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

by Milly Taiden

  The knife scrapes against the cutting board as I slide broccoli into the pan Nika holds for me. “Was it lonely?”

  “Oh, no. It was the best thing they could have done for us. Kids from all over the world go there, and the classes are so hard you don’t have much time to get in trouble.” She clicks the burner on to high and picks up her wine glass.

  “I’m glad you had each other.” The rich flavor of merlot lingers in my mouth from my sip of wine.

  Nika smiles. “We’re kind of pathetic. When D went off to college in Boston, I did too.” Plates clatter as she sets them out on the counter.

  “Where did you go?” I take the matches she hands me and move to the table to light the candles.

  The match hisses with a flare of light and Nika says, “I went to Wellesley and Derrick went to Tufts.”

  “Tufts?” That’s where Cooper went. I wonder if they knew each other.

  Nika continues, “I partied hard and D studied.”

  Leaning against the cool granite counter I ask, “So when did you start modeling?”

  “A scout discovered me my freshman year.” Her face sobers. “I probably should have said no, but the idea that someone thought I was pretty enough to model captivated me. Nobody thought I was attractive in high school, and all I ever wanted was to have a boyfriend. I figured if I was a model, then I might get a date.”

  “Seriously? I know you said that the other night, but I can’t believe you really didn’t have a boyfriend in high school.”

  “In high school. I made up for it in college.” Nika winks at me, and we turn to the light clicking of nails on the wood floor as Derrick and the dogs make an entrance.

  I move close to Nika, and in a low voice say, “So you’re a wild one. I like it.” I give her a light hip check as she removes the steaming broccoli pot from the burner.

  She snorts. “You have no idea.”

  I grin, wondering if she likes it rough too. The thought sends an electric current through my body, and I glance at Derrick. He’s staring at me, and my core quivers in anticipation of later tonight.

  I lick my lips seductively and say, “I can’t wait to sink my teeth into that steak.” Dropping my eyes to his crotch I think the bulge twitches a bit, and a satisfied grin covers my face. Letting things happen is working well for us.

  CHAPTER 36

  My stomach is full, but I eat the last bit of my potato skin. Drenched in butter and sour cream, the salty goodness makes me want to moan. Nika actually does.

  Leaning back in her chair, she undoes the button on her jeans. “That steak was so good. And butter? Never again will I go a day without butter.”

  I close my eyes and savor a mouthful of merlot. I’m on my fourth glass and pleasantly buzzed. “I don’t ever want to go a day without wine. I’m so happy right now.”

  “Well you’re with the right guy; did you see all the wine he has?” Nika grunts as she reaches for her wine glass.

  I giggle. “There was wine in that room?”

  Nika smiles and holds up her hand. “Stop right there. I’m envisioning you two kissing and that’s all. Don’t ruin it for me.”

  Derrick’s smoldering glare makes me cross my legs. I wish we could skip pie and the movie, and get to the real dessert. I ask, “Should we clean the kitchen and have pie later?”

  Derrick answers, “No, let’s finish this bottle and talk for a while.” Liquid gurgles in my glass as he adds more. “I want to hear about the snowboard movie you were in.”

  “There’s not much to tell. Two summers ago I went to Chile with a couple guys, and we rode crazy-steep terrain.” A tequila memory plays in my mind and I know that I’d better warn Derrick. “Oh, and if you ever watch it, there’s a bar scene where I give Kaleb a body shot.”

  I lean forward and focus on Derrick’s face. “It looks way worse than it was. And the narrator makes it sound like I licked a lot more than his chest. I didn’t, and never have. Kaleb is, and always will be, just a friend.”

  I’m not sure if it’s the wine or that I’ve stopped surprising Derrick because he just nods.

  I say, “Want to hear about my new poster?”

  He rolls his palm out to indicate yes, but doesn’t speak. “It’s going to look like a stop-motion picture of me on a board and jumping into the air. I start off completely dressed, and my clothes peel off me as I transform into something tastefully naked.”

  Derrick snorts. “Tastefully naked?”

