Cosmo Red-Hot Reads Box Set: CakeFearlessNaked SushiEverything You Need to Know
Page 10
“My condoms are in the other room. I think. God, I hope.”
“I like that you’re uncertain if you have any. But I do.” She got up and rustled through her bag, finally holding up the foil square triumphantly. “Like the thigh highs, I live in hope.”
He stood, dropping the towel and holding a hand out. “I have plans for you. Keep the skirt and the shoes on. There’s a desk. Brace your hands.”
She tried not to rush, but hello.
She did as he said, bracing her hands, looking out at the city all around. Gooseflesh rose as he stalked up, bending his body around hers to press a kiss on her shoulder and then he trailed a tongue down her spine.
She tiptoed, arching back to get more contact and he withdrew. “Patience.”
“Fuck patience. You’ve been holding yourself away from me for nearly a month. There’s only so much my hand can do. I’ll have patience the next round.”
He picked her up, spun her and plopped her down on the edge of the desk before getting to his knees. “As you command, m’lady.”
Those hands of his slid up from her ankles, spreading her thighs wide as he kissed a trail up in their wake.
She let go long enough to pull her skirt up and out of the way so she could watch the carnal beauty of his mouth edging closer and closer to her pussy until he got there and took a long lick. She reared back and nearly cracked her head on the window, but got hold of herself and the edge of the desk, watching as he slowly drew her into climax.
It wasn’t long. She’d missed him and it was undoubtedly the hottest thing ever to have him there on his knees between her thighs. When she came it was hard and fast and left her teeth tingling.
He pulled her down and put her back the way she’d been standing, braced, waiting.
“Now that your voracious appetite for sex has been momentarily sated, where was I?”
She mumbled something and he chuckled as he pulled her skirt up, exposing the perfection of her ass. He needed her so much he had to fist his hands a moment to stop the shaking.
And then he gave over to it, the need to run his hands all over her, his woman. To test the weight of her breasts, to follow the curves of her hips. She arched into his touch like a cat. There was something about the way she moved against him, with him when they were like this. No one else was this to him.
Once he was ready, he guided himself. “Open up, kotyonok. Widen your stance.”
She made a soft sound as she complied and when he pressed into her body they both shivered a little at how good it was.
He wanted to take his time, but the embrace of her body, the time that had passed without her, the emotion of their reunion all combined to dig sharp claws into his gut, pushing him faster, full force as she moved back each time to meet his thrusts.
He watched the ghost of their reflection in the window, the way her lip caught between her teeth. Wanton. Even as he had her, he wanted more. He knew even as he came that he’d want her again within minutes.
She tightened herself around him and he growled. “Don’t think I didn’t miss this.”
“You’d better have.”
She pushed back hard and fast, tightening up again and it was too much, he tumbled down, coming, his head back on a snarl of her name.
“You, back in bed. I’ll meet you there shortly.”
Pleasantly loose and filled with endorphins, she got in his bed, burying her face in his pillow, soaking up his scent. When he joined her, he pulled her close and she went, hugging him tight.
“Breakfast. Then gelato and then you have an appointment at the gallery to be sure the show is set up to your specifications. Your agent has looked in, but Kelsey says you’re particular about such things.”
“You’re laughing at that?”
“Nope.” But she laughed anyway.
“Are you going to be my keeper then?”
She snorted. “Hell, no. You couldn’t pay me enough to do Kelsey’s job. But I’ll be your personal keeper as long as I’m here with you. I need to go back the day after tomorrow.”
“We’ll both go back. How about I order up some breakfast, we have another round of hot sex and then we do gelato?”
“You drive a hard bargain.” She rolled to grab the room service menu. “But you have a deal.”
“By the way, did you know there is also a Ladurée shop here? On Madison Avenue. I feel I should probably shower you in macarons to make up for my behavior.”
“You’re really on the right track here, Gregori.” She grinned at him as he bent down to steal a kiss.
Which turned into a far longer interlude, but neither of them complained.
Sexy, contemporary romance stories for today’s fun, fearless female.
On sale October 15, 2013
Everything You Need to Know by HelenKay Dimon
Naked Sushi by Jina Bacarr
On sale November 12, 2013
Aftershock by New York Times bestselling author Sylvia Day
Two Red-Hot Reads available in ebook format each month!
Visit www.harlequin.com/Cosmo today.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
The story goes like this—while on pregnancy bed rest, Lauren Dane had plenty of downtime, so her husband took her comments about “giving that writing thing a serious go” to heart and brought home a secondhand laptop. She wrote her first book on it before it gave up the ghost. Even better, she sold that book and never looked back.
Today Lauren is a New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of over fifty novels and novellas across several genres. Though she no longer has to deal with Polly Pocket and getting those tiny outfits on and off, you may catch her in a nostalgic moment when the house is silent because the kids are all in school and she can get work done. Just a moment, though.
