Anne Rainey - Touching Lace

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Samhain Publishing, Ltd.

577 Mulberry Street, Suite 1520

Macon GA 31201

Touching Lace

Copyright © 2008 by Anne Rainey

ISBN: 1-59998-903-4

Edited by Linda Ingmanson

Cover by Scott Carpenter

All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

First
Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
electronic publication: March 2008

Touching Lace

Anne Rainey

Dedication

To my wonderful editor, Linda. I’ve laughed, I’ve even pulled my hair, but I’m always grateful to have you in my corner. You’ve taught me so much and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to repay you.

To the folks over at The Romance Bistro
After Dark
. Spending my off hours with you has been such a blast! Thanks for letting me share my spicy excerpts. Most of all, thanks for hanging with me.

Touching Lace

Chapter One

Things could be worse, she thought with a sigh. Wasn’t her mother always telling her that? “
Look on the bright side, Lacey
.” Or her favorite,
“There are lots of people who have things much worse, so be grateful, Lacey.”

Yeah, she
should be grateful, actually—grateful she hadn’t married the two-timing
bastard before finding out about his cheating ways. Catching him beforehand was a definite plus. And to think, she’d thought Christy was her friend.

Lacey sniffled, unwilling to let the tears that burned her eyes fall, and ate yet another chocolate chip cookie—double the chips—and thanked the gods above for creating such a decadent treat to begin with. Tomorrow she would have to exercise double-time just to make up for the damage she was doing to her body today. But for now, comfort food. There wasn’t anything quite like it.

As much as she hated to admit it, finding Evan in the shower with Christy happily washing his nether parts, no less, wasn’t quite as devastating as it should have been. There was anger—yes, she could have easily taken the two of them apart with her bare hands. But hurt?
Nada
. It seemed like after dating a guy for over six months, a girl really ought to feel at least a twinge of the old heartstrings when she caught him being fondled by another woman. But as hard as she tried, she just couldn’t seem to muster any sadness. At least not for Evan. As for Christy, yeah, that hurt.

She’d met Christy one morning while jogging at the park. Christy had overdone it and Lacey had stopped to see if she needed any help. They became fast friends, finding out they had a lot in common. Apparently they even had the same taste in men. Sometimes dating seemed like more trouble than it was worth. It became harder and harder for a girl to find a decent guy.

Anne Rainey

It wasn’t as if her standards were impossibly high. Sheesh! A guy with a decent job. A few morals. Single. And, last but not least, hair. Still, in the past year she’d been dumped twice and cheated on once. That had to be some kind of record.

Maybe it was her. Maybe she was the problem. Her brother Merrick was always telling her she should loosen up some, be a little less assertive. A guy liked to feel dominant, not dominated. She did have a tendency to be a bit controlling, too, now that she thought about it. Lacey ate another cookie as the truth hit her. The one common denominator in every failed relationship was, of course, her.

Then did that mean Evan had hooked up with Christy because Christy was content to let him take the lead? Was that what had drawn him to her? Possibly. Of course, it could just as easily have been her surgically enhanced C-cups.

Swallowing a gulp of milk, Lacey stood and brushed herself off. When she looked down at her own meager chest, she gave a derisive snort.

“The idiot probably thinks Christy’s are real. Puhlease.”

She grabbed the bag of cookies and started for the kitchen. What she really needed was some vanilla ice cream to go with her chocolate chips.

“Take that, Christy and Evan.” But before she could grab the icy treat, the doorbell rang. So much for completing her sugargasm.

She frowned at the front door. “It better not be Evan.” The doorbell rang again and she stomped—which wasn’t easy considering she was wearing a pair of fluffy happy face slippers—over to it. Lacey flung the door wide and yelled, “Get lost, dickhead!”

“Pardon me?”

Heat burned her cheeks. “Oops. Uh, hi, Nick.”

Nick smiled as if he were pleased as punch. “Do you always answer your door like that?”

She shrugged. “Only when I catch my boyfriend cheating on me with my friend.” “Yeah that sucks. It’s also why I’m here.” He pushed his way into her apartment.

“Get dressed, baby, I’m taking you out.”

Touching Lace