An Excerpt from
RUNNING HOT
A Bad Boys Undercover Novella by HelenKay Dimon Ward Bennett and Tasha Gregory aren’t on the same team. But while hunting a dictator on the run, these two must decide whether they can trust one another—and their ability to stay professional. Working together might just make everyone safer, but getting cozy . . . might just get them killed.
“Take your clothes off.”
He looked at her as if she’d lost her mind. “Excuse me?”
“You’re attracted to me.” Good Lord, now Tasha was waving her hands in the air. Once she realized it, she stopped. Curled her hands into balls at her sides. “I find you . . . fine.”
Ward covered his mouth and produced a fake cough. She assumed it hid a smile. That was almost enough to make her rescind the offer.
“Really? That’s all you can muster?” This time he did smile. “You think I’m fine?”
He was hot and tall and had a face that played in her head long after she closed her eyes each night. And that body. Long and lean, with the stalk of a predator. Ward was a man who protected and fought. She got the impression he wrestled demons that had to do with reconciling chivalry and decency with the work they performed.
The combination of all that made her wild with need. “Your clothes are still on.”
“Are you saying you want to—”
Since he was saying the sentence so slowly—emphasizing, and halting after, each word—she finished it fast. “Shag.”
Both eyebrows rose now. “Please tell me that’s British for ‘have sex.’ ”
“Yes.”
He blew out a long, staggered breath. “Thank God, because right now my body is in a race to see what will explode first, my brain or my dick.”
Uh? “Is that a compliment?”
“Believe it or not, yes.” Two steps, and he was in front of her, his fingers playing with the small white button at the top of her slim tee. “So, are you talking about now or sometime in the future to celebrate ending Tigana?”
Both. “I need to work off this extra energy and get back in control.” She was half-ready to rip off her clothes and throw him on the mattress.
Maybe he knew because he just stood there and stared at her, his gaze not leaving her face.
She stared back.
Just as he started to lower his head, a ripple moved through her. She shoved a hand against his shoulder. “Don’t think that I always break protocol like this.”
“I don’t care if you do.” He ripped his shirt out of his pants and whipped it over his head, revealing miles of tanned muscles and skin.
“You’re taking off your clothes.” Not the smartest thing she’d ever said, but it was out there and she couldn’t snatch it back.
“You’re the boss, remember?”
A shot of regret nearly knocked her over. Not at making the pass but at wanting him this much in the first place. Here and now, when her mind should be on the assignment, not on his chest.
She’d buried this part of herself for so long under a pile of work and professionalism that bringing it out now made her twitchy. “This isn’t—”
His hands went to her arms, and he brushed those palms up and down, soothing her. “Do you want me?”
She couldn’t lie. He had to feel it in the tremor shaking through her. “Yes.”
“Then stop justifying not working this very second and enjoy. It won’t make you less of a professional.”
That was exactly what she needed to hear. “Okay.”
His hands stopped at her elbows, and he dragged her in closer, until the heat of his body radiated against her. “You’re a stunning woman, and we’ve been circling each other for days. Honestly, your ability to handle weapons only makes you hotter in my eyes.”
The words spun through her. They felt so good. So right. “Not the way I would say it, but okay.”
“You want me. I sure as hell want you. We need to lie low until it gets dark and we can hide our movements better.” The corner of his mouth kicked up in a smile filled with promise. “And, for the record, there is nothing sexier than a woman who goes after what she wants.”
He meant it. She knew it with every cell inside her.
Screw being safe.
An Excerpt from
SINFUL REWARDS 1
A Billionaires and Bikers Novella by Cynthia Sax Belinda “Bee” Carter is a good girl; at least, that’s what she tells herself. And a good girl deserves a nice guy—just like the gorgeous and moody billionaire Nicolas Rainer. Or so she thinks, until she takes a look through her telescope and sees a naked, tattooed man on the balcony across the courtyard. He has been watching her, and that makes him all the more enticing. But when a mysterious and anonymous text message dares her to do something bad, she must decide if she is really the good girl she has always claimed to be, or if she’s willing to risk everything for her secret fantasy of being watched.
An Avon Red Novella