Red Hot Valentine: Falling for Cupid (2 page)

“
For the record, I wouldn’t
put it out. He’s gorgeous, but he’s not a god.” Her cheeks colored
as Brad scowled at her.

The three of us walked over to where my
version of a gorgeous god was. He stood to greet us. His suit
wasn’t high-end or low-end, but it had been tailored to him. It
showed off his fit figure.

My jaw slackened as the
outline of his bicep muscle showed when he shook Brad’s hand. Sweet
cherry pie I couldn’t stop myself from picturing those biceps near
my head as he pummeled me into submission.
Get it together, girl!

“
Hi, Mr. Valentine. I’m
Brad. This is my wife, Daisy.” He jutted his chin towards me. “And
this is my girlfriend, Lisa.”

His brows rose slightly, but he maintained a
professional disposition surprisingly well. “It’s a pleasure to
meet you all.”

He shook Lisa’s hand, then mine all too
quickly before gesturing to the chairs. Luckily, three remained at
the small square table. “Please take a seat and we can discuss your
case.” His gaze skittered to me as we sat.

I barely contained my sigh
of longing. There was something about the lawyer that had me
lusting like a starved feline. This was a man I wanted to drizzle
chocolate over before tasting every delicious inch of him. Sadly,
though, I didn’t see the same spark in his eyes.
Figures.

—

Cupid

My groin tightened as she
walked in the door. Abundant curves were well contained within her
shocking attire. Most women with curves covered them with
embarrassment. She owned them in an outfit that screamed
look at me
, and that’s
all I could do was look.

She pulled a pencil of a woman, in
comparison, beside her. I bit back a grin as she turned towards the
blonde, giving me a perfect view of her ass. It was a downward
spiral from there. I couldn’t stop my lusty thoughts.

Her wide hips gracefully rounded into an
impressively large derriere most men would shy away from, too wimpy
to handle.

Stop! You’re meeting a client for crying out
loud.

I took a steadying breath, trying to suppress
desire that had never raged so hard.

With a name like Cupid, of course I loved
women, but none had ever spawned the yearning burning my balls
right now. This was not good.

My heart seemed to pause,
lodged in my throat as she met my gaze. Her dark chocolate eyes
matched her flowing hair.
Damn.
I wanted to hold tight to her locks as I fucked
her tempting ass.

Shit. When did I become an
aggressive lover?
The name pegged me as a
romantic, and I’d played along…until now.

I’d send a woman like her a dozen roses every
day if it guaranteed me the freedom to explore her every night.
That wasn’t love though. That was
a-cock-hard-enough-to-hammer-a-nail-in-with lust. It went against
everything I’d embraced as my identity. It shook me to the damn
core.

Pull it together, Coop.

With one last long look up and down her sweet
body, I dropped my attention to the basic client profile in front
of me. I was above all else a professional, especially when it came
to love.

—

Daisy

My heart fluttered every time he glanced my
way. Brad knew something was up because I let him do most of the
talking. No man had ever tongue-tied me before, but I was afraid
Mr. Valentine would be the first.

His gaze flitted between us. “A judge is
going to ask. Do you feel that your marriage could be saved? If
not, why?”

“
I think Daisy says it
best.”

Both men looked expectedly at me.

I gave them a shy smile, and Brad knew that I
was not shy…usually.

He nodded his head encouragingly, somehow
knowing I needed the little boost.

I swallowed hard. “A love without passion is
like a cupcake without icing: it tastes good, but it doesn’t
satisfy.”

“
Interesting choice of
words, Mrs. Burke.”

I glanced at the dreamy hunk, gathering my
courage from somewhere. The gates burst open. “Look, I love Brad,
but not in the heart-skipping-a-beat-when-I-see-him sort of way.
He’s like a sometimes annoying older brother.”

“
Two days, Dais. I’m two
days older.” He hated when I spoke as if there were years between
us.

“
Still makes you older.” My
lips curled at the edges as I winked in his direction.

