Stirred

by Lucia Jordan

  Copyright © 2012 by Lucia Jordan

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be constructed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved

  No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author except in the case of brief quotation embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  Dear Reader

  Thank you for acquiring my story. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it!

  As feedback is essential for me to deliver the HOTTEST and SEXIEST stories around, I would like to offer you a FREE copy of my ‘Bound Series’ (COMPLETE COLLECTION) valued at $2.99 which I hope you will love reading as much as this one.

  In return, please leave a review for this book at the place of purchase.

  Please send me the title and location of your review via email at luciajordan07@gmail.com and I will email you your copy.

  Only the first 20 emails will receive the ‘Bound Series’ so get in quick. All other reviewers will be sent a copy of my popular story, ‘Spectacular Stranger’.

  Hope to hear from you soon!

  Best

  Lucia Jordan xoxox

  Chapter One

  Eva could still remember the first time she’d met Max Nolan – how could she possibly forget? It had been at that high-powered charity ball she’d accompanied Mark, her boyfriend to.

  Her ex-boyfriend, she revised, biting on her lip.

  But she pushed that dreary thought away as her eyes flew once more to the man she’d rather be thinking about right then. The Australian billionaire cowboy, the philanthropist, the dream of every woman – Max Nolan.

  He didn’t seem to care that he stood out from the other men in the room, dressed in their dark power suits, their shiny black wingtips. He was probably worth more than half of them put together anyway. He was also in his third year on the Forbes List of youngest male billionaires – fourth or fifth place, she couldn’t remember which. But all that didn’t matter to her.

  What mattered, was the man. His dashing persona, his evident sense of self-collection that made him seem different for all the right reasons. He had a lean, streamlined body, with long legs that made those pair of blue jeans he wore look sinful. His startling white shirt was tucked in and open at the throat, revealing tanned, invitingly smooth skin.

  His face was much too angular to be considered textbook handsome. But to a woman like Eva, he appealed on so many levels. She liked his strong jaw, his narrow, proud nose, his manly, firm lips. She also liked his eyes, a gorgeous icy blue. He had longish golden brown hair which framed his nicely shaped head, and she couldn’t help picturing him in a cowboy hat to go with his deliberately casual attire. He looked like he’d just stepped off the ranch for a drink with the guys.

  “You didn’t tell me Max Nolan will be here,” she said almost accusingly to her mother, who was standing next to her. Lori Fowler, silver-haired and elegantly lovely at age fifty, turned to her daughter in surprise.

  “I had no idea you knew him,” the older woman said. This was one of her many cocktail parties she threw for the project close to her heart – the Henry Fowler Foundation named after her late husband, Eva’s father. Now, mother and daughter stood side by side, welcoming and greeting guests, male and female, who were the cream of the town’s corporate society.

  Eva shrugged. “I’ve met him once. Leon introduced us; his financial firm had been running after the Nolan account for ages, apparently.”

  She saw her mother’s lips curl slightly in irritation at the mention of Leon’s name. Eva knew her mother had never approved of her ex, and now he’d given Lori one more reason to dislike him by breaking Eva’s heart.

  But then, was she truly heartbroken, Eva mused for a moment. And then she decided the achy feeling in her chest was mostly due to the fact that Leon had simply helped do what she hadn’t had the guts to do long ago. Break up a relationship that held no fire, no promise.

  *

  Eva was just twenty three and Leon had been her first, so she didn’t really have much to judge by. She’d tried asking her friends, in a coded way, about their own sex lives. But the little snippets she received only made her more miserable as she got an idea of what was missing in her life.

  She’d read the steamy romance novels, listened to a few whispered details by the giggly girls at work – and come to terms with the fact that none of that was ever going to happen to her. It would all remain a fantasy, or something designed for other, more fortunate women but never for her.

