by Tara Wyatt
Her heart gave a little kick against her ribs, and she laughed. “I used to, but tonight’s kind of put me off. Thanks again for stepping in.” She signaled to the bartender and pointed at Colt’s beer. “You can go ahead and put that on my tab.”
He smiled at her again, a cocky half grin that was doing funny things to her stomach. “You trying to get me drunk?”
She shook her head, returning the smile. “Just trying to say thank you.”
“Well, in that case, you’re welcome.” He leaned in even closer. Jesus, he smelled good. Like warm leather and something else both mouth-watering and masculine. Whatever cologne he was wearing could’ve been marketed as a panty-dropping aphrodisiac for the effect it was having on her. She bit her lip and looked down into her drink.
“Hey, I was just teasing with the ‘you come here often’ thing. If you want me to screw off, I get it.”
It was her turn to lean in, and she smiled sweetly, looking up at him through her lashes. He was hot, kind, and funny. The last thing she wanted him to do was screw off. No, her mind was quickly veering to another kind of screwing. “Nah. You vanquished a creepy nerd for me. Have a seat.”
He touched his thumb to his lips as his eyes traveled up and down her body, and a slow smile turned up the corners of his mouth, his eyes crinkling once again. “Sure.”
He sat down on the barstool next to her, pulling in close, his broad body angled toward her, but instead of crowded, she felt sheltered. Her eyes slammed into his, and heat flared through her.
Oh, holy hell, but this man was trouble.
“So you didn’t know that guy?” The way his low voice rumbled over the words sent a warm shiver down her spine and curled her toes.
She shook her head. “No. Just a fan, I guess.”
“Lucky you.”
She chuckled down into her drink and then met his eyes again.
Lucky her, indeed.
* * *
Sweet son of a bitch, but this couldn’t be real. No way. This had to be a dream. Because there was no way that Taylor fucking Ross would be flirting with him in a bar in real life. Nope. He’d probably fallen asleep on the couch and was going to wake up alone and hard as concrete, and this would all turn out to have been a dream.
But no. The reality was, he’d just spent the past hour flirting like crazy with Taylor Ross, rock goddess. Making her laugh. Making her blush. Making her forget about the asswipe who’d grabbed her.
Fighting the urge to pinch himself, Colt took a long pull on his beer, his eyes once more roving over Taylor’s long, lean body. She was so tall, almost as tall as him, and as he was six-two, that didn’t happen very often. His eyes kept sliding down to her long, slim legs, wrapped in black denim. For now. Soon they’d be wrapped around him, if he got his way. And when it came to women, Colt almost always got his way.
Damn, but he needed this. Needed the release. Needed the temporary oblivion of hot sex with a gorgeous woman. He didn’t want to think. Not tonight. Hell, not most nights.
Huey Lewis began thumping through the bar’s speakers, and Taylor made a face, scrunching her cute little nose. “I thought this was a rock bar.”
“Hey, don’t rag on Huey Lewis. He had some great hits.” Colt smiled and bopped his head with cheesy, put-on enthusiasm in time to the music. She touched her fingers to her mouth and stifled a laugh before her eyes found his, and suddenly her hand was on his chest. Hopefully she couldn’t feel his heart pounding harder than a damn kick drum.
“I would’ve thought with this”—her fingers traced over the Led Zeppelin logo on his T-shirt—“and this”—the fingers of her opposite hand trailed up his right forearm, over his tattoo—“you’d have better taste than Huey Lewis.”
He tried to think of something sexy, something flirty to say back, but his eyes were glued to her mouth, and goose bumps were trailing up his arm where she touched him. He cleared his throat and flashed her a smile.
She bit her lip and looked up at him, amusement flashing in her huge blue eyes. “Did you know that Huey Lewis and the News were originally called Huey Lewis and the American Express? They had to change it when the credit card company threatened to sue them.”
“Now who’s hip to be square?” He shot her a teasing smile.
She flung her head back and laughed, a throaty, husky sound that sent blood flowing straight to his already heavy cock.
“Touché,” she said, taking another sip of her drink.
