Free A Crazy Kind of Love by Maureen Child

apparently, had she.
    Mike broke first, pulled back and stared at him.
    “What?” he asked.
    “Do that again.”
    “Finally. An order I’m happy to take.”

5
    It was like grabbing hold of a live electrical wire.
    Her mouth was buzzing, her skin sizzling, and her blood was steaming.
    Oh boy.
    One part of her still realized that, hey, they were lying in the middle of a furniture store. But another, more insistent part of her was screeching,
Who cares? Go for it!
And that was just crazy enough to douse the blistering heat engulfing her.
    Mike broke the kiss and rolled away from Lucas in one incredibly awkward move. But she wasn’t thinking graceful, she was thinking,
move
. When she hit the edge of the bed, she kept right on rolling until she landed on her feet, stumbled, then backed up another step or two, just for good measure.
    Lifting one hand, she pointed at him and squeaked, “What the hell was
that
?”
    He was lying there like a man who’d just been hit in the head with a monkey wrench—and hey, not a bad idea, when you come down to it. Slowly, he turned his head toward her and he looked as dumbfounded as she felt.
    Small consolation.
    She didn’t like surprises. Didn’t like to be caught off guard. She needed her defenses up and running—especially when some guy was making a move.
    Damn it,
guys
didn’t surprise Mike.
    She’d always been able to read the signs. Though to be fair, most guys weren’t that hard to read. She could tell when a move was coming and knew just how to deflect it or welcome it, depending on her outlook at the time.
    But the nerd prince had just sneaked under her radar and landed a Stinger missile on her unprotected . . .
ass
ets.
    “That . . . was a
kiss
,” he muttered, and rubbed both hands across his face briskly before shaking his head like a man stepping out from under a shower.
    “That was no simple kiss. I’ve been kissed before,” Mike said, still pointing at him and now reduced to shaking her index finger at him in accusation. “And they were nothing like that. Hello? You’re carrying a secret weapon around with you or something.”
    “Me?”
He rolled off the bed on his side and glared at her from the safety of about seven feet of distance. The look in his eyes wasn’t exactly flattering. “You weren’t exactly resisting, you know. Actually,
you’re
the one who said ‘do it again.’ ”
    She snorted. “And you always take orders from women.”
    “Lately? Just one,” he grumbled, and glanced over his shoulder at the showroom behind him as if expecting her trained herd of salesmen to come flooding back into the bedroom setup. When he was sure that it wasall clear, he blew out a deep breath, held up both hands and said, “Anyway. No big deal. We tried out the bed. We kissed. Now I buy the damn bed and we get the hell out of here.”
    “Right. No big deal.” What had she been thinking, letting him know that he’d gotten to her?
Never
give a man the advantage, for crying out loud. She knew that. Hell, she insisted on it. She’d learned early on to stay in control of any situation. And she’d learned it the hard way. No way in hell was she going to forget those lessons
now
.
    Mike nodded at him and dropped her accusatory finger back to her side. Good plan. Out of here. Away from the surprising geek and his electric lips. “Good. Okay. Let’s go.”
    He stepped back and let her walk in front of him, and even as she passed him, Mike was wishing they could change positions. Right now, she felt as though she ought to be keeping a wary eye on him. Having him behind her just meant she couldn’t see his face. She couldn’t read what he was thinking in his eyes.
    Then again, she thought as she wended through the arranged tableaus on the showroom floor, maybe that was a good thing. Because if
he
was thinking what
she
was thinking right at the moment, things were going to get a lot more complicated.
    Fast.
    Jo hunched over her kitchen table, and glared at the