Burn (7 page)

“Ally, look at me.” I forced my eyelids open. He leaned down and kissed me. A gentle peck meant to soothe. “It’s like I told you. I’m opening a new branch of my software company in Columbus. I’m staying in Lancaster. I’m not going anywhere, baby girl.”

It was too good to be true. Surely I was dreaming. “What about New York?

You’re the owner, you can’t just move.”

“Exactly, I’m the owner. I can do whatever I want.” He shrugged. “Besides, I can make a few trips a month and deal with any problems that might arise.” He moved off me and immediately I wanted him back. I missed his warmth.

When he lay down beside me and wrapped an arm around my middle then a leg over both of mine, I felt better. I felt protected.

With his head propped on his fist, he explained, “I knew when I saw you again that I’d made a mistake by putting money before love. I’ve lived a good life in New York. I won’t deny that. But it wasn’t a full life. It wasn’t you.” He paused. “At first, I thought if I found a girl with blonde hair, that’d kill the ache in my gut. It didn’t. Then I thought maybe it was your pretty hazel eyes. It wasn’t long before I realized nothing was going to fix my problem.” His lips kicked up at the corners. “You see, I was still pining for this pretty angel who gave me her innocence in the middle of old man Miller’s woods. Right there, under the moonlight, she stole my heart.” I was so afraid to believe him. “You mean that?”

He winked. “I mean it. I’ve regretted leaving you. Some part of me knew it was pride keeping me away. I wanted to come crawling back, beg for your forgiveness, but I couldn’t do it. I needed to prove I could stand on my own two feet. I needed that, Ally. Please understand,” he pleaded.

I did understand. In some way, I knew I’d been just as prideful. Just as stubborn.

And so I gave him the truth. “I could have gone after you.” He frowned. “What?”

“In the very least, I could have written you, Blake. When you left, I suspect it was more than my heart you stung. The blame isn’t entirely yours.” He kissed my forehead and declared, “We were young and dumb. We aren’t either of those things now.”

“No, this time I’m an adult and I know exactly what I want. You.” He gave me that ornery grin that always revved my engine and growled, “Come on up here, baby, let’s seal this deal with a kiss.” Who was I to deny him? I pushed him to his back and straddled his hips, then reached for the whipped cream. “I have a better idea. Let’s seal this deal with a lick.” I squirted the sugary confection down the front of his chest and laughed when he sucked in a breath.

“Cold?”

He grabbed a handful of my hair and pulled me close as he whispered, “You have a naughty streak in you, Ally girl.”

“And you love it,” I murmured. My tongue darted out and licked him from sternum to belly button.

He groaned. “I love
you
, angel. And this time, it’s forever.” I looked into his eyes and said the words back. “I love you, too, Blake. I’ve always been your girl.”

He framed my face with his hands and kissed me. Hard. Possessive. Within seconds, we were both hungry for each other again.

The rest of the night, we played with the whipped cream, taking turns eating it off each other. When his turn came, he squirted the white fluff all over my buttocks and licked me clean, soothing my sore flesh. In our own way, we were content to spend the next few decades showing each other how we felt. And I knew that if I lived to be a hundred, I’d never get enough of Blake Steele.

As a young girl, I’d been spellbound by him. As a woman, I was so deeply in love that it seemed impossible to breathe without him near. In that moment in time, it was all so clear to me. What I’d felt as a teen was nothing compared to what Blake and I would have for the rest of our lives.

About the Author

To learn more about Anne Rainey, please visit http://annerainey.com. Send an email to Anne at [email protected] or join her Yahoo! group to join in the fun with other readers as well as Anne!http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rb_afterdark Look for these titles by Anne Rainey

Now Available:

Haley’s Cabin

Touching Lace

Tasting Candy

Coming Soon:

Turbulent Passions

Taking friendship to a whole new level…

Touching Lace

© 2008 Anne Rainey

Lacey Vaughn is tired of being dumped on by men. It’s clear she needs help in the ways of seduction. Over cappuccinos, Lacey shares her worries with pal Nick Stone. Being the good friend that he is, Nick offers to give Lacey a few pointers in the ways of sexual pleasure. From his first touch, Lacey forgets all about lessons. Now all she wants is more of his luscious body and skillful touches.

