Brenda Jackson

by Spontaneous (lit)

  Look what people are saying about Brenda Jackson!

  “Brenda Jackson writes romance that sizzles and characters you fall in love with.”

  —Lori Foster, New York Times bestselling author

  “Jackson’s trademark ability to weave multiple characters and side stories together makes shocking truths all the more exciting.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  “Ms. Jackson has proven once again why she is truly one of the Divas of romance.”

  —Romance In Color

  “Jackson’s novels are an armchair matchmaker’s dream.”

  —Romance Reader

  “The Midnight Hour is a roller-coaster read of passion, intrigue and deceit.”

  —Sharon Sala, New York Times bestselling author

  “With her inimitable style, Ms. Jackson has created another rip-roaring, seductively sensual love story that is sure to take the romance-reading community by storm. As always, her standard of excellence is evident in every scintillating page of Fire and Desire.”

  —RT Book Reviews

  Dear Reader,

  I’ve been anxiously waiting to be able to write Duan Jeffries’s story—and I’m thrilled to introduce him in my very first Blaze novel. My readers first met the Jeffries clan when Reggie Westmoreland fell in love with Olivia Jeffries in my Silhouette Desire book titled Tall, Dark…Westmoreland! Since then, I couldn’t get Olivia’s two older brothers, Duan and Terrence, out of my mind. Terrence made his debut in my Kimani novel Temperatures Rising, and now, finally, it’s Duan’s turn.

  I love writing about men who are smooth, suave and seductive. And of course they have to be gorgeous as well. With Duan I threw in an additional element—he’s a great multitasker. He can get his girl with one hand and take down the bad guys with the other. I saw him as a perfect fit for Kim Cannon, a free-spirited soon-to-be doctor, who thought she knew exactly what she wanted until Duan came along.

  I hope you enjoy reading Duan and Kim’s story. Be sure to check out the Blaze list for upcoming books about the hot guys who work with Duan in the Peachtree Private Investigative Firm.

  I love hearing from my readers. You can contact or e-mail me at WriterBJackson@aol.com.

  All the best,

  Brenda Jackson

  Brenda Jackson

  SPONTANEOUS

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Brenda Jackson is a die “heart” romantic who married her childhood sweetheart and still proudly wears the “going steady” ring he gave her when she was fifteen. Because she’s always believed in the power of love, Brenda’s stories always have happy endings. In her real-life love story, Brenda and her husband of thirty-eight years live in Jacksonville, Florida, and have two sons.

  A New York Times bestselling author of more than seventy romance titles, Brenda is a retiree from a major insurance company and divides her time between family, writing and traveling. Be sure to visit her Web site at www.brendajackson.net.

  Books by Brenda Jackson

  SILHOUETTE DESIRE

  1850—TAMING CLINT WESTMORELAND

  1874—COLE’S RED-HOT PURSUIT

  1911—QUADE’S BABIES

  1928—TALL, DARK…WESTMORELAND!

  1958—ONE NIGHT WITH THE WEALTHY RANCHER

  1975—WESTMORELAND’S WAY

  2000—HOT WESTMORELAND NIGHTS

  To my husband, the love of my life and my best friend, Gerald Jackson, Sr.

  To everyone who enjoys reading a Brenda Jackson novel, this one is for you!

  Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding.

  —Proverbs 3:13

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  1

  My brother has hit gold.

  That thought ran through Duan Jeffries’s mind while he stood on the sidelines and watched Terrence “Holy Terror” Jeffries escort his bride, Sherri Griffin Jeffries, around the huge ballroom as they thanked the numerous guests for attending their wedding.

  From the moment Duan had met Sherri, he’d known she was the one woman who could make his younger brother happy. Just being in their presence was to feel the love radiating between them. And even though he was a downright cynical bastard when it came to the notion of true love, the two of them had made him somewhat of a believer.

  The same held true for his sister, Olivia, and the man she’d married last year, Senator Reggie Westmoreland. That was definitely another love match. So okay, two cases weren’t bad. He shifted his glance across the room to his father and the woman by his side and chuckled inwardly. All right, he would make that three cases. His father had finally married his devoted administrative assistant a few months back. Duan didn’t know any man who deserved the love of a good woman more than Orin Jeffries, especially after all the hell the mother of his three offspring put him through.

  Not wanting to think about the woman who’d given birth to him, the same one who’d deserted her husband and three children when Duan was twelve, Terrence ten and Libby three, he glanced at his watch, feeling tired and edgy. He had arrived in Chicago yesterday and come straight from the airport to the church, just in time to make the rehearsal dinner.

  A private investigator, for the past three months he’d been working practically around the clock trying to gather enough evidence to hand over to an attorney friend who was convinced a man he was representing had been wrongfully accused of murder. It had been a hard case to crack and even harder to deliver the news that it was the man’s wife who’d set him up. With the evidence needed to clear the man of all charges, Duan had taken off from Atlanta on a direct flight to Chicago.

