“I’m not talking about work here,” he said bluntly. “And I think you know that.”
Her lips parted. “But work is all we…” Frustration colored her cheeks. She lifted her hands and pressed her fingers against her temples. “Argg. You’re doing it again, confusing me and twisting everything up. I couldn’t sleep last night after you did what you…and firing me…and, and cleavage…”
He could look at her cleavage all he wanted right now, but things were suddenly getting interesting. “You couldn’t sleep because you were thinking about me?”
She rocked her foot back onto its heel, and he instinctively positioned himself closer so she couldn’t kick him. The move put his body a hairsbreadth away from hers. She was warm from all that dancing. Her skin glistened with perspiration, leaving it damp and kissable. Lickable.
She flattened her hands against his chest again, but this time he didn’t budge. It flustered her. She shifted against the jukebox, but he wasn’t letting her get away now—not when he finally had her talking to him.
Her lips pressed into a straight line. “I wasn’t thinking about you, I was thinking about my proposition…purpose…my proposal.”
Interesting choice of words.
But the alcohol she’d consumed had her on a roll. “You made me late today. I kept wondering what you were going to do. What were you going to think? How were you going to smell?”
“I smell?”
“Not you. It’s just…” Her cheeks went red. “Your aftershave smells nice.”
Her words died away, but all thoughts of taking her home to Daddy left Cam. Taking her home, though, wasn’t such a bad idea. His body felt hard and hot. He’d been stressed all day, but the tension gripping him now was another sort entirely. “What do you think of me, Lexie? Really?”
Her gaze locked with his, and he saw something new in the dark depths. Something that made his heart rate slow down, and the thick pumps sound loudly in his ears.
“You make me uncomfortable,” she said, her voice low.
“Uncomfortable, how?”
She bit into her bottom lip, and her gaze skittered away. “Just…uncomfortable.”
The awareness he’d felt on the elevator came back, heavy and deep. It was the first indication he’d had that she saw him not as a threat, but as a man.
He wanted another.
But he didn’t know when he’d ever get it.
She was skittish around him. Guarded. The closest he could get to her was in meetings. Stuffy, mind-numbing meetings. Right now, her defenses were down. He couldn’t. He shouldn’t, but he wanted to know…
He reached for her.
Ever so gently, he ran his fingertips down her bare arm, all the way from shoulder to elbow. As he watched, goose bumps popped up on the warm flesh. She shivered and her breath caught. When she looked at him, her gaze was a little wild.
“You make me uncomfortable too,” he said gruffly.
They stared at each other, the music throbbing and the air hazy around them.
“Really uncomfortable,” he muttered.
Closing the distance, he sank into her. He watched her closely as their bodies pressed from chest to knee. The heat was intimate, the contact electric. For a moment, she was stunned still. Then all those emotions she’d kept tempered for so long rushed forward to meet him. Her anger. Her heat. Her sweetness. He felt it in the way her body melted. He heard it in the catch in the back of her throat.
“Lexie.” He kissed her. Firmly, fully, mouth locked on mouth. He sealed their lips tight, and the sensation was so good, it damn near made him groan aloud.
Her lips were soft, velvety and they clung. The kiss deepened, their mouths opening wider for more contact. For a woman who was as strapped in and lashed down as she was, she knew how to kiss.
And then some.
That hard-on he’d gotten when he’d seen her dancing atop the bar came roaring back to life. He kissed her harder, letting his tongue slide over hers. A sound left her throat, and her fingers bit into his shoulders. He did it again, loving her heat, loving the way she responded. She moved restlessly, her body grinding against his. Softness against hardness. Heat against heat.
Cam wanted to pick her up and carry her right out to his car. He could feel her nipples poking him and her hips rolling sexily. Her arousal was like every other emotion the alcohol had freed. Hot, immediate and right on the surface.
What had started as an exploratory kiss was quickly turning into a blistering-hot make-out session. They were hidden together in the corner. Music pounded around them and bodies shifted nearby. They were in public. Anyone could see them.
And he didn’t care.
He moved closer, rocking his hips into her. She let out a soft whimper as her hands glided from his shoulders to lock around his neck. Their bodies fit together like yin and yang. Her breasts pressed tighter against his chest, and he settled his growing erection right where it wanted to be, in the warm nook at the top of her legs.
