Before Pepper could answer her, the phone rang.
“Did you get something from UPS today?” Mam’s voice was filled with excitement.
“Yes, I did.” Pepper was having trouble breathing. “How…? What…? When…?”
Maggie laughed. “I had to stop myself from rushing over there to wait for it. But Kyle said he’d kill us if we gave it away. I just couldn’t wait any longer to call you.”
“Mama. I’m floored.”
“Honey, he loves you so much. He’s been beating himself up over what happened and he wanted to show you how much he cares. And how important what you want is to him.”
“And you know this how?”
“Oh, well, we might have chatted with him a time or two. Now you call him, Pepper. Right this minute.”
Pepper stood there, still shocked. No one had ever done things like this for her before. She glanced over at Cilla.
“Can you dig out the information from Kyle’s reservation? There must be a phone number on there. Maybe his cell?”
Cilla was already scrolling through the computer. “Yes. Here it is.” She read off the number.”
Pepper’s hands were shaking when she punched the numbers into her own cell phone.
“It’s ringing,” she said.
“Is this the woman I love more than life itself?”
She heard his deep voice but not coming from the phone. It came from behind her. She turned to see him walking in through the front door. He looked so good she didn’t want to tear her eyes away from him.
“I-I don’t know what to say.”
“How about I love you, Kyle?”
“I love you, Kyle,” she repeated.
He shoved his own cell phone in his pocket and took hers away from her, setting it on the desk. Then he pulled her into his arms.
“I’ve wanted to do this every minute since I left here.”
The kiss he gave her was so full of heat and emotion, it seared her very soul. He threaded his fingers through her hair, holding her head in place while he fed from her mouth as if he’d hadn’t tasted her in forever. Only when he had completely stolen her breath did she break the kiss. If she had any doubts about his feelings for her, when she looked in his eyes, she saw her answer. There was so much love there, her heart swelled.
“You don’t know how I regret the way everything happened,” he told her. “I should have told you after that first night, but I didn’t know how. I was afraid you’d throw me out, and I wanted a chance for you to really fall in love with me.”
“But then—”
“But then I got caught up in my own trap. I was trying to figure out the right words when you found me on the Internet, and the jig was up. Honey, I know what this place means to you. If you want to live here and run it, I’ll figure out how to make it work. It’s only logistics. The important thing is for us to be together. I love you, Pepper. Will you marry me?”
“You sent me your broken heart,” she said, watching his face.
“I did. Can you fix it? Marry me? Keep it whole?”
“For heaven’s sake, answer him,” Cilla said. “Don’t keep the poor man in suspense.”
Kyle pulled her tight to his body and tilted her face up to him again.
“Will you, Pepper? Please? I am no good without you.”
She let out a long breath, and everything fell into place inside her.
“Yes. Yes, yes, yes. I’ll marry you.”
He kissed her again, and when she kissed him back, she put her whole heart and soul into it. And everything about it felt absolutely right.
About the Author
Learn more about me and read my books here:
http://www.desireeholt.com
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Also by Desiree Holt
I hope you will check out the following books
* * *
The Phoenix Agency
Jungle Inferno
Extrasensory
Scent of Danger
Freeze Frame
Feel the Heat
Formula For Danger
Unexpected Risk
* * *
Heroes Rising
Prequels
Guarding Jenna
Unmasking Evil
Series
Desperate Deception
Zero Hour
* * *
Guardian Security
Moving Target
Silencing Memories
Killing Lies
Running Scared
Finding Redemption
* * *
The Protecting Series
Protecting Maddie
Protecting Cassie
Protecting Amy
Protecting Arizona
* * *
Strike Force
Unconditional Surrender
Lock and Load
Advance to the Rear
Take No Quarter
* * *
Vigilance
Hide and Seek
Without Warning
A Deadly Business
* * *
For a complete list of my books please go to
http://www.desireeholt.com
Sweetest Sin
Sienna Snow
1
Hagen
Holy fuck. It was her. The woman of my dreams.
She was gorgeous beyond belief. Golden skin deepened to a darker tanned hue from the Seychelles sun and eyes so green they looked almost artificial. She had a petite frame that barely came up to my chest. She wore a low-cut ocean-blue dress, accentuating her ample curves, something that would be considered too revealing if she’d worn it anywhere else but on a tropical island vacation.
She had no idea of her appeal and was completely oblivious to the attention she garnered from the men in the bar. Men who I wanted to punch for looking in her direction.
She turned to say something to the hostess, revealing an ass that gave me visions of taking her from behind, of holding those luscious curves, of sliding my cock deep inside her.
