Cupid's Mistake

Cupid's Mistake

Party-girl Allison Kelly has it
all—great friends, a flourishing business, and an active sex life. She's
beautiful, busy and blissfully fulfilled, with no time or inclination for a
relationship. Sure, she suffers the occasional twinge of loneliness. Who
doesn't? But if her latest boy-toy is unavailable, there's always another one at
her friend's dating service, Cupid's Cavalry.

Life has been anything but a party
for Benjamin Turner. Orphaned at fifteen, widowed at twenty-three, he traveled
the world on self-imposed exile, but he couldn't outrun the loneliness eating
away his soul. Finally home again, he's dedicated to serious
endeavors—ending world hunger, providing clean water—not partying.
But he's also ready to give life and love another chance. It's Cupid's Cavalry
to the rescue. Maybe.

He's looking for stability. She
wants a good time. Will Cupid's arrow find its mark this Valentine's Day, or
will their pairing prove to be Cupid's biggest mistake?

DEDICATION

To
the party girls, and the men who tame without breaking ~ Here's to love

Love
looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,

And
therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.

~William
Shakespeare,
A Midsummer Night's Dream

TABLE of CONTENTS

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter
Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter
Seven

Chapter
Eight

Chapter Nine

Epilogue

COMPLETE
BOOK LIST

EXCERPT ~ Pearls
of Pleasure, by Chantilly White

Acknowledgements

About the
Author

Cupid's Mistake

By
Chantilly White

CHAPTER
ONE

Midnight ~ New Year's Eve

"Happy New Year!"

Excited shouts followed by the sounds of celebratory kissing
flowed around her as Allison Kelly surveyed the mob of people crammed inside
her tiny home. They were so. . . enthusiastic.

Bah, humbug,
hovered
at the corner of her crimson lips, but Allison refused to let her mood get tied
up in knots by the narrow ribbon of envy winding its way around her heart.

It would be easier if she weren't sailing solo in a sea of
couples.

Streamers and confetti, courtesy of her friends, Jeff Denton
and his fiancé, Greg Mitchell, sparkled on every surface, glittered in people's
hair and flew through the air in a festive rainbow cloud. She'd spend hours
vacuuming it all up in the morning, but for now it was a beautiful sight, full
of fun. The promise of a new year, a fresh start, hung in that cloud. She was
in no hurry to whisk it away.

Post-midnight-ball drop and nearly one-hundred emptied
glasses of champagne, the music resumed. The crowd recommenced gyrating in
their hedonistic mating ritual, also known as dancing. Prince egged them on to
the strains of
Erotic City
booming out
of her stereo's monster speakers.

"Happy, happy, darling," Jeff and Greg chorused as
they twirled past, tossing her matching air-kisses off the tips of their
matching manicures.

"Speak of the devils," she said, but puckered her
lips for a return kiss-kiss, though the twining, envious ribbon gave her heart
another hard tug.

She was not supposed to be standing here, in a sexy scrap of
lemon-yellow satin and even sexier red Louboutins, in the middle of the gaiety,
alone.

Blowing out a frustrated breath, Allison fussed with her burnished-bronze
ringlets. The curls were caught in a high, complicated ponytail inside the
sparkly New Year's tiara perched on her head, then left to cascade to the
middle of her bare back. The tail ended several inches above the low-slung bow
of her short-and-slinky dress, which clung to her slender curves a whisper
above the line of indecency.

She looked like a goddess, and she knew it. Not that it
mattered, thanks to Don—no, Ron. Jon?

Whatever.

Allison rolled her shoulders. The prick.

All this New Year's hotness. Wasted.

Damn it.

That would teach her to trust one of the most important
date-nights in a party girl's year to the affections of an impulse pick-up. She
hadn't even had a backup in place. She always had a backup.

She must be losing her touch.

Weaving through the jostling crowd, Allison tipped her
refilled glass of champagne to those raised in her direction and exchanged
brief hugs with friends as she passed. It wasn't like she hadn't had other
offers for tonight. But, well. . . if she was honest, she'd been bored with her
recent crop of boy toys.

Even worse, one or two had been making noises about getting
exclusive.

When she'd spotted a golden Adonis—in her dentist's
office, of all places—two days ago, she'd turned on the charm. He'd
pounced in a mutually satisfactory way.

But that same 'Adonis' was currently sprawled across her
deep-purple couch while attempting to swallow one of her friends whole with his
New Year's kiss, and Allison had yet to have her bells rung to usher in the new
year.

She didn't begrudge her friend—was it Kris? She
couldn't tell in the wild tangle of limbs—but she would have liked Jon. .
. no, Don, to stick with
her
long enough
to get through midnight. As a courtesy, at least. The pre-party sex hadn't even
been that good. Now she had no New Year's kiss and was looking forward to a
night powered by the Energizer Bunny instead of wild animal lust.

