Captured By You: A One Night of Passion Novella

by BETH KERY

  After a moment of blissful ecstasy, she came back to herself, climax still shuddering through her.

  “Ahhhh!” she shrieked when she felt Chance’s cock lurch viciously inside her. His fingers sunk into her hips and ass in a desperate hold. He roared as he came, emptying himself into her farthest reaches.

  She’d never heard him breathing so hard following their lovemaking. His pants sounded like they tore at his throat as he struggled to collect himself in the aftermath of their lightning strike of need. His cock still throbbed inside of her, his climax ebbing. She felt him shift his hand, caressing her ass and then spanking her softly as his cock twitched and she felt another thrill go through him.

  “What’s the secret?” he demanded through ragged pants.

  Sherona grinned, hiding her face. She was breathing heavily as well, her body still recovering.

  “Let me look at you,” she said.

  He caressed her ass with both hands. His cock jerked slightly inside her. Sherona opened her mouth, wishing she hadn’t spoken when she felt him withdraw. She straightened, feeling a little disoriented. He steadied her and turned her into his embrace.

  When she looked into his face, she saw that he wore a small, sheepish smile. She immediately went up onto her toes and kissed his grin, her heart swelling at the sight.

  “Did I tell you how glad I am to see you?” she whispered next to his lips.

  “I figured your telling me to chase you was the equivalent,” he said wryly. He leaned down and kissed her again. When his kiss grew hungrier and she felt him stir next to her lower belly, she broke apart with reluctance.

  “I told you I’d tell you the secret when you caught me,” she breathed.

  He blinked as if he were trying to bring his eyes back into focus. “Oh. Yeah. What is it?”

  She smiled widely and touched his scruffy jaw. He looked gorgeous, every inch bad-boy Aussie, as usual.

  “I’ve won a million dollars.”

  “What?”

  She nodded, laughter bursting out of her throat. Saying it to him was like hearing the news for the first time herself. She rapidly explained the circumstances—her traditional one-time-a-year shot at her dreams, and how inexplicably, miraculously, fate had dealt her a winning hand.

  Chance appeared speechless.

  “It’s true,” she said, tears leaking out of her eyes. “I want to travel with you, Chance. I want to see the world. That is . . . if the offer still stands,” she said hesitantly, not quite able to interpret his frozen expression.

  “Are you teasing me, Sherona?” he asked tensely. “Because if you’re joking about something like this, I might have to turn you over my knee.”

  Her eyebrows went up. “Sounds interesting. Unfortunately, I’m one hundred percent serious.”

  A disbelieving bark of laughter erupted from his throat. His expression grew rapt as he studied her face, as though searching for signs of a trick. She just looked back at him steadily, her pure joy at looking upon his face shining unguarded from her eyes.

  “You’re going to come with me? You’ll be with me, Sherona?”

  “Yes. I’ve already got my passport. And I’ve made arrangements for the diner, for the short-term, anyway. I’ll have to come back sometime soon, though, Chance. I can’t break all ties with Vulture’s Canyon.”

  “I know that. I wouldn’t want you to never come home. We still have to finish the cookbook, too, remember?”

  She shook her head, tears overfilling her eyes. “You really were serious about that, weren’t you?” she asked, amazed.

  “Course I was. It’s a great idea, don’t you think?”

  She nodded, and a tear spilled down her cheek. He dried it with his fingertips.

  “You’re going to love it, seeing the world,” he breathed out, his mouth just inches from hers. “I’m going to love seeing it with you, Sherona.”

  She nodded, staring at his soul shining from his hazel eyes.

  “You made my little world a bigger, more beautiful place, Chance.”

  “I feel the same way about you.”

  She smiled, warmed by his admission, even though it struck her as a little silly. “Your world? Small? You’ve been to every corner of the globe,” she teased, nipping at his lower lip.

  He shook his head, suddenly sober.

  “It’s seemed like the tiniest, most hateful trap ever created for the past two weeks, seeing the world without you,” he said.

