She gulped down another mouthful of fizz, hoping it would stop her feeling all shivery inside. “I’m not teasing you,” she said as bubbles burst on her tongue. “It really was very good. I mean it was witty and funny, but you managed to avoid any jokes about ex-lovers or tales about the groom dropping his trousers on a boozy night out.”
“You know,” said Tom, “I don’t actually recall Matt losing his trousers. Then again, there was plenty of stuff I left out. Theft of traffic signs comes to mind, and there was an incident with a sheep… I didn’t think it would go down well with his new in-laws.”
“You’re the soul of discretion, then?”
“It is rather useful if you’re a doctor. You have to keep a lot of secrets, Keira, be they great big ones or little tiny ones.”
She felt her cheeks warming again as he gave her that look that felt like an MRI of her innermost thoughts.
“So you’ve been working in the rainforest. Carrie said it was in Papua New Guinea, at the station where Matt used to be a doctor?”
“That’s right.”
He beckoned to the waiter again and selected an orange juice from the tray. Keira shook her head. No way did she need any more stimulants.
“How come you got to do that?” she asked. “Was it an exchange visit?”
“Absolutely. It was with a medical charity. They send health professionals to places where they’re most needed.”
“Papua sounds incredible. All those mountains, the jungle, the tribal culture.”
He lifted his eyebrows. “Most people in the UK have never heard of it.”
She laughed at his assumption. “There’s no need to sound quite so surprised. I am a teacher. We’ve been studying Melanesia with the children.”
Then he paused and looked hard at her. “
Really?
And what have you discovered?”
“Well—”
His dark eyes sparkled in the half-light. “I can see I’m going to have to be firm with you, Ms. Grayson, or I’ll never get anything out of you. Come on!”
“But…”
“No buts. You’re coming with me.”
He dumped his glass on a table and grabbed her free hand in his. Not gently, either, but firmly, his hand warm and confident around hers. Her head whirled like disco lights, and her heart thudded out a bass line. All because The Honourable Dr. Tom Carew was dragging her towards a darkened room, her body was zinging like she’d been rubbed down with a hot chili, and she didn’t want to do a damn thing about it.
It takes a real man to wear a kilt. And a real woman to charm him out of it.
Love is a Battlefield
© 2012 Tamara Morgan
Games of Love, Book 1
It might be modern times, but Kate Simmons isn’t willing to live a life without at least the illusion of the perfect English romance. A proud member of the Jane Austen Regency Re-Enactment Society, Kate fulfills her passion for courtliness and high-waisted gowns in the company of a few women who share her love of all things heaving.
Then she encounters Julian Wallace, a professional Highland Games athlete who could have stepped right off the covers of her favorite novels. He’s everything brooding, masculine, and, well, heaving. The perfect example of a man who knows just how to wear his high sense of honor—and his kilt.
Confronted with a beautiful woman with a tongue as sharp as his
sgian dubh
, Julian and his band of merry men aren’t about to simply step aside and let Kate and her gaggle of tea-sippers use his land for their annual convention. Never mind that “his land” is a state park—Julian was here first, and he never backs down from a challenge.
Unless that challenge is a woman unafraid to fight for what she wants...and whose wants are suddenly the only thing he can think about.
Warning: The historical re-enactments in this story contain very little actual history. Battle chess and ninja stars may apply.
Enjoy the following excerpt for
Love is a Battlefield:
“You came!” Kate smiled up at him as they approached, and Julian had to remind himself to smile back. Flash teeth and relax. Laugh and flirt. The serious, competitive warrior he was on the field had a tendency to take over even when the situation didn’t call for it. And this situation, with a woman like that looking up at him with genuine pleasure in her hazel eyes, most definitely didn’t call for it. She was everything he didn’t know he found attractive in a woman, with a small and delicate build, a nose that turned up just a little at the tip and the kind of softness that normally put him on his guard. Cute but not obvious. Quiet but not shy. He wouldn’t have gone so far as to say she brought out his territorial instincts, but there was a definite urge to protect and serve.
So he smiled, pleased to find it didn’t feel quite as forced as he expected it to. “Sorry we’re late. Michael wanted to do his hair.”
Michael, whose longish, wavy hair almost always looked like it had been lifted straight off the pillow, grinned widely. “What can I say? I’m a vain man.”
The women scooted their chairs to make room for them. Julian sat next to Kate—so close he could smell her slightly floral perfume. She was still wearing the tiny slip of a dress from before, but she’d allowed her brownish-blonde hair to fall down in soft waves almost to the middle of her back and changed to a pair of gold sandals with bands going halfway up her calf, winding and hugging her flesh in ways that seemed almost indecent.
He had a hard time looking away. If it was possible to slap sex on a pair of legs, she’d done it.
“Do you guys want something to drink?” Kate asked, dangling one of those perfect legs close to his own without even seeming to realize what she was doing.
Her friend, Jada, on the other hand, leaned over the table, angling to give both him and Michael a clear view down the top of her bright red dress.
“I’m going to bet you two are Scotch men. Neat?”
He let Michael argue the finer points of ice in a drink with her. Jada was the type of woman Michael lived for—flashy, obvious. Julian had dated those types of women before, usually when he was on the job down in Arizona or on the road for the Games. For all their superficial trappings, women like that made great companions for the short term. But right now, a one-night stand was the last thing on his mind. His body was definitely warming for something a bit softer. A bit more real.
He turned to Kate. “I hope you weren’t waiting long.”
She shrugged, and the thin strap of her dress fell along the gentle curve of her shoulder. He watched it, mesmerized.
