Free Wrecked (Crystal Book Billionaires) by Jessica Blake

pants on around him would be the challenge of a lifetime.
    I walked to Luke’s house. The fishtail braid I’d plaited, although intended to look messy, was actually hair sprayed into place. The wind from biking would mess it all up.
    Sucking in a deep breath, I straightened my posture as his house came into view. For the first time, I really inspected it, studying the tall windows on both the first and second floors. The place could hardly be considered a mansion, but it was one of the biggest homes I’d seen so far in Crystal Brook. Certainly it was way too big for just one person.
    So was he actively looking for a wife? Had he bought the house with his gaze set on the future?
    I knocked on the front door and then stood on the stoop, waiting. Footsteps sounded, making my heart rate pick up. I didn’t usually get so nervous around men.
    Or maybe it was my fantastical and awesome plan that was making me queasy. It was a good one, sure, but it was also the only one I had. If it failed, I would end up mopping a high school somewhere or sorting mail in the back of a dingy office.
    The door opened, and Luke smiled down at me. His light gray t-shirt, although loose, couldn’t hide his finely chiseled abs. My gaze wandered lower, to where a pair of tight dark jeans hugged his thighs.
    A burning sensation filled my body, and I jerked my eyes back up to his face.
    “You came,” he said.
    “Yeah.” I giggled and clamped my lips shut. “I figured I’d be an idiot to turn you down.”
    “Do you need anything from inside or should we go ahead and go?”
    I would have loved to see the inside of Luke’s house, to get more of an idea about who he was and what he liked so I could play to those predilections, but I knew that chance would come sooner rather than later.
    “I’m ready.” I smiled up at him.
    He stepped across the threshold and turned around to lock the door. I used the spare moment to admire the back view of his packaging.
    When he started to turn around, I quickly spun on my heels and headed down the steps. “So where first?”
    He jumped down next to me. “What have you seen?”
    “Uh, let me think,” I dramatically said. “How about the inside of my aunt and uncle’s house?”
    He laughed. “Well, I hate to break it to you, but there’s really not much to see after that.”
    “I knew it!”
    We both started moving at the same time, heading for the sidewalk. “The part we’re in now has most of the historic houses. The house I’m in was built around nineteen hundred, and it’s one of the newest ones on this street.”
    I looked up at him while he talked and walked. We were only inches away, and the top of my head barely came up to his chin. “You’re into that kind of stuff?”
    “The history of architecture?” He paused. “No, not really.”
    I laughed. “You could have fooled me.”
    His grin grew wider. “I just thought that was what you wanted to hear about.”
    “It’s cool,” I said, studying his face, desperate for a clue as to what he wanted me to be interested in.
    “So what are you into?” he asked. “What did you do in L.A.?”
    Party. And party some more… but that’s not usually the kind of report a man wants to hear from his future wife.
    “Hang out with my friends, mostly.”
    He nodded. His forearm brushed my arm and a shiver traveled up to my shoulder. I was vaguely aware of the houses passing behind him, but they were even less interesting than they had been a minute ago.
    “And what did you guys do?”
    “This and that…” I trailed off, then realized how rude my answer sounded. “My friend Rainy’s dad has a lot of boats so Rainy and I go out on the water a lot.”
    “You sail?” he asked, sounding impressed.
    “God no,” I laughed. “I wouldn’t be able to steer a boat if my life depended on it. No, we just hang out on the deck. Her dad likes to sail, so sometimes we go out on his little yacht with him.”
    “His little yacht?”
    “Yeah, sorry… I