  Her lips parted in surprise. He seemed to take her amazement as an invitation and swooped down to give her another blistering, heartfelt kiss.

  * * *

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  EXPOSED TO YOU

  Available November 2012 from Heat Books

  If someone had told her when her alarm clock went off that morning that in a few hours she’d be calmly given the odds of her continued survival, Joy would have rolled her eyes and laughed her fears into the corners of her consciousness.

  If someone had warned her that later that afternoon she’d be going down on a gorgeous stranger, she’d have told that person they were certifiably insane.

  Wilkie shouted her name as she raced through the din of the makeup room. A photo shoot for movie posters and other promotional materials was scheduled for today. The special effects makeup department was roaring in high gear. Wilkie James looked too busy to chat, so Joy merely slowed her rapid pace. Her friend held an airbrush and was staring intently at a female’s right breast as he turned it pale green, his shaggy, dark brown hair just inches away from a nipple.

  “He’s in his lab, angsting for your talent. ‘I need Joy,’ he keeps moaning,” Wilkie imitated, adding a tremble to Seth Hightower’s gruff baritone for comic effect. “He’s been trying to reach you for hours. Where’ve you been, beautiful?”

  “Don’t I have a life, or was that all my imagination?” Joy asked, grinning.

  “You may have had a life before we began production on Maritime, but that’s all just a dream now, honey,” Wilkie drawled as he moved to the left breast, and his model yawned widely.

  That’s all just a dream now.

  Wilkie’s careless words struck her with frightening precision. She shrugged off the shadow of dread that hovered at the edges of her mind and walked on, willing the energy from her surroundings to distract her . . .

  . . . numb her.

  The drama and excitement of a Hollywood film set wasn’t Joy’s typical work world. As an art teacher for gifted high-school students and a painter, she preferred the atmosphere of the classroom or her quiet, sunlit studio at home. Even the clamor and bustle of a Hollywood makeup department couldn’t fully penetrate her dread, however.

  Not today.

  She felt as if she were moving through a dream . . . something like the brilliant, surreal underwater film director Joshua Cabot was creating for United Studio’s latest blockbuster, Maritime.

  She willfully ignored the uncomfortable pounding in her chest and flung open the door to Seth Hightower’s office-studio. She needed to see the familiar, loved, bold-featured face of her uncle; he was the only true family member she still possessed. Seth glanced around at the sound of her tool kit rolling over the threshold behind her.

  “There you are!”

  “I didn’t get the messages until a half an hour ago. I was at the doctor’s. I came as quickly as I could.”

  Seth looked contrite. “I know. Ignore me. I’m in a bear of a mood.”

  Joy smiled. Her uncle was a bear of a man in stature, perhaps, but hardly in temperament. At least not with Joy, he wasn’t. He tossed a few tubes of paint and glue into his kit before he straightened, swept down on her from his great height and gave her a quick, affectionate kiss, his shoulder-length dark hair flicking against her cheek. “You’re not even officially part of my staff and I snap at you like an intern. Your mother would have my hide.” Seth focused on her face, his bro
ws drawing together in a V shape, giving him an expression that anyone besides Joy would have found intimidating. “I know you had to take off school a few days last week. Is that why you were at the doctor? How’s the cough?”

  “Better,” Joy said as she glanced around the meticulously organized room. As the makeup department head, Seth claimed the right to privacy. His office-studio was like the calm eye of a storm. “I don’t have pneumonia,” she reported honestly. “What’s the emergency?”

  “It’s coming at me from all directions. Our leading lady decided to drink some Coke spiked with vodka without a straw. The latex is lifting around her mouth,” Seth said, referring to the actress’s prosthetic mask. “She’s throwing a fit and holing up in her trailer, refusing to let anyone touch her up but me. Meantime, I’m running behind on the tattoos.”

  Joy gave her uncle a humorous glance of sympathy. “There’s a cost to being the best.”

  “Anybody on my staff could reglue Ellie, you know that. She’s just throwing her weight around by asking for me personally.”

