Welcome to Paradise

And as much as he wasn’t sure he liked being the recipient of his own speech, the moment the word sex slipped from her luscious mouth, all he could think about was shoving his cock deep inside her.

  “So if you want me—” her gaze moved to the bulge of his crotch, “—and I think you do, what do you say we just skip the tell-me-about-yourself and get to the fun part?”

  This time, he plans to do it with class. Style. And more than a little groveling…

  Once and Again

  © 2011 Lauren Dane

  Petal, Georgia, Book 1

  Seven years ago, Lily Travis was only too glad to see her hometown of Petal, Georgia, in her rearview mirror. Thanks to her father running off with a twenty-year-old, though, here she is, trying to pick up the pieces. First order of business: meet with her brother’s teacher in a quest to pull his grades out of a downward spiral.

  Nathan Murphy is pretty much resigned to his bachelor status—until he looks up from his desk to see an all-grown-up Lily walking into his classroom. Of all the women who turned out to be totally wrong for him, she’s the only one who felt right. At least until his foolish, immature mistake drove her away.

  Lily has to admit that time has been more than kind to gorgeous, sexy Nathan. Except there’s no room on her full plate for another complication. Especially with a man who broke her heart once before.

  With a little help from his friends, Nathan has a plan to rekindle the flame. It isn’t long before they’re burning up the sheets. Winning her heart? That’s another matter.

  Warning: Hot, sexy high school teacher in denim and boots. Strong-willed females abound. Bad words and naughtiness, too. Come on, you know you want to read it.

  Enjoy the following excerpt for Once and Again:

  There they sat and she liked him. Still. He was funny and charming and sweet even. He’d helped her with Chris, and his apology, though late, was genuine. She knew him enough to understand it in his words.

  People made mistakes. She made them too. And she was so tired of avoiding him. But it wasn’t wise to let him back into her heart. He had too much power over her, and she hadn’t been lying when she told him it took her a long time to get over it. She never wanted to feel that kind of misery again. Ever.

  “I accept your apology. But we can’t date.”

  His gorgeous features darkened.

  He was as alpha as they came. Used to getting his own way. It was gloriously sexy, but she had enough to manage. He was a man now, not even a young man in graduate school. He’d be even worse. Which would mean he was way hotter in bed, but she wasn’t going to think about that. Much. At all. Ever in the next ten minutes.

  “You still don’t like being told no, I see.”

  That broke his sour expression. “Why can’t we date?”

  She was totally going to have to make up for the whopper she was about to tell. “First because I’m over you. Second, and far more importantly, because my brother is in your class. He’s got enough to deal with right now. The last thing he needs is to have anyone think he’s getting special treatment because you’re dating his sister. Or for him to worry you’ll retaliate if we broke things off.”

  He growled a sigh, and her insides got all warm and gooey. She really needed to date nice men who didn’t growl.

  “Do you really think I’d do that?”

  “If I did, I wouldn’t have accepted your apology. But this is Petal. Gossip is as common as marshmallows in Jell-O salad. He’s had enough, don’t you think? My lands, the boy can’t even go out for a burger without people knowing his dad left his mom for a girl barely older than him. I can’t be part of anything that would harm him even more.”

  “You said you were over me.”

  “I am. Don’t smirk. What if your face freezes that way?”

  He laughed and she did too. It felt so good to laugh with him after so long.

  “I want you back, Lil. I’m telling you that up front. Just so you won’t be surprised when I get you back.”

  It wouldn’t do to smile at him and encourage this silly behavior, but she did anyway because she’d clearly been dropped on her head as a child.

  Pie arrived and she was glad for the interruption. And the pie of course.

  “I need to get back home. I’m glad we cleared the air and all.”

  She tried to pay half but he pushed the cash back her way. “I invited you, I’ll pay. I’ll walk you to your car too.”

  Plenty of female attention landed on him as they made their way toward the door. That much hadn’t changed. It used to leave her feeling a little smug. That he was hers and they could look all day long but he wanted Lily Travis, not any of those other bimbos. And then she was wrong.

  “I can get it from here,” she said once they’d arrived outside. The evening air was cool, and without even asking, he helped her into the coat.

  “I’m sure you can. Where are you parked?” Bold as you please, as if she’d never spoken.

  “Around the corner. On Ash.”

  “Why you parking back there?” He held his arm out and she took it automatically. Once she’d done it, it would have been silly to let go. “It’s dark back there.”

  “It was daylight when I parked. This is Petal. Main was packed.”

  “You have a cell phone. Next time, text me and I’ll come get you.”

  It was dark but quiet, and the moon overhead was beginning to rise. “I’ll do no such thing. And there won’t be any next time, Nathan.”

  He took her keys and unlocked the door for her. “Just keep telling yourself that if it gets you through the day. But we both know that’s a bald-faced lie.” He stepped closer and her back hit the car.

  She was looking for some stern words when he leaned that last distance between them and brushed his lips across hers.

  All her stern internal reminders swept away when he pressed his body against hers and she found her fingers in his shirt, holding him to her. His hands slid up her sides, coming to rest at her back, just above her ass.