It boded ill for the year.

Sighing, Allison gathered discarded champagne flutes along
the way and turned into her cobalt, white and charcoal kitchen, only to draw up
short at the sight of her two best friends. Derrick Fox and Mia Patterson stood
backed against the counter, wrapped around each other in a kiss a crowbar
couldn't pry apart.

Feeling a need to fan herself, Allison mouthed a silent,
Wow
. If she doused them with water, she had no doubt
steam would rise.

How long had it been since she'd been kissed like that? Too
long.

Although the two had technically been dating for a few
months now, they, along with herself and Jeff, had been best friends since
their first week of college at UC Irvine, and all through the eight years
since. Now newly engaged, Derrick and Mia were just too cute for words.
Allison's heart overflowed with love for them both, but she still wasn't used
to coming upon her friends in such passionate embraces.

With the music blasting from the other room, they hadn't
heard her enter. She pitched her voice to carry above AC/DC's
Shook Me All
Night Long
.

"Get a room, you two."

Derrick skimmed his hands down his fiancée's hips and
finished off the kiss before breaking his lips from Mia's. He snugged his
future bride into his arms, then grinned cheekily at Allison, his topaz eyes
dancing. She rolled her own heavenward but, observing her friend, she had to
laugh.

Mia's passion-glazed, unfocused green eyes stared dreamily
up at Derrick. Her long dark hair, previously styled high on her head, flowed
down her back in disordered waves that had obviously seen some action from
Derrick's seeking fingers, and the skirt of her sparkly sapphire-blue party
dress rode dangerously high on her thighs. It was another moment before she
even realized Allison had entered the room. Mia's lovely face, already flushed,
went several shades darker, but she peeked around Derrick's broad shoulders to
smile. She waved her left hand, making a point of flashing the diamonds in her
engagement ring under the bright kitchen lights.

"Stop, stop, already, I'm blind," Allison said,
playing along and shielding her eyes. The glasses in her hand clinked together.
"Watch it, will you? That thing's practically a weapon."

Waggling her fingers happily, Mia admired the stones playing
iridescent drops of light over Allison's kitchen walls.

"Isn't it beautiful?" she asked for the
seven-thousandth time, not that Allison was counting.

"Gorgeous," Allison agreed. She tipped her head to
Derrick. "You done good,
boyo
."

Derrick shared a very private glance with Mia that had both
of their mouths bowing up into equally private smiles. Allison's heart gave
another squeeze in its envy-wrapped state.

She needed a pair of mental shears to slice that winding
ribbon in half.

"Great party, Alli," Derrick said, his eyes still
locked on Mia's.

Allison snorted. A lot either of them knew about it, tucked
away in her kitchen.

Setting her armload of glasses on the counter, Allison gave
them each a hug, ruffling Derrick's gold-tipped sandy hair, then departed so
they could get back to their lip-lock. They'd only been engaged a week, after
all. They needed time alone, even in the midst of a party.

But wow, the weddings were piling up. She'd barely begun
planning Jeff and Greg's no-holds-barred event before adding Derrick and Mia's
to her lineup for the year. Jeff and Greg had made their announcement at her
last big party, her annual masquerade at the beginning of December, and she
suspected their good friends, Mark and Brian, would soon follow suit. Couples
were falling like dominoes.

As an event planner, a full calendar looked good for
business. Even if she was doing her friends' weddings
gratis
, other clients treated her lack of availability as
an endorsement for the quality of her work.

That was the good news.

The bad news was. . . Well, there wasn't really any bad
news, except that the impending nuptials were making her insides writhe like a
pit of baby green-eyed snakes.

And she
wasn't
jealous. Not really. She enjoyed her lifestyle, her freedom, the
satisfying-if-casual hook-ups when she wanted. It was just. . .
sometimes—just every once in a while—loneliness swept in and took
her by surprise, a rogue wave that could take her under.

If she let it. Which she didn't.

Usually.

Not that the rare take-down lasted long, and she'd never
admitted such a thing out loud. But with everyone pairing up, it seemed her
mind turned more and more often to relationships with durations longer than a
few weeks. She'd had her share of boyfriends in the past—one had even
lasted over a year—but no one who'd made her think in terms of forever.

Threading through her crowded living room, Allison continued
to straighten here and there, even knowing it was hopeless until the horde
departed.

Maybe it was just wedding-glow rubbing off on her. Sure, she
dealt with brides all the time in her business, but these were people she knew
and loved. It had more impact. Jeff and Greg could hardly keep their eyes off
each other, and tonight was Mia and Derrick's first time in public since before
their Christmas Eve engagement, other than a get-together with Allison, Jeff
and Greg to celebrate on Christmas Day.