Only one man can satisfy her craving…
No one dumps Brandi Collins! After being left at the altar, the Nashville high school teacher plans to get back at her ex by undergoing a major transformation. But how is she supposed to shed those extra pounds with that intoxicating aroma wafting into her condo? And the tempting smell of mouthwatering chocolate has nothing on the handsome hunk who’s creating the irresistible confections.
Adam Ellison has given up everything for his dream of winning the International Chocolate Pastry Competition. His voluptuous new neighbor knocking on his door at three in the morning is a distraction he doesn’t need! Now only one thing will satisfy Adam’s craving for Brandi. But what happens when she discovers her struggling pastry chef is really the heir to a multimillion-dollar corporate empire? Will Brandi still be there intoxicating him with her kisses…or will Adam lose his chance for a lifetime of love?
He’d only meant to comfort her.
Then Adam made the mistake of looking into those big brown eyes, and his noble intentions faltered.
Just one taste, he vowed. A tiny sample to satisfy his curiosity and he’d get back to his reason for being there in the first place.
He closed the scant inch separating them and brushed his lips against hers. God, she tasted good. Even better than he’d imagined. Honey sweet, like a ripe exotic fruit reserved to satiate the palates of kings.
Brandi’s lips parted with a breathless sigh, and it was all the invitation he needed.
Adam leaned in and took her mouth, stroking it with his tongue. He groaned as her lush body melted into his. Everything about this woman was soft except the hard peaks of her breasts against his chest.
Brandi’s fingers slid up his forearms to his shoulders. She cradled the back of his neck with her hands and drew him closer.
Books by Phyllis Bourne
Harlequin Kimani Romance
Taste for Temptation
PHYLLIS BOURNE
A native of Chicago’s southside, Phyllis Bourne began her writing career as a newspaper crime reporter. After years of cops and criminals, she left reporting to write about life’s sweeter side. Nowadays, her stories are filled with heart-stopping heroes and happy endings. When she’s not writing, she can usually be found at a makeup counter feeding her lipstick addiction. You can find her on the web at www.phyllisbourne.com and www.facebook.com/phyllisbournebooks.
Dear Reader,
As an author, I’m often asked if any of my books contain a slice from my real life. The answer has always been no—up until now.
While writing Taste for Temptation, I did a stint in workout boot camp alongside my dieting heroine, Brandi Collins. So I guarantee the aches and pains that accompanied every leg squat, sit-up and excruciating push-up are absolutely authentic.
Fortunately, my research wasn’t all killer workouts.
Brandi’s neighbor, Adam Ellison, gave me an opportunity to develop my nonexistent baking skills in classes where I learned to make a variety of chocolate-based desserts, including lava cake and éclairs. The heavenly smells coming from the classroom’s oven made it easy to understand how Brandi could find her willpower waning in the face of a gorgeous man bearing melt-in-your-mouth yumminess.
I hope you enjoy Brandi and Adam’s story. Look for the second Ellison brother Kyle’s story next year.
Best wishes,
Phyllis
For author Farrah Rochon,
for her support, encouragement and friendship.
And as always, for Byron, who makes
my real life happily-ever-after sweeter than any romance novel.
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 1
“Come on, just one more. You can do it!”
Brandi Collins hoisted her upper body on quivering arms. She held the position less than a second before collapsing face-first in the grass.
“Good job on push-ups, ladies,” the trainer shouted at the ten women in the boot camp workout class. “Now flip over and give me two sets of crunches.”
Brandi spit blades of dead grass from her mouth and rolled gingerly onto her back. She stared through bare-limbed trees at the gray sky, the hard ground a welcome reprieve from endless push-ups, wind sprints and jumping jacks.
“Let’s go, Brandi! This is boot camp, not a day spa.”
When she didn’t move, the retired military officer jumped off the park bench she’d been barking orders from and stormed toward her. Puffs of smoke from Captain Heather Moore’s breath hit the crisp January air and trailed behind her like a dragon’s smoke. She knelt and lifted the fleece ear warmer covering Brandi’s ear.
“Need some motivation?” she asked softly, so only Brandi could hear. Heather’s voice hardened. “Then think about that no-show jerk leaving you standing at the altar. Remember how you felt when his mother informed you he’d eloped with another woman?”
Brandi’s hands clenched into fists at her sides. Six months hadn’t dulled the humiliation of her would-be groom whisking the stripper he’d been cheating on her with to a Las Vegas chapel—while Brandi waited for him at a Nashville church packed with well-wishers. It was the most mortifying moment of her thirty-four years, and everyone she knew had witnessed it.
Heather gave the mental sore spot another poke.
“Now he has the nerve to accept the honor of best man at your sister’s wedding.” She made a tsking sound. “And I’ll bet he’s bringing his busty new wife along.”
