One Night with the CEO Read Online Free PDF Page A

about Mark. “I’m fine. The whiskey’s definitely gone to my head. Thanks for the ride home. Gracie and Ethan clearly needed some alone time.”
    Mimi grimaced as she fished in her purse. “Dammit. Finding money in this purse is like searching for a dick in a bushel of corn on the cob.” She pulled out a few bills for the valet. “No need to thank me for the ride. Gracie’s family is my family.”
    She’d never admit it, but Karen envied Gracie and Mimi’s relationship. Always had. Their relationship sprang from friendship rather than obligation. And while some might consider Mimi high-maintenance, Karen knew Mimi had her sister’s back. Always. High-maintenance or not, friends like her were not easy to find. “Well, I appreciate it anyway.”
    Mimi ducked into the car, and Karen buckled herself into the passenger seat.
    A thought occurred to her then. What if Mimi was interested in Mark? It would be great if she was, actually. That way, Karen would have no choice but to step aside and stuff any thoughts about Mark into the forbidden closet. Wait. Mark. In a closet. With her. Doing forbidden stuff. No, no, no.
    She took out a compact and pretended to check her lipstick. “So what do think of Mark?”
    Hands on the steering wheel, Mimi whipped her head in Karen’s direction and narrowed her eyes before returning her attention to the road ahead. “I don’t. Why do you ask?”
    “Oh, I just wondered if he was a prospect for you. You two would be cute together.”
    Goodness, she was just as bad a liar as Mark was.
    Mimi arched a brow and shook her head from side to side. “Mark is definitely not a prospect.”
    “You wouldn’t pursue him?”
    “Nope.”
    “Huh.”
    “Now, don’t get me wrong. I’d bang that in a hot minute. But he’s Ethan’s best friend, and Ethan’s practically my brother-in-law. I suspect I’m a little too headstrong for him. And I like a bit of Tarzan in my men. Mark doesn’t give off that vibe. So the odds of any relationship between us working out hovers around zero to zero. Plus…”
    “Plus what?”
    “Plus I don’t roam in my own backyard.”
    “What the hell does that mean?”
    “It means when I send a guy packing, I want him gone. I can’t guarantee that with Mark.”
    Karen kicked off her stilettos. “You have a point.”
    Unfortunately, Mimi hadn’t erected the barrier Karen was hoping for. And worse, the reasons Mimi discounted Mark as a prospect were the very reasons why he tempted Karen. No long-term relationship would arise from any tryst between them. And he resided in her own backyard, a convenient fact given that she didn’t want or have time to get to know someone outside her small social circle. But she had no business contemplating a liaison with Mark, she reminded herself, not with medical school barreling toward her. She’d worked hard to get to this point, and no man would deter her from focusing on her career.
    At the end of the summer, she’d disappear into the world of a sleep-deprived medical student, never to be heard from again. Until then—and probably well beyond then, too—she’d work out her desires with the help of her battery-powered life partner. So what if Mark would feature prominently in her fantasies? That would be a secret between her and her vibrator.

CHAPTER FOUR
    I think it’s time for me to settle down.”
    Mark and Ethan ran along the C&O Canal Trail in Washington, D.C., their favorite place to exercise on Sunday mornings. He needed the stress relief, especially after a restless night in which he’d been unable to do anything but think about Karen.
    To Mark’s left, an old lock house sat near a narrow expanse of the canal, hidden from the sun by the overgrown foliage surrounding it. He breathed in the smell of wet grass, a remnant of the morning’s sun shower. Peace. It hung in the air and comforted him. Engrossed by his surroundings, it took him several steps to realize Ethan no longer ran beside him.
    When he