Back To Basics

by Lyric James

  The most beautiful square-cut diamond winked and sparkled up at her.

  Harper nodded her head as tears flooded her eyes and dripped down her face. After he slipped it on her finger and gathered her into his arms again, he asked, “What do you think about saying ‘I do’ on the beach just as the sun sets on a warm summer day?”

  “I’d say, perfect.”

  The End

  You just finished reading the fourth book in the Beach House Nights series. Did you miss how it all began? Stay tuned for special excerpts of each of the first three books in the series.

  Author’s Note

  If you’ve enjoyed this book, please consider leaving a review. Help the authors you love keep prices low by spreading the word. It helps us more than you could possibly know. Plus, we love to hear from our readers!

  Lover’s Revenge

  Beach House Nights Book #1

  Throwing a summer party at the beach house she inherited from her grandmother is just what Dayna needs to take her mind off her two-timing ex. After his best friend arrives to check up on her she realizes her desire may have been focused on the wrong friend. When they share a late night walk on the beach, it’s clear he shares her lust. Now, Dayna is determined to take advantage of their mutual attraction. What’s a little revenge sex among friends?

  EXCERPT

  She crossed and then uncrossed her arms around her knees. She didn’t want to talk about him. “Why are you apologizing for something you didn’t do?”

  Jared came up, picked up a rock, and tossed it into the ocean. “He was—is—my friend. What he did… You didn’t deserve that.”

  Dayna stood and walked into the water, slicing her leg through the cool liquid and said, “Forget about it.”

  “If I was lucky enough to have someone like you, I’d never fuck that up.”

  That gave Dayna the opening she was looking for. She turned to face him. “And if you had me, say, for one night, what would you do with me?”

  Even in the darkness, she saw his irises flair and smolder. He was up in one fluid motion and came toward her, splashing water on her legs as he did. Jared didn’t touch her, but his nearness caused heated desire to slither down her spine. “I would worship every inch of your body. When I was done, you’d know you were the only woman in my life and no other could ever take your place.”

  Here goes nothing. “They why don’t you? Have me for one night.”

  Jared moved closer until their toes touched in the water. The look he gave her could cause a lustful and lethal combustion. “Don’t say it if you don’t mean it.”

  Dayna reached out, touched his chest, and willed the butterflies zinging around in her stomach to settle. She stroked him right above the slit before the buttons began, moving her finger in a slow, sensuous circle. What she wanted to do was tease him, tempt him, but instead she struggled for breath as her skin connected with his. Every cell in her body blistered with unbridled need. “Who says I don’t?”

  He grabbed her forearms and squeezed. It didn’t hurt, but it let her know that she was playing with a fire she might not be able to put out or contain once it started. “He could come crawling back. If we do this, how will you feel when he does?”

  Slowly, she began to unbutton his shirt. Eager to see him naked, her tongue snaked out over her bottom lip. “I wouldn’t take him back if he came to me crawling across a pile of diamonds and gold.”

  He enclosed both of her hands in one of his and tilted her chin up with the other. “Are you sure about that?”

  She moved around him to return to the blanket and glanced around. She took off her tank and removed her shorts, carrying her panties down with them. Once she stepped away, she was completely naked. “I’ve never been surer of anything in my life.”

  Something Wet

  Beach House Nights Book #2

  Violet Tanner had the shittiest week ever. She was demoted at work, her apartment got flooded, and the guy she’s dating sends her an email to tell her he needs some space. When she gets an invite from one of her closest friends to a party at her beach house, her quick RSVP leaves her computer smoking.

  Things start to look up when hottie Logan McMasters arrives. She’s lusted after the ex-pro ball player for years. She’s determined to have her weekend end on a hot and sexy note and stops at nothing less than full-on seduction to get her man. Before the night is over, Logan is going to know what it means to experience something hot, something spicy, and something wet.

  EXCERPT

  She stood, grabbing the shirt she’d pulled off earlier. “I’m going for a walk,” she said to Stella, and trailed a path along the shore, heading away from the beach house, the wet sand sticking to her bare feet.

  Her hope… Logan would follow.

