Free MATCHMAKER (A Billionaire Bad Boy Romance) by Bella Grant Page A

laugh out loud. “She’s the best,” he said.
     

CHERISE
    “You look so sad,” Eric said, startling Cherise. She lay out by the swimming pool, trying to focus on a psychology book. The morning’s events would not leave her mind. Half the time, she was fantasizing about the way Sterling took her on the rocks. The other half, she cursed his name for putting her in this position. She couldn’t keep her attention on the page. She’d read the same paragraph three times and still didn’t know what it said.
    “No, just deep in thought.”
    “May I sit?”
    “Please, do.”
    Eric sat on the chaise lounge next to her. “Can I get you anything? A drink?”
    “Only if you’ll have one with me.”
    She could tell he wanted her, and if she wasn’t so distracted with thoughts about Sterling, she’d want him, too. No. She would forget Sterling, and she would focus on available men. Like the one sitting in front of her.
    Eric glanced around. “I shouldn’t. I’m still on my shift. Mr. Bachmann is resting, so I have some time, but I don’t think a drink would be a good idea.”
    “So what would be a good idea?” She propped herself up on one elbow and stuck her chest out towards him.
    He swallowed. “Have you been shown the best way to operate the blinds in your room? They can be tricky.”
    She almost laughed because she hadn’t been able to figure them out when she went to bed the night before, and bright moonlight streaming in had kept her awake. “No. Can you help me understand how to use them?”
    “It would be my pleasure.”
    He extended a hand to help her up, and she took it, leaving her book face down on the chair. She followed him through the cool house and into her bedroom. He closed the blinds, dropping the afternoon brightness down to a shadowy dusk.
    “Thank you.” Her voice was husky with lust. She never, ever did this. Had never slept with a stranger. Before Sterling, she’d only slept with boyfriends. “Can I repay you?” She let the words hang in the air suggestively.
    “However you see fit.”
    She sat him on the edge of her king-sized bed and undid the button of his trousers, eased his zipper down, and pulled out his hard cock. Eric was extremely well-endowed. Almost frighteningly so, especially considering she already ached from her morning’s encounter. She didn’t care.
    She dropped to her knees and took him in her mouth, starting with delicate kisses at the head, then licking his shaft. He tasted like soap and sweat, not at all unpleasant. He never thrust into her, never was rough. He leaned back on the bed, appreciating her attention. He put a gentle hand on her shoulder and squeezed. She kissed him, sucked and tongued until he came in her mouth—his ejaculate tasting different than Sterling’s, she noticed. He sagged back on the bed, grinning.
    “Can I take you out tonight? After my work with Mr. Bachmann is done for the day?”
    She thought about saying no. Her head was so taken up by Sterling, even though she didn’t want it to be. Eric wasn’t asking her to marry him; he wanted to go out. Have a fling. Do something fun. “That would be nice.”
    “I will finish around nine. You don’t have anything planned with Mr. Waters and Ms. Kerrigan?”
    “I’m a third wheel with them. It’s nice they want me around, but I’m just getting in the way of their budding romance.”
    “She’s a very lucky woman. In all the years I’ve known him, I’ve never seen him bring a woman and spend the week with her here.”
    Cherise wanted to tell Eric all the reasons Jenna was not a lucky woman but bit her tongue.
    “I would like to run home after my work is done, then I will come back to pick you up?”
    “That sounds lovely,” she said. He left her in the afternoon darkness of her bedroom, wondering how her life had changed so much that she had casual sex in Dominica.
    She asked herself if she regretted responding to Sterling’s job offer. Should she have passed on it, let it go