  Okay, so I was trying to lighten the blow. “Well, I haven’t seen it yet, but it’s going to hang in board shops. It can’t be porn, and I was never completely naked anyway.”

  Nika steps in. “D, they dress the model in nude-colored underwear.” I send her a mental thank you for not mentioning the top is like pasties.

  He nods and his tongue is working as if he’s choking down words. I know I should tell him about the possibility of one with me pressed against Cooper, but because it’s not a sure thing, I think I’ll keep quiet for now.

  “So, now that you know all my secrets, can I ask you about one of yours?”

  “Sure.” He leans back and crosses his arms.

  “How did you get so much money?”

  “Family. Our grandfather was in oil, and my father sold everything when we were young. He created nice trust funds for me and Dannika and lived a philanthropic lifestyle.”

  “So you’ve always had it.”

  Nika answers, “Yeah, but my parents didn’t want us to be spoiled brats, so we lived a pretty normal childhood. Until. Well, you know.”

  “That explains why you both are so ambitious. Your parents must have been great people.”

  Nika’s eyes glisten in the candlelight. “They were.” I reach over and take her hand and she squeezes tight.

  Derrick clears his throat. “Pie?”

  Nika stands. “I’ll get it.” She winks at me. “Derrick cuts the pieces way too small.”

  I smile and think of Casey. No wonder she and Nika have so much fun together.

  I eat a piece for Derrick’s sake. Just a bit over comfortably full, I’m grateful I started off with jeans loose enough to give me plenty of room for my bloated stomach.

  After dessert, Derrick takes the dogs out while Nika and I clean the kitchen. The beep from the dishwasher sounds as I turn it on and hear the faintest whirl as it starts. “I think Derrick has fallen in love with the dogs.”

  “He totally has. He even talks to them like they’re people.”

  “He does?” Water runs as I rinse out the empty wine bottles.

  She grins. “Yup, and the other day I caught him holding Cleo in his lap.” Nika is removing the leftover pie from my plate and putting it in a plastic container.

  “Aw, that’s cute.” I point the knife I dried at the pie. “Casey loves that with a cup of coffee for breakfast.”

  “My plan exactly. Should I make coffee for the movie?”

  “I’m so full I don’t think I could drink it. I think I’ll just have the rest of my wine.” Our three glasses are still on the table, and all are at least half full.

  “Okay, come on up with me.” Nika grabs her glass and blows out the candles. The smell of burnt wax makes me think of the Bike Shop, and I long to get on the snow. I follow with Derrick’s and mine.

  She brings me down the hall to a large room that must be over the garage. Plush chocolate-brown carpet muffles our footsteps as we enter from the hardwood floors of the hall. Three black leather couches form a semi-circle sitting area facing the largest flat screen I’ve ever seen.

  Nika plops on a couch with a whoosh, and sets her glass down on one of the three pale wood side tables. “Have you ever seen Breakfast at Tiffany’s?”

  “No.”

  “I love this movie. Derrick will suffer through with us, but I think you’ll like it. Audrey Hepburn was so beautiful.”

  I set the glasses down on the table between the two empty couches and remove my shoes. I sit on the middle couch, sure a dog or two will
climb up to be with Nika. The leather is soft and heats up instantly to my body temperature and I hope Derrick plans to sit next to me.

  Nika cues up the movie, and it’s ready when the sound of Derrick and his entourage’s footsteps reach our ears. Nika pats the couch and Ollie and Jake jump up next to her. Cleo watches Derrick to see where he’ll sit.

  He asks me, “Is there room for me and Cleo on your couch?”

  “Certainly.” I slide over, and he sits next to me. Drawn to his essence, I let it warm me to my core. He wraps his arm around my shoulder and I cuddle against him. Cleo hops up on his other side and leans into him too.

  “Looks like I have competition.”

  Derrick nuzzles my hair and whispers, “I’m happy to pet you both.”

  Delicious twinges make my stomach flex when he glides a hand down my arm. The movie starts, and I do my best to watch. But as it progresses, my thoughts are focused on the body next to me.

