by J. Kenner
"So that's it? I don't have to go down to the station?"
"Easton says that Amy might ask you—and me—to be a witness in their civil case. But they think Brian will settle that anyway. So no. Nothing you have to do now." She grinned. "I'd say it's turning out to be a pretty good day."
"The best," he said, pulling her against him and pressing a kiss to the top of her head. "You know, once I wanted this house because it would be proof that I was worth more than where I came from."
"And now?"
"Now I want it because it's where I'm most at peace with you."
He felt her tremble in his arms. Then she tilted her face back, looking at him with eyes so full of love they humbled him. "Spencer," she said, "make love to me."
It was a demand he wasn't about to refuse, and he pulled her close, then kissed her gently, letting their passion build as they helped each other out of their clothes, spreading them out of the floor to make a pad in the middle of the house that would soon be their home.
“Now,” she said, tugging him down so that he was balanced on top of her, looking deep into eyes so full of love it filled his soul.
He took her tenderly, claiming her body under a battered roof with the wide blue sky above them, a shaft of sunlight cutting through the dust and making her skin glow.
And when she arched up, crying his name so that it echoed against those crumbling walls, Spencer knew that no man had ever been luckier.
Later, as he drifted off with Brooke in his arms and the old Drysdale place rising up around them, Spencer felt something shift inside him. A need settling. A monster sleeping.
He'd done it, finally. Spencer Dean was home and safe, wrapped in the embrace of the woman he loved. A woman who loved him right back.
Epilogue
The Night of the Mr. February Competition
Cameron Reed slid a Loaded Corona down the bar to Matthew Herrington, one of the regulars who owned a nearby gym where Cameron worked out. His attention wasn't on Matthew, however. It was on Mina.
He could barely see her from this angle. Just a few flashes of her midnight black hair, so sleek it seemed to reflect a blue hue under the vibrant stage lights. It was almost two, and the place had mostly cleared out, calm enough now that he could hear Mina laughing with Jenna, talking about how if they'd wanted drama in their first episode, they couldn't have planned it any better.
Cam had no idea what the whole thing had been about. All he knew was that Spencer had tossed aside the Mr. February T-shirt then leaped off the stage and landed a solid punch in some Robert Redford look-alike's face.
Everyone in The Fix had been shocked, but from the guy's expression, he'd probably had it coming.
Other than that, the only thing Cam knew was that Spencer had done it for a woman. That much he could tell from the look of adoration mixed with the shock in Brooke's eyes.
Cam sighed, wanting to see that expression on Mina. More accurately, wanting to see it when she looked at him. And only at him.
Tonight, he'd gotten the reaction he'd intended from her and the whole bar, but raucous laughter wasn't what he craved.
"You've got it bad, buddy," Matthew said, and Cam turned sharply to look at the gym owner.
"What? No. I'm just zoning out. Staring into space."
"Tell me another one."
Cam scowled.
"Better yet, tell it to the girl." Matthew lifted his bottle in a salute, then took a long swallow.
"That what you'd do?"
"Hell to the yes," Matthew said.
"How?"
Matthew leaned back. He had an angular face and eyes full of humor. Right now, those eyes were dancing with mirth. "Damned if I know, kid. But if you want her, you need to figure it out." He took another swallow. "Do you want her?"
Cameron looked out over the crowd, his eyes immediately finding Mina. "Hell to the yes," he whispered.
Now he just had to figure out how to get her.
Keep reading for Chapter 1 of Need You Now!
Are you eager to learn which Man of the Month book features which sexy hero?
Here’s a handy list!
Down On Me - meet Reece
Hold On Tight - meet Spencer
Need You Now - meet Cameron
Start Me Up - meet Nolan
Get It On - meet Tyree
In Your Eyes - meet Parker
Turn Me On - meet Derek
Shake It Up - meet Landon
All Night Long - meet Easton
In Too Deep - meet Matthew
Light My Fire - meet Griffin
Walk The Line - meet Brent
I hope you enjoyed, and please keep in touch! You can subscribe to my newsletter or text JKenner to 21000 so you’ll be among the first to know when fab things happen!
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Need You Now: Chapter One
“You, my friend, have got some big, sparkly balls.”
Cameron Reed took a long, satisfied swallow of beer as he stared at the finger pointing straight at his face. He was seated at a four-top near the front window of The Fix on Sixth, a popular Austin bar where he worked as a bartender when he wasn’t at the University or, like today, enjoying a day off.
The finger in question belonged to Nolan Wood, a local radio personality and frequent customer at The Fix.
Darryl Silver sat in the only other occupied chair. Cam’s best friend since before puberty, Darryl had just arrived back in town after graduating from law school. “Someone going to tell me why we’re praising my buddy’s cojones?” Darryl asked.
“Duh,” Cam said scooting his chair back and cupping his package. “Because they are worthy of some serious praise, didn’t you know?”
Darryl snorted, then turned to look at Nolan. “How about you tell me? Our boy’s ego’s getting in the way of my edification.”