  He glanced at his watch. He had another hour or so before the wedded couple headed for O’Hare and a two-week honeymoon in Paris. After they departed he would go up to his hotel room, get out of his tux and change into something more comfortable and…

  Do what?

  He didn’t have any immediate plans. Word had got ten around that some of Reggie’s brothers and cousins were hosting a card game later tonight in one of their rooms. He wasn’t surprised. He had known most of the Westmorelands from his high-school years in Atlanta and had rekindled friendships with them since Reggie had married Libby. The one thing he knew about them was that they liked to gamble, and their game of choice was poker.

  Duan decided to pass after remembering what happened the last time he’d played with them. When the game ended he’d been three hundred dollars poorer.

  If not poker, then what else was there to do?

  He shifted his gaze to the woman standing across the room talking to the bride’s parents. Immediately, he felt a primitive thrumming heat run through him. Kimani Cannon. He would definitely love to do her.

  She was the best friend of the bride and he had been attracted to her from the first moment they’d been introduced a few months ago at Terrence and Sherri’s engagement party in the Keys. He had immediately picked up on the strong sexual chemistry flowing between them, and the look Kimani had given him promised that they would hook up later to wear out somebody’s sheets. But before they could make that happen, he’d received an important tip on a case he was working and had to leave.

  She was definitely nice to look at with her dark, sultry eyes, a cute pixie nose and full and shapely lips. He particularly liked the mass of dark
brown spiral curls that crowned her creamy cocoa-colored face.

  She was downright sexy from the top of her head past those shapely curves and gorgeous legs to the soles of her feet. And speaking of feet, he had a weakness when it came to women in high heels, especially if they had the legs for them, which she did. And the strapless satin baby-blue maid-of-honor dress that hit below the knees looked damn good on her, but he’d much prefer seeing her naked. He wanted to find out if his dreams came close to the real thing.

  He took a sip of his drink and continued to watch her. Lust after her was more like it. And it wasn’t helping matters when all kind of wicked fantasies danced around in his head. He could envision doing something hot, naughty and X-rated with her—like locking himself between her legs and staying there until there wasn’t anything left to give or take.

  His fingers tightened on the stem of the wineglass, not sure what part of her he enjoyed staring at the most, and quickly decided he liked everything about her. Even from across the room she stirred his blood, fired his senses and made him think about hot sex under silken sheets.

  He dragged in a deep breath and reached up to loosen his tie, which suddenly felt tight. Hell, even his briefs were restricting. And the rumble deep in his gut, trickling down toward his groin, could only mean one thing. After a six-month abstinence, he needed to get laid. And he wondered if the woman across the room would in any way be accommodating.

  No sooner had that thought worked its way into his mind then she glanced over in his direction. Their gazes locked and the chemistry flowing between them thickened, stirred and escalated. Heat shimmered in the air and then she broke eye contact with him. Placing her wineglass on the tray of a passing waiter, she headed out of the ballroom. He watched, mesmerized by the sway of her hips and those gorgeous legs in high heels.

  Suddenly, he felt his feet moving to follow her.

  KIM RELEASED A DEEP breath as she walked down the hall that led to the room the bridesmaids had used earlier to dress in. She heard footsteps behind her and didn’t have to turn around to know the identity of the person following her.

  Duan Jeffries.

  There was something about him that made her immediately think of sex, sex and plenty more sex. In that brief moment they’d made eye contact in the ballroom, she had detected the raw hunger within him, a need that was both possessive and magnetic, and it had drawn her to him, filled her with a desire to take him on right now.

  Due to budget cuts at the hospital where she worked as an E.R. nurse, she hadn’t had much of a social life lately. Seeing Duan made her realize just how much she longed for some skin-to-skin contact. Licking him from head to toe would be a good start, but she figured they wouldn’t have enough time for that. A quickie would have to do.

  She’d known the instant she met him four months ago that they would eventually get together. The vibes had been strong and she was disappointed when he’d left the Keys unexpectedly. The only reason she hadn’t initiated jumping his bones after the rehearsal dinner last night was because she and Sherri had planned to hang out with her cousins one last time in Sherri’s hotel room.

  A shiver of anticipation flowed through her body when she came to a stop in front of the room. Without looking over her shoulder, she turned the knob, pushed opened the door and stepped inside.

  It was only when she heard the sound of the door closing and the lock clicking in place behind her that she turned to stare up into what had to be the most gorgeous dark eyes any man could possess. And then there were the perfect angles, seamless planes and sensuous lines that made up an impressive and sinfully handsome face.

  He took a step closer and she sucked in a quick breath when she felt his erection poke into her belly. She wasn’t sure who made the first move after that. It wasn’t really important. All that mattered was the mouth that swooped down, taking hers with a hunger that she reciprocated.

