Playing With Fire (Excerpt Only) - BWWM Interracial Romance

Playing with Fire (Chapter 3)

CHAPTER THREE: NEW BEGINNINGS

A ringing phone entered Janet's dream and she eventually realized it wasn't actually part of it and drifted awake, grabbing her cell from her nightstand. So much for sleeping in on a Saturday.

Liz's name shouted at her from the screen.

She tried to remember if they had planned anything for the day, her brain still fogged by sleep.

She decided to answer the call.

"Hello?"

"So what did I miss?" Liz sounded excited.

"What do you mean?"

"At the reception! What else?"

"Oh. It was just..."

"Don't even, girl—I glimpsed the fresh meat. Who is he?"

Janet sighed heavily.

"Girl..." Janet dragged the word out the same way Liz had done herself the night before; she didn't know where to begin.

"Okay, this sounds good. You want to meet up for lunch? You know what? Bump that. I'm heading over."

Janet felt relieved and worried all at once. She wondered what she should say to Liz about the events of the previous day—should she tell her about David's second break-in? About her deep attraction to Eric? About how afraid she was that she saw Eric as the one when he probably saw her as the next one, for now?

A guy like him couldn't possibly be a one-woman man—it wouldn't make sense for him to be anything but a confirmed, lifelong bachelor—like Hefner or DiCaprio. He might not have their kind of money, but his looks alone could probably get him a different woman every night for the rest of his life—why would he settle down with her?

Oh my god, what's wrong with me? Janet thought. Her engagement hadn't been broken off a month, yet here she was with thoughts of settling down with some other guy on her mind. And for real this time. And she hardly even knew the guy!

She couldn't deny it; settling down and raising a family was what she wanted more than anything—it was what she had always wanted ever since she could remember, and probably part of why it had been easy to convince herself that saying yes to David's proposal was the right thing to do.

Her parents had been happily married, and although she had single aunts who seemed happy being single, she still always wanted the married life—definitely since the age of thirteen when she fantasized about what her husband and future family would look like. Then there that guy was, right out of her teenaged fantasy, walking into an elevator.

The resemblance between Eric and her dream guy from fourteen years ago was uncanny—so much so that she briefly wondered if she could have dreamed him into life.

There you go again, being irrational and downright crazy. Shut the emotions down, girl—your brain's getting fried. She couldn't risk getting illogical over some guy. Still, she knew it was useless to try to stop them—emotions had a stronger current than logic and she knew she would get pulled into Eric's whirlpool and welcomed it.

Although she had made a pledge to herself to keep abstinent and still had another sixty-eight days, Eric had certainly walked in at the right time. She needed the promise in his eyes.

She only hoped he was the right man after all.

* * *

When Liz arrived, Janet felt giddy with excitement, finally ready to tell her everything.