“There he goes again, talking like a baby lawyer,” Cam quipped as Darryl shot him the finger.
Nolan ignored the jibes, his attention on Darryl. “Because even though Cam didn’t win the contest for Mr. February, he and his cojones definitely made a splash.”
Cam grabbed a Loaded Hush Puppy out of a paper-lined plastic basket and popped it in his mouth. It might be Cam’s day off, but The Fix was as much a home as his room near campus or the tiny South Austin house where he and his sister had grown up, and he’d come here to hang out, have lunch, and enjoy life in front of the bar.
A few tables over, Tiffany, one of the waitresses caught his eye. He lifted his beer to signal for another, and she gave him a nod in acknowledgment as she delivered drinks and burgers. Even though the crowds were the biggest at night, The Fix had a steady lunchtime clientele.
Cam leaned back again, mimicking Nolan’s relaxed posture. “You know,” he said, “I don’t think I made a splash. More like a statement.”
“Ha!” Nolan practically barked the word. “That’s the truth. Comic relief,” he said, shaking his head as if reliving a happy memory. “I mean, you gotta love it.”
“Maybe you do,” Darryl said, putting down his rum and Coke. “But I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. Comic relief? Mr. February? What does—Oh, wait.” He turned to Cameron. “This has something to do with that Calendar Guy contest, doesn’t it? Mina told me a little about that.”
At the mention of Darryl’s twin sister, Cam felt the familiar tightening in his gut, as well as parts further south. He’d had a crush on Mina Silver for half his life, and he’d known her longer than that. She was his best friend’s twin sister, after all, so she’d been a constant presence. The girl they teased, the pest they shooed away.
Or she had been, until Cam had begun to notice her sweet smile, her quirky sense of humor. Until he realized that half the time when he went to Darryl’s house during summer break, his motive was less about playing video games with his buddy and more about catching a glimpse of Mina.
And then one day, he’
d seen her at the mall making out with Tony Renfroe, a high school quarterback whose picture was all over the local paper.
That’s when the monster had stirred inside Cameron. A wild, craving beast that had wanted to lash out and knock Tony right off his pedestal—and out of Mina’s arms.
Except he hadn’t given in to that monster. Not then. Not later.
And Mina had dated Tony. Then Alex. Then Roger. And God only knew who else.
Never Cam, though. And over the years his crush had ramped up, escalating past the warm, gooey thoughts he’d had as a teenager to the current line-up of full-color, X-rated dreams that had him waking up twined in his sheets with the kind of painful boner that even a cold shower couldn’t tame.
“Yeah,” Nolan said, in response to Darryl’s question. “The Mr. February contest was this past Wednesday. I gotta say, The Fix has only had two contests so far, but I’m already hearing a lot of buzz around town. I think they really have something here.”
Darryl opened his mouth, apparently to point out that he still wasn’t entirely up to speed, but Cam jumped in first, explaining about the contest and the other changes being implemented at The Fix, all designed to up the bar’s revenue.
As a bartender, Cam only knew the high points that Tyree, the bar’s owner, had told him. The bottom line being that The Fix had run into some financial trouble—mostly because of competing corporate chain bars that had moved in, offering discounted drinks and scantily clad waitresses.
The bottom line? If the bar’s revenue didn’t increase significantly by the end of the calendar year, then The Fix would have to close its doors.
That situation had been spelled out to Cam and the other employees at a staff meeting, along with the fact that Tyree had partnered with Reece Walker, Brent Sinclair, and Jenna Montgomery to make it happen.
Reece, the bar’s manager, had been Cam’s immediate boss since he’d signed on. A former cop, Brent was in charge of all the security. Jenna hadn’t been an employee before coming on board, but she had a marketing background and had implemented a whole slew of changes and promotions designed to increase revenue, the customer base, and the bar’s overall reputation around town.
From Cam’s perspective, the biggest coup for the bar was the fact that it was home base for The Business Plan, a remodeling reality show that was focusing solely on scaling up The Fix on Sixth. Not only did Cam think that was a freaking brilliant way to get free publicity, but the very existence of the program meant that Mina, who’d wheedled her way into an internship on the show, was in the bar almost every day, her bright smile and just-tight-enough jeans right there in front of his eyes.
The show hadn’t aired yet—it was stockpiling episodes before the six-episode run launched. But one of the reasons that the producers had been keen on The Fix was the chance to include the calendar contest as a kind of backdrop to the ongoing renovation project. And, frankly, the contest had been going over like gangbusters with the regulars.
Not only were several of the male customers signing up to compete, but local fitness gurus, actors, and models were jumping on the bandwagon, too. And for the first two contests, the women had come in droves to fill the tables, drink, and cheer on the contestants.
In fact, the contest was so popular that there’d been a line around the block, and Cam had never worked so hard at his job than when he’d been behind the bar on both those Wednesdays. Honestly, he was tempted to make another more serious go at the contest, just because last Wednesday’s run got him away from the bar for a solid hour during the actual competition.
