A temptation these exes can’t resist!
Their second chance starts with an explosive kiss.
And that’s just the beginning.
Gia Knox-Cooper and Jayson Cooper have the “perfect” divorce—they work well together and Jayson remains close with Gia’s billionaire family. But this weekend, an intimate family wedding will reveal the secret truth. Because underneath the surface, something else is simmering. And all it takes is one searing-hot kiss to unleash a passion that could incinerate their entire world...
“I want you so bad...”
They were at the point of no return.
“Just like old times.” A crooked, cocky smile crested Jayson’s firm mouth. “That’s what you said the last time we were in here about to do this for the first time.”
“You remember that?”
“I remember everything, G.” There was something tender about that statement. Too tender. It reminded her of how tender that first time was, and how in love they once were. Before life became about him corralling her energy and needing to be the Fixer of All Things.
“I don’t have a condom,” she said since that was the first unromantic comment that popped into her head.
“I do.” He frowned. “In my room.”
She shook her head. “We’re not risking that again.”
Gia was supposed to be in charge of her faculties—she was a certified genius, after all. But Jay weakened her knees...still.
***
One Last Kiss by Jessica Lemmon is part
of the Kiss and Tell series.
Dear Reader,
I can’t believe we’ve reached the end of the Kiss and Tell series already! Did that go as fast for you as it did for me?
To wrap up the Knox family saga, I’m giving Gia Knox-Cooper and Jayson Cooper a shot at redeeming themselves. A year and a half ago they divorced, believing that their separation was the end of them as a couple, but fate (and this author) has a different plan for them...
When an issue at work forces these ex-spouses to work together for a common goal, Jayson and Gia must face their past. The attraction is still alive and well, but what about the other issues that kept them from understanding each other? Can they finally close the gap, or will they stay in their separate corners and guard their hearts?
As with every romance I write for you, this one has a happy ending. But if you ask me, the fact that they lost each other and then find their way back to each other makes it that much sweeter.
Happy reading!
Jessica Lemmon
PS: Be sure to sign up for my newsletter for behind-the-scenes goodies, cover reveals and announcements for what’s coming next at www.jessicalemmon.com.
Jessica Lemmon
One Last Kiss
A former job-hopper, Jessica Lemmon resides in Ohio with her husband and rescue dog. She holds a degree in graphic design, which is currently gathering dust in an impressive frame. When she’s not writing supersexy heroes, she can be found cooking, drawing, drinking coffee (okay, wine) and eating potato chips. She firmly believes God gifts us with talents for a purpose, and with His help, you can create the life you want.
Jessica is a social media junkie who loves to hear from readers. You can learn more at jessicalemmon.com.
Books by Jessica Lemmon
Harlequin Desire
Dallas Billionaires Club
Lone Star Lovers
A Snowbound Scandal
A Christmas Proposition
Kiss and Tell
His Forbidden Kiss
One Wild Kiss
One Last Kiss
Visit her Author Profile page at Harlequin.com, or jessicalemmon.com, for more titles.
You can also find Jessica Lemmon on Facebook, along with other Harlequin Desire authors, at Facebook.com/harlequindesireauthors!
For those of you who believe in second chances.
Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Epilogue
Excerpt from Wild Nashville Ways by Sheri WhiteFeather
Excerpt from The Bad Boy of Redemption Ranch by Maisey Yates
Prologue
Five and a half years ago, New Year’s Eve
“Daddy,” Gia Knox said from between clenched teeth. But her father, busy bragging on her as per his usual, wouldn’t be dissuaded. His current brag was her graduating the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with honors, and the impressive work she would soon do at the family company, ThomKnox.
“She inherited her brains from me, of course.” Jack Knox gave his only daughter a wink and wrapped an arm around her.
“Don’t be silly, Jack,” Gia’s mother, Macy, interjected. “Everyone knows our daughter inherited her intelligence from me. Let’s leave these kids alone. We’re ruining their fun.”
Macy whisked Jack away so suddenly, Gia was left alone with one of the most talented web designers in the company. She shuffled her feet as best she could in black Louboutins, clasping her hands in front of her black glittery skirt. By the time she was fiddling with her long beaded necklace over her sequined top, she realized she was having a rare awkward moment.
“Sorry about that,” she muttered to the man before her. “They’re proud. Anyway, it’s great to meet you, Jayson.”
“Cooper,” he said, the deep timbre of his voice glancing off each one of her ribs. “No one calls me Jayson.”
“Well, then I definitely won’t call you Cooper. I pride myself in being unique.” She’d meant the quip to be a cute conversation salve to the embarrassing display by her dad, but it came out sounding flirty. And Jayson responded.
“You, Gia Knox, are definitely unique.” His smile twitched beneath a trimmed neat goatee before vanishing. That half smile was completely attractive. Disarmingly so. All of him was. He had broad shoulders and wore a suit well. She’d surreptitiously checked him out more than once while her father was rattling off her GPA.
