Mr. Hotness
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Mr. Hotness
Copyright 2016 by Marci Baun
ISBN: 978-1-61333-944-2
Cover art by Tibbs Designs
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work, in whole or in part, in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.
Published by Decadent Publishing Company, LLC
Look for us online at:
www.decadentpublishing.com
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Dear Reader,
The first time I read a Virgins Series 1Night Stand, I walked away with a huge smile on my face. After the second one, my author brain churned with questions. How old could a woman in the States last as a virgin in this day and age? If she managed to stay a virgin past college, why? From there, the plot unfolded. As I wrote, I fell in love with Naia and Joe and the entire story. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.
I love to hear from my readers. If you’d like to chat with me, email me at marci@marcibaun.com.
Marci
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Mr. Hotness
Not only is Naia Solo a single mom with her own business, she’s also a twenty-nine-year-old virgin. There just isn't the time to find a man, not even for sex, or so she says. But when her best friend, Liz, talks her into a 1Night Stand, Naia decides a night of no-strings-attached sex just might be the answer.
Joe Harlow is a workaholic. He's spent the past 8 years so buried in work building his business his fiancée left him. When he’s invited to a bachelor party in Vegas for his best friend, he rearranges his schedule to make it. It doesn’t take long for him to figure out he’s been set up.
Neither is looking for a relationship, but they can’t deny the connection between them. Will Madame Eve’s arrow strike again? Or will this 1Night Stand be just that?
Mr. Hotness
A 1Night Stand Story
By
Marci Baun
Chapter One
“Hey, Aunt Naia.”
Naia looked up from her laptop and smiled at her niece, Megan. “Hey. Did you have a good day at school?”
Megan set her backpack on the dining room table across from her aunt and pulled out her fifth grade math book. “Uh-huh,” she said without looking up. “Samantha asked me if I could go with her up to her grandmother’s over Memorial Day weekend, if it’s okay with you.”
“That’s three nights and three days. You good with that?” Naia asked, unsure if she could handle that. Although her niece slept over with friends pretty frequently, she’d never stayed for three days.
The look Megan gave her said it all.
“Well, if it’s okay with you, it’s okay with me.”
Her niece was growing up. The past few months had seen big changes in her. No longer the little girl she’d adopted upon her sister’s death nine years ago, Megan had sprouted at least three inches since December, and her body showed the first signs of puberty. Naia didn’t know if she was ready for all that entailed, including the attitude creeping in with the hormones.
Megan set down her pencil and grinned at her, a hint of mischief in her hazel eyes. “So what are you going to do while I’m away?”
Moments like this, she looked exactly like her mother and was just as beautiful. Dark-brown hair framed her slender, oval face and fell over her shoulders in large, loose waves. Even the tapered fingers she rested her chin on could’ve been her mom’s.
Naia blinked and looked away. Despite the passage of time, the pain from her older sister, Alaia’s death lingered. Most days, she could forget it and just enjoy her niece. Some days….
Swallowing the tears, she smiled and blinked away the burn in her eyes. “I don’t know. I just found out. When would I have had time to consider something?” She thought about a three-day weekend without Megan. Loneliness welled up, but she buried it and shrugged as if it didn’t matter. “Probably work.”
“You should go on a date. You know, like Aunt Liz did. What was the name of that company? The one where she met Uncle Brandon?”
“1Night Stand,” Naia said. Heat flushed her cheeks. Crap! She didn’t want her niece to know about that kind of stuff, not yet anyway.
Megan didn’t seem fazed by the name. Apparently, her friends hadn’t stolen her innocence yet, and she still didn’t know what it meant. Instead, her eyes lit with recognition. “That’s it. You should totally do it. I told Aunt Liz I thought so, too.”
“What?”
“Yeah. She thinks it’s a great idea.”
“I bet she does,” Naia grumbled.
Her best friend had spent the past nine years trying to set her up with different men. Naia wasn’t interested. Being a single mom and running her own successful web design business ate up all of her time. She didn’t need some man demanding she put him before everything else. She’d tried finding someone via the Internet dating sites a few years ago. They either wanted sex immediately—not happening—thought she’d be their sugar mama—also not happening—or ran as soon as they realized she had a kid.
No, they were fine the way they were.
“I don’t need a man,” she said, ending the conversation.
***
“You need a man,” Liz told her two days later over lunch. “You need to pop that cherry and be done with it.”
