by Dani Dundee
I don’t realize how hard I’m shaking until she wraps her arms around me and whispers my name over and over again.
“Shh, calm down, Micah. Micah, hey, hey… You’re okay. It’s okay.”
I somehow turn around and catch her in my arms, crush her to me. The scent of her hair calms me down, the feel of her naked body distracts me just enough to relax my hold on her before I hurt her.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper.
“What for? For doing what you had to in order to survive?” She pulls back to look at me. There’s a fire in her eyes. “Thank you.”
I narrow my eyes at her, utterly lost. “What for?”
“For making it out of that hell alive and sane. For finding me.” She squeezes me, kisses my cheek. “Thank you.”
Heat builds behind my brow. My eyes sting. “Ev…”
“It wasn’t your fault.” Her gaze is steady and clear. “If anything, I apologize.”
“You what?” Yeah, one hundred percent lost. “Whatever for?”
“On behalf of a world that failed you so spectacularly. You shouldn’t have to pretend to be unconscious to avoid being beaten to death. You shouldn’t have to hide under a bed not to get kicked around. You shouldn’t have to fight for a blanket so you don’t freeze in winter. You…” She peppers my face with kisses, and I’m still like a statue, absorbing her words. “You had to fend for yourself, and you did your best. So stop beating yourself up about it.”
“Shit.”
Nobody has said these things to me before. Granted, I never talked about this to anyone. Not even to Seth, who knows quite a bit about me, since we room together. I assumed she’d hate me when she knew.
“Were those orderlies who were beating you larger than you?” she asks.
I blink at her. “Yeah. Hell yeah, we were just kids.”
“What about the bullies? Were they stronger than you?”
I nod, wondering where she’s going with all this.
“What you’ve told me…” She shakes her head, her curls bouncing. “I hear such stories all the time now. Listen to me, Micah. You didn’t start the fights, or beat other kids up. You were not an instigator, you were a victim. This isn’t on you. And nobody can blame you for trying to stay alive.”
The more she talks, the easier my breathing becomes. She’s not mad at me. She’s not leaving me. She’s not blaming me. She says maybe it’s not my fault.
Not sure I believe that last one, but a ghost of a doubt stirs in my mind.
What if she’s right?
Yeah, right. Whatever.
But she wouldn’t lie to me, would she? Ev isn’t like that. She really thinks it’s not my fault, and now my heart’s racing for a different reason.
“… talk to a counselor,” she’s saying. She puts a warm hand on my cheek. “Are you listening to me, Micah Owens, or am I talking to the walls?”
I shake my head, and a bark of laughter escapes me. “You think a counselor can help me?”
“Maybe. You lose nothing by trying. At least you’ll get to hear from more than one person – that’d be me – that you should stop feeling bad about the hell of your past, and that your guilt is misplaced. That you should be glad you survived.”
“You think?” Doubtful – and yet more hopeful than ever.
“I think, yes.” She smiles, and my eyes burn like fire. “So can I?”
“What?” I wipe a hand over my face, and it feels wet. My voice cracks a little. “What, Ev?”
“Move in with you.” She now cups my cheeks in both hands and plants a soft kiss on my mouth. “Please?”
I laugh again, no idea why. I feel so happy all of a sudden, it’s like a punch to the gut. I feel dizzy, vaguely sick, terrified, and light like a hot-air balloon.
“I love you,” I whisper, and haul her back into my lap. I guide myself into her and she gasps, her eyes flying wide as I slide deep into her in one long thrust. “More than anything and anyone. More than my life. You keep saving me, Evangeline Kingsley, every year, and every month, and every day.”
“I’m yours,” she says, and when I rock inside her, she moans, a throaty sound that shoots straight to my cock. “Love you more every day, every month, and will love you more with every year that passes.”
I want that. To be with her for the rest of my life. The realization dawns that I don’t just want her to move in with me. I want to marry her and have children with her. Grow old with her.
Jesus. Talk about a revelation. But one thing at a time.
I lift up on my elbows and grab her hips, then I flip us over so I’m looking down at her, pushing into her, buried to the root in her velvet heat. Her eyes fly wide and I grin as I raise her legs and wrap them around my waist. I bent my head until our foreheads touch and push deeper, a roll of my pelvis that has her gasping.
“Hold on tight,” I say against her parted lips and pull back, then thrust back into her slick core. Again and again I slide into her, and she meets my thrusts, holding on to my shoulders and rocking up. The world narrows down to my girl, to her panting breaths, her half-lidded eyes, her silky skin.
“Micah…” she whispers my name, and then cries out, clenching around me.
This time she really knows me, knows all about me, and I sob out her name as I come undone, spilling inside her. Claiming her, marking her. Wanting her like no other girl, ever.
All the things I never said are now laid out in front of her, and in spite of them, she still chose me, still loves me.
And I love her more than ever.
***
Micah and Evangeline have their own novel, recounting how they met and fell in love. Their story is Book 1 in the Damage Control series:
MICAH
(Damage Control, #1)
There’s me: Micah Owens. Tattoo artist at Damage Control. No parents or siblings. A past that still gives me nightmares.