“You really did that?” The shock in Darryl’s voice was genuine. Prancing shirtless across a stage might be in Darryl’s repertoire, but until last Wednesday, Cam had never thought it was in his. “You?” Darryl repeated. He cleared his throat, then continued in a low, booming voice. “Cameron Reed. Mild-mannered librarian by day. Internet porn star by night.”
“Porn star?” Cam repeated, nodding sagely. “You know, I think it’s my sparkly balls that bring in the viewers.”
Nolan laughed so hard he almost spewed beer over all of them. “Librarian?”
It was Darryl’s turn to laugh. “Oh, that’s not part of the joke. Well, maybe the mild-mannered part.”
Cam rolled his eyes. “Rare books and manuscripts,” he explained to Nolan. “And Darryl loves to give me shit about it.”
Like most of their friends, Darryl had assumed that Cam would take the LSAT and follow Darryl into the land of objections and depositions. But instead, Cam and his shiny, new degree in history had taken the GRE, then applied for graduate school, working toward a dual Masters in history and library science. Maybe not as sexy as trial work, but he loved the detail of it, not to mention the smell of the past, all leather and dust and paper. He’d finish at the end of the summer, and he’d already been accepted into a Ph.D. program on a really sweet scholarship.
“—can’t picture you in a calendar guy contest.”
Cam looked at his friend. “Sorry, what?”
“I mean the walking across the stage part. You I can picture,” Darryl continued, obviously not realizing that Cam had lost the thread of the conversation. “Because we both know you’re hot.”
He swiveled to face Nolan. “Cam’s my best friend—and we have a strict hands-off policy ever since I told him that I’m an equal opportunity kinda guy—but that doesn’t mean I’m not allowed to comment on the quality of the merchandise. I mean, those broad shoulders? And his ridiculously tight abs? Not to mention that ass? Am I right?”
“Can’t argue,” Nolan said. “And I say that with a lifelong hetero record, and a tight grip on my Man Card.”
“Exactly.” He turned back to Cam, who was shaking his head at the ceiling as if begging help from the gods. “No question that you’ve got the goods. God knows you get hit on enough by customers of the female persuasion. But we both know you don’t have the personality for being Mr. Pageant Guy. So what exactly made you grow those sparkly balls we’ve been talking about?”
“Honestly?” Cam said. “That would be your sister. She kept giving me so much grief about not entering that pretty soon everyone in the bar was asking why I didn’t rip off my shirt and strut across the stage.”
Darryl snorted. “Yeah, Mina can be a force of nature when she sets her mind to it. Damn hard to resist.”
He had that right.
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Born in Darkness
Fight and redeem myself … refuse and suffer an eternity of torment.
I intended to kill him—to avenge my sister by destroying the vile human who’d tortured and broken her. My plan was simple. Foolproof.
Except somehow I ended up dead.
Now the joke’s on me, because I’ve been resurrected as an assassin and given a choice: Fight the forces of darkness and redeem myself … or refuse and suffer an eternity of torment.
The choice seems clear. But I’m unprepared for the depth of the evil I must face. And I’m unsettled by my attraction to the darkly sensual man whose words seduce me, but who is hiding secrets of his own.
All I know is what I’m told. I’m afraid I’m a pawn in a much larger game where I can’t tell my enemies from my allies. I just hope it’s a game I can win.
Down On Me
With his tight muscles and vibrant ink, certified bachelor Reece Walker is the kind of man who’s used to having any woman he craves in his bed—except Jenna Montgomery. She’s been his best friend for years, and that’s a line he just can’t cross.
Until a wild, stolen kiss changes everything. Now anything goes, and Reece is determined to use every wicked skill in his sensu
al repertoire to claim Jenna as his friend, his lover, his everything.
Carpe Demon
Kate Connor is your average, everyday mom with two kids, a husband, and one very big secret ... she used to be a Demon Hunter for a secret arm of the Vatican. Now retired, she's more interested in the domestic than the demonic. So when she catches sight of a demon in Wal-Mart, she tells herself it's some other Hunter's problem. But when that demon attacks her in her kitchen, retirement is no longer an option.
Now Kate has to kick a little demon butt, figure out why the creatures are trying to take her out and take over her home town, and at the same time take care of her 2 year old, deal with a hormonal 14 year old, get the family to Catholic Mass on time, and try to keep her past a secret from her daughter and her husband.
She's a little out of practice, but hey ... if she can juggle two kids and an impromptu dinner party, ridding the town of demons should be a piece of cake. Like the saying goes, Carpe Demon ... and Kate intends to do just that.
So (Very!) Much More than
the Girl Next Door
With her X-ray vision and super-senses, Zoe Smith is about as far from normal as a girl can get—and she intends to stay that way. Half-mortal and half-superhero, Zoe is determined to help save the world. But first she has to pass her upcoming tests and avoid having her memory and powers erased through “mortalization.”