Playing the Playboy (21 page)

Andrew couldn’t help but laugh again.  “Good thing I have such a keen eye and such lightning-fast reflexes,” he teased. “I might have just prevented another disaster. What would you do without me?”

“You might be useful to keep around. I really don’t know what I’d do without you.” Laurel’s smile faded after a moment into something deep and tender. “I hope I never have to find out again.”

Andrew told her the truth. “You won’t.”

***

If you haven’t yet read it, the first Heirs of Damon Book,
Seducing the Enemy
, is now available. The third Heirs of Damon book, Engaging the Boss, will be released in early 2014.

If you enjoyed Playing the Playboy, you might enjoy Holiday Heat by the same author.

“Next time, I’ll pick the hotel,” he said, his eyes resting on her with a gaze that was almost soft.

“No, I told you before. When you’re involved in a sleazy affair, then you pick a motel that’s appropriate for the occasion.”

He cocked an eyebrow, obviously amused. “Is that what we’re doing? Having a sleazy affair?”

“Of course.”

“Neither one of us is married. I’m not sure ‘affair’ is the correct term.”

“Of course it is. You don’t have to be married to have an affair. It just needs to be secret.” No one knew that Carrie was regularly screwing Matthew Lynch, and she intended to keep it that way.

“I see.” He looked eminently unconvinced. And still amused. And definitely superior.

“Don’t be an ass.” When he opened his mouth to respond, she spoke over him. “You know exactly what ass-like behavior I’m referring to.”

Since that first night, they’d gotten together at least once a week for sex, although recently they’d been getting together more often.

Matt was her hot secret. Her shameless indulgence. Everyone thought she was quiet and withdrawn—keeping to herself, working in her coffee shop, never taking risks. No one would dream she’d have a casual affair with a gorgeous, notorious, wounded artist.

She knew she’d have to let him go eventually—you didn’t have sex indefinitely with a man you could never be in a real relationship with.  She assumed eventually she’d be ready for a real relationship. But not yet.

“What is it?” Matt asked. His vivid eyes were knowing and astute. Sometimes she wondered how far inside her soul they could see.

“Nothing.”

“Feeling guilty about your sleazy affair?” he asked with light irony.

His question was perceptive—just shy of the truth—and it left her feeling a little uneasy. To hide her response, she raised her eyebrows. “I thought you said ‘affair’ wasn’t the appropriate word.”

He chuckled and reached over to skim his fingers along her back again, lingering on the spot he’d admired before—the deep curve and dip just above her bottom.

She watched him in silence. He was looking at her body with an expression that was both amused and strangely hungry. His coloring had evened out, although he was still wet with perspiration. Her eyes dipped from his face to his chest, and she couldn’t help but notice the lines of faint scars there. There were a lot of them. And more on his arms. Plus the two deep ones on the side of his head.

He’d barely survived that car accident two years ago.

Matt’s body wasn’t perfect—wasn’t flawless and invulnerable. His muscle development was lean, masculine, and efficient, but he wasn’t a body-builder. And he was scarred. Scarred so deeply. Scarred in so many ways.

“Why don’t you have any tattoos?” she asked, trying to drag herself away from the soft feelings her reflections had prompted.

“Why would I have tattoos?”

“I don’t know. You seem like the kind of guy who would have tattoos. You’ve got that hard edge, you know.”

He chuckled. “When an activity is so common that college kids do it when they’re drunk, I think it’s time to admit that the activity has lost its edge.”

She burst into giggles when the words processed. Sometime in the last three months, she’d learned how to laugh again—although she couldn’t really pinpoint when it had happened.

“You’re not that much older than college kids, you know. You shouldn’t sound so superior.”

“If you say so.”

Still smiling, she reached over to stroke his chest, her hand gliding over the smoothly rippling muscles and scattering of coarse hair.

“Do you want me to get a tattoo?” he asked, a different note in his voice.

“No.” Her fingers lingered on a jagged scar that slashed through the curve of his ribcage.

“I guess my body is marked enough.”

She sucked in a sharp breath. “Don’t say that. I like your body as it is.”

When she realized what she’d said, she blushed a little—although there wasn’t any good reason for feeling self-conscious.

