Free Crashing Into Love by Melissa Foster

sleep with Sarah Chelsum.”
    “The girl from the bar that you texted me about?” Trish asked.
    “Uh-huh. He said he just took her home.”
    “That’s true,” Shea agreed. “After you told me what he said, I asked Jeanette, who asked Lisa, who asked Cara, who is Sarah’s very best friend. She confirmed it. Not that Sarah didn’t try to get all up in his junk, but he turned her down and left her at the front door, and apparently she tried to play it off like he didn’t until I started nosing around.”
    Fiona couldn’t repress the smile spreading across her lips. “So…I guess I did have an effect on Mr. I’m Not the Same Guy I Was , after all.”
    She tucked that little confidence booster away. She needed every bit of confidence she could muster after the way Jake had left her standing there behind the snack building at the fair.
     
    IT FELT DAMN good to be home. Jake stretched out on the leather sofa in the expansive living room of his Mediterranean-style home, closed his eyes, and reveled in the comfort of being back in his world, where he was king and no one passed judgment on him. He’d arrived home and found a group of friends already celebrating his return. This was a common occurrence, as his friends knew that his backyard was there to be enjoyed, and when he was in LA, he often left his doors unlocked for his buddies to come and go as they pleased. It had driven Pierce mad the last time he’d visited, because the house was never quiet. Jake liked it that way. The less time spent alone and in his own head, the better. And since running into Fiona, he needed chaos to silence the echoes of her voice. His thoughts had taken all sorts of reverse sprints, revisiting their encounters and dredging up memories that sent him into a tailspin he had yet to recover from.
    He felt the feathery touch of delicate fingers trail up his abs and grinned as the woman leaned in close. Even with his eyes closed, he knew it was Jerria. Her perfume gave her away.
    “I’ve been wondering when you’d get back,” she said in a throaty voice.
    Jerria had acted in one of the flicks where Jake had been a stuntman a few months ago. He couldn’t remember which one, and as she pressed her breasts against his chest, he wondered why he felt claustrophobic instead of hot and bothered in a good way. She kissed his neck and made a sweet little noise in her throat that should have turned him on, but it had the reverse effect. He pressed himself in to the couch and gently pushed her back.
    “Hey, Jer.” He pushed up to a seated position, trying to hide the annoyance in his voice. Why the hell did he go from being relaxed and happy to be surrounded by friends to wishing he were alone? He glanced out the back doors, remembering when Pierce had come to visit when he and Rebecca had first begun dating. His brother’s voice came slamming back to him. There’s a hell of a lot more than tits and ass out there waiting for you. Jake had laughed him off, thought he was being punked. But as his mind reverted back to Fiona’s hopeful eyes, the feel of her close to him, the way his body reacted to her with something much more profound than merely a desire for sex, he realized his brother wasn’t joking.
    Jerria had blond hair down to her ass and wore a skimpy yellow bikini. Pert nipples gave away her aroused state. A week ago she’d have been the perfect welcome-home gift. A no-strings-attached romp all wrapped up in a teeny-weeny bikini. Now he was bothered by the assumption that he’d fall into bed with her—even if the assumption would have been true a week ago.
    This was totally messed up.
    “I’ve missed you.” She ran her fingers through his hair.
    Jake gripped her wrist and pulled it from his hair; then he slid her other hand off his thigh, where she’d taken purchase like a cat clawing its prey. He pushed to his feet and paced, leaving her to stare, jaw agape, from where she was kneeling beside the couch.
    He was just as confused