He tangled his fingers in her hair as he nuzzled the feminine curve of her jawline. God, her hair… He clenched his fist in the dark curls. If the rest of her was this silky, he’d never last. Hungry for more, he sent his other hand down her side. His blood thundered hard when he found the not-so-professional slit in her oh-so-professional skirt.
“You want the truth?” he whispered into her ear. “The billboard wasn’t pretty enough.”
A new lover, an old flame, sultry moonlit nights. Why let inhibitions stand in the way?
Moonlight Mirage
© 2012 Sami Lee
Bandicoot Cove: The Wedding, Book 3
Two years ago, Hayley Bryant left Australia on a round-the-world odyssey that changed her life, and her attitude. After that, coming face to face with the man whose rejection sent her packing shouldn’t affect her at all, right?
Except there’s one thing that hasn’t changed—her former boss Mitchell Wood makes her burn as hot as ever. The difference is, Hayley’s now a grown woman who knows how to get what she wants, and she wants Mitch. Trouble is, she hasn’t come to her friend’s wedding alone. Her very sexy friend with benefits, Ty Butler, might pose a problem.
Business was always Mitch’s first love…at least until he hired his little sister’s friend as an intern. Pushing her away was the right thing to do, but now his sister’s wedding has Hayley re-entering his life—and the empty place in his heart. Soon he’s acting less like the consummate workaholic and more like a man crazy in love. But Hayley’s “plus one” is an unexpected obstacle.
Fortunately, Mitch has never been one to shy away from a little competition…
Warning: Bilby Island’s sensual spell strikes again. Book contains hot lovin’ made in beautiful tropical surrounds, some exhibitionism, voyeurism and bondage. Best read with a margarita in hand and the fan switched to high.
Enjoy the following excerpt for Moonlight Mirage:
“Are you calm?”
In a strange way, he was. Even with the force of his sexual needs coursing through him, the sense of urgency had faded to the background. Not fighting the inevitable was freeing. He wanted Hayley more than he’d ever wanted another woman, and admitting the truth of it was more calming than he ever would have expected. “Yes.”
“Are you here, in this moment with me?”
His answer was the absolute truth. “There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”
At last, Hayley took her hands away from his face. “Open your eyes.”
The brightness caused Mitch to flinch as he raised his eyelids. The muted colors of predawn had disappeared. What replaced them were brilliant rays of light in every conceivable hue from bright fuchsia to flaming orange to deepest magenta.
Mitch regularly rose at dawn. He’d seen sunrises before. But this explosion of color was unlike anything he’d ever experienced. Was it because of the location or the woman standing beside him?
Or was it simply that he had never really looked before?
“
Isn’t it beautiful?”
Mitch stared at the view before him, not turning his head to look at Hayley. He was afraid to. If the sky took his breath completely away, he was pretty sure his lungs would collapse if he saw Hayley bathed in all that glorious light. Unable to speak, he merely nodded.
“This is what I wanted you to see,” she said. “The start of a brand-new day when everything is untouched until this amazing kaleidoscope of color washes over it, like painting on a blank canvas. When you truly experience the sunrise, you have to believe anything is possible.”
Was she right? Could anything happen? Could Hayley forgive him for being a blind asshole, for not knowing what he was rejecting when he pushed her away? Could a woman like Hayley Bryant ever really want a boring, stuffed-shirt workaholic like Mitch Wood?
“Mitch?”
Mitch took a deep breath, filling his lungs in case it was the last time he’d be able to do it for a while, and turned to look at her. His chest seized, his heart stopped. The slightest of breezes lifted the curled strands of her hair, causing them to float around her face. The golden tresses were shot through with intense orange, making it look like a halo had formed around her. But she was more beautiful than any angel heaven could produce. She was a woman, and she was real, and she stood right before him with the look of wonder and awe on her face reflecting everything that was going on inside him.
For a long time she held his gaze, saying nothing as the sky changed colors around them. Then her gaze lowered, trailing over his face until finally landing on his lips. It was all the invitation Mitch required. Without a word, he stepped toward her and brought his hands up to cup her face. Then he dipped his head.
He wouldn’t have thought it possible for someone to taste like the sunrise, but Hayley did. She was beautiful and golden, and she enveloped him in glorious warmth. He let their lips meld in their own way, not trying to drive the kiss, using no technique whatsoever. The kiss turned brighter and hotter and more vivid until Mitch felt infused with the heat and life that was Hayley.
