by Claire Kent
He chuckled. “There’s that.”
Her mood shifted abruptly. “I didn’t mean it wasn’t hard for you to do. The decision you made. I know how difficult it must have been. I didn’t mean to imply it was easier for you than—”
“I know,” he assured her. “Kelly, I know what you meant. It was hard. But this is the first time in a really long time when I’ve been absolutely sure that it was the right thing to do. I feel…I don’t know…almost free.”
She pressed a soft kiss against his jaw. Then she readjusted in a way that made it clear she was ready to go to sleep.
He was too.
And a vague thought came to him then, holding Kelly in the dark, that pretty soon he wouldn’t have to wake up with endless emails waiting for him to answer.
He smiled in the dark. That would be a very good morning.
Epilogue
Six months later, Kelly finished up with her client at about four on a Saturday afternoon. She hadn’t wanted to meet with the client on the weekend, but it was the only time the woman could make it work. Kelly had met with her for almost two hours, and now she was ready to get home to Caleb.
Both of them had been busy all week, and it felt like she hadn’t really seen him since last weekend.
A couple of months ago he’d given up his apartment downtown, and she’d moved into his big house outside of the city, so she had almost a full hour’s drive to get home. When she got there, she found Breah polishing the railings of the main staircase.
“That looks beautiful,” she said, admiring the way the old wood shone.
Breah smiled, evidently pleased by the compliment. “There’s some life in this old house yet.” Then her expression changed. “He’s in his office.”
Kelly frowned. “What? I thought he wasn’t going to work today.”
Breah appeared as displeased as Kelly was. “He’s been in there since you left.”
With a sigh, Kelly gave Breah an understanding smile and then headed back to the office. She should have known Caleb couldn’t stay away from work for an entire weekend.
Three months ago he’d run into a former business acquaintance who was some kind of technological genius. It hadn’t taken Caleb long to woo the man away from his current employer and partner with him in a new medical technology company.
The project had consumed him since then. Kelly had been very happy that Caleb had found something to pour his intelligence, energy, and ambition into, since he’d been kind of aimless and restless since his resignation. But he was a workaholic by nature, and the last few months had reminded her of this fact.
She found him at his desk, typing up something that looked like an email.
“Hey,” she said sharply after poking her head into the room.
He didn’t look away from his computer monitor. “Hi. You back?” He sounded distracted, exactly as she’d expected.
“So much for taking the day off.”
“Just catching up on some stuff while you were gone.”
“Well, I’m back now.”
“Give me a minute to finish up.”
He still hadn’t looked away from the screen.
She sighed, half in frustration and half in resignation. “I’ll be by the pool. I have a new bikini, in case you’re interested.”
He was still typing like crazy. “Nice.”
She turned to walk out, shaking her head, but then she said over her shoulder, “There was a time when the promise of me in a new bikini would have immediately roused the beast in you. Whatever happened to him?”
Caleb gave a wordless grunt as a response.
She pitched her voice as a lilting taunt. “I guess he’s too old to be roused.”
She left when he didn’t respond. She wasn’t even sure he’d heard her, but she thought he probably had. She knew him really well by now. No matter how consumed he was by work, there was no way he could resist a challenge like that.
She went to change into the swimsuit she’d bought earlier in the week to celebrate the arrival of warm weather—a dark red bikini that left little to the imagination—and she went to lie out by the pool, figuring she’d be seeing Caleb pretty quickly.
She was enjoying the warmth of the sun on her skin when she heard the gate to the pool area open about ten minutes later. She managed to hide a smile as she opened her eyes behind her sunglasses and saw Caleb approaching.
He’d changed into a suit too, and he was smiling at her with a familiar heat that looked almost predatory.
But she was annoyed with him for working when he wasn’t supposed to, so she kept her body still, rather than showing the sudden surge of feeling she felt at his presence.
“I approve of the bikini,” he murmured, his voice slightly thick as his eyes crawled up and down her outstretched body.
She stretched and let out a long sigh, as if she were too sleepy to focus on conversation. “I’m glad.”
Then she closed her eyes and pretended to sleep.
She felt him watching her for a minute, and she could almost hear his mind working, figuring things out—what she was thinking, how he should respond, what he should do to address her annoyance.
When she could hear him moving around, she peeked out of her mostly closed eyelids to see that he was leaning over the chaise beside her, stretching out his back.
No wonder. He’d probably been sitting in that desk chair since she’d left the house hours ago.
Her eyes lingered on his lean body—his long legs, firm thighs, strong arms, impressive shoulders. The rippling muscles in his back. He had a really good body for a man his age. Her appreciation for his body was inevitably mingled with everything else she knew about him. His relentless will, the dark shadows in his soul, the power and intelligence and humor, the tenderness at the heart of him that he’d only recently allowed to come out.
She loved all of it. All of him. Body and mind and heart. Even when he was being annoying.
She felt herself melting as she watched, and she was about to drag him down on top of her when she noticed that his motion as he stretched gradually became slower, more intentional.
