Blaze For Me (Be for Me

by Natalie Anderson

  She just stared at him.

  “You’re the smartest, most intense and yeah, sexiest woman I’ve ever met.” He gazed down at her. “I feel alive when I’m with you. And happy.”

  He did? “You never tried to make me stay in bed with you. Never tried to tempt me into missing training.” He’d said no to her missing training.

  “Because I’m not a total jerk, that’s why.” He frowned. “For fuck’s sake honey, we’re not kids. You’re a professional. I know you need to train and I’m not getting in the way of that. I’m a doctor, that takes years of hard work at med school, you know? I understand how hard you have to work when you want something big. I’ve been there. Done it. And as much as I’d like you to lie in bed with me all fucking day, I know it can’t happen just yet.”

  “But I wanted it,” she admitted brokenly. “I wanted to skip training and stay in bed with you. Fucking. All. Day.”

  He drew up at her passion, his smile returning. “That’s because you’re human honey, not a machine.”

  She shook her head. “I’m so distracted. You make me want everything I shouldn’t want. You make me want it all.”

  “Why can’t you have it all, Nicoletta?” he asked quietly. “What makes you think you can’t?”

  “I travel all the time. My training is intense.” A tear escaped and trickled down her cheek. “It wouldn’t work. You’d get sick of it and bored and you’d—”

  “Don’t say it,” he warned, pressing his palm over her mouth the way he had that first night in Summerhill when he’d busted her peeping. “I’m not like that asshole actor. I would never cheat on you. And I don’t believe you’d cheat on me.”

  “Never,” she breathed against his skin and he released her. “I don’t want anyone the way I want you. I’ve never wanted anyone the way I want you.”

  That’s what scared her so much. She wanted him more than she’d wanted any one or any thing else in her life.

  “Why don’t you try talking to me?” he leaned closer. “Why not try to trust me?”

  “It’s not that I don’t trust you,” she cried. “I don’t trust myself. I’ve never felt this way and it’s messing everything up.” She trembled. “I thought—”

  “Have you thought about the word compromise, Nikki? Have you thought about working something through instead of making a snap decision and acting on it? Instead of running away?”

  She pulled up.

  “You’re not a coward honey, you’re brave and strong.”

  Was she? She hadn’t been honest with him.

  But he’d come after her—and didn’t that say it all? Maybe she could be as brave as he thought she was. Maybe, if she wanted the grown-up passion she’d said she wanted, she could ask for it. And with Austin looking at her like that—she felt like she could do anything.

  “I told myself I’d come to Summerhill first because its what I’ve always done and it would be nice to kick things off after the break with some familiar routine. Get the edge before going to Europe. But the truth was I knew you were here. And I… wanted to see you.”

  “Why?”

  “I wanted to see if it was still the same.”

  He waited quietly, but that light in his eyes spurred her on.

  “That feeling I get when I see you,” she explained nervously. “When I’m around you. And that first night I got here. I saw you in the distance and boom. Its like my stomach drops and I get all hyper aware and I’m suddenly more nervous than standing in the gate.”

  “You don’t get nervous standing in the gate.”

  “Yeah I do. It’s terrifying. But its also the best feeling in the world.” She managed a smile. Because it was like that—sheer thrill. “I arrived late. I went to the bar. I knew you’d be there. And sure enough you were but you were surrounded by all these beautiful women. And it hurt and you’d never looked at me before anyway… and so I just went out the back to get some fresh air and ended up in that corridor—”

  “And found Connor.”

  “With Savannah.” She nodded. “It wasn’t what I was so envious of.”

  “What wasn’t?”

  “The hot sex they were having,” she mumbled. “I told you it was the orgasms because it was a way of covering up what I really wanted.”

  “What was it you really wanted?”

  “Someone to look at me the way he looks at her. To love me the way he does her? Like that couple the other day when you caught me looking again.” She dropped her head into her hand. “I know it’s pathetic.”

  And she wanted that someone to be Austin.

  “Wanting a partner in life is not pathetic,” he said calmly. “It’s normal. It’s normal to want to adapt to accommodate someone in your life. That’s not surrendering everything you hold dear. You’re not going to have to give everything else up. The right person is only going to enrich your life.” He framed her face with his hands and made her look back up at him. “I’d never want to stop you doing what you love. What you’ve fought so hard to achieve.”