And then there’s her: Evangeline, the girl who saved my life and haunts my more pleasant dreams. Only she doesn’t know who I really am, and telling her might well send her fleeing for the hills. She deserves better than a loser like me. She’s pretty. She’s clever. She’s goddamn sexy and has a heart of gold.
Which is why I can’t tell her. A smile from her and I’ll do all I can to make her mine – including pretending to be someone I’m not, someone worth having.
Isn’t love weird?
NOW FREE!
Download MICAH at:
Amazon
Curious about who the owners and friends of Damage Control? If you haven’t met the Inked Brotherhood, (ASHER, TYLER, ZANE, DYLAN and RAFE, series now complete), why not start at the very beginning, with ASHER:
ASHER
(Inked Brotherhood, #1)
Almost three years ago, a car crash took Audrey’s dad and scarred her for life. Now eighteen, she returns to her hometown for the first time after the accident.
She’s here to start again. Go to college and have fun. Make new friends. Get over the past.
But the past won’t let go.
Asher is here—her first kiss, her first heartbreak. More handsome and distant than ever, he’s still the boy who used to be her best friend. That was before he changed into someone she hardly knows anymore—the boy who started getting into fights and gave her the cold shoulder for years.
Asher isn’t what she needs. In fact, she hates him and should try her best to keep away from him.
Yet her body doesn’t seem to care about how she feels, and maybe, just maybe this time her body got it right. Not that she has much of a choice. Asher draws her like a bright flame, and if she isn’t careful, she’ll burn.
And that may not be such a bad thing after all...
Find ASHER at:
Amazon
About Jo Raven
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Jo Raven writes contemporary New Adult romance. She loves sexy bad boys and strong-willed heroines, and divides her time between writing and reading. When not cooking up plots,
she putters in her cluttered kitchen and dreams of traveling to India and Japan.
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Table of Contents
Red Hot Candy
Table of Contents
The Things I Never Said by Jo Raven
Perfectly Equipped by Lacey Silks
Billionaires in Disguise: Rae, Kidnapped by Blair Babylon
A Fan-TAB-Ulous Night by Olivia Rigal
Take it Easy by Daisy Prescott
Before Flesh by Sky Corgan
Scorched into Submission by Daizie Draper
Pandora's Box by Sarah M. Cradit
Braving Love by SJ Mayer
Always Enough by Molly McLain
Mine In Dreams by Olivia Hardin
Like Home by Mira Bailee
Unshakeable by JC Valentine
Yearning to Yield by Pavarti K Tyler
First-Class Scoundrel by Liv Morris
Mated in Bearfield by Jacqueline Sweet
Le Moulin by JC Andrijeski
Jesse's Girl by Alison Foster
Dude by Gillian Cherry
Biker Billionaire's Bitch by Layla Wilcox
Swaying Fate by Irma Geddon
Gender Studies 101 by Dani Dundee
Disclaimers and Copyright Notices
PERFECTLY EQUIPPED
by Lacey Silks
PERFECTLY EQUIPPED
by Lacey Silks
PERFECTLY EQUIPPED © Lacey Silks 2015
I’m a widowed mother. I’m not looking for love, but I guess my best friend thinks it’s time to find some man-candy.
Her words, not mine. And she’s way more adventurous than me.
So when she takes me on a vacation to a nudist resort, that’s the last place I expect to find the man of my dreams. A perfectly equipped man who takes my breath away and makes me forget about my secrets.
His name is Sean and he had me the moment I saw his crotch.
CHAPTER ONE
“Stop covering your crotch and boobs,” Millie whispered as loudly as she dared. “You’re going to draw attention.”
“You don’t think being naked draws enough?” I squeezed the sarcasm between my teeth without moving my lips. How in the world had I let my friend talk me into vacationing at a nudist resort?
That’s right! She had neglected to tell me what her great idea of “letting loose” entailed until I saw a middle-aged man’s ding-dong wiggle around as he passed us in the hallway. It was only day one and I was already regretting giving Millie the reins to organize our vacation.
We walked down the stairs of a steep hilltop toward the beach. Keeping my legs criss-crossed with each step, I lost my balance and almost tumbled all the way down to the bottom. Shaking the image of my rolling limbs away, I turned sideways and held onto the railing, letting my beach bag cover my private areas.
“April, you need to relax. You’ve wasted the entire summer locked up at work. You’re becoming more like your patients every day.”
“My patients are dead.”
“Exactly. I’m making it my mission to hook you up. I’m sure you’ll find someone here you like. This way, at least there are no hidden surprises.” She wiggled her brows as she air-quoted “hidden.”
Was she trying to remind me of the last guy I dated, whom we’d appropriately nicknamed Pinkie? And where had she gotten the crazy idea that I was looking for anyone? I had happily spent the summer with my son, Parker, lazing around the pool. He was starting grade one in a week and growing up too quickly. The next few years were probably the last ones I had before he ran off into the sunset with a girl.
“Besides, better to flaunt your stuff before it wrinkles and sags.”
“Wrinkles are a natural part of life. As for sags, well, I’ll just keep running in the mornings, and hopefully gravity will not be too cruel to me.”