Anger began a slow burn through Brandi’s worn-out body, energizing her depleted limbs. When she’d learned her future brother-in-law wanted Wesley as his best man, for her sister’s sake, she’d hidden her true feelings.
Now Heather’s taunts had excavated the hidden rage from the depths of her subconscious and dumped it in the forefront of her mind.
“Getting mad, huh?”
Brandi shot the trainer a look she hoped scorched the smirk off her face, but Heather kept pushing.
“So what’s that loser going to do when he sees you next month?”
“Eat his heart out,” Brandi practically growled. Cradling the back of her head in her hands, she curled her midsection into the first of fifty sit-ups. She’d never been stick thin, but months of comforting herself with massive amounts of chocolate had her wearing a larger size.
Even worse, she’d used her savings—money she’d squirreled away for years on her modest schoolteacher salary—to reimburse her mother for expenses connected to the big, non-wedding instead of its intended purpose of financing her boutique.
Ignoring the burning in her abdominal muscles, she cranked out one last sit-up. No way did she want Wesley back. However, now that pride was all she had left, Brandi refused to let her ex or his new wife see her looking anything less than fabulous.
Heather led the class through a stretch routine to end the workout. Afterward, as the other students milled
away, Brandi sat cross-legged on the ground. She glanced around the park, situated across the street from her condo building, too sore and exhausted to contemplate hauling herself to her feet just yet.
Falling temperatures had driven most of her neighbors indoors. Apart from their class, a die-hard jogger and two men playing a game of one-on-one on the basketball court, the small park was deserted.
Brandi zeroed in on the duo playing ball. They’d shed their jackets, and even at a distance, she could see their fit physiques moved with an awe-inspiring mix of power and athletic grace.
Her gaze dropped to her own body, which was a long way from her goal of “fabulous.” She’d purchased this violet-colored fleece outfit to boost her spirits. Unfortunately, the neon-bright shade only accentuated her excess lumps, and she felt huge exercising next to her thin, black-clad classmates.
Brandi blew out a sigh to signal the end of her pity party. It didn’t matter how many push-ups she had to bang out or salads she had to eat. In the five remaining weeks between now and Erin’s wedding, she was going to get in the best shape of her life.
“You okay?” Heather extended her hand.
Brandi groaned as she grabbed a hold of it and staggered to her feet.
“I will be after a soak in a tub full of bubbles and a decent night’s sleep.” She swiped her hand across her backside to dust away the twigs and dead leaves clinging to her pants.
Hopefully, she could sleep. For the past few nights, she’d awakened to the strangest thing—the overwhelming scent of chocolate.
“Hope I didn’t go overboard back there,” Heather said as they trudged across the park. “I only said what I did to get those crunches out of you.”
“Don’t worry. I stopped hating you by the time we started stretching.”
Brandi had made the trainer well aware of her objective and the reason behind it when she’d enrolled in the class last week. In return, Heather had vowed to do everything in her power to help her reach her goal.
“That’s good to know,” Heather chuckled. “And by the way, you’re doing great.”
Brandi rolled her eyes. “You’re kidding, right?”
“You made it through your third session. I had four students drop out after the first class and another…”
Heather’s voice drifted off and Brandi followed her gaze to the two men she’d spotted earlier on the basketball court still embroiled in their game.
“Check out the eye candy.” The trainer sighed. “Talk about yum!”
Brandi took in the view from the closer vantage point. Heather’s description was no exaggeration. Both men stood well over six feet tall, and their perspiration-soaked
T-shirts clung to wide shoulders, broad chests and impressively flat abs.
However, it was the one with the dark skin that captured Brandi’s undivided attention and held on tight. His deep, rich complexion reminded her of the exquisite, midnight chocolate truffles she’d binged on over the past months, and she couldn’t help wondering if he tasted as wickedly delicious.
Unconsciously, Brandi licked her lips.
As if he’d read her mind, the dark chocolate hunk stopped playing and turned in their direction. His handsome face broke into a wide smile that made her toes curl inside her sneakers.
“Mmm. I believe I’ve suddenly developed a sweet tooth.” Heather shot her an elbow to the ribs. “What about you?”
Fortunately, Brandi’s common sense snapped her out of her stupor at the same time the other man spoke to Mr. Dark Chocolate. He turned away.
“I’ve given up candy, remember?” Brandi resumed walking. She needed to stand around leering at a man like she needed a ten-pound box of Godiva’s finest on her hips.
Heather rolled her eyes. “Come on, you know what kind of sweet stuff I’m talking about. I didn’t work you that hard.”
“Just because it looks or tastes good doesn’t mean I have to have it,” Brandi said. “I’ve learned my lesson.”
“What are we talking about here, chocolate or men?”
“Both,” Brandi said emphatically.
* * *
Adam Ellison couldn’t keep his head in the game.
“We both know I’m going to win, but you normally put up a decent fight.” His brother, Kyle, dribbled the basketball, skirted around Adam and took a shot.
