One-Click Buy: September Harlequin Blaze

by Jo Leigh

  “I need adventure.”

  “What kind of adventure?’

  “Forbidden adventure,” she murmured.

  Excitement trembled his hand. The scent of her invaded his nostrils. Her daring spirit clipped him hard. His muscles clenched. The tension was almost more than he could tolerate.

  His eyes met hers.

  In the darkness, in the heat of the moment, the black of her pupils grew so large they almost encompassed the azure blue of her irises. Was it his imagination, or were her lips trembling as much as his hands?

  Foolish as it might be, he had to have her.

  Liam realized how very little he knew about her, beyond the fact that she was one of those Winfields. The thought served to send his desire soaring.

  He’d never experienced excitement like this. Not in the boardroom, not when making a fabulous deal on a piece of renovated property, not being named Young Bostonian’s bachelor of the year. The closest he had ever come to this sensation was when he drove his Lamborghini over the speed limit.

  What a helluva ride.

  A sense of rash abandon shoved him headfirst into decadence. It was not an emotion he was familiar with. Liam was normally an expert at delayed gratification. But not today. Not with this amazing woman. If he lived to be a hundred, he would never forget her.

  With one slender, well-manicured finger, she raked her nail along his jawline.

  Liam stifled a groan. Who knew a gentle scratch would feel so erotic? Katie’s stroking brought a whole new element of awareness into play as he imagined those sweet fingers investigating other, more vulnerable areas of his body.

  Her bold self-confidence inflamed him. She was a complex and complicated woman and he wanted to know everything about her. His hungry curiosity almost sent him over the brink of reason.

  What did she have up her sleeve?

  She’d started this seduction, this exotic tease, but damn if he wasn’t committed to finishing it.

  On the screen in front of them, Clark Gable flirted with Claudette Colbert, but Liam didn’t notice. He had eyes for only one woman.

  In the muted glow from the light of the projector, he studied Katie. She sent him a look that jammed his libido into hyperdrive, slowly licked her lips, and then leaned over the arm of her chair to lightly run that naughty tongue over his lips.

  Blood, fiery and indolent, pooled in his groin. Every nerved ending leaped as electrical impulses shot through the circuitry of his brain.

  The lovely Veronique tasted of licorice jelly beans and lusty woman. Their tongues tangoed. First she was the leader, muddling his senses, but then he took over, giving as good as he’d gotten. Making her mewl with escalating pleasure.

  He was back in control.

  Or at least he thought he was until she broke the kiss, pressed her mouth to his ear and whispered, “I’m not wearing panties.”

  Sweat slicked his brow, his chest, his thigh, and the pounding between his thighs intensified. His cock was damned stiff and sensitive, thrusting against the zipper of his slacks.

  Shamelessly, she pressed her bosom against his arm and kissed him again, her mouth gobbling up his as if she knew every single outlaw fantasy that crossed his mind.

  He brushed his hand against her breast and lightly pinched the nipple straining against the soft material. Her flesh beaded as hard as a pebble beneath his touch.

  She sucked in her breath with a sex-fueled hiss. “Oh, yeah.”

  “That’s it,” he murmured, proud of his masculine prowess. “Tell me what you like.”

  “I want your cock.” She slipped her hand down the front of his shirt to his waistband. Boldly, she eased down his zipper and reached inside.

  It was his turn to hiss in his breath.

  She nibbled his neck while her hand stroked his rock-hard flesh with a teasing caress. On screen, Clark was stringing up a blanket to separate him from Claudette.

  Knowing that they were making out in the balcony of a movie theatre, that any minute an usher could walk in and find them, was beyond exhilarating. It was forbidden, yes, but that’s what made it so awesome.

  Liam felt the pulse in her wrist leap hard and fast against the head of his penis and Liam knew Katie was just as turned on as he was.

  “I want you,” he growled. “Now.”

  “Wait,” she said huskily.

  He felt her fumble around in the darkness, heard the sound of something being unwrapped. Condom, he thought, and then she was rolling the rubber on his burgeoning cock.

