Read Online Cupid's Mistake by Chantilly White - Free Book Online

and flat on his back ground to a halt,
all her imaginings altered in one breath. All men wanted to ask her out. All straight men, anyway. What the hell was
he talking about?
    Eyes narrowed, challenge vibrating from every fiber in her
body, she drew herself up to her full height. "I beg your pardon?"
     
     

CHAPTER
FIVE
     
    Frustrated, Ben stared into her slitted gaze, wishing he
knew how to say the words without coming off like an idiot, or worse, a total
pussy. He'd already offended her, and kissing her had been a monumental
mistake, because all he wanted to do was kiss her again. Probably the idiot
avenue was safest, gauging by the slow-rising flush of anger in her porcelain
cheeks.
    When in doubt, play dumb.
    "Look, the Cupid thing was Sally's idea—"
    "You mean she forced you? Put a gun to your head to
make you ask me out?"
    "—I didn't even know who I was meeting
today."
    Allison drew back another step. If he'd thought her big blue
eyes were narrowed before, that was nothing to the tiny, feral slashes of color
they shrank to now. Her long, silky black lashes cast shadows across her
cheekbones, all but concealing the dangerous gleam of her eyes. He'd seen a
jaguar do that in the jungle once. Right before it pounced.
    "Are you complaining?" she asked, the steel in her
tone sharp enough to run him through.
    Ben slashed a hand in front of himself. "No," he
said, "not at all. At all, Allison," he added when her mouth
flat-lined.
    "Oh, good," she answered. "So you're okay with
the woman who was foisted on you against your will."
    If he'd been on the battlefield, he might have sounded the
retreat in the face of her expression. Warning lights flashed in his mind.
    Proceed with caution.
    "Look, I saw you at your party. You weren't too
thrilled with me, and I knew from looking at you that—" He broke off
a moment too late, kicking himself for taking that path.
    Allison latched on to his mistake. "That what?
Exactly."
    Shit.
    "I didn't know you, okay? You struck me as. . ."
He was digging the hole deeper, he knew it, but he couldn't seem to stop the
words. "As a bit. . . high maintenance, which isn't really, you know, my
usual type. Gorgeous, clearly, but—"
    "High maintenance."
    Ben waved his hand down her length, disregarding the ice
crackling in her voice and the warning lights shooting to DEFCON-one in his
head. "Look at yourself. You're a princess if I ever saw one. Princesses
aren't low maintenance. It's in the rule book."
    "And you don't do high maintenance."
    "I don't—it was just. . ." Crap . "First impression, okay? Stupid. You formed
one of me. How accurate were you?"
    Nodding slowly, she scanned him up and down with those
flashing eyes like burning blue flames, ready to incinerate him in a single
burst of heat. "I thought you were a vagrant."
    Ouch. Okay. "Exactly. We were both wrong, so we should
just get past it. We wouldn't even be here if Sally hadn't coerced me into
joining Cupid's—"
    "I see," she said, cutting him off through lips as
tightly compressed as her eyes. "You're letting a woman you haven't seen
in years run your love life and make all your decisions because you're either
too chicken or too lazy to do it yourself, is that it?"
    Chicken was woman-speak for pussy, he knew that much. Damn
it.
    "I—"
    "Did she help you play dress-up, too?" she
continued. "Get you all spiffed up?"
    That cut a little too close to home. He'd meant Sally's
interference to be a good thing—saving them from their preconceived
notions so they'd have a chance to get to know each other when they probably
wouldn't have otherwise. Allison had turned it all around on him, and never
mind that he hadn't intended to pursue getting to know her any further. That
kiss had changed everything.
    Raking his hands through his hair, Ben sought a way to get
back on track, but Allison was picking up steam.
    Waggling her manicured thumb between the two of them, she
said, "How did this even happen? How did you get to me? How—"
    Pacing now,