Visit Lauren on the web, at www.laurendane.com
Email laurendane@laurendane.com
Twitter @laurendane
Blog www.laurendane.com/blog
You can write to her at P.O. Box 45175, Seattle, WA 98145
Also by Lauren Dane
Harlequin Spice
“Stripped,” in What Happens in Vegas…
“Sensual Magic,” in What Happens in Vegas…After Dark
Carina Press
Second Chances
Believe
Goddess with a Blade
Look for Lauren Dane’s next novel
Blade to the Keep
coming December 2013 from Carina Press
ISBN: 978-1-4592-4596-9
CAKE
Copyright © 2013 by Lauren Dane
All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
COSMO and COSMOPOLITAN are registered trademarks of Hearst Communications, Inc.
® and ™ are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade Marks Office and in other countries.
www.Harlequin.com
Promising career: check
Amazing apartment: check
The best of friends: check
Sex life: MIA
There’s just one thing missing from Gia Renyard’s life: sexual adventure. And the one man she’d l
ike to have it with is her hot coworker Luke Monroe. If only company rules didn’t prohibit her from asking him out… So Gia comes up with a plan: make herself over into a fantasy seductress, follow Luke to a convention in Sin City and have her way with him for one erotic weekend. The man will never even know who did him.
Everything is going according to plan—until Gia discovers that Luke is perfect for her outside the bedroom, too. And suddenly she’s no longer content to let what happens in Vegas stay in Vegas….
Sexy, contemporary romance stories
for today’s fun, fearless female.
Cosmo Red-Hot Reads from Harlequin
www.Harlequin.com
XOXO to Beth, Anna and Kath.
Fabulous friends who appreciate gorgeous shoes and are tons of fun to drink with.
And who always have my back.
Dear Reader,
When a girl is looking for “fun and fearless” advice, where does she turn? Cosmo magazine, of course. Gia Renyard is straight up a Cosmo Girl. From sexy tips to fashion ideas to fabulous designer shoes, she knows where to find what she likes. Gia’s even got the Sex Position of the Day app on her iPhone. Throw in a good job, great girlfriends and The Girlz Guide to Gettin’ It, and she’s got it covered.
The only thing missing is a fabulous sex life worthy of using that app. But thanks to her friends, the Girlz Guide and a fearless attitude, Gia’s ready to take that on, too! She just needs the right man—Luke Monroe, the hottie she’s crushed on for years. Add in a trip to Las Vegas and a fantasy makeover, and Gia’s ready for the wildest weekend of her life.
I hope you enjoy reading Fearless and getting to know these fun characters! Look for future Girlz Guide stories about Gia’s friends, including Caryn and Sara. You can contact me and check out all my titles at www.tawnyweber.com, or catch me on Facebook.
Cheers,
Tawny Weber
Tawny Weber
Fearless
Book I: The Girlz Guide to Gettin’ It
USA TODAY Bestselling Author
Sexy, contemporary romance stories
for today’s fun, fearless female.
Cosmo Red-Hot Reads from Harlequin
www.Harlequin.com
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
About the Author
Books by Tawny Weber
Chapter One
A Girlz Guide to a Rockin’ Life
Words of Wisdom…
Put up or shut up.
“I’m bored. Can’t we do something new tonight?”
“You’re always bored. I just want to chill. Maybe we can make nachos? The really gooey kind with jalapeños.”
“I want to try that new caramel vodka before it’s served at my next marketing retreat. Gotta keep my rep as the martini queen.”
“Do you really think being known as the gal who’s tried every martini out there actually helps your career?”
“We all gotta have a rep. Yours helps you get dates, doesn’t it?”
“Helps her get laid, at least.”
Stuck in a funk, Gia Renyard let the words of her three best friends roll right over her. She didn’t look up from her careful application of nail polish, even as a pillow flew past her head. Probably Sara trying to nail Jessa over the “getting laid” comment.
The four of them had met in a marketing class in college, randomly grouped together to do an assignment. Their task had been to create a useful tool that spoke to a specific market segment. It’d taken a few meetings and finally a round of martinis for the four women, all polar opposites, to realize they had one common goal. To rock their lives.
And just like that, the Girlz Guide to a Rockin’ Life had been born.
Gia gave thanks to this day for that assignment. Not only had it netted her three best friends, it’d given her a life manifesto. Gia grinned, slicking on another coat of polish. Not that she had to refer to the guide very often, since she had her Girlz readily available.
Ever since college, the four of them had made a point of getting together every few weeks for a Girlz night. Manis, pedis, fashion magazines and martinis. Dishing dirt, commiserating and planning their lives. And, every once in a while, updating the Girlz Guide. Because flaking on something that fabulous would be like wearing discount shoes and last year’s trends to a hot club opening. Just every kind of wrong.