  She straddled the arms of the chair he was sitting in, wrapped her hands around his neck and slowly eased herself down on the length of him. Instinctively, his hands went to span her waist, holding her in place and letting out his breath on a long, controlled exhale.

  Her wet moistness engulfed him and he was inside her. “Ride me.” His voice was gravel.

  “My pleasure.” She rode him hard and fast until they were soaring together, mindless of the noise they were making. Beyond caring who could hear.

  Liam was so crazy with desire for her he couldn’t stop himself. He had to do this. There was no other way out.

  Their joining was quick and urgent and very, very dangerous. Everything was borderless, open. They rolled into infinity, and every blissful inch felt right and good and true. Liam couldn’t distinguish who was inside whom. They were both inside, occupying the bones, skin, muscles, cells. Together, they spun.

  The tasty expanse of their union multiplied, swelling beyond comprehension. A harmonious, voiceless galaxy whirling quicker than the speed of sound.

  Past thinking, with no coherent thought in his head, he was nothing but cock and ass and balls.

  Alive with sensation.

  Relentlessly, Katie rocked into him. He was aching, gushing, throbbing. He had to bite down on his lip to keep from letting loose with a primal cry. To keep from begging for release from this glorious torture. From the rapture he could almost touch.

  Tingling. Humming. Rushing.

  Soon. Please, please let it be soon. It had better be or he’d implode.

  And then, just like that, it was upon him.

  Liam tumbled. Jerking and trembling into the abyss, hurtling. Lost. Enveloped by the chasm. The earth, the sky, the air, the ocean exploded in a ball of white-hot come.

  He blinked, befuddled.

  Katie collapsed. Sank her head against his.

  He wrapped his arms around her and they sat there, sweating, shuddering, panting for breath.

  The urgency was gone. His cock emptied. But his mind was one speeding thought after another. Adrift in a darkened world of squeaky theatre seats, red velvet curtains and the smell of buttered popcorn.

  They had traveled so far together, had shared such a forbidden intimacy that when they settled back into their separate selves, a fierce melancholy fell over him.

  Their lovemaking had been so remarkable that Liam did not know what to do now.

  They did not know each other. Not really. They possessed no common ground. No shared history or background in which to salvage their separateness. In the confines of the old theatre, with Clark kissing Claudette on screen, they navigated unknown terrain.

  Then, before he could make a move, Katie decided for him. She rose up from his lap, slipped from his grasp. “Give me a two-minute start before you follow.”

  Then she was gone.

  Several minutes later, as Liam left the theatre on legs so shaky he was amazed he could walk, he realized that this movie would always be branded in his brain as It Happened One Forbidden Afternoon.

  LIAM WAS SITTING in his office, scrunched down in his chair, staring out the window when a soft knock sounded and his door opened a crack.

  “Liam?”

  “Huh?” Liam jerked upright and blinked at his secretary Vanessa Gomez. She studied him with a look of motherly concern. “What is it?”

&nb
sp; “I don’t mean to overstep boundaries, but is there something unusual going on in your personal life?”

  “Why do you ask?”

  “You’ve been very distracted lately and your moods are all over the place.” Vanessa was an impeccable employee. Forty-five, caramel-skinned, always professionally dressed and well put together. She also didn’t pry into his private life, not usually. But that could have been because up until now he hadn’t had much of a private life.

  “Sorry, my mind was elsewhere.” On his wild lunchtime encounter with Katie.

  “On the warehouse-condo renovations?”

  “Yeah,” he lied, “that’s it.”

  She crossed the room, settled some files on his desk. “These contracts need your signature.”

  “Thanks.” He nodded.

  Vanessa started to leave, but stopped at the door. “Oh, and one other thing.”

  “Yes?”

  “Finn Delancy’s secretary called from the mayor’s office.”

  “What?” He planted both palms on his desk and shot to his feet. Irrationally, his first thought was, He’s finally calling to acknowledge he’s my father. “When?”

