Free Sex, Lies, and Online Dating by Rachel Gibson Page A

the place packed. The perfect hunting ground. “We need to put someone undercover in here. Not me or you. Someone the employees won’t recognize.” He returned his attention to the stack of Lucy’s books. “Someone who’s unknown to the suspects we’ve met or interviewed,” he added as the two detectives turned and headed for the doors.
    The afternoon sun hit Quinn full in the face, and he reached for the sunglasses in his breast pocket. He slid them on the bridge of his nose as they moved through the parking lot to the unmarked police cruiser. He still wasn’t convinced Lucy was Breathless. Yes, she’d told some lies and could be tied to two of the victims. But she just didn’t seem…aggressive or kinky. She’d responded to his kiss, and within his hands, she’d turned warm and willing. Not the kind of woman to go to a man’s house after a few dates, cuff him to his bed, and snuff out his life. No, she seemed like the kind of woman who’d have entirely different plans for a man cuffed and at her mercy.
    Of course, that could be his dick talking.

    “Are you kidding?” Maddie asked as she pushed her Mexican rice to the side of her plate.
    “No, he just grabbed me and planted a kiss on me.”
    “How was it?” Adele asked as she reached for a pitcher of blue margaritas in the center of the table.
    Lucy bit her bottom lip, but the corners of her mouth turned up anyway. “Amazing.” She looked across her shoulder at Clare’s smile. Out of the three of them, Clare would be the only one to give her wholesale support. Clare truly did believe in what she wrote for a living. In romance and soul mates and happily ever after. Clare was also the most delusional when it came to men.
    “How long have you known this Quinn guy?” Maddie wanted to know. “A week?”
    “A little over a week. Tonight will be our third date,” Lucy answered with a stretch of the truth. If she counted the first time they’d met at Starbucks. Which she really didn’t. Nor had she considered the drink they’d had together a real date, until he’d kissed her. The kiss had been very real.
    Adele poured margarita into her glass and set the pitcher back in the center of the table. “And you let him kiss you on your first date? That’s not like you.”
    Let. Once his mouth had touched hers, there’d been no thought of letting. Just doing.
    “You have to be careful, Lucy,” Maddie said as if she were her mother when, in fact, Maddie was only a year older than Lucy.
    “He’s just a nice normal guy. He’s a plumber and owns his own business.”
    “I think you should go for it.” Clare paused to take a drink of her own blue margarita, then added, “I know you all don’t believe in it, but there is such a thing as love at first sight. It happens all the time.”
    Lucy smiled to herself. Or lust at first kiss, at any rate.
    A frown puckered Adele’s brow. “I don’t know, Lucy. I dated a plumber once. He was weird.”
    “Where did you meet him?” Lucy asked to take the attention off herself.
    “At The Society for Creative Anachronism.” Adele shrugged, then dug into her fajita salad.
    Maddie’s fork paused on the edge of her plate. “You’re shitting me.”
    Adele shook her head. “No. I was writing my medieval time travel and I needed to do some research. They meet in that park off Fort, a few blocks from my house, to sword fight and all that. So I decided to watch and ask questions.”
    “Was your boyfriend Sir Lancelot?” Maddie asked.
    “No.” Lucy nudged Clare in the arm with her elbow. “Isn’t it Sir Lance of Lotta Love?”
    Clare smiled, her blue eyes alight with humor. “It’s Sir Steely Lance of Love.”
    “Funny.” One corner of Adele’s mouth turned up as she tried to look offended. “He was Sir Richard the Resplendent.”
    “Not to repeat, Maddie,” Lucy said as she reached for her margarita, “but you’re shitting me. Right?”
    Adele shook her head. “No. His real name was Dexter Potter.