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Romcom Book Binge

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The big bad billionaire grump gets a sunshiny fiancee

free in KU

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B086SMBMR2

Romcom Book Binge

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“We need a practice kiss,” Tabitha says. <br /> I can’t think of a worse idea. My gaze falls to her lips. “Did you not read the contract?” I bite out. “This relationship is to be purely platonic.” <br /> <br /> “Oh, please,” she says. “Before you think I’m jonesing to kiss you, you need to understand something—when people do the fake engagement thing and get busted, it’s usually because they’re forced to do a first kiss in front of people. Everybody can tell a first kiss. A shaky first kiss ruins everything.”<br /> <br /> “Have you been involved in other fake engagement situations?” I ask. <br /> <br /> “No, but, it’s a thing. With people who have never kissed, there’s a lot of trepidation. They’re like, How do I start off? Where do I put my hands? Which way should I tilt my head?” <br /> <br /> “Those are not questions that would cross my mind during a kiss,” I growl. “Ever.” <br /> <br /> “Please. Spare me from the knowledge of what crosses your mind when you kiss a woman,” she says. “I’m just telling you, people aren’t stupid. They can tell. We need at least one practice round. Unfortunately.” <br /> <br /> I swallow. Somewhere down on Wall Street, trading is in full swing. I have rates to check, reports to analyze, spreads to monitor, strategies to execute on, but the idea of pulling her to me and kissing her crowds all of that out. My hands flex.<br /> <br /> “We’re not a couple who enjoys public displays of affection,” I inform her.<br /> <br /> She does her playful wince. “Okay, buuuuuut…what happens when they pull out the champagne and want to toast our engagement? We can’t exactly shake hands.” <br /> <br /> Will people do that? Arrange a champagne toast and expect us to kiss in front of them? I focus on the window beyond her, trying not to imagine kissing her. The whole idea here was not to be tempted. Not to be distracted. <br /> <br /> “Ready?” she asks. <br /> <br /> “If I decide we need a first kiss, then and only then will we have a first kiss. And I’ll do the kissing,” I tell her. “Got it?” <br /> <br /> “It has to be more than a peck,” she says. “Just in case that’s what you’re imagining.”<br /> <br /> “Trust me, a first kiss from me would be the opposite of a peck.” <br /> <br /> “The opposite of a peck,” she repeats, as though she finds it funny. <br /> <br /> “The polar opposite.” My gaze has gone back to her lips. They’d taste like some sort of sugary berry. Her dark hair would be thick and cool in my grip. My mind won’t stop spinning on kissing her, now. <br /> <br /> “I’m trying to help you pull this off,” she says. “Think of the times you’ve had a first kiss. The wild rush of it. The buzz of it. It’ll be so obvious.”<br /> <br /> I frown. Who has she been sharing these mind-altering first kisses with? Does she do a lot of first-kissing? <br /> <br /> “Don’t worry, I get this is business,” she says. “You’re not at all the type of guy I go for, either.” <br /> <br /> “No? Do tell—what type of guy do you go for?”<br /> <br /> “For one, he would scoff at the idea of a private jet like this. And he would never wear or even possess cufflinks. Or if he did…” She gets up and bends over where I’m sitting on the couch. “There’d be a string attached to the cufflinks because he would’ve made them into an awesome toy for my hamster. That would be a guy for me.”<br /> <br /> “Sounds like a loser.”<br /> <br /> She smiles. “Now, Rex,” she says in a sultry voice. “I’m going to put my lips to yours. There might be a funny feeling in your tummy.”<br /> <br /> TABITHA<br /> <br /> Rex’s gaze is dark. Foreboding. It sends tremors right through me.<br /> <br /> I’m bending over him, near enough to feel the feather-like brush of his agitated breath on my nose. Definitely near enough to kiss him. <br /> <br /> Did I go too far? <br /> <br /> But we really do need to kiss. The man’s dreaming if he thinks people can’t recognize a first kiss. <br /> <br /> Not that I haven’t wondered how he’d kiss…in extreme detail. Not that I don’t sometimes breathe in his sharp, spicy scent, letting it fill me. <br /> <br /> “A very funny feeling in your tummy…” I whisper. <br /> <br /> He surges up from his seat. “For crissake,” he says, gripping my shoulders, holding me in place in front of him. He’s holding me like he thinks I might float away if he doesn’t keep me right up close to his scowly face. <br /> <br /> His lips hover over mine, hovering one tiny, electrically charged millimeter away.<br /> <br /> And then he brushes his lips over mine. <br /> <br /> My body hums in response. I’m a panting rag doll in his hands. <br /> <br /> He’s peering down at me with those dark eyes. Confident hands pull me closer, I’m pressed right up to him. I can feel him breathe with my chest. It’s unbearably intimate. Mind-bendingly hot. We fit together perfectly. Breathe together perfectly.<br /> <br /> “S-so that’s how you do a first kiss?” I say. “An almost-kiss?”<br /> <br /> His expression intensifies. His nostrils flare. It’s like he doesn’t even hear me over his own ragged breath.<br /> <br /> The charge between us ramps up. A certain area below my bellybutton legs boarded the crazy train to tickly town. Needless to say, I really want to press into him some more. <br /> <br /> His gaze lowers to our almost-touching lips, enough so that all I see is a sweep of dark lashes. It’s excruciatingly delicious being flush to him, breathing with him, enjoying his man-eyelashes. I slide my greedy palms over his beard. I never get to touch him like this. <br /> <br /> He lets go of my shoulders and cradles my cheeks like two fragile birds, gently cradling them.<br /> <br /> “Are you trying to decide how to hold me? Are you trying to decide which way to tilt your head?” I ask. <br /> <br /> “Shut up,” he rumbles, and then he crushes his lips over mine, kissing me brutally. He presses me up again the wall with his body. <br /> <br /> The air whooshes from my chest. He growls, and the tremor it sends through me is a thousand percent heaven. He feels out of control. It shouldn’t be hot, but it really, really is. <br /> <br /> Somebody flipped his beast mode switch and I am loving it. <br /> <br /> My hands are grabbing his shirt, greedily holding him flush against me, like I must consume him, but not in a praying mantis way. <br /> <br /> He feels amazing. <br /> <br /> We should stop, but his hands are now roaming the small of my back, and then his thumbs skim the sides of my hips, urging me closer. <br /> <br /> His tongue flicks out, and I suck it in—I’m a vampire for his tongue, and it’s the hottest thing ever, sucking his tongue while he’s pressing rock-solid right into me.<br /> <br /> Suddenly one wicked hand slips under my waistband, down past the small of my back. The plane seems to dip, to do the loop-de-loop. A bloom of heat rolls through me.<br /> <br /> I slide my fingers over his beard, cupping and stroking—and let’s be honest, I’m basically mauling his face at this point. <br /> <br /> “God,” he groans, kissing me with even more wild abandon.<br /> <br /> But then his breath changes. He stills. With one effortful movement, he removes his lips and his hands from my body. <br /> <br /> I’m wobbly. I blink, pressing my hair behind my ears, trying to collect my wits. <br /> <br /> Rex looks dazed. Undone. <br /> <br /> “Well,” I say, “that’ll teach ’em to do a champagne toast in front of the children!”

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