by Noelle Adams
“Besides, they show off my legs and make me look leaner, and at this point I need all the help I can get.”
“You’re nine months pregnant,” Deck snapped. “You’re not supposed to look lean.”
“Trust me, I don’t need reminding.” Though she had been cautiously thrilled when she realized she was pregnant just two months after what the press had dubbed their “steamy reunion,” and openly ecstatic when she made it through the first trimester safely, now she was feeling every single second of those nine months. The doctors said she could go at any time, and with eight or so pounds of baby regularly doing a dance on her bladder, Jane was ready for “any time” to be “now”. “I just want to look as good as I can, considering. You understand.”
The look on his face said he didn’t. “Just be careful. I don’t want you to fall.”
“If I do, I’ll try not to crush you,” she laughed and clung to his hand for balance as she picked her way carefully down the stairs.
“Vegas has even odds that she won’t make it long enough to present her category,” she heard Claud say to Mira as they reached the entryway.
In the end, the odds makers were wrong. Jane made it through her appearance—presenting the award for Best Actor in a Comedy. It was later revealed that if she looked a little tense while she was reading the teleprompter, it was because her contractions had been building steadily since the Best Mini Series category.
By the time she and Deck made their hurried exit, the entire room was a buzz with the news that Jane Bowden-Decker had gone into labor. Devlin James Decker was born just five hours later, a scene-stealer from the start.
About the Author
Jami Alden lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her socially well-adjusted alpha male husband, two sons, and a German Shepherd who patiently listens to dialogue and helps her work out plot points. Find out more about Jami and her books:
http://www.jamialden.com
http://www.facebook.com/JamiAldenBooks
http://www.twitter.com/jamialden
Keep reading for excerpts of PRIVATE PARADISE and PRIVATE PLEASURES, books #2 & #3 in Alden’s steamy PRIVATE series!
Private Paradise
After years of catering to the whims of the rich and famous at one of the Caribbean’s most luxurious resorts, there isn’t much that can rattle Carla DeLuca.
Until Sam O’Connell shows up.
Tall, dark, and sexy, Holley Cay’s new security chief is no stranger. He’s the irresistible bad boy who seduced her over a long, hot summer only to leave her heartbroken, humiliated, and determined to never again fall for a player like him. But though her heart still stings with the memory of his rejection, her body can’t forget the all-consuming pleasure of his touch.
Sam never forgave himself for his too cruel rejection of Carla over a decade before. Young, reckless, and convinced it was only a matter of time Carla regretted hooking up with a trouble maker like him, Sam pushed Carla away before she could realize her mistake. But when Sam lands a job working for Carla in paradise, he seizes the chance to finally make things right.
When a hurricane strands them alone on the island, Carla is unable to resist the passion simmering between them. She doesn’t fool herself that what they have will last past the storm. But little does she know, Sam will do whatever it takes to make her his – forever this time.
This could not be happening.
That was all Carla DeLuca could think as she stared, dumbstruck, at the man in front of her. The Caribbean breeze ruffled night dark hair that was much shorter than she remembered. His lean features had become bolder, more chiseled, and his broad-shouldered lanky form had filled out substantially. Despite the differences, she had known his face the instant she’d laid eyes on him. Even after over a decade, there was no mistaking those blue eyes, startling against his jet black lashes and brows.
Eyes that crinkled at the corners as he offered a friendly, if guarded smile, and didn’t do a damn thing to help her unglue her tongue from the roof of her mouth.
“Isn’t it amazing?” Her cousin Chris’s laughing voice broke through her daze, and she focused on his smiling face as he clapped the other man on the shoulder. “Who would have ever thought we’d hire Sam O’Connell as head of security?”
“Amazing,” Carla murmured. Mentally steeling herself, she forced herself to meet Sam’s eyes. The effect of those laser blue eyes meeting hers was only slightly less jolting than it had been two minutes ago, when she’d arrived on the terrace of Holley Cay’s dining room to see what Chris’s big surprise was.
