by Jodi Redford
“Good girl,” he purred.
That earned another backward glance. Black irises swelled to deep pools. “Time for another bet.”
He pulled her flush to his hips. “What age did you lose your virginity?”
Hot, bright red flushed her high cheekbones. “Fourteen.”
Ignoring a jolt of excitement, he placed a single chip onto the number. “So young. Was it worth it?”
Her laugh this time was awkward. Rough at the edges. “It depends what you mean. Did I get the validation I was looking for? Sure.”
“That’s not what I meant.” He wrapped his arm all the way across her belly so that he clutched her opposite hip. Her curves fit the body he’d forged through years of discipline. “I wanted to know if you came.”
She shuddered then shook her head. “No.”
“That is a damn pity.”
“Can’t expect that much when you’re so young and stupid.”
“Ready for our next wager?”
She let her head bend back to rest on his shoulder. “Lay it on me, flyboy.”
“If I hit, I want to see you make yourself come.”
“An inside bet?”
“Yup.”
“Again, the odds are on my side.”
“And look where that logic got you last time.” He chuckled against her loosely bound hair, catching the light scent of roses. “The house edge is just over five percent. Five point two six, actually. You should know, I lost two rounds while you were gone. Don’t play it based on numbers. Agree because you want me to know exactly what makes you break apart—the way you touch yourself when you’re all alone.”
She slicked her tongue across her lips. “You think I want you to know that?”
“Maybe. Maybe you don’t. But you do want to be wicked.”
All fire and gunpowder need is a stray spark…
Yours to Take
© 2012 Joely Sue Burkhart
The Connaghers, Book 3
The day one of her old clients gunned down a cop, former defense attorney Vicki Connagher lost everything—her passion for justice, and her lover, Detective Elias Reyes. The dead cop’s partner.
Even though she’s following her dream to start her own fashion line, it’s tough with heartache as her only companion. Until she brings Jesse, a wandering street artist, in from a freak Texas snowstorm. His submissive flirting brings out dominant tendencies she never knew she possessed, yet she hesitates to let him take her as far and as hard as she wants to go.
Some homeless junkie in Vicki’s house? Not on Elias’s watch. Pride kept him away, but as long as Jesse is staying in Vicki’s downstairs shop, he’s staying with Vicki. On the couch, but it’s a start.
As the days go by, the three work out an uneasy alliance. But Vicki’s joy at having Elias back in her life is tempered with a growing desire to have it all. Elias in her bed, and Jesse under her command. The only question remaining is if her tough alpha cop is willing to embrace all that she is…
Warning: Explicit sex, BDSM, a tough alpha cop, a reluctant Domme, and a smoldering submissive street artist willing to do anything to belong to her.
Enjoy the following excerpt for Yours to Take:
“You make me quiver every time I see you. You’re one hell of a woman, Vicki Connagher. I’m glad you and your brother beat that punk up. I’m glad you’re a strong, powerful woman who’s willing to go up against anyone and anything to make sure the law is followed. You were one hell of an attorney, and if I were ever on the wrong side of the law, there’s no one else in the world I’d want defending me.”
Cupping her cheek, Elias kissed her so tenderly her eyes burned again. Tenderness from him—or her—was as rare as her phone calls to Mama in the last few years.
Jesse sat up, a sheepish look on his face. He scooted away and began to stand up, but she turned and reached for his hand. “Where are you going?”
“It’s late. I ought to leave you two alone.”
“Not without a kiss goodnight.” Elias’s voice sounded normal, but when she searched his face, she noted that his jaw was tight. “I might be a mean son of a bitch, but I’m not cruel. We did a lot of tormenting and play today. He’s going to need a little more from you than a peck on the cheek.”
“Are you sure?”
“I need to see how I’m going to feel when I see you touching him.” He ran his hand through his hair and ground his teeth. “I’ll be honest, Vik. It’s going to be damned hard for me to watch. But we need to start somewhere.”
Jesse slipped off the couch and moved over to kneel in front of her. The sight of him waiting on his knees made her heart thud heavy and hard. Her pulse jumped, her blood hot and sweet, rushing through her veins. The light in his eyes was intoxicating. Touching him, even her fingers stroking his cheeks, increased that feeling of rising desire.
She kissed him, trying to keep it fairly clean for Elias’s sake. She didn’t want him to see her gobbling up another man, but the way Jesse melted against her made her crazy. Boneless, he sank into her embrace, soft, open and willing for anything she needed. All too quickly, she found herself gripping his bottom lip in her teeth. She dug her fingers into his buttocks, pressing him as close to her as possible.
Breaking the kiss, she dropped her head to his shoulder and concentrated on breathing. Damn it, what had happened to her control? Her desire to protect Elias as much as possible? Another few minutes and she would have shoved her hands down Jesse’s jeans.
“Are you okay?” She didn’t dare lift her head to seek Elias’s reaction. Jesse didn’t answer—he knew who she was asking.
“Yeah,” Elias replied in a graveled voice that made her shiver. “I’ve never seen anyone go so limp and eager like that. It’s like he’s giving you every single thing he’s got. His breath. His will. God, no wonder he makes you so hot, Vik. He’s begging you to ravish him.” He must have leaned close because his hot breath moistened her ear. “Show me some more.”
