And then she was pushing on his shoulders, pulling back from the kiss, panting, her lips swollen, her eyes wide with panic. “Oh god, Nando,” she gasped. “No. I can’t. I can’t do this again. It hurt too much. You don’t know how much it hurt.”
He rested his forehead against hers for a moment, fighting to get breath into his lungs. “I know,” he whispered. “Christ. I know.”
“You know?” She narrowed her eyes, her voice trembling. “You can’t. How could you?”
“Because I hurt too.” He bit off the words. “Because I’ll hurt again if this goes south. I don’t want to, but I will.”
There’s having fun… And then there’s falling in love.
Just for Fun
© 2012 Erin Nicholas
The Bradfords, Book 4
It was a chance meeting, a spontaneous, hot moment, a never-to-be-repeated encounter. So when the gorgeous redhead he knows only as Sugar walks into the bar and heads straight for him, Doug “Dooley” Miller knows he’s in trouble. But he’s sure not going to mind.
She needs a date to some swanky something-or-other. He’s a fish-sticks-and-denim guy, but for a woman who’s not afraid to get naughty in an elevator, he can stand a couple days of smoked salmon and Armani.
Morgan James admits she doesn’t really know Doug, but she needs him to keep her mind—and hands—off her ex. A man who, despite the fact he stole her ideas, she’s afraid could charm her into repeating her mistakes. Only Doug can make her forget the weasel exists. Besides, it’s just this one time.
What started as not even a one-night stand has Dooley feeling things that he’s never felt before. And that’s
outside
of the bedroom. Don’t even get him started on what’s happening between the sheets. Why does he have a feeling that, as far as flings go, they’re doing something wrong? Then again, if they’re falling in love, they might just be getting that right.
Warning: Contains a woman who knows what she wants, a man who knows what he doesn’t want, and a proposition that shows them both that they’ve never really wanted anything like this before.
Enjoy the following excerpt for
Just for Fun:
“You date a lot?” she asked.
“Enough.”
“Lots of regular girls in Omaha?”
The corner of his mouth curled. “Enough.”
“How come you haven’t married one of these real regular girls?” she asked, breaking a chip into little pieces.
His eyebrows shot up. “Marriage isn’t in the plans. I date girls who know that, who feel the same way. I don’t date anyone exclusively, or too many times, for that matter. Things get complicated if you get to know a girl too well and vice versa.”
“But you do have sex with them?”
“Of course.”
She rolled her eyes, irritated by the conversation. Which made no sense. “You just keep things at sex and a few laughs and that’s it?”
“Right.” He said it more emphatically than was needed.
Okay, already. She got it. Hell, it was what they were doing—casual, sex, fun, period. He didn’t have to act like she was getting too close for comfort. This was more or less a business arrangement. Even
more
straightforward than the relationships he apparently had all the time.
“So,” she said, selecting another chip. “You worried about some performance anxiety or something?”
He set his glass down hard. “What?”
“You need to dress me down and take me bowling before we go to bed because that’s what you’re used to? You can’t perform under different circumstances?”
He narrowed his eyes. “You think I need to see you with your hair down and eating nachos before I can get it up?” He laughed. “Uh, no.”
“Then what is this? This wanting me to be a regular girl?”
“Regular girls have more fun. They’re not uptight. They don’t have big business deals nagging at the back of their minds keeping them from focusing on me. They don’t have fancy lingerie so they don’t care if I rip it getting it off of them. They don’t worry about what other people think so they don’t hold back on orgasms the neighbors can hear.”
She swallowed hard. Having Doug rip her panties off sounded damned appealing. Even if they were expensive. “Is this wisdom based on experience with regular girls or…not-regular ones?”
Morgan could admit business was never far from her mind. But she wasn’t sure she held back on the orgasms exactly. It was more… Oh hell, she didn’t know. Maybe she did hold back. She had orgasms but she didn’t lose her mind.
“I’ve been with enough of both to have formed an educated opinion,” he said.
Of course he had. Why did she keep bringing this subject up?
