They were just friends. He didn’t think he had those kinds of feelings for this woman: the sexual, amorous, bow-chicka-bow-bow feelings, despite the fact his pulse was racing, his fingers itched to touch her, and he knew he should let go of her. It didn’t matter that he was still having hotter-than-the-invention-of-fire dreams about Jillian most nights, either. He wasn’t going to consider what kind of tricks his subconscious played on him. Instead, he pulled her a fraction of an inch closer. He slid one hand up her back, feeling her long, silky-soft blonde hair cascading over his fingers, and she trembled. He cupped her cheek in his hand. He couldn’t take his eyes off her mouth. Just a couple of inches more and he’d kiss her. He moved slowly, but purposefully.
He watched her eyelids flutter closed. He felt her quick intake of breath. He wondered how she tasted. He’d know in a few seconds.
“I want to kiss you,” he breathed against her mouth.
The silence was broken by the screaming guitars of Guns n’ Roses.
That would teach him to use the “shuffle” function.
An Excerpt from
EASY TARGET
An Elite Ops Novel by Kay Thomas Award-winning author Kay Thomas continues her thrilling Elite Ops series. Fighting to clear her brother of murder, freelance reporter Sassy Smith is suddenly kidnapped and thrown into a truck with other women who are about to be sold . . . or worse. When she sees an opportunity for escape Sassy takes it, but she may have just jumped from the frying pan into the fire.
“You’re thinking too much.” She felt his words vibrate against the inside of her thigh as he kissed her there before easing up beside her on the bed. “Stop that.”
She smiled, not at all surprised that he seemed to read her mind. He sat up on the edge of the lower bunk next to her and took his own boots and socks off, then his shirt, jeans, and . . .
She closed her eyes.
He was going to be naked soon, and she had to say something first. He slid up beside her on the mattress and pulled her back to his front, with his back toward the wall. She felt the insistence of his erection against her bottom.
She started to turn in his arms, but he held onto her with an arm clamped around her waist. “Slow down. I just want to enjoy holding you a while. I’ve thought about this for a very long time.”
Really? That came as a complete surprise. It was on the tip of her tongue to ask how long, but when he trailed his fingertips back and forth across her rib cage, she quit thinking. Instead, she sighed in relaxed contentment. “I didn’t know it could be like that.”
Why had she been nervous about this for so long? She could tell him now. It’d be okay.
He kissed the side of her neck and whispered in her ear, “Well, I promise we’re just getting started.”
She tensed, and he absolutely noticed but misunderstood the reason.
He gathered her more snugly against his chest. “Don’t worry, we can take this as slow as you want.”
“You’d do that?” The mixture of relief and disappointment she felt was . . . confusing.
“God, Sassy. What sort of men have you—”
The sound of screeching brakes interrupted whatever else he’d been about to say. Sassy felt the momentum shoving her backward into his chest.
“What’s happening?” she gasped.
“I don’t know.” He tugged his arm from under her body to see his watch. “We’re not scheduled to stop for several more hours.” The stark change from relaxed lover to alert super soldier was dramatic. “Get dressed. Now.”
Bryan hauled himself forward out of bed and started shoving clothes toward her while Sassy was still playing catch-up. Her panties were inside out, but she slid them on at his urging without fixing them.
“C’mon, Sassy.”
The horrific screeching continued, intensifying as she pulled her jeans, sweater, socks, and boots on. She was lacing up as a rumbling shuddering started.
“Fuck,” Bryan mumbled.
“What is it?” She finished with the boots and looked up from her crouched position as the screeching abruptly stopped.
“Hang on!” He grabbed for her.
The rail car shifted, and she felt like she was in a carnival house ride as the compartment swayed wildly from side to side. The car tilted, and the bed she was sitting on flew up in the air. She hit her head on the bunk above, and the world went black.
An Excerpt from
DIRTY THOUGHTS
A Mechanics of Love Novel by Megan Erickson Some things are sexier the second time around.
Cal Payton has gruff and grumbly down to an art . . . all the better for keeping people away. And it usually works. Until Jenna Macmillan—his biggest mistake—walks into Payton and Sons mechanic shop all grown up, looking like sunshine, and inspiring more than a few dirty thoughts.
Okay, so admittedly Jenna had known this was a stupid idea. She’d tried to talk herself out of it the whole way, muttering to herself as she sat at a stop light. The elderly man in the car in the lane beside her had been staring at her like she was nuts.
And she was. Totally nuts.
It’d been almost a decade since she’d seen Cal Payton and yet one look at those silvery blue eyes and she was shoved right back to the head-over-heels in love eighteen-year-old girl she’d been.