Free Billionaire Romance Boxed Set (9 Book Bundle) by Julia Kent Page A

thought to herself. Some guy named Mike wanted to meet or
wanted to chat with her. Mike – let’s see, he’s 32, 6’5”, 180, okay he
sounded like a runner. Online dating was devolving into ordering from a menu. Would
you like fries with that?
    There it was: “likes to run marathons and works at a ski resort.” Oh,
dear – her idea of running was waving madly at the bus driver and
sprinting when she was late for the morning bus, and skiing? Lodge. Hot toddy.
Not snow.
    Deleting his message would have been the easiest thing in the world,
and her finger even hovered over the button, but something stopped her. If
Josie had been there and asked, Laura couldn’t have explained it. She
just…stopped. Clicking to his profile, she read up on him. He looked kind of
like the opposite of Dylan. This guy had sandy blonde hair and Nordic features
while Dylan was Italian and dark and swarthy. Mike looked long and lean with
pictures of him riding a bike, shots of him crossing finish lines, and pictures
of him camping.
    Camping . She shuddered. Her idea of camping was no mint on the
pillow. She wasn’t sure this was going to work. And then she read his little
intro about himself:
    “Hi, my name is Mike Pine, I am 32 years old. I am really new to this
online dating thing. I am very active and athletic, work at a ski resort, I
teach skiing and also work on the first aid team. In my spare time, I like to
run and camp and bike, and I’m looking for friendship or more, whatever and
would like to chat with other people who are interested in the same thing
– ”
    Beep-blip! A little chat window popped up and Laura splashed
coffee on her hand in surprise at the unexpected sound. “Ow!” she shouted,
grabbing a kitchen towel and shaking it out. “What the hell!?” She peered at
the now lit-up screen, a familiar chat window open in the right lower-hand
corner.
    “Oh, geez,” she sputtered, her words echoing through her empty
apartment. Somehow he had figured out she was online, ‘cause this was a chat
from Marathon Mike himself.
    Hi, there. Are you on right now?
    Oh, God, she still had the smell of Dylan on her and now she had some
new guy coming after her? What a slut she was. She thought about that for a
second. The word slut didn’t really apply to her, ever. It was more that she
was trying on new behaviors. Let’s try this one on for size , she
thought.
    I’m just drinking my coffee and getting ready for work and I logged in
and saw your message, so hi!
    Oh, good morning! Yeah, I’m not really functional without two or three
cups of coffee myself.
    He added a little grin icon.
    Hmph… yeah who isn’t, she thought.
    Laura chugged the rest of her mug’s contents and typed, one-handed,
    So I see you’re, like, Mr. Triathlon and ski dude, and my idea of
exercise is walking across the room to get the remote.
    He wrote back several lines at once:
    lolol, yeah don’t be afraid, we could just go for a hike if you want.
    Oh, I think I just asked you out.
    Yeah I did.
    ?
    “Oh, man,” she muttered. She stared at the glowing screen, dumbfounded,
her empty coffee mug dangling precariously off her right index finger as she
absorbed this. What was this? Did she hit the good-looking guy lottery?
Out of the blue, she just – oh, she had just totally ditched Dylan in his
bed last night, and now she had some guy who looked like a lankier version of
the actor who played Thor hitting on her, but deep inside she decided she was
trying on this new act, and she would just go for it.
    Just go for it, Laura. What can it hurt? A swell of physical
memory from last night made her warm between her legs, made her skin flush with
the recall of Dylan’s hands. She wanted more. And if she couldn’t have more of him ,
she might as well have some of Mike .
    A hike, yeah, I’d like that. That sounds really cool.
    And she breathed in opportunity, and breathed out rejection, breathed
in despondence, and exhaled chance.
    Chance favors the prepared.