Mate series
Seeing Eye Mate
Checkmate
Finding Strength
Two Sighted
The Strength of Three
Between a Ridge and a Hard Place
Bridging the Gap
Fantasmagorical
Court Appointed
Tooth and Claw
Blackmailed
Look What Santa Brought
Coming Soon:
Ultimatum
Trifecta
Mystified
One fateful detour. A raging storm. She didn’t see this love coming…
Merry Christmas, Paige
© 2009 Mackenzie McKade
Holding a knife against a child’s throat isn’t exactly how Dr. Paige Weston had planned to spend her Christmas holiday. But a jolt from an air pocket and here she is, performing an emergency tracheotomy as her flight to Fiji diverts to Kauai. The one place she swore never to return.
Beside the fact her patient comes first, what’s the chance she’ll run into her ex-fiancé—the man who jilted her when another woman turned up pregnant? Then she realizes the island hospital is woefully understaffed, forcing her to lend a hand. And upping the odds that her heart will hit more turbulence before she makes her escape.
Nathan Cross can’t believe his eyes. The emergency room doctor tending to his daughter’s cut foot is the woman he’s dreamed about every night since he was forced to walk out of her life. He should have been prepared for her indifference, but he’s blindsided by the need to hold her in his arms. Just one more time.
Yet Fate is a trickster, leaving him wondering if he should grasp for a second chance…or take his punishment for one, long-ago choice.
Warning: This book contains two lovers destined to make up for lost time, which means moments of deep emotional and hot lusty sex, including in such places as against the wall, up against a railing (my personal favorite), on the hood of a truck, in the rain, and every other imaginable place.
Enjoy the following excerpt for Merry Christmas, Paige:
The minute Nathan saw Paige’s tearstained face, guilt rode him hard. For a moment he didn’t know what to say. “Are you okay?”
The small chuckle she released held no humor. “What do you think?” She held the door only slightly ajar, as though trying to stop him from entering.
Without hesitation, he pushed the door wide, forcing her to step aside so he could enter. “That I’ve betrayed you and hurt you so badly you don’t ever want to see me again.”
“Then why are you here?” She sounded so lost. She pulled the robe around her like a shield.
“Because I love you.” He resisted the urge to reach for her. “You may not believe me, but I dreamt of holding you every night. The last five years have been hell.”
“Nathan, I don’t want to hear this. You have no idea what hell is.” She walked away from him to the sliding glass doors and gazed across the panorama. “What we had is over.”
Please God, don’t let her believe that.
He eased up behind her. He flexed his fingers before placing them on her arms. Carefully, he guided her around so that their eyes met. “No. It isn’t. You know it and I know it.” The anguish in her expression made it difficult for him to continue, but he did. “I’ve wronged you. But, baby, I never stopped loving you.” Every nerve in his body sizzled like they were ready to ignite. He had to make her understand. “Paige, I was torn with the news that I was going to be a father. I should have held my ground. I should have married you.” The tears in her eyes made his mist. “You’re right. We could have had a life together and worked something out with Sylvia, but I didn’t think.” He looked away briefly, ashamed that he hadn’t thought of all the options available. Why hadn’t he seen a way out? “I’ve paid every day for the choice I made. Please don’t make me continue to pay.”
Pain like he had never witnessed hardened her features as she shook out of his hold. “You hurt me.” Her voice cracked. “I don’t know if I can ever trust you again.”
The truth pierced his heart. The foundation of their relationship had been built on trust. Now it was gone. “Do you still love me?” he whispered.
“It’s not that easy.”
A sliver of hope burst through the gray clouds in his mind. She didn’t say no. There was a chance, maybe a thin one, but a chance if he could get her to lower her guard. Then he would love her with every ounce of his being and show her she could trust him.
“It could be,” he said softly. He retrieved the naupaka flower from the table. Returning, he caressed her hand with the blossom. “We can give the legend a happy ending. Take the flower, Paige. Tell me you love me and that you’ll give me the opportunity to prove my love for you.”
Licking her lips, she stared at the flower before turning away. “It doesn’t matter if I love you.”
“Then you do love me?”
She sniffled. Her fists clenched. “Don’t do this to me, Nathan.”
“Paige, all I want is for us to be together. Do you love me?” he repeated firmly.
She nibbled on her lower lip, silent tears racing down her cheeks. “I shouldn’t. God knows I shouldn’t, but I do.”
Inside of Nathan a light of hope illuminated the darkness that he had lived with for five years. His chest tightened to the point it felt like he would burst. He tried to hide the joy that filled him, but it was useless. He opened his arms. “Come here, baby.”
She stared at his arms as if he was inviting her into a trap. It stung to know he had pushed her to this extent, hurt her so badly she hadn’t been able to go on with her life. He was a selfish bastard. She had remained his all these years, while he had attempted to make a life for Cami.
“Come here, baby,” he repeated.
“I can’t.” Yet she took a step toward him.
“I’m so sorry. Give me the opportunity to make things right. Let me make up for the time I have stolen from us. Let me love you, Paige.”
