by Radclyffe
Jamming the helmet onto her head, Tess took two steps toward the big motorcycle. “All right. What—”
Clay held out her hand. “Climb on behind me, put your feet on the foot pegs, and wrap your arms around my waist. Lean when I lean, and get ready for the best thing you’ve ever felt.”
Tess didn’t think. She just held on and let go.
Clay wasn’t exaggerating. Every sensation was amplified—the smell of the woods, the brisk purity of the wind in her face, the startling blue of the sky, the heat of the sun on her bare arms. As Clay spun them around the lake on the twisting narrow road, the bike slanting into the curves, the sun glinting through the trees, Tess was one with the world the way she was alone on the farm at dawn, when all the world was fresh and new.
“Like it?” Clay called, glancing briefly over her shoulder. Her grin made Tess’s heart lurch in the best way ever.
Tess tightened her hold around Clay’s firm waist. “Yes. It’s wonderful. You were right.”
Clay covered Tess’s hand with hers, squeezing lightly. The contact sent a thrill through Tess’s chest and into her stomach. Her cheek was against Clay’s shoulder, close to the back of her neck, and she could smell her—tangy, sweet, fresh, and oh-so-exciting. Clay was the most breathtaking girl she’d ever known.
*
“If we get caught taking this boat out, I’m going to get fired.” Tess looked back up the hill to the lodge. The big porch was crowded with guests enjoying the sunset, but no one seemed to be paying them any attention.
“Don’t worry,” Clay said, “I’ll have you back before anybody even knows we’re gone. I brought sandwiches. We’ll have dinner on the island. There’s supposed to be a meteor shower tonight. And a full moon. It’ll be great.”
“Well, Mr. Harris did say we were free to use the boats if none of the guests were using them. So I guess technically it’s all right.”
“See? Nothing to get bent out of shape about.” Clay held out her hand. “Come on. Climb in.”
Tess settled in the bow of the outboard while Clay maneuvered them away from the dock. Clay rowed them out twenty or thirty feet from shore and started the motor. The outboard was not that large, and with plenty of boats still on the water, no one was likely to notice the sound of their engine. Tess turned her face to the wind and stopped worrying.
Soon they were bouncing over the waves as the sun sank lower, headed for one of the many uninhabited islands that dotted the lake. A few minutes later, they pulled up along a narrow strip of sand, and Clay tied the boat to a tree. She helped Tess climb out of the boat, and they found a clear spot under the pines to spread out their blanket.
“Hungry?” Clay asked.
Tess stretched out on her back, watching the sky turn pink, then red, then deep purple. “Not just yet. It’s so beautiful I just want to look.”
Clay lay beside her and propped her head on her hand. “Yes. Gorgeous.”
Tess smiled, the skin at her throat warming under Clay’s gaze. Clay had been looking at her that way a lot lately—like she was special. And sexy. Clay didn’t have to say anything to make her feel that way—she just had to look at her with eyes that grew dark and deep. Tess touched Clay’s face. “You’re not looking at the sunset.”
“I know.” Clay’s grin faltered as she drew a strand of Tess’s hair through her fingers. “I’ve seen lots of beautiful sunsets, but I’ve never seen a girl as beautiful as you.”
“You know,” Tess said softly, brushing her fingers over Clay’s shoulder, “it seems like I’ve known you for a lot longer than just a couple of months.”
“It feels like you’re the only one who knows me,” Clay whispered, and she kissed her.
Tess had been waiting for this moment, wondering what she would do, how she would feel, forever, it seemed. To be alone with Clay, wanting to touch her, having Clay touch her. No one ever had. She wasn’t scared, wasn’t nervous—well, not too much. Everything about being with Clay felt right. Clay was right—they knew each other.
Tess tugged at the back of Clay’s T-shirt and pulled it out of her jeans. Clay’s skin was hot, soft and smooth. She ran her hands up and down the strong muscles in Clay’s back, and Clay groaned softly. The sound surprised her—Clay was always so strong and self-assured, but the sound, almost helpless, struck at Tess’s heart and made her want to hold Clay, to protect her. She stroked Clay’s back, and Clay moved on top of her. Their legs entwined. Tess turned liquid inside.
“Tess,” Clay whispered, her breath hot against Tess’s ear, “I want to touch you everywhere. It’s all I’ve been thinking about forever.”
