Enough already.
“Looks splendid.” He wheeled his chair back a few inches. “Do you need to do more or—?”
“No, it’s, um, all set up now.” She straightened, smoothed her skirt and picked up the water bottle. “I’ll go take a look and flag anything that looks important. Of course, you’ll still have total control of it all. You’re the final word.”
“Thank you.” Was the minx baiting him on purpose? Likely had no idea what fire she was playing with. “Now, if you’d leave me be, I’ll attempt to get some work done. As should you.”
“Of course. Sir.” She gave him a little smile and walked back across the office. He stared at the reconfigured email so as not to watch that enticing bottom swinging pertly under her short jacket. “Mr. Knight?”
“What is it?” He snapped it out, wishing she would leave, let him clear his mind.
“I want to do a good job here.” She stood in the doorway, hands demurely folded around her water bottle. “If you have any feedback on my performance, or...corrections. I’d be grateful.”
Helpless to do otherwise, he watched her until she went out of sight, dark fantasies crowding into his brain.
Available now wherever Carina Press ebooks are sold.
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Copyright @ 2015 by Jeffe Kennedy
To purchase and read more books by Jeffe Kennedy,
please visit her website here or at
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Acknowledgments
Huge thanks to my longtime CPA-extraordinaire, Pam Dunnuck. She not only keeps me on the up and up with the IRS, but she took time during tax season to vet the finances in this book. She also turned out to be an amazing source of ideas for additional plot twists related to debt and taxes. If only I could have used them all. Any errors are mine. Which is what we’d tell the IRS, too, ironically enough.
Special thanks to Madhu Ahuja Zierath, Gamma Phi Beta sister from way back, who generously answered questions about dance teams. Her talented daughter, Rani Zierath, is a graduating senior with the varsity Plano West Royales.
Thanks to Sandy James, a wealth of information on snarking up teacher names; Jodi Griffin for the gazelle joke; Lynda Ryba, Lorelie Brown and Mermaid Sharon for advice on Los Angeles places and logistics.
This is apparently a book influenced by old college friends. Thanks to Lesley Malin for the incredibly self-indulgent and expensive coffeemaker information and Scott Malin for giving me the best cup of coffee I’ve had in my life.
Thanks to the lovely gentleman at the Getty Villa who answered my questions with some bemusement, then enthusiastically debated whether guests could likely cross PCH at night.
Thanks to Lynn Spencer for suggesting “meaner than a striped snake” and “useless as tits on a bull.”
Also thanks to my own fabulous Larry, Larry Redlin, for consulting on Tina’s hairstyle.
As always, deep gratitude to my crit partners—Marcella Burnard, Anne Calhoun, Carolyn Crane and Anna Philpot—who keep me grounded and always say such smart things about my stories, even when they’re a mess.
Thanks to brilliant and supportive editor Deb Nemeth, Angela James, and all the Carina Press team. Our tenth book together—amazing!
Special thanks to Dana Almos, for being awesome, generous and working her magic as a favor.
And, of course, a big thank-you to David, for passing food and wine under the door, and saying all the right things at exactly the right time.
Also available from Jeffe Kennedy
and Carina Press
in the Falling Under Series
Going Under
Under His Touch
The Facets of Passion Series
Sapphire
Platinum
Ruby
Five Golden Rings
The Covenant of Thorns Trilogy
Suggested Reading Order
Rogue’s Pawn
Rogue’s Possession
Rogue’s Paradise
About the Author
Jeffe Kennedy is an award-winning author whose works include nonfiction, poetry, short fiction and novels. She has been a Ucross Foundation Fellow, received the Wyoming Arts Council Fellowship for Poetry and was awarded a Frank Nelson Doubleday Memorial Award. Her essays have appeared in many publications, including Redbook.
Her most recent works include a number of fiction series: the fantasy romance novels of A Covenant of Thorns; the contemporary BDSM novellas of the Facets of Passion; and an erotic contemporary serial novel, Master of the Opera. A fourth series, the fantasy trilogy The Twelve Kingdoms, hit the shelves starting in May 2014. Book one, The Mark of the Tala, received a starred Library Journal review and has been nominated for the RT Book Reviews Book of the Year, while the sequel, The Tears of the Rose, has been nominated for best fantasy romance of the year. A fifth series is the well-received erotic romance trilogy, Falling Under, starting with Going Under, followed by Under His Touch and Under Contract.
She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with two Maine coon cats, plentiful free-range lizards and a very handsome doctor of oriental medicine.
Jeffe can be found online at her website, jeffekennedy.com, every Sunday at the popular Word Whores blog, on Facebook, and pretty much constantly on Twitter, @jeffekennedy. She is represented by Connor Goldsmith of Fuse Literary.
Fallen for Jeffe Kennedy’s Falling Under series? You’re in luck! Books one and two are available now!
GOING UNDER
Falling Under, book one
“Kennedy shows her talent for organic relationship-building in this erotic romance; both Emily and Fox display emotional growth and maturity, and their relationship develops from tentative flirting to domination to equality without feeling forced or implausible.”
—Publishers Weekly
UNDER HIS TOUCH
Falling Under, book two
“[UNDER HIS TOUCH] has all the addictive tension and high-stakes passion that fans crave. Her main couple’s interactions are intense from the start, and she doesn’t shy away from either realistic details or dreamy fantasies. Best of all, she moves beyond their overwhelming physical passion to the emotions that drive them both, including the achingly real fears that threaten their happiness. As a result, this book is as touching as it is torrid.”
—RT Book Reviews
Visit Jeffe Kennedy online for info on upcoming releases, her NSFW Tumblr feed and more at JeffeKennedy.com
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Don’t miss the erotic thriller ONE CUT DEEPER!
ONE CUT DEEPER
A Killer Need, book one
“One of the best books I’ve read this year.”
—SM Book Obsessions
Her needs are dark. His are dangerous.
The FBI says the man she loves is a serial killer. A broken heart and a desperate desire to be dominated make her the perfect victim. But their dark desires are what bonds them...would he actually kill her?
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ISBN-13: 9781459290013
Under Contract
Copyright © 2015 by Jennifer M. Kennedy
Edited by Deborah Nemeth
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.
All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
® and ™ are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Intellectual Property Office and in other countries.
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Under Contract Page 34
