No Dress Required: Love Required

By Cari Quinn

After years of ho-hum dating, Noelle Gregory is tired of fooling around. There's only ever been one guy for her—Jake Conroy, her best friend's older brother. Now that Jake's back in town, she's headed to his sister's New Year's Eve party to make her move. Purse full of condoms? Check. Sparkly dress guaranteed to show Jake the sexy woman she's become? Check.

Carjacker that makes off with both two hours before the party? Check.

When Jake finds Noelle stranded on the side of the road—looking sexier than ever in her striped socks and silly holiday shirt, damn it—he's glad for the snowstorm that cancels his sister's party. His and Noelle's friendship has tormented him for years, and now, Jake wonders if he should dare to sample what he's always wanted…and if he'll be able to walk away when it's over.

Each book in the Love Required series is STANDALONE:
* No Dress Required
* No Flowers Required
* No Romance Required
* No Promises Required

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Publishers
• Release date: Dec 27, 2011
• ISBN: 9781622669165

Book preview

Table of Contents

Dedication

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Enjoy more heat from Entangled…

One Night Stand After Another

Blush

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

Copyright © 2011 by Cari Quinn. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means. For information regarding subsidiary rights, please contact the Publisher.

Entangled Publishing, LLC

644 Shrewsbury Commons Ave

STE 181

Shrewsbury, PA 17361

[e-mail]

Brazen is an imprint of Entangled Publishing, LLC.

Edited by Heather Howland

Cover design by LJ Anderson/Mayhem Cover Creations

Cover photography by Shutterstock/PKpix

ISBN 978-1-62266-916-5

Manufactured in the United States of America

First Edition December 2011

To my mom, who never lets me doubt myself for long, and to my incredible CP Taryn Elliott, who somehow knows what I need before I even ask (except when it comes to chicken nuggets!)

Chapter One

Get out of the car, dammit!

Noelle Gregory stared at the leather covered finger pointing at her through the open car window. Where had the day gone wrong? A sunny December afternoon in Ohio was something to be cherished and enjoyed. She’d been doing just that, until she’d stopped at a deserted intersection four flipping blocks from her apartment and looked up to see a scruffy guy glowering down at her with his so-not-a-gun pointed her way.

The sun had tricked her into pretending it was spring. Really tricked her since, now, it looked like it might snow at any second. Which probably wasn’t the most important consideration.

I can’t give you my car. It’s practically brand new, she said, realizing a second too late she’d said the wrong thing if she actually wanted to keep her car. The carjacker sure seemed surprised. She didn’t blame him. Most carjackees probably didn’t argue.

Then again, most carjackees weren’t on their way to the most important evening of their sexual lives.

Maybe she should try to reason with him. In her little podunk town, where everyone knew everyone else plus their little doggie, what were the chances this guy would actually hurt her? Very small. She hoped. I know you really don’t want to steal from me. It’s almost the new year.

I don’t give a shit what holiday it is. Get out of the car!

Look, I can be flexible. He didn’t have a gun, but he had awfully big hands. Maybe they could compromise. How about money? I don’t have much, but I’ll give you what I have. She reached for her wallet.

I don’t want your money. I want your damn car!

Oh, but I have a twenty— Before she could finish, he yanked open the door of her Hyundai and dragged her out by the arm. She shouted and tried to smack him, but he moved fast. Before she knew what had happened, he’d gotten in her car, slammed the door, and roared away on squealing tires.

Oh, fuck! She slapped her hand over her mouth as her shiny red baby disappeared around the corner. Then the rest of what she’d lost sank in and she squeezed her eyes shut. Oh, fuck.

The jerk had stolen her car. A bad thing to be sure, especially since she felt partially responsible for leaving the door unlocked and the window half-open in the first place. But there was insurance for the car and police to track him down. Sanderson wasn’t exactly a sprawling metropolis.

The two things there weren’t insurance for? The sparkly party dress in her backseat, and the yellowed pictures of her Nana she kept in her purse.

Hot tears pricked behind her eyes. What a month. First, there had been gossip about Goldman’s closing. The department store had become more than just a temporary job while she finished up her interior design classes. Then, hot on the heels of Noelle’s parents’ decision to vacation in Hawaii to spice up their marriage, her little sister had announced she’d be visiting friends over the holidays. Just like that, Christmas went from a family holiday to a lonely day spent watching sappy movies.

But if things went her way

Reviews for No Dress Required

[funstm · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This was enjoyable short novella. There's not really any character or plot development - but that's about what you expect from this sort of read. It did annoy me that Jake contradicted himself - he was looking for a hookup, he wasn't looking for a relationship - he didn't seem to know what the hell he wanted and he had the nerve to question Noelle. But it was easy enough to ignore. The romance between them was alright, nothing particularly memorable but it was sweet and lighthearted and perfect for my mood. 2.5 stars, rounded up to 3.

[ash600-888477 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Very short. Very sweet. Very lovable. Very surprising. Very hot.
I wish it was longer, really; Jake and Noelle were extraordinary, their chemistry explosive and their banter is all what I love in a book: teasing, funny, smart and sexy.

I finished it in about one hour and I was left craving for more. Cari Quinn: please consider writing about them a full-length novel someday!

[tina_ku · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Cute, hot friends to lovers story. Love Cari Quinn!