The ball sailed through the air in a perfect arc and swished unopposed through the hoop.
“That’s game,” the former college-star point guard crowed.
Adam knew his play hadn’t been up to his usual standard. He’d mentally checked out of their weekly one-on-one match over an hour ago. Since then, he’d blown easy baskets and let Kyle get away with moves he normally would have challenged with aggressive blocks and hard fouls.
His brother surveyed the pocket park near Adam’s condo and frowned. “I can’t believe I let you bully me into coming across town to this concrete playground, when there are perfectly good indoor courts at the club and our estate.”
“Quit whining, man. It won’t kill you to pull the silver spoon out of your behind once in a while,” Adam said absently, his mind still hung up on the purple-clad beauty who’d sashayed past them earlier.
All long legs and killer curves, Adam’s mouth ran dry at the not-so-distant memory etched on his brain.
Mon Dieu! It had been a long time since he’d seen a woman who wasn’t afraid to look like one. In a backward culture that glorified the skeletal and the surgically enhanced, this lush knockout was a throwback to the days when voluptuous beauties like Pam Grier dominated the movie box office and black men’s fantasies.
Even from a distance, he could see her flawless complexion was reminiscent of the creamy cappuccinos served in his favorite Parisian café. The thought of it brought a smile to his lips.
“What has you so off your game today?” Kyle backed up and began shooting baskets from the free-throw line. “Regrets, maybe?”
He was having regrets all right, Adam conceded, but not the ones his brother hoped. Instead of standing there gawking like an idiot, he should have asked her out on the spot.
“I wouldn’t blame you if you did,” Kyle continued. “If I’d have tossed my job, a multimillion-dollar inheritance and a woman as rich as Jade Brooks away with one rash decision, I’d be kicking my own ass, too.”
Adam let the comment slide. He knew where his brother wanted to steer this conversation, and he didn’t want to go there.
“It’s not too late to straighten this all out and get your old life back,” Kyle pressed.
Although their game was over, Adam stole the ball and went in for a layup. “I don’t want it back,” he said, lunging for the basket.
“Get out of here with that weak shot.” His brother leaped above the rim and slapped the ball out of bounds. He returned the conversation to the topic at hand. “Why the hell not?”
“Because I need more.”
Adam wasn’t surprised by the incredulous look on his brother’s face.
“More what?” Kyle asked, as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “The combination of your job, inheritance and marrying into the Brooks Brand fortune would have made you a billionaire by age forty.”
And end up like their father, Adam thought, slumped over dead at his desk with no one to grieve but a room full of indifferent business associates, a brother and two sons he rarely acknowledged outside of their role as vice presidents of the company he created.
“I’m doing okay financially,” Adam said aloud.
Actually, better than okay. He’d invested his hefty salary wisely during his decade-long tenure as a vice president of Ellison Industries, the household-goods conglomerate founded by their late father, and was presently a millionaire in his own right. Now at thirty-five years old, he could live quite comfortably
, even lavishly, without their family fortune.
Kyle retrieved the ball from the grass and took a shot. Despite the distance, Adam wasn’t surprised to see it fall into the basket. The two of them may have been roughly the same size and build, but Kyle’s legs turned into springs the moment a basketball was placed in his hands.
“What about Jade? You’re just going to let her go?”
“She dumped me,” Adam reminded him. She did so immediately after he’d told her of his decision to leave his position at Ellison Industries.
Kyle threw the ball to Adam. “Dad was looking forward to you two setting a date. It was all he talked about.”
Months ago, his father’s enthusiastic approval would have been reason enough for Adam to spend his life with Jade and continue to adhere to the blueprint the elder Ellison had outlined for his firstborn son’s life.
Not anymore. Adam bounced the ball twice and hit a basket that would have been worth three points in a game. His priorities had shifted considerably since he’d been the one to find his father dead in his office.
Now Adam wanted more out of life than a job he didn’t love and a woman who didn’t love him.
“Jade’s a good fit into our family,” Kyle continued.
Grabbing the jackets they’d thrown on the ground earlier, Adam tossed one to his brother. Although they had different mothers, his father marrying Kyle’s mother a few years after Adam’s mother had died, they’d always been close. He didn’t want this difference of opinion to cause a rift between them, but he wouldn’t be manipulated.
His brother had more to say, but Adam forestalled him with a raised hand. “Tell Uncle Jonathan it won’t work. Using a gotcha clause in Dad’s will to screw with my inheritance didn’t change my mind and having you try to play on my emotions won’t, either.”
Kyle shrugged on a hooded sweatshirt and seated himself on the backrest of the park bench next to the court. “Come on, man,” he said. “Uncle Jon is only trying to do what Dad would have wanted. You back with Jade and at Ellison Industries.”
Taste for Temptation (Kimani Hotties) Page 1