Reckless (9 page)

Reckless

“You kick my ass?” Lucas sputtered. “I was going easy on you because I didn’t want to permanently injure the guy Nikki thinks she’s in love with.”

J.T. glared at him.

“Married? For real?” Lucas asked as if he’d just caught that part. “You’re marrying her?”

“Well, the hope is that she’s marrying me,” J.T. said. “Now, can we get cleaned up?

I’m starving.”

Lucas glared at him again. “Don’t say another goddamn word about why you’re starving or I swear to God, I’ll kill you.”

J.T. chuckled. “Come on. Let’s go. Nikki will be glad to see you.”

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Maya Banks

Nikki sat on J.T.’s lap at Tucker’s while Lucas navigated his way through the crowd, holding a pitcher of beer. He gave her a decidedly big brother indulgent smile as he plunked the beer down.

“Hey, got room for us?”

Nikki looked up to see Seth and Zane with a grinning Jasmine sandwiched between them. She stifled her laughter when she saw a very bold blue streak down the side of Jasmine’s dark hair.

“Hey guys, you’re just in time,” J.T. said.

“In time for what?” Seth drawled. “Your ass-kicking?”

Lucas snorted. “That already happened.”

Nikki reached over and punched him in the arm.

“Nikki has agreed to put me out of my misery and marry me,” J.T. announced with what she could only call extreme smugness.

“Hey that’s great!” Jasmine said, a wide smile on her face. She leaned over and kissed J.T. on the cheek. “Glad to see you finally wised up.”

“Congrats, man,” Seth offered.

Zane leaned down and kissed Nikki on the forehead. “Way to go, girl. Guess it’s true what they say about determined women.”

Jasmine arched one eyebrow. “Oh? And what’s that?”

Zane grinned down at his wife. “That they always get their man?”

“Or men,” Nikki murmured mischievously.

Seth choked on his laughter, and J.T.’s arm tightened around her waist.

“That’s man singular to you, honey. Don’t you forget it either.”

Nikki grinned and plastered a big, sloppy wet kiss on his lips.

64

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Reckless

“Can we get on with the beer drinking?” Lucas drawled. “I’ve had about all the mushy shit I can take for the day.”

There was a chorus of agreement from the guys as they all reached for mugs. Nikki sat back and snuggled deeper into J.T.’s arms.

The group crowded around the table, commandeered chairs from other tables, and soon they had one big crowd, laughing and drinking beer.

“Do you think you can be happy here?” J.T. whispered in her ear. “Here in Barley? I know the town hasn’t been good to you, but honey, I’ll always love you, and I’ll always protect you.”

She smiled. No, this town didn’t hold any appeal to her. But she was surrounded by family, good friends and the man she loved more than anything. What else could she ask for?

The town could go to hell. As long as she had J.T.’s love, she could take on anything.

“I love you,” she said simply as she stared into his dark eyes. “Wherever you are, I’ll always be happy.”

“Funny. I was going to say the exact same thing about you,” he said in his deep, tender voice.

She closed her eyes and burrowed her face into his chest. Yeah, dreams did come true. For so long she’d been afraid to dream. Afraid to chase her dreams. But dreams only landed in the laps of the heroines in fairy tales. She didn’t want a fairy tale. She wanted the real thing. She’d gone after hers.

And she got it.

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About the Author

To learn m
ore about Maya, please visit http://www.mayabanks.com
. Send an email

to Maya at [email protected] or join her Yahoo! group to
join in the fun with other readers as we
ll as Maya: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/writeminded_readers
.

Look for these titles by Maya Banks

Now Available:

Seducing Simon

Colters’ Woman

Understood

Overheard

Undenied

Brazen

Love Me, Still

Into the Mist

Stay With Me

Coming Soon:

Into the Lair

The Cowboys’ Mistress

Sometimes love won’t come. Other times it just won’t go.

Color My Heart

© 2008 Red Garnier

A
Red Hot Summer
story.