God, he couldn’t take his eyes off her. The bar could’ve been on fire and he wouldn’t have noticed. He wanted to fist his hands in all that blond hair and pull her close, taste her mouth, feel her skin against his and lose himself in her. But just for tonight.
It was all he could offer. All he had any right to want.
He watched her as she took another sip of her drink, trying to memorize the exact way her hair was falling over her shoulders, the precise shade of blue in her wide, bright eyes. The sound of her laugh. A heavy sadness tempered his excitement, resting like a weight across his shoulders. For the first time in a long time, he wished he could offer more.
“So why feathers?” Her fingers still trailed over his arm, sending little sparks of lust shooting through him.
Fuck. Nope. Not talking about that. Not with her, not tonight. He’d come here not to think about all that shit. He’d come here to find a woman, or get drunk, or start a fight. All three worked in varying ways to keep him on an even keel. Colt knew that as long as he kept the demons fed, he wouldn’t have to feel anything he didn’t want to feel.
And there was a lot he didn’t want to feel.
“You like it?” he asked, dodging the question. If she noticed, she didn’t seem to mind.
“Mmm. I do.” Her voice was beautiful, rich and sultry with a slight rasp to it, and he couldn’t wait to find out what she’d sound like moaning out his name. He wanted it so badly that he was already imagining the feel of her fingers digging into his shoulders, her heels pressed into his ass as he sank himself deep inside her.
He forced himself to take a breath and a swallow of beer.
“You have any?” he asked, relieved she hadn’t pressed him about the meaning behind his own ink.
She slipped out of her leather jacket, rolled up the sleeve of her denim shirt, and flipped her arm over. A swirled line of black stars decorated the inside of her right wrist. “And,” she said, and swept her hair up, showing him the Egyptian ankh on the back of her neck, just below her hairline. “I have a couple of others.” She let her hair drop back around her shoulders, the blond waves fanning out around her.
His eyebrows rose. “Oh yeah? Where?”
She leaned toward him and took one of his hands in hers. He watched, transfixed, as she laid his hand on her rib cage. Instinctively his fingers flexed into her, and her eyes fluttered closed for a second. “Here.” She was warm and soft through the fabric of her shirt as he caressed his hand up her side, still not quite able to believe that this wasn’t a fantasy.
“Where else?” His eyes held hers. She slipped off the stool, erasing all distance between them, and slid his hand from her ribs up and around to her shoulder blade.
“Here.” Her warm breath tickled his ear, and he clenched his jaw against the need to bury his face in her neck, right here at the bar. “What about you? Any others?”
He leaned back slightly and took one of her hands in his, placing it over his heart. “Here.”
Her long fingers curled into the cotton of his shirt, and heat crackled in the air around them. His stomach bottomed out, and if he was reading her right—and he would’ve bet a bottle of fifty-year-old scotch he was—she wanted him as much as he wanted her.
Time to test the waters.
He slid a hand up to her face and grazed his lips against hers, a tease of a kiss. She held stone-still, her eyes fixed on his mouth, her lips slightly parted. All the noise around him seemed to drop away, and in that moment, Taylor was all that existed for him. Well, her and the e
rection doing its damndest to bust free of his jeans.
He closed his mouth over hers and felt the vibration of her sigh against his lips. He fought back a groan when she slid her tongue against his and heat exploded over his skin as he tasted her, drinking in the soft warmth of her mouth.
He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been so aroused from just a kiss. His chest tightened, and as he deepened the kiss, he pressed down the cold, hard knot of fear eating at him. Already he knew sticking to his one-night rule would suck, big-time. She felt so good, so perfect, so fucking right kissing him, her fingernails scraping lightly down his back.
He shouldn’t want this. He shouldn’t do this. Taylor was going to be too much for him, and he knew she’d probably leave a new scar instead of helping him forget the existing ones. He knew, and he wanted it anyway. As if he had a choice.
She opened her mouth to him a little more, which he immediately took full advantage of, greedily claiming everything she offered him. He caressed her mouth with his tongue, and she moaned softly, her body swaying into his when he parted his legs, letting her hips nestle snugly against his. He wove his fingers into her hair and crushed his mouth against hers as arousal and lust and need all sang through him. Lips and tongues melded together with increasing urgency, and the kiss seared through him. She rocked against him and bit gently at his lower lip.