After a two month search for someone to head up security at Holley Cay, the exclusive Caribbean resort Chris had started nearly a decade ago which Carla now managed, Chris had found the perfect candidate.
Sam O’Connell.
A man who Carla could happily go to her grave never laying eyes on again.
“Sam,” Carla repeated. “You hired Sam to head up our security,” she said, as though she expected Chris to change his answer, like it was all some horrible joke.
But Chris had no clue what had gone on between Sam and Carla during that hot Las Vegas summer, and if he did, he’d never be so cruel as to pull something like this.
“It’s great to see you again, Carla,” Sam said. His expression gave nothing away, but his voice, still raspy and even deeper than it had been at twenty-one, had the same maddening impact as it always did, curling around her like a warm blanket and sending a little flutter of need to her core. “You look even better than the last time I saw you.”
Not much of a stretch, considering the last time he saw her she was a sobbing mess, practically bent double in pain from the blow he’d just delivered to her heart.
Still, as she felt his admiring gaze roam over her, she was glad she’d had her monthly Brazilian Blowout just yesterday so her psychotically curly hair hung down her back in silky waves and that her short, silky dress showed off arms and legs that were slim and toned from hours on the running trail and thousands of reps in the gym.
That’s right. Take a long look at what you gave up, everything you’ve been missing, she thought.
Then it hit her again, how easily he’d been able to walk away. He hadn’t missed a goddamn thing. The memory of his smirk and the cruel glint in his blue eyes was enough to get her hormones in check and straighten her spine.
She was no longer an eighteen-year-old girl caught under the spell of a seductive bad boy. She was almost thirty years old, in charge of a multi-million dollar operation. And, if Sam and Chris had their way, Sam’s boss.
Right. Maybe when hell froze over.
Read more about Private Paradise here.
Private Pleasures
The tropical heat continues in PRIVATE PLEASURES, book #2 in the PRIVATE Series.
Wendy Carmichael’s career as a high-powered attorney leaves her little time for a love - or sex - life. She has a broken engagement to prove it. With everything she’s worked for on the line, she can’t afford to be distracted -especially not by Drew Walker. The first time she laid eyes on the brash, cocky millionaire five years ago Wendy knew that giving into the chemistry sparking between them could only lead to trouble. But when they’re thrown together at a party in paradise, his wicked smile and rock hard body draw her like a moth to a flame. Convincing herself one night of indulgence can’t hurt, Wendy decides to find out once and for all if being with Drew is as hot as she’s always imagined.
But Drew isn’t satisfied with just one night, and neither is Wendy. When Drew proposes a no holds barred, no strings attached affair that will end when he moves across the country, Wendy can’t say no. Yet as the nights pass, each hotter than the last, Wendy discovers that what she thought was casual is anything but, and has potential to be so much more. Now she fears that when cocky, too sexy for his own good Drew walks out of her life, she’ll be saying goodbye to the man of her dreams.
Wendy Carmichael lingered at the bottom of the stairs leading to the beach. Laughter ca
rried on the salt-scented breeze, still warm even though the sun was barely clinging to the horizon, turning the normally bright turquoise Caribbean waters surrounding Holley Cay into a bright, burnished orange.
Wendy’s gaze wandered over the crowd full of couples mingling among tables set up on the beach, sipping champagne and cocktails while they nibbled on gourmet cuisine prepared by Holley Cay’s world class chef.
Everything about the party was perfect, from the location - Holley Cay was one of the most exclusive resorts in the Caribbean if not the world - to the decor, the bright blues, greens, and yellows of the table linens echoing the palette of the gorgeous location and setting off the bouquets of tropical flowers to perfection.
But nothing was more perfect than the couple being celebrated tonight, Wendy thought as her gaze landed on the guests of honor. Tonight Chris and Julie Dennison were celebrating five years of wedded bliss together. They were stunning to look at. Chris, tall and lean, his broad shoulders straining against the white linen of his shirt. And Julie, blond and petite, with big blue eyes that shone up at her husband with as much adoration as the day they were married.
