Next summer he’d come back, finish the list and try again with Jaime. The items blurred in front of his eyes. Xavier tried to focus, but nothing seemed to work. His mind volleyed between Jaime’s refusal to accept anything he offered and Natalie’s advice to beg her if he had to.
He couldn’t do that. He wanted her to see as much potential in them as he did, and if she didn’t… Well, obviously she didn’t. Xavier stood, dropping the journal into the recliner. He made his way through the cabin of the jet, back to the stateroom.
He opened his traveling case and stared at clothes he hadn’t worn since he’d ended his driving adventure. Unbuttoning his shirt, he’d never felt more ridiculous. He was a grown man getting sentimental about the I left my heart in South Dakota T-shirt she’d bought him as a joke.
He shrugged off the dress shirt and pulled on the tee. It was a long flight back and he might as well be comfortable. Next he traded the shoes for bare feet and the slacks for a pair of cargo shorts, the one’s he’d worn the day he picked up Jaime in that rundown DC neighborhood. He rubbed his hair for good measure. Sometime during the trip it had grown long enough to comb, but he didn’t care to look put together when he felt like his life was falling apart.
Closing the case, he slid it back into the closet and sank down onto the bed. He should have picked up some sleeping pills and dozed his way back home. It would beat the hell out of wallowing in self-pity while the plane was fueled up and stocked with provisions.
The minutes had crawled by since he’d walked away from Jaime, each one tugging at him to think of another way. With fashion week less than a month from now, he really couldn’t be away from Marie-Chloe any longer. As the first season without his mother leading the design team and his father’s retirement imminent, it was imperative he and Natalie present a united front.
The decision to use curvier models was a bold one garnering a lot of publicity. Thanks to their father’s tirade yesterday, not all of the press was good. The business was bigger than him. Too many people depended on him to make the decisions for him to check out now so he could get his personal life in order. Still, he didn’t take no for an answer in business and he wasn’t comfortable doing so now.
When he came to New York for fashion week in November, he’d figure out a way to work in a few days in whatever city Jaime ended up. What he felt for her wasn’t a lustful infatuation. It was something bigger, deeper. Something he was unwilling to be without for a moment longer than he had to.
Out of sight, out of mind was not something he would let happen. No, he’d make sure to fly in every few months and tilt her world a little. Enough so that by next summer she’d be willing to come to France. Once he got her there he knew he could convince her to stay.
With the outline of a plan set in his mind, Xavier opted to get some work done. He crossed the room and stepped into the cabin just as the outside doors opened and natural light flooded the space. Thank goodness the hostess was back with the provisions for the trip. One step closer to getting off the ground.
Except behind the hostess with her cart of food was the last person he expected to see, and the only person he truly wanted to. She seemed intent on helping the hostess push the cart into the galley and talking about coffee of all things.
He cleared his throat. “I’m glad you changed your mind.”
Jaime turned, smiling as she walked to him. “I haven’t yet. Thank you for leaving my name at the gate. The whole drive here I wondered how I was supposed to get on the plane.” She stopped a few feet from him and ran her hand along the back of one of the recliners. “I hate flying. Usually I have to take something to get through it.”
“I have something I could give you.” He leaned a shoulder against the doorframe of the stateroom, silently willing her to come to him.
Jaime rolled her eyes. “I’m sure you do. But before we take off and I start having a panic attack, I have some things I should say.”
“Something you couldn’t have told me earlier?”
“Earlier I still had my pride.” She stepped to him with careful slowness. “Now I’m thinking if there is something I really want, I should stop at nothing to get it.”
“I agree.” Tension slid from his shoulders, loosened the tightness in his chest. “I was planning to come to you every few months to remind you of what you were missing out on, or maybe to remind myself.”
She stood in front of him, her body trembling. He reached for her hands, damp and cool. He lifted them and placed her palms flat against his chest. The contact soothed him. He hoped it did the same for her.
“I know you don’t like ultimatums and strings, but I’m coming to Paris to be with you. I’m not staying in an apartment you’re not in.”
“I’m glad. I’d hate for you to come all that way and sleep alone. I have a penthouse in the city. We’ll live there.” Her body relaxed at his words and he wrapped his arms around her. She sank deeper against him and rested her head on his shoulder.
“I’m not going so we can continue our fling. I’m here because somewhere along the way I started to fall in love with you and I don’t want to stop.”
Emotion surged through him at her words. He framed her face in his hands and lifted her gaze to his. His stomach tensed and he felt as if he were about to jump off a cliff without a bungee cord. “I’m falling in love with you too.”
Her eyes sparkled with fresh tears, and he couldn’t wait another second. He lifted her off her feet and carried her into the stateroom, kicking the door closed behind them. He set her down on the bed and then lay beside her.
“This can’t be safe.” Jaime inched back on the bed until her head found the pillow, her brown hair spilling around her in waves.
“I have condoms. Somewhere,” Xavier said, his mouth hungry on hers, saying everything he’d tell her someday, when he trusted his emotions more.
