Big Girl Panties Read Online Free PDF

to talk every day and tell each other our whereabouts twenty-four/seven. So wrapped up in each other that we have to feel funny if we spend any time at all with someone else of the opposite sex, when we’re apart for weeks at a time. Wasn’t it you that wanted to keep things from getting too serious, something about a ‘sassy single’ image you wanted to maintain?”
    How convenient for him, she miserably thought. She remembered making those very same statements on their first date, because she made them often. It was the sort of mindless chatter most people threw out before they knew whether or not there was any chemistry. Maybe not about having a public persona to take into consideration, but about not wanting to seem too eager. Logan never had to say it; she had done it for him. She’d never considered that it could be so easily and readily used against her. And she never believed she could be the kind of person who would resort to deliberate biting and lurking and waiting with bated breath for the phone to ring. Natalie closed her eyes against the warmth of his touch, wishing he would pull her back into his embrace instead of keeping her at arm’s length. His unconscious action spoke volumes, and she was finally listening.
    â€œImage? Just whose image are you interested in, seriously?” She opened her eyes and settled them on his perfect face, praying for some sort of sign that he cared she was getting ready to walk out the door.
    â€œI don’t have an image,” he responded, running a hand through her hair and giving an affectionate tug on her earlobe. “I’m just a guy who owns a couple of gyms.”
    â€œGyms whose clientele are the rich and famous,” she retorted weakly, tired of the tricks, his as well as her own. “It makes you one of them by association. Please stop acting like I’m the one with everything to lose and you are so gallantly trying to protect my interests. It only makes me feel more of a fool.”
    â€œYou’re not a fool, kitten.” The corners of his mouth turned up in what she could only construe as a sardonic smile. “But sometimes you really do act foolish.”
    So that was it. One more veiled insult neatly wrapped up and packaged to look like a term of endearment. Maybe it was time she stopped chasing him and let them see what, if anything, they really meant to each other.
    She twisted out of his grasp, retrieved her bag from his coffee table and her jacket from the floor, and made her way to the door. She opened it and, with all the righteous indignation she could muster, took one more heartbroken look at him, standing before her in all his naked glory.
    â€œFuck you,” she told him dejectedly, and walked out, slamming the door behind her.
    Logan casually followed in her wake to lock the door and turn out the lights before heading back to bed. Catching himself with a quick glance in an oval-shaped mirror mounted in the hallway, he stopped short. He moved nearer to his reflection, looked closely, and let loose a sigh of annoyance. He looked back to the front door and announced to his empty home:
    â€œThat’s gonna leave a mark.”

Chapter Three
    H olly was sitting on the couch in her living room. In one hand she held the television remote. In the other, a liter bottle of Coke. A bag of Funyuns sat wedged between her legs. She surfed the channels aimlessly from one program to another.
    It should have been just another night, when the only thing to come alive was her television. On a normal night, she could hide within the countless sitcoms depicting the hapless antics of mismatched couples falling in love despite their foibles. She could uncover murder plots along with glamorous women who looked like they’d stepped out of magazines, not grubby police stations. They busted thugs with the help of unbelievably attractive male partners who found them irresistible, despite the danger and the call of