The Off Limits Rule (It Happened in Nashville, #1)

by Sarah Adams

my soppy-lovesick heart aches at the sight. Suddenly, I will do anything for her. Absolutely anything to make her smile. I will re-enact every single romance and female empowerment movie montage I’ve ever seen where the friend takes the heroine shopping, and we will max out my credit card until we find the perfect dress that makes the special music turn on and warm lighting appear.

I pause my journey to the door and backtrack to Lucy. I stop just in front of her and smile warmly, putting my hands on her upper arms, and lean down to kiss her cheek. IT WAS A FRIENDLY KISS, DREW, SHEESH.

I want to kiss her right on her full mouth, but I refrain and let go of her instead.

“Hey, Rachel, you up for going to dinner tonight around seven at Thistle?”

Cooper…he’s infiltrated my mind. Weaseled his Baywatch body and dazzling smile into my subconscious and bench-pressed the standard I used to measure men against.

prostitutes.

burly

sophisticated

reprieve

enticing,

I’m stellar!

overindulge

sustenance.”

egotistical,

“Because it’s not real. In life, the guy doesn’t wait a hundred years for the most romantic moment to kiss the girl.

Tahiti.

Spidey

seductive

I sink down to my knees and look her directly in the eyes, brushing her hair behind her ear and noting how fragile and vulnerable she looks right now.

ambiguity

lament.”

contorting.

solidarity.

crippling.

Cooperville.

Preposterous.”

“Cooper…I…am sort of, kind of having feelings for you, and I want to know if maybe you’re having them for me too.”

I reach out and wrap my arms around her, pulling her in tightly to my chest. I hold her close and want to squeeze her because sometimes this woman is just so innocent and unaware of how desirable she is that I can’t take it. She’s going to give me diabetes she’s so sweet.

Every cell in my body aches for her.

“No, Lucy, I don’t do that for lots of women—or any women, for that matter. I did it b...

chauvinistic

lands

smolder

singe

suave

“What if he’s never okay with it?” “Then we’ll become Romeo and Juliet.” “They both die in the end.”

“You’re going to be trouble, aren’t you?” “Tempting, dangerous trouble,”

kissing her directly on those lips I’ve been dreaming about since I met her.

coherent

devouring

He smells like cologne today—nothing intense, just professional and clean and attractive. I tunnel in on this kiss—our lips, our breath, his scent—and I lock my arms tightly around him.

off-limits rule—but

Baby-Sitters-Club

“I’m not sure where you took your seduction classes, but I think you should get your money back.”

“I’m not your wingwoman tonight. I’m your wingclipper.”

deterrent.”

“Hey, beautiful, I’m almost to your place. Traffic was terrible.”

“Awwwww, hello to you too, handsome.”

Let’s do this, Marshall.”

secluded