She rolled her eyes. “Yes, I’m really looking forward to the creases in my face underneath an inch of makeup. It’s time to expand your horizons.”
“My horizons haven’t been expanded in a long time.” I chuckled.
“That’s my point! I really think it’s time to move on. It’s been two years, April.”
I paused at the bottom of the stairs, looking around for a spot with the least amount of nakedness. It might have been two years since Simon died, but to me it seemed like only yesterday that I was leaning over his body as the blood pooled underneath him, watching life fade from his eyes.
Millie pulled on my hand, lowering it off my breasts. “I swear, if you keep covering them, people will want to see what’s underneath. You need to become one with the environment.”
She pinched her three fingers and extended her arms, bending her elbows. She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, as if Hawaii had the purest air in the world and she couldn’t get enough. Was she about to school me on the teachings of Zen she’d been reading? I loved my friend – she’d seen me through hell and back – but Millie’s latest obsession with what she referred to as becoming one with the environment was driving me nuts.
“Thanks, guru.”
“I’m serious, April. If you ever want to meet a good man, you need to expunge all that negative energy in your body and surround yourself with happiness, nature, and sunshine.”
Was it bad that I preferred to have the places where the sun didn’t shine covered up?
“Give this place a try. Come on. You have the perkiest tits I’ve seen.”
“You’re looking at my breasts?”
“They’re right there.”
Urgh, she was so frustrating! Even more so than my two brothers, who thankfully had no clue about the destination of my vacation – at least, that’s what Millie had said. The last thing I wanted was to run into anyone I knew here, or to ever see anyone from here again.
“Okay, where to?” I asked. It was only nine in the morning. The pool behind the beach seemed crowded, and by ‘crowded’ I meant it had a handful of people there. I had the urge to sink into a Jacuzzi and stay hidden under the bubbling water until night time, but when I thought about all those who sat there before me, naked and doing god knows what, and all the bacteria multiplying by the millions, I opted for the beach.
“I’m just going to tan a while,” I said.
“But there’s no one at the beach yet.” Millie looked at me with her confused pouty face.
“Exactly.” I shifted my beach bag to the front to cover myself up.
“You suck.”
“I bet you suck more often than I do.”
She smirked. “True. Because I don’t avoid men on purpose.”
I usually didn’t avoid people. Heck, in my job as a forensic pathologist and analyst, I was sometimes forced to work with people – dead people, mostly, but still, at least they had a sheet covering them and weren’t judgmental. On this nudist vacation, the more secluded I stayed, the better. And hopefully all of Millie’s efforts to get me to interact with the opposite sex while naked would fail.
“I’ll see you later, you prude.” She waved and headed for the pool.
“See you, perv.”
I found the first available lounge chair, set my bag on top, creating something of a barrier between the resort and myself, and spread my towel over the sand. Hopefully none of it would get in any cracks it wasn’t supposed to.
I lay down on my front. Yes, my ass was still on display, but at least it was one of my nicer assets – pun intended. Ideally, most of the crowd would remain by the pool. I could already hear Millie’s cheerful laugh as she probably flirted with someone. Should I really have been surprised that she’d chosen this resort? My friend liked to live on the edge. Zero responsibilities, no commitments, and a truckload of fun.
Unable to remember the last time I’d let my guard down, I frowned. Unfortunately my life had no room for recklessness. I’ve av
oided jail, and a potential life sentence, once and that was one time too many. Maybe getting away from the chaos back home was exactly what I needed. I turned my head to the side and admired the exclusive building on top of the cliff where we were staying. If there was anything nice about this resort, it was the scenery and this secluded cove. Given the steep cliffs at each side, no one could enter the private property unless they were a guest, which made me feel somewhat more comfortable.
Feeling the sun warm my body, I closed my eyes. I thought it was only for a moment and didn’t realize I’d dozed off until someone cleared their throat at my side. When I opened my eyes at the sound and slightly lifted my gaze to the crouching man by my head, my mind screamed, “No, no!” My denied body, of course, reacted in the opposite way: “Yes, yes!”
There it was, no more than a foot away, hanging between his parted legs – a cock the size of which I’d never seen before.
CHAPTER TWO
“You should put some sunscreen on, or you’ll burn.”
“What?” I asked, shading my eyes, turning awkwardly not to reveal the rest of my flushed body. As I lifted my eyes higher, I noticed the evenly tanned man was younger than the maturity of his deep voice suggested. Much younger. I should have guessed that by his endowment, which was still hanging not far away from my face, and seemed to have hardened a bit.
He looked fit, toned, and actually, now that my gaze had adjusted to the bright light, quite fine. There was a sprinkle of chest hair on his pecs with a shimmer of silver, and a kind smile on his face. He was clean cut, with a sharp jaw, and about my age – mid-thirties. At that moment I was grateful to be a woman and that my body didn’t betray the way this man’s physique was affecting me. At least not too obviously. My pebbled nipples were beginning to hurt when I turned slightly toward him and brushed against the towel. And the pool party between my legs was definitely in a riot.