To look at them, you’d think they were newlyweds, the way Chris kept Julie close, his fingers entwined with hers even as they carried on separate conversations.
They looked so… connected, Wendy thought with a little stabbing pain in her chest. And the love that had brought them together, and produced a little girl who, Wendy was convinced, was the most adorable child ever born, was so apparent you could practically see it, radiating off of them like a halo, enveloping the guests who had come all the way to Holley Cay to celebrate their fifth anniversary in its warm glow.
There wasn’t a single person who wasn’t smiling.
Well, Wendy reflected as she felt her own clenched jaw and tight mouth, maybe one.
As she took the final step onto the canvas runner that had been laid over the sand so the female guests could still indulge in fancy footwear for as long as their feet put up with it, Wendy tried but failed to banish the knot that had settled in the pit of her stomach. It wasn’t that she wasn’t happy for Julie, who had been her best friend since they met when Wendy transferred to UC Berkeley her sophomore year.
Of course she was. Julie, with her big, giving heart and sweet sense of humor, was one of Wendy’s favorite people in the world, and no one deserved happiness more than she did.
From the moment she’d met Julie, Wendy, who wasn’t much older but was a whole lot savvier than her sheltered friend, had taken it on herself to protect Julie from the big bad wolves out on the prowl.
Wendy had always prided herself on being able to hold her own, but Julie was always at risk of being ripped to shreds. In fact she nearly had been, thanks to a disastrous but thankfully brief first marriage. But in the end, she’d ended up with Chris, who was a great guy and worshipped Julie as she deserved, giving her an idyllic life in paradise, her very own happily ever after.
And Wendy was happy for her, she really was. Yet, as she lingered alone on the edge of the crowd, watching all of the other seemingly ecstatic couples, Wendy couldn’t shake the blue funk that had enveloped her for the last six months, growing as heavy as a wet wool blanket the second she stepped onto the dock at Holley Cay and saw Julie and Chris beaming at her, gorgeous little daughter cradled in Chris’s arms.
For all that she didn’t begrudge Julie her happiness, the sharp contrast to Wendy’s own love life brought back all the feelings of hurt and failure so keenly it felt like it was yesterday instead of six months ago that Alan had broken off their engagement.
Snap out of it, she scolded herself, forcing her feet to continue down the beach, dread growing with every step as her suspicions were confirmed that she was the only one here without a date. “Bring a friend,” Julie had encouraged.
“I’ll be fine,” Wendy had blown her off. “You know me, I go out alone all the time.” While that had been true once upon a time, it wasn’t anymore. Not only was Wendy too busy working hundred hour weeks as she strove to be Chapman, Cooper & Winters’s youngest associate to ever make partner, the break up with Alan had hit her harder than she wanted to admit to anyone. Especially herself.
Before she’d never given it a second thought if she was the only single in the crowd of couples. It only meant she had more freedom to have fun, flirt with cute guys, and leave without negotiation if the crowd got boring.
But tonight she looked at the throng of happily matched pairs and felt her single status like a neon sign written across her forehead. One that said, “Loser.”
“I was wondering if you’d tear yourself away from your desk to be here.”
Wendy stumbled on the heel of her strappy sandals at the deep, raspy, all too familiar voice. Her shoulder muscles tightened along with her jaw as she turned to confirm that yes, that cocky bastard Drew Walker was standing less than six inches behind her.
So much for her hopes that he wouldn’t be here, despite his long friendship with Chris.
Even though her heels boosted her normal height of five seven to close to six feet, Wendy still had to tilt her head back to look him in the eye. With his thick, dark, close cropped hair, piercing gray gaze and his chiseled not too handsome face, Drew was a damn good looking bastard, but a bastard just the same.
And if she had any doubts about that his next sentence confirmed it. “I haven’t seen you since your engagement party.”