Naia glanced around to see if anyone was listening. One word from her would encourage her friend to more extreme behavior. Perhaps, if she ignored Liz’s statement, she’d get the hint. The thought of going on a date opened a pit in her stomach.
“Seriously, you just need to be done with it.” Liz took a bite of her sandwich and stared at her, waiting for a response.
Sighing, Naia caved. “Maybe, but if I’m going to do it, I don’t want it to interfere with my life. I don’t want a r
elationship. I don’t want to see him afterward. Most importantly, I don’t want it to affect Megan or my business. Things are going really well right now. However, if I could get some mind-blowing sex without all of that, I’d go for it.” That should settle it.
“You want a ‘wham bam thank you, ma’am’ kind of thing? Then why haven’t you just done it with those Internet dudes?” her friend asked, smirking.
“I—”
“Yeah, I don’t believe you. The reason you’ve remained a virgin this whole time is because of that stupid douche bag in our freshman year of college. What was his name?”
Oh, Liz knew his name, but she’d refused to say it for the past eleven years. “Mason. His name was Mason Townsend. And, no, he’s not the reason.” He was the reason. His betrayal had hurt, although it’d lessened over time. Naia still didn’t trust men. “I just don’t have time. They want too much and are too demanding. I already have one child. I don’t need another.”
Liz snorted. “Not all men are like him. Take Brandon, for instance.”
“Brandon is perfect, I know. He’s one in a million. Most men I’ve met—”
Liz grabbed her hand. “Stop it. You’ve met very few men because you hole yourself up at home and hide behind that damn computer. Every possible decent man is picked apart. You don’t go out, and you use Megan as an excuse not to meet anyone. One day, you’ll wake up to find Megan in college, and you’ll be alone.”
“I’m fine—”
“No, you’re not. Maybe you don’t need a man to feel important or be happy. But having the right man enhances your life in so many ways. It’s really nice to have someone to share things with.”
“I have you,” Naia said.
“And you’ll always have me, but I just want you to have more. I want you to have what I have with Brandon.” Her expression grew dreamy. “He’s wonderful, sweet, and amazing in bed.” She blinked and focused on Naia again. “What I have with him is different than what I have with you—not that you are any less important, but the difference is hard to explain to someone who’s never had it.” Her friend leaned back, frowned, and took another bite of her lunch. “Anyway, I won’t pressure you into it, but if you’re looking for no strings attached, 1Night Stand is the way to go. You can even say so when you register. Madame Eve is amazing, and the hotels are top of the line.”
“Fine. I’ll register, but I won’t like it.”
Liz’s delighted laugh tinkled through the restaurant, turning heads. The pit in Naia’s stomach yawned into a chasm.
***
“Whatcha doing?”
Megan’s voice startled Naia out of her brain freeze. With a click of a key, she switched screens before the preteen could see the 1Night Stand questionnaire she’d been staring at for at least an hour. Some of the questions had made Naia blush. Some she didn’t really know how to answer. Most, she didn’t want her inquisitive niece to see. The thought of the conversation they’d have after that sent a shudder through her.
“Just working on a website.”
Which was true, if not completely true.
Her narrow shoulders drooped. “Oh. I was hoping you’d have it set up by now. Aunt Liz said she talked to you.”
Naia frowned and swallowed her anger. A discussion with Liz loomed on the horizon, but it’d have to wait. She focused on her niece and let the anger dissipate. Liz deserved the tongue-lashing, not Megan.
“Come here.”
She patted the couch next to her. Megan joined her and snuggled against her.
“What’s going on? Why is this so important to you?” Naia asked.
Her niece sighed and wrapped her arms around her. “I just want you to be happy.”
Naia leaned back and raised an eyebrow. “That’s all?”
Her niece nodded.
“Really? That’s sweet, but I am happy.”
“No, I want you to be Aunt Liz happy. I want you to have someone besides me.”
“I don’t need anyone besides you.”
“Right….” Megan drew out the word as only a preteen can. She scooted away from her aunt. “Sharna’s older sister, Emma, is going to college in the fall. As excited as Emma is, their mom’s a bit sad. We can see it. She tries hard to hide it, but she is. But Mrs. Anderson has her husband. He’ll be there when their kids have left. I want you to have someone like that.”
“Oh, sweetie, we still have seven years before you go to college. There’s time.” She kissed the top of Megan’s head and hugged her. She was so sweet. Tears pricked at her eyes. She didn’t want to think about the day her niece grew up and moved away. Time enough for that.