“I want you to touch me,” Tess whispered back, and then Clay was unbuttoning her shirt, kissing her neck and her throat and the valley between her breasts. Tess pushed at the waistband of Clay’s jeans, wanting Clay’s naked belly pressed against hers.
“You feel so good.”
“I’ve never—” Tess gasped.
“I know. I know. It’s okay.” Clay braced herself on her arms and smiled down at Tess. “You’re perfect. You’re beautiful. I—I’m crazy about you.”
And then she kissed Tess again, so gently, so tenderly, Tess’s heart shattered.
Half-undressed, completely naked—body and soul—Tess held Clay close. As the summer sun blazed out in the blue-black waters of the lake, Tess knew what she wanted. Had always wanted.
She wanted this bad girl with the sweet, sweet kisses, and now the bad girl was hers.
About the Editors
Radclyffe has written over forty-five romance and romantic intrigue novels, dozens of short stories, and, writing as L.L. Raand, has authored a paranormal romance series, The Midnight Hunters. She is an eight-time Lambda Literary Award finalist in romance, mystery, and erotica—winning in both romance (Distant Shores, Silent Thunder) and erotica (Erotic Interludes 2: Stolen Moments edited with Stacia Seaman and In Deep Waters 2: Cruising the Strip written with Karin Kallmaker). A member of the Saints and Sinners Literary Hall of Fame, she is a RWA/FF&P Prism award winner for Secrets in the Stone, a RWA FTHRW Lories and RWA HODRW winner for Firestorm, a RWA Bean Pot winner for Crossroads, and a RWA Laurel Wreath winner for Blood Hunt. She is also the president of Bold Strokes Books, one of the world’s largest independent LGBTQ publishing companies.
Stacia Seaman has edited numerous award-winning titles, and with co-editor Radclyffe won a Lambda Literary Award for Erotic Interludes 2: Stolen Moments; an Independent Publishers Awards silver medal and a Golden Crown Literary Award for Erotic Interludes 4: Extreme Passions; an Independent Publishers Awards gold medal and a Golden Crown Literary award for Erotic Interludes 5: Road Games; the 2010 RWA Rainbow Award of Excellence in the Short/Novella category for Romantic Interludes 2: Secrets, and a Golden Crown Literary Award for Women of the Dark Streets: Lesbian Paranormal. She has essays in Visible: A Femmethology (Homofactus Press, 2009) and Second Person Queer (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2009).
Books Available from Bold Strokes Books
Homestead by Radclyffe. R. Clayton Sutter figures getting NorthAm Fuel’s newest refinery operational on a rolling tract of land in upstate New York should take a month or two, but then, she hadn’t counted on local resistance in the form of vandalism, petitions, and one furious farmer named Tess Rogers. (978-1-60282-956-5)
Battle of Forces: Sera Toujours by Ali Vali. Kendal and Piper return to New Orleans to start the rest of eternity together, but the return of an old enemy makes their peaceful reunion short-lived, especially when they join forces with the new queen of the vampires. (978-1-60282-957-2)
How Sweet It Is by Melissa Brayden. Some things are better than chocolate. Molly O’Brien enjoys her quiet life running the bakeshop in a small town. When the beautiful Jordan Tuscana returns home, Molly can’t deny the attraction—or the stirrings of something more. (978-1-60282-958-9)
The Missing Juliet: A Fisher Key Adventure by Sam Cameron. A teenage detective and her friends search for a kidnapped Hollywood star in the Florida Key
s. (978-1-60282-959-6)
Amor and More: Love Everafter, edited by Radclyffe and Stacia Seaman. Rediscover favorite couples as Bold Strokes Books authors reveal glimpses of life and love beyond the honeymoon in short stories featuring main characters from favorite BSB novels. (978-1-60282-963-3)
First Love by CJ Harte. Finding true love is hard enough, but for Jordan Thompson, daughter of a conservative president, it’s challenging, especially when that love is a female rodeo cowgirl. (978-1-60282-949-7)
Pale Wings Protecting by Lesley Davis. Posing as a couple to investigate the abduction of infants, Special Agent Blythe Kent and Detective Daryl Chandler find themselves drawn into a battle over the innocents, with demons on one side and the unlikeliest of protectors on the other. (978-1-60282-964-0)