I refocused, best I could, on our dazzling
divorce lawyer. “I think the biggest indicator is I’m not raging
with jealousy that he found happiness with Lisa. The truth is, we
never should have gotten married. Settling for your best friend
isn’t a bad gig, but it’s also not fulfilling if the sizzle isn’t
there on every level.”

His brows furrowed. He seemed perplexed, yet
didn’t push for more. “I’m afraid I wasn’t prepared for that
answer.” He smiled lightly.

“
The way I see it, Brad and
I romantically are like oil and water. We typically don’t mix. That
doesn’t mean you couldn’t whisk the shit out of it and make it work
temporarily, but we’ll always pull apart again, so why force it?
I’m not saying love should be easy, but happiness with the one you
love ought to be. Brad and I were content, but not genuinely happy
in a life fulfilled sort of way. He didn’t smile like a kid in a
candy store every day until he met Lisa. I don’t want to stand in
the way of that kind of joy. Plus, I’d like the freedom to find it
myself if I can.”

His smile turned wistful. “Looks like you got
lucky twice, Mr. Burke.”

“
Hell yeah.” Brad leaned in
and kissed my cheek, but he held firmly to Lisa’s hand.

“
I’ll need a list of assets
and how you wish to divide them. Once I have that, I’ll have it
typed into the documents. You both will sign and I’ll submit it to
the courts. Typically there’s a thirty to forty-five day wait time,
but since you’re both signing the initials, we should get a date
before the holidays are over. If all goes well, you two will be
divorced by New Years.”

Brad and Lisa exchanged an excited stare. I
found myself grinning with them, and it didn’t falter when Brad
kissed her.

Our lawyer gave me quite the peculiar look at
that point, but it was hard to explain to anyone who wasn’t Brad or
me; even Lisa didn’t totally get our bond. We were peacefully
complicated.

“
Do you have the paperwork
with you?” Brad sat back in his chair.

Lisa’s features turned down. “Oh, Brad, we
have to go meet my mom, remember?” She seemed sad to tear him
away.

“
If you trust me with your
Porsche, I’m sure you can trust me to write up the division of
assets.” I took a sip of my nearly cold beverage.

He narrowed his gaze, assessing me. I almost
missed the spark of mischief in his depths. “Don’t let her take
Porschia, Valentine.”

“
Such an original name,
right?” I snickered, meeting those clear blue-green eyes
again.

They glittered like the sun reflecting off
the water. “Every man names his car,” he offered.

I pursed my lips, considering him. “What’d
you name yours?”

“
Red.” He didn’t miss a
beat.

My expression fell. “Red?” I quirked a
brow.

“
She’s fast, fiery and
red.” He shrugged, as if it should be a no-brainer.

I looked deadpanned at Brad. There was no
inflection in my voice. “I see why you picked him as our
lawyer.”

Sometimes men opened their mouths and you
just wanted to shove a sock in it before they could speak. This was
one of those moments...

“
Yes, I picked him because
he named his car something obvious, and because I knew you’d go
goo-goo drooling over him.”

Lisa and I both smacked him, stating in
unison, “Ignore him.”

“
Hey! Ow!” Brad threw up
his hands in mock surrender.

Lisa and I looked at each other and burst out
laughing.

“
Great minds think alike,
right?” She wagged her brows.

I nodded in agreement. “Darn right.”

Mr. Dreamy spent the next five minutes
summing up each page Brad had to fill out and sign. Five minutes
later, Lisa and Brad said their good-byes and left.

Suddenly, my nerves returned as I met his
intense gape, realizing all of his attention was on me, with no one
else to distract him.

—

Cupid

I could kick my own ass right now. Rule
number one was and always is: never fall for the client. My second
rule went out the window somewhere between him introducing his
girlfriend and kissing her, right in front of his wife, who, if I
stood right now, would see that she’d given me a hard on without
even trying.

What was it about this woman? Shit. Sadly, I
could already answer that.