  Her mouth opened on a sigh, and he swallowed the sound, his tongue slipping between her lips like a thief and then he owned her as if they’d never been apart.

  She gave in and ran her fingers through his hair as he slid his tongue along hers. He tasted of tea and pie and man. She was lost in the sweet sensation of that kiss until he sucked on her tongue and her nipples hardened to the point of pain, throbbing in time with her clit.

  Up the block, someone shut a door, and it was enough to reclaim her senses and put her hand on his chest to push him back a bit.

  He broke the kiss and stared at her lips for long moments, his chest heaving as he struggled to breathe.

  “I want more of that mouth,” he murmured, bending to kiss the side of her jaw.

  “I have to go home. I promised Chris I’d watch a movie with him.” Her voice was rusty. She licked her lips and he groaned again, putting some distance between them.

  “Go on then. I’ll see you soon, Lily. We’re going to be friends once more, if I can’t have friends and then some.”

  He’d have to be satisfied with that, she told herself as she drove home, because that’s all she had to give.

  Suppose the solution to all your problems is the one thing you never wanted…

  Anything You Want

  © 2011 Erin Nicholas

  It figures the one time Sabrina Cassidy is determined to do the responsible thing, karma kicks in. After four years on the road chasing her musical dream, she’s stranded six hours from home with no money, a ruined credit history—and morning sickness.

  Out of options, she swallows her legendary independent streak and calls the only person who won’t hang up on her. Luke, the man she left behind.

  Marc Sterling’s first instinct is to protect his business partner and best friend from another broken heart. That means letting her think she’s talking to Luke, then finding a way to send her in the opposite direction.

  When he shows up at her hotel room, there’s somethi
ng in the air beside their customary insults. Sure, her rebellious attitude, smart mouth—and purple panties—still drive him crazy, but now it’s a different kind of crazy. The kind that has him driving her home instead of to the nearest airport.

  And when Luke offers to solve all her problems if she’ll only say “I do”, Marc realizes he’s just crazy enough—about her—to forget whose heart he wanted to protect.

  Warning: Contains two people who don’t like each other very much, a Toyota that can’t quite handle the road trip home, and a spontaneous proposal. Or two. Or three. And foreplay with—what else—pie filling.

  Enjoy the following excerpt for Anything You Want:

  Sabrina was sound asleep on one of the beds with her back to him when Marc opened the motel room door five hours and forty-eight minutes later.

  He didn’t know what he’d expected. In fact, he’d purposefully spent most of the trip thinking about anything but the actual reason for his long drive. He’d mentally played with some recipes, listened to talk radio, made some business calls. But it almost felt like he’d been worried about her.

  And that irritated him.

  He jerked the drapes open, spilling light into the room. That didn’t wake her.

  He cleared his throat, then coughed, then coughed louder. She didn’t even turn.

  But as the door met the frame in an angry smack, she sat straight up in bed, the sheet clutched to her chin, eyes wide. She found him standing near the door and sucked in a deep breath.

  “Let’s go, Seattle. I don’t have all day.”

  She opened her mouth to scream, then she narrowed her eyes and peered at him. “Marc?”

  “Yeah.”

  “What are you doing here?”

  “I told you on the phone I was on my way.” He strode toward the bedside lamp and switched it on.

  “I thought I was talking to Luke.” She scowled at him even as she blinked in the sudden brightly lit room. “I asked for Luke.”

  “He was busy.”

  “And you didn’t tell him?”

  He slammed his hands down on his hips. “No, I didn’t tell him that you called, that you were in trouble, or that you needed him. Because this shit is not going to start again. I mean it.”

  “And you decided to drive six hours to tell me that?”

  “Yeah, as a matter of fact I did. Among other things. And you’re welcome,” he said, towering over where she sat with her back pressed against the headboard of the bed.

  “For what? The terror that ripped through me as a man unexpectedly charged into my motel room? Yeah, you bet. Thanks.”

  “And am I right to assume that you don’t have pepper spray or self-defense skills or any other way of protecting yourself if I actually was someone who was here to hurt you?”

  “Other than the butcher knife under my pillow, no.”

  Marc glared at her. “You didn’t have to sell all your butcher knives so that you could get across Wyoming before becoming stranded in Dirty Gulch?”

  “Muddy Gap.”

  “Whatever.”

  “You don’t believe me about selling things so I could have money to come home?”

  “It doesn’t matter. I’m here now so I don’t care.” Why he was being so mean he couldn’t say. Maybe because he’d held back when she’d first called. He’d held back because down in some deep, stupid part of him, he’d been worried about her. She was over three hundred miles away, stranded with no car or money, no friend or even acquaintance nearby, and he’d been worried about her.

  Now, however, he was here with her, could see for himself that she was fine, and was here to be sure she stayed fine. There was no need to hold his frustration and bitterness and anger back anymore.

  Sabrina swung her legs over the edge of the bed and pulled the sheet tighter around her. “I’ve been taking care of myself for a long time, by the way,” she said, clearly huffy. “So, not that it’s any of your business, but the money issue is new. And I didn’t even intend to call you. I called Luke if you remember. You could have delivered a message. You took it upon yourself to come.”