  She gazed into his eyes. He’d followed her. He understood her. And that he really wanted her the way she wanted him?

  Tears stung again. “I don’t want you to be the cherry on the top of my cake,” she whispered, her heart in her mouth. “You’re all the flavor in my life.” He made her life so much more. And she didn’t want to have to miss him when she was going to be away for months. She didn’t think she could do it.

  His smile was so tender. So was his hold on her. “I’m here for you. Always will be,” he promised. “You’ll do your time on the slopes. I’ll travel with you. I can get locum work wherever we have to go. Then when you finish with the pro circuit, I’ll do my time and build up a specialist sports med practice. Probably at Summerhill. So we’ll take turns, okay? We’ll make it work.”

  He was offering her everything.

  “You’d do that for me? Travel with me?” She shook her head. “You can’t—”

  “I’m not giving up anything to be with you,” he assured her, leaning closer to rest his forehead on hers. “I’d be giving up too much if I didn’t come with you. I love you Nicoletta. I’ve been in love with you for months.”

  “I love you too.” She reached for him, wrapping her arms around his neck, unable to hold back her joy. “This is so much better than any dumb medal.”

  “Hush,” he clamped his hand over her mouth—gently. “It’s different. You can have the medals and me, understand?”

  Slowly she nodded her head. “Kiss me,” she murmured against his palm.

  He complied. Thoroughly. So thoroughly she could barely stand. Hot, excited, happy she poured her heart into kissing him back until he was breathless and hard and had that wild look she loved in his eyes.

  “Nicoletta.” He spoke through gritted teeth.

  “Yes,” she smiled up at him happily. He was here for her. He’d followed her. He wanted to be with her every step of the way. And he couldn’t wait to have her again now.

  “You’re still my cherry.” He dropped to his knees.

  Nicoletta Valeri looked down at the raw passion glittering in her lover’s eyes but she shook her head, dropping to her knees to meet him. Face to face, game on.

  “I’m eating my cake first.” She unsnapped his jeans and reached to stroke his hard cock. “I plan to suck up every last crumb.”

  But he pushed her shoulders so she fell backwards onto the plush carpet. He moved over her, full of hungry purpose. “This isn’t a race you’re going to win.”

  “Maybe not today,” she sighed. “But I know how to train hard.”

  “Hard?”

  “Very.” She sent him a look. “Please.”

  Austin gazed back into her eyes and she saw everything she’d longed for reflected in the hot green depths of his.

  “Always,” he promised.

  THE END

  Be sure to read all the titles in the ‘Be for Me’ series:

  BREATHE FOR ME (Xander)

  BEG F
OR ME (Logan)

  BARED FOR ME (Rocco)

  BOUND FOR ME (Connor)

  BLAZE FOR ME (Austin)

  BROKEN FOR ME (Hunter)

  To keep up to date with Natalie’s release schedule, subscribe to her newsletter.

  And if you’ve enjoyed this book, please consider leaving a review online with your favorite e-book retailer.

  Now read on to learn more about the other stories in the series...

  BREATHE FOR ME

  The last thing Chelsea Greene wants is to be rescued, but that’s exactly what happens when she’s caught wearing nothing but her swimsuit during a midnight emergency evacuation drill. Turns out her ‘hero’ is a former lifeguard who has no hesitation in offering the kiss of life. So not happening, right?

  But for emotionally chastened Chelsea, one touch changes everything. She discovers a desire to satisfy this arrogant, demanding tease. Unable to express her own fantasies, she finds unspeakable pleasure in serving his.

  Xander Lawson exudes easy charm. He likes a woman unafraid to match his appetite for unfettered fun. He doesn’t do complicated or emotional. But the raw need emanating from fragile Chelsea compels him closer. He can’t resist spinning a sensual fantasy world around them.

  As passion spills outside their carefully selected boundaries, Xander learns Chelsea’s stronger than he first thought. But is she strong enough to handle the intensity he’s always kept hidden?

  BEG FOR ME

  One mistake means she’s his to marry?

  No one needs an image overhaul more than Logan Hughes. His notoriety has reached epic proportions thanks to a sex clip circulating on the Internet. But when his newly contracted social media manager inadvertently tweets his happiness at his engagement, he—along with the rest of the world—is astounded.