Nick’s craved Lacey for months. He’s done watching her waste herself on losers.

It’s time she saw him as more than the dreaded
good
friend
. He’ll do nearly anything to have the little spitfire all for himself.

But in order to get Lacey past her insecurities, Nick will have to put it all on the line—including his heart—and pray he doesn’t lose her forever.

Enjoy the following excerpt for
Touching Lace: Lacey was yanked from her dream world and brought back to the world of the living with the ringing of her phone.

“Damn it,” she muttered as she reached over and nearly shouted, “Hello?”

“Wake up on the wrong side of the bed, did we?”

“Nick?” she squeaked. Her face flushed deep with the thought of where her mind had been all night long. She still vibrated and pulsed with heat. She hadn’t had a wet dream like that since her teenage years. Not even then were they so vivid and perfect.

“Yeah. Did you sleep well, baby?”

“Like a rock.” Well, what could she say? That she’d just let him have her body as if she was a sex slave and he the almighty sheik?

“Really? Because you sound…agitated.”

“Yep, really.” She lied with alacrity then sat up and got out of bed. Sliding her feet into her fuzzy happy face slippers, she headed toward the kitchen and coffee.

“Was there something you wanted at—” she looked at the clock on her microwave,

“—seven thirty in the morning?”

“I dreamed about you last night, Lace.”

That stopped her in her tracks. Could he be serious? “Uh, what sort of dream?” She heard him chuckle. “Let me put it this way. You weren’t exactly sitting in a rocker knitting, if you know what I mean.”

Her body liquefied at his words. Well, crap. Like she didn’t know what he was talking about. Her insides had twisted with lust all night long. “You said you’d give me time to think about this.”

“You had all night.”

“I was sleeping all night.”

“I was, too, with you, moaning and quivering and coming all around my cock. I didn’t want to wake up from that.”

“Oh.” He laughed again, making her snap at him in turn. “What time are we working out? I’ve got a lunch date, so it’ll have to be either before or after that.”

“With who?”

Nick’s laughter had ceased. Now he sounded downright furious. What was that about?

“No one you know,” she said mysteriously, intent on finding out more about this new side to her best friend. Nick the predatory male, the sexy lover, was a foreign notion to her.

“Is it a man? Because I thought we agreed to be exclusive.” Oh my, the man had a rather intriguing jealous streak. Interesting. Pulling out the glass pot, Lacey began rinsing it and decided to put Nick out of his misery. Even if he had dragged her away from the best erotic dream of her life.

“I haven’t agreed to anything yet. But, no, it’s not a man. Just Patty and Mary.

So, don’t go all caveman.”

“Little witch,” he snarled, but his voice did calm, she noticed. “How about four o’clock we meet at the gym? We’ll work out together and you can give me your answer then.”

“Yeah, that works for me, I guess.” Then something strange stirred in her belly as Lacey wondered what Nick had planned for the day. “What are you up to today?”

“I’m going to the office for a bit. There’s a big client I’ve been finessing and I want to take one last look at my sales pitch before Monday comes around. After that, I plan to annoy your brother for a while. Why?”

She heard him take a sip of something, probably coffee. Their mutual love for the dark brew was always something they had had in common. Then his words registered.

He was meeting with her brother? Today? For some inexplicable reason the idea gave her a start.

“You’re going to see Merrick?”

“Uh, I was considering it. Is there a problem?”

Lacey wondered if there was a problem. He and Merrick were good friends and had been for quite awhile. Guys talked, didn’t they? Would Nick tell Merrick about the new twist in his relationship with her?

Then, as if reading her thoughts, Nick made a tsking sound. “I don’t kiss and tell, baby, you know better.”

She did know better and she was a rotten friend for even thinking he would.

“Yeah, sorry. But Nick?”

“Yeah?”

“What if things get all muddled? I’m really scared,” she admitted in an uncharacteristic show of uneasiness.

“I know you are, but I won’t let it get muddled. You only need to trust me, baby.