  Ahead, streamers of seaweed rolled in the surf. The company that rented colorful loungers and chairs with overhead umbrellas were loading up their equipment to sale again the next day. The beach was empty except for the group she was with, but she still heard snatches of conversation and music carried on the wind from the other houses.

  “Would you like some company?” The deep, sexy drawl came from behind her.

  Yes.

  Violet pivoted around and walked backwards across the sand, a soft smile on her face when he approached her. An inner core of delicious heat thrummed through her.

  The man was gorgeous with chestnut hair and liquid caramel eyes. He had on a sexy black wife-beater and khaki cargo shorts, no shoes. Muscles abounded and even though he wasn’t a star cornerback anymore, he still regularly worked out to keep his body rock hard. Of course, why wouldn’t he since he now owned about thirty 24-hour gyms across greater Florida.

  “Are you following me?” she asked with a hint of tease, but with a confident edge in her voice. Her plan worked. Now, she had to figure out just how far her seduction needed to go so she could actually feel that rock-hard body against hers tonight.

  “Do you mind?”

  Violet shook her head. “Nope.”

  Logan’s gaze traveled down to her feet and back up again. When his eyes reached her face, she asked, “You like what you see?”

  He nodded. “Oh yeah.”

  She turned and barely refrained from squealing with excitement, and continued to walk down the beach.

  He came up beside her. “Did I hear you say you got demoted?”

  Boy, he’d really been paying attention. “Yes. Please don’t remind me.”

  Logan lightly bumped his shoulder against hers, and a searing sliver of heat swept down her arm. “I only wanted to say I was sorry to hear it, that’s all. We can move on to a much happier conversation if you want. Like the fact that you don’t have a man anymore.”

  “Oh. You heard that too, huh?” She smiled up at him and was astounded by the deep voraciousness in his gaze. “And why, pray tell, is that a happy conversation?”

  He stopped her and brought her around to face him, pulling her close as his palms traveled down her arms to her hands. “Because I’ve been waiting a while for you to be free.”

  His touch, like a spark of dynamite, sizzled fiercely against her skin. Did he just say what she thought she heard? He wanted her? “Have you now?” Violet played spider up his left arm until she reached the bunched muscles of his shoulder. She brushed her hands over the warm tensile beauty of his ripped chest and moved lower to the expanse of his tight flat belly and slid her fingers under his shirt.

  “Yes, I have. That punk didn’t deserve you. Especially after the way he ended it.”

  “Oh.” She dropped her hand. “You heard that too,” she said, glancing down blankly at her fingernails.

  Logan cupped her under the chin, lifting her gaze to his. “Hey. I’m glad he did.”

  Violet’s gaze went high over his left shoulder, and she tucked her hair behind her ear. Even though it gave her the freedom to be here with Logan, being dumped still burned. “Why is that?”

  The sky, lit up with stars that sparkled like diamonds
and she watched the change in his eyes, saw his irises darken to a richer hue that took her breath away. Her heartbeat quickened from anticipation, or fear, she wasn’t sure which. Something hot drifted through her body. Something wet pooled in the aching area between her legs, and she wanted to lose herself in his deep, chocolate gaze.

  Logan reached up and brushed his knuckles down her cheek, over her bottom lip. He leaned forward, his breath a whisper over her skin. “So I can do this.”

  Up All Night

  Beach House Nights Book #3

  Stella Lewis is excited when she receives a weekend invite to a friend’s beach house, especially when the beach house’s attic is full of priceless furniture she can sell at her struggling antique store. The last thing she expected was to be sidelined by her attraction to playboy millionaire, Ian Hollis. The two have nothing in common, except their insane but inexplicable attraction to each other.

  After winning a multi-million dollar lottery when he was only twenty-five, Ian Hollis has been living the high life. But the first time he saw Stella, he knew there was something sinful hiding beneath the exterior of the prim and proper miss. Proving it to the workaholic beauty is a whole different story. Stella is running scared, but if she thinks she can rebuff Ian’s advances that easily, she’s in for a surprise. Ian is willing to prove to Stella he can stay up all night to prove she’s the woman of his dreams.

  EXCERPT

  Have some fun with me. Stella heard his voice again, low and rich and smooth as liquid caramel sliding over her sensitive skin. I’ll do whatever you want me to do.

