He leaned down and slid an arm around her waist, helping her to her feet. “You mind filling me in on how you even got free?”
“I rolled myself off the bed and cut the rope on the metal frame. There’s a sharp corner that I’ve cut my foot on more than once while climbing into bed.”
Smart girl. “So when I found you on the floor and scooped you back up, you were probably already halfway through your ropes?”
“Pretty much.”
He grunted and steered her toward the kitchen. “You’re bleeding.”
“I’m a shifter—it’ll stop fast.”
“Still, it wouldn’t hurt you to wash the cuts. That frame might be rusty and why risk any slowed healing?”
“Does it matter? I have a feeling you wouldn’t mind seeing me suffer.”
Christ. This again. “It’s not my intent to hurt you, Sage. I can’t stress that enough.”
“Then what is your intent?”
“I just need a place to lay low. To figure out a few things.” He turned on the sink and gently pulled her wrists under the water. “And you’re going to help me with that.”
She winced as he added soap over her raw but already healing wrists. “Not exactly willing here.”
Their heads were close and he was suddenly all too aware of her as a female. The wrist he held was delicate and soft, and the scent of her shampoo mixed with the citrus soap he was using to wash her wounds.
“It would be a little weird if you were,” he finally agreed.
Her gaze lifted to meet his. Searching. “Are you really a P.I.A. agent?”
“Yes. And not just an agent. I’m also the commander of my unit.”
She shook her head, her breathing not quite as steady now. Was it from the information he’d just divulged, or their proximity?
“You sound as if you should be one of the good guys. What did you do?”
He was a good guy. Or so he’d used to think. He shrugged, not quite ready to answer that. Not quite sure he could.
So he changed the subject instead.
“This could’ve been so much easier on both of us, Sage. At the bar last night I was trying to make you fall for me. Trying to gain your trust so you’d willingly take me home.”
“I’m sorry I was so uncooperative.” Her sarcasm ran rampant. “And I don’t take men home.”
When he glanced up at her, her gaze had slid to his mouth.
Interesting. Maybe she was a more aware of him than she cared to admit. Her tongue darted out to wet her lips and everything primal inside him responded.
He turned off the sink and maneuvered her against it, straddling her legs with his own.
“Well I guarantee you if I’d been the one kissing you outside instead of your pretty musician, you would’ve taken me home.”
She swallowed hard and met his gaze once more. The amount of defiance there was outweighed by excitement.
“For a criminal, you’re awfully full of yourself. It would take more than a kiss for me to have brought you home.”
“Careful, Sage,” he warned softly and leaned in closer. His breath mingled with hers. “Because that almost sounds like a challenge.”
He heard it then. The slow thud of her heart that had become a pounding thunder. She didn’t reply to his statement, and the wolf within him rose to the surface in an instant.
Was he right? Was she as physically drawn to him right now as he was to her?
Maybe he was going about this wrong. Maybe if he tried to seduce her mind—her heart—he’d have her cooperation. She’d stop trying to escape and break his skull in.
Or maybe, you just want to charter the inside of her mouth with your tongue.
Whatever it was, the primitive side of him was far too close to the surface to be denied now.
He lowered his head and lightly touched his lips to hers—waited for her to pull away. She was so soft. Wonderfully sweet.
She didn’t move, though her shoulders tensed. A moment later she gave a stiff shrug. “See? That did noth—”
He didn’t let her finish that thought before he’d crushed his mouth on hers again. Not gentle this time, but with the sole intent to explore that amazing mouth deeper. To conquer and take.
She whimpered in shock before he effortlessly pierced her compressed lips with his tongue, determined to taste the soft warmth inside.
For a moment, she tried to push him away, her hands shoving against his bare shoulders, but as he gentled his kiss—switched his intent from conquer to seduce—she grew pliant in his arms.
As he flicked his tongue against hers in teasing, gentle strokes, she began to answer back. The hands that had tried to push him away a moment ago now kneaded and stroked the bare skin of his shoulders.
The control that he always prided himself on—that had been so tightly wound—began to unravel. His thoughts grew hazy, and for a moment he couldn’t be sure who was actually in control. Who was seducing who.
He reached down and caught her ass, lifting her easily onto the edge of the sink and stepping between her thighs.
Her legs wrapped around him and the intimate heat of her body cradled the now rock-hard flesh of his dick.
Christ, he was losing it, but he couldn’t stop.
The shifter inside him was near the surface and riding the rush. If the basic human male’s instincts were to eat, fight and fuck, then the shifter male’s instincts for those were twice as strong. Nathan had managed to scratch eating off the list, but the other two were long overdue. There was adrenaline running through his blood, and fighting Sage wasn’t remotely an option.