It was strange. Not at all like he normally moved. Her eyes lingered on his tight ass. It was almost like he was…
She suddenly knew what he was doing. She could even see the corner of his mouth twitch up in suppressed humor before he managed to hide it. She almost laughed out loud at the revelation, filled with amusement and appreciation and affection.
“That doesn’t work on women,” she said instead, struggling to hide the laughter bubbling up inside her.
He turned to meet her eyes with a bland expression. “What doesn’t?”
His tone was perfectly convincing. He’d always been a good liar. Just as good as she was. But she knew him better than anyone else. “Luring me out of my perfectly justified mood with your body. As fine as it is, that doesn’t work on women. We don’t have dicks to be led around by.”
He stopped trying to hide his smile as he stretched out on the chaise beside her. “Oh well,” he said, grinning at her. “It was worth a try.”
She couldn’t resist his grin—or anything else about him—so she got up and lowered herself on top of him, straddling his hips with her legs and leaning down to kiss him.
He returned to the kiss slowly, deeply, but he was still smiling when she finally pulled away. “I guess it did work,” he said, looking quite pleased with himself.
“No, it didn’t. I wasn’t that annoyed by you working when you weren’t supposed to. Appealing to my libido will only get you so far.”
He took her head in both his hands and pulled her down into another soft kiss, this one almost gentle. “I wasn’t appealing to your libido. I was appealing to your heart.”
She knew he was right. He hadn’t wanted her to be overcome with lust by his little show. He’d wanted her to laugh and remember how much she loved him—exactly as she’d done.
She smiled, relaxing in his arms. “My heart always se
ems to get me in trouble with you.”
He brushed a kiss into her hair. “Yours isn’t the only one.”
“I wasn’t even supposed to have a heart.”
“Me either.”
She raised her head to meet his eyes, and they gazed at each other for a long moment, understanding each other completely.
“I think mine has completely swallowed up the beast,” he added, a wry, resigned note in his voice. He must still be thinking about her comment before, as she’d been trying to spur him to put away his work.
“No, it hasn’t. The beast is still lurking in there somewhere. I like when he comes out to play occasionally.”
His brown eyes ignited at her words, and his focus lowered briefly to her breasts, which were barely covered with the material of her suit.
She smiled, her heart overflowing with a sudden, stark realization of how far they’d come in the last year. “But I think I was right when I told you on the first day we met that, by the time I was through with you, all your unrelenting alpha-maleness would be broken.”
“Not broken,” he objected, the corners of his mouth tilting up again. “Maybe just bent a little.”
She smiled and kissed him briefly. “Just so you know, you were right about me too. I used to think I was better off alone. I don’t think that anymore.”
“Good. Because you’re stuck with this man, no matter how old and boring and work-obsessed he gets.”
“I’m not stuck with you. I chose you, out of all the other men I could have had.”
His eyebrows arched. “Just how many other men are we talking about?”
She giggled and gave him a soft hug. “I’m not sure you’re in a good position to start comparing numbers.”
“Probably not,” he agreed drily. Then he adjusted her so she was looking at him again, his expression sobering. “I might be half the man I was before, but it’s the better half. You know that, right?”
She felt her chest tighten with feeling again, knowing how much he meant it, knowing how far he had come to be able to share his heart so nakedly. She nodded, her eyes burning slightly, realizing how far she had come too. “Yes. I know it. Same here.”
After a minute of silent acknowledgment, she gave her head a little shake, deciding the sappy part of the afternoon was over. “Now,” she said, pitching her tone as a taunt again, “if you think you can manage to rouse the beast a little, I can think of a few things I’d like him to do.”
It worked. Of course it worked. Some things would never change. And Caleb Marshall would never let a challenge go unanswered.
About the Author
CLAIRE KENT has been writing romance novels since she was twelve years old. She has a PhD in British literature and, when she’s not writing, teaches English at the university level. She also writes contemporary romance under the pen name Noelle Adams.
You can email her at [email protected] and find her online at:
clairekent.com
Facebook.com/NoelleAdamsAuthor
@NoelleAdams3
The Editor’s Corner
Another month of new Loveswept romance books is here! I know you’ll adore this selection of stories chosen just for you….
USA Today bestselling author Claire Kent continues her emotionally charged story of longing, betrayal, and insatiable desire with Darker the Release, the sequel to Sweet the Sin. Another Loveswept USA Today bestseller, Lauren Layne, introduces her new Oxford series with Irresistibly Yours. Wendy Marcus’s latest sexy yet sweet military romance, All I Need Is You, releases this month as well. Then there’s another Friends First story from USA Today bestseller Laura Drewry, How Forever Feels. USA Today bestseller Stacey Kennedy finishes up her successful BDSM Club Sin series with Mine, simultaneously introducing her next series of erotic play, Dungeon’s Key, and hot hero Micah.
