The Master
Authors: Kresley Cole
Praise for No.1
New York Times
bestselling
author KRESLEY COLE
and the first novel in her Game Maker series,
THE PROFESSIONAL
“Kresley Cole brought the heat with this one, delivering page-melting erotic scenes that you’ll have to read to believe. With a breathtakingly intense alpha hero
and a lovable heroine,
The Professional
is a feast for the senses not to be missed!”
—Kyra Davis,
New York Times
bestselling author
“Kresley Cole is getting hotter—sexy hot!”
—
The Hollywood Reporter
“Every touch—every feeling—was palpable. Toe curling. Kresley Cole is a wicked genius with her words.”
—
Romantic Book Affairs
“The hottest, most sensually erotic scenes I’ve ever read! The chemistry is beyond explosive. . . . I can’t tell you how many times I blushed, fanned myself,
or squirmed in my seat while reading.”
—
HEAs Are Us
“The suspense is addictive, the characters likeable, and the drama palpable. I found my new addiction, and it comes in the shape of a hot and sexy Siberian.”
—
Sinful Reads
“This combination of humor, heart, and heat is absolute perfection.”
—
Fresh Fiction
“The book crackled with sensuality. . . . The only thing I hated? That it ended.”
—
Under the Covers Book Blog
“Full of beautiful descriptions, vivid imagery, great characters, and humor. This isn’t a run-of-the-mill, slapped-together erotica. This is engrossing,
well-written literature that happens to be sexy as hell.”
—
The Book Vixen
“Intriguing, smart, super hot, and just plain well written have come to be hallmarks of Cole’s writing, and it comes out full force in this new series.”
—
The Brunette Librarian
“The romance is lusty, HOT and HOT and did I say HOT?”
—
Clue Review
“Grab a fan, the smelling salts, and keep the BP cuff on hand, this is going to have you panting for more! BEST CARDIO EVER!”
—
Tome Tender Book Blog
“Five sexy CAN’T-WAIT-TIL-THE-NEXT-ONE, WHAT-AM-I-SUPPOSED-TO-DO-WITH-MYSELF-TIL-THEN stars.”
—
Kayla the Bibliophile
“A drop-everything-now MUST-READ! . . . Intense, ridiculously sexy, and thrilling the entire way through. . . . One of the HOTTEST series I have ever read!”
—
Shayna Renee’s Spicy Reads
“Can someone please hand me a chainsaw to cut this sexual tension?”
—
Guilty Pleasures Book Reviews
“A riveting story that you won’t want to put down.”
—
Fiction Vixen
“Scrumptious, scandalous, and scorching. . . . Natalie and Sevastyan’s gloriously descriptive and deliciously detailed stolen and wildly illicit moments demanded an
immediate reread.”
—
The Lusty Literate
“Pure adrenaline in action. The chemistry is amazing, and the back and forth between Natalie and Sevastyan is hilarious and steamy.”
—
KT Book Reviews
“I was pretty much enraptured from start to finish!”
—
(un)Conventional Bookviews
“If you’re a fan of erotica and Kresley Cole, you will definitely LOVE this story.”
—
The Darkest Reader
“I have popped the Kresley Cole cherry, and all I can say is, hot damn and spank me silly! . . . The sexual tension had me fantasizing about my own personal brooding
Siberian enforcer.”
—
Scandalicious Book Reviews
“Everything a fun erotica should be.”
—
The Windy Pages
“Turns up the heat—the hot, molten lava kind! Cole delivers erotica on a platter of orgasmic proportions.”
—
Readaholics Anonymous
“Absolutely intoxicating . . . the perfect balance of intrigue, chemistry, raw sexuality, and supreme storytelling!”
—
Hesperia Loves Books
Also by Kresley Cole
The Game Maker Series
The Professional
The Immortals After Dark Series
The Warlord Wants Forever
A Hunger Like No Other
No Rest for the Wicked
Wicked Deeds on a Winter’s Night
Dark Needs at Night’s Edge
Dark Desires After Dusk
Kiss of a Demon King
Deep Kiss of Winter
Pleasure of a Dark Prince
Demon from the Dark
Dreams of a Dark Warrior
Lothaire
Shadow’s Claim
MacRieve
Dark Skye
The Arcana Chronicles
Poison Princess
Endless Knight
Dead of Winter
The MacCarrick Brothers Series
If You Dare
If You Desire
If You Deceive
The Sutherland Series
The Captain of All Pleasures
The Price of Pleasure
First published in the USA by Pocket Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2015
First published in Great Britain by Simon & Schuster UK Ltd, 2015
A CBS COMPANY
Copyright © Kresley Cole 2015
This book is copyright under the Berne Convention.
