Excerpt of Her Stand-In Boyfriend by Kelly Jamieson

All through college, and even after, she’d dated other
guys. Every time she’d started seeing someone, it was
like a knife stabbing into his gut. Watching her flirt
and hold hands and kiss guys, seeing her sit on their
laps at parties and make out had made him nuts. He’d
dealt with it by dating other girls, telling himself he’d
find someone else, which had never been fair to the other
girls because it was never going to happen, as he’d come
to realize.

Maybe it would happen if he stayed the hell away from
Lexi. But she wanted to be friends, and he was weak when
it came to her, as helpless as an addict who needed a
fix.

He didn’t bother going home to change after work since
she’d insisted on him wearing a suit. The car service he
used dropped him off at her apartment, and he asked the
driver to wait.

Lexi opened the door, and he took one look at her in some
sparkly, shimmery ivory dress that hugged every curve,
swallowed, and said, “Hey. Got any beer?”
“Pre-gaming?” She moved to the fridge.

He followed behind her, his gaze tracking from her bright
coppery hair down over that hot little body and long,
sleek legs. “Got a problem with that?”
“Not at all.” She opened the fridge door and bent over.

Christ. Her dress stretched over her ass, cupping it and
displaying it most excellently. His dick instantly
hardened, as usual. Then she rose and turned, and damn,
he had to jerk his gaze away from her ass fast. Shit.
She’d noticed him ogling her.

But as usual, for her it was no big deal. She grinned.
“Like my dress?” She walked toward him in bare feet and
handed him the beer.

“It’s very…sparkly.” He took the beer, twisted off the
cap, and lifted it to his lips, guzzling with near
desperate
haste. “You look like a Christmas ornament.”

She gave a shocked gasp. “What? A Christmas ornament?”
She looked down at herself.

Hell. He did this all the time. He wanted to tell her
that she was so f**king gorgeous she blew his f**king
mind. Instead, what came out was an insult. He forced a
grin, used to this game. “Kidding. It’s nice.”

“Nice? Huh.” Her smile went crooked. “Two hundred dollars
worth of nice. And that was on sale. But thanks.”

It was a simple dress—round neckline, cap sleeves, ivory
color. It was the way it fit that made it sexy, hugging
her body all the way down to right above the knees.
Swirls of sequins and beaded ribbons, all in clear or
ivory, made her shimmer.

“I guess I have time for a drink, too,” she said.

“Sure.” Mac wandered over to sit on her couch. “Car
service is waiting downstairs.”

“I thought you said we’d take a taxi.”

“Car service. Taxi. Whatever.”

She smiled and shook her head at him. She liked to bug
Mac about his money. To him it was no big deal.

With a glass of wine in hand, she sat beside him on the
couch. The snug dress rode up a little on smooth thighs,

attracting his attention yet again. And again, he dragged
his gaze off her gorgeous legs.

“I can’t eat anything tonight,” she remarked.

He lifted an eyebrow. “Why not?”

“Well, A, the dress is tight.”

“I hadn’t noticed,” he murmured.

“And B, it’s ivory. You know what I’m like.”

“True. White wine it is.”

Lexi had an entirely deserved reputation for spilling
things on herself. And on anyone standing near enough to
be in the danger zone. He and her other friends liked to
tease her and exaggerate it, but she totally made fun of
herself, too.

“You look nice.” Her gaze skimmed over his charcoal suit.
He’d lost the tie after his last meeting of the day, and
his dark shirt was now open at the collar.

“Thanks,” he said dryly. She could do understatement as
well as he could. Except she was being real, and he was
desperately trying to keep his tongue from hanging out of
his mouth.

“Why did you have such a bad week?”

“Lots of shit going on.” His shoulders tensed briefly,
and he looked at his beer.

“Tell me.”

“Well, for one thing, Justin quit.” Justin Karp was one
his best developers.

She blinked. “Whoa. Why?”

Mac shrugged and leaned back. “Better offer somewhere
else.” He knew his voice held an edge. He and his
business partners took pride in keeping their staff long
term, which wasn’t the norm in the tech biz where people
bounced around like pinballs, sometimes ending back at
the same company multiple times. “Wish he’d talked to us
before he took the job.”

“Yeah. Shit. What are you going to do? Promote someone
else? Recruit from outside?”

“Not sure yet. Pete and I spent half the day talking
about it and looking at who we already have working for
us. We have lots of talented people.”

“Yeah. You do. And you guys have a great reputation.”

He shrugged. Lately there’d been a bunch of blog articles
written about him and the company, sometimes with other
successful young entrepreneurs under thirty years old.
When he’d first graduated from college he’d worked for a
big web developer for a while, then started his own
business. Centric was an online media company and
information provider that created content for web
professionals—developers, designers, programmers,
freelancers, and website owners. Since then, his business
had spun off several others—a graphic design studio, a
firm that bought and sold websites, and a company that
developed web and mobile applications. Now they had
people knocking on their door looking for opportunities
to work with them.

“But you have HR people now, right?” she continued.

“They’ll help with hiring.”

“Yeah. But you know I’ll need to be involved.”

She smiled as her lips touched the rim of her wine glass.

“Really? I can’t believe that.”

He turned his head and gave her a narrow-eyed look, but
they both ended up laughing.