We’re back on the ice with the first in the Aces Hockey series from Kelly Jamieson, Major Misconduct. Ladies, hold on to your hearts, the Caldwell Brothers are here—USA Today bestselling author MJ Fields and Chelsea Camaron want you to meet Hendrix, the first book in a series about three alpha men who live up to their legendary names. Lastly, something a little different—bear-shifter’s anyone? An alpha hero to the extreme, hot highlander Ronan is all that you could want in Bearing It All by Vonnie Davis, perfect for fans of Jennifer Ashley and Shelly Laurenston.
Fabulous variety with a book for everyone, yes? I hope you’ve found your book boyfriend in this month’s releases. However, if you haven’t, fear not, as November’s hot lineup is just around the corner. Until then…
Happy Romance!
Gina Wachtel
Associate Publisher
Let USA Today bestselling author Claire Kent introduce you to Matt Stokes, the sexy-as-sin male stripper and club owner who really knows what it means to bare everything in
Taking It Off
Coming soon from Loveswept
Continue reading for a sneak peek
Chapter 1
Elizabeth Marks faked a smile as a buff, polished man shook his nylon-encased dick in her face.
She wanted to cringe and back away, but she was afraid of offending Melissa, her college roommate who was having her bachelorette party at Bare Assets, the most popular male dance revue—which was obviously just a male strip club—in Boston. So she pretended to laugh and quickly stuck a ten-dollar bill beneath the waistband of the guy’s clingy black bikini briefs to make it clear he could move on.
She hated this.
She hated the overdone music, the squeals of all the women around her, the vulgarity of the humping motions from all the dancers who had left the stage and now spread out around the audience. Melissa and the four other bridesmaids all appeared to be having a great time.
Elizabeth wished she’d had the foresight to fake a migraine.
Maybe there was something wrong with her, but she didn’t find the forty-five minutes they’d spent so far at Bare Assets either fun or sexy.
“Come on, Elizabeth,” Melissa said, reaching all the way over the table so she could tuck a bill into the stripper’s underwear too. “Don’t be so uptight.”
“I’m not uptight.” Elizabeth looked away as the man walked over to Melissa, pulled her to her feet, and began to hump her, much to the delight of the other women at the table.
Unlike the rest of them, Elizabeth really didn’t want to see that.
It wasn’t that she was afraid of sex—not at all. She enjoyed the physical aspects of love as much as anyone else. The real issue was that this didn’t feel anything like sex to her.
It felt ridiculous.
When the guy had given Melissa a thorough dry fuck, he thankfully moved away from their table, and Elizabeth let out her breath when it appeared that this act—the sexy-construction-worker routine involving five different dancers—was finally drawing to an end.
“See,” Melissa said, grinning. “It’s just for fun. They’re careful about the sleazy stuff here. The staff is really well-trained, and anyone who goes too far is asked to leave. It’s all very professional.”
Maybe it was professional compared to other clubs like this, but the abundance of guys in tight underwear shaking their dicks around seemed kind of sleazy to Elizabeth.
“You’ve got to learn to let loose a little,” Jenna told her, holding up her phone to take a selfie with her cosmopolitan.
“I’m happy to let loose. This just isn’t my thing.”
Melissa shook her head. “You never let loose. You never let yourself be anything but perfect.”
Elizabeth faked another laugh, slightly annoyed because she didn’t think a woman had to enjoy male strip clubs to not be considered uptight. “I’m not that bad. I’ve gotten better than I was in college.”
She said that mostly so she wouldn’t end up in an argument with the bride to be. There might have been a little truth in her friend’s words. She did try to make sure everything about her life was in order. She’d done well in school, and then
she’d gotten a master’s in art therapy from an excellent school. She’d worked hard to get a job at one of the most exclusive preschools in the Boston area. Given her professional responsibilities and the age of her students, she was more of an art teacher than an art therapist, but it paid well enough and she enjoyed working with the children. She’d generally been a good girl growing up, and she’d rarely gotten in trouble. But none of that was why she wasn’t enjoying this evening.
She just found this whole scene kind of…gross.
She relaxed during the brief break between acts, since the music wasn’t so loud and she could look around without being confronted by the waxed body of a barely clad man.
She scanned the faces of the women at the tables and felt a weird clench in her stomach. She didn’t get it. She just didn’t understand their enjoyment of this kind of show.
It was like she was alone in a dark corner when the rest of the world was at a party.
As she was looking around, her eyes landed on a man standing at the back, near the bar. He stood out in the crowd because he clearly wasn’t a member of the staff—all of whom were shirtless—or a customer, nearly all of whom were female.
This guy was tall and well-built but was dressed casually in jeans and a black T-shirt. It looked like he had tattoos down both arms. He was talking to the bartender, and there shouldn’t have been anything special about him. He was very good-looking, but he wasn’t calling any attention to himself.
Elizabeth had no idea why she couldn’t look away from him.
There was just something sexy and kind of deep about him, as if there were layers to his personality that were waiting to be peeled back. She kept watching as his eyes made an impersonal tour of the room. They paused on her, maybe because he noticed her watching him.
She felt a rush of excitement as their eyes met, although he didn’t smile or change his expression. She made herself look away, since she didn’t want him to think she was staring.
She wanted to stare, though. Something kept drawing her to him in a way she wasn’t accustomed to.