  “You had to know that there was no way in hell I was letting him come. Real sorry to foil your plan.”

  She snorted. “You’ve never been sorry about anything having to do with me in your life. What plan?”

  “The plan to get Luke out here, hundreds of miles from home, feeling sorry for you, coming to your rescue.”

  “You think I somehow messed my transmission up on purpose?”

  “Can’t say that the thought didn’t occur to me.”

  She stood and turned to face him, her eyes glinting with her temper. “All I would have had to do was call Luke and ask him to come. I wouldn’t even have had to pop the hood.”

  He scowled at her. She was right and he hated that she knew it and was so in his face with it.

  “Let’s go already.”

  “Okay, okay…” She continued muttering something under her breath he couldn’t hear and decided that was likely for the best. She scooted to the edge of the bed and pulled the top sheet with her.

  She looked at him expectantly.

  “What?” he finally asked.

  “I need to get dressed.”

  Automatically his eyes slid over her body. It was hidden under the sheet but he felt his heart speed up.

  “You always sleep nude?” That would be a redeeming quality at least.

  “I was hot and sweaty when I got here. I showered and rinsed my bra and panties out and laid them out to dry. If you must know.”

  She pointed in the direction of the air conditioning vent. It was directly over the chair she’d obviously drug into place so she could hang her underwear over the two wooden arms.

  Lavender.

  Her panties and bra were lavender.

  And tiny.

  She wasn’t a big girl by any stretch, but these things were clearly more for show than support.

  “Nice,” he commented dryly.

  “So glad you like them.” For Marc, Sabrina and sarcasm went hand in hand.

  “Put them on already and let’s go.”

  She stood, with the sheet wrapped under her arms sarong-style. “Do you mind?”

  “Not a bit.”

  “You want to step outside?” she asked, looking pointedly at the door.

  “No I don’t. As you pointed out, it’s hot out there. I’m starting to cool off now. You don’t want to be in the same room with me, you step outside.”

  Her gaze flickered to the bathroom door. That would make sense. She should go in there and change. But, as expected based on history, she wasn’t going to let him get away with the last word.

  “Fine.”

  She tucked the sheet in more firmly between her breasts, turned her back and snagged the bra from the arm of the chair where it hung.

  Marc took a seat in the chair by the window, facing the room. That should drive her nuts. He would ignore his own traitorous reaction to the whole thing. It was simple—he was a guy and she was a nearly naked woman in a hotel room. Some reaction should be expected. In fact, if he hadn’t reacted he’d be concerned.

  He watched her stick her arms through the straps of the bra and pull the cups into position, then reach behind to fasten the hooks.

  Beautiful, pretty, cute, sexy—they were all different terms he used to described women. If had to choose one for Sabrina he’d definitely go with sexy. But beautiful too. Not drop-dead-gorgeous. She didn’t turn every head when she walked in a room. There were men who would not, maybe, find her attractive. Guys who liked curvy blondes, for example. Or who were firmly in the redhead camp. Guys who liked major curves also wouldn’t find her slim, toned build tempting.

  Unfortunately, Marc wasn’t one of those guys.

  Which annoyed the bejeezus out of him. It had always annoyed the bejeezus out of him.

  It seemed that one way or another Sabrina Cassidy was destined to raise his blood pressure. A lot of the time—most of the tim
e—she was pissing him off. And most of those times she was doing it on purpose. But he could walk in a room where she was and feel his heart race even before he saw her. He anticipated seeing her. He always searched her out. He used to try to tell himself that it was because he was instantly expecting her to do something to make him mad and it was better to keep an eye on one’s enemies. But he hadn’t believed that even from the first moment.

  He didn’t like her. He didn’t trust her. Yet his body wanted hers.

  The damnedest thing was he was attracted in spite of trying to fight it. For years. He’d never fought it like this with another woman. Only one other woman had been off-limits in his mind and it was because she was the younger sister of a friend.

  The thing that really put Sabrina on Marc’s do-not-go-there list was the fact that he found her to be the most frustrating person in the entire world. If he said the sky was blue, she would argue it was purple, just to annoy him. He’d once complimented her outfit. She’d asked if his mother knew he was gay. He’d offered to help her study for a calculus test once and she’d asked if everyone else on the planet had been wiped out by a nuclear disaster—because that was the only way she would even think about spending more than ten minutes with him in one stretch.

  He supposed that was where it came from. He didn’t like her because it had been clear since the day he moved into the neighborhood in fifth grade that she didn’t like him.

  Of course, it also had a lot to do with the fact that she screwed over Luke Hamilton, the nicest guy on the planet, repeatedly.

  She glanced over her shoulder as she pulled the bra straps into place.

  He yawned.

  He’d rather die than let her know that she’d created some of the fastest and most painful hard-ons he’d ever had. And today was no exception.

  She rolled her eyes and reached for her panties. Somehow she managed to step into them without losing the sheet. It was huge on her, wrapped around more than once, so there was no glimpsing skin as she moved. Until she had the panties in place underneath.

  Then she let the sheet drop.