Red Hot Lovers: 18 Contemporary Romance Books of Love, Passion, and Sexy Heroes by Your Favorite Top-Selling Authors

by Milly Taiden

  Will she give her first love another chance, or will she push him away, this time for good?

  CHAPTER 1

  It had been twenty years, almost to the day, since I’d seen him on the other side of the world. Literally. He lived in Europe, I lived in Toronto. So imagine my surprise when the man I’d lost my virginity to stood less than three feet away from me, in a bar, on my girls’ night out.

  Somebody please pinch me!

  With my mouth slightly open, I took him in: the same velvety smell of sandalwood, the same lopsided smile, the same green eyes, but definitely a different body. His rock solid form stretched the fabric over his skin. The piercing in his brow—well, that was new too, and hotter than hell. And that thorn tattoo peeking from under his short-sleeved shirt led my gaze to the biceps as I wondered what else he was hiding there. What other new curves had developed under his clothes? The lean posture in front of me was that of a mature, muscled, confident man; definitely not the way I remembered Adrian Reed from when we’d dated. Had it really been that long? And why exactly was my heart pounding, trying to break free from my ribcage? The cold and hot flashes hitting my chest and the sweat running down my back made me wonder whether menopause was knocking on my door. No, I was definitely too young for that.

  Maybe it wasn’t him? It couldn’t be. I wasn’t a big drinker, but the two drinks I’d had tonight were perhaps playing with my mind. I wanted to reach out and touch him, but if what I saw was true – if this was Adrian – a simple skim of his fingers could crumble me to pieces.

  “Hi, Thumbelina.”

  Yup, it was him. No one else had called me by that nickname, ever. And with those two words, my whole world collapsed and rebuilt in an instant.

  And no, Thumbelina wasn’t my name. My mother could be crazy at times, but she wasn’t that crazy. But for the love of God, why couldn’t I remember my name?

  Speak! my brain ordered, but my mouth didn’t listen. I should have trusted my instinct that I’d recognize him even after ten drinks. After all, the only guys I’d dated after we’d separated had to smell like him or look like him or walk like him. That’s right—we’d separated, not broken up, because neither of us really wanted it, we’d had no choice. We lived on two different continents. Distance was an enemy neither of us had conquered, until now.

  And now my first boyfriend, lover, and best friend was sitting in front of me, looking more gorgeous than I remembered. Warmth coursed through my body. His chiseled jaw appeared more defined. His hair was a bit shorter, though still long enough to lightly fall to the left side. The disheveled strands lay in deeper valleys as if he’d just combed his fingers through. The cut suited him much better than the cross between punk and mullet he’d had when I’d met him. Adrian now had a mature look about him that still held a spark of youth. His green eyes were deeper than emeralds, holding daring and excitement. He carried himself with purpose, like he knew exactly what his surprise visit was doing to me—and God, was it ever doing some wonderful things to my body.

  OMG! What’s he thinking about me? Was my hair OK? Makeup? What about the dumbfounded look I must have had on my face?

  “Drink some water, please.” He pushed a glass toward me. His voice was deeper, and perhaps more dangerous, which made all those nerves from being noticed by a hot guy weave through my body in exciting tingles. It was a feeling I hadn’t had in years.

  Beads of moisture dripped down the glass, but I couldn’t move. We sat in a booth across from each other. I couldn’t quite remember how we’d got there. A swirl of commotion drifted around me along with a few explanations of who he was to my stunned friends, who’d later want every detail of our conversation. My best friend Isabelle had guided me by the elbow to sit down—at least, I thought that was how I’d ended up sitting. She’d come with me out of town tonight to visit old friends who were now sitting in the booth behind me, probably listening.

  My pulse raced through my veins like a tsunami. Could buried feelings from that long ago really rekindle within seconds? The way my body reacted to him reminded me of the way it had twenty years ago: flustered and needy, tingling with the anticipation of a simple touch, blood coursing through my veins as if I had an accelerating pump attached to an artery. That part of my heart I’d stashed him away in opened up the moment I saw him, letting him take it all, all over again.