Fuck, this was going to be good.
“Get a room, why don’t ya?” the bartender chirped at them, and Taylor broke the kiss, pressing her forehead against his. For a second they just stood there, trying to breathe.
She was pretty much a total stranger, and yet the intensity of that kiss had been off the charts. Hot and bruising and so, so promising.
He swallowed, trying to find his voice. “Come home with me.”
She nodded against his forehead, and his dick rejoiced.
* * *
From his little table in the corner, Ronnie watched Taylor walk out of the bar, her fingers laced with those of the brute from earlier. He finished the rest of his Coke and slammed the empty glass down. Possessive anger coupled with an almost blinding jealousy churned through him. It’d been hard to watch that interaction, and now she was leaving with him? He’d been much happier watching her while she’d been alone, even if she’d looked sad.
He knew he shouldn’t have gone over and talked to her, but he couldn’t help himself. He’d been warned, but no one knew what they were talking about. They didn’t see. They couldn’t see. He loved her, and she loved him. Soon everyone would know, and everyone who’d called him crazy and obsessed and delusional would fucking see.
Ever since he’d first heard her sing, he’d known he was listening to the future mother of his children.
He dropped a five on the table and pushed his way out of the bar, getting in his car just in time to follow Taylor. He had to. He couldn’t let her go off alone with that brute, unprotected. And if she was going to betray him, he needed to know. He needed to see.
Because Taylor was his. Every part of her. Her gorgeous blond hair, those huge blue eyes, the long, lean body. The incredible voice. The skilled hands. Her mind. Her soul. Her body.
She belonged to him.
Fall in Love with Forever Romance
PLAY TO WIN
by Tiffany Snow
In the third book of bestselling author Tiffany Snow’s Risky Business series, it’s finally time for Sage to decide between two brothers-in-arms: Parker, the clean-cut, filthy-rich business magnate…or Ryker, the tough-as-nails undercover detective.
NECESSARY RISK
by Tara Wyatt
The first book in a hot new action-packed series from debut author Tara Wyatt, which will appeal to fans of Suzanne Brockmann, Pamela Clare, and Julie Ann Walker.
KISS ME IN CHRISTMAS
by Debbie Mason
Back in little Christmas, Colorado, Hollywood star Chloe O’Connor is still remembered as a shy, awkward schoolgirl. And there’s no one she dreads (and secretly wants) to see more than her high school crush. While Easton McBride enjoys the flirtation with this new bold and beautiful Chloe, he can’t help but wonder whether a kiss could have the power to bring back the small-town girl he first fell in love with.
SEE YOU AT SUNSET
by V.K. Sykes
The newest novel from USA Today bestselling author V.K. Sykes! Deputy Sheriff Micah Lancaster has wanted Holly Tyler for as long as he can remember. Now she’s back in Seashell Bay, and the attraction still flickers between them, a promise of something more. Their desire is stronger than any undertow…and once it pulls them under, it won’t let go.
ALONG CAME A ROGUE
by Anna Harrington
Major Nathaniel Grey is free to bed any woman he wants…except his best friend’s beautiful sister, Emily. But what if she’s the only woman he wants? Fans of Elizabeth Hoyt, Grace Burrowes, and Madeline Hunter will love this Regency romance.
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Contents
Cover
Teaser
Welcome
Title Page
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
A Preview of Primal Instinct
Fall in Love with Forever Romance
Newsletters
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2016 by Tara Wyatt
Excerpt from Primal Instinct © 2016 by Tara Wyatt
Cover design by Christine Foltzer
Cover art by Tony Mauro
Cover copyright © 2016 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
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First Edition: February 2016
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ISBN 978-1-4555-9027-8 (mass market); 978-1-4555-9026-1 (ebook)
Printed in the United States of America
OPM
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E3
Table of Contents
Cover
Teaser
Welcome
Title Page
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
A Preview of Primal Instinct
Fall in Love with Forever Romance
Newsletters
Table of Contents
Copyright