  “Just a few minutes ago.” Her eyes narrowed. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

  “I’m fine,” Liam said curtly, his pulse pounding in his temple. “What did Delancy want?”

  “Why, to invite you to a dinner party at his house. That whole Young Bostonian thing has the city buzzing about you. Plus, he might want to put the squeeze on you for a campaign contribution.”

  Here it was. A second chance to confront Delancy in public. Honestly, he’d been so wrapped up in Katie that he’d almost forgotten about his vendetta against Delancy.

  Almost.

  “When’s the party?” he asked.

  “This Wednesday at eight. Should I tell him you’re available?”

  Liam swallowed hard, curled his hands into fists. “You bet.”

  “I’ll let his PA know.” Vanessa headed for the door, but paused when she reached it and turned back. “Oh, he’s expecting you to bring a date.”

  EMPOWERED BY the bold thing she’d done during her lunch hour, Katie called Lindsay Beckham the minute she sank into the chair behind her desk at Sharper Designs.

  “Chassys bar.”

  “Is this Lindsay?”

  “It is. Who’s speaking?”

  “Katie Winfield.”

  “Yes?”

  “I did it.”

  “Did what?” the unflappable blonde asked. Even over the phone, she sounded cool and utterly in control.

  “My Martini dare. You know, I made love in a forbidden place.”

  “Good for you.” Was it her imagination or was there a self-satisfied note in Lindsay’s voice? “And the object of your affections? What did he think about the dare?”

  Katie grinned, thinking of the wiped-out expression on Liam’s face. “I’m quite confident he liked it, too. Although I never told him that he was part of a dare.”

  “Excellent. As you know, you’re sworn to secrecy about the details of your Martini dares. Are you ready for the next one?”

  Katie sucked in her breath. Was she? Her encounter with Liam had been so intimately erotic she wasn’t sure she was emotionally ready for another dare.

  “You have to complete all three dares before next month’s Martinis and Bikinis meeting,” Lindsay reminded her.

  “Yeah, okay, sure, send it my way.”

  “That’s the spirit.” Lindsay chuckled. “I’ll put the new dare in the mail today.”

  “What was that all about?” Tanisha asked, after Katie had hung up.

  “Um, nothing,” she hedged.

  “You’ve been acting very odd lately,” Tanisha said. “Ever since Max made you art director. I think it’s going to your head.”

  “It’s not going to my head,” she denied.

  “No?” Tanisha looked as if she didn’t believe it for a second.

  “No.”

  “Well, something’s wrong.”

  “Nothing’s wrong.”

  “You-” she pointed a pitiless finger “-are seriously into denial.”

  Feeling badgered, she crossed her arms over her chest. “What makes you think something is wrong?”

  “Because your skirt’s on backward.”

  Katie looked down and saw that Tanisha was right. Her zipper was twisted around to the front, not in the back where it belonged. It must have happened in the theatre.

  Her face heated. Good grief, she was seriously into denial.

  Denial that her feelings for Liam were growing too fast and too strong.

  Tanisha narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “Have you fallen off the cold-turkey wagon? Where were you during your lunch hour?”

  Thankfully, her extension rang and she snatched up the receiver to avoid answering her friend’s probing questions.

  “Katie?”

  She caught a skittish breath. The sound of Liam’s voice, as spellbinding as snake-charmer music, curled through her body. Her tongue was cemented to the roof of her mouth and her hand tightened around the receiver. A dozen erotic images erupted in her mind.

  She recalled the way he had looked at the movie theatre, muscles coiled tight, face scrunched up in ecstasy. Her hands tingled, recalling how her fingers had brushed against the smooth skin of his strong, clean-shaven jaw. Her nose twitched in memory of the tangy scent their lovemaking generated. Her mouth watered and her sex clenched with electric shivers. She wanted to do it again.

  And soon.