“Wait.” Jaime squirmed free from beneath him. “I mean the plane. Don’t we need to be in seats, with seatbelts and learn the emergency procedures?”
“Jaime, the only emergency we’ll have is if you try and get off this bed.”
He took her lips again as their bodies sank into the mattress. He might be about to fly back to Paris, but he’d finally found his way home.
“Paris is always a good idea.” Audrey Hepburn
About the Author
Jenna Bayley-Burke is known for her fun, sexy romance novels, baking banana bread and over-volunteering. She thinks she has the best jobs in the world–mother, wife and author. When she’s not lost in her latest story, she can be found pursuing whatever hobby her characters are enamored with–photography, crotchet, shoes, gardening, crafts and cooking up a storm. For more on Jenna check out her website www.jennabayleyburke.com.
Look for these titles by Jenna Bayley-Burke
Now Available:
Her Cinderella Complex
Par For The Course
Compromising Positions
Pride & Passion
Private Scandal
For Kicks
If the shoe fits…run with it!
For Kicks
© 2012 Jenna Bayley-Burke
Breeze Cohen senses something is missing from her life, but her career doesn’t leave time for anything but retail business strategy—particularly the upcoming product launch for her cornerstone client, Nitrous.
No way is she going to let live-for-the-moment Logan Chandler tarnish her professional reputation. Even if the ex-athlete poster boy for Nitrous makes her heart pound like she’s run a marathon.
After surviving a near-fatal accident, Logan doesn’t want to waste a minute of life. It’s meant to be lived, ravished, enjoyed—and there’s no one he’d like to ravish more than Breeze. There’s a deep pool of mutual desire beneath her icy façade. He can feel it every time they touch.
When a training snafu at Nitrous launches Breeze into damage control, Logan is ready and waiting to lace up and take her for a run on the wilder side—if he can catch her.
Warning: Side effects may include a desire to melt chocolate with body heat, spontaneous phone sex, and an intense drive to find loopholes in your workplace fraternization policy.
Enjoy the following excerpt for For Kicks:
“No.” She shook her head, the dark ringlets that escaped her clip swaying. “This is a business dinner.”
“And after dinner?”
He’d sensed the mutual attraction all day, but she’d opposed his flirtatious advances with her arsenal of retail knowledge. He knew she was just trying to keep her own attraction at bay. And all day he’d let her, especially since they were in her stores.
But this was a restaurant. A quiet table in the back with low lighting. The only business going on was in her head.
“It would be unprofessional for anything to happen between us.” She spoke in her ever-efficient manner, which he already found disturbingly endearing.
“How so?”
“We work together.”
“No, we don’t.”
“Excuse me?”
“You’re a manager for Mendelssohn’s department store. I’m a brand manager at Nitrous. We work for separate companies.”
“Companies with a tenuous agreement at the moment. One which I’d like to convince you we can honor.” An undeniable spark of enthusiasm lit her baby blues.
“I have no doubt in your abilities, Breeze. But you have no bearing on a business agreement. So we’re free to explore whatever we’d like.”
“I’m not interested.” She set down her fork and gave him a sympathetic smile. “I would never jeopardize my career by mixing my professional and private life.”
“I’m not asking you to do that.” He set down his own fork and stared into her eyes until she dropped her gaze.
“I’ve worked too hard to have people think my success is due to anything other than my professional abilities. And when you’re a woman, that’s exactly where people’s minds go.”
“But we don’t work together.”
“People will assume the Nitrous account ebbs and flows with how we’d be doing personally.”
He dropped his head back and cursed the part of himself that found her protests charming. “Then you’d better give me your home number and address.” Her eyes were wide when he gazed down at her and squared his shoulders.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“If work is the only place I can get a hold of you, people will talk. If you want to keep things private, we can.”
“I’m flattered, really. But there’s no room in my life for what you’re offering. I’m focused on my career. I work over a hundred hours a week.”
His eyes nearly bugged out of his head. “Why would you do that?”
“To be the youngest store manager in Mendelssohn’s history.” She picked up her fork again, smug satisfaction lighting her face.
“How old are you?”
“Twenty-six.”
“And how old was the youngest store manager?”
“My grandmother was twenty-eight when she got her first store.”
So she was trying to follow a family tradition. Still, that was no excuse. “Aren’t you worried about burnout? Exhaustion?”
“I manage my time very efficiently. I try not to waste a moment.” She returned to her food, obviously not wanting to waste a nanosecond debating the issue with him.
What she needed was someone to show her there was more to life than work, breaking records, living up to someone else’s expectations. That living life in fast forward meant missing all the good parts.
What she needed was him.
He ate carefully, watching her every move. Planning how he’d launch his sensual strike on her. There was so much more to life, so many wonderful things he could teach her to enjoy. And exotic food was just the beginning.
But it was a start.
“You have to eat.” He set his fork next to his empty plate.
“I couldn’t have another bite.” She pushed her plate away, a satiated grin playing at her lips.