Mounting Danger by Karis Walsh. Sergeant Rachel Bryce, an outcast on the police force, is put in charge of the department’s newly formed mounted division. Can she and polo champion Callan Lanford resist their growing attraction as they struggle to safeguard the disaster-prone unit? (978-1-60282-951-0)
Show of Force by AJ Quinn. A chance meeting between navy pilot Evan Kane and correspondent Tate McKenna takes them on a roller-coaster ride where the stakes are high, but the reward is higher: a chance at love. (978-1-60282-942-8)
Clean Slate by Andrea Bramhall. Can Erin and Morgan work through their individual demons to rediscover their love for each other, or are the unexplainable wounds too deep to heal? (978-1-60282-943-5)
Hold Me Forever by D. Jackson Leigh. An investigation into illegal cloning in the quarter horse racing industry threatens to destroy the growing attraction between Georgia debutante Mae St. John and Louisiana horse trainer Whit Casey. (978-1-60282-944-2)
At Her Feet by Rebekah Weatherspoon. Digital marketing producer Suzanne Kim knows she has found the perfect love in her new mistress Pilar, but before they can make the ultimate commitment, Suzanne’s professional life threatens to disrupt their perfectly balanced bliss. (978-1-60282-948-0)
Trusting Tomorrow by P.J. Trebelhorn. Funeral director Logan Swift thinks she’s perfectly happy with her solitary life devoted to helping others cope with loss until Brooke Collier moves in next door to care for her elderly grandparents. (978-1-60282-891-9)
Forsaking All Others by Kathleen Knowles. What if what you think you want is the opposite of what makes you happy? (978-1-60282-892-6)
Exit Wounds by VK Powell. When Officer Loane Landry falls in love with ATF informant Abigail Mancuso, she realizes that nothing is as it seems—not the case, not her lover, not even the dead. (978-1-60282-893-3)
Dirty Power by Ashley Bartlett. Cooper’s been through hell and back, and she’s still broke and on the run. But at least she found the twins. They’ll keep her alive. Right? (978-1-60282-896-4)
The Rarest Rose by I. Beacham. After a decade of living in her beloved house, Ele disturbs its past and finds her life being haunted by the presence of a ghost who will show her that true love never dies. (978-1-60282-884-1)
Code of Honor by Radclyffe. The face of terror is hard to recognize—especially when it’s homegrown. The next book in the Honor series. (978-1-60282-885-8)
Does She Love You by Rachel Spangler. When Annabelle and Davis find out they are in a relationship with the same woman, it leaves them facing life-altering questions about trust, redemption, and the possibility of finding love in the wake of betrayal. (978-1-60282-886-5)
The Road to Her by KE Payne. Sparks fly when actress Holly Croft, star of UK soap Portobello Road, meets her new on-screen love interest, the enigmatic and sexy Elise Manford. (978-1-60282-887-2)
Shadows of Something Real by Sophia Kell Hagin. Trying to escape flashbacks and nightmares, ex-POW Jamie Gwynmorgan stumbles into the heart of former Red Cross worker Adele Sabellius and uncovers a deadly conspiracy against everything and everyone she loves. (978-1-60282-889-6)
Date with Destiny by Mason Dixon. When sophisticated bank executive Rashida Ivey meets unemployed blue-collar worker Destiny Jackson, will her life ever be the same? (978-1-60282-878-0)
The Devil’s Orchard by Ali Vali. Cain and Emma plan a wedding before the birth of their third child while Juan Luis is still lurking, and as Cain plans for his death, an unexpected visitor arrives and challenges her belief in her father, Dalton Casey. (978-1-60282-879-7)
Secrets and Shadows by L.T. Marie. A bodyguard and the woman she protects run from a madman and into each other’s arms. (978-1-60282-880-3)
Change Horizons: Three Novellas by Gun Brooke. Three stories of courageous women who dare to love as they fight to claim a future in a hostile universe. (978-1-60282-881-0)
Scarlett Thirst by Crin Claxton. When hot, feisty Rani meets cool vampire Rob, one lifetime isn’t enough, and the road from human to vampire is shorter than you think… (978-1-60282-856-8)
Battle Axe by Carsen Taite. How close is too close? Bounty hunter Luca Bennett will soon find out. (978-1-60282-871-1)
Improvisation by Karis Walsh. High school geometry teacher Jan Carroll thinks she’s figured out the shape of her life and her future, until graphic artist and fiddle player Tina Nelson comes along and teaches her to improvise. (978-1-60282-872-8)
