Road to Temptation

by Terra Little

  He turned the corner behind her and leaned in the doorway. She caught his eyes as she took a carton of milk and salad fixings out of the shopping bag and set them inside the refrigerator. “I help women who have nowhere else to turn. That’s all I care about and that’s the only reason I do it.” Aware of his steady gaze, she moved around the kitchen, putting away the rest of the groceries and neatly folding the shopping bag. He was quiet—too quiet. “What are you thinking?”

  “That I’ve missed you.”

  She wilted with pleasure, heat simultaneously flooding her face and neck. “You could’ve called.”

  “I was in Argentina, on blackout. But I thought about you every day and every night. You’re blushing.”

  “Stop trying to distract me with sex.”

  His expression turned thoughtful. “Is that all we’ve been doing, Elise? Just having sex?”

  Elise watched him carefully, wondering exactly what he was asking and exactly how she should answer. Was this a trick question? “I’m not sure—” She paused and swallowed nervously. “I mean, I don’t know what you mean.”

  “No?” Coming away from the doorway, he shrugged out of his suit jacket and draped it across the back of one of the bar stools lined up at the breakfast counter. Then he pushed his hands in his trouser pockets and strolled in her direction purposefully. “Why don’t I explain it to you?”

  The closer he came, the wider Elise’s eyes grew. “What are you doing?” Taking a step back, she put up her hands to hold him at bay. “Broderick—” She took another step back and collided with the rim of the sink. “I don’t want to play games with you about this. If you’re here to arrest me, I have no intention of sleeping with you one last time before you do. Let’s just get this over with, okay?” He stopped walking and she held her breath, waiting for the other shoe to drop. He was towering over her now and there was nowhere for her to run. “Well?” she prodded when, instead of pouncing on her, he just stood there, staring at her.

  “Elise, if I wanted you in handcuffs, there was no need for me to drag my ass all the way down to Florida to make that happen. I could’ve just as easily sent the FBI out here to this secluded little shack of yours and saved myself the trouble.”

  “Why didn’t you?”

  “Because your sister was right. It would’ve been hypocritical of me.”

  At the mention of Olivia, concern creased Elise’s face. “My sister? You talked to Olivia?”

  “I went there first, looking for you after I received the package you sent me.”

  “Is she all right? You didn’t—”

  “No, I didn’t and she’s fine. She was also right when she pointed out to me that our work—yours and mine—is more alike than I’ve given it credit for. That doesn’t mean that I agree with how you do what you do, but I’m not exactly in a position to sit in judgment of it, either.” He took his hands out of his pockets and filled them with her butt, applying just enough pressure to bring her shuffling the remaining few inches toward him and landing against his chest softly. “I didn’t come here to arrest you, baby. I came here to do this...”

  Elise welcomed his kiss with something like greed, loving the way his tongue boldly invaded her mouth and stroked hers seductively. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer, opening her mouth wide and moaning when he took the kiss even deeper. She was breathing hard and his very impressive erection was pressing into her abdomen when they finally drew apart.

  “You’re not angry?”

  “Oh, I’m angry all right, but not for the reasons you think. Another time, I’d definitely like to revisit this ‘network’ scenario that Olivia mentioned, but not right now. Right now, I just want to be with you.” The tip of her tongue darted out to moisten her lips and a growl rumbled deep in his throat. “Do you have any idea how beautiful you are?”

  “You’re just saying that because you want sex,” she teased as she slipped a hand between them and squeezed the erection tenting the front of his trousers.

  “I intend to get it, too,” he murmured, dropping a kiss on her lips. “But I think we both know that there’s more happening between us than just sex, and there has been ever since the day you left me no choice but to crash into your car. I didn’t think to ask before but, is there someone else in your life, Elise? Someone that I need to make disappear?”

  “No,” she said, blushing. “Why are you just now asking?”

  “Because we’ve started something that I’d like to finish, and I have no intention of sharing you.”

  “Neither do I.”

  “Good, then we understand each other.” His mouth came for hers again.

  “W-wait,” Elise stammered, pushing halfheartedly at his chest and praying for the strength to keep her panties on for just a little while longer. Before she got lost in his kisses, there was one other thing that they needed to straighten out between them. “We still have some unfinished business between us that needs to be settled, Broderick.”

  Broderick’s eyebrows shot up, silently inviting her to go on.

  She cleared her throat delicately. “I’d like to go on record right now as the winner of our little bet, which means...” she trailed off, angling coy looks up at him from beneath thick lashes. “Well... I think you know what it means.”

  He grinned. “You want the Hummer.”

  “That was our agreement. But...if you want to renege, I’ll understand.”