But Gia was in a weird mood tonight. Maybe it was exhaustion. A network engineer at a growing company in San Francisco, she’d been working her ass off the past couple of weeks in hopes of finally making a good enough impression to snag a promotion.
It could be the call that afternoon from her mother, so busy praising the latest in a long list of her older sister’s successes and then lamenting her younger sister’s current screwup that she’d never even asked how Gia was doing.
Or maybe it was the fact that they’d kicked off the evening with Caryn telling them all about her latest sexy hookup, in very graphic detail.
Gia couldn’t remember the last time she’d had graphic details worth sharing. Not like Caryn’s, which included a Thai restaurant after hours, coconut martinis and silk scarves. But that was Caryn. She saw something she wanted and she made it happen. Sometimes it happened with curry.
Or there were the impossible-to-compete-with details of Jessa’s Caribbean cruise last year. On the first day, she’d met her dream guy, and she’d spent the next five days being romanced and five nights being sexually worshipped. Then, to top it off, she’d brought the guy home and married him.
And Sara, well, Sara had almost too many details. Dramatic details, sure. But they were still details. This month she couldn’t decide if she was in love with a guy she’d met at a club last month or her ex-girlfriend who kept calling. Sara bounced from sexual adventure to heartache to despair and right back into lust again.
And then there was Gia. It wasn’t as if she were the sad and lonely friend. She’d had boyfriends. She’d enjoyed plenty of good sex and knew her way around an orgasm. But none of her adventures included scarves, cruises or kink.
Not like her friends.
Jessa was the princess. Pretty, pampered and sweet, she’d always inspired guys to fall at her feet.
Caryn, on the other hand, was a ball breaker. She had a plan and worked it. She had guys at her feet, too, but usually on a leash.
Sara flew through life, and sex, like it was an all-night buffet and she was starving. She never stayed still long enough for guys to even find her feet.
And then there was Gia. Good ole average Gia. Dependable, nice, cute.
Not phenomenal. Not horrible.
Just average.
Average sucked.
“Gia? What’re you craving?” Jessa asked from where she lounged on the couch, her head back on the pillow to better enjoy the moisturizing benefits of her facial mask.
Slicking another coat of Midnight Crimson polish over her nails, Gia absently finished her thought aloud. “A wild sexual adventure that includes chocolate, feathers and three dozen orgasms?”
The room went silent. Even the iPod, playing Rihanna in the background, seemed to quiet.
Oh, shit. Had she really said that?
Gia looked up to find three sets of eyes locked on her in varying states of shock and amusement. She winced, then carefully pushed her martini glass away.
“Oh, this is juicy. Tell us more,” Jessa prompted, clapping her hands in excitement.
Part of her wanted to. But she wasn’t the juicy type. She was the practical one, the one who kept it real. Which probably explained their surprise.
“That was just the vodka talking,” she dismissed with a wave of her hand. “So, are you guys hungry? I’ve got nacho fixings. Or better yet, how about cook
ies?”
“No way,” Caryn protested, waving her own glass in protest. She had her feet propped on the coffee table while Sara painted delicate roses on her toenails. “You can’t offer up something that good, then try to change the subject.”
“Nope. That’s the sort of thing that needs explaining. In great, graphic detail. Drawings might help, too.” From her spot on the floor, Sara wiggled her brows. Her black hair was pulled up in a messy ponytail to avoid any polish mishaps.
Gia debated. She could gloss over it on her way to make those nachos. She could downplay it into a joke. Or she could fess up. The first two were easier. And definitely the type of thing she’d always done when she’d found herself in the spotlight before. Like anyone who craved center stage, then discovered they were sick with stage fright, she’d always ducked back into obscurity.
But she was so tired of being average.
And the only way to get over average was to enlist the help of her friends.
Gia pressed her lips together, nerves churning the vodka in her stomach into a nasty froth. Did she want this, or didn’t she? Was she a wimp or a woman, dammit?
Ignoring the voice in her head screaming wimp, she took a deep breath and confessed.
“All of you have a hot memory,” she said slowly, as if weighing each word would keep her from looking like an idiot. “A wild sexual fling where you pushed your own boundaries, lived out the fantasy, did all those uninhibited things they write about in the magazines.”
“You’ve had plenty of relationships,” Sara pointed out. “And it’s not like you’re an uptight prude or anything.”
“But none of the guys I’ve dated were the kind who inspired fantasies. Not the kind that deserve details over martinis.”
“She’s right,” Jessa offered, sitting upright so the light caught the moisturizing mask on her face, making her shine like a blond light bulb. “It has to be the right guy. Your very own Prince Charming. Otherwise, the fantasy is hollow.”