  Her mother’s hand suddenly tightened around her wrist, drawing her to the present time and place. Eva blinked, looking sideways into Lori’s green eyes, the same emerald shade as hers. “Have fun, Eva,” her mother said quietly, softly. “Live your life. Forget him.”

  Eva sighed at the way her mother seemed to perfectly read her thoughts. She then smiled as her mother handed her a glass of wine from a passing waiter. “I’m going to mingle, take a few photographs for the week’s paper,” Lori said, sipping from her own glass, before winking at her daughter and striding away.

  Eva was shaking her head in amusement as she drank her wine. Her mother really shouldn’t be handing her alcohol and telling her to have fun at the same time. It was almost the same as telling her to get drunk – which she knew her mother hadn’t intended, of course. But still, a week after breaking up with Leon, she was still raw and vulnerable. She needed some kind of picking up. Already, the one glass she’d gulped down seemed to be taking effect. The crowded room seemed less intimidating, more welcoming. Maybe she’d do a bit of mingling herself…

  There was someone at her elbow. Thinking her mother had returned, she twisted to the side, a ready smile on her face. Only to freeze when she saw who it was.

  *

  Max. Nolan!

  His lean, tanned face creased in a smile when he saw her expression. “Pardon me – I didn’t mean to shock you,” he said in that deep, throbbing voice she so well remembered. “But since you’d been staring at me all evening, I decided to come over and afford you a closer look.”

  Eva’s eyes widened, then darted as her cheeks flamed with embarrassment. Had she really been so blatant? She wanted to sink through the marble floor.

  “But it’s okay – I like being ogled by a pretty woman,” he drawled, taking her empty glass from her limp grasp and placing it aside.

  “Mr. Nolan,” Eva said with a scratchy throat, her heart racing from his presence and his recent words. “It’s…nice to see you again. We met at – “

  “I remember,” he cut in crisply, his eyes hooded for a moment as they swept over her then back up again.

  Eva swallowed. “Oh.” She still couldn’t believe he was right next to her, so close she could see the dark orbs in the centre of his startling eyes. Up close he was lethal; he exuded presence, a certain magnetism that would make any woman standing within a yard of him start to hyperventilate. Eva felt the strangest kind of twitching within her stomach muscles and wondered why he affected her so.

  It was as bad as the first time.

  Leon had taken her over to Max Nolan. It had been an even more formal occasion that this one, and he’d still been dressed as casually. Blue jeans, a dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up. Eva could recall Leon mumbling something to her later about accomplished moneybags who didn’t have to conform to society. She’d had the impression that Leon was awed by the guy, who was around his age, barely even thirty. She could remember that veneration turning to resentment when Max Nolan finally picked another firm to handle his
interest city-side.

  Leon had introduced her as his girlfriend, and she’d felt an instant awareness as she’d shaken hands with the billionaire. His touch had been warm, almost scalding. His grip, though brief, had been firm. She’d held his eyes for a moment and had felt tilted on her feet. The spell was broken; he looked away, letting her go. But as Leon continued talking with Max Nolan, she’d somehow felt that the lean-hipped man’s attention was still centered on her.

  They didn’t share many words after that as she never got to really contribute much to the conversation. But before Max Nolan got drawn away by some other fawning group of people, he looked at her with those piercing blue eyes, shook her hand again, and told her how nice it was to meet her. Her whole body had tingled for hours afterwards.

  Now she tried a weak smile, wondering if it was really true that he remembered who she was. They’d come in contact for no more than ten minutes, tops. And they’d barely shared three whole sentences. And it was so long ago – months even.

  Well, she hadn’t forgotten him either – but that didn’t count. He was Max Nolan, the Australian billionaire cowboy and owner of the sprawling Keystone Ranch. She was just…Eva, fresh out of college and working for an online human interest magazine. Hardly memorable.

  *

  Seemed like she was wrong about that though. Because Max Nolan was looking at her in much the same way he’d looked at her that night – in the way that would make a woman’s toes curl up in her shoes. He wanted her. Did he?