  Good grief, what was she thinking? Ian Hollis was an annoying playboy who probably spent his time drinking Tequila and licking salt out of bleached blond bimbos navels and…

  Hell, who was she kidding? She sighed and rested one cheek on her fist, staring into the bonfire they’d made on the beach, wishing it was her belly button he licked alcohol out of. He was sexy and delicious and tempted her as no man ever had.

  “Did you miss me?” His voice came from behind her.

  She jolted up straight and pushed her eyeglasses back on her nose. “Actually, you took too long.” She made a move to stand up. “I really need to get back to the house.”

  Ian grabbed her by the waist and pulled her into his lap, against his lean muscled body. Her stomach began to jitterbug. She twisted, placed her hands against his chest, and almost melted. “Um…I was perfectly fine where I was sitting.”

  A slow smile spread over his face. “But I like you much better right here.”

  Oh that beautiful kissable mouth. Dangerous, that’s what he was. Whenever she looked at him all she thought about was sex, sweat and tangled limbs. He was just too…too…much for her. She preferred someone not so…so…

  When she dated, the guy was staid and secure with a respectable job, mature attitude, and didn’t zip around in hundred thousand dollar cars at a hundred miles per hour.

  Boring, a little voice murmured in the back of her mind.

  Ian Hollis got under her skin and was completely out of her league.

  Dear heaven, who was she kidding? If Ian took her right now on this beach, she’d spread her legs like an eagle. But she couldn’t bring herself to be that type of woman, loose and carefree who jumped in the bed with any man who asked. Not like her mother.

  No, she couldn’t do that.

  Ian looked like a jungle cat ready to pounce. “Are you ready to have some fun?”

  His lips were so close to hers. Wicked thoughts raced through her mind. All she had to do was stick out her tongue and taste him. One taste. She bit her tongue to keep it in her mouth and her breathing increased. By the rise and fall of his oh so masculine chest, so had Ian’s.

  Would it really be so bad if she let go this one time, this one weekend? Her mind filled with the thought of engaging in a purely sexual liaison with Ian.

  He inched his mouth a little closer, so close she could feel his moist breath on her lips, smell the hint of peppermint from the ice cream he’d eaten earlier.

  Instead of answering, she wiggled closer as desire, the intensity of which she’d never felt in her life, made her entire body shiver with need. His green eyes locked on hers, and the magnetic pull that seized her insides squashed any thought of pulling her mouth back before it was too late.

  About The Author

  Lyric James began writing romance after the stories in her head just wouldn’t shut up…and that’s really a problem when you’re standing up in front of a bunch of middle school students. She graduated from high school, went to college and quit because she had a car note to pay. She’s held such jobs as receptionist, administrative assistant, medical clerk, and lifeguard. After she had her first child, she decided that she was an adult and was ready to go back to college. After receiving a Bachelor’s in Organizational Management and a Master’s in Library Media and Information Technology, she now spends her days surrounded by one of the things she loves most…books.

  Lyric has been married to her own hero for over fourteen years and has two daughters, one son, and a Doberman named Blue because her husband loves the Duke Blue Devils. She has one brother, several rather adorable nieces and nephews, super parents, and a wonderful grandmother who always reminds her that enduring love is possible even after 50 years of marriage to Lyric’s grandfather.

  In 2006, Lyric sold the first story she ever finished to e-publisher, Cobblestone Press. Since then, she’s sold contemporary, romantic suspense and paranormal African American and Interracial romance to Samhain Publishing and Ellora’s Cave.

  Lyric is an avid reader and “listener” of books and her private book collection includes her favorite authors: Catherine Coulter, Nora Roberts (J.D. Robb), J.K. Rowling, Kate Collins, Janet Evanovich, Cinda Williams Chima, Charlaine Harris, Rick Riordin, Sylvia Day, Shayla Black and Brenda Jackson.

  Find Lyric On The Web

  Website: www.LyricJamesBooks.net

  Twitter: www.twitter.com/authorlyric

  Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AuthorLyricJames

  Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/lyric_james

  Pinterest http://pinterest.com/authorlyric/