No reproduction without permission.
® and © 1997 Simon & Schuster Inc. All rights reserved.
The right of Kresley Cole to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
Simon & Schuster UK Ltd
1st Floor
222 Gray’s Inn Road
London WC1X 8HB
Simon & Schuster Australia, Sydney
Simon & Schuster India, New Delhi
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
PB ISBN: 978-1-4711-1388-8
EBOOK ISBN: 978-1-4711-1389-5
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to
actual people living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY
Dedicated to the incredible Barbara Ankrum,
who dropped everything to beta read this book
(and
Dead of Winter
, and
Dark Skye
,
and
The Professional
. . . ).
What would I do without your amazing vision?
“
They say I’m heartless and manipulative, that I amuse myself by playing with others’ lives.
They aren’t wrong.”
—MAKSIMILIAN SEVASTYAN
“
A mal tiempo, buena cara.
To bad weather, good face.”
—ANA-LUCÍA MARTINEZ
HATCHER
(ALIAS: CAT MARÍN)
CHAPTER 1
M
i madre must be turning over in her grave right now.
As I rode the elevator to the penthouse of the ritzy Seltane Hotel—it’d taken two staffers to key me up to the fortieth floor—I chewed on a fingernail.
Was I really about to let some strange man have sex with me? For money?
The elevator arrived too quickly, forcing me onto a private landing with its own lobby and an elegant sitting area. An open newspaper lay on a coffee table, as if someone had recently left.
The entry—a pair of ornate mahogany doors—was just beyond, looming. Could I bring myself to ring the bell?
Apparently, this penthouse was one of the largest (more than ten thousand square feet) and the most expensive (thirty-two grand—a night) in Miami. Who in their right mind would spend that
much money on a hotel? Clearly my first client was
loco
.
Other than that, I didn’t know much about him. He was a Russian businessman, here in Miami for a week. He’d been not only vetted but vouched for by sister escort agencies all over
the world. In other words, he was a
hobbyist
, a routine user of escorts.
Tempted to bolt, I pulled out my phone to call my hookup, Ivanna. She was a Ukrainian immigrant and high-class escort, making bank; I was her cleaning lady. She thought my current employment was
a waste of my “spectacular figure and fresh-faced beauty.” Yeah, yeah.
When she answered, I said, “I don’t think I can do this.” I began to pace the lobby, my stilettos silent on the plush beige rug.
“Of course you can. You don’t understand how badly I wish I could be there. If this man is renting the penthouse for a week, imagine how rich he is!”
The Russian had booked Ivanna, but she’d had a reaction to Botox (she was only thirty!). She’d thought she’d be okay by tonight, so she hadn’t called to cancel. A big
no-no for escorts.
“If my eyes weren’t swollen shut . . .”
“Ivanna, I’m not at this point yet.” I’d been vacillating like crazy. Though I’d prepared to take a couple of dates—getting an exam and a
waxing—I’d always suspected I’d balk. “I’m not
here
,” I insisted. But wasn’t I? Yesterday I could’ve sworn I’d seen Edward.
In Miami.
I’d been riding the bus home from a cleaning gig when I’d seen a tall, lanky blond stepping out of a bodega, striding toward a Porsche. The last time I’d seen him had been in
the glare of headlights, his green eyes stark against his blood-coated face.
If he was here, then I needed to flee to a new city as soon as possible. But that took funds.
“You make this job sound so horrible,” Ivanna said. “You’re going to do great. You have the balls, and that’s half the battle!”
Despite my upbringing—or maybe because of it—I was pretty shameless. Even with my, ahem, generous ass, I’d proudly strutted the beaches of Jacksonville in a micro thong bikini.
I’d gotten hot and heavy with all manner of high school boys, doing everything but screwing, earning a reputation as a cocktease. When I’d started having sex with Edward, I’d
studied tips and tricks, anything to tempt him. So I knew how to get a guy sprung.