I gripped the ring box in my other pocket and my pulse went haywire.
Was I really doing this? Asking Ella to marry me?
I grinned. Yeah. Hell, yeah. I flipped open the box while it was still hidden from her view, then tugged out the ring. The diamond was obscene. She’d need an armed guard to wear it to lunch. I didn’t care. I was only doing this once, and I wanted her to have the very best the entire world had to offer. When we walked into that party tonight, I wanted everyone in my world to know she was mine.
“Ella…” I forced myself to breathe. “We’ve been through some tough times and some wonderful times. But I think—I mean, I hope—you’ll agree that together, we make an awesome team. You make me feel whole again, and that’s something I haven’t felt in a very…”
Instead of smiling, she looked panic-stricken.
“Babe? Are you okay?”
“No, no, no…” A low groan began deep in her throat. “Please tell me you’re not doing this.”
I pulled out her ring. Took her left hand. “Ella, you’re going to marry me. Right away. You’re always going to be mine, because I’m making you my wife. No more contracts—well, unless you count our marriage license.” Like a nervous dunce, I tried slipping her giant ring on her ring finger, but it wouldn’t go on over the glove. “Babe, help me get your glove off so I can put on your ring. You’re going to die when you see how big it is.”
By now, she wasn’t just crying, but sobbing, and I just stood there like a tool, gripping her ring in my hand.
“Babe, please tell me what’s wrong. If you don’t like the ring—if it’s not big enough—we can call the jeweler tonight.”
“Liam, shut up! I-I can’t marry you. I-I thought you knew.”
My stomach seized. This wasn’t how tonight was supposed to go. What was she talking about? Right now, she was supposed to have been wildly kissing me, already chattering about plans for her flowers and gown. I vaguely remembered her once referring to her pig husband in the present tense, but that had just been my own fear scrambling her words, right? No way we’d gotten this far with her still being legally attached to another guy? She wouldn’t play me like that. “I don’t understand. You thought I knew what?”
“I-I’m already married!” She’d grown hysterical. “B-Blaine promised he’d kill me before he’d ever let me go.”
For Terry. I love you. Thanks for tagging along on this crazy ride!
BY LAURA MARIE ALTOM
The Shamed Novels
Control
Possess (coming soon)
Photo: Brenda Horan
LAURA MARIE ALTOM is the author of more than forty books in three different genres. Now that her kids are in college, Laura spends her days writing and chasing after a menagerie of pets: a mini long-haired dachshund named Cocoa, a Yorkie named Daisy, a mutt named Sweet Pea, and Domino—a black-and-white stealth cat she rarely sees. She’s happily married to her college sweetheart (go, Hogs!), and when night falls, Laura steals a few romantic moments for herself with her own hunky cover stud.
www.lauramariealtom.com
The Editor’s Corner
September 23, 2014, is the first day of Autumn, and there is nothing like cool weather to encourage us to curl up and read a good book—that we need any additional encouragement, right? Here are some great Loveswept book ideas to help you fall into the new season.
USA Today bestselling author Mira Lyn Kelly’s new Dare to Love series debuts with Truth or Dare, a fabulous contemporary romance that fans of Jill Shalvis will adore. Laura Drewry returns this month as well with the witty and tender romance Prima Donna, featuring a sexy love-shy doctor. Debut author Claudia Connor introduces the McKinney brothers in Worth the Fall, where readers meet widowed mother Abby and Navy SEAL Matt, both seeking forgiveness and looking for a way to start over. A book I’m sure readers will devour is Control by Laura Marie Altom—runaway Ella escapes an abusive marriage, dot.com billionaire Liam is used to having control, and together they are explosive. Coinciding with the World Series, Katie Rose gives us The Boys of Summer with Bring on the Heat, introducing Chase and Darcy (or is it Lydia?), in this mistaken identity love affair. And if the weather gets a little too cool, heat it up with Longing by Jamie K. Schmidt, a lighter take on erotic romance, but don’t be fooled, Anya and Clint are hot!
