by London Hale
“Can you two cut it out?” Mom hurried across the room, carrying a basket of laundry. “I swear, you both act like children. Why can’t you be more like your brother?”
Claire stopped fighting, giving me one more shove to push me off her. I sat up, rolling my eyes as Claire did the same, both of us mouthing fucking Connor as my mom left the room. It was hard being the younger siblings of a golden child. I was the flighty one, the drifter. The one who’d left the house right after graduation and moved off the island. Claire was the baby and would probably always be seen as such. But Connor? He was the savior. The policeman. The one who never did anything wrong. I would have bet money his life was boring as shit, but what did I know?
I’d been gone for years, only having moved back recently to join the firehouse and get my life together. I was done with drifting. One call from Kate, one year of increasingly frequent calls, in fact, had set that plan in motion in my mind. Move home, get a good job, kick-start a life that was worth her attention. I was almost there, too. Almost ready. Just a few more months, and I could make my move.
By the time I looked back up at the television, Kate was gone from behind the podium, and the council had moved on to other business.
“Shit.” I dropped back into my seat. “I wanted to watch that.”
Claire huffed, still looking irritated with me. “I’ll never understand why.”
I shrugged, wishing she knew my reasoning. Wishing I could tell her, my mom, my brother—shit, the whole world—that I was in love with Mayor Kate Briscoe. But I couldn’t. Hell, I couldn’t even tell Kate that. Not yet. She didn’t exactly know who I was.
Before I could say anything else, my phone rang. I glanced at the screen, expecting to ignore it, but the number made me jump up.
“I have to take this.” I was across the room and out the door in seconds, hurrying toward the privacy of the apartment over the garage as I swiped my screen to accept the call. “I didn’t expect to hear from you today.”
The woman on the other end—the boss of what I would call my side job—chuckled. “She’s calling for you.”
“I figured since she’s the only calls I take.”
“Should I put her through?”
I shoved open the door and let it slam behind me, pausing only long enough to lock it. I did not want to be interrupted. “Absolutely.”
“Give me five, sugar.” My boss disappeared, leaving me with nothing but silence on the line.
I kept the phone to my ear as I stripped off my sweats and tossed them across the room. The same room that had been mine during my senior year in high school. I hadn’t expected ever to live here again, to bring my life back to Temperance Falls, and especially not to live over the garage at my childhood home once more. I’d run as soon as I’d gotten out of school, had headed to the mainland to start a life. I’d been a bartender, a waiter, had worked in retail and offices, been a balloon-animal maker and a carnival ride jockey…but it wasn’t until I’d gotten a job working on the phones that I’d found something I liked to do.
No career day bullshit had prepared me to be a phone sex operator, but it was a damn good job. I made bank talking to women—and sometimes men—from all across the country. Well, mostly talking. Sometimes things got heated. Sometimes, they got damn well steamy. The first call I’d received from Kate? That had been downright sex with words. Luckily, she’d called again. And then another time, always asking for me. Always giving me little glimpses into her world as we talked about life, about our frustrations, and about how wet her pussy would be if I got my tongue on it. I’d fallen in love with her over the phone.
Too bad she had no idea who I really was, or that I’d moved home just to be close to her.
I was completely naked, lying on my bed with my hand already around the base of my cock, when I finally heard her breathing come across the line. I knew how this would go. She’d wait for me to say something, give up her assertive personality to be the timid one between us. I played along because it was what she needed, but I looked forward to the day when she took control with me. I ached for it.
“Hey there, Kitten. This is a surprise.”
Fuck, her breathy sigh made me want to strip her down and find out what else I could do to get her to make that sound. What parts of her body I could tease with my fingers and tongue to elicit such an adorable response.
“I know it’s not our usual day—” she started, but I cut that shit off quick.
“You can call me anytime. You know that.”
“I do,” she said, and the telltale rustle of fabric told me she was probably still in her suit. The one I’d seen her in just fifteen minutes ago on the television. “It’s been a rough day, and I needed to hear your voice.”
