Pushing His Luck - Rhyannon Byrd Page 0,13

shut on her.

“Yeah,” she whispered, snuffling a soft snort under her breath, “that’s what I thought.”

Without another word, Karin turned and headed back inside, careful not to look at him as she closed the French doors that led onto her balcony and shut her drapes. She locked all the doors, then checked in on Jase, who had been exhausted after his soccer practice and gone to bed early. With that all done, she still desperately needed a distraction, or else she knew she would sit and do an endless post-mortem on everything Paul had said, so she went into her home office and threw herself into work for a few hours, not stopping until she was so tired she could barely keep her eyes open. After a quick shower, she pulled on her favorite pair of pajamas and climbed into bed, the soft glow on her phone screen catching her eye as she leaned over to turn off the light.

When she saw who the messages were from, she bit her lip, tempted to just delete them without even reading what they said. But then her curiosity got the better of her, and Karin tapped on the first message.

Paul: 1) Tonight was the first time I’ve seen you without make-up, and you were fucking gorgeous.

Paul: 2) I know you don’t trust me, but I’m going to change that.

Paul: 3) Because I’m not giving up.

“What the hell?” she whispered to herself, hating that there was a tiny part of her, buried deep inside, that was trembling with excitement over his bold declaration. What in God’s name was wrong with her, that he could still affect her so easily? Where was her stupid backbone?

And how on earth could one man have so much freaking confidence?

And why did she have to find it so damned attractive?

Who in the hell did he think he was?

Setting her phone back down, she buried her head in her pillow, determined to put him out of her churning thoughts. But as she drifted off to sleep, it was Paul Cartwright’s crooked, sexy smile that filled her dreams, his deep, husky voice saying, “I want another chance.”

Over and over and over.

The echo of it still rang in her ears as Karin opened her eyes the following morning, and as she lifted her palms to her face, grinding the heels of her hands against her eyes, all she could think was Shit. I’m so screwed.

Then she lifted one hand high into the air, and flipped that bitch named Fate the bird.

Chapter Four

May

Sitting next to Natalie in front of another one of Chris and Sophie’s roaring bonfires, Karin couldn’t believe she’d actually let her cousin set her up with one of the medical doctors he knew from work. But after three weeks of trying to stay strong in her resolve to ignore Paul Cartwright—which wasn’t easy, seeing as how he’d started regularly texting her, even leaving a few voicemails to his unanswered calls, and kept somehow running into her whenever he was over to hang out with Sean and Natalie, which seemed to be often—she’d finally agreed to go out with Dr. James Cross in the hopes that he might be so awesome, she could stop thinking about a certain sexy detective 24/7.

Unfortunately, her plan didn’t seem to be working. And when Paul had finally shown up an hour ago, alone, he’d looked angry as fuck that she was there with another man. That should have made her feel better, but it didn’t. Instead, she just kept feeling more and more like she’d somehow made a mistake.

Jase was with her parents, who’d been thrilled to have him for the night again, so it’d seemed like the perfect time to finally bite the bullet and agree to the set-up with James. The weather was great, she would have the comfort of being surrounded by her friends, and when Sophie had shown her a photo of the doctor, there’d been no denying that he was handsome. Not to mention tall, blond and surprisingly easy-going. She’d enjoyed talking with him while they’d sat around the fire, drinks perched in the sand beside their feet and their dinner plates balanced on their legs while they scarfed down Chris’s amazing fish tacos. Not the most graceful of first-date foods, but James had just laughed when he managed to dribble hot sauce down the front of his white polo shirt, and she’d liked that he wasn’t obsessive about his looks, the way her ex had always been.

As the