Authors: Cat Johnson
Opposites Attract
OPPOSITES ATTRACT
Written
by Cat Johnson
Copyright
© Cat Johnson, 2011
License
Statement
This
ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may
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please return and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting
the hard work of this author.
Opposites Attract
A
Romantic Comedy Trilogy by Cat Johnson
TAKING
A LEAP
Bradley
Morgan is the quintessential computer geek and nice guy, through and
through. The only problem is that in his opinion, nice guys almost
always finish last when it comes to hot women like his sexy co-worker
Alyssa Jones. But things change after Alyssa finds her boyfriend
cheating. Suddenly, nice guys like Brad don't look so bad. So when
Brad agrees to ghostwrite the sex scenes for a romance novel as a
favor for desperate client Maria White and asks for Alyssa's help
after hours, she agrees wholeheartedly and things really start to
heat up. Brad and Alyssa learn you should never judge a book by its
cover and that sometimes love requires a leap of faith.
LIGHT
MY FIRE
Amy
Gerald's life is filled with whirlwind romance. Unfortunately, it's
all on the pages of the romance novels she publishes. That is until
she volunteers to cat-sit for her friend Maria White and meets Troy
O'Donnell, the hunky fireman who lives next door. The problem is,
this commitment-phobic consummate bachelor is far more willing to run
into a burning building than allow love into his life. Troy will
grasp at any excuse, even the ridiculous assumption that Amy is a
lesbian, just to avoid his growing feelings for her. Amid a comedy of
errors and misunderstandings, which includes Troy's first hilarious
visit to a gay bar, Amy manages to light Troy's fire, but can she
also conquer his fears?
SECOND
TIME AROUND
Antonio
Sanchez thought that at 32 his life was all mapped out—wife,
kids, career—until some major bumps in the road radically alter
his course and send him careening right into the path of newly
divorced Maddie Morgan. After being thrust back into single life,
Antonio moves back in with his old-fashioned parents and has to learn
to juggle being a part-time dad to his kids, his job at the firehouse
and his role as Best Man for his newly engaged best friend Troy, all
in addition to facing his unquenchable desire for Maddie. Throw in a
slew of matchmaking friends and relatives, led by Maria whose
apartment appears to be the Bermuda Triangle for floundering lovers
and Antonio and Maddie discover just how complicated things can get.
Can the pair prove that love really is better the second time around?
This
book has been previously published. It has been edited for rerelease.
Table of
Contents
Taking
A Leap
Light
My Fire
Second
Time Around
TAKING
A LEAP
Chapter 1
Bradley
Morgan took off his smudged glasses and rubbed his eyes. How many
hours had he been sitting, staring at the never-ending lists of code
on the green tinted screen of his computer? To know that, he’d
have to actually know what time it was. He glanced outside. No
surprise, it was dark. It was February. It was always dark. It was
dark when he left his apartment in the morning and dark when he
finally got home at night.
He
stood and winced as his legs protested. Looking around he saw the
office was dark too, except for the glow of his screen and the dim
light of the desk lamp in his cubicle. The other cubes were all
empty. He was totally alone in the large office. Even the night
janitor had come and gone hours ago.
Usually Brad
liked the solitude of working late. It was easier to concentrate when
everyone else was gone, particularly Alyssa, the hottie who sat in
the next cube. From the minute she arrived in the morning, she would
talk and talk and talk. She barely sat before she would slip her
phone headset over her shiny chestnut hair and start the never-ending
chatter, usually to her friend Jane. He knew that because as much as
he tried to block out the conversations, he couldn't because she
sounded all breathy and sexy when she lowered her voice and tried to
whisper into the phone.
He
shook his head. She must actually think no one else in the office
could hear her when she whispered. Well, he heard her and her voice
strummed every nerve in his body as he wondered what she would sound
like whispering in his ear in bed. Yeah, like
that
would ever
happen. He laughed out loud at that thought. All she talked
about to her friend Jane was some guy named Jake, whom Brad assumed
was Alyssa’s boyfriend.