  Specifically, Derrick’s hand. He teases me by stroking the skin under my shirt. His caress coaxes my desire, and it bubbles at the surface. While he doesn’t quite make it to my breasts, my nipples are pebbled, and I’m quivering with need.

  Near the end of the movie, I’m fighting to control my urge to squirm, and the crotch of my jeans is damp. I could probably come from this, and it’s driving me wild.

  When the credits roll, Derrick whispers in my ear, “I thought that would never end. I’ve been imagining the things I’m going to do to you for what feels like hours.”

  I glance over at Nika, and she’s holding a tissue. I smile. “Cat?”

  She sniffs, “Yes, Cat, and more.” She stands and claps once for the dogs. “C’mon, beasts. Time for bed.” She scans my disheveled appearance and says, “Don’t get too wild, you two. I can’t usually hear much at my end of the hall, but I don’t think we ever tested screaming.”

  Heat rises to my cheeks and I say, “Got it. I’ll gag him.”

  Nika grimaces. “Eewww! So not the visual I want. Good night.” Derrick chuckles as she walks down the hall.

  When he hears her door shut, he presses me down on the couch and lifts my hands above my head. Crouched over me he says, “Gagged? How would you feel if I gagged your pretty little mouth?”

  I shake my head. “That wouldn’t work for me. I’d feel like I was being strangled.” I move my eyes up to where he’s holding my wrists. “But this is turning me on.”

  “So you’d like being tied up? Interesting. Just your hands, or feet too?” Putting both wrists in one hand, he uses the other to undo the belt over my blouse. It lands on the floor with a soft thud, and he grazes my belly with his fingernails on his way up to my breasts. I arch up and a small noise crosses my lips.

  Derrick stops and speaks in a husky voice. “Let’s move this to my room.”

  My voice is shaky. “Good idea.” I get up, grab my belt and shoes, and sprint down the hall.

  CHAPTER 37

  Derrick catches up to me at his room and throws me over his shoulder. We enter; he locks the door and sets me down. “Strip for me.”

  “Do you mean like a dancing kind of strip, or something more efficient?” I’m hoping for the later.

  He rakes my body with his smoldering gaze. “Efficient.”

  My silk shirt is slippery under my fingers as I begin to unbutton my blouse. “You too.”

  His voice rumbles. “With pleasure.” A powerful arm reaches behind his head and he does that one-handed T-shirt removal thing. I gasp.

  “Do you have any idea how sexy that move is?” Whisper soft fabric slides off my arms and to the floor.

  I hear the grind of his zipper as he says, “Do you have any idea how sexy you are when you’re removing any bit of clothing?”

  I raise my eyebrows at him and exaggerate the wiggle out of my jeans.

  Derrick’s pants fall to the floor, and he gives me his own show as he rotates his hips and removes his boxer briefs. It makes me giggle.

  “I’m not going to tie you up right now, but I want you to keep your hands by your sides. No touching, okay?”

  I nod as the anticipation of what he might do makes me shiver. He walks around me, slowly inspecting my body, as if I’m on sale. I think about how he said I was too skinny, but shove the thought out of my mind when I see his erection.

  He leans his mouth down to cover mine and thrusts his tongue between my lips. Searching me, searing me, with his lips and drinking me in. I squeeze my fingers into fists, fighting the temptation to touch his skin.

  Gripping my shoulders with his hands, his mouth moves down my neck, and leaves kisses light as a whisper. He continues his descent, and when he gets to my breasts he kisses and licks them everywhere but my areola and nipples. They beg to be touched, but he ignores them. The sensation of his breath on my moist skin drowns me. “Derrick.” The word comes out of me like the wind.

  I clench and unclench my hands, wishing I could be doing more with my fingers. He drops to his knees and flutters his lips over my stomach. Flitting his tongue in my navel, the metal of my belly button ring clinks as it hits his teeth, and he sucks it in.

  Strong hands caress my ass, and he moves his mouth down to my hipbone. I throw my head back as I gyrate my hips in an effort for release. “You’re making me crazy.”

  “Sshhh, just feel it, Gretchen.”

