A feisty beauty must choose between
winning back Mr. Right
or giving in to Mr. Wrong.
I KNEW YOU WERE TROUBLE
Oxford Series #4
Lauren Layne
Releasing June 13, 2017
Loveswept
New York City’s hottest bachelors are stirring up trouble in this fun, flirty Oxford Novel, as a love triangle forces a feisty beauty to choose between winning back Mr. Right or giving in to Mr. Wrong.
Taylor Carr has it all—a sleek job in advertising, a stunning Manhattan apartment, and the perfect man to share it with: Bradley Calloway. Even after Bradley dumps her for a co-worker on move-in day, Taylor isn’t worried. She’ll get her man eventually. In the meantime, she needs a new roommate. Enter Nick Ballantine, career bartender, freelance writer—and longtime pain in Taylor’s ass. Sexy in a permanent five-o’clock-shadow kind of way, Nick knows how to push Taylor’s buttons, as if he could see right through to the real her.
Nick’s always trying to fix people, and nobody could use a good fixing more than Taylor. Sure, she’s gorgeous, with mesmerizing silver eyes, but it’s her vulnerability that kills him. Now that they’re shacking up together, the chemistry is out of control. Soon they’re putting every part of their two-bedroom apartment to good use. Then Taylor’s ex comes crawling back to her, and Nick figures she’ll jump at the chance to go back to her old life—unless he fights for the best thing that ever happened to him.
Bradley
froze when he saw her, and she was pretty sure she saw the urge to
turn and run flicker across his face.Again
she felt a stab of disappointment. In him. And in herself for
apparently having misread him. She’d thought he was better than
this.
Bradley’s
eyes moved between her and Nick, and though he didn’t look all that
surprised at seeing them bickering, his gaze grew hard as he saw
Nick’s hand on Taylor’s face.
Nick,
naturally, took his sweet time removing it, and she resisted the urge
to kick his shin.
“Morning,
Bradley,” Taylor said, pleased that her voice sounded calm and
friendly. As well it should. She’d had plenty of practice over the
better part of a year pretending that she and Bradley were nothing
more than colleagues.
Other
than a few close friends who knew they were dating, they’d done
a mostly decent
job of hiding their romantic relationship from coworkers. Better than
she and Nick had done hiding their antagonistic one.
“Hey,
Taylor. Nick,” Bradley said.
He
entered the room and reached for a coffee mug, turning his attention
toward the other man. “Didn’t realize you’d taken on another
assignment. What for?”
“Not
sure,” Nick said, checking his watch. “Have a meeting with
Cassidy in a few to find out.”
“Here’s
hoping it’s an offsite gig that takes you far, far away. Maybe he
needs someone to cover Siberian winters,” Taylor said to Nick, even
as she watched Bradley out of the corner of her eye.
“Don’t
need to travel to find severe winter. It doesn’t get any chillier
than right here,” Nick retorted, waving his hand over her head in a
storm cloud gesture.
She
shoved his hand aside, her attention still on Bradley, who was
determinedly avoiding her gaze.
Coward.
It
was going to be darn hard to get him to see reason when he wouldn’t
even make eye contact.
Nick,
ever too perceptive for his own good, noticed the tension and gave a
quick look between her and Bradley, his gaze turning speculative.
She
shot him a warning look that clearly said, Don’t.
He
shot an answering smile that clearly said, Watch
me.
“Bradley,
don’t suppose you’re in the market for a roommate?” Nick asked,
his voice deceptively casual.
Bradley’s
head snapped up, and finally, finally his
blue gaze collided with Taylor’s. Dammit.
Why did he have to be so beautiful? He was like a mischievous angel,
all twinkling blue eyes, dimples, a sexy cleft in his chin, dark
blond wavy hair . . .
“What?”
he asked Nick distractedly, still looking at Taylor.
“Taylor
here wants to share her original crown molding with someone.”
Bradley
winced, and Taylor felt a little surge of gratitude toward Nick. He
couldn’t have known it, but it was the perfect jab. She and Bradley
were both into prewar architecture—had eaten up the broker’s
description of all the building’s original elements.
Taylor
should be sharing that crown molding with Bradley. And he damn well
knew it.
His
eyes met hers in silent misery—an apology that she wasn’t quite
ready to accept. Heck, she wasn’t even ready to acknowledge it,
because she had no intention of being dumped. Not by him, not by any
man.
Taylor
ignored the guilt written all over Bradley’s face as she held his
gaze. “Yes, it seems I unexpectedly have a free bedroom and more
rent than I can afford. If either of you knows anyone looking for a
roommate . . .”
Bradley’s
handsome face twisted regretfully, and he set his coffee aside,
taking a step toward her, apparently forgetting—or not caring—that
Nick was still in the room.
“Taylor.
Damn it. I told you—”
“Actually,
I do,” Nick said, interrupting.
Taylor
forced her gaze away from Bradley’s pleading face toward Nick’s
smug one. “You know someone who needs a roommate?”
“Yup.”
He crossed his arms and watched her.
She
made an impatient gesture with her hand. “Who? It can’t be one of
your ex-girlfriends—I don’t want to inadvertently hear any gross
details about you. And not one of your frat-boy guy friends—my
living room isn’t cut out for Call of Duty.”
“Yeah,
because that’s all I do all day.”
She
rolled her eyes. “Okay, for real, who is it?”
His
grin was slow, sly, and the very definition of trouble. “Me.”
AVAILABLE NOW!
Lauren
Layne is the New York Times bestselling author of over a dozen
romantic comedies.
A former
e-commerce and web marketing manager from Seattle, Lauren relocated to New York
City in 2011 to pursue a full-time writing career.
She lives
in midtown Manhattan with her high-school sweetheart, where she writes smart
romantic comedies with just enough sexy-times to make your mother blush. In
LL's ideal world, every stiletto-wearing, Kate Spade wielding woman would carry
a Kindle stocked with Lauren Layne books.

















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