"Oh, look," enthused the female co-anchor, "their two children are going to share the honor. Ben Ryan is eight years old. His little sister Milly is almost six," she informed the television audience as they watched Susannah gather her children to her, lowering the Bible until they could each place a hand under it. "Although there's been no official word as yet, it's rumored that Mrs. Ryan is expecting the couple's third child sometime next summer. This will be the first time we've had children living in the governor's mansion in quite a few years. It will be quite a change—"
"How do they find out about that stuff?" Susannah groused, punching the remote control to pick up the evening news on another channel. "We haven't even announced it to the family yet."
"Well, look at it this way," Matt said, grinning at his disgruntled wife. "Now we won't have to."
"Matthew Ryan's first run for office ended in scandal when his then-fiancée Susannah Bennington was arrested in connection with a prostitution ring." The newscaster's voice ran over old file footage of Susannah's arrest and Matt's statement to the press when he ended his campaign for district judge. "The charges were later dismissed, but—"
"Oh, please," Susannah said, punching the remote again. "There were never any charges filed and there wasn't any scandal. You quit the campaign because you didn't want to be a district judge. Didn't anybody listen to your speech?"
"...and doesn't Mrs. Ryan look stunning? The unusual lapel pin she's wearing is one of a kind, made especially for her by the young California designer Heather Lloyd. Ms. Lloyd is a long-time personal friend of the Ryans—"
"Heather said she's already been swamped with orders," Susannah said gleefully. "I told her to just wait until everyone sees the gorgeous earrings she designed to go with my inaugural gown."
"Shouldn't you be getting into that inaugural gown?" Matt asked, passing between his wife and the television set on his way to the bathroom to shave.
Susannah glanced up at him from her seat on the edge of the bed. "Not until just before we're ready to leave," she said, and clicked the remote control again. "I don't want to wrinkle it."
"During his two terms on the City Council, Matthew Ryan was no stranger to controversy, even within his own home. An outspoken advocate of programs for women and children, gay rights and gun control, Mrs. Ryan was often heard voicing opinions contrary to those of her husband. During the summer of—"
Susannah clicked the remote control.
"The Ryan-Bennington marriage appears to be one of strange bedfellows—"
"Who's he calling strange?" Susannah demanded loudly, forgetting that she had once said the very same thing about their relationship. "You or me?"
"Got to be you," her loving husband hollered from the bathroom.
Click.
"...although having a strong-willed, outspoken wife doesn't seem to have hurt Matt Ryan's political career with the women voters of the State, political analysts say that on a national level it—"
Click.
"Don't you care what the political analysts have to say about my career?"
"Every one of them says something different and, so far, they've all been wrong."
"...Governor-Elect Matthew Ryan has just placed his hand on the Bible...."
"Why don't you turn that thing off?" Matt said, as he came out of the bathroom. "You've watched the swearing-in at least a dozen times already."
"It's a terrific ceremony," Susannah said, her eyes still on the television screen. "You look so noble. So dedicated. So gubernatorial." She gave him a slanted, sideways glance, her gaze raking down his long, well-formed body as he stood there beside the bed, freshly showered and shaved. She raised an eyebrow. "If they could only see you now."
Matt looked down at himself. "What? Blue boxer shorts aren't gubernatorial?"
"Maybe we should get you some with the State Seal printed on them."
"The State Seal, huh?" He frowned. "I don't know abo—" He broke off as he caught the expression on her face. "Is there something about California's State Seal that turns you on?"
She shook her head. "There's something about California's governor that turns me on."
"Is that so?" Matt set a knee on the edge of the mattress next to his wife's hip, and nudged her onto her back on the bed. He braced his hands on the bed on either side of her head. "Maybe we should do something about that."
"Maybe we should." Susannah looped her arms around his neck and smiled up at him invitingly. "Any ideas, Governor?"
"Plenty of ideas." Matt leaned down and nuzzled her throat. "I've been having fantasies all day about getting you naked in the official gubernatorial bed," he said, his voice a low, sexy growl.
"Naked? Right now? When we're supposed to be getting ready for your Inaugural Ball?"
Matt bare chest expanded in an exaggerated sigh. "Maybe not right now," he said craftily. "When I finally get you naked in this bed, I'm going to make sure you stay naked all night long. I can wait."
"I can't," Susannah said, and tightened her arms around her husband's neck. "Kiss me."
The End
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ONE NIGHT WITH YOU
The Heart of the City Series
Book One
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LOVERS AND STRANGERS
Hollywood Nights
Book One
Excerpt from
One Night With You
The Heart of the City Series
Book One
by
Candace Schuler
Bestselling, award-winning Author
ONE NIGHT WITH YOU
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"Top read of the month... nicely executed."