The hostess pointed in the direction I sat. With sure, confident strides, the woman worked her way to the bar. As she neared, her emerald gaze caught mine.
There was a flash of heat and interest, followed by a slight glance away, telling me she was a bit shy.
She came up to where I sat, stopping behind the barstool next to me, and asked, “Is this seat taken?”
“Not at all.” I gestured for her to sit. “I’d love the company.”
The second she slipped into the seat, a bartender approached.
She gave him a brilliant smile, one that had me feeling a bit jealous.
“Kihineh, Steven.”
Steven set a napkin on the counter and a glass of water on top. “Would you like the same as yesterday?”
“Yes. That would be perfect.”
When he stepped away, I offered my hand. “I’m Hagen.”
“Penny.” She slid her palm across mine, and I could have sworn sparks flared at our contact.
One thing was for sure, I wanted this woman. Maybe if I was lucky, I’d get a taste of her.
“What are you doing in the Seychelles all alone?”
“Who says I’m alone?” She thanked Steven after he placed her drink in front of her.
“Then why are you here at the bar? Shouldn’t you be having a five-star experience with your companion?”
“I’m having a five-star experience right here. I have you to keep me company and a nice pour of one of the most sought-after whiskeys in the world.”
I studied the reddish-gold liquid touch
ed by elderflower in her glass. She’d selected the same drink I was enjoying, Firewater Reserve Black. It was nearly forty-one thousand Seychellois rupees, or three thousand dollars an ounce.
“You have expensive taste.”
“Are you referring to yourself or the whiskey?”
“I’m just a simple man—nothing expensive about me.”
She lifted her tumbler to her mouth, taking a sip of the alcohol. She closed her eyes, savoring the taste, and then licked her plump lips, making me want to groan.
“I doubt that very much. Nothing about you says simple.”
“What you see is what you get.” I lifted my arms out.
She touched her pink tongue to her teeth. “I do like what I see.”
I had no idea how to respond to her. So instead, I picked up my own whiskey, swirled the amber liquid, and took a deep gulp, letting the whiskey heat my belly and clear the haze I’d been in since I saw Penny walk into the bar.
She glanced at the ring I wore on my left hand, the one I’d wear until the day I died. Symbolizing everything I’d come from and everything I wanted for the future, a gift I’d treasure forever.
“That’s very beautiful, unique.” She ran a finger over the laser-etched platinum.
“Thank you. It means the world to me.”
She traced the Greek letters wrapped around the metal. “What does this say?”
“Starlight’s heart.”
“That’s unique.”
“It is. Starlight illuminates the dark.”
Her fingers slid along the skin on top of my hand. “Are you saying you have a dark soul?”
“I did until Starlight entered it.” I set my other hand over hers, stilling her movement.
She pulled her hand free from my hold, and instantly, I missed the feel of her touch.
“Are you here for pleasure or business?” I asked.
“Pleasure mainly, but this resort carries some of my products so I can do a little business as well.”
“What’s your business?”
She tapped my glass. “This is my business.”
“The glass?”
“No. What’s in it. You’re drinking my product.”
I studied her face and the way she waited for my next words. Whatever I said seemed pivotal in how the rest of the evening would go.
She was the heiress who’d used her genius brain to create a whiskey in a lab that tasted as if had been aged for decades. She was extremely private, and the last thing she’d want was anyone exposing who she was.
“Then I guess I need to thank you for allowing this resort to have exclusive access to your fine whiskey.”
Amusement touched her lips. “If I recall, you were very instrumental and convincing during negotiations.”
“Then I take it you know who I am?”
“I know quite a bit about you and your brothers, Hagen Lykaios.”
My brothers and I had created a real-estate empire based out of Las Vegas but reaching across the world. With the resort we were in now as our newest project. I was here on a much needed vacation with a little business mixed in.
“I feel as if I’m at a disadvantage,” I said. “I know very little about you outside of what’s reported in the press.”
“Then get to know me. I’m sure I can surprise you with how different I am in person than on paper.”
“I doubt it. You’re as wholesome in person as you are in the report I read on you.”
She frowned. “You really have no clue.”
“Try me.” I took her unspoken challenge.
“What if I said that I wanted you to follow me back to my bungalow to do with me anything and everything your eyes have been telling me since I walked into the bar? No strings, no thinking about anything beyond our time on the island. Would you accept? Or would you decline?”
I clenched my glass. There was nothing more I wanted to do than spend the night lost in her, but I wasn’t the type of man to take advantage of anyone, and especially not a woman who had such an innocent aura about her.
“You can’t be serious.”
“Try me,” she countered, making my cock jump at the prospect she was posing.
