Looking for Love (Boxed set) by Rita Herron Page A

interest piqued. "Really?"
    "And I'm thinking about jumping his bones. Even if he doesn't hang around afterwards."
    Colleen's eyes lit up, then she seemed to rethink the situation and frowned. "Mark will kill Zack if he hurts you."
    Jenna gave up on the sugar packets and cradled her head in her hands. "No, I don't want him to interfere."
    "Does Zack know how you feel?"
    "It doesn't matter," Jenna wailed. "He's so phobic about commitment that after he kissed me, he totally freaked and ran."
    Colleen nodded knowingly. "But you're falling in love with him anyway?"
    Jenna's lower lip quivered. "Yes. Good lord, what am I going to do?"
    Colleen sighed worriedly. "I could ask Mark to talk to him."
    "No," Jenna said in a panic. "I don't want everyone to know what an idiot I am!"
    "You're not an idiot." Colleen took another bite of cake. "But maybe Mark could help. I think Zack's anti-marriage theories have a lot to do with his parents."
    "He mentioned them and the divorce and his stepmothers," Jenna admitted. "Have you met either one of them?"
    Colleen nodded. "Believe it or not, they both showed up at the wedding. And let me tell you—Mark and Zack did not grow up with the Brady Bunch."
    "They didn't even have an Alice?"
    "Not even an Alice."
    "It's understandable that he's jaded," Jenna admitted. "I guess some guys were meant to be bachelors and he's one of them."
    Colleen wound a strand of her brown hair around her finger. "Just hang in there one more week, Jen. That friend of mine, Blair, will be back and I'm setting the two of you up. You'll be perfect together."
    "I don't care if we're perfect," Jenna said in despair. "As long as he can make me forget Zack."
    * * *
    Zack was totally miserable.
    Dammit. He knew he should be happy Jenna had put a stop to their lovemaking, but his body still ached, not only from the eight miles he'd just run, but for Jenna.
    His mind whirled with reasons they should be together. Lust, passion, hunger—the sex would probably make the earth shake and all that other romantic stuff women liked.
    But no, Jenna had to be reasonable—and nice, and smart, and sweet, and sexy as hell.
    He even liked her.
    Which would be great if she was homely. But she wasn't. She was the kind of woman that got under a man's skin and stayed there. The kind who made him consider more than one night.
    The dangerous kind who could hurt him.
    Anger wormed itself into his conscious as he contemplated her husband hunt—would she fall apart in another man's arms the way she had his? He ground his teeth together at the mere thought of her kissing another man. No way.
    Dragging his weary body up the steps to his apartment, he let himself in, stripped off his sweaty running clothes and tossed them into the washing machine, then opened the new box of soap, complements of his potential client. Washburn's Laundry Detergent—they were calling it Crystal White for now. The stuff smelled like spoiled lemon pudding and reminded him how much he hated doing laundry.
    So how the hell was he supposed to think of some catchy logo for washing powder? Especially when the name, Crystal White sounded more like a soft drink than a soap. They needed to name it Tornado or Hurricane, something catchy and strong, something a man wouldn't mind putting into his shopping cart. Only a woman or a wuss would buy soap named Crystal White.
    Padding naked to the shower, he lathered his chest, his arms and legs, wishing he could cleanse Jenna's scent and sexy, sweet eyes from his mind the way he could wash the grime from his body.
    But no, he had a feeling she'd conquered his heart somehow and he'd have a gaping hole left there when his business with her was finished. He towel-dried, pulled on a pair of boxers, grabbed a beer and a two-day-old slice of pizza from the fridge and bit into it while he pulled out his sketchpad.
    He could not have Jenna Barrett. No one-night stand, no fling, because she wanted it all. He couldn't make empty promises the way his