Before You: Standalone Contemporary Romance Read Online Free PDF

produced when he cut the deck. I had no idea why the card needed to be stuck to his forehead, but so far, we were having fun, so it didn’t really matter.
    “Higher,” I responded, slipping a pretzel into my mouth before taking another sip of the vodka we’d found in the pantry when the beer ran out. I couldn’t stop smiling at this rather large, rather macho man sitting beside me with a two of diamonds stuck to his head as if it were completely normal.
    “All right. Let’s see if you get your question.” Holding the deck out in front of him, he separated the pile and held up the cards for me to see.
    “King of Hearts!” I slapped my knee and groaned. He’d won the last four rounds, and the winner got to ask a question whereas the loser had to answer. “You win again .”
    Pulling the card off his forehead, he grinned then slipped it back in the deck before placing it on the table between us. “OK. Favorite book? And don’t say Pride and Prejudice . Every girl picks that.”
    I picked up the deck of cards and began to shuffle. “Every girl? This is something you do with every girl?”
    “What? No. Why would I go to a girl’s apartment to play cards? I go there to fuck.” He was so blunt that it gave me a little shock as he took the cards off me. “Now, answer the question – Favorite book?”
    “Chocolat.”
    He nodded. “Interesting choice.”
    “Why?”
    His green eyes lifted to meet mine as he gave me a lopsided smile. “You have to earn your questions. Here.” He fanned out the deck of cards and I took one, pressing it to my forehead like he had. Although, this time it didn’t stick.
    “Oh no,” I laughed as it fluttered down and revealed itself to me.
    “Try again,” André said with a chuckle as he slipped the card back in the deck and gave it a quick shuffle. I took out a new card then lifted it to my forehead.
    “It still won’t stick.”
    “Here. Let me help this time,” he said, leaning over to me and bringing one hand to the back of my head while using his other to press the card in place with mine. I could smell the scent of his body. Masculine. Pheromone filled. Dizzying.
    The card fell again. We both kept laughing. “I should lick your forehead to make this stick.” He pressed it against my forehead.
    We laughed even harder, our amusement fueled by the alcohol we’d been consuming since dinner. Then all of a sudden, the laughter stopped and things became very serious as his hand curled in the back of my hair.
    Our eyes locked.
    The air crackled.
    The distance between us lessened.
    Closer.
    Closer.
    Breathe...

- 4 -
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    T he pounding in my head woke me the next morning. It took me a moment to remember where I was and how I got there. That was the problem with drinking to excess, you always felt like crap the next morning. On top of that, one tended to wake up with a numb mind – a brief moment where the mortifying moments of their drunken shame weren’t quite so horrible – then slowly, everything about the night before returned and that ache in your head became a hammer against your skull.
    “Oh god!” I moaned as the memory flooded into my mind in full high definition color.
    André and I had kissed. Very briefly. But still, there was a joining of the mouths and a slight moan as his tongue slid against mine. It felt so right in the few seconds it occurred, until it felt horribly wrong when he pulled back then frowned.
    “What are you doing?” he’d said.
    The way he looked at me made me feel as though I was the one who tried to kiss him, and that he hadn’t been interested at all. My eyes stung, even in my drunken mind, I knew that he’d pulled me in. He kissed me.
    Looking away from him to hide the tears that had sprung to my eyes, I stood and tried not to stumble as I headed to Dave’s room.
    “Willa.” He said my name as a sigh, as if he was somehow surprised or annoyed that I was upset by his reaction. But, he’d just kissed me then