Utterly lost, Mitch wasn’t even aware of taking her down to the sand. One minute he stood with his arms wrapped tight around her, the next they were horizontal. Writhing beneath him, Hayley drove her fingers through his hair, holding him to her. His fingers found their way beneath the hem of her top, trailing over the smooth flatness of her stomach. It wasn’t enough, so he shoved the garment upward, exposing Hayley’s breast to the gentle morning breeze. He cupped the soft mound and squeezed.
Into his mouth, Hayley gasped. Beneath him, her body arched, her back coming off the sand as she sought a more complete touch. Mitch granted her wish, using his thumb to graze her pebbled peak. It blossomed under his ministrations, growing ripe and plump and all too tempting. Breaking free of Hayley’s ravishing mouth, Mitch trailed his lips downward, over her collarbone and shoulder. He kissed around the puckered flesh, narrowly avoiding the sensitive point that silently begged for his attention.
Hayley’s grip on his head started to pinch as she tightened her hold. “Mitch, please.”
Lust surged through his veins. Goddamn, that was what he wanted to hear. Hayley desperate for his touch, begging him for it. “Ask again.”
“Oh, God. Just put me out of my misery.”
“Ask, damn it.”
She gasped at his rough delivery, but when Mitch stared into her eyes he saw no discomfort or revulsion. All he saw was molten heat. Watching him, Hayley very deliberately circled her lips with her tongue. Mitch almost burst the seams of his shorts. Then she rasped, “Please,” and all Mitch could hear was that throaty request and the roaring of his blood in his ears.
Not breaking eye contact, Mitch lowered his head and enclosed her nipple with his mouth, taking it in one long, slow suck. Crying out, Hayley curved her spine, thrusting her eager flesh deeper into him. Mitch rolled the distended peak against his tongue until Hayley said his name over and over again, punctuating it with breathy little pleas that drove him insane.
When he lifted his head, Hayley’s hoarse protest delighted him. Mitch gazed down at her and was awed by the sight she presented. Her golden hair was tousled, the strands splayed across the sand like sunrays. Her green eyes glittered as bright as gems as they stared back at him. Her magnificent breasts trembled with the force of her ragged breaths, and her skin was flushed pink with arousal.
She was exquisite. The very thought that another man had seen her like this sliced him open, ruining the perfect beauty of the moment. Unprepared for the pain of it, Mitch defended himself in the only way he knew how—attack, contain, control.
“How can you let him touch you when you respond this way to me?” he growled. “You’re mine, Hayley. Promise me he’ll never lay a hand on you again, and I’ll make you scream for me. Right here. Right now.”
Worth the Challenge
Karen Erickson
Together, they’re magic. Now to capture it in a bottle…
Worth It, Book 3
For once in his errant life, Rhett Worth is ready to prove to his older brothers he’s more than good looks and a woman-melting smile. Except he’s screwed up. And it’s about to hit the fan as he prepares to tell them he’s failed to deliver the master perfumer, Michel Durand, to create Worth Luxury’s signature scent.
Then salvation walks through the boardroom door, all wrapped up in a petite, seductive package.
Gabriella Durand is prepared to beg the Worths to give her capricious father another chance. Instead, she finds the devastatingly handsome Rhett Worth offering it to her as if he’d planned it all along. And Gabriella, hungry to emerge from her father’s shadow, jumps at it.
Soon they’re in Maui to hunt for the perfect scent…and find it in the tropical breeze that washes across their entwined bodies. Now the pressure is on to capture that passion in a bottle—before they let love complicate the delicate mix. Before a whiff of betrayal threatens to destroy everything.
Warning: The last of the Worth brothers, he’s the wildest one of all. Expect lots of challenges, much yearning, plenty of vulnerabilities revealed—and lots of macho Alpha behavior on the hero’s part. Don’t worry, though. He’ll be begging for the heroine’s love before the end, we guarantee it.
eBooks are not transferable.
They cannot be sold, shared or given away as it is an infringement on the copyright of this work.
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
11821 Mason Montgomery Road Suite 4B
Cincinnati OH 45249
Worth the Challenge
Copyright © 2012 by Karen Erickson
ISBN: 978-1-60928-858-7
Edited by Amy Sherwood
Cover by Angela Waters
All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
First Samhain Publishing, Ltd. electronic publication: October 2012
www.samhainpublishing.com
Table of Contents
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
About the Author
Look for these titles by Karen Erickson
Also Available from Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
Copyright Page
Worth the Challenge Page 22