MaleOrder Read Online Free PDF Page B

too-stupid-to-live heroine.
    “If I were a character from one of my books, by all rights I
should be dead.” Groaning, I gripped the steering wheel and proceeded to bang
my head against it. I knew if I had written a character like this, it wouldn’t
have been the leading lady. It would have been a secondary nuisance whom I
would’ve killed off by now.
    Why am I doing this?
    I should be at my house, facing the fear of rejection and
telling Bastien that I wouldn’t mind seeing him again—seeing if it could lead
anywhere. Turning the key in the ignition, I drove home, hoping I wasn’t too
late.
    As soon as I pulled into the driveway, my stomach was in
knots. I opened the door and hurried inside, but he was already gone. His
sneakers were no longer by the door and the note had disappeared from the
entrance table.
    What did you expect? Still, my heart sank. Such was
the fate of the too-stupid-to-live heroine. They made idiotic mistakes that
cost them dearly and made readers want to punch them out before they threw the
book at their wall.
    Right now, the way I felt, I deserved that punch in the
head. I dropped my keys on the table and made sure the front door was locked. I
climbed the stairs slowly, like I was on some sort of forced march. The silence
of my bedroom was overwhelming.
    The emptiness had never bothered me before, even when I had
been married. I relished the evenings when my ex worked late. I loved the
solitude.
    But after a day and a night in Bastien’s arms, I resented
the empty bedroom. It felt too quiet. The bed was too large and seemed cold. It
was then I saw the package was on my bed. Bastien had retrieved it from
underneath. I couldn’t help but think it was a message from him.
    Finality to the ecstasy we shared?
    I didn’t know, and it didn’t matter. I had blown any chance
I might have had with Bastien—and my mistake was a bitter pill to swallow
indeed.
    * * * * *
    The weekend was hard. I couldn’t concentrate on anything. I
sat in front of my blinking computer screen, angry with myself, and reliving
the pleasure Bastien had given me over and over again. The connection we had.
The fates were taunting me.
    The more I mulled it over the more I came to the realization
he was the type of guy I could really fall in love with—if I had been smart of
enough to give it a chance to develop more and hadn’t been dumb enough to blow
it.
    When the doorbell rang it stirred me out of my morose
thoughts, making my heart skip a beat. I hoped it was him, the two days we had
been apart were hard. In a way I had dreaded Monday coming, I was afraid to
face him, but I knew it had to be done.
    As I opened the door I was expecting him to be standing
there, like he always did with that incorrigible smile and the mail in his
hand, yet no one was there. But something had been left on the steps. A single
red rose, and as I bent down to pick it up I saw him at the end of my driveway,
leaning against his Harley.
    My knees began to shake at the sight of him in leather and
denim, with big shit-kickers.
    “Hi there,” he said pleasantly enough, but he didn’t smile
and I couldn’t see his eyes through the dark sunglasses.
    “Hey, yourself, don’t you have work?”
    “I took the day off…I needed to figure some things out.”
    “Things?”
    Bastien didn’t answer. He reached behind him and held out a
helmet. “Want to go for a ride?”
    “Sure. Let me just grab my purse.”
    I ran back into my house, grabbed my purse and keys and
locked up. Bastien was already sitting astride the bike, his strong legs
holding the machine up. The helmet I was to wear was sitting on the seat. He
didn’t look back as I fastened the helmet, jammed my purse in the saddlebag and
slipped behind him. I got the feeling his was pissed off, and rightly so. I was
still beating myself up over my cowardice. I wrapped my arms around his waist.
He turned the key and the bike shook with the rumble of the motor. Without a
word to me he gunned the