Lastly, don’t miss the newest Flirt title: Lauren Layne’s Broken. The second book in her Redemption series, tells the story of a girl with secrets, a guy with scars, and a love that could save them…or destroy them.
I hope you don’t miss these stories that will warm your heart and make you blush a little, too! And share your favorites with friends—we all need a little cuddle up time with a good book. Until next time…
~Happy Romance!
Gina Wachtel
Associate Publisher
Read on for an excerpt from
Possess
A Shamed Novel
by Laura Marie Altom
Available from Loveswept
“Liam?” Ella asked. Her voice sounded far away, as if the moments between my proposal and her proclamation had twisted time and the very earth beneath us until we now occupied our own islands, separated by shark-infested waters and vast, rolling banks of acid fog.
I hated her.
I loved her.
“Liam, you’re bleeding.”
I’d clenched her ring so hard that I’d cut my palm. Blood trailed down my wrists and over the stupid sapphire cuff links I’d bought on a whim when selecting her jewelry, because they’d matched her blueberry eyes. Blood stained my starched white shirt.
Kneeling alongside me, she coaxed open my fist, taking the biting bauble. She tucked it into my shirt’s chest pocket before removing my tux coat from her shoulders to wrap one sleeve around my hand. She bundled the rest, wrapping and tucking until it became a black hornet’s nest, growing off of my appendage.
“Instead of the party,” she said in a matter of fact tone, “let’s have your driver take us to the beach house. It’s been such a busy day—busy week,” she tacked on a chatty titter, “wouldn’t it be nice to ring in the new year on our own? We can make popcorn and watch a movie—anything you want. Oh—and we need to stop off for ice cream. We can’t have a party without ice cream.”
Was she even listening to herself? Why wouldn’t she stop this incessant babble?
“If you think about it, we have so much to be thankful for, and I really deep-down believe this year’s going to be great. You’ll keep growing your empire, and I’m going to start those online classes.”
“Stop.”
“You don’t want ice cream?”
I don’t want you. Your complications. Your fucked-up past.
Only, that would be a lie, because even though I knew she was bad for me—like popping an Ambien, then downing a few fingers of scotch, even if I washed my hands of her tonight, come morning, she’d still be in my head.
I didn’t want to just marry her, I wanted to possess her.
Read on for an excerpt from
Wild Nights
The Justiss Alliance Series
by Tina Wainscott
Available from Loveswept
CHAPTER 1
Saxby Cole fired the last round in his magazine, released it, and cleared the gun. He pressed the button that brought the target closer so he could inspect it. There were two holes. He’d wanted one. But that’s why he was at Justiss Alliance headquarters, after all: training and practice. Until he found a place of his own, he lived on the man-made island that Chase Justiss had developed as home base. Chase, his new boss, had made it clear that he was welcome to stay in the guest house for as long as he liked. Private island. Tropical pool and hot tub. State-of-the-art indoor firing range. Yeah, he wasn’t in any hurry.
The best part? His Navy SEAL brothers worked here, too, at least most of them. Knox, at the firing station next to his, had just returned from wrestling poor, defenseless calves and riding crazy-ass bulls in the charity rodeo at
his family’s ranch in Montana.
Knox glanced two stations over at the two couples whose laughter penetrated both the racket of gunfire and the ear protection muffle a few lanes over, then shook his head.
Sax said, “Still hard to believe, isn’t it?”
“Not just those two settling down, it’s everything. One minute we’re SEALs, kicking ass for the government. Then we’re being disciplined”—Knox made finger quotes for the word—“for carrying out a covert mission that got exposed due to no fault of our own. Our careers are shattered. Then we’re signing on to The Justiss Alliance to work in the civvie world. Even after five months, it still makes my head spin.”