  Sounds began to slowly come back to me. People chatting, glasses clinking, and his deep breathing. The movement of his broad chest from across the table only reminded me of times when I lay my head on it, right in the midst of a field of blooming poppies. As my mind wandered, I couldn’t stop staring at him and finally took a sip of my water, my hand visibly shaking. Setting the glass aside, I desperately tried to feed my own lungs. But breathing him in was a mistake. The intoxicating smell and a bit too much air made the room spin again.

  “Hi,” I finally said.

  His mouth curved up in a smile as if I’d just said the most wonderful thing in the world.

  “Are you okay, T?” He leaned forward and reached out to take my hand, but hesitated. I was glad he did because I wasn’t sure what I’d do if he touched me. Actually, I probably would have fainted. This was all too much and not enough at the same time. What I needed now was his strong arms around me. I needed to forget the time that had passed. I needed my friend from the past to whom I’d bare my soul. Instead, I got a hot-off-the-skillet man sitting in front of me as though he were tonight’s appetizer.

  Was that how I’d thought of him back then? I didn’t think so. At that time, he’d been mine and I’d been his: two stupid kids in love, breathing each other’s scents, eating each other’s food, touching each other to discover the meaning of first pleasure. Yet despite the twenty years, the butterflies in my stomach fluttered their wings as if it had all only happened yesterday.

  A few giggles from the women, whom at the moment I regretted calling my friends, sounded from behind me. They were acting like nosy bitches, but could I blame them? Now that I could actually focus, I understood their childish gestures and sounds of lip smacking. Had they been doing it the entire time? I knew I couldn’t have a conversation with Adrian here. There was too much to say, and I didn’t quite know where to begin.

  “Let’s take a walk,” I whispered, standing up.

  “OK, T.”

  And as he stood up beside me, I remembered why he’d called me that silly nickname in the first place. His height still dominated me. My chin was even with his chest, the way it had been twenty years ago when I’d had to look up to see his face or stand on my toes to touch my lips to his. Even now, after having worked as a Pilates instructor, my body was petite compared to his well-developed physique. I’d already imagined the rippled fields of bunched-up muscles. The thin t-shirt he wore was tight enough to show tautness I wanted to play with.

  I couldn’t think about his body now, not that way.

  “Will you be okay?” Isabelle asked. “You really know him?”

  I smiled at my friend’s genuine concern, but if there was anyone in the world I felt safe with, it was Adrian.

  “Yes, I’ll call you tomorrow.”

  “Mia, you’re over one hundred kilometers away from home, and I don’t think you should drive.”

  “I’ll drive her home,” Adrian said.

  I knew he’d say that.

  “I’ll be fine, Isabelle.” I hugged my friend and focused back on Adrian.

  His gentle touch to the small of my back guided me outside. The gesture felt so welcome I couldn’t believe how such a simple skim of his fingers could make me feel so good and so happy. And to top it off, we would finally get a chance to be alone and try to catch up on the past twenty years.

  CHAPTER 2

  Outside, the warm air swayed the tree branches in a delicate motion. Doubting he knew his way around the port, I led us both. How had he even found me? I no longer lived here. In fact, my home was in another city. But this was the neighborhood I’d grown up in.

 
A block away, Lake Ontario reflected the high moon. With direct access via boardwalk by the river, this was the perfect place to find some peace.

  The wind stirred the straightened strands of my hair. At the time we dated I’d been a blonde; now I was a brunette. Did he like it? Why did it feel so important whether he did?

  Adrian walked right at my side in silence. What did you say after so many years? I wasn’t sure I’d know what to say even if his visit hadn’t been a surprise. Was he visiting? Why was he here? Why now?