  The hiss of his words on my pubic bone just about does me in, and I’m trembling. He avoids my sex that weeps for his attention, and moves to my inner thighs. Nibbling down the inside of my legs and along my shins, he’s kneeling at my feet.

  Derrick lifts my foot and gazes up at me. His eyelids are low, and when he licks his lips I feel the sensation in my core. He sucks my big toe into his mouth and I whimper. Massaging the sole of my foot, he continues to nip and suck.

  “Jesus, Derrick, I’m so close.”

  He sits up on his haunches with his hands on the floor as if he’s going to pounce. He gives me his trademark stare, and I’m about to beg him to touch me when he says, “I don’t want to tie you up. I want you all around me, Gretchen.” Powerful thighs flex and extend his body upward. Derrick’s head motions behind me. “On the bed.”

  I walk backward as he stalks me like panther. His dark eyes are driving me to move, and the tiny hairs on my body stand erect. The soft velour of his duvet is against the back of my legs, and I drop down on the plush cushioning. Scrambling back, I lay down as Derrick crawls over me.

  “Touch me, Gretchen. Pull me in.”

  I reach for his cock and stroke it quickly before rolling on the condom. I spread my legs and guide him in me. My silken channel is slick, and he fills me with one thrust. Lifting my hips to give him deeper access, I wrap my legs around his waist and follow his lead as we climb together.

  So close to the crest, I call out first. Lost as I crash, he continues to pump and like a wave that has retracted out, I return. My ecstasy builds, and he tenses moments before I’m there. Digging my fingers into his ass, I pull him with my limbs as if I can swallow him whole. My release deafens me as I cry out his name.

  Sweat is slippery between us, and I can barely breathe under his weight, or move. I don’t want to. “Oh, God.”

  Derrick lifts off and out of me. A tiny moan leaves me as if a part of me was stolen. Derrick removes the condom and puts it in a tissue from his nightstand. Rolling me on top of him, he says. “Don’t stop touching me. I want to feel all of you a little longer.”

  I lay my cheek against his chest. His heart is pounding and the beat throbs through me. Hands down that was the most intense sex I’ve ever had, and no pain was involved. Un-freaking-believable. I shudder with an aftershock. Sleepy warmth rolls over me, and I let myself drift away.

  The taste in my mouth when I awake is foul, and I force myself out of bed to brush my teeth. I hope Derrick has an extra toothbrush in his bathroom. Finding my way with the nightlight, I wrap my arms around my naked body as my feet walk over cold tile. I sit on the toilet to pee.

  M
y eyes adjust, and by the time I’m done I recognize the items by the extra sink. Various toiletries of the girly variety line the counter and one of them is a new toothbrush. A citrus scent makes its way to my nose when I wash my hands, and I smile at the sweet gesture.

  With minty-fresh breath and an empty bladder, I walk slowly across the carpet of Derrick’s room. He appears to be sleeping, and I slide back under the covers as quietly as I can. But when his arm snakes around my waist to pull me against him, I know he’s awake.

  I breathe in the odor of us and relax in his arms. “Thanks for the toothbrush.”

  “If there’s anything I didn’t get for you, let me know, and I’ll pick it up tomorrow.”

  “Are you planning on my sleeping over being a regular thing?”

  “Do you promise to always sleep naked?” He kisses my neck, and his hands glide down the outline of my body and land on my hips. Desire twinges in my core.

  “If you promise to keep me warm, yes.”

  His cock has hardened against my stomach, and I grasp it as his fingers slide between my legs.

  “How about I make you sweat?”

  I don’t have a chance to answer as his mouth covers mine and he does just that.

  CHAPTER 38

  It’s opening day for Breckenridge Ski Resort, and I’m anxious to get on my board. Truthfully, the first day kind of sucks. There are only one or two trails open, and hundreds of people skiing or snowboarding them. But if you’re a competitor, it’s a different story. I’m on the chairlift and headed to the half pipe reserved for boarders on the North American competition circuit.

  Anxious to blow the cobwebs out of my snowboard brain, I’m one of the first people on the chair. Of course, the fact I sleep with an early riser almost every night has a little something to do with it as well.