Jayson’s thick wavy dark hair was cut professionally and close, but his facial hair lent him an air of mystery. And those eyes. Blue and piercing, she’d bet they didn’t miss a thing.
“Well, then, Jay,” she said, testing the new nickname and receiving an eyebrow arch in response, “you’ll either be enchanted or disappointed to hear I’m joining the tech team.”
“Enchanted,” he answered without hesitation. “Definitely enchanted.”
“Sixty seconds!” Her brother Brannon called out, blowing into a noisemaker and earning a round of cheers and applause. Nearly every employee of ThomKnox was present at the New Year’s Eve celebration, including Gia’s family since they were ThomKnox.
Partygoers followed Bran’s lead and pressed in toward the center of the ballroom, leaving Jay and Gia to watch
them go.
“The moment we’ve all been waiting for,” she said as the crowd began a sloppy midnight countdown at the thirty-second mark. “A bunch of employees making out at the stroke of the new year.”
This time when her gaze clashed with Jayson’s, it stuck. She found herself unable to look away. The moment his eyes left hers they took an inventory of her mouth.
She felt the brush of his gaze the way she might have felt his hand. Or his lips. It was intimate. It was heady. He had her thoroughly distracted and totally off-kilter. She’d had one glass of champagne, no more, but felt as if she’d polished off a bottle and then someone had hit her over the head with it.
Had she ever met a guy and felt this much longing? And what was it about him—but she knew. Jayson was as charmed by her as she’d been by him. Rarely was attraction ever that equal.
At that second—and the three that followed—she imagined satisfying her longing and kissing Jayson Cooper. Lifting to her toes and pressing her mouth to his. He smelled good from where she stood, and she’d bet he was absolutely intoxicating close up.
There’s only one way to find out.
Jayson, his gaze trickling back up to hers, leaned forward the slightest bit.
Then a red-haired woman who was even shorter than Gia and wearing a skirt that was a lot tighter than Gia’s, crashed into him.
“Cooper, come on! We’ll miss the countdown!” The redhead bounced as she wrapped both her arms around one of his. Her headband bobbed, the words Happy New Year waving. “Hi,” she chirped. “I’m Shelly.”
“Gia Knox.” Gia shook the other woman’s hand, feeling the loss of Jayson’s attention when he rigidly looped his arm around his date’s waist.
As if summoned, Gia’s boyfriend, Tom, approached. “There you are.”
Tom leaned in to kiss her cheek and she pasted on a plastic smile.
“It was nice to meet you, Jay,” Gia called as Tom pulled her toward the crowd. Jayson nodded, his frown slight but visible, as Shelly towed him to the middle of the room.
Gia and Jay watched each other as the countdown continued, as more and more distance separated them and more and more people came between them.
Three.
Two.
One.
“Happy New Year!” the crowd shouted as silver and gold confetti rained down on the ballroom.
“Happy New Year, baby,” Tom said to Gia and then captured her mouth in a kiss. She pushed aside the inconvenient—and possibly insane—attraction she felt toward Jayson and focused on her date. But Tom’s kiss barely registered on her oh, baby scale. Her heart wasn’t racing the way it was a moment ago. Her stomach wasn’t clenched in delicious anticipation as it had been a moment ago.
She leaned into the kiss, determined to bury that errant blip of lust. She was soon going to be working with Jayson Cooper, and indulging in anything, especially a fantasy, wasn’t a great start to her career at ThomKnox.
That night became a night she never ever forgot. Not because of Tom or the party or the tepid New Year’s kiss. No, the most memorable part of that night was meeting a handsome, blue-eyed stranger that, little did she know at the time, would soon become her husband...and soon after that, become her ex-husband.
One
The technology department was a big, open bullpen-style seating area with Jayson Cooper in the mix with his brethren. Gia, who’d worked in tech for years, had recently had a title update. She’d taken over as chief marketing officer after she and Jayson divorced. Her office was still on this floor, off to the side, with windows so she could look out on all of them.
Jayson didn’t used to mind her being nearby.
Now, though, he minded.
It was closing in on a year and a half since their divorce. Moving on was difficult when the woman you were to move on from was directly in your line of vision day after day.
He was being looked after by a woman who’d refused to let him look after her during their entire marriage. What good was a husband whose wife refused to let him care for her?
No good, that’s what.
He and Gia worked well together for their sakes as much as the sakes of their coworkers. They gave each other crap—the good-natured kind—at work and made sure to always end the day on a positive note. It’d been working... for a while.
He thought he knew how to protect and love a woman, but when it came to Gia Knox-Cooper, he’d been at sea. She was independent and headstrong and rarely if ever met him halfway. He’d known that about her going into their marriage but had expected things to change after the “I dos.” Each of them had only grown further apart. Which was why their divorce had been a blessing. He understood now that were better separate.