“A few minutes. It’s not a big deal. There was a blues singer on before the pianos started.”
“Oh, it’s too bad we missed it.”
Kate wrinkled her nose. “I’m sorry about this place. It’s probably not your thing, pianos, is it?”
Julian laughed. People always took one look at him and assumed the worst. “I’m a large man, Kate, but that doesn’t mean I’m a barbarian. A little jazz isn’t going to kill me.”
“You never know. Jada is her own force of nature, and I thought maybe you guys got caught up in it against your will. Lord knows she’s made me do one or two things I regretted later.”
Julian’s pulse picked up, and he leaned forward. That was a topic he could warm to. “’Like what?”
Kate shook her head firmly. “No way. I’m going to need a few more drinks before those secrets start spilling.”
“She’s being modest,” Jada interrupted, watching them both with a smile. “Kate here once drove an entire rugby team off the road. Their van tipped over into a ditch.”
“They deserved it!” Kate declared, her eyes dancing. “Don’t believe a word she says. They were trying to cut in line after the rest of us had been waiting for hours to get through a single lane of traffic. I just blocked them from doing it, and they drove themselves off the road. What’s the point of driving a nice big Cadillac if you can’t use it for good?”
“Did you stop to see if they were okay?” Julian asked, amused.
“They didn’t really tip over. It was more of a gentle lean. You should have heard all the cars in line, honking their approval. I felt like a superhero.”
“A vigilante in a Cadillac.” Julian laughed.
“Like the Green Hornet,” Kate agreed.
Julian settled back in his chair, taking in the scene with a deep breath. There was a gentle ferocity to Kate he hadn’t been expecting. He liked it. “So, you run cars off the road when you’re mad, you grew up in Seattle and you wear pretty shoes. What else should I know about you?”
She blushed and lifted one of her feet, examining the appendage as if seeing it for the first time. “You think my shoes are pretty?”
“Well, they’re not very functional, that’s for sure.” He fought the urge to rub his hand over her leg to double check how well that footwear was working out. “But nice. Definitely nice.”
She toyed with the stem of her glass, avoiding his eyes. “Thank you. But I’m not sure what else you want to know. Birthmarks? Employment history?”
“Good call, Kate,” Jada said from across the table. “Always start with birthmarks.”
“How about what it is you want Cornwall Park for?” Julian offered. He doubted he was going to get anything about birthmarks out of her.
Yet.
She blushed and played with the edges of her cocktail napkin. “It’s this group I’m part of. A historical preservation society—kind of like your Scottish Games, I guess? We do a big annual event, and we need a place to hold it.”
“Historical? Like what?”
“Umm…Regency. Jane Austen type stuff—the nineteenth century. We wear pretty elaborate gowns, and we do lectures.” Her leg tapped a nervous beat, inching closer to his own.
Julian nodded. An academic he was not, but he knew enough of history and women to know what she was talking about. Waist-cinching underthings. Thigh-high stockings held in place with ribbons and silk.
A group of women doing Regency playacting—he could get on top of that idea.
“That sounds interesting,” he managed to say without giving away the sudden loss of blood in his brain, which was coursing hot and thick toward his groin. “But isn’t that all indoor stuff?”
“Well, we hold balls and tea parties, and those are all inside.” She chose her words carefully and watched after each one for his reaction. “But I’m hoping to recreate this big, elaborate outdoor garden thing. And Cornwall Park is the perfect place for it.”
“You’re doing this all by yourself?”
“Sort of. It’s for the whole group, but I’m in charge of this particular event. It’s a long story, but I’m basically being punished for some…er…misbehavior on Jada’s part. I’m excited to do it, though. You probably think it’s silly, but—”
Her leg brushed against his. He reached over and rested a hand on her knee, stilling her nervous movements. “Don’t do that. It’s not silly at all. Recreating history and honoring the past is important.” He grinned down at her. “I should know. I do it in a skirt.”
He hadn’t yet let go of her leg, unable to pull the pad of his thumb and fingers away from the soft skin. Like before, her leg was almost cool to the touch.
“I’m sorry,” she said so softly it was almost a whisper. But her gaze was direct, and she didn’t pull her leg away.
“For what?”
“I’m so used to people making fun of the Regency group that I get weirdly defensive. If I’m not stammering about it, I’m usually up on a soapbox preaching the superiority of my ways.”
He nodded. “I get it. I used to get a lot of flak for the Scottish Games when I was younger, but I don’t anymore.”
“Of course you don’t. Who would dare?” She cocked her head and raked her gaze over him, appreciation and awe glinting warmly in her eyes. His internal body temperature jumped several degrees.
She softened her tone and added, “That’s not a fair comparison. You have extreme powers of intimidation. I don’t.”
Julian finally released his hold on her leg, allowing himself to take in the curve of her thigh where it met the hem of her dress, which fluttered higher as she shifted. All of it—the dress, the skin, the promise of what lay farther up—writhed with silken sensuality.
“Oh, you have powers too. Believe me.”
Worth the Risk
Karen Erickson
How to make a strong man fall hard? Refuse him.
Hunter Worth lives life to the absolute fullest. As vice president and head of brand marketing for Worth Luxury Goods, he’s brought his family’s business firmly into the twenty-first century.
Ruthless yet charming, he’s now set his sights on the sexiest member of the marketing team. First thing on his agenda? Seduction.
Gracie Hayes needs her job at Worth—and she’s not about to let the gorgeous owner and her direct boss distract her—again. Orphaned, and with a rough childhood behind her, she’s worked too hard to compromise everything for a fling, no matter how tempting. Independent, strong and resourceful, she will fight off Hunter. She has to.