For Want of a Fiend by Barbara Ann Wright. Without her Fiendish power, can Princess Katya and her consort Starbride stop a magic-wielding madman from sparking an uprising in the kingdom of Farraday? (978-1-60282-873-5)
Swans & Clons by Nora Olsen. In a future world where there are no males, sixteen-year-old Rubric and her girlfriend Salmon Jo must fight to survive when everything they believed in turns out to be a lie. (978-1-60282-874-2)
Broken in Soft Places by Fiona Zedde. The instant Sara Chambers meets the seductive and sinful Merille Thompson, she falls hard, but knowing the difference between love and a dangerous, all-consuming desire is just one of the lessons Sara must learn before it’s too late. (978-1-60282-876-6)
Healing Hearts by Donna K. Ford. Running from tragedy, the women of Willow Springs find that with friendship, there is hope, and with love, there is everything. (978-1-60282-877-3)
Desolation Point by Cari Hunter. When a storm strands Sarah Kent in the North Cascades, Alex Pascal is determined to find her. Neither imagines the dangers they will face when a ruthless criminal begins to hunt them down. (978-1-60282-865-0)
I Remember by Julie Cannon. What happens when you can never forget the first kiss, the first touch, the first taste of lips on skin? What happens when you know you will remember every single detail of a mysterious woman? (978-1-60282-866-7)
The Gemini Deception by Kim Baldwin and Xenia Alexiou. The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but lies. Book six in the Elite Operatives series. (978-1-60282-867-4)
Scarlet Revenge by Sheri Lewis Wohl. When faith alone isn’t enough, will the love of one woman be strong enough to save a vampire from damnation? (978-1-60282-868-1)
Ghost Trio by Lillian Q. Irwin. When Lee Howe hears the voice of her dead lover singing to her, is it a hallucination, a ghost, or something more sinister? (978-1-60282-869-8)
The Princess Affair by Nell Stark. Rhodes Scholar Kerry Donovan arrives at Oxford ready to focus on her studies, but her life and her priorities are thrown into chaos when she catches the eye of Her Royal Highness Princess Sasha. (978-1-60282-858-2)
The Chase by Jesse J. Thoma. When Isabelle Rochat’s life is threatened, she receives the unwelcome protection and attention of bounty hunter Holt Lasher who vows to keep Isabelle safe at all costs. (978-1-60282-859-9)
The Lone Hunt by L.L. Raand. In a world where humans and Praeterns conspire for the ultimate power, violence is a way of life…and death. A Midnight Hunters novel. (978-1-60282-860-5)
The Supernatural Detective by Crin Claxton. Tony Carson sees dead people. With a drag queen for a spirit guide and a devastatingly attractive herbalist for a client, she’s about to discover the spirit world can be a very dangerous world indeed. (978-1-60282-861-2)
Beloved Gomorrah by Justine Saracen. Undersea artists creating their own City o
n the Plain uncover the truth about Sodom and Gomorrah, whose “one righteous man” is a murderer, rapist, and conspirator in genocide. (978-1-60282-862-9)
The Left Hand of Justice by Jess Faraday. A kidnapped heiress, a heretical cult, a corrupt police chief, and an accused witch. Paris is burning, and the only one who can put out the fire is Detective Inspector Elise Corbeau…whose boss wants her dead. (978-1-60282-863-6)
Cut to the Chase by Lisa Girolami. Careful and methodical author Paige Cornish falls for brash and wild Hollywood actress Avalon Randolph, but can these opposites find a happy middle ground in a town that never lives in the middle? (978-1-60282-783-7)
Every Second Counts by D. Jackson Leigh. Every second counts in Bridgette LeRoy’s desperate mission to protect her heart and stop Marc Ryder’s suicidal return to riding rodeo bulls. (978-1-60282-785-1)
More Than Friends by Erin Dutton. Evelyn Fisher thinks she has the perfect role model for a long-term relationship, until her best friends, Kendall and Melanie, split up and all three women must reevaluate their lives and their relationships. (978-1-60282-784-4)
Dirty Money by Ashley Bartlett. Vivian Cooper and Reese DiGiovanni just found out that falling in love is hard. It’s even harder when you’re running for your life. (978-1-60282-786-8)