But maybe fucking her was.
Delving his hands into the damp curls of her hair, he tugged her head back and pulled his mouth from hers.
He trailed slow kisses down her jawline. Exploring. Tasting. Feeling her heart beating in the pulse beneath his tongue.
“Nate…” she whispered, sounding almost drugged, and making no move to stop him now. “Is…oh…is Nate really your name?”
“Nate. Nathan. Larson. Sir. I get them all.” How was she still able to talk? Maybe this was a good time to try and get information out of her. “You’re a writer?”
While waiting for her to answer, he teased the wildly beating pulse in her neck again with is tongue.
“Oh…yes.” She made a soft, fluttery sigh. “Romance novels.”
Nice. He hid a smile but was all too aware of the curve of a full breast that was just inches from his chin. The need touch it—to taste it—was so fierce and blatant he felt like a horny teenager.
But even as he moved his hand to touch her, he flashed back to last night and the way the musician had groped her. The way she’d flinched and drawn back.
Slow down, asshole. Remember, this is about seduction to gain her cooperation, not about getting your rocks off.
He trailed his kisses lower, to the curve of her breast above the sleeveless cotton dress. Then he paused. Waited to see how she’d react. If she’d push him away, freeze up or…
The whimper she made was husky and needy, and her back arched just slightly to lift her breast higher toward his lips.
It was the only invitation he needed to tug down the dress and thick fabric of her bra and bare her to him. Her breast spilled free, so milky white and full. The strawberry-colored tip was already hardened.
Shit. If he’d had even the slightest bit of control left before, it had just disappeared.
Once the fuse is lit, there’s only one way to extinguish the flames.
His Obsession Next Door
© 2014 Cathryn Fox
In the Line of Duty, Book 1
Years ago, Cole Sullivan made a battlefield promise sealed in a dying man’s blood—to take care of his best friend’s little sister. Now he’s forced to live with the fact that Gemma Matthews is completely off limits.
Though Gemma’s always had a crush on the darkly handsome, far-too-serious explosives expert, she can’t forget the sting of his rejection. Now here they are, ten years later,
with Cole still stubbornly in the role of protector. But when she catches him watching her from his house next door, she jumps at the opportunity to show him everything he’s been missing.
Cole can barely keep his cool at Gemma’s bedroom window performance. He’s never been a risk taker, but her all-out campaign of seduction ignites a fuse that can only blow up in his face.
All thoughts of backing off are swept away in the heat of reckless passion. Leaving him wondering how he will live with himself amid the razor-sharp shards of his broken promise.
Warning: Contains a smoking-hot explosives expert and enough heat to set an ammunition depot ablaze.
Enjoy the following excerpt for His Obsession Next Door:
“What do you think you’re doing?” Gemma asked as Cole moved in to take Douglas’s place.
Strong hands circled her hips. The roughness of his palms felt erotic as he pulled her into a tight embrace, anchoring her body firmly to his. When his warm, familiar scent curled around her, a shiver raced down her spine. She shifted but there was nothing she could do to conceal the telltale hardening of her nipples as they pressed against his even harder chest. Dark eyes met hers unflinchingly. The intensity in his gaze frightened her as much as it excited her.
“Maybe I should be the one asking you that question.”
Feeling slightly breathless as their bodies swayed together, not to mention the way his firmness meshed against her softness, she jutted her chin out and asked, “I have no idea what you mean.”
“You know full well what I mean,” he bit out, appearing more pained with each passing second.
“I’m afraid you’ll have to elaborate. The only thing I’m doing is trying to raise funds—”
“That’s not all you’re raising,” he groaned.
“What do you mean?” she asked, feigning innocence.
“Stop leaving your curtains open.”
She blinked. “My curtains?” His hand trailed lower on her back, and when his big fingers splayed over her sensitive flesh, the air instantly charged. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” As a wave of heated anticipation prowled through her bloodstream, she realized there was nothing impersonal in the way he was touching her.
“And stop parading around in nothing but slinky underwear,” he added, clearly not buying her story.
She wet her lips, and gave a casual shrug. “I didn’t think it would bother you, considering…”
His nostrils flared and between clenched teeth he said, “You were a kid, Gems.”
“Well I’m not a kid anymore now, am I?” she challenged, her pulse leaping with renewed excitement. She had the sneaking suspicion her devious plan had actually worked, and that she’d somehow gotten under Cole’s skin.
