A feisty beauty must choose between winning back Mr. Right
or giving in to Mr. Wrong.
or giving in to Mr. Wrong.
Oxford Series #4
Lauren Layne
Releasing June 13, 2017
Loveswept
New York City’s hottest bachelors are stirring up trouble in this fun, flirty Oxford Novel, as a love triangle forces a feisty beauty to choose between winning back Mr. Right or giving in to Mr. Wrong.
Taylor Carr has it all—a sleek job in advertising, a stunning Manhattan apartment, and the perfect man to share it with: Bradley Calloway. Even after Bradley dumps her for a co-worker on move-in day, Taylor isn’t worried. She’ll get her man eventually. In the meantime, she needs a new roommate. Enter Nick Ballantine, career bartender, freelance writer—and longtime pain in Taylor’s ass. Sexy in a permanent five-o’clock-shadow kind of way, Nick knows how to push Taylor’s buttons, as if he could see right through to the real her.
Nick’s always trying to fix people, and nobody could use a good fixing more than Taylor. Sure, she’s gorgeous, with mesmerizing silver eyes, but it’s her vulnerability that kills him. Now that they’re shacking up together, the chemistry is out of control. Soon they’re putting every part of their two-bedroom apartment to good use. Then Taylor’s ex comes crawling back to her, and Nick figures she’ll jump at the chance to go back to her old life—unless he fights for the best thing that ever happened to him.
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Bradley
froze when he saw her, and she was pretty sure she saw the urge to turn and run
flicker across his face.
Again
she felt a stab of disappointment. In him. And in herself for apparently having
misread him. She’d thought he was better than this.
Bradley’s
eyes moved between her and Nick, and though he didn’t look all that surprised
at seeing them bickering, his gaze grew hard as he saw Nick’s hand on Taylor’s
face.
Nick,
naturally, took his sweet time removing it, and she resisted the urge to kick
his shin.
“Morning,
Bradley,” Taylor said, pleased that her voice sounded calm and friendly. As
well it should. She’d had plenty of practice over the better part of a year
pretending that she and Bradley were nothing more than colleagues.
Other
than a few close friends who knew they were dating, they’d done a mostly decent job of hiding their romantic
relationship from coworkers. Better than she and Nick had done hiding their
antagonistic one.
“Hey,
Taylor. Nick,” Bradley said.
He
entered the room and reached for a coffee mug, turning his attention toward the
other man. “Didn’t realize you’d taken on another assignment. What for?”
“Not
sure,” Nick said, checking his watch. “Have a meeting with Cassidy in a few to
find out.”
“Here’s
hoping it’s an offsite gig that takes you far, far away. Maybe he needs someone
to cover Siberian winters,” Taylor said to Nick, even as she watched Bradley
out of the corner of her eye.
“Don’t
need to travel to find severe winter. It doesn’t get any chillier than right
here,” Nick retorted, waving his hand over her head in a storm cloud gesture.
She
shoved his hand aside, her attention still on Bradley, who was determinedly
avoiding her gaze.
Coward.
It was
going to be darn hard to get him to see reason when he wouldn’t even make eye
contact.
Nick,
ever too perceptive for his own good, noticed the tension and gave a quick look
between her and Bradley, his gaze turning speculative.
She
shot him a warning look that clearly said, Don’t.
He shot
an answering smile that clearly said, Watch me.
“Bradley,
don’t suppose you’re in the market for a roommate?” Nick asked, his voice
deceptively casual.
Bradley’s
head snapped up, and finally, finally his blue gaze collided with Taylor’s. Dammit. Why did
he have to be so beautiful? He was like a mischievous angel, all twinkling blue
eyes, dimples, a sexy cleft in his chin, dark blond wavy hair . . .
“What?”
he asked Nick distractedly, still looking at Taylor.
“Taylor
here wants to share her original crown molding with someone.”
Bradley
winced, and Taylor felt a little surge of gratitude toward Nick. He couldn’t
have known it, but it was the perfect jab. She and Bradley were both into
prewar architecture—had eaten up the broker’s description of all the building’s
original elements.
Taylor
should be sharing that crown molding with Bradley. And he damn well knew it.
His
eyes met hers in silent misery—an apology that she wasn’t quite ready to
accept. Heck, she wasn’t even ready to acknowledge it, because she had no
intention of being dumped. Not by him, not by any man.
Taylor
ignored the guilt written all over Bradley’s face as she held his gaze. “Yes,
it seems I unexpectedly have a free bedroom and more rent than I can afford. If
either of you knows anyone looking for a roommate . . .”
Bradley’s
handsome face twisted regretfully, and he set his coffee aside, taking a step
toward her, apparently forgetting—or not caring—that Nick was still in the
room.
“Taylor.
Damn it. I told you—”
“Actually,
I do,” Nick said, interrupting.
Taylor
forced her gaze away from Bradley’s pleading face toward Nick’s smug one. “You
know someone who needs a roommate?”
“Yup.”
He crossed his arms and watched her.
She
made an impatient gesture with her hand. “Who? It can’t be one of your
ex-girlfriends—I don’t want to inadvertently hear any gross details about you.
And not one of your frat-boy guy friends—my living room isn’t cut out for Call
of Duty.”
“Yeah,
because that’s all I do all day.”
She rolled
her eyes. “Okay, for real, who is it?”
His
grin was slow, sly, and the very definition of trouble. “Me.”
Lauren Layne is the New York Times bestselling author of over a dozen romantic comedies.
A former e-commerce and web marketing manager from Seattle, Lauren relocated to New York City in 2011 to pursue a full-time writing career.
She lives in midtown Manhattan with her high-school sweetheart, where she writes smart romantic comedies with just enough sexy-times to make your mother blush. In LL's ideal world, every stiletto-wearing, Kate Spade wielding woman would carry a Kindle stocked with Lauren Layne books.
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