“Why would you pick me out of all the men here on the island? A good girl like you should want someone opposite to me.”
She scanned me from top to bottom and then back. “Have you looked in the mirror?”
“Yes, I have.”
“Then you should know, you’re like sex on a stick. A woman would have to be stupid not to want a taste of you.”
I nearly choked on my drink, coughing a little. That wasn’t the response I expected. “I don’t think I’ve ever been referred to as sex on a stick.”
“Women may not verbalize it, but we’re definitely thinking it.”
“You’re nothing like you seem.”
She laughed. “Hagen, I may look like a good girl, but it doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy a walk on the wild or dark side.”
“Which am I?”
“A little of this and a lot of that.” She batted her lashes in an exaggerated flair.
Until this woman, I’d never enjoyed this type of teasing banter. There was something about her that drew me to her, made me want things I could never have imagined a year ago.
“You’re a shameless flirt.” I resisted the urge to cup the back of her head and pull her in for a kiss, knowing a move like that would probably get me a punch in the throat. “If you keep this up, I may decide to keep you.”
“Then, are you turning down my proposition?”
“I thought it was a hypothetical proposition.”
“No, Mr. Lykaios, it was very real. The decision is up to you. Am I going back to my bungalow with or without you?”
This woman was going to be the death of me. No sane man on earth would resist an offer like hers. But she wasn’t the kind of woman anyone could walk away from. She was the type to keep, the type to grow old with, the type of woman a man like me would never deserve.
“I’m waiting.” She tapped her sandals on the footrest of her chair.
I shot back the rest of my whiskey and turned her stool to face me. “If we do this, know that I will own you, possess you, and you won’t ever want any other man again.”
She swallowed and said in a voice that was much more confident than I expected, “Is that a threat?”
“It’s a promise.”
“Good.” She slipped from her stool and then looked over at me with a seductive smile. It was a move that had me wanting to throw her over my shoulder and claim her. “Then I expect you to deliver.”
2
Penny
What the hell was I doing? I’d never seduced a man before. My experience with men, in general, was limited at best.
But then again, this was the only man I’d ever had such a visceral reaction to. From the moment our gazes touched, I wanted to lick every tattooed inch of him. He wasn’t the type to ever be tamed, to ever let anyone control him. I should be scared, should know better than to tempt the caged beast I sensed while at the bar.
But there was something about the way he watched me as if he were a man starved and waiting for me. I was drawn to him and couldn’t help myself. And I knew without a doubt, with him I was safer than any other place in the world.
I’d come to this resort to relax, explore a different side of myself. To be carefree, uninhibited. To leave the planned, regimented girl at home. To do what my mood decided.
I guessed telling a man I wanted him to show me a night I wouldn’t forget counted.
“You still with me?”
The deep rasp of his voice washed over me. It eased the nerves dancing up and down my spine. Then, when he set a gentle hand on my lower back, not only to calm me but to claim me, I almost sighed.
“Yes.”
“Then when we get inside, know I’m calling the shots. You do what I say, when I say, how I say.”
My sex grew slick with arousal from the images his words c
onjured in my mind.
Hagen slid an arm over my stomach, stopping my steps and pulling me back against his aroused body.
“Are we clear?” His stubbled beard rubbed along the sensitive skin of my neck, causing my nipples to pucker and my pussy to throb.
“Y-y-yes.”
The rest of the walk to my bungalow was in silence but filled with desire and a need I couldn’t understand.
Using a chip on a bracelet I’d received at check-in, I opened the door, walking in with Hagen close behind me. He engaged the lock and then moved to lean against a nearby wall.
The wicked promise in his dark blue gaze had me wanting to squirm where I stood.
“Nice place.”
“Yes, it is.”
The oceanfront bungalow was an unexpected surprise when I’d arrived yesterday. As was the seclusion from the rest of the resort. It was as if I was in my own private island oasis.
Something perfect to share.
With the right man.
With Hagen.
As if sensing my thoughts, Hagen took slow, measured steps in my direction. My heartbeat accelerated as he got closer and closer.
When he stopped in front of me, he cupped my face, tilting it up. “Let’s get one thing straight before we begin. You aren’t a no-strings kind of woman. You’re the kind of woman a man will happily get tangled in knots over.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but his grip tightened. “There is no getting rid of me. You threw down the gauntlet, and I picked it up. Now you have to accept the consequences.”
“But, Hagen—”
He cut off my words with a thumb to my lips.
“These are the only things you’re allowed to say unless I ask you a question.” His mouth brushed mine.
“Yes, Hagen.”
Take Me to Bed: A Collection of Naughty Bedtime Stories Page 69