It had all happened fast. The mission had exploded in their faces, exposing their ambush on an anti-cartel organization’s compound in Mexico that wasn’t so anti-cartel. At least that’s what the mole had reported. But something squirrelly had gone down, and it smelled a lot like a setup. The organization, El Martillo, had screamed to the world that the U.S. had attacked unprovoked. The U.S. government had been caught with their pants down, figuratively speaking. They didn’t want the country to know that they’d been in bed with a violent organization, even if they were supposedly doing good. El Martillo secretly threatened revenge on American tourists. So the five SEALs who’d taken on the mission were offered up as scapegoats, losing their jobs. Their careers. Sax was sure there had been other compensation, too.
When Chase Justiss approached them right after the mock trial with an offer for jobs with his private agency, Sax was as skeptical as the rest of the team. Nah, he was done chasing down bad guys and trying to do right. He was going to take his place as the “prince” of Cole, Louisiana, helping run the family’s successful grill factory and soaking in the sultry beauty of the swamps and the local gals who adored him.
It hadn’t taken him long to realize that he needed to hunt down bad guys and try to do right. It’s why he’d joined the SEALs in the first place.
Chad, his cousin, set his Glock on the shelf. “Life doesn’t tap you in the ass. She pummels you but good, then crosses her arms and waits to see what you’re going to do about it.” He lowered himself to his wheelchair, his biceps bulging.
Chad was the reason Sax couldn’t let himself feel angry, sad—anything. As a Marine he’d lost his legs in an explosion. It seemed damned disrespectful to complain about Sax’s lost career compared to those who had lost so much more.
A high-pitched whistle made everyone turn around. That was Chase’s way of letting them know he was entering the range—and wanted their attention. He wasn’t like a military leader, all serious and, in some cases, a superior hard-ass. Chase’s leadership was effective in an understated way.
His gaze honed in on Sax. “Have an op for you. Briefing in my office in ten.” He swept the others with a nod and exited.
Chad watched as everyone unloaded their guns and readied them to be put away. “Everyone goes to the meeting?”
“Chase likes to include everyone who’s onsite in case they have ideas. Come on, Cha Cha. As a new recruit, that includes you, too.”
Chad shook his head as he cleared his gun. “Don’t call me Cha Cha.”
“Just getting ready for when you start using those prosthetic legs of yours.” Sax swiveled his hips Elvis style. “I saw you in the gym the other day. You’ll be dancing in no time.”
Chad snorted. “I didn’t dance before I lost my legs. And stop watching me. It’s…disturbing.”
“Think of me as your ghost drill sergeant, making sure you’re working on your skills.” Sax gave him a wink that he knew would annoy Chad even more.
Chad growled when he wheeled past him on the way to the storage area. Sax grinned. Much better than Chad’s depression in the months after returning from Afghanistan.
Ten minutes later, they all piled into the bridge, a nod to Star Trek’s command hub. In actuality, it was a large conference room, where Chase sat at the head of the long table behind his laptop. Next to him sat Vivi, the smoking’ hot J-Man babe who’d been with The Justiss Alliance before Sax and the team joined. She covered that luscious figure well around the office, wearing professional tops that didn’t show off the curves he knew she possessed. And that was only because he’d seen her dressed for a seduction role during a case involving motorcycle gangs. That was as much as he wanted to see of her. Banging a fellow operative was on his no-no list.
Addie, Risk’s permanent squeeze, had wandered to the pool, since she wasn’t an employee. She had enough going on with her animal rescue organization. Julian held the chair for his lady, a lovely redhead who now worked as Chase’s assistant. Julian and Risk settled in, looking so damned content that Sax wanted to puke. Not out of jealousy or anything, since he wasn’t a settling down kind of guy. But still, it seemed odd, seeing them without that hungry, restless gleam in their eyes. Just wait. They’ll be bored out of their minds in no time.
Chad rolled up to the place at the table without a chair. He wasn’t officially a J-Man yet, the term some of the early operatives had dubbed themselves. But Chad was armpit deep in training and, like Sax and his SEAL brothers, needed purpose.