  Suddenly Eva was in a whirl. How possible was it that a man like him could be attracted to her? It looked more like a figment of her overactive imagination.

  “Where’s the boyfriend?” Max asked mildly, thumbing his pockets in a way that seemed to unconsciously thrust out his hips. And what hips. Those sexy jeans seemed sprayed on, hugging him lovingly, especially that spot beneath his belt buckle that was intriguing enough to make her steal more than a few admiring glances down below.

  Realizing he really did remember her, she said, “Um…oh, Leon. He’s history.”

  Max’s eyes glinted in surprise, and she could swear, even glee. And yet he said, “Damn.”

  Her eyebrows shot up into her full fringe. “Excuse me?”

  “I said, “damn”,” he told her, taking her elbow and leaning forward to whisper in her ear, “I was so looking forward to the satisfaction of having to steal you from him.”

  Eva let out a choked laugh, shock and excitement coursing through her. That moment of closeness and intimacy as he’d come near to her ear had been electrifying. But for some reason, she couldn’t seem to take him seriously. She was actually smiling goofily.

  “You think I’m joking?” he said softly, eyes narrowing on her face as he correctly read her mind.

  She shrugged her slender shoulders. “I think you like to flirt, Mr. Nolan. You like the idea of making a young, impressionable girl smile and feel admired and sexy.”

  Eva was amazed she could be talking to him in this way. Especially when he suddenly looked so speculative. Quickly, she tried to bring things back to a more manageable level. No use waving a red flag at him. The last thing she wanted was for him to think she was challenging him. No way. Men like Max Nolan ate women like her for breakfast.

  She knew all about his conquests, his success with women. He was perpetually single and yet always seemed to be just done with his last whirlwind love affair. The latest had been some hotel chain heiress barely older than Eva, and the three month romance had ended with the heiress fleeing the country to Europe to nurse her wounded feelings.

  “I’d like to personally thank you for the kind and very generous donation you made to the Foundation tonight,” she said with a sincere smile. “It seems like each time we meet, you’re giving something away.” Eva was trying at humor to douse the crackling atmosphere – but at least it was true; this was the second time they’d be meeting at a charity event. From what she heard, he wasn’t much into the “in” parties so perhaps it was only events like these he really bothered to grace his presence with.

  She had to look away from his burning gaze, wondering how such blue eyes could bring off so much heat. “There’s one thing I’m not giving anything away tonight,” he said, his tone rumbling.

  Eva knew she was asking for trouble, but she asked anyway. “And what’s that?”

  “Opportunity,” he told her plainly, his tone soft. “I’m going to do what I should have done the first time I saw you. Make my move. Make you mine.”

  Chapter Two

  Eva gulped in air with difficulty. Oh boy. There was no mistaking the look in his eye, the timber in his sexy, slightly accented voice. Her heart pounded in time with the pulsing between her legs and she almost, almost actually considered what he was saying.

  Max Nolan. And her. He wanted to make her his. Seriously.

  “Seriously?” she said out loud before she could stop herself, and saw him smirk.

  “As seriously as wanting to fling you over my shoulder, whisk you away somewhere dark and private, and then fuck you for hours. Seriously,” he said, very deeply. His eyes bored into hers as he spoke.

  Eva’s teeth sank into her lower lip as the fairytale moment of being desired by Max Nolan washed over her. She closed her eyes briefly, savoring the thought, the images it created. But even as the concept sank into her senses like hot coals on a bed of ice, she came away feeling bereft.

  “Bad idea, Mr. Nolan,” she said on a regretful sigh. “You and me, I mean.”

  “How is it bad?” he asked quietly. “And do you think you could ever bring yourself to call me Max?”

  “Okay, sure. Max.” She could agree to that. But anything else…Her expression told him she wasn’t budging.

  “What did he do to you?” Max Nolan asked softly, eyes narrowing.