She was selfless. I could see on some level
that it hurt her to let go, but she did it anyways, with a smile.
Most of the couples I met spewed venom at one another until I asked
certain questions certain ways and made them think about why they
married in the first place. As the only divorce lawyer in town, a
damn good setup if I ever saw one, I could stipulate a waiting
period before I would file on their behalf. Typically I walked away
with half the fee, minus a few splurges to help the pair along, and
another couple left my office happily in love all over again.

But there would be no happily-ever-after for
Daisy with Brad. That was evident. That was bad for her and bad for
me.

She was a beautiful woman. Her lips were just
the right size to suck and nibble after she’d eaten a bit of
chocolate. I just knew she’d taste sweeter than any dessert
and-

What the hell am I doing?

I cleared my throat, giving
myself a mental shake. I passed her a legal pad and pen. “Please
list you and
your husband’s
assets and how you wish to divide them.” The
emphasis was entirely for myself. “I’ll fax a copy to his office
for final approval before I submit it.”

She shook her head in understanding and wrote
out a short list. Selfless was an understatement. I wanted to
change what she’d written. She deserved more. I didn’t know her,
but I just knew. The protective part of me roared to life, wanting
to go to battle for her, but she wasn’t asking me to.

“
Are you sure that’s what
you want?”

“
I know it doesn’t seem
like much, but it’s all that’s rightfully mine. Brad funded the
down payment for the house, and he made all of the investments from
the money his company earned. I didn’t contribute to
them.”

“
I could secure a portion
or request alimony for two years.”

She immediately declined, much to my chagrin.
“Brad being Brad, I’m sure he wouldn’t refuse, but I wouldn’t feel
right. He worked hard for that money, and with a wedding in the
near future and Lisa wanting to attend medical school next year,
he’s gonna need it.”

I raised and dropped my brows. She was
confounding. “You are one in a million, Mrs. Burke.”

She chuckled; her eyes twinkled. “If only you
could get another man to realize that for me.”

That protective instinct
roared to life again. My chest constricted as my stomach knotted.
Fire blazed through my veins, tightening my fists.
Like hell!
I didn’t want
to see or even think about her with another man.

And there in lied the problem. She was a
client that was still married, that was the perfect combo of sweet
and sassy with curves I wanted to fuck till Valentine’s Day.

I needed to get out of here. I needed to
finish this case as soon as possible. Cupid shot the arrows, but
one didn’t hit him.

I rushed through the papers, merely pointing
where she needed to sign or initial. “I’ll call you once these have
been filed.”

My balls fucking hurt. Every time she’d
leaned in to fill something in or sign her name, I caught a
tantalizing view of her cleavage. She had a healthy handful of
soft, round flesh that balanced with the rest of her and left my
mouth a little wetter and my cock even harder, much to my
dismay.

When she nervously nibbled her lips on the
last page, that was when I snapped. It was an innocent move on her
part that turned me into a horned devil. I wanted to kiss, tease
and fuck her pouty lips in the most un-polite, un-romantic way. She
made me want to break all the rules. She made me want to be a
moral-free bad boy.

Her brows creased. She grew solemn as I
stuffed the papers in my briefcase. I knew I was being rude, but
tension bound my muscles. Panic propelled me to act fast.

I slammed my briefcase shut, holding it in
front of my crotch as I stood. “It was a pleasure, Mrs. Burke.”
With a curt nod, I burned the soles of my shoes on my way out.

—

Daisy

I stared openmouthed at the empty chair
beside me, where he’d sat. Clearly I’d offended him. His
disposition changed the moment I said I wished he would convince
another man that I was a catch. I guess it was okay for Brad to
have a serious girlfriend already, but I wasn’t allowed to
insinuate finding another man would be nice. What the fuck? Talk
about a double standard.

I sighed. I always fell for the wrong ones.
My first boyfriend came out two weeks after we broke up. The next
two cheated, the fourth lied about nearly everything, the fifth
turned out to be married, - and not in the Brad and me, arrangement
way, - and the last one before I married Brad had given me a black
eye. Brad gave him one back and threatened to do more if he ever
saw him again. I think that was the moment I realized being married
to Brad wouldn’t be a bad thing. No one had ever taken care of me,
loved me, the way he did.