When the breath she held audibly released, her resistance melted too. She nearly flew into his arms, clinging to his neck like she would never let him go. She wept heart-wrenching sobs.
“Please, Paige.” His voice trembled. “Don’t cry.” His eyes stung, his tears joining hers.
She felt so right in his arms, even better than he had remembered. He buried his face into her hair and inhaled the familiar scent of her perfume. Sultry jasmine and something fruity surrounded him like a blanket. “I’ve missed you so much,” he admitted shamelessly. “Every night—every day.”
The need to kiss her was overwhelming. He captured her lips with a hunger that scared him. His lips opened hers and his tongue plunged deep, searching and pushing against hers. She whimpered, the soft sound more of a cry than a moan. She tasted so fucking hot, a fire inside his soul that a mere caress could not extinguish.
“Love you,” he murmured against her lips. Would he ever be able to convince her of the depth of his love? He kissed her frantically. A rough growl left his throat as his mouth slanted across hers again.
His unsteady steps drove her backward, pinning her against the cool glass door. Their bodies pressed together felt amazing.
She mewled, and he captured her mouth with another kiss.
The urge to strip her naked and take her now like he had dreamt of for so many nights was strong. Blood rushed to his groin, the heat shooting all the way to his head. His thoughts whirled. Over and over, he stabbed his tongue in and out of her mouth, while he mimicked the actions with his hips, seeking relief that didn’t come. Instead he grew impossibly harder, his cock pressed angrily against his zipper. The only way to ease the ache would be to make love to her right here, right now.
She gasped, but her cry was muffled by his starving mouth. His lips moved over hers, his tongue skimming her soft palate. When she tugged at his T-shirt, a shiver raced up his back.
She jerked away, breaking their embrace. Her eyes were dark with desire. “I need you, Nathan. Make lov
e to me.”
Briefly, he closed his eyes and tried to hold on to what was left of his control. “I’ve waited a lifetime to hear you say that.”
He took the flower from her hand and placed it on the glass table. When he returned he undid the sash of her robe. Skin like silk met his palms as he smoothed the garment off her shoulders. The air in his lungs caught at the sight of her. To his delight she wore nothing beneath the cover-up.
Firm breasts. Sensuous curves. She was perfection.
Dammit. His hands shook as he reached for her. She came willingly, even eagerly, into his embrace, which made him quiver with excitement. He trailed a path of kisses down her neck into the valley of her breasts. The feminine scent of her skin made him drunk with desire. His arousal intensified as small bumps formed on her areolas. Rapid breathing forced her voluminous breasts to rise and fall, again and again.
“You’re beautiful.” There wasn’t much more to say, but he found himself continuing. “Do you have any idea how much I want you?” His fingertips danced across a nipple that grew taut. He squeezed it between his thumb and forefinger. She trembled in response and arched into his caress.
“Nathan. Please.”
“What do you want, baby?”
“Shirt. Take it off.”
Even if he had wanted to he couldn’t refuse her. He needed her as badly as she appeared to hunger for him. In one swift move he pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it aside to join her robe on the marble floor.
The second he leaned in and their chests touched it felt like fire surged through his veins. She was a living flame lighting the lonely corners of his life these past five years had darkened.
Caressing her neck with his mouth, teeth and tongue, he moved his hands down her back. “You feel so good.” A raspy groan pushed from her lips as his hands glided lower to feel the soft mounds of her ass. “I’ve missed you so much.”
“I need you inside me,” she whispered in his ear. The seduction in her voice made his balls pull tight against his body. “Love me, Nathan.” Desire burned like a candle in her smoky blue eyes. Her heated expression made his cock jerk.
His fingers intertwined with hers. Without a word, he led her toward the bedroom and the bed where they had made love so many times that summer. Rain sliced sideways, driving past the balcony cover to pound against the window. The small gate of the spiral staircase banged back and forth as the wind blew.
With a feather-light touch, he kissed her, before laying her back on the bed and following her down. “I can’t believe you’re here.” When he lowered his head, their gazes locked and her breath caught. The chemistry between them zinged clear to the soles of his feet. “Like the two parts of the naupaka flower we belong together—forever. I’ll never let you go.”
The voice of an angel, a husband who loved her—she had it all…until a tragedy took it away.
Songbird
© 2009 Maya Banks
A Linger Story
They called her their Songbird, but she was never theirs. Not in the way she wanted.
The Donovan brothers meant everything to Emily, but rejected by Greer and Taggert, she turned to Sean, the youngest. He married her for love, and she loved him, but she also loved his older brothers.
Her singing launched her to stardom. She had it all. The voice of an angel, a husband who loved her, and the adoration of millions. Until a tragedy took it all away.
Taggert and Greer grieve for their younger brother, but they’re also grieving the loss of Emmy, their songbird. They take her back to Montana, determined to help her heal and show her once and for all they want her. They’re also on a mission to help her find her voice again. Under the protective shield of their love, she begins to blossom…until an old threat resurfaces.
Now the Donovans face a fight for what they once threw away. Only by winning it—and her love—will their songbird fly again.
Warning: Explicit sex, ménage a trois, multiple partners, a committed polyamorous relationship, adult language, and sweet loving.
