Dirty Deal (A Perfectly Matched Novel) (Entangled Brazen) Read Online Free PDF Page B

committed to hurting each other, it became abundantly clear that, while love might be real, it was fleeting for most people and just about anything—from gaining a few pounds or a few crow’s feet to not putting clothes in the hamper—could make it disappear.
    Falling in love and risking her heart like that when so many people seemed to take hearts for granted wasn’t high on her list of things to do in this lifetime, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t right for other people. Especially for someone like Bryan.
    He seemed stable and like a good guy. Maybe all he needed was a stable, good girl to wash the Piper taste from his mouth. A man like him, all tall and muscular with an MD and a military background? He was tailor-made for girls to fall in love with. Hot, but also pretty funny, and weirdly magnetic.
    “Yeah, shortly after that, I went to medical school and then to the military. Not a lot of time for relationships. Plus, she and I had a pretty bad run of it. I can’t deal with the crazy.”
    “Right, but I mean, not all women are crazy,” she said with a curt nod, and waited for him to agree.
    Instead, he slanted a dubious brow at her, and she squawked.
    “Oh my God, seriously? That girl is a special case. There are tons of women out there that don’t act like that.”
    He held up his hands and rushed to correct himself. “I’m sure there are women who are…less intense than the ones I’ve been with. But there must be some kind of pheromone on me that attracts the nutty ones. No matter where I go, the crazy bus follows me.”
    “Like, what do you mean? Girls who cry when you don’t call them enough?” If that was the case, she could feel Bryan’s pain. That was irritating as hell. She’d had her fill of whiny phone calls all from one-date guys looking for more attention even after she’d been clear she just wanted to go out and have a meal and some laughs. By the end of it all, she’d wound up hurting feelings, and she hated that. Maybe Bryan was onto something.
    “I wish that’s what I was talking about.” He sighed.
    “Do tell,” she said, leaning in to better hear what she sensed was going to be a juicy story.
    “Let’s see,” he ticked off on his index finger, “I had a woman once steal my car and threaten to drive it off a cliff if I didn’t promise to see her again.”
    “No shit. How did you get out of that one?”
    “I didn’t let her pull a Thelma and Louise, if that’s what you’re asking.” He pushed his untouched salad plate away and continued. “911 is on speed dial, and they caught up with her. She wasn’t even the worst of them.” He ticked off another finger. “Then, there was a girl who sneaked into my bedroom one night and lay next to me so that when I woke up, she was staring directly at me. Just… watching me. Said she could see the depths of my soul when I slept.”
    “Come on,” she said on a laugh. “You can’t be serious.”
    The waiter appeared again and swept away their dishes, then replaced them with a creamy red soup. She dipped a spoon in and gave it a go. Roasted red pepper.
    “I couldn’t make it up if I tried. The worst part is before she broke into my room, she went into my mom’s closet, took some of her clothes, and put them on. She said she wanted to make me feel taken care of.”
    Jesus. He wasn’t even kidding. “So how bad could Piper be compared to that?” Serena sipped on her soup.
    “She’s her own special brand. She may not be as crazy as the other ones, but she’s definitely the most insistent. You know when we were dating she thought it would be a nice gift to look up all the headstones of everyone in my family that had died and print them out. She made a scrapbook of tombstones.” He shook his head at the memory before taking a spoonful of soup.
    “Was it part of a scavenger hunt that led to a hollow grave?” Serena deadpanned.
    “It felt like things were headed that way for sure.”
    “So I don’t understand. If your