A strange, strangled noise sounded in his throat as he drew in a ragged breath. “Maybe not.” He fingered the silky material on her dress. “But underneath this façade, this life you built for yourself, you’re still that same wild child, aren’t you?”
Her heart sank. She must have misread him. She steeled herself, waiting for the lecture. “Cole, I…” she began, wanting to make it perfectly clear to him she didn’t need his protection.
“I never said I didn’t like that side of you, Gems.”
Everything in the way his voice softened when he said her name had her realizing she hadn’t misinterpreted him at all. A slow lick of flame moved over her flesh and liquid desire settled deep between her thighs. “Well if you must know, I’ll probably always have a wild side, but believe me I’m not a child anymore.”
His nostrils flared, like he was waging some sort of internal war. He clenched his teeth harder, the muscles along his jaw rippling. Her glance went back to his and when she saw the desire reflecting there, a shudder moved through her body.
Arousal thickened his voice and volatile heat backlit dark eyes full of raw lust when he whispered, “What are we doing?”
Her heart missed a beat. Everything from the tortured way he was looking at her, to the way his body was pressed against hers—one part in particular—spoke volumes. Cole Sullivan, the same guy she’d been lusting after for ten long years, was finally seeing her as something more than his friend’s rebellious kid sister. She’d be damned if she wasn’t going to do something about it.
Her nipples scraped against his chest and she murmured, “We’re doing what we should have done a long time ago.”
He frowned and gave a hard shake of his head. He rested his hands on her hips as if he was having second thoughts. “I need to get out of here.”
He continued to press against her, his body telling an entirely different story—he wanted her in his bed as much as she wanted to be there.
She wasn’t sure about the demons that haunted him or why he’d want to deny himself what his body craved. But now that she had him right where she’d always wanted him, the rebellion from her youth had turned into fierce determination and she wasn’t about to let him flee again.
With her body beckoning his touch, she pushed her hips into him. In a voice full of invitation she said, “If you need to go somewhere I have a room upstairs.”
He exhaled slowly. “I’m pretty sure that’s not going to help me cool off.”
“You can take a cold shower.” She ran her hands through his hair, went up on her toes and purposely put her mouth to his ear when she added, “Or a hot one.”
“Gems,” he murmured, his hands circling her hips. Once again as sexual tension hung heavy. “We shouldn’t be doing this.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. I want you.” She ran her hands over his lapels. Even though the tough soldier cleaned up nicely and looked rather dashing in his suit, underneath the clothes he was still that same rough and rugged, fiercely protective guy who hung out at her family’s ranch. “I’ve always wanted you.”
“Gemma—”
She molded her body against his, aware of the explosive heat arcing between them. “Why don’t you sneak me to my room like you used to do when we were younger, and instead of lecturing me, I think you should strip me naked and spend the rest of the night in my bed, inside me.”
Loch and Key
Shelli Stevens
All the military training in the world won’t help him knock down her walls.
The McLaughlins, Book 3
Years ago a terrifying attack left Kenzie McLaughlin trusting only a few men in her insular life on Whidbey Island—her brothers and her father. But when a sexy Navy guy who waltzes into the family pub doesn’t hesitate to makes his interest known, no amount of mental red flags are enough to keep her from being tempted to dip a toe back into the dating pool.
Twice burned in the past, Brett Craven has sworn off serious relationships, at least while he’s still in the Navy. A gorgeous redhead with a fiery wit and wariness of men, though, has blown his well-reasoned strategy out of the water.
There’s no denying the attraction between the two, but Kenzie teeters on a tightrope anchored on one end by hope, the other by caution. Because if she lets her guard down long enough to fall for Brett, it could leave her vulnerable to the one man who’s been left free to prey upon her fear.
Warning: This book contains a sexy Navy Chief and a gun-shy redhead. Make-out sex. Full-on sex. Whisky tasting. And a douchebag villain who can’t forget the one who got away.
eBooks are not transferable.
They cannot be sold, shared or given away as it is an infringement on the copyright of this work.
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
11821 Mason Montgomery Road Suite 4B
Cincinnati OH 45249
Loch and Key
Copyright © 2014 by Shelli Stevens
ISBN: 978-1-61922-127-7
Edited by Tera Kleinfelter
Cover by Angela Waters
All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
First Samhain Publishing, Ltd. electronic publication: April 2014
www.samhainpublishing.com
Table of Contents
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
About the Author
Look for these titles by Shelli Stevens
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Back Cover Copy
Copyright Page
Loch and Key: McLaughlins, Book 3 Page 19