Enjoy the following excerpt for Songbird:
Emily Donovan woke with stinging eyes, her body shuddering in the throes of a nightmare. The same nightmare she had every night.
She closed her eyes against the unbearable ache in her chest and tried to fall back into oblivion, but the memories were too vivid, too alive in her mind.
Sean.
How she missed him. He hadn’t deserved to die. He’d been too young, so full of life. He’d loved her unreservedly, picked up the pieces of her shattered heart and helped put her back together.
As always when she thought of Sean, images of his two older brothers, Taggert and Greer, haunted her. It angered her that she couldn’t separate her memories of Sean from the other two Donovan brothers, but they were as much a part of her soul as Sean had been. But Sean had accepted her. Loved her. Taggert and Greer had shoved her away.
The ache in her chest stole her breath, and she opened her eyes to stare at the blurred ceiling. The lamp at the side of her bed cast elongated shadows, sometimes frightening, but the dark was scarier, so she always left it on.
The days had gotten a little easier. She managed to perform normal activities. Eating. Sleeping—finally. But her sleep was still tortured by images of that night. By Sean’s blood covering her hands. By his whispered I love you and his warm smile before he took his last breath.
“It’s not fair,” she whispered fiercely. “It should have been me, not you.”
Her breath stuttered out in a sob that clawed at her throat. It hurt to inhale. It hurt to exhale. It hurt to live.
Giving up on sleep, she crawled out of bed, feeling much older than her twenty-five years. She’d always been so much older than her years. Quieter, more mature. Only the Donovan brothers had been able to bring her out of her shell, and she’d give anything to go back to those days in the Montana mountains where only the skies were bigger than their dreams.
She’d lived hers. Just for a little while. Just as Tagg had always predicted. Their little songbird was destined for bigger and better things than the Mountain Pass Ranch. But she hadn’t wanted fame and fortune. She’d only wanted their love.
With a weary sigh, she walked into the kitchen clad in only her silky pajama top. Sean had bought it for her, and when she’d laughingly informed him he got ripped off because only the top was there, he smugly told her he preferred easy access and had thrown away the bottoms.
Mechanically she performed the rituals of morning. Preparing coffee that she didn’t even like, toasting a bagel she wouldn’t taste. All the things that made her life feel normal.
The chair was cool on her bare legs, and she scooted up to the small, two-person table where she’d placed her saucer and cup. She drank, barely wincing when the hot liquid hit her tongue. Chewing the bagel took effort. Swallowing took more.
What was she supposed to do today? The question filtered calmly through her mind, and she stared at the half-empty cup in her hand in bemusement. She had no job to go to. No appointments. No schedule. She only had one goal. To survive another day.
Maybe she’d take a walk. Challenge herself to face the city she’d fled to. Its size and people would swallow her up. Offer her the anonymity she desperately craved.
The mere idea of leaving her apartment without a specific destination in mind sent a wave of nausea through her belly. The coffee bubbled like a volcano about to erupt, and she swallowed rapidly.
She couldn’t go on like this, living in the shadows, afraid to step into the light. Sean would hate the life she led. He’d look at her with those intense blue eyes, and his lips would thin in disapproval.
She looked down, studying her fingers, and wondered how long it would take before she didn’t feel so flayed alive when she thought of Sean. When she couldn’t feel the knife that had ended his life.
A firm knock sounded at the door. Her head whipped up, and panic hit her like a sledgehammer. Each breath squeezed from her lungs, crushing he
r chest.
Stop being stupid.
No one knew she was here. She knew none of her neighbors. She was safe.
Who the hell could be at her door at five in the morning?
Renewed fear gripped her by the throat.
Maybe it was just her apartment manager. Or a neighbor.
At five in the morning?
Her gaze flickered over the four deadbolts she’d had installed. No one was getting in unless she let them.
The knock sounded again. Harder this time.
She flinched and hastily stood, her heart beating in a vicious cadence.
She didn’t have to answer. She could pretend to be asleep. Or not at home.
Hesitating, she turned away from the door only to yank back around when the knocking persisted.
Whoever it was wasn’t going away.
Damp palms wiped nervously on her pajama top. She glanced down, realizing she wasn’t dressed for company, and then she laughed—a harsh, dry sound that assaulted her ears.
She wasn’t entertaining guests. The sooner she answered the door and sent them on their way, the better.
It took everything she had to make that walk across the living room to the door. She put her palm on the surface and leaned forward to peer out the peephole.
She gasped, blinked, stepped back then surged forward again, straining to see. Her stomach plummeted.
Oh God.
Greer and Taggert Donovan stood in the hallway, their expressions grim—and determined.
How had they found her?
Stupid question.
She closed her eyes and leaned her forehead on the door. Not now. She couldn’t face them right now. Maybe never. How was she to look at them knowing how much they reminded her of Sean? Of how much she loved Sean?
Of how much she loved Greer and Taggert.
Her fingers splayed out over the wood as if she could touch them through the barrier. She turned her head so that her cheek pressed against the surface and then reached for the top lock, letting her hand rest on it without moving it.
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