“No, I meant dinner tomorrow. If you really do make the most of every moment, then you can find a way to work us into your agenda.” Pulling his wallet from his back pocket, he dropped some bills on the table and found his feet.
“I thought I was paying,” she said, reaching for her purse.
“Then it wouldn’t be a date.” He took her hand and pulled her up beside him. With her body flush against his, a feverish awareness heated his blood. How he wanted to take advantage of the situation. But he knew if he moved too fast, it would be the last he ever saw of Breeze Cohen.
“This is not a date.” Her statement made him grin. Keeping her hand in his, he led her out of the restaurant and back to her car.
“It is a date, Breeze.” He backed her up to her side of the car, stepping closer so she couldn’t duck away.
“No, it’s not.” A hint of laughter danced in her eyes.
“Then why am I doing this?” He ran his finger along her jawbone and her breath hitched as he tipped her chin up. Her eyes darkened to a cobalt blue as he neared, long lashes fluttering closed as he lowered his mouth over hers.
All her resistance evaporated. In the kiss he only tasted intuitive surrender. She melted into him just as she had when she’d fallen into his arms that morning. Wholly and without the slightest reservation.
His lips glided softly against hers, gently coaxing her into far more forbidden territory. He threaded his hand into her thick curls and slanted her mouth more securely against his.
Her purse dropped to the ground with a distant thud and her hands reached for him. One hand rested on the arm he had braced against the car door. The other moved between them. She touched his chest tentatively with her fingertips, her palm, then flattened against him. Logan felt the imprint of her splayed hand through the thin fabric of his shirt as if she’d branded him without ever touching his skin.
A breathy moan parted her lips, opening her to him. He dipped inside, tasting her, drowning in a softness that seemed to go on forever. Knowing this was as far as she’d let things go, he took his time. Sampling, learning, enjoying.
Greed and lust had him stepping closer still, pressing the length of her body against his, and she froze, stiffening beneath his hands. Sensing her doubts, he drew his mouth away but couldn’t bring himself to lose contact yet. He brushed his thumbs along her jaw and pressed his forehead to hers.
“Dinner, tomorrow.”
“Logan.” She frowned, her finger tracing her slick bottom lip. “I don’t think—”
“Breeze, if I have to kiss you again to convince you I’m not sure I can stop there.”
She nodded. “Dinner. Tomorrow.”
Their love never died, but her secrets could break his trust beyond repair.
Texas Two Step
© 2012 Cynthia D’Alba
Texas Montgomery Mavericks, Book 1
After six years and too much self-recrimination, rancher Mitch Landry is ready to admit he was wrong. He’d loved Olivia Montgomery but commitment wasn’t high on his list back then. That was his first mistake. He’s just divorced his second, and he’s set to do whatever it takes to convince Olivia to give him another try.
Through hard work, determination and more than a few tears, Olivia survived the break-up with Mitch. She’s rebuilt her life around her business and the son she loves more than life itself. She’s not proud of the mistakes she’s made—particularly the secrets she’s kept—but when life hands you manure, you use it to make something better of yourself…lest you get stuck in it.
At a hot, muggy Dallas wedding, they reconnect. Olivia’s first instinct is to play it cool, but after one devastating kiss things flare real out of control, real fast. Maybe a quick roll in the hay will get him out of her system once and for all. Funny thing about hay though, once it’s tangled in your hair, getting it out risks revealing things that were never meant to see the light of day. Warning: Bourbon shooters, shirtless cowbo
ys, and a hot rendezvous or two…
Warning: Contains hot sex, a vindictive ex-wife and hot chocolate-chip cookies.
Enjoy the following excerpt for Texas Two Step:
He kissed her and the world stopped revolving. She swayed into him. Ran her fingers into his thick, wavy hair. Stroked his tongue with hers. Tasted the champagne inside of his mouth. Sucked gently on his tongue. Soaked him up like an arid desert in an unexpected rainstorm.
Olivia could have blamed the dim lights, or the romantic setting, or even Mitch’s raw animal magnetism for her response to his kiss. Instead, she admitted she wanted this night, this man, his touch, his kiss. All of her fantasies started this way.
Could reality be as good as her imagination?
What would it be like to be with him again? Make love with him again?
There was curiosity, but that wasn’t what was driving her response to his kiss. Desire ran rampant through her veins. A soul-deep lust consumed her.
Their love story was history, so she’d waste no time planning a future that would never come. She’d take what he offered, take what she wanted. Here and now, not a future. Tonight was all there was. She’d not walk away from his arms until she’d gotten what she needed.
Mitch’s mouth scorched her lips as he took her mouth with a rough passion that left no doubt of his intentions. He pulled the pins holding her chignon and threaded his fingers through her hair, holding her head in place as he plundered her mouth with his tongue.
Returning his kiss with a fervor matching his, she allowed the all-consuming yearning to fill her. The desire to touch him, be close to him, make love with him overwhelmed her.
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