by PJ Adams
“You look good, Trude.”
“Too damned right I do. You think I’d come to my brother’s wedding and look like shit?”
I was smiling by then. Our arguments went like that: they either got more and more intense or we’d end up laughing and wondering what we’d been fighting about.
“It’s been a long time, Trude.”
I leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. He smelt of Issey Miyake and cigarettes.
“Shouldn’t you be inside with Ethan? I assume he’s turned up?”
“Fresh air break,” said Charlie, tapping the cigarette-box-shaped bulge in the breast pocket of his tuxedo. “You know how it is.”
“Haven’t you given that stuff up yet?”
“Everyone’s got their vices, Trudy. Even you.”
I raised one eyebrow and fixed him with a hard stare until he was forced to look away. If the occasional vodka and tonic too many and a tendency to over-stretch my credit cards on Karen Millen and Jimmy Choo were vices, then yes, Charlie had a point, but he was pushing it.
I looked around again. The chapel was set in a stand of pine trees, a short distance from a sprawling country house, all tall windows and mock classical columns. The landscape was so flat here: fields stretching away to another line of dark pine trees, and the sea beyond. I don’t think I’d ever seen a landscape so haunting, so weighted down with sadness.
“I need a drink,” I muttered. I don’t know why I was so tense. There was no bad feeling between me and Ethan; we just hadn’t seen each other for a while. A bit of awkwardness, that was all.
“Later, Trude. Later.”
“So how did my brother end up getting married in a place like this? Does all this belong to her family? Is that it?”
One further element of embarrassment was that I’d never actually met Ethan’s fiancée, Eleanor.
I didn’t know much about her at all. Very English, was how Ethan had described her on the phone, way back when they’d just started to realize they were getting serious. An English rose, Trudy. Can you believe that? Me, with my very own English rose?
I thought he was a bit scared then, feeling out of his depth with this girl and her landed family and their English ways.
“Family with money,” said Charlie. “It’s all about who you know. Connections.”
That was when it happened. My Jane Austen moment. My cliché.
My attention was snagged by movement in the chapel doorway and I turned, thinking Ethan must be emerging and now was the time for me to go and hug him and sweep away the distance that had grown between us.
Instead, it was a guy I’d never seen before.
He was in a tux, this newcomer. He was about six foot, and his shoulders were square, almost as if he was wearing a quarterback’s shoulder pads. He was either an athlete or he spent far too much time looking after himself in the gym.
So: first impression was okay, but nothing to write home about.
And then... that Jane Austen moment.
He peered around, as if lost, and then his eyes fell upon me. It was almost as if he recognized me, as if he’d been waiting all his life for me... but then realized he was mistaken, he didn’t know me at all – exactly that kind of double take.
He looked away, and then glanced back.
His eyes were dark, but when they settled on you it was as if you’d been fixed by a hawk. A raptor, eyeing his prey.
I shook myself, made myself look away. I couldn’t believe I was actually blushing.
Eyes meeting across a crowded gathering.
It was a cliché. I was flustered by my late arrival and by the tense undercurrents of the occasion.
That’s all it was.
Nothing more.
And yes, perhaps I protest too much.
(continues...)
The Object of His Desire is available from: Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and other Amazon stores.
Black Widow
Two years ago Eleanor Dryton lost her husband, her job and her friends.
She lost everything about her old life that ever mattered to her.
All she had left were her will and a burning desire for revenge.
Now, El has served her time for being an unknowing partner in her murdered husband's crimes. Her prison sentence has toughened her up and she's learned that she can be bad.
But when her search for revenge leads her to a man who takes bad to a completely different level just how far is she willing to go? If prison has hardened her, what effect will the man who killed her husband have? And does she even have any control over what happens next?
A dark and disturbing romantic thriller from the bestselling author of Winner Takes All and The Object Of His Desire.
--Author's Note--
This is a dark romance novel. It contains themes of violence and mature situations that could make readers uncomfortable.
Goodreads reviews:
"This story is dark and twisted. I liked it."
"My fave part is the ending. Not because the book was over, but because of the huge twist. I won't give it away, but BRAVA Ms. Adams."