  “She must think you’re the best at a few things.”

  “As if I’d ever give that little shrew the chance to find out,” Seth muttered with a disgusted, distracted air. Joy’s heart went out to him. This had to be one of the most hectic days of his life. “Anyway, that only leaves you to do the last tattoo—”

  Seth paused when someone rapped and the door opened several inches. Her breath caught at what she saw.

  Joy had helped Seth with projects for Hightower Special Effects on several occasions, and she’d assisted him with the illustrations for his initial proposal to win the contract from United Studios and director John Cabot for Maritime. As such, she was used to Seth’s fantastical art concept for the film. She wasn’t so immune, however, that she didn’t stare in wonder at the bizarrely beautiful head of the part man, part exotic sea creature that appeared around the edge of the door.

  Her uncle was going to have an Academy Award sitting on his mantel for sure, she thought with a mixture of admiration and pride.

  “Hey, Tommy told me I should stop by,” the walking piece of art said.

  “Perfect timing,” Seth mumbled. He pointed at an illustration and some scribbled notes on the table. “Here’s what I need, Joy. You’re the only one I trust to do it. Go ahead and touch him up after you finish the tattoo. I won’t have time before the photo shoot. Wish me luck,” he said, glancing at both of them.

  “Luck. You’ll need it,” the marine man said, his lips twitching subtly.

  Seth snorted in agreement and rolled his kit behind him toward the door. The man, who was probably one of dozens of extras, stepped into the room so that Seth could pass. Joy noticed distractedly that her uncle and the aqua-colored male were nearly the same height—an oddity, as her uncle was usually the tallest man in the room. The two men nodded to each other before Seth shut the door behind him. Joy lifted her kit to the table and began to extract her paints, brushes and tattoo pens.

  “Give me just a minute, and I’ll be right with you,” she said as she checked Seth’s notes and began to mix her colors.

  He didn’t respond, but Joy was too focused on her preparation to mind. Actors and extras reacted to prosthetic and makeup application across a spectrum that ran from stoicism to whining to outright acting out. Hours and hours of sitting or standing motionless were often required while an artist created their magic. Maritime was a particular challenge. More than a hundred actors and extras required waterproof prosthetics and full body makeup in order to transform them into exotic sea creatures. Only dozens might be required to be in full makeup and costume during any given day of shooting, but Cabot had decided he wanted the entire cast in full regalia to give the grand scope of the movie for the photo shoot.

  Joy was working up a sweat as she mixed her paints. She walked over to the unit air conditioner and turned it on high, the sound of the fan muting the cacophony of voices, music and movement just feet away from Seth’s office-studio.

  “So you’re Seth’s niece?”

  She paused in the action of removing her hoodie. His deep, resonant voice had taken her by surprise. She met his gaze for the first time and blinked. His eyes were a clear aquamarine. The elaborate foam latex prosthetic he wore on the upper half of his face and the sublime makeup application only added to their brilliance. His gaze struck her as startlingly alert. Compared to this man, other people’s stares were those of sleepwalkers.

  She had the strangest sensation seeing his eyes peering through the elaborate costume he wore, as if she’d caught a glimpse of his soul through the beautiful artifice. Seth’s makeup, which subtly alluded to the emerging humanity of the sea creature, only added to the impression. The body paints included brilliant blues and greens, but flesh colors rippled and swirled over chiseled muscle and bone as well, creating a stunning living landscape. He was beyond beautiful, the subtle shadowing wrought by the air- and paintbrushes highlighting every ridge and smooth, hard plane of his long body.

  His gaze flickered downward.

  She became aware that she was holding both sides of her cotton hoodie wide open in preparation to remove it. Her breasts felt tight suddenly, straining against the fabric of her bra and the thin layer of her cotton tank top. Her nipples beaded, as if he’d reached out and brushed a finger over the sensitive flesh instead of just glancing at her.