“Maybe, but you never date, so you’ll never meet anyone.” Megan turned beseeching eyes up to her. “Please do it.”
“I was working on it when you came in.”
“Can I see it?”
“What? No! I mean, no. Um, there are a lot of adult questions not meant for children’s eyes.”
Her eyes gleamed. “Like what?”
“Nothing I’m going to share with you.” She stood and shooed her niece to the door. “Now, go.”
“I want to see.”
She shook her head. “No. I won’t finish it at all if you don’t leave. However, if you go, I’ll get it done and send it today.”
“You promise?”
Naia grimaced. She’d been lying, but if she promised, she’d have to do it today. She never broke her word. “Fine. I promise.”
“Yay,” her niece squealed and hugged her tight before rushing to the door, her grin lighting up the room. “I’ll see you at dinner.”
She disappeared out the door, and Naia turned back to her laptop and the dreaded questionnaire. With renewed determination, she tackled the form and sent it off.
Chapter Two
Joe Harlow rolled his shoulders to ease some of the tight knots around his neck. It’d been a long day on the job site. The rain had delayed their progress over the past couple of days, and they’d worked a few more hours laying the concrete blocks for the new superstore scheduled to open in six short months. They desperately needed to catch up.
He leaned his head against the chair, propping his feet on his desk. Fatigue weighed heavily on him. He’d just close his eyes for a second. With Monday a holiday, Tuesday was going to be another long day.
“Mr. Harlow.”
Someone shook his shoulder.
“Mr. Harlow?”
The voice of Melinda Shaw, his office manager, penetrated his sleep-fogged brain. He cracked his eyes open and sighed.
“It’s five o’clock. Don’t you have a plane to catch?”
At the mention of the plane, he jumped out of the chair. “Shit!”
Melinda’s eyes widened behind her wire-rimmed glasses. Joe rarely cussed in front of the plump, grandmotherly woman. A bit of a prude, but very efficient and good at her job, his assistant frowned.
“I’m sorry, Melinda. It’s been a long week.”
“Quite all right, Mr. Harlow, but I think you’ll want to leave now if you intend on catching your flight.”
Running his fingers through his hair, he nodded. “Thank you. I appreciate it. I’d completely forgotten.”
“It’s been a long week, sir. I’ll see you Tuesday. Enjoy your weekend.”
“Thanks. I will,” he said, thinking of the upcoming weekend with his buddies and grinning.
The gray-haired woman smiled and left. He grabbed his packed bag and followed her out.
Three hours later, an airline attendant’s voice announced, “Thank you for traveling with Virgin America. We hope you enjoy your stay in Las Vegas.”
Joe rubbed his eyes and yawned. The hour and a half flight had sped by. Sleeping did that. It also kept chatty travelers at bay. The man next to him stood and opened the overhead compartment. Several of the other passengers did the same thing. A long line formed as people jockeyed for position to disembark.
Rather than
stand and be part of the mayhem, he waited patiently for the crowd to thin before he rose to gather his bag from the overhead. He pulled on the strap, but the bag didn’t budge. Another tug still didn’t free the bag. Reaching up into the bin, he felt around to see if he could find the problem. One of the feet was stuck in a groove. He lifted and bumped into someone behind him.
He turned with an apologetic smile, and his eyes widened. The most beautiful woman he’d ever seen stood before him. Dark-brown hair contrasted with smooth, creamy skin. Startled gray-blue eyes stared up at him. Soft, pink lips beckoned to be kissed. A light floral scent teased his senses.
The bag dropped from his hands and tumbled into her, knocking her off balance. She fell backward, and he lurched forward to stop her descent but tripped over his bag and landed on top of her with an “oof.”
“Sir? Ma’am? Are you all right?” someone asked.
“Uh….” he said.
He bent his knee to get up, but it collided with her leg.
“Ouch!” The woman flinched and wiggled beneath him. Her soft curves pressed against him, and he relaxed into her, instinctively wanting to get closer. She pushed against his chest. “I can’t breathe. Get off me.”
Reining in his errant libido, Joe pushed against the floor on either side of her shoulders with his hands.
“Ouch! That’s my hair.”
He cringed at her second yelp of pain and dropped back down on her. “I’m sorry. How am I supposed to get up without hurting you?”
“I don’t know, but you’d better do it soon. You’re crushing me.” She shoved at him again.
The narrowness of the aisle, her body between him and the floor, his raging hormones, and hair that seemed to be everywhere impeded his attempts to rise.
“Can you spread your legs?”