  With one wrong click of a button Min Jones just committed career suicide. Mixing up her client’s account wouldn’t have been so bad if he had only a few followers... unfortunately he has almost a million. Summoned to meet with him face-to-face, she’s more tongue-tied than ever when he announces that his engagement is to stand and that she’s to be his supposed fiancée.

  With her career on the line Min agrees but she isn’t going to hide away meek and mild. If Logan Hughes wants a fiancée, he’s going to have to play by her rules and that means he’ll have to learn to handle some restraint…

  BARED FOR ME

  Danielle Hughes’ longstanding crush on Rocco St Clair has turned her into a virgin spinster ahead of her time. She needs to quit craving the impossible and get control of her life. But this time, running away has gotten her more than she bargained for...

  When you owe a man everything, you don’t repay him by sleeping with his sister—no matter how much you might ache for it. Rocco St Clair owes Logan Hughes, so when Logan asks him to mind his runaway sister for the night, he can’t say no. It’s only one night, right?

  But Danielle Hughes is temptation incarnate. Forced together in the one hotel room, she’s testing his resolve every innocent way she can. Rocco is determined not to break and take what’s forbidden.

  But when control is broken, all will be bared.

  BOUND FOR ME

  No names, no repercussions, no regrets...

  Tense and tired from working back-to-back bar shifts, Savannah Nash finally lets her guard down, escaping into a moment of passion-fuelled fantasy with the six-foot-two, muscle-packed piece of temptation who’s celebrating his last night in town.

  Best. Ever.

  But then she discovers who her ultimate lover really is. He’s the reason she came to Summerhill, he’s the one she wanted to make pay.

  Revenge or a repeat?

  Connor Hughes knows he should have confessed his true identity to the town’s newly crowned ice-princess sooner, but the delicious discovery that the so-called ‘frigid ball-breaker’ is actually hotter than molten metal, makes him question what else she might be hiding. Sure enough, turns out she has his company on her hit list. Not. Happening.

  The woman might hate him, but she also wants him, and he knows exactly how close to keep this enemy.

  Bound together by lust and distrust, it’s not just bodies, but hearts, that are about to get burned...

  BLAZE FOR ME

  See. Want. Have…

  When Austin Tate busts Nicoletta Valeri in a blistering moment of voyeuristic orgasm-envy, it’s the perfect chance for some much-needed payback, but instead she’s lit a fire in him that can be extinguished by only the one thing…

  BROKEN FOR ME

  Desire. Denial. Desolation...

  Nothing is more important to Luisa Williams than her freedom to explore new destinations, new jobs, new connections... She never spends more than a few weeks in any one place because life is too short to stand still.

  But when she meets Hunter Shaw, her instinct is to stop and stare and—to her horror—move closer. Her wild attraction to him stuns her, but his silent inscrutability puts her on edge. She suspects he sees that she hides secrets...

  Retrieval specialist Hunter Shaw’s survival depends on his ability not to become emotionally involved with anyone or anything. He has intimate understanding of loss and betrayal and isn’t about to score himself a repeat of either. But he sees suffering in the eyes of the capricious, determined, gorgeous woman who so defiantly turns her back on him. Still, her hidden desolation isn’t his problem, right?

  But the searing attraction between them is.

  Luisa can run, but in the end she can’t hide. Not from Hunter. Not from her need. And when desire is denied too long, it becomes dangerous. Ultimately all resistance, and all protection, must be broken.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  USA TODAY bestseller Natalie Anderson writes fun, frisky, feels-good contemporary romance. She’s published with Harlequin Mills & Boon, Entangled Publishing and independently. She’s also written young adult fiction for Penguin NZ under a pseudonym. With over thirty books published, she’s been a Romantic Times Award nominee & a finalist for the R*BY (Romantic Book of the Year).

  She lives in Christchurch, New Zealand with her husband and four children.

  Find out more at her website and sign up to her newsletter for a free read, latest release details, and sneak peeks. You can also follow her on Facebook. And be sure to read the other books in her searing ‘Be for Me’ series, available now at all major e-tailers.

  “Natalie Anderson is one of the most exciting voices in steamy romantic fiction writing today. Sassy, witty and emotional.” - Cataromance