Elias had never thought of himself as a Peeping Tom, but he couldn’t deny that he was rock-hard and throbbing at the sight of his woman kissing another man. It wasn’t any man, though. If it were anyone but Jesse in her arms, he’d probably be dead. The kid wasn’t a threat to him. Vicki wanted him, but she gave Elias no doubts about how much she wanted him too.
She released Jesse’s ass to jerk his T-shirt over his head. Using the soft cotton, she tied his hands together in the small of his back. She’d been feeding him well, because he wasn’t as painfully thin as when she’d first taken him in. “What do you want?”
“Rough me up a little,” he gasped. “Pull my hair or bite me. God, I’d love it if you’d bite me hard enough to bruise.”
She wound her fingers in his hair and gave his head an experimental jerk. “Like that?”
“Harder. Force me to bend to your will.”
Elias made himself hold his breath for a count of ten and then let it out slowly. Damned if he was going to embarrass himself by hyperventilating…or coming in his pants like a pimply-faced teenager.
She pulled Jesse’s head back, forcing him to arch his neck and upper body away from her. She had strong hands, so Elias knew she was pulling hard, giving him what he’d asked for. With her other hand, she began unbuttoning Jesse’s jeans. His breathing was loud, rasping through his strained throat.
“Make me wait,” he ground out. “Don’t let me come without your permission.”
“Okay.” She twisted her fingers tighter in his hair and pressed her mouth to his neck.
By the way he jerked and groaned, she wasn’t kissing him. There was a reason Elias joked that she was like a shark or a crocodile—she’d always loved biting, and the neck and shoulder were her favorite targets. She ran her mouth down Jesse’s neck to his shoulder, leaving bites as she went, harder, really working the underlying muscle. He moaned louder, his breath panting, his skin a sheen of sweat.
Finally, she got his jeans unbuttoned. His shoulders bunched, tendons standing ou
t in his neck.
“Not yet.” She let out a husky laugh, tracing his ear with her tongue. “You said to make you wait.”
“I’m going to die.”
“Good,” she purred. “Elias loves it when I do this to him.”
“The hell I do.” He did, though, and she loved it too, because he gave as good as he got. “Why don’t you dig those claws into him? He’ll really like that.”
She cupped Jesse’s balls, using her nails to grip that fragile skin. His eyes fluttered shut. Completely surrendered to her, his body hummed and vibrated like a delicate instrument in her hands. It was all Elias could do not to jerk open his own pants. Then she could have a cock in each hand. Maybe even have a contest over who could last the longest when she started using her mouth.
Christ, all the blood must have leaked out of my skull for me to even think about such a thing.
Shifting around to Jesse’s side so he was between them, Vicki stared over his shoulder at Elias. Her eyes were dark, gleaming pools of need. She tightened her hands, drawing a louder cry from Jesse. Defenseless, eager, softly pained male, it was a sound that Elias never thought he’d hear, let alone one that would turn him on. But it did. Because the woman he loved had drawn out that sound from the other man’s throat.
Still holding his gaze, she bit Jesse’s left shoulder, gripping the top muscle in her teeth firmly like a pit bull. He arched in a trembling, straining bow, his cock rising hard and desperate to rub against her, but she only bit him harder. “Please!”
She released him enough to speak. “Say my name.”
He shuddered, as though she’d told him to stick his finger in a light socket. “I can’t. I’ll come, I swear it.”
“Then come.” She jerked his head to the side and sank her teeth into his straining neck.
Checking it Twice
Jodi Redford
’Tis the season for double seduction.
The only item on Jana Colton’s Christmas list this year is Kevin Monahan. Preferably naked in her bed. The delicious, hunky chef has been resisting her forever, but she’s pulling out all the sexy stops this holiday. Especially since his acceptance of an out-of-state job threatens to nix her quest to rock his boxers off.
Jana has always been Kevin’s personal Kryptonite, but giving in to her isn’t an option. Relationships are a four-letter word in his book. He cares far too much for Jana to let his emotional baggage ultimately break her heart.
With the arrival of his best friend, Nick Pappas, the balance of temptation shifts. From their past history of sharing women, Nick knows every dirty trick it takes to lead Kevin astray, and he’s not afraid to use them. Particularly since Nick’s convinced that Jana is exactly what Kevin needs to be happy and whole.
Their game of seduction quickly snowballs into something that feels an awful lot like love—in triplicate. But with Kevin dead set on leaving Michigan, there’s a real possibility it could be a blue Christmas for them all.
Warning: This book contains an extremely tormented voyeur, a very naughty and not so saintly Nick, a liberal application of candy cane-flavored body paint, a buzzing butterfly, and enough raunchy fun on a sex swing to melt a snowman…or two.
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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.
11821 Mason Montgomery Road Suite 4B
Cincinnati OH 45249
Checking It Twice
Copyright © 2012 by Jodi Redford
ISBN: 978-1-61921-264-0
Edited by Sasha Knight
Cover by Angela Waters
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: November 2012
www.samhainpublishing.com
Table of Contents
Dedication
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
Epilogue
About the Author
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