Lipstick Diaries

Destined for marriage has always been Dr. Simone Austin's belief, and now that her career is where she wants it, she is ready for forever. In walks one sexy, Chris Alexander, apologetically late to her chemistry class. From the first moment their eyes meet, he tempts her to forget her careful approach to love and focus on their tantalizing moments of the here and now.

It's been five long years . . . five years since I felt his touch, five years since I saw his face and here he is in my DM. I wanted so much more for us, so much so that I haven't let another man touch me in over five years. My friends probably think I'm crazy, but they don't understand when you've had a man who made you feel like no other. Hard to settle for anything less. I could feel the heat and mad chemistry as I ran my fingers across the words on the screen of my phone . . . it was him. I need to see him. I must see him. Just have to make sure that this time I don't get burned.

I think my best friend just proposed to me . . . am I tripping? How could he remember, he can't be serious. A pact that we made when we were only teenagers couldn't still ring true . . . could it? I promised my best friend that we would get married if we were both thirty-five and still single. At the time, I was a teenager and believed that I would be married long before that age. But I was wrong. So very wrong. I'll be thirty-five on my next birthday and still single.

Impossible. I can't fall for this man. He's the type that women want to brag about taming. But I don't believe in urban myths and fairy tales and have no desire to waste time on a man who doesn't know the meaning of fidelity. Especially when that man is my brother's best friend.

I've fallen for the enemy. An enemy in every sense of the word. He stole my promotion. He's an overbearing control freak. And he once hurt someone I loved. I hate him. Well, I used to hate him. I relentlessly pursued him with ulterior motives to destroy him. Now . . . now he imbues my every waking breath.