  His grin turned into a full-fledged laugh. “No, you won’t, but it’s cool. I’m a man of my word and, since I did agree to the bet, and technically, you did win said bet, the Hummer is yours. But you should know that it comes as part of a package deal.”

  “Which means?”

  “Which means that, if you want it, you have to take me with it.”

  “I don’t recall you mentioning that as part of the terms before.”

  “I wasn’t falling in love with you then.” The wicked gleam in his eyes sent a shiver through Elise’s body. Already simmering with arousal, she gasped when his large hands glided up her back and massaged her neck and shoulders just the way she liked. Her eyes drifted closed and a moan of pleasure slipped out of her mouth. “Or maybe I was, and I just didn’t realize it at the time.”

  Summoning the strength to step out of the circle of his arms, Elise pulled her tank top up over her head and let it fall to the kitchen floor. Watching him watch her breasts, she untied the knot at her waist and dropped her skirt, too. Naked, except for a white lace excuse for a thong, she reached for his hands and put them on her breasts, where they immediately began kneading her flesh and toying with her tight nipples. “Why don’t you take care of these while I take care of this?” she suggested, pausing to enjoy the play of his fingertips against the tips of her nipples before undoing his tie and the buttons down the front of his shirt. She tugged his shirttail and undershirt free, then switched her attention to his belt buckle and zipper. “And this,” she murmured when his long, thick penis bobbed free of the slit in the front of his boxers and saluted her. Her fingers curled around it reverently, stroked it rhythmically.

  “Ahhh, baby, you make me feel so good. Damn, I’ve missed you,” Broderick growled, his hips pumping in time with her strokes. She tipped her head back and offered him her tongue, drawing him into a wild, hungry kiss that left her dangling on the edge of orgasm.

  She tore her mouth away from his. “I’ve missed you, too.”

  “Two weeks is a long time. I can’t wait any longer,” he murmured against her lips, as he captured her hands in his and stilled them on his shaft. “Take me to bed and show me how much you’ve missed me.”

  “Gladly.”

  The living room was as far as they got. There, Broderick cupped Elise’s breasts from behind, ground his iron-hard erection into the valley between her butt cheeks and then bent her over the
back of the couch. Elise felt the bulging head of his penis stretching the entrance to her slippery tunnel wide and her eyelids dropped like shutters. Unable to breathe, to make a sound, to do anything except feel as he sank his shaft inside her over and over again, she went completely still as sensation after sensation rocked her body from head to toe. With one last, deep stroke, he triggered an orgasmic burst that shook her all the way down to her soul. She collapsed over the back of the couch limply, cumming with a hoarse scream that left her throat raw.

  Six Months Later

  It was raining and the temperature had dropped steadily over the last few hours, resulting in an unusually chilly September night in Sin City. But neither Broderick nor Elise noticed the rain or the chill as they stumbled, hand-in-hand, out of the Blue Suede Shoes 24-Hour Wedding Chapel, wearing matching can you believe we just eloped? expressions and grinning like idiots.

  Throughout the entire ceremony—all thirty cheesy minutes of it—Elise could do little more than stare at the four-carat, princess-cut diamond ring on her finger in amazement. She and Broderick had been like shadows for the past six months. When had he found time to shop for a ring without her suspecting that he was up to something? During their cruise to St. Thomas on his motor yacht? While they were working a kidnapping-for-ransom case in New Orleans? In London for her father’s annual birthday bash? In between the two extortion cases in DC that they had wrapped up just last week? How long had he been carrying it around with him, waiting for the right time, and how had he known exactly what she would’ve chosen for herself?

  “What did we just do?” Elise shrieked as they raced hand in hand through the rain to the taxi that was waiting for them at the curb. “I can’t believe I just got married in jeans, by Elvis Presley! Olivia is going to kill me and my father is going to kill you!”

  “They’ll have to wait until after we get back from South Africa to do it,” Broderick replied, smiling as he ushered her into the backseat and then climbed in after her. “We can explain to everyone all about how I couldn’t wait another second to make you my wife as soon as we get back and they can all read us the riot act then. Right now, we have a plane to catch. The airport, please,” he told the driver.

  The cab lurched forward, merging smoothly with the Friday night 3:00 a.m. traffic. Elise moved closer to Broderick in the backseat and rested a hand on his thigh. “I think we should get our stories straight for when someone asks why we suddenly decided to elope. It’s bound to happen, so we should be prepared.”

  He grinned. “I don’t know about you, but I plan on telling the truth to anyone who’ll listen. You suck at playing Truth or Dare? and you lost a dare.” He put up a hand when she sputtered indignantly. “Calm down, baby. I’ll add a comedic spin to the story somewhere, we’ll all have a good laugh and everything will be fine, you’ll see.”

  “Did you hear what I just said, Broderick? My father is going to kill you.”