“Meaning you’ve pegged me as high maintenance and too much work?”
“Pretty much,” he admitted. “Life’s short. Best to spend it doing things I love. I’m not going to wait an hour for a woman to fix her hair to go to the grocery store or paint her nails or try on a hundred dresses. The best look for any woman is a rumpled old T-shirt, no panties and her hair in a ponytail.”
He was talking about all the reasons he didn’t think he’d like being with her and yet she couldn’t help her smile. “You’ve put some real thought into this.”
He nodded and shoved a chip into his mouth.
“What are some of these things you love that you want to spend your time doing?”
They were wrong for each other and that was wonderful. This was a weekend thing and the more reasons they had to cheerfully part ways at the end of it, the better.
“Being with people I care about and who care about me. Working a job I love and I’m good at. Sports, camping, being my nieces’ favorite uncle.”
“You have nieces?” She wasn’t sure why that surprised her.
“Yep, three of them. One of my sisters has two girls and the other has one.”
“What makes you their favorite?”
He gave her a grin that made her stomach flip. “I like to play. I’ll get on the floor, get loud and messy and silly with them.”
She had no trouble believing that. But all at once his childish tendencies were a lot more attractive. Plus, she knew now that he could turn it off. At least for long enough to eat dinner with her boss. He was interesting. And very, very hot.
“I’ll admit I’m a little concerned about the ripped lingerie,” she said casually, sipping from her straw.
He blinked as they changed topics. “Oh?”
“These were expensive.”
“You can buy more.”
She smiled. No promises of being careful or gentlemanly. “I have another idea.”
“I’m open to suggestions as long as they come off.”
She glanced around. Everyone in Bud’s Bowl was otherwise engaged. Most had their backs to them anyway as they concentrated on the alleys.
Through her dress she felt the strip of her panties where they crossed her hip. The dress’s material was thin and she was able to roll the edges of her panties down by sliding her palms over her hips through the dress. She had to lift her butt off the seat of the stool and wiggle but she was able to work the tiny bikini panties to mid-thigh. Then she crossed one leg over the other, grabbed the edge of the panties and pulled them to her ankles where she kicked them free.
Then she handed them to Doug. “Now there’s no worry about ripping anything when we get back to the room.”
Doug stared at the silky scrap in his hand. “I can’t believe you just did that.”
“Maybe regular girls don’t do stuff like that,” she said with a lift of her shoulder. She picked up her soda again. They wouldn’t work out long term, but she was going to show him other girls could be fun too.
“I have to say, I’ve never had a woman hand me her underwear in a bowling alley before,” he admitted.
“Stick around. I might surprise you again.”
Fearless Love
Meg Benjamin
Sweet music doesn’t come without a few sour notes.
Konigsburg, Texas, Book 7
MG Carmody never figured her musical dreams would crash against the reality of Nashville. Now the only thing she has going for her is her late grandfather’s chicken farm, which comes with molting hens that won’t lay, one irascible rooster, and a huge mortgage held by a ruthless opponent—her Great Aunt Nedda.
With fewer eggs to sell, MG needs extra money, fast. Even if it means carving out time for a job as a prep cook at The Rose—and resisting her attraction to its sexy head chef.
Joe LeBlanc has problems of his own. He’s got a kitchen full of temperamental cooks—one of whom is a sneak thief—a demanding cooking competition to prepare for, and an attraction to MG that could easily boil over into something tasty. If he could figure out the cause of the shy beauty’s lack of self-confidence
In Joe’s arms, MG’s heart begins to find its voice. But between kitchen thieves, performance anxiety, saucy saboteurs, greedy relatives, and one very pissed-off rooster, the chances of them ever making sweet music are looking slimmer by the day.
Warning: Contains hot kitchen sex, cool Americana music, foodie hysteria, and a whole lot of fowl play.
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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 construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
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Fearless Love
Copyright © 2012 by Meg Benjamin
ISBN: 978-1-61921-240-4
Edited by Lindsey Faber
Cover by Valerie Tibbs
All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
First
Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
electronic publication: October 2012
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