Once Knox closed the door and sank into the tall-back leather chair, Sax put his full focus on Chase. He drummed his fingers on the table in anticipation. “Fill me in, Chief.”
The chief was notoriously tight-lipped when it came to an upcoming mission. He said nothing until he had the all-clear. “Have you heard of the resort in the Bahamas called Decadence?”
Sax’s fingers stopped drumming. “The clothing-optional party resort where rumors of hot tub orgies abound? Please tell me that’s where you’re sending me.”
The corner of Chase’s mouth twitched in a smile that clearly wanted to form. “That’s where I’m sending you.”
Sax swallowed back a shout of joy. He was being paid to go to Decadence. Could life get any better? “Excellent.” There, a nice and subdued response.
Chase projected an image from his laptop onto the wall, a map of the Bahamas with one small island circled. “Shasta is a private island, owned by Darius Mitchell.”
“One of the best quarterbacks in the history of football?” Risk asked, sounding just as excited as Sax had about the resort itself.
“One and the same.”
“Dude’s been on more magazine covers than Cindy Crawford, has the record for the most touchdowns in a season.”
Chase nodded. “He was born in the Bahamas, came to America to play college football, and went pro. Since retiring, he’s founded a children’s charity and funds several projects to help the poor. Before he became benevolent, he bought this island and built a resort. It has garnered quite the reputation, as Sax pointed out, though the orgies are merely rumors. In any case, it’s one of the world’s premier party destinations.”
Chase flew through several images that probably came from the resort’s website, pictures of beautiful, half-naked women dancing, covered in body paint, and swimming up to a water-logged bar in a huge pool.
Sax wagged his finger back and forth. “Can you go back to that last one?”
Chase arched an eyebrow but did not return to the glistening bare back of the babe sitting at said bar. Instead, he flipped to a picture of a handsome black man. “This is Darius. Though he owns the resort, he’s tried to distance himself from it since the scandal he suffered a few years back.”
“A woman accused him of drugging her on their date and then raping her,” Risk offered. “The case was dropped for lack of evidence, but it still tore up his rep.”
“He immersed himself in charity work soon thereafter,” Chase said. “Hasn’t been in a lick of trouble since. But it appears there may be a big problem at Decadence. Women have been complaining about waking up with no memory of the night before…but with evidence that they’d had sex. It looks like they’re being drugged. The problem is that many women in this position don’t report it. They’re too embarrassed or feel that because they were drinking, the author
ities won’t take them seriously or will think they deserved it. And because they can’t remember anything, there isn’t much to go on.
“But it happened to the daughter of someone at the Department of State. She said the manager of the resort, who’s Darius’s brother, Oscar, listened sympathetically, but basically dismissed her claim, inferring that she’d simply blacked out. There’s no law enforcement on the island, other than the resort’s security office. So this woman started questioning other women, then did research when she returned home. She found a few postings on review sites.
“Her mother, the State employee, dug further and found a few formal reports to spur some official interest. She spoke to the Bahamian government, who admitted that they’d had a few complaints. But it’s a party resort with an open bar policy. Of course people are going to get so drunk that they end up having sex without memory of the event. Darius is their golden boy who helps out his people. They want to be very careful about causing him trouble unless there’s proof.”
That bit of news tainted all those images of sexy, barely-clad women. “Are they selling date rape drugs to any perv who wants to score?” Sax could hear the outrage leaking into his voice.
Chase gave him a fierce smile. “That’s what you’re going to find out. We’ve been unofficially retained by the Department of State to find evidence of criminal activity. Once they have it, they can step in because it involves Americans. From experience, I know that the Bahamian government is happy to help us in these kinds of matters, but they prefer to remain in the background.”
“I’m in.” Sax fumed at the thought of women being taken advantage of. He thought of his own sisters, sweet, sassy southern women. It didn’t matter how strong a woman was, if she’d been given one of these insidious drugs, she was helpless. Sax could see that Julian was thinking of his sisters by the fire in his eyes.
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