~Romantic Times
"Candace Schuler is a maestro at developing real characters."
~Affaire de Coeur
"I want you, Desiree."
"I want you too, Jake," she said clearly, and offered him her parted lips.
He kissed her, taking her offered mouth with a fevered eagerness that excited her already aroused emotions to an almost unbearable point. She strained against him, making a small sound of unmistakable need.
Jake cupped her buttocks, lifting her from the floor, and her slim legs locked themselves obligingly around his waist. He took three steps and then turned and fell backward onto the bed, taking her weight on top of his.
The short fall dislodged their lips and hands and Desi lay still for a few moments, panting lightly, her hot face hidden in the curve of his neck. She felt his hands in her hair, smoothing it through his fingers and down her back. Her tongue snaked out experimentally to taste him, and then her lips opened to feed greedily on that vulnerable place where his neck began to curve into his broad powerful shoulder.
Jake groaned and his hand stilled on her hair. He made a movement as if to roll over but Desi sat up abruptly, her wild hair foaming over her shoulders like a coppery cloud, and he lay still, waiting to see what she would do, staring up at her with hungry passion-glazed eyes.
"What are you thinking?" he asked.
"About how beautiful you are," she said. "You're the most beautiful man I've ever seen." She smiled a siren's smile of pure provocation. "And for tonight—all night—you're mine." Her hand trailed over his mouth and chin and throat to the top button of his shirt, "And I want to see more." She had the first button undone. "Much more," she said teasingly.
Slowly, then, and in a tense, tingling silence, she finished unbuttoning his shirt, running her fingers lightly over his broad furred chest as she went, and tugged it free from the waistband of his slacks. Her slim fingers hovered uncertainly over the buckle of his belt.
She could see the smooth muscles of his stomach tense in anticipation, waiting for her next move and, perversely, instead of doing what he expected her to, her hands went to the buckle of her own b
elt. She unbuckled it, tossing it carelessly to the floor and, in one swift movement she grasped the hem of her tunic in both hands and pulled it off over her head.
The peach-colored, lace-trimmed camisole she wore beneath her tunic, with tiny bows at the shoulders and between her breasts, was an intriguing contrast to the almost boyish appearance of her outer clothes. Her hands went to the first bow between her breasts and pulled it loose. The look in Jake's eyes began to burn hotter. Not melting, now, or even smoldering, but a raging inferno of desire as he lay there, very still, watching her undress for him.
The look in his eyes scorched her, making her clever fingers suddenly clumsy with nervousness and trembling excitement. The second bow snarled, refusing to come undone. "You do it," she invited him, leaning forward so he could more easily see the tiny bows. One hand held her hair back out of the way and the other touched the middle of his broad chest lightly, balancing herself as she leaned over him.
It took several seconds—an eternity—to untangle the second bow, and she realized that his chest was heaving under her hand, as if he had run a long way, his heart thudding against her palm. A faint sheen of perspiration glistened across his powerful shoulders as he worked impatiently at the bow. Suddenly it came free under his fingers. Then there was only the third and last bow on the front of her camisole and the tiny ties on either shoulder. The silky garment slid slowly down her body, revealing to his avid, hungry gaze the creamy perfection of her pale breasts with their small reddish-brown nipples puckered and straining for his touch.
Jake levered his torso up from the pillows, fastening his mouth greedily to one hardened nipple, and twisted his body so that Desi was turned onto her back beneath him. He seemed frantic, suddenly, to have her completely bare. As his lips and teeth tenderly ravaged her breasts, his hands were busy peeling her, and himself, out of the rest of their clothes.
Desi helped him as best she could, kicking off her sneakers, lifting her hips as he tugged her slacks and then her bikini panties off her hips and down the long slender length of her legs. She reached for him as she lay back, grasping his forearm to bring him down on top of her. He parted her thighs with his knees, settling his hips between her legs, and thrust into her. Desi received him into her as impatiently and eagerly and as passionately as he took her. There was no holding back for her with him. No coyness, no shyness, just an aching hunger. Her thoughts, her desire, her very being were all focused completely on him at that moment—and for all the moments for the rest of that long, lovely, magical night. One night of heart-stopping, head-spinning passion with the man who had invaded her deepest dreams ever since the first time she had seen him, nearly six years ago.
And it was enough, she told herself sternly, determined not to cry when she woke up the next morning with only the scent of him still lingering on the empty pillow next to her to reassure her that she had not merely dreamed it all.
One Night With You
The Heart of the City Series
Book One
by
Candace Schuler
~
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One Night With You
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THE NIGHT REMEMBERS
The Heart of the City Series
Book Two
Excerpt from
The Night Remembers
The Heart of the City Series
Book Two
by
Candace Schuler
Bestselling, award-winning Author
THE NIGHT REMEMBERS
Reviews & Accolades
"Ms. Schuler develops conflicting personalities with great skill... completely involves the reader"
~Romantic Times
"Ms. Schuler's characters are deeply motivated, emotional people."