  But it wasn’t just the physical act, and her enjoyment of it, that had her aching to be joined with him again. What she remembered most about their adventure in the theatre, what frayed her heart with an emotion she didn’t want to think about, was the way he’d tenderly cupped her face in his hands. He’d stared deeply into her eyes and then kissed her lightly, tenderly, the moment after they’d climaxed together.

  “Katie,” he repeated.

  “Uh-huh,” she whispered, her pulse skipped a zealous message to her brain. I want him.

  “I know this is short notice,” he apologized, “but are you free on Wednesday night?”

  “Um…what’s up?”

  “Mayor Delancy is having a dinner party at his house and I need a date. Can you come with me?”

  Can I come with you? That was a loaded question if she’d ever heard one. “I’d love to.”

  “Great, I’ll pick you up at seven-thirty.” He rang off without another word.

  Katie hung up, feeling a strange mix of emotions-anticipation mingled with sheepishness and a light dusting of bafflement. She’d been a flirt since childhood. Teasing men, leading them on and then taking off when things got too serious for her to handle. She liked keeping guys off balance, making them unsure of where they stood with her.

  But Liam was different. Here he’d gone and asked her for a last-minute date and she hadn’t hesitated. In the past-with any other guy-she would have pretended she had another date. Instead, she eagerly accepted Liam’s invitation without thinking twice. How messed up was that?

  Katie put a hand to her stomach, alarmed. Something very strange was happening to her. Something she could not control or explain.

  And she wasn’t at all sure she liked the path she was headed down.

  9

  LIAM PACED his penthouse apartment, his nerves shredded, even though he was loath to admit Finn Delancy held that much power over him. Tough guys didn’t get nervous over being the guest of honor at dinner parties thrown by their illegitimate fathers.

  The only thing that calmed him was the knowledge that he would have Katie by his side. She knew how to successfully navigate blue-blooded waters. One ally. That was all he needed to give him the strength to confront the man he’d never called father.

  He picked Katie up in his Lamborghini at seven-t
hirty on the dot. She opened the door looking exactly like what she was-a well-bred Boston Brahmin. She wore a little black cocktail dress that fit her curves perfectly and showcased her sleek blond hair. The dress showed enough cleavage to be enticing without being vulgar. The skirt hem hit right above her knees. Not too long, not too short.

  A five-carat diamond lay draped around her long slender neck, and she had on a matching bracelet. She’d twisted her hair up off her shoulders like Aubrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s-his mother’s all-time favorite movie.

  She’d struck exactly the right note.

  He stared, stunned by the simplicity of her beauty. “You look amazing.”

  Her smile was surprisingly shy. “Thank you.”

  “I brought you a corsage.”

  “I can see that.”

  He suddenly felt like a giant dork standing there with the vibrant red rose corsage in his hand. He’d gotten it on Vanessa’s recommendation, but now the gesture seemed way too high-school-promish. “It’s a dumb idea.”

  “No, no.” She reached for the corsage. “Flowers are never a dumb idea.”

  “Should I pin it on for you?”

  “Please.”

  He took the corsage out of the box and stepped forward to pin it on her dress. She smelled so good, so tempting. His knuckles grazed the curve of her skin, his fingertips brushing the velvety material of her dress. She felt so warm and alive.

  Katie lowered her lashes, watching him pin the corsage in place. The fact she was watching him threw Liam off his game. Her succulent aroma, mingled with the smell of the roses, enticed him. He wanted to lean over and nibble on the creamy expanse of her exposed neck.

  “Your thumb,” she exclaimed. “Look, Liam, you’re bleeding.”

  It was only then he noticed he had poked his finger with the pin while putting on her corsage. He’d been so overwhelmed by her that he hadn’t even felt the prick of pain.

  Katie snatched a tissue from a nearby box, reached out, took his hand and dotted away the blood.

  Something knotted inside him at her tender touch. Something alien and scary.

  He wondered how he looked to her, successful entrepreneur in a tux, Boston’s most eligible bachelor, all suave and debonair, sticking his finger with a pin and not even paying attention because her beauty had so preoccupied him.