enough of men like Sawyer to know that when they had the pick of the room—and they always did—they didn’t choose women like her. She was more of an unintentional wallflower, relegated to that position by default because she wasn’t flirtatious or enough of a cleavage flasher to grab a man’s attention. And she couldn’t exactly blame the men. She certainly noticed the guys who put themselves out there.

She’d definitely noticed Sawyer, and not just because he literally had a different woman every weekend. He was hot. Beyond hot, with brilliant green eyes and striking blond hair tousled with lowlights that were too perfect to be anything but natural. The upper half of his body was so stupidly ripped that in its glistening, spray-drenched state, she’d had to wonder whether it was real or she’d somehow dreamed the whole encounter. Everything that had happened from the moment the sink faucet broke off in her hand had been surreal, from looking up to find him in her apartment to the traitorous thrill that shot through her when she’d slipped and landed in his arms.

Because whether or not she was his type, he absolutely was not hers.

She needed stability. At twenty-nine, she needed a man who cared about something greater than his next conquest, and she had a feeling a second date was as close to a commitment as Sawyer had ever made. She wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry when it hit her that she’d promised him seven. Granted, they were non-romantic dates.

She was torn between feeling like Cinderella and fearing she’d just set herself up to become another of his playthings, but what did it matter as long as he followed through? For the next two weeks, all she wanted out of life was to not have to go to that stupid wedding alone. At one time, for her and her sister to date a pair of brothers had been fun. Then her ex had left her for another woman—someone more exciting, he’d said—and her inability to find a date for the wedding had poured a ridiculous amount of salt in the wound.

But now she had hope. Probably stupid to put that much faith in a serial dating stranger, but it was something to which she could cling. More than she’d started with.

With a sigh, she rolled over, flipping covers as she went. A yip from beneath the blankets indicated she’d dumped them all on Marmaduke, so she reversed the process until the Chihuahua squirmed free, tail wagging and tongue visible. “Want to go to the park?”

The dog, in his excitement, bounced himself right off the bed.

“I guess that’s a yes,” Kelsie mumbled. If only she could be so enthusiastic. She had the worst feeling she was in over her head, and the tiny part of her that was more intrigued than wary had her worried. There was no way that man wasn’t trouble, but worse than that, she wasn’t sure she wanted him analyzing her. Having her flaws catalogued by such hotness would be about as comfortable as standing in front of a firing squad.

Oh. Joy.

Resigned to her fate, she felt for her glasses, then crawled out of bed, and tugged on a pair of loose, flared jeans; a boxy, lightweight sweater; and a scarf to combat the cooler fall temps. After a blistering summer, New York had settled into one of her favorite seasons, with brisk mornings and sun-drenched afternoons. Her sister’s wedding on a yacht in the harbor would be stunning. It was Kelsie’s dream wedding. Only it wasn’t her wedding.