Bending Over Backwards (18 page)

Allie settled back in her chair. She deserved an afternoon off. Maybe it would help her figure out how to get her calendar project back on track. And as nerve-wracking as it was, she liked the thought of possibly meeting someone who could take her mind off work, even for a few hours.

“Nobody knows you,” Sandra said in a beguiling voice, “so you can be anybody you want. Celebrities do it all the time. Julie in Accounting saw that funny weather guy here once, and hardly anybody recognized him.”

“You know, speaking of celebrities, the stadium isn’t that far from the train station. Maybe we could swing by there on our way home—”

Sandra gasped. “I can’t believe you sometimes.”

“I’m not thinking about work. I’m not.” God, she was hopeless. “Okay, I was, but I promise I won’t think about it for the rest of the afternoon.”

“Yeah, right.”

“I mean it. Just tell me what I need to do.”

“Easy. You walk up to someone who looks cute—”

That snapped her back to reality. “What am I supposed to say?” She leaned toward Sandra, giving her a leer. “Nice wine rack you’ve got there.”

Sandra laughed, waving her away. “We’ll come up with something.” She thought for a moment. “I know. Say you’ll tell them three things about you, and one of them is a lie. They have to figure out which one is which.”

Allie frowned. “I’m not sure that will work here—”

“It’s a mingles thing. On a train. With unlimited wine.” Sandra practically snorted. “The hardest part is going to be staying upright.”

Allie giggled, and Sandra joined in after giving her a mock glare. “I meant because of the train bouncing side to side.”

“It all sounds so—”

“Meat market-ish?”

“Yeah, I guess that’s it,” Allie admitted. “A mobile meat market.”

“But that’s the beauty of it! Like I said, if you don’t want to see these people again, that’s it. It’s not like you’re going to bump into them, unless you want to.”

“Why does it seem like when you say ‘bump into’, you mean something else entirely?”

Sandra chuckled. “That’s your mind rolling around in the gutter. This is meant to be fun, so try to view it like that. Don’t worry.” She gave Allie the patented Sandra warning look. “And do not think about work.”

“It’s hard not to. I should charge extra for all the worrying I do on my own time.”

“Not today.”

Allie took a deep breath, ready to take on this challenge. “We’re here to have fun, and that’s what we’re going to do.” She clinked her wineglass against Sandra’s. “Who should I try first?”

“Ooh, that’s the spirit.” Sandra perused the potential men, shaking her head occasionally. She finished one sweep of the room and started a second. Just as Allie thought they’d have to survey the occupants of another car, Sandra’s face brightened. “Why don’t you go chat with him?”

“The one with the baseball cap pulled down low?” Allie sighed. “Why do guys always do that? It makes them all look the same. You never know what hair color they have. Or if they have hair.”

Sandra shrugged. “Maybe he’s shy.”

“Could be.” Allie watched him checking out the rest of the passengers, as if he was doing his best to keep his distance from everyone. In a way, she sympathized, since she’d spent most of her life doing the same thing—using work as a shield to keep from getting too involved with anyone. Maybe it would give them something in common, make it easier to talk to him.

And maybe it would be easier to drink her wine and plot how to get her calendar project moving along.

“There’s no guarantee this will get me out of my so-called dating slump.”

“I know,” Sandra said cheerfully. “That’s why I’ve got us signed up for stripper-pole lessons next.”

Allie bolted out of her chair. “Okay, I can do this.”

After all, how hard could it be to tell a couple of lies?

Bending Over Backwards

Samantha Hunter

They both lost everything, and then they found each other.

Jasmine Stanford has to be the most stressed-out yoga instructor on Cape Cod. Years after a childhood trauma left her penniless, homeless and parentless, working hard to maintain her hard-won success and security is all she knows.

Controlling her carefully rebuilt life is Jasmine’s first priority, and there’s no room or time in it for sexy former stockbroker Leo Fischer. But the more Leo comes around, the more Jasmine feels her resolve crumbling.

Leo is—or was—a hotshot investment banker until a workplace tragedy wiped out his memory and his career. On Cape Cod to recover, he’s at loose ends, his future uncertain…until Jasmine becomes his north star. But their relationship is only physical, and Jasmine keeps her distance, even when she’s as close to him as any woman can be.

Jasmine is anything but indifferent to the desire exploding between them. A summer fling was fine when she thought Leo would return to New York. But she’s falling hard—and the last thing she wants to catch her is the past…

Warning: This book contains a wounded hero hotter than a summer sun and sex in very flexible positions.

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This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.

Samhain Publishing, Ltd.

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Bending Over Backwards

Copyright © 2013 by Samantha Hunter

ISBN: 978-1-61921-534-4

Edited by Anne Scott

Cover by Lyn Taylor

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: July 2013

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