Everything will work out fine. You need a boost of confidence in the bedroom and I’m going to give it to you. Simple as that, right?” Lacey tucked a filter into the basket. “I don’t know. I still need to think about this.”

“You always think everything through so thoroughly,” Nick reflected with a hint of an indulgent smile in his voice. “I can still remember the time you decided to cut your hair. It was always annoying the hell out of you and getting in the way of your workouts. I wanted so badly to tell you to leave it long. I wanted to have a chance to see it lying against your perfect, naked body. But then you took the plunge and did it anyway. I grieved over that hair. I sat in my house, alone, and drank a six pack as I imagined us having sex with nothing but your hair covering you.”

“I never knew. God, I swear I never knew.” How could she have been so blind?

There was so much more to Nick. Lacey had the uncomfortable notion she’d been seeing her friend in black and white then suddenly someone flicked on a plasma screen and everything took on new dimensions.

“I know. We were friends, sweetheart, and whether you cut your hair, dyed it pink, or wore a Mohawk, it was a decision you had to make for yourself. In the end, it worked out fine, because I can still imagine fucking you, only now your hair isn’t in my way.”

Lacey clutched at the phone and groaned aloud. “Nick, you are seriously driving me crazy with all these little bombs you keep dropping on me!”

“Four o’clock?” he asked, hope and tenderness in his deep, sexy voice.

She sighed and gave in. “Yeah, I’ll be there.”

They hung up, and Lacey was able to move again. She went to the freezer, her hands automatically reaching for the coffee she couldn’t live without, and wondered again what on earth she was thinking by not flat out saying no to Nick’s outrageous proposition of sex lessons.

Then she remembered her dream. Despite how dumb it might be to mix her friendship with sex, she was probably going to end up saying yes.

She could never choose between them. Until they both chose her…

The Boys Back Home

© 2008 Sierra Dafoe

Even as a young girl, Cassie Jordan knew the rules: one man, one woman.

Especially in rural Idaho. But how can she choose between blond, kind-hearted Kyle Watson and dark, sensuous Alan Caine?

She can't. Not even when she discovers the two handsome cowboys in bed together and is convinced that neither of them cares for her at all. That discovery sends her running all the way to Chicago and into the arms of another man. Now, with her wedding fast approaching, it’s time to return to Preacher’s Bend to sort out her tangled emotions.

Now that Cassie’s back in town, Kyle and Alan are determined to do whatever it takes to keep her there. As far as they're concerned, there’s only one place on earth Cassie belongs—in their arms.

Enjoy the following excerpt for
The Boys Back Home
:

How could he hold her like this, damn him? How could he touch her so gently when she
hated
him? He’d broken her heart, he and Alan—they’d torn it between them like two puppies with a sock, leaving her with nothing but ripped, tangled shreds.

Why wouldn’t he let her
go
?

Kyle was saying something, but she was shrieking too loud to hear him, her fists flailing at his chest, his shoulders, struggling to break his grip on her. She screamed as he swung her upward, scooping her unceremoniously into arms that felt suddenly like steel bands, pinning her to him.

He carried her into the parlor and lowered her onto to the sofa. Immediately Cassie sprang back off it, trying to get past him.

“Cassie!” Grabbing her arm, he shoved her back down, pinning her bodily to the cushions. She arched below him, screaming, fighting against the hands clasping her shoulders, the legs wrapped tight around her own.

“Cass! Damn it, Cass, breathe!”

She glared up at him wildly…and saw him staring down at her, panting, his eyes wide and shocked. Like a cord snapping, her rage broke, running out of her like water through sand. She sobbed, feeling all the grief and hurt she’d kept so long at bay wash over her, seizing her as ruthlessly as a tidal wave.

Nothing was safe. Nothing held its shape—not Kyle, not Alan, not the world.

Nothing.

Ten days after that night at Big Blue’s, Meredith Jordan had suffered a fatal heart attack. Cassie, who had moved through those ten days wrapped in a numbness so deep she’d honestly believed she wasn’t really that hurt, had found the last tenuous strands of her childhood torn away, leaving her with nothing but a hollowness she knew she’d never be able to fill.