  She blushed, her reaction surprising her. Joy was an artist, and she’d long grown accustomed to partial and full nudity. She didn’t work full time in the movie industry, but she’d had sufficient experience, thanks to Seth. Gorgeous models and wannabe actors were the norm in Hollywood, as commonly found as a cornstalk on a July day in Indiana.

  She whipped off her hoodie and tossed it on the table.

  “Yes. I’m Joy.” She nodded to a spot in front of the table and reached for a chair, all brisk business.

  “You’re the art teacher.”

  She met his stare, and was once again snared.

  “Seth told me,” he said quietly, shapely blue-and-white-tinted lips barely moving.

  “We better get started or you’ll miss the shoot,” she murmured, discomfited for some reason by the idea of Seth sharing even the smallest details of her life with this stranger.

  He walked to the spot she’d indicated. Joy sat and rolled her chair directly in front of him, her face situated in front of his abdomen. Without another word, she picked up a tattoo marker and began to outline the design in Seth’s illustration on her human canvas. Seth had altered the tattoo art somewhat from his original proposal. The brilliant starburst through rippling water was bolder and much more intricate than his original design. Joy liked the change.

  She never looked at his face once while she worked, but she was highly aware of him. Her knuckles brushed occasionally against warm, dense flesh. Her nose was just inches from his body. The alcohol base from the body paint filtered into her nose. Beneath it, she smelled the musk of his skin like a subtle, living thread twining through the chemical artifice. The fragrance was potent somehow, sending a loud, clear message of male virility to some ancient part of her brain.

  Only a stretchy, seaweed-like boxer-brief costume covered his genitals. Joy couldn’t help but be conscious of the fact that her chin was mere inches from the fullness behind the flimsy material. She worked steadily, but a dull, pleasurable ache began to grow at her core.

  A light glaze of perspiration had dampened her brow and upper lip by the time she leaned back. She glanced up at him, a calm—entirely fake—expression plastered on her face.

  “You’ll have to lower your briefs enough for me to make the transition look natural,” she said.

  The air conditioner made a loud, chugging sound and then resumed its typical hum. She saw his throat convulse. Was he as uncomfortable with this situation as she was? He held her stare with those striking eyes and moved his hands, folding down the seaweed brief and exposing the stretch of skin just above his genitals.

&n
bsp; She lifted her tattoo pen and paused.

  Seth had used the airbrush below the brief, but not in a thorough manner. Joy could see several patches of naked, golden skin along with a smattering of light brown hair. Pubic hair was usually several shades darker than hair on the head, which meant he must be blond beneath the beautiful headpiece affixed to his head.

  Below that strip of skin, the flimsy material barely contained a virile package. The vision was nearly as striking as that of the man’s eyes peering through the elaborate mask. What was it about that stretch of skin below the belly and just above a man’s cock that spoke of sensitivity . . . vulnerability?

  His arm muscles clenched tight. He kept his hands on the material of the briefs, as if he wanted to be prepared to jerk the garment back into place at the slightest provocation. Joy didn’t know whether to feel compassion for him or annoyance. He was the six-foot-four-inch tower of brawn here, not her. She was hardly going to attack him. She disliked this intimate aspect of her work, but the human body wasn’t something that could be ignored when it came to art. He was just a backdrop, not any different from the canvases in her studio.

  Her expression hardened at the thought. She leaned forward and continued her design, the tip of her marker slipping across firm flesh. She was doing fine for the next minute or so until she noticed the brief was stretching and expanding to contain his erection. His cock rode along his left thigh. The column of it was clearly delineated beneath the insubstantial garment.

  Shit.

  She glanced up at him anxiously. He was looking down at her. She’d known he would be. She’d sensed his stare on the crown of her head the entire time. He closed his eyes briefly. She sensed his regret even through his half mask.

  “I’m sorry,” he said in a gruff voice. “Just . . . just ignore it.”

  Heat flooded her cheeks and she looked away.

  How mortifying.

  It wasn’t uncommon for a model to occasionally experience an unwanted erection during a makeup application, but the evidence had never been so . . . close to her before. Nor had it ever been so appealing.