Hannah Myers has had disastrous relationships in the past, but catching her now-ex-boyfriend cheating on her was the worst. As she picks up the pieces of her shattered heart, the last thing she expects to find in the hall outside her apartment is a young
god
asking if he can help. Yeah, he can help! He can take her clothes off, for starters…

Billy Hendricks has dated in the past, but he’s never met anyone like Hannah. Their sudden affair is supposed to be just a casual summer fling. But to Billy it is anything but casual. He’s seen the passion in her artwork, and he wants more from her than sex.

Hannah tells herself she will not fall in love with Billy. A smart girl needs to safeguard her heart. But how can a smart girl get hunky, wonderful Billy out of her system? Why, with another man!

With Hannah flinging her summer love right and left, things are bound to get colorful.

Warning: This book contains creative sex and a sinfully hot ménage a trois. It may
cause heart palpitations, S.O.S. calls to your better half, and all kinds of 911

emergencies. Keeping the A/C on at all times is highly recommended while reading!

Enjoy the following excerpt for
Color My Heart:

Ignoring the conversation around him, Billy watched Hannah as she laughed over something Lance said. He could hear her rich, throaty laugh all the way across the patio and he suspected she’d intended it that way. He sat on one of the foldout chairs across the lawn, his drink untouched over his knee, a hand curled around it.

Every time Lance brushed her arm or bent to touch her waist, Hannah kept stealing glances his way—as if to check if he was watching.

Hell yeah, Billy was watching.

And for a moment he felt like sending his chair flying high into the air—in Lance’s direction.

Hannah had asked him to act normal at the party, friendly, so Billy had stayed away.

He’d figured he wouldn’t be able to keep his hands off her, so distance had seemed the wiser choice. And here he was, sitting like a trained little dog waiting for a sign to go fetch.

The thought made him grunt.

Her obsession about people not knowing about them bordered on the insane. And now, hell, now she was coming on to Lance. Right in front of Billy. Evoking a million spirals of emotions inside him, none of them welcome. Much less pleasant.

Billy wasn’t stupid.

He knew she’d been hurt.

He knew she was trying to get over some heartless bastard and move on with her life.

He could see the anger that lingered inside her in each of her paintings, but he could also see,
feel
, her passion.

What they had between them wasn’t normal. It was sizzling hot chemistry and more.

Her reluctance to embrace it, to admit that what they had was the kind of thing a million people waited a lifetime for, was driving Billy crazy.

He couldn’t quite make out the way she made him feel, but he’d never felt this way before. He ached to hold her, protect her, make love to her—not just fuck her. He’d had her so many times he’d lost count. And yet each time he did, he wanted more. All of her, all the time.

At work, Billy usually found himself daydreaming about her, anxious for the clock to move the little hand to the six, the large hand to the twelve, so he could get off and finally get to see her.

But Hannah was so guarded, spoke so little about herself. Maybe at one point in his life, more than one woman had annoyed the hell out of Billy by going on and on about what she needed, how everyone including her parents had failed to give it to her, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. But where Hannah was concerned, Billy wanted—no,
craved
with every fiber in his being—to know more.

He wanted to know whose pictures had occupied the empty photo frames in her living room. He wanted to know who’d inspired her to paint that blinding, violent masterpiece he’d seen yesterday. He wanted to know why she’d let Billy inside her body, but not her mind, her heart.

He wanted to know
her
, damn it!

This arrangement sucked.

“
This is just sex, occasional, no-strings, and certainly no involvement beyond
,” she’d said that second time they’d “bumped into each other”.

“
That’s fine by me
,” Billy had said. And it
had
been fine—for like five days. Now it wasn’t fine. Nope. It was not fine at all.

And the message Hannah was getting across wasn’t very heartening. She was flirting with Lance, leaning close to him, whispering into his ear, right in Billy’s line of vision.

And as much as Billy hated watching her, his cock felt like a baseball bat. His balls were heavy, an aching pain inside his underwear.

He narrowed his eyes, bile rising up his throat. She was trying to drive him away.

Trying to show him they didn’t mean anything.
He
didn’t mean anything. Of course.

Clenching his jaw together, he rose to his feet and set his drink down on the chair seat. Damned if he was going to sit here all evening watching her. Damned if she thought she could drive him away. And damned if she wasn’t asking for it.

