Free One Night with a Hero by Laura Kaye Page B

became was friendly neighbors who had occasional crazy hot sex, it would be awesome. So. Everything was fine. Don’t go neurotic, Joss . Right. Good plan.
    Intent on some normalcy, she picked up her cell phone and dialed Christina. No matter what, the past twenty-four hours called for some serious best friend time.
    …
    “What do you think of this one?”
    Joss peeked out of her fitting room door. Christina lifted her arms and spun in the midnight-blue jersey dress. “That’s the best one yet. You have to get it.”
    “Really? You like this better than the gray one? The cleavage might be too much.” She tugged at the neckline, trying to cover the little bit of her breasts that showed.
    Joss grinned. Christina looked like the preschool teacher she was: blond, sweet-faced, petite, and conservative. But despite their differences, somehow from the time they’d met at work, they’d just clicked. Best friends ever since. Christina had married last year, so they didn’t manage to hang out as much as they had before, but she never could turn down a holiday sale at the mall.
    “Definitely not too much. That’s the one. I’m telling you. How about this?” Joss stepped out of her dressing room to show off the ankle-length black chiffon dress she’d found.
    “Turn around,” Christina said.
    Joss smiled. The back was the best part. It had a cutout that framed her blackbirds perfectly.
    “Oh, Joss. That is totally you.”
    “Couldn’t wear it to work, though.”
    “True, but it would be a great date dress. If you get that one, I’ll get this one.”
    The mention of dating sent heat to her cheeks. She turned away and peered into the mirror again. Twisting her hair on top her head, she imagined how she’d wear it to show off the tattoo. Brady likes it down . She groaned. “What is this? Fashion bribery?”
    “Absolutely. You always ask me to go shopping and then I’m always the one who leaves with eight bags of loot while you go home empty-handed.”
    Joss chuckled. “All right.” They returned to their fitting rooms, and she looked at her reflection. Taking a deep breath, she mentally prepared for the Inquisition. “So, speaking of dates…” She slipped out of her dress and arranged it on the hanger.
    “Oh, thank God. I seriously wasn’t going to be able to last much longer. What happened last night?”
    Good question. She dressed, collected her things and stepped out into the hall, all the while replaying Brady’s departure in her brain. She and Christina had the whole fitting room to themselves, so no harm in spilling here. “Well, the abbreviated version is that I met a guy and hooked up with him last night.”
    Christina’s door flew open. “Define ‘hooked up.’”
    Joss opened her mouth to reply—
    “You had sex!”
    “Shh. Why don’t you just announce it to the whole store, woman? ‘Attention, Macy’s shoppers, Joss Daniels had sex last night.’ Oh, and this morning.”
    Christina gasped and her eyes went wide. “Good sex?”
    Joss should’ve felt insulted at her amazement, but seeing as she was still kinda amazed herself, she didn’t. Memories full of Brady’s incredible intensity and hot, hard body rushed before her mind’s eye. “Mm-hmm. Great sex.”
    “Holy crap. I have, like, fifty-two questions now,” Christina said, stuffing her feet into her flats. “We need food for this conversation. Lunch?”
    Food and spilling good dirt had always gone together for them. “Sure.”
    Fifteen minutes later, they were settled in a booth at a festive American chain restaurant off the mall food court, one shopping bag next to Joss and five next to Christina.
    “All right,” her friend said. “Spill. And don’t leave out any of the good parts.”
    Joss recounted her night and morning with Brady, from the chance meeting when he’d caught her giving into a momentary pity party to the truck sex to the kitchen counter sex to his strained departure at her front door this morning. Even