Excerpt of Double Down by Victoria Pratt

It took me approximately two hours to get ready for my
date, a fact that the cop in me found more than a little
mortifying. I told myself it was because I didn’t know
what the date entailed. I mean, “ready for action” could
be interpreted so many different ways. I hadn’t been this
excited about a date in a very long time, which actually
made the situation even more appalling. After all, this
wasn’t even a real date, and in my head I knew that...

Unfortunately, everything from the neck down felt
conflicted on the matter. The sad fact was Lorenzo
Polonco, despite his sketchy lineage, was kind of a
catch, and even though I’d led him to believe I was a
down-and-out stripper, he seemed to feel the same way
about me. I hated to admit it, but it made me feel good,
a deep-down solid good. Perhaps it wouldn’t be the
biggest disaster in history if I let myself enjoy a bit
of harmless physical stuff, as long as my heart didn’t
get involved. The heart had terrible instincts.

Left untethered, it would follow the vagina to the brink
of disaster, like a rudderless boat caught up in a
riptide.

I shook my head and chuckled. I was getting ahead of
myself. Things hadn’t progressed that far, and for all I
knew, maybe they never would. Anyway, I was a big girl
and perfectly capable of steering my flailing heart away
from the abyss.