Taylor Thompson, soon to be Taylor Knox as she was the fiancée of Royce Knox, swept into the department and past Jayson’s desk.
“Coop, can you pop into Gia’s office with me for a second?”
“Sure thing.” He rose and followed Taylor, who was dressed smartly in a no-nonsense black dress, her dark blond hair pinned at the back of her head. She was second in charge as COO of the company, professional and spunky and exactly what Gia’s oldest, most rigid brother had needed in his life. She’d sprung a pregnancy announcement on Royce last year, and now those two were to be wed. With better results, Jayson hoped, than his marriage to Gia.
Anyway, their wedding ceremony would likely include their daughter, born right after Addison and Brannon Knox’s wedding six months ago. Or, as Jayson liked to think of it, the night when he nearly lost his damn mind and slept with his ex-wife.
In her office, Gia was leaning back in her leather executive chair, her long dark hair spilling over her petite shoulders. Her red dress one that would make Jessica Rabbit weep with envy.
Gia was petite, curvy and hiding a beautiful body beneath that frock. It was a body he’d brought to the pinnacle of euphoria time and time again. If physical compatibility equaled a successful marriage, they’d still be together.
Taylor slapped two cream-colored notecards onto the desk and two pens on top of them. “Fill these out. Each of you.”
Gia and Jayson exchanged glances before Gia picked up one of the cards to examine it more closely. “It’s filled out, Tay.”
“So’s mine,” Jayson said, picking up the other card. His name was right there. Jayson Cooper and beneath it, the box “attending” was marked with an X.
Taylor snatched the card from him and pointed at the blank area beneath it. “This reads ‘Plus-one, yes or no’ and there is a line there for a name for the seating chart.”
Taylor handed the card back to him. “Yes,” she said and then snapped her gaze to Gia. “Or no. This isn’t twenty questions. It’s one. I don’t care what the answer is, but I need a final headcount for the caterer.”
He narrowed his eyes at Gia and she mimicked his reaction.
“I’m a yes,” she answered cheerily, marking the box with a flourish. “But as my date’s a celebrity, he’d rather not have the catering staff know his name.” She handed over the card, her smile forced, Jayson guessed, for his benefit.
“Really?” Taylor asked, proving this was news to her. “We’ll talk later. What about you, Coop?”
“Same situation,” he answered, marking the yes box. “Ironically.”
Gia crinkled her nose, but he kept his gaze trained on Taylor.
“There. Now was that so hard?” Taylor offered a saccharine-sweet smile and then spun on one heel and left the office.
“Holy Bridezilla,” Gia said once she was gone. “She’s my best friend and I love her, but yikes.” Then she looked at him. “I didn’t know you had a date.”
“I didn’t know you had a date, either.” Going for casual, he tucked his hands in his pockets and waited.
Silence invaded for a few uncomfortable seconds while she examined her fingernail
s.
“Well, I didn’t want to attend my other brother’s wedding and have a repeat of what happened at Bran’s.” She then fidgeted with a pen. “That was a mistake.”
Her pulling him into a spare bedroom at the mansion and kissing him so hard he saw stars was a big mistake and she wasn’t the only one who thought so. Since then he’d had trouble keeping his mind on work and keeping their aboveboard banter from crossing into sexual territory.
His mind returned again and again to the way she’d tasted that night—like champagne, and a woman he hadn’t had a sampling of for too long. If there was one essence he was powerless against it was the rare and intoxicating flavor of his ex-wife.
They’d made out hot and heavy, hiding in the spare guest bedroom after the wedding. Her dress was rucked up to her waist while she plunged her hand down his pants. The memory of the heat, the want and the sheer high of being able to take her where she needed to go was a memory that hadn’t faded for him in the least.
He clasped his hands in front of his crotch to hide his reaction, and forced his thoughts on what had interrupted them that night.
Taylor’s going-into-labor screech.
There. Thinking of that helped quell the lust.
“I didn’t realize you were seeing anyone,” Gia said, obviously fishing for details. Details she wouldn’t get since Jayson didn’t actually have a date. He guessed now he’d have to find someone. A celebrity apparently, since he’d coat-tailed Gia’s story with a story of his own. He sure as shit wasn’t admitting he lied to save face.
“It’s new,” he answered. “I didn’t realize you were seeing anyone either.” He’d stayed similarly single. Work kept him busy, but even if it hadn’t he had no interest in a relationship. Once bitten...
Last fall he’d attended Bran’s wedding alone, not thinking a thing of it. Jayson was still considered family outside of the office. Bran and Royce were like brothers. That said, even if he’d had one, bringing a date to a Knox family gathering would have been strange for him and stranger for his date.
One Last Kiss Page 1