~Inside Romance
"I didn't want to leave you that night." He reached across the table and put his hand on her arm. His fingers seemed to burn right through the sleeve of her robe. "I wanted to stay and make love to you again. Slowly, all night long. Like we used to." His fingers tightened on her arm. "I still want to," he said quietly.
Daphne closed her eyes for a moment fighting the weakness that had invaded her body at his touch, fighting the temptation of his words. Fighting... What was it she had told herself? Oh, yes. It wouldn't work. She opened her eyes and eased her arm out from under his hand.
"You didn't call," she accused, surprising herself. It was the last thing she had intended to say.
Adam let her pull away. "I wanted to." He ran his hand through his hair. "But I thought it would be better—for both of us—if I didn't." He began tearing at the hapless cinnamon roll on the plate in front of him, reducing it to crumbs. "We've got separate lives now," he went on, half speaking to himself. "Successful lives," he emphasized, "on separate coasts. And it's been eleven years. We've both gotten along fine—just fine—without each other for eleven goddamn years."
He looked up, his eyes faintly accusing, as if it were all her fault. "I actually thought I was over you. Over wanting you," he amended. "But you're like a fever. Like a..." He shook his head, looking as confused as she felt, and ran his hand through his hair again. "You're like a drug to me, Daphne. And all I have to do is see you and I start to ache for you all over again." He took a deep breath and dropped his hand to the table. "Why the hell did you have to come back here?"
"Because I ache for you, too," she said simply.
"You, too?" Adam's hand reached out again, tentatively touching hers where it lay on the table.
"Me, too." She lifted her hand, palm toward him, and let him lace his fingers with hers. "After that night I couldn't get you out of my mind. Couldn't forget how good it was. How good it's always been between us."
His fingers tightened. She squeezed back.
"I told myself it would be best if we didn't see each other again," she continued. "That it was just a temporary aberration and it would go away if I ignored it. But then Sunny called and invited me to your birthday party and I thought…well, why not? We're both adults now, not two crazy kids. We could be friends. Lots of ex's are friends. Right?"
Adam nodded slowly, his expression wary.
Oh, hell! Who am I trying to kid, she thought, seeing it. Adam? Or myself?
She straightened and pulled her hand from his. "No, that's not true." She laced her fingers together on the table. "The truth is," she said, staring down at her hands, "that I quite cold-bloodedly decided to come to Sunny's party to start an affair with you."
"What?" Adam's blue eyes opened wide.
"An affair." She glanced at him from under the sweep of her lashes. "You know, two people meeting over a period of time for illicit sexual purposes?"
"Yes, I know what it is. What I don't know is why you'd want to have one."
"Well, I thought... that is." She lifted her head and met his eyes straight on. "I thought having an affair with you would be the way to get you out of my system. I mean, this intense thing we seem to have for each other would have to fizzle out sooner or later and—"
"It hasn't fizzled in eleven years."
"No, but I think that's because of the way it ended. It was so abrupt and the... the..." She stumbled over the word, knowing love was the right one but not willing to go that far. "The passion never had a chance to die a natural death. We parted still wanting each other physically, even though the emotions were gone. And I thought, if we had an affair it might, uh, might—"
"Get me out of your system for good," he finished for her.
She nodded, completely forgetting that she had spent most of last night deciding that nothing was going to get Adam out of her system for good. "Yes." She smiled ruefully. "Do I sou
nd totally crazy?"
"Maybe. But if you're crazy, then so am I, because I agree. An affair is just what we need to get over each other for good."
The Night Remembers
The Heart of the City Series
Book Two
by
Candace Schuler
~
To purchase
The Night Remembers
from your favorite eBook Retailer,
visit Candace Schuler's eBook Discovery Author Page
www.ebookdiscovery.com/CandaceSchuler
~
Discover more with
eBookDiscovery.com
Page forward and complete your journey
with an excerpt from
LOVERS AND STRANGERS
Hollywood Nights
Book One
Excerpt from
Lovers & Strangers
The Hollywood Nights Series
Book One
by
Candace Schuler
Bestselling, award-winning Author
LOVERS & STRANGERS
Reviews & Accolades
5 Stars – A Little Romance
REVIEWS
"...characters are deeply motivated, emotional people."
~Inside Romance
"Candace Schuler challenges the reader to feel—love, pain, sympathy and compassion."
~A Little Romance
"Passion, trust, and love go hand-in-hand in this story of two remarkable people who, somehow, in this great big world, find each other."
All Night Long Page 17