Her eyes darted up, and she saw Matt was almost smiling. “You know what I mean,” she added.

“Yeah. Thanks.”

Her fingers kept playing along the scar, and she felt that same unfamiliar tenderness overwhelming her.

He cleared his throat. “Don’t.”

Carrie frowned, startled from her reverie and a little embarrassed by it. “Don’t what?”

“Don’t feel sorry for me.”

“I wasn’t doing any such thing.” She wanted to trace the line of the scar that ran from his right shoulder toward his nipple with her fingers or her mouth, but she resisted the silly impulse. “You’re far too smug to pity.”

“Good.”

“Do you—” She broke off the question, confused by the sudden impulse to ask it.

“Do I what?”

“Do you think it’s…unhealthy. What we’re doing, I mean. We both should be trying to heal emotionally, and maybe having sex like this is really just a…”

His brows drew together. “A crutch?”

“Yeah. Do you think it is?”

“Does it feel like a crutch to you?”

“I don’t know.” She sighed and couldn’t quite meet his eyes. She had no idea why she was blurting all of this out, but it had been on her mind more and more lately. “I’m just sometimes afraid we’re with each other like this because it’s never going to go anywhere, because we’re both too scared to get close to anyone. And it’s keeping us from moving on, finding someone for real.”

Something felt strange about the way he was watching her, but she still couldn’t look him in the eye. “Do you
want
to be with someone else? Someone you feel like you could have a future with?”

“No,” she admitted. “I don’t want to be with anyone but you.”

“So what’s the problem?”

“I don’t know.” She felt better at his matter-of-fact question. “I guess there isn’t a problem.”

“Okay, good. Now tell me this. Do you want to be with me just because you think I have a hard edge?”

The question surprised her, as did the almost diffident look in his eyes when she glanced up to check his expression. The truth was she’d gotten together with him at the beginning only because of that edge—because he was new, dangerous, exciting, completely different from Henry, completely different from anything her life had ever been before.

It wasn’t why she was with him now, though, and the realization was so terrifying she immediately pushed it out of her conscious mind.

To force the conversation back into their normal pattern, she stroked his chest again and said in a lilting voice, “Oh, no. I like you for your other hard...qualities.”

Her hand slid farther down, over his flat belly, and lower toward his groin. Her eyes widened as she saw he was partly erect again. “Damn, Matt, you’re insatiable. Have you always been this horny?”

“Honestly, no,” he admitted.

She was vaguely comforted by the fact that he hadn’t been this way with every woman he’d ever been with. All she said was, “Hmm. Maybe cheap motel rooms turn you on.”

He stifled a burst of laughter. “That must be it.”

***

Holiday Heat is part of the Christmas collection, Love for the Holidays. You can find out more information
here
.

Noelle handwrote her first romance novel in a spiral-bound notebook when she was twelve, and she hasn’t stopped writing since. She has lived in eight different states and currently resides in Virginia, where she teaches English, reads any book she can get her hands on, and offers tribute to a very spoiled cocker spaniel.

She loves travel, art, history, and ice cream. After spending far too many years of her life in graduate school, she has decided to reorient her priorities and focus on writing contemporary romances. For more information, please check out her website:
noelle-adams.com
. She also writes under the penname
Claire Kent

Other Books by Noelle Adams

One Hot Night: Three Contemporary Romance Novellas
–
Hearts can change in just one night
…

A Negotiated Marriage
–
Sex wasn’t supposed to be part of the deal…

Listed
–
A marriage of convenience has never been like
this
.

Bittersweet
–
Love is as strong as death
.

Missing
–
Sex would never be enough…

Revival
–
There wasn’t enough left of his heart…

Seducing the Enemy
–
She’ll never let him win…

Other Books Written as Claire Kent

Escorted
– She hired him to take her virginity, but now she wants even more.

Breaking
– He knows what to do with her body, but he doesn’t always know how to love.

Nameless
–
They named it anything but love
.

Christening
–
Love can be harder than she thought…

Bundles

Love for the Holidays
– My novella,
Holiday Heat
, is included in this collection of five Christmas romances.

Hearts in Hiding
– 60% off the price of
A Negotiated Marriage,
Escorted
, and
Missing
when you buy them as a collection.