If it had been up to Wendy, Drew wouldn’t have gotten within ten feet of her engagement party. But after selling the software company he’d founded for half a billion dollars a year ago, he had taken on a position as an entrepreneur in residence at the venture capital firm where Alan was a partner.
Alan had insisted on inviting everyone in the office, and Wendy couldn’t see a way to exclude only Drew without making it awkward for Alan.
Wendy gritted her teeth, her stomach rolling as she thought of the occasion. Two hundred of their friends and family, gathered at the prestigious City Club. All toasting their happiness.
Except for one cocky bastard.
“Yes,” Wendy said, baring her teeth in a big smile only a moron would mistake as sincere. “I remember you kindly pointed out that it’s now a little over fifty percent of marriages that end in divorce, and that all of the managing partners at your firm are on their second or third wives.”
Drew shrugged, and Wendy told herself the quirk of his full lips and the way his eyes crinkled around the corners wasn’t sexy as hell. “I don’t see a problem with speaking the truth,” he said, taking two glasses of champagne from a passing server and offering her one.
Wendy gave a little huff as she took the glass. “And how nice you could come and share all of that positive energy with Chris and Julie tonight.” She took a sip of the champagne, letting the bubbles sizzle through her veins and ease the knots in her shoulders and stomach. She cast him a sideways look and saw that his focus had moved to the happy couple in question. “Knowing you, you’ve probably got a betting pool going for how long before those two split.”
Drew’s focus came back on her, all traces of amusement gone. “No way. I don’t worry about those two. Just look at them. They get exactly what they need from each other.”
Wendy’s spine stiffened and she wondered what made Drew, who according to Chris and Julie had an average relationship duration of three weeks, such an expert on what couples were going to make it or not. “Are you saying I didn’t have what Alan needed?” As soon as the words left her mouth, she regretted them. “Of course I didn’t,” she said before he could. “Otherwise he wouldn’t have dumped me and married Tina.”
She downed the rest of her champagne in a single swallow as she thought of Alan’s recent marriage to the woman who had been his administrative assistant for five years. Five years his senior, a solid thirty pounds heavier and thirty IQ points dumber than Wendy. But apparently exactly what he’d needed.
“It was a beautiful wedding.” Drew said.
Wendy felt an answering spark as she cocked an eyebrow at him. “I would expect so, since it was supposed to be mine.” At Alan’s urging, Wendy, crushed as usual by work, had leaned heavily on Tina to manage the logistics of making the wedding of her dreams come to life.
And apparently Tina hadn’t had any issues taking over what was supposed to be Wendy’s big day.
“Makes sense if you think about it,” Drew said, and Wendy tried not to notice how big and broad he shoulders were, shrugging under the white cotton of his shirt. “Everything was all set, non-refundable deposits were paid—”
“By my parents,” Wendy snapped. Granted, Alan had paid them back within days after he ended their engagement, but still.
Drew continued as if he hadn’t heard her. “And a place like that was probably booked up for a year out—”
“At least,” Wendy said morosely as she thought of the rolling hills and bright blue sky of the small vineyard they’d chosen as the venue of their wedding. Where she’d imagined starting her new life as Mrs. Alan Parker.
Instead, Tina had married Wendy’s guy, in Wendy’s place, eating the food Wendy had selected, dancing to the band Wendy had chosen.
At least she couldn’t wear my dress, Wendy thought, smiling grimly as she imagined Tina’s ample backside.
She drained her second glass of champagne, feeling a little buzz come on as the wine warmed her blood. “So Alan got what he needed.. Lucky him.”
Drew shrugged again. “More important is what you needed. And it sure as hell wasn’t Alan.”
She narrowed her eyed and met his challenging stare. “You have no idea what I need.”
His gaze raked her from the top of her head to the tips of her pink painted toes and back up. His eyes when they once again locked on hers were molten. “I think I have a pretty good idea.”