  A flock of geese sat on the lawn at the left side of the boardwalk, their heads tucked underneath the wings. To my right, yachts and boats of various sizes bopped on the gentle waves of the Credit River. The quiet clinks of masts and their metal clips echoed like a melody. Above, stars shone like they’d come out just for us, especially for tonight. The scenery seemed too familiar to one I recalled from years ago. Perhaps because he was here with me?

  The night we’d made that dreadful decision to part, we’d stood on the bridge that separated my aunt’s house and his. A short walk through an apple orchard and up the hill, and I’d be home. It had felt like home, at least. That was the second summer I visited my aunt in Europe, and it was mine and Adrian’s second and last vacation together. Life couldn’t have been more perfect if I’d lived there forever. But of course it wasn’t my home. Just like any other night we’d stood there, our arms clasped over the railing, still touching. I’d been watching the stream below when he’d asked me to look up at the sky.

  “We’ll see the same stars, the same sun and sky, but we’ll still be so far apart.”

  I remembered thinking how good it felt to have the universe in common, as if it would somehow connect us. But the universe was even bigger than the world—a world in which we’d been kept apart for twenty years. What was I thinking? I’d known surviving this separation would break me, tear me apart. I couldn’t go back the next summer. I needed to work so I could pay for university. He understood. He always had. And so we split in hope that one day our paths would cross once again.

  And now our paths had crossed. He was here, so close to me, yet so far away. The echo of our steps blended with the splash of waves breaking against the river’s banks. Adrian’s arm brushed mine, and my heart stilled. The gentle touch of his skin on mine scattered through my whole body as he took my hand into his, interlacing our fingers. My palm drowned in his big hand, yet so naturally belonged there. And we kept walking, as if it was twenty years earlier, hand in hand, until we’d reached the boardwalk’s end and sat quietly on a bench.

  The river here weaved into Lake Ontario.

  “Should I have called?” he asked.

  “You think?” I chuckled, looking ahead into the black abyss.

  “You haven’t changed a bit.”

  “I think I have. So have you.” I turned my head and eyed him from the bottom up. My mouth watered. He knew he was good-looking, and it’d be a lie if I tried to hide the way he affected me. That sizzling electricity bounced off him to tease my nipples and mouth and parts of my body that hadn’t been touched by a man in such a long time. But I didn’t expect him to return the favor.

  He scanned me thoroughly, resting on my cleavage a bit longer. And in that moment, I remembered how my breasts used to get lost in his hands. How he’d massaged them, seemingly never able to get enough. How my nipples became erect within seconds of his starving gaze—the way they had now. But that was before I’d had kids. Now my healthy rack needed extra support to stay up.

  “Well, in that department, definitely for the better.” His eyes held that devilish spark of a determined man.

  And with that one sexy look he gave me, I was ready to succumb to any of his requests—and I darn hoped they’d be as hot as hell, maybe even a little dirty.

  Darkness covered the inevitable pink shade on my cheeks. Not that it mattered. Adrian had always made me feel comfortable in an uncomfortable way.

  His lips parted slightly as if he wanted to say something, but restrained himself. Was he as nervous about this as I was? I leaned my head back, looking up into the clear night. It was rare to see so many stars here. The city lights usually polluted the sky, but the boardwalk took us out far enough toward the lake that most of the city remained behind us.

  “It’s our universe,” he said as if reading my mind.

  “It is ours, isn’t it? And you found me.”

  “Every time I looked up into the sky I thought of you, especially the Little Dipper.” He pointed toward the constellation.

  “Why the Little Dipper?”

  “Because you’re my little Thumbelina, and the Little Dipper is… little.” His voice quivered.

  I giggled. Why did I feel fifteen again? Did I sound stupid? And why in the world was I so aware of his every move and breath and every blink of an eye? As corny as he sounded, I loved that he referred to me as his. Our hands were still stuck together. I wasn’t sure whether I could let him go again—ever. Just the thought of it crushed my heart.

  “You laugh the same way.” He let go of my hand. My heart panicked for a moment, but when he wrapped his arm around me and pulled me into his side, I could have melted.