  “Elise, your father drinks light beer, plays squash and refers to the toilet as the loo. I can’t say that I’m all that worried about my life,” he said, chuckling despite the scowl on Elise’s face. “Besides, baby, none of this is really as sudden as it seems.”

  “We jumped up in the middle of the night, hopped on a jet and flew to Vegas to elope! I’m wearing jeans, you’re wearing khakis and we had to wait for Elvis Presley to finish his last set of the night before he could marry us! The Village People serenaded us with a Luther Vandross song and then Chuck Berry threw rice in my hair on our way out the door! I loved every minute of it but come on now. No one could’ve possibly planned what just happened. I don’t think we’re going to be able to sell that story. Like I said, we need to come up with a cover story.” By the time she was finished, he was silently cracking up. She watched him suspiciously, struck with a sudden thought. “Unless...” she said, trailing off as her eyes narrowed on his gorgeous but guilty-looking face. “Babe...now that I’m thinking about it, exactly how is it that you just happened to have a diamond ring in your pocket?”

  “Olivia and I picked it out when the three of us were in London for your father’s birthday,” he admitted, still laughing. “Right after I asked him for his blessing and he gave it to me. I’ve known since then that I was going to make you my wife, baby, and so has your family. So relax, everything is under control, I promise.”

  “Oh.” Pleasure, mingled with a sharp zing of arousal, fluttered through Elise’s system. In a few short minutes, they would board his private jet and take off for South Africa, her chosen honeymoon destination, and they would be in the air for twenty-plus hours. Plenty of time for her to show him just how deeply he moved her. Over and over again.

  In case he had other plans for their airtime, like working or taking conference calls or sleeping, she snuggled even closer to him and pressed a soft kiss to the side of his neck. In his lap, her hand slid up his thigh and palmed his hardening penis through his pants.

  He heard her loud and clear. “Anytime, anyplace, baby. Just say the word,” he growled for her ears only. He sucked in a sharp, whistling breath and hummed deep in his throat as he slowly released it. “Je vous aime, Elise. You have no idea how much.”

  “Je t’aime aussi,” she replied just as their taxi pulled up to the airport entrance. “I’m about to show you how much.”

  “Is that a promise?”

  “It sure is.”

  Broderick paid the fare and climbed out first, reaching back inside for Elise’s hand. “Are you ready for our next adventure, Mrs. Cannon?”

  “Oh, yeah,” Elise said, taking his hand and stepping out of the taxi. “Let’s go, Mr. Cannon.”

  * * * * *

  Keep reading for an excerpt from TAMING HER TYCOON by Yahrah St. John.

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  Taming Her Tycoon

  by Yahrah St. John

  Chapter One

  “I want Brooks and Johnson,” Lucius Knight told his lawyer and best friend, Adam Powell, as the two sparred in the boxing ring of their favorite gym on a Wednesday afternoon. It was one of Lucius’s favorite pastimes when he needed to blow off some steam, and today was one of those days.

  “I know. I’ve been acquiring the shares like you asked, but why?” Adam inquired a
s he squared off against his six-foot-two friend.

  Lucius put his gloves down and looked him in the eye. “Does it matter? I want it.”

  “Yeah, it does,” Adam said. “I’ve never seen you so focused on a company before. Why is it so important to you?”

  Lucius couldn’t tell Adam the real reason he was interested in Brooks and Johnson, an organic retail company, was its cofounder Naomi Brooks. Known for his playboy lifestyle, Lucius hadn’t been able to settle for anyone or anything, let alone a woman. But Naomi Brooks was different. He liked her story. She was a no-nonsense type of woman, a real do-gooder who not only believed in what she was selling—organic products that ranged from shampoos and conditioners to body lotion—but had also become successful in her own right. Who would have thought that the nerdy sophomore with the boyish figure and acne problems who followed him around during his senior year in high school would someday turn her basement business into a national success story?

  Lucius understood that kind of determination.

  Because he’d done the same thing. A reformed bad boy turned businessman, Lucius had experienced a chaotic relationship with his mother and had chosen to live with his grandmother in the Rose Park neighborhood of Long Beach.

  Adjusting to the neighborhood and being a loner hadn’t been easy for Lucius. He’d rebelled and gotten into trouble often in school. Eventually, he’d met Adam, and a friendship that would last decades had been formed. Lucius had gone on to obtain an MBA before investing in his first business venture, an up-and-coming technology firm. The gamble paid off, and he’d made his first million before he was thirty. And thanks to his shrewd sense for recognizing opportunities, he’d formed Knight International and was now a wealthy tycoon with holdings across multiple industries.

  “Hey, hey.” Adam waved a gloved hand in front of Lucius, jolting him from looking back down memory lane.