I let my fingers run along the length of my cock, dreaming of what it would feel like if they were hers. I wanted that so much, wanted to know if she’d be gentle or demanding. Would she stroke me from the base to the tip, play more with the head? Would she take me in her mouth and swallow me down as I came? I sure as hell hoped so, and I couldn’t wait until the day I found out.
“So,” I asked, ready to play the role. Ready to give her what she needed. “How was your day?”
Her groan was expected, as was her tired response. “Brutal. Thank God I wore my nude shoes today because I had to stand a lot. My legs are killing me.”
Yeah, she’d had to stand behind that podium arguing with the council. My Kate loved her heels, but they wreaked havoc on her sometimes. Especially the pink ones. I had no idea what the pink ones looked like, but I was going to burn those fuckers one day. They caused her too much pain.
“If I were there, I’d rub those long legs for you. I’d run you a bubble bath first, though. Maybe get you a glass of wine. I’d always have your favorite ready because you work so damn hard.”
“I know you would,” she said, her voice growing softer. Warmer. She loved this script.
“And when you were all warm and relaxed—and maybe a little tipsy—I’d lay you on the bed and rub my hands all over you. Rub out any knot. Would you like that? You think me touching every single inch of you would help you relax?”
“God, yes, Banner.”
Aaaannnnddddd…bingo. She was ready. Her voice always took on that moany edge when she was aroused. Just a couple months more, and I’d hear it in person. Hell, I’d get to hear that voice saying my real name. I couldn’t fucking wait. But for now, she needed me to play a part for her, and I was damn good at my job. “What can I do tonight? What do you need from me to make it all better?”
She was silent for a long minute, long enough that I began to wonder if I’d missed something big at the council meeting. Long enough that I worried something else was up. But finally, she sighed.
“I need you, Banner.” Her voice had dropped, her words going slightly breathy. Her close voice. Her fully-into-the moment voice. Yeah, she needed me, all right. Needed me in the same way I’d been needing her since I first saw her walk into that meeting earlier tonight.
“I’m always here for you,” I said, easing up on my phonesex voice. The one I used to wind her up. The one my boss called “the panty-melter” voice. Kate knew it as the voice of Banner, the man she called when she needed a release. The man she paid weekly to have phone sex with her.
“I need your words,” she whispered, sounding altogether aroused. “I just want to let go. I want to come with you tonight. I need it.”
I tightened my grip on my cock, trying not to blow right then. “Oh, Kitten. You know I can give you that. I’d give you anything, sweet girl. So tell me…how quick can you be naked and sprawled out on your bed for me? I’ve got all the time in the world for you, and I think I need to pay some close, personal attention to your pretty pussy tonight.”
Also by London Hale
The first three books in the Temperance Falls series feature taboo relationships and May-December romances. After all, it’s summer on the island, and these couples are out to get a little sw
eaty.
Daddy’s Best Friend
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Amazon AU * For Other Links
The DILF
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Amazon AU * For Other Links
Nanny With Benefits
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Amazon AU * For Other Links
The second trilogy in the Temperance Falls series feature taboo relationships of a different sort. On the island, the business of selling sex in all its forms is thriving, and our couples give a whole new meaning to opposites attract.
Sinful Temptation
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Amazon AU * For Other Links
Sinful Attraction
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Sinful Distraction
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Amazon AU * For Other Links
Outside of our miniseries titles, we also have single-title romances to fulfill your needs.
Friends to Lovers Romance
Reunion
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Teacher/Student Romance
Seducing His Student
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Amazon AU * For Other Links
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www.londonhale.com/gazette
About the Author
London Hale is the combined pen name of writing besties Ellis Leigh and Brighton Walsh. Between them, they’ve published more than thirty books in the contemporary romance, paranormal romance, and romantic suspense genres. Ellis is a USA Today bestselling author who loves coffee, thinks green Skittles are the best, and prefers to stay in every weekend. Brighton is multi-published with Berkley, St. Martin’s Press, and Carina Press. She hates coffee, thinks green Skittles are the work of the devil, and has never heard of a party she didn’t want to attend. Don’t ask how they became such good friends or work so well together—they still haven’t figured it out themselves.
Keep in touch with London…
www.londonhale.com
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