  He still made me feel the same way – exhilarated and happy and like I could fly up into the night sky to grab any star I wanted. But I needed to come back to Earth, at least for a moment.

  “How did you find me?” I asked.

  “Does it matter?”

  “No,” I lied, and he knew it too. We looked at each other at the same time. The easy grin on his face told me he was enjoying my curiosity, and he finally gave in.

  “Your mother.”

  “My mother knows you’re here?”

  “Yes.”

  “And she told you where to find me?”

  “Yes.”

  It shouldn’t have surprised me. She was a romantic at heart who’d lost her true love, my father, too soon. I could already imagine the details she’d want of tonight, and I so wasn’t ready to share them. Not with anyone—at least not until I understood what was happening to make my heart dance with such wonderful happiness.

  “I’m married,” I said, wondering what he’d do with that piece of information.

  He laughed. “You’re divorced. I wouldn’t be here if you were married.”

  “Who told you?”

  He looked at me as if I was kidding. I guessed living in a metropolis made one forget what it was like to live in a village of three hundred. And my cousins, whom I’d visited for the summer when I’d met Adrian on the other side of the world, had big mouths. Of course Adrian knew what had happened in my life. After all, they were all friends.

  “And it took you a year to find me?” I teased.

  “Life, responsibilities. It’s not as simple as I’d like it to be.”

  “Are you married?” I asked.

  “Nope. You know I wouldn’t be here if I was.”

  The relief put a smile on my face and I pinched my arm to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. Of course he wasn’t married. Adrian would never see me if he was. He wasn’t the type to cheat or cause drama. And my cousins would have spilled the beans to me about his marriage just like they had to him about my divorce.

  “Why are you here?”

  He took a deep breath and lowered his gaze to his feet. Boy, did he have big feet! Stop it! I promised to slap myself later for being so silly.

  “Fate. Second chances. Because I can’t stand living without you anymore. I can’t stop asking myself all those what ifs. What if we’d stayed together, what if I hadn’t been with someone else when you came back that one summer? What if I’d kept writing after I didn’t hear from you? All the what ifs I’ve collected through my life. A bagful, you could say. I’ve got one of them answered at least: what if she tells me to leave right away?”

  I smiled at that, because those words would never leave my mouth.

  “What if there’s nothing there between us and what if it’s been too long to remember what
we once had? Yet sitting here with you right now, these questions don’t seem to matter. Nothing matters when you’re near me. You make long trips seem short, time nonexistent, the desperation inside me eases to comfort, and life is now worth living.”

  I stared at him, hoping that the whimper I’d heard leave my mouth wasn’t loud. The moon glistened in his eyes, lightening their green hue, and the silence between us buzzed in my ears.

  “Even if I don’t get to see you again, tonight was worth it—completely. But I want to stay here and fight for you, fight for us. If you’ll let me, that is.”

  Don’t stop talking, please don’t stop talking because if you do I’m afraid I’ll wake up and the night will take you away from me again. I wanted to tell him how grateful I was for him being here, how much he meant to me and still affected me, and how it seemed that no time had passed between us. A blind person could feel the raw emotions still connecting us. There would always be something—no time or distance could ever wipe away the memories of what we once had. They were locked in my brain and my heart. Instead, I just stared at him, drinking in the man he’d become, wondering what troubles he’d gone through in his life, wishing I could have erased the time that has kept us apart.

  I needed Adrian to understand how much I wished I’d written back and stayed in touch, but couldn’t. If I had, I wouldn’t have given Dan, my ex-husband, a chance. It would be like saying I regretted my marriage, two beautiful kids, and a happy life for the most part. And I couldn’t do that. That would be a lie. I didn’t regret any of those things.

  I lowered my head.

  “Just say the word, and I’ll disappear.”

  The pain in his voice shook through my whole body. “No!” My voice was not my own, but that of a fifteen-year-old girl trying to hold onto the love of her life. At least, the first love. “I’m glad you’re here. It’s just a lot to take in all at once. So much has happened…”