Free A Tricky Proposition by Cat Schield

Ming overthought everything. She liked her life neat and orderly. That was great for her career, but in her personal life she could use a man who overwhelmed her senses and short-circuited her thoughts. His brother hadn’t been able to do it. Evan had once complained that his fiancée had a hard time being spontaneous and letting go. He’d never come right out and said that she’d been reserved in bed. Evan had too much respect for Ming to be so crass, but Jason had been able to read between the lines.
    “What is that supposed to mean?”
    “Has it ever occurred to you to look at the sort of women you prefer to date?”
    “Beautiful. Smart. Sexy.”
    “Needy. Clinging. Terrified of abandonment.” She crossed her arms over her chest and stared him down as no one else did. “You choose needy women to get your ego stroked and then, when you start to pull away because they’re too clingy, they fear your abandonment and chase you.”
    “That’s ridiculous.” Jason wasn’t loving the picture she was painting of him. Nor was this conversation creating the romantic mood he’d hoped for, but he refused to drop the subject until he’d answered her charges.
    “Jennifer was a doctor,” he said, listing the last three women he’d dated. “Amanda owned a very successful boutique and Sherri was a vice president of marketing. Independent, successful women all.”
    “Jennifer had daddy issues.” She ticked the women off on her fingers. “Her father was a famous cardiologist and never let her feel as if she was good enough even though she finished second in her class at med school. Amanda was a middle child. She had four brothers and sisters and never felt as if her parents had time for her. As for Sherri, her mom left when she was seven. She had abandonment issues.”
    “How did you know all that?”
    Ming’s long-suffering look made his gut tighten. “Who do you think they come to when the relationship starts to cool?”
    “What do you tell them?”
    “That as wonderful as you are, any relationship with you has little chance of becoming permanent. You are a confirmed bachelor and an adrenaline junky with an all-consuming hobby who will eventually break their heart.”
    “Do they listen to you?”
    “The healthy ones do.”
    “You know, if we weren’t such old and dear friends, I might be tempted to take offense.”
    “You won’t,” she said confidently. “Because deep down you know you choose damaged women so eventually their issues will cause trouble between you and you have the perfect excuse to break things off.”
    Deep down he knew this? “And here I thought I dated them because they were hot.” About then, Jason realized Ming had picked a fight with him. “I don’t want to talk about all the women I’ve dated.” But it was too late.
    Ming wore the mulish expression he’d first encountered on the playground when one of his buddies had shoved her off the swings.
    “This weekend was a mistake.” She slipped sideways into the bedroom and headed straight for her suitcase.
    To Jason’s bafflement, she used it as a battering ram, clearing him from her path to the front door.
    “You’re leaving?”
    “You thought conceiving a baby should be memorable, but the only thing I’m going to remember about being here with you is this fight.”
    “We’re not fighting.” She was making no sense, and Jason wasn’t sure how trying to provide her with a romantic setting for their first time together had sparked her wrath. “Where do you think you’re going?”
    “Back to San Francisco. There’s a midnight flight that will put me back in Houston by morning.”
    How could she know that unless…? “You’d already decided you weren’t going to stay.”
    “Don’t be ridiculous.” Her voice rang with sincerity, but she was already out the door and her face was turned away from him. “I just happened to notice it when I was booking my flight.”
    Ming was approaching the trunk of her rental car as