He wound his way across the lawn, ignoring a string of salutes and inquisitive gazes as he headed for her.

Now Lance chuckled over something she said and Billy seized the moment to draw up behind her. “I know what you’re trying to do,” he murmured into her ear, cupping her hips and letting her feel his erection—the erection
she
had given him. “You’re trying to make me jealous, drive me away, aren’t you?”

She’d gone stiff. Mute.

Well, good. Because he wasn’t through talking.

He grazed her earlobe, his voice but a whisper. “Guess what, Hannah? I am so hot for you I’m near bursting. Even if you go on and fuck him, I’m
still
not going anywhere.”

He pressed a wet kiss to her ear, his lips lingering against the delicate shell of her earlobe.

“I’m in for the long haul.”

“Billy, please, not here.”

He barely heard the words; she spoke so low.

“Not here? Are you afraid of a show, Hannah? You’re doing fine all by yourself—

you’re so hot you’d come now if I touched you, wouldn’t you? It excites you…my watching you.”

“Yes.”

A shudder coursed through Billy at that breathy word, lust tightening his muscles.

“Ask him up to your room.”

“No, I—”

“Look at the front of his pants, sweetheart. He’s hard for you. You’ve been working him all night. I’ll bet if I stick my hand under your dress right now, you’d be wet as a seal. You
want
to fuck him. You want to see if he can make you feel what I do, don’t you? You want to try someone else, see if he does anything for you?”

“Yes, yes, all right, I do!”

In this heat wave, anything and everything goes.

Heat of the Moment

© 2008 Elle Kennedy

A
Red-Hot Summer
story.

Shelby Harper has lusted over Navy SEAL John Garrett for over a year, but no matter how many sexy signals she sends out, the man shows a complete lack of interest in getting naked. Then she overhears Garrett talking to his SEAL teammate—a discussion in which they conclude she’s vanilla. Stung, Shelby sets out to show them exactly how un-vanilla she is.

Garrett can’t believe it when sweet, sexy Shelby suggests a wild and sweaty ménage.

He’s been trying to figure out how to ask her out without coming off as a guy who only wants to get in her pants—her friendship is too valuable to him to risk it. But if a crazy, heat-wave three-way is what Shelby wants, then he’s ready and willing to give it to her.

Once she gets it out of her system, however…well, then he’ll let her know he wants her all to himself.

Warning: This title contains two dangerously hot Navy
SEALS
and a heroine
determined to get it on with both of them. Be prepared to take a cold shower (or maybe
two) after reading this heat-wave ménage.

Enjoy the following excerpt for
Heat of the Moment: Carson’s soft whistle broke through the silence. “Jesus, Shelby,” he hissed out.

“You’re fucking gorgeous.”

Heat spilled over her cheeks. Both men were completely dressed, and there she was, standing in front of them without a stitch of clothing so they could openly admire her.

And under their scrutiny, her nipples tightened, her breasts grew heavy and a rush of moisture pooled between her legs. Maybe it made her the slut of the century, but she couldn’t wait to get started.

Evidently Garrett felt the same urgency, because before she could blink he had stepped toward her and was pulling her naked body to his clothed one. She stared at his mouth, knowing her excitement was written all over her face. “Kiss me,” she whispered.

He quickly complied, pressing his lips to hers. His mouth was hot, firm, insistent. Oh yes. Carson had kissed her like he had all the time in the world, his mouth lazy, but Garrett was more intense. His kisses were rough and hungry and passionate, as if he wanted to devour her. Well, she wanted to devour him too. So she did, sucking hard on his tongue and shamelessly rubbing against his lower body.

Breathing hard, she tugged on the hem of his T-shirt and pulled it over his head.

Underneath the shirt, his chest was all muscle, a wide expanse of hard ripples and smooth golden skin, with a dusting of light brown hair leading to the waistband of his cargo pants.

Her mouth went dry, her hand unsteady as she reached out and touched that incredible chest. She brushed her finger over one of his flat, brown nipples, eliciting a ragged sigh from his throat.