by Noelle Adams
The third time, he coughed as she started to strangle him and broke out of the kiss. “I’ll do it,” he said huskily, his eyes hot and soft. “Since I want to survive long enough to get inside you.”
She made a face at him, but she was pretty sure it wasn’t effective, since she was melting with affectionate feelings. As he pulled his tie off, she started working on the buttons on his shirt, and pretty soon they together got his shirt and T-shirt off so his chest was bared.
Running her hands up and down it, she smiled. “Much better.”
“Well, don’t rest on your laurels too much. We still have work to do.” After a pause, he cocked one eyebrow. “I’m still wearing my pants.”
She broke into giggles and pulled him down into another kiss. The kiss grew deeper and hotter until desire was filling her head again and she was fumbling with his belt and then the top button on his trousers.
She had better luck with the pants and was soon able to pull them down and then push down his underwear so she could finally get her hands on his erection.
He huffed into her mouth as she stroked him between their bodies. She adjusted so she could wrap both legs around his thighs and she rocked beneath him, unable to stay still.
“Deanna,” he gasped, breaking his mouth out of the kiss and panting against her skin. “Baby, wait.”
She tried to rub herself against him. “I don’t want to wait.”
“But…”
She grabbed his head back down to kiss him again. He moaned into her mouth, not moving against her as rhythmically as usual.
“Mitchell, please,” she murmured, tightening her legs around him.
He groaned again and pulled his head away, against the resistance of her hands. His eyes were now torn between desperate desire and amusement. “I’m trapped in my pants.”
The words managed to process in her lust-clouded brain, and she peered around his chest so she could see what had happened. His trousers had somehow managed to twist up as she’d pushed them down so they were tightened around his knees like a vice.
She giggled helplessly.
He gave her an aggrieved look. “You’re the one who did it.”
“I know.” She couldn’t stop laughing, even as she tried to untwist them enough to get them off his legs completely.
“I’m in a pretty bad condition here, you know.”
“I know. So am I.” She smiled up at him, suddenly filled with so much love she couldn’t possibly contain it. “You have no idea how much I love you.”
“I love you too. But if you’re going to leave me trapped like this, maybe you can at least help me turn over so my dick is accessible.”
She was still giggling as she got his pants and underwear off all the way, and then she slid off her own panties and repositioned herself, spreading her legs to make room for him. “There. Now you’re all set.”
“Oh, good.” He was smiling too, as if he was filled with the same feelings that she was. And when he kissed her this time it was almost gentle. As he did, he guided himself inside her body, the penetration tight and pleasing.
They rocked together tenderly for a while, kissing and stroking each other. But eventually the intense need took over and their motion intensified. Soon, he was thrusting into her hard and fast, and she was crying out as her orgasm coiled up inside her.
They were so shamelessly enthusiastic that the bed was shaking wildly as her climax finally broke and she arched up with a cry of completion. He was right behind her, muffling his exclamation with another kiss.
They collapsed together afterwards, clinging to each other. She loved the feel of his hot, satisfied body on top of her, almost more than anything else.
After a few minutes, he lifted his head to gaze down on her. “Well, aside from a few minor issues, that was amazing.”
“That was amazing—issues and all.”
He stroked her hair gently away from her damp face. “Happy anniversary.”
She grinned up at him. “Happy anniversary to you too.” Without thinking, she glanced above the bed, where she’d hung the beaded wall-hanging he’d worked so hard on and given her six months ago. Her chest still constricted at the sight—even after so long—of how determined he was to show her just how hard he would work to have her, to keep her.
He’d never let her down.
“Don’t get too sappy,” he murmured, evidently reading her expression.
She cleared her throat and looked back at him. “Never. You know, I was thinking that we really need to have two anniversaries each year. One for when we got married and another one for when we really got together.”
He shook his head. “That seems a sneaky way of getting two anniversary gifts a year.”
“Of course. Why else would I suggest it?”
Adjusting her body so she was nestled against him more comfortably, he idly caressed her back and bottom. “I can manage that.”
She rested her left hand on his chest, the engagement ring and wedding rings prominent. “Remember, you were supposed to have a wife who was easy to manage. I’m not sure that worked out very well for you.”
He leaned up to press a kiss against her hair. “It didn’t work out at all. You’re impossible to manage. But that ended up working out even better for me, so I’m not about to complain.”
***
Hired Bride is the first book in the Beaufort Brides series, which will be continued with Rose’s book, Substitute Bride, released in September of this year. If you haven’t already read them, be sure to check out the four Heirs of Damon books, Seducing the Enemy (Harrison’s book), Playing the Playboy (Andrew’s book), and Engaging the Boss (Jonathan’s book), and Stripping the Billionaire (Ben’s book), which are part of the same world as the Beaufort Brides. An excerpt from Seducing the Enemy follows.
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Excerpt from Seducing the Enemy
Marietta sighed and drooped against the wall. “Yeah. I guess the moment is over. Every time I think I can…I end up…” Her resignation changed back into a smile. “Thanks for dancing with me, though. I really had a good time.”
He realized she thought he’d lost interest—as if such a minor thing would dampen his attraction. If anything, he wanted her even more, her delicacy rousing some sort of latent protective instinct.