  When she met his tongue with her own, he deepened the kiss and then it was on. Something frantic broke within her, within them, and a need as raw as it could get took over.

  She felt his hand lifting her dress. The sound of silk rustling against silk inflamed her mind, and when those same hands made contact with the apex of her thighs, not even her panties were a barrier against the busy fingers that sought and found an easy opening.

  And then those fingers were moving through the curls, beyond the folds, stirring her wetness and massaging her clit. She moaned at the invasion as well as the pleasure, and instinctively reached for his fly and eased down the zipper. Quickly inserting her hand beneath the elastic waistband of his briefs, she gripped the engorged hardness of his sex. He pulled his mouth from hers and released a guttural groan, and the primitive sound was something she understood and identified with.

  “Condom.” He said that one word in a ragged breath and she relinquished her hold on him so he could fish into the pockets of his pants for his wallet. He pulled out a square packet.

  She shifted her gaze from the condom to his erection, jutting proudly from a dark thatch of curls. The head of his shaft was big and smooth, and the veins running along the sides were thick.

  Heat burning in every part of her body, she watched as he sheathed himself with such ease and accuracy that she figured he’d done this numerous times. When that task was completed, he glanced up and the eyes that stared at her nearly scorched her skin and made her regret they only had time for a quickie. Leisurely savoring every inch of him was something she would just love doing. But for now she would take what she could get. Leaning up on tiptoe, she pressed her moist lips against his.

  His mouth immediately captured hers, kissing her hungrily, and she felt him tug her dress up. She had a feeling this mating would be a quickie like nothing she’d ever experienced.

  He lifted her, cupping her hips in his hands, and she instinctively wrapped her legs around him. Like radar his engorged sex found its mark and he pushed forward, sliding between her wet folds. The size of him stretched her, filled her to capacity. And it seemed his erection got larger as he delved deeper and deeper…pressing her back against the wall.

  He paused, as if he wanted to experience the feeling of being embedded within her, and in protest her inner muscles clamped down hard on him, then let go, repeating the process a few times. He snatched his mouth from hers, threw his head back and released a massive growl.

  To her satisfaction he began moving, pounding in and out of her in a rhythm that matched the beat of her heart. She hoped and prayed the room on the other side of the wall was empty. She would hate for anyone to want to investigate what all the noise was about.

  She felt his every thrust all the way to her toes—toes that were curled around his waist at that very moment. His erection was throbbing inside her with the intensity of a volcano about to erupt.

  He leaned down and imprisoned her mouth again, kissing her hungrily. Was there anything this man couldn’t do perfectly? She moaned and worked her body against his, meeting him stroke for stroke, thrust for thrust.

  She pulled back from the kiss, needing to see him, to look into his face, to know he was feeling the same things she was. Pure feminine satisfaction poured through her at the intense look on his features that told her he was. And if that didn’t convince her, then his thrusts did. They were powerful, each one an accurate hit, centering on her G-spot with clear-cut precision and a mastery that had her panting. And still he thrust deeper, pounded harder.

  And then she felt it, the first signs of the explosive tension building inside her and inside him, as well. His muscular thighs began quivering with an intensity that she felt through his tuxedo pants. And then he let out a deep moan followed by a release that triggered her own eruption, and he clamped his mouth on hers to quell her scream.

  Their tongues tangled once again and she was devoured by his greedy mouth. Giving in to pent-up passion and bridled lust, she wrapped her arms around him as he continued to rock into her, as if taking her this way was his due. His every right.


  And at that moment, it was.

  DUAN SHOVED HIS SHIRT into his pants as he glanced over at Kimani. She was smoothing her dress over those luscious curves. The woman was something else, and even now, while aftershocks of his orgasm were still flitting through his system, his body was aching for more. What was it about her that made him into one greedy ass where her body was concerned?

  He breathed in deeply. The scent of sex mingled with the perfume she was wearing had to be filling her nostrils the way it was his. He liked the aroma. When she reached up and ran fingers through her curls to bring order back to her hair, he thought she looked simply beautiful.

  He shook his head. He’d just made out with the maid of honor at his brother’s wedding. Hell, they were right down the hall from the reception.

  “We need to move quickly if we want to be there when Terrence and Sherri leave,” she said, slipping into the shoes she had discarded earlier. Those high heels he liked so much.

  He knew it was a stupid thought, but the only place he could imagine being at the moment was right here with her. “And just what will happen if we’re not there?” he asked.

  She glanced up at him with that duh look. “Everyone will wonder where we are. Have you forgotten that you’re the best man and I’m the maid of honor?”

  He wished he could forget if it meant another round with her. This was not a good time to tell her they’d probably already been missed. There might not be anyone keeping tabs on her, but he was certain Libby would have noticed his disappearing act by now. When it came to him and Terrence, his sister didn’t miss a thing. Getting married hadn’t changed that about her.