Jake.
Now there was a manly name. Jake probably drove a vintage Harley
and wore black leather pants and two hundred dollar sunglasses. Jake
was probably a body builder who bench-pressed like five hundred
pounds and could snap Brad like a twig.
Brad
scowled. Even if Alyssa hadn’t had a boyfriend, Brad knew
better than to think he had a chance with a babe like her. Her outfit
on any given day probably cost more than his car. Like last month,
for one entire week she was on the phone trying to buy something
she called a Birken bag. It finally drove Brad crazy enough that he
asked the receptionist at the front desk what the hell it was.
Apparently it was
the
accessory to have and very hard to come
by, even if you had the five thousand dollars to buy it.
Five-freaking-thousand. Unbelievable.
He
glanced down at his own now wrinkled and stained khakis and blue
button-down shirt with frayed cuffs. A male model he wasn’t.
And he drove an old VW bug, ripped ragtop, rust and all. He could
afford a new car, but his bug was great on gas and he felt kind of
sentimental about it since it was the first car he bought for himself
right after graduating college. Besides, it was a classic. No,
he was not someone Alyssa would want to be seen with. As far as
accessories went, he was no Birken bag.
Yeah,
he definitely got more work done when Alyssa and her sexy voice
weren’t in the office. But tonight, it would have been nice if
someone had been around, anyone, so he could celebrate his
victory over the latest computer virus. But he wouldn’t have
been able to tell anyone about it anyway. His boss had given him the
assignment with the strict understanding that he tell no one about
what he was doing.
The
secrecy was understandable and he was used to it. He’d worked
on more than a few top-secret projects and signed more
confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements than he could count in
his years in the tech field. He’d worked day and night to rid a
local investment firm’s system of a particularly nasty virus.
At the client’s request, he’d done it all in complete
isolation from his co-workers to protect the company’s
confidentiality.
But
now he was finally done. He removed the disk containing his final
work and popped it into an envelope to be messengered in the morning
to the client’s office. Then he backed up another copy on a
separate disk as insurance. Finally, he emailed the file to the
client’s network administrator, who was ripping his hair out
waiting for this very fix so he could have the network up and running
and secure again before the employees arrived in the morning. It
would be a long night for that guy, but at least Brad’s night
was over.
He
finally noticed the time in the lower right hand corner of his
computer screen. 2:13a.m. Jeez. No wonder he was so tired. He was
exhausted and bleary eyed as he caught a whiff of something nasty. It
was either the leftover Chinese food from lunch sitting on the corner
of his desk or him. He sniffed his armpit. It had been a while since
he’d showered, or brushed his teeth, come to think of it. He
logged off of his computer, stood and pitched the leftovers into
the trash bin under his desk.
Time
to go home. He was just grabbing his jacket off the back of his chair
when the night phone ringing loudly made him jump. A
receptionist manned the switchboard during the day, but when she was
gone, the phone rang throughout the office so anyone who was still
working could answer it from his or her desk.
He
sighed. He could let the call go into voicemail. The
receptionist would retrieve the message in the morning and get back
to whoever it was. But then a sickening thought struck him. What if
it was the network admin he’d just emailed and there was a
problem with the file? He dove for the phone.
“
Computer
Geeks-R-Us. If you’ve got a problem, we’ve got a geek who
can fix it. This is Bradley speaking. Can I help you?” He
cringed at the name of the company and the official greeting they
were all supposed to use. Although, considering it was after two in
the morning, he could have probably forgone the requirement without
any ramifications.
“
Thank
God you’re still open. I have an emergency. You have to help
me.” The woman sounded frantic. Now he knew how those 911
operators felt when they took emergency calls.
“
Okay.
Calm down. Tell me exactly what happened.” What the hell kind
of computer emergency could this be in the middle of the night?