“So that’s it?” he asked lightly. “You’re blowing me off now?”
Her gaze darted up to meet his. “No, I just thought… I just thought—”
“You thought I was such an ass that I’d be scared off by an irrelevant aversion?”
“No. I didn’t think that.” She had the most delicious faintly French accent.
He leaned in until his lips hovered near hers. “You thought I was such a beer guzzler that I couldn’t stand to spend time with someone who doesn’t love it as much as I do?”
Surprised laughter rippled out of her and her hands closed around the lapels of his suit jacket.
Harrison was mesmerized by her lovely face—warm, amused, sincere, utterly real. The urge to kiss her was so overwhelming he no longer resisted.
He closed the slight distance between their lips, brushing hers gently with his.
He heard her quick intake of breath, felt her fingers clutch at him even tighter. He kissed her again, lingering against her mouth longer this time.
She broke the kiss after a few moments but didn’t pull away—just asked against his mouth, “So are you?”
He tangled his fingers in her hair until he’d cupped the back of her head. “Am I what?” He couldn’t wait for the answer before he closed his mouth over hers, deepening the kiss with his tongue.
She opened for him, her body melting against his and one of her arms twining around his neck. Her responsiveness intensified his desire.
He couldn’t remember the last time he’d wanted someone as much as he wanted her.
When she finally turned her head,
she panted out raggedly, “Are you a beer guzzler?”
He chuckled and murmured, “I prefer Scotch.”
It was evidently the right thing to say. She wrapped her other arm around him and kissed him with naked passion. Soon he’d hardened again as his tongue tangled with hers. She practically writhed between his body and the wall, and he wrapped one of her legs around his hip to align her groin better with his. She moaned into his mouth while he rocked into her and stroked her bare thigh.
When his erection started to pulse tightly in his trousers, he knew they needed to stop. He couldn’t take her in the back hallway of a nightclub, no matter how tempted he was.
He forced himself to release her and step back, still bracing himself with one hand on the wall.
Her cheeks were deep pink, her hair messy, and her lips swollen. She was the sexiest thing he’d ever seen. “Wow,” she said. “Wow.”
“I agree.”
“Did you want to…” She ducked her head to hide an inexplicably shy expression.
“I hope you were going to ask whether I wanted to continue this elsewhere. Because the answer is definitely yes.”
She raised her eyes, and excitement flickered through her lingering heat. “Really? You don’t have to go back to work?”
He smiled, privately cursing the damned inspection report he still needed to write. He was never late. His responsibilities as a Damon were always his priority.
“Work can wait.” He couldn’t miss out spending the night with this beautiful, passionate woman. The report wasn’t urgent, and he could get up early tomorrow to prepare for the settlement meeting.
She looked surprised when he suggested they go to his hotel, so he wondered if she’d thought he was a local.
It was nice that she had no idea who he was.
While she texted her friend, he ducked back into the main room to grab his tablet and tell the floor manager to release his table.
“By the way, I’m Etta,” she said as they waited for his car.
“Harri—” he began, then cut himself off. She might not recognize his face—not everyone did—but she could easily recognize his name. And that might change things.
“You don’t really look like a Harry, but I like it.”
He’d always hated being called “Harry.” In fact, schoolmates had only used that name when they wanted to annoy him. After hearing Etta say his name with that particular lilt, however, he decided it wasn’t so bad.
She beamed with an overflow of warm excitement.
“What did I do to deserve that smile?”
She flushed and glanced down. “Am I too excited?”
He almost choked. “Too excited? Who the hell told you that was even possible?”
“I don’t know. It’s just that the world seems to think being cool is the way to go, and I can never pull it off.”
He realized that was one of the reasons why she seemed so different, why she seemed so real. There was no pretense about her, and it thrilled him. “Cool is overrated.”
She peered up at him curiously. “You seem to pull it off very well.”
“Maybe I’m overrated.”
“That remains to be seen.”
***
You can find more information about Seducing the Enemy here.
About Noelle Adams
Noelle handwrote her first romance novel in a spiral-bound notebook when she was twelve, and she hasn’t stopped writing since. She has lived in eight different states and currently resides in Virginia, where she writes full time, reads any book she can get her hands on, and offers tribute to a very spoiled cocker spaniel.
She loves travel, art, history, and ice cream. After spending far too many years of her life in graduate school, she has decided to reorient her priorities and focus on writing contemporary romances. For more information, please check out her website: noelle-adams.com.
Books by Noelle Adams
Beaufort Brides Series
Hired Bride
Substitute Bride
Accidental Bride
One Night Novellas
One Hot Night: Three Contemporary Romance Novellas
One Night with her Boss
One Night with her Roommate
One Night with the Best Man
Willow Park Series
Married for Christmas
A Baby for Easter
A Family for Christmas
Reconciled for Easter
Home for Christmas
Heirs of Damon Series
Seducing the Enemy
Playing the Playboy
Engaging the Boss
Stripping the Billionaire
Standalones
A Negotiated Marriage
Listed
Bittersweet
Missing
Revival
Holiday Heat
Salvation
Excavated
Overexposed
Road Tripping
The Protectors Series (co-written with Samantha Chase)
Duty Bound
Honor Bound
Forever Bound
Home Bound