Tempting Me: A Bad Boy Romance by Roxy Sinclaire, Natasha Tanner Page A

week.”
    Theresa pokes her head out the window. Her red hair is a wild mess and she has raccoon eyes from the make-up she didn’t wash off last night. She is a cheering sight and I am nothing if not grateful for her.
    “You look like you need coffee. Let me do something with this,” she waves at her face and hair. “Then we will go to the best diner in all of New York.”
    The diner is around the corner and not a place that I would ordinarily enter, unless forced against my will. Theresa has been so nice to me, though, that I can’t possibly say anything about it. The patrons are New Yorkers of every color, shape, and size. We sit at the counter and I ask the waitress for a wet cloth to clean the sticky mess up. Theresa and the waitress both roll their eyes at me.
    “We need two coffees,” Theresa turns to me, “You’re not a vegetarian are you?” I shake my head no. “Thank goodness, I don’t trust people who don’t eat meat.”
    “We also want bacon, sausage, and your wonderful blueberry pancakes for two, please,” she tells the waitress.
    “I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop but I couldn’t help but overhear your conversation with your parents.”
    I stare at my coffee, not yet ready to affirm what she has already heard. Theresa, as I’m starting to learn, doesn’t care much for social cues. She ignores my silence and dives right in to the mess that is now my life.
    “I think it’s really brave what you’re doing. Not many people would walk away from a sure thing. Hell, I don’t think I would. I only had the courage to leave because I knew things couldn’t be worse than what they were at my mom’s.”
    “I’m not brave,” I tell her. “If it weren’t for catching my fiancé and best-friend together, I’d be at my dress fitting right now.”
    “Dress fitting?”
    “It doesn’t matter anymore,” I tell her. “What I need to focus on is finding a place to stay and getting a job. I also need to go to my apartment as soon as possible and get my stuff out before my father has the locks changed.”
    “He would really do that to you?”
    “If I don’t do what he wants? Absolutely.”
    Theresa doesn’t blink an eye at how quickly my world has fallen apart. “Let’s eat and then we’ll go get your things.” She digs into our enormous breakfast, which looks like it’s for a hearty family of six instead of two women, one of whom lives in a constant fear of carbs.
    I push my hair behind my shoulders and dig in. It’s not like I have a wedding dress to fit into anymore. And despite how unassuming the surroundings, the food is absolutely to die for. In fact, if I completely lose it, end up murdering Xavier and Ella, and I find myself on Death Row, I want this breakfast from this diner to be my last meal.
    My fingers and lips still sticky from maple syrup, Theresa and I head to Brooklyn to collect my things. I’m embarrassed for her to see where I live. My closet is the size of her apartment and my wardrobe can easily pay for a year’s rent.
    “Aria, you are full of surprises. I know you have money, but are you kidding me?”
    “I’m not rich. This is my parent’s money, and as of this morning, I no longer have access to it.”
    “Damn Aria, I didn’t realize you were walking away from all this. You really are brave.”
    “Brave and stupid,” I say. “I have nowhere to live and no income, my family has cut me off. Maybe I’m making a mistake.”
    “Don’t you dare say that, Aria. Your parents are jerks for wanting you to marry someone you don’t love. You’re coming home with me and I’ll get you a job at the club. It will tide you over until you can find something better with that fancy degree of yours.”
    Tears spring into my eyes and I try to wipe them away before she notices.
    Theresa pushes my hand away from my face and gives me a tight hug.
    “It’s okay to need help Aria. If it weren’t for the kindness of strangers, I would probably be standing on a street corner right