"I had a hard time putting this one down..."
"Wow... Just wow! It was 'dark & twisty', kept me hooked and had plot twists that keep you guessing! Kudos to PJ Adams, I loved this book & would definitely recommend!"
Black Widow is available from: Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and other Amazon stores.
More from Polly J Adams
The Wings of Desire by Polly J Adams
All eight stories in bestselling author Polly J Adams' very explicit erotic romance series, Knee-tremblers and Indulgence, brought together in a single volume. Two series following one woman's journey from an adulterous relationship with a close friend's husband, to exploring her sexuality at a country-mansion sex club with its enigmatic owner. Eight sizzlingly explicit tales of sexual adventure, exploration and desire.
These stories are also available as separate, standalone ebooks.
The Wings of Desire is available from: Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and other Amazon stores.
Excerpt:
I tried.
I tried really hard to be good. But I'm just not that strong. And I'm a bitch. The odds were never really going to be in my favour.
Katie had been at my law firm for nearly three months. We saw each other a lot at work; we went for coffee and lunch. We talked.
I liked her. Much more straight-laced than me, with her high collars and low heels, she was someone I could easily have become if life had taken a different turn. Maybe she sensed that, too. We had become friends.
She confided in me. She told me that her marriage was fucked and she was trying hard to unfuck it. She asked me for advice. We went shopping for lingerie and toys. She even asked me how I'd set about seducing him if I were her.
She didn't know that I was the last person she should confide in, the last person she should ask for advice.
I tried to be a good friend. I tried to meet her high standards, tried to offer her what support I could.
But that day, when she said to me over her afternoon latte, "So how would you do it? How would you make him fall for you all over again? How would you seduce him?"
That day... The honest answer would have been, I did, Katie. I did.
(continues...)
The Wings of Desire is available from: Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and other Amazon stores.
The Billionaires' Sex Club by Polly J Adams
When Kate Vale decided to spend the summer as a waitress at parties for the super-rich, she knew she would be moving in circles she'd never encountered before. It turned out to be a world of depravity and pure unbridled lust she had never even dreamed could exist.
Later, when she signed up with the Billionaires' Sex Club she thought she knew what was in store. Endless days fulfilling the sexual fantasies of the super-rich, a world of depravity, control and submission. What she didn't realize was that she could be put up at auction, sold to the highest bidder, a
nd when the you're signed up to the Billionaires' Sex Club, the stakes can get very high indeed.
But then... what happens when the stakes get even higher?
All three Billionaires' Sex Club novelettes in one volume. Explicit stories of bondage, dubious consent, multiple partners and more from the bestselling author of Bad Again and Wings of Desire
The Billionaires' Sex Club is available from: Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and other Amazon stores.
Excerpt:
“You do understand what this contract means, don’t you?”
I looked up at him.
He was a man with authority, a man with power. He was my employer’s brother and he ran this place, this club I’d innocently stumbled upon that summer when I was doing casual work in the Hamptons to fund my way through college.
He was in charge.
He was the man.
Unlike his roguish brother, he looked fairly unprepossessing. A quiet man, a man of understated taste in his bespoke charcoal suit, his crisply cut silver hair, his kind blue eyes and gentle smile. A man you would barely notice, far less comment upon. A benevolent uncle, a loved neighbor, a respected bank manager.
I nodded.
“You’ve read it through? You know what you’re committing yourself to?” It almost seemed that he didn’t want me to sign. That benevolent uncle thing, protecting me, even though we were virtual strangers. “We have to be sure...”
I nodded again, and then shrugged, straining against my bonds. “I have,” I told him. “I’ve read it. I understand. But one thing...”
He looked at me, one eyebrow raised.
“You’ll have to unlock my handcuffs if you want me to sign...”
(continues...)
The Billionaires' Sex Club is available from: Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and other Amazon stores.
For details of all of Polly's books, see her author pages at Amazon US and Amazon UK.
Published by James Grieve Press
© PJ Adams 2014
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Cover image © Branislav Ostojic
This ebook is copyright material and no portion of it may be reproduced or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author's and publisher's rights and those responsible may be liable in law.