  “I don’t know what you mean,” she mumbled, inwardly panicking.

  “Oh yes, you do. Men like Leon– they suck out the life from a woman, make her feel like she needs to overcompensate for their own shortcomings. I knew he was all wrong for you.”

  “And you’re all right?” she couldn’t help teasing with a twisted smile.

  “Try me,” he said softly.

  “I can’t,” she said with firmness. What could she tell him? That her last relationship ended in a fiasco? The sex hadn’t been great – at all – and she’d come away feeling she was frigid – or worse, couldn’t attract a man in bed. Oh, she knew she was beautiful, even sexy. But behind closed doors…a man like Max Nolan – it would be devastating if he finally discovered how she was lacking.

  So…The last thing she wanted, was to jump in on the rebound especially with the first hunky stud who asked her. She wasn’t sure she could take the turmoil if she tried and failed again. She didn’t even want to consider it.

  *

  “One night,” he said, surprising her, making her head snap up to his.

  “What?” she asked, green eyes wide. She felt his hand slide around her wrist, tight and warm. The heat of his touch sped up her arm and spread to the nerve endings of her body. What was it about this guy? He simply oozed sexuality. All the more reason why she should run the other way, she decided. She was the least sexual person she knew; no match for Max.

  “How do I put this more plainly, Eva?” he mused, his thumb stroking into her skin tantalizingly, distractingly. She swallowed, waiting for his next words.

  “I want you in my bed. I’ve wanted that since the first time I turned around and you were there, standing next to that chinless twit Leon Steinberg. There isn’t a night I haven’t thought about you, wondered whether I’d ever get the right moment.”

  “The “right moment”?” she repeated on a shaky, breathless laugh. “So, a chance second meeting at a charity event is your right moment?”

  “Who said it was chance? How do you know I haven’t done a bit of checking up on you, finding out more about you, enough to know when and how we could bump into each other? What would you say if I to
ld you I came here fully aware that I’d see you again?”

  “I’d say stop pulling my leg,” she said, hardly breathing especially when his eyes darkened.

  “Funny what those words bring to my mind,” he said wolfishly, before lifting her hand to his lips, inhaling the base of her wrist, and then kissing it. She shuddered unstoppably.

  “Almost everyone in the room’s watching us,” he told her in light tone. “And I can bet anyone can tell in a minute that here’s one man very taken with this lovely blonde bombshell. They’re wondering if you’ll let me have my way – or whether you’ll play safe and run to mommy and hide.”

  He smiled teasingly as her eyes shot sparks at him. “Your mother’s looking right this way, as a matter of fact,” he said mildly. “I’m trying to figure out if that look on her face is horror or surprise.”

  “A bit of both I’m sure. She must know your reputation,” Eva said smartly.

  “Ah…my reputation,” he said as if in dawning realization. “Well, you’ll be happy to know that I’m well on the road to reform. For the right woman, I’d be willing to change my wicked ways.”

  Eva huffed, enjoying the banter despite herself. She turned to him and saw with a curvy smile, “Well, maybe it’s your wicked side that makes you so irresistible, Mr. Nolan.”

  She saw his eyes gleam, and chewed on her lip in consternation. She really shouldn’t be flirting with him, she decided. Tugging her hand firmly from his hold, she said regretfully. “It was nice meeting you again, but…”

  “So you think I’m irresistible?” he pressed, cutting through her words with his bantering tone.

  “Women think you are,” she said with a shrug. “In general.”

  He chuckled deeply at her reply. “You could never bore me, my sweet – I can tell that in a flash.”

  Really? She wanted to say mildly. Wait till you get me into bed. I’ve been told I can bore a man to tears in there.

  Remembering the things Leon had said, which had been along those lines, made her eyes cloud over.

  “I could kill him, you know,” Max said on a furious, low growl. Once again, he amazed her at how well he seemed to be reading her mind. “I can see it in your eyes. How much he hurt you.”