Free The Bachelor Pact by Rita Herron

Blazer and headed toward home, deciding a hot shower and cold beer would make him feel better. So would a woman, but he had no prospects in that category. Chase was lucky he had no scruples when it came to women, that he bedded them and shed them like a rattlesnake shedding his skin.
    But Lance was too serious; always had been, always would be. And if he wasn't careful, he cared about people. Not like Chase. Chase would never have trouble keeping that bachelor pact. Lance had actually avoided relationships in order to keep it—he'd had to so he could take care of his family. Still, sometimes at night or in the early-morning hours, he longed for the feel of a woman's soft curves pressed up next to him.
    An image of Maddie's friend, Sophie, with that short spiked black hair and that petite little body sprang to mind. He shifted uncomfortably at his body's arousal. Just the sight of that woman's long black lashes and creamy skin tore him into knots. He'd spent more than one lusty evening imagining her in his bed, tormenting himself with that sassy little twitch of her mouth and those voluptuous hips of hers.
    But Sophie Lane was one woman he had to avoid.
    Because she might know his secrets. And she was just the sort of woman who'd use them.
    Sophie Knows. He could never admit to Maddie or the guys that he watched the show regularly, that he had secretly harbored a thing for the woman for ages. But that stupid show of hers could cause all kinds of trouble for him and his family. Was that the reason she wanted him to come on her show—did she already know the truth about his father?
    He didn't want to hurt Maddie's feelings or ruin her friendship with Sophie, but if the woman got too nosy, he'd have to dissuade Maddie from seeing her.
    Maddie and Reid would be devastated if they knew their father wasn't the loyal family man they believed him to be. They'd all thought their parents had the perfect marriage. Lance shuddered as he remembered finding the odd box in his father's things. The letter from the woman named Maria, saying how much she cared for him, how much the years with him had meant. The catalog with all those pictures...
    Secrets.
    His father had had lots of them. And Lance intended to keep them until he went to his grave.
    * * *
    Chase watched the different emotions play across Maddie's face and knew something was up. Some kind of Maddie scheme. Maybe she hadn't been teasing about that Trekkie stuff or that broncing bull... He didn't want to hurt her feelings but he'd be damned if he'd let her ruin everything he and her brothers had worked so hard to accomplish.
    "Chase, I was thinking—"
    "Uh-oh, sounds like trouble."
    Maddie laughed. "If you let me decorate your house, it would prove to the others that you have faith in me."
    Did he?
    "You do have faith in me, don't you?"
    "Uh, yeah, sure."
    "Then you'll let me do it?"
    Chase opened his mouth to cite all the reasons it was a bad idea—friends working together, mixing business with... business, her brothers. And their tastes were entirely different. She liked wild, flamboyant color; he liked calm, neutral earthy tones that reminded him of the outdoors. She liked noise, he liked quiet, she liked—
    "Chase, oh, please, this would mean so much to me."
    Steeling himself against the tide of her disappointment as he formed the word no, he mumbled a reply, but the word he muttered sounded like a yes. He blinked, wondering if he'd heard himself wrong.
    "Oh, thanks, Chase! You're wonderful!"
    Before Chase could retract his misguided reply, Maddie threw her arms around him, drove her mouth over his and kissed him senseless.
    She tasted like strawberries and wine, and he had the insane urge to ask her who she'd been drinking wine with, but her hands snaked up to cup his face and the erotic pull of her body lulled his brain until he found himself curving his arm around her tiny waist and drinking from her sweet mouth. She'd said he was wonderful. No one had ever told him that