Free The Blogger and the Hunk by Jane Matisse Page A

face.
    It took Penelope’s expression a few seconds to go from confusion to complete shock. “Look here, Mr. High and Mighty! I don’t want you to ever bring that up again. What happened, happened and that’s it,” Penelope reprimanded, wagging her pointer finger in Jack’s direction.
    Jack let the smile take over his face. He knew they had finally come to a truce.
    Penelope took in his expression and sighed. “You were joking. Of course you were joking.”
    Jack laughed and chucked her chin, heading back inside the venue. He heard Penelope release an unladylike grunt and reluctantly follow him, her heels clicking the whole way. She never ceased to amaze him. To the outsider, she might look like a complete mouse, which she was in physical form. But when you stepped closer and you stripped off all of that distant and skittish exterior, there was definitely a spark of life inside her. It was a passion that was just clawing to be released.
    He had seen it the drunken night he’d first met her. As reluctant as he was to admit it, he hadn’t been that out of it. He’d been fully aware of his actions. There was just something he’d seen in the depths of Penelope’s eyes that caught his attention. And for some uncanny reason, whether it was her innocence or the refreshing feeling of being needed, she had sparked a bit of fire inside him as well. Once that fire started, the only thing that could extinguish it was to let it burn until all that was left were the remains of two very tired and satisfied lovers.
    Jack needed to clear his mind of the infuriating woman. She was a mouse. He was a lion. Lions ate mice. She could never keep up with him. He grabbed a champagne glass from one of the waiters’ trays and gulped the contents down.
    “Jack, where have you been hiding? I thought you’d left,” the sexy blonde from earlier seductively purred.
    Jack smirked at her, Penelope completely erased from his mind. He went along with the game. “Me? Forget you? Never!”
    “Mind going somewhere a little more private?”
    “By all means, yes,” Jack replied, holding his hand out to take hers.

CHAPTER EIGHT
    O ut of the hundreds of reasons I’ve never had a boyfriend before, this is definitely in the top three: I’m the kind of girl you look over. You know in the movies how the main girl thinks she’s plain but she really isn’t? Yeah, my life’s not like that. I really am average looking. I’m not the woman who catches the eye of any man. I’m the one they groan about when they’re stuck with me to go on a ride on group excursions. C’est la vie!
    DIARY OF A WALLFLOWER: Entry 137
    “What did he tell you? Why did he go outside with you?”
    “Did he kiss you?”
    “You guys! Relax, please! Stop drinking, it’s making you crazy,” Penelope reprimanded, getting a little flustered by the constant questions her friends were asking. Once she had gotten back inside the venue, Jasmine and Stephanie had bombarded her.
    “You know, he kind of looks familiar,” Stephanie pointed out.
    Penelope stiffened a little, and Jasmine narrowed her eyes. “Do you know something we don’t, Penny?”
    Penelope shrugged, looking away, trying not to make eye contact. Eye contact was her doom.
    Jasmine pressured her. “Penny? What’s going on?”
    There was a moment of silence that seemed to last forever. Just when her friends were about to give up, Penelope confessed. “He’s the guy from the bar.”
    “Who is?” they both asked, confused.
    “Jack.”
    “Wait, Jack, the maid of honor, is the guy from the bar? The guy you slept with?” Stephanie asked.
    Penelope nodded.
    “What! You got to sleep with him ? I’m jealous!” Jasmine exclaimed. “Well, well, well, I didn’t think our very own Penny would ever grow some lady balls and take a hunk to bed!”
    “Shh! Not so loud! Come on, you guys! I don’t need my family knowing I’m a fornicator!”
    “Sorry, sorry. I just— He’s really— Goddamn it, Penny! He’s a