The Deal (Trading Hearts #3) (8 page)

If you enjoyed the
TRADING HEARTS
series you might enjoy:

INESCAPABLE

When Lily Howard agrees to meet the man she is having a powerfully erotic online affair with, she subsequently walks into a crime scene. Sexy police officer Seth Jones takes her into witness protection together with her online lover, Adrian Walsh, a man with crucial evidence for a court case.

Deep in the heart of the Welsh countryside and locked up in a secluded hideaway with these two men — one alpha dominant policeman, and a wry, sensitive accountant who knows her every secret erotic desire — Lily soon becomes embroiled in a torrid ménage a trois that surpasses her every fantasy. Lily is wildly empowered by living her innermost desires in the safety of the hideaway. Adrian is the key that unlocks her sexuality, and Seth is the master who sets them both free.

As danger stalks ever closer and the three lovers are torn apart, they each find that deep emotional bonds have also been forged. Can Lily ever forget what they shared? Does she even want to?

Now Enjoy an
Excerpt of
INESCAPABLE

"How long am I going to be stuck here?" Lily whispered to herself as she stood against the old-fashioned Victorian radiator warming her hands and legs. She stared around the strange bedroom while she tried to make sense of everything that happened over the course of the evening.

The witness protection officer, Seth, had taken charge as if it was his god given right. He'd been so high-handed and arrogant that her back was well and truly up. She balked at following his instructions, and she expected at least a modicum of respect—especially if Adrian and she were such highly valued members of the public that they needed his protection. He riled her. Then there was the fact she'd accidentally got intimate with him, which apparently had given him an excuse to act as if he owned her. Was he that way with everyone?

The question made her remember each and every detail of what had happened between them, and her response to the memory was physical as well as mental. Tossing her hair back, she pushed the memories away as best she could. One thing was for sure, she wanted her phone back. She had to get in touch with her flatmate. Andrea would be worried sick. They worked together, and they had a business to run. If she wasn't there in the morning Andrea would have to bring in a temp, and they couldn't afford that right now.

After a moment she gathered her resolve and listened at the door. Clicking it open, she found that the hallway was now in darkness. Further along the corridor light poured out of an open doorway. She could hear the sound of television and the two men exchanging comments. Somebody laughed, and for a moment she was tempted to join them. On principle, she'd denied herself that luxury.

It'd been hard, because her curiosity was raging—about the both of them. Adrian, the man who she had got so intimate with online, and Seth the arrogant, attractive man who was now in charge.
Phone
, she reminded herself. As her eyes grew accustomed to the gloom, she could see the two phones were still sitting on the hall table, where he had left them.

Opening the door a little wider, she winced when it squeaked. Squeezing through the narrow gap, she took a deep breath and darted across the hallway. She had the phone in her hand when a tall shadow blocked the light from the sitting-room doorway.

"Don't even think about it." Seth was beside her inside four paces, his expression overcast and inscrutable. He removed the phone from her hand, flipped it over and showed her the back panel.

Lily's mouth tightened when she saw that he'd removed the SIM Card. She glared at him. He'd left the phones there as bait, the bastard. "I suppose you think that's funny."

A half-smile broke the stern look on his face, and that only served to emphasize his arrogance. Lily didn't want to hear whatever smart remark was about to come out of his mouth. Turning on her heel she went back to her room, but when she went to close the door she found it blocked by the weight of his body. Her pulse tripped and then raced on.

Seth stepped inside, closing the door behind him. It was then that she became aware of how exactly large he was. His physique was solid and strong. He'd abandoned his leather jacket and the shirt he wore was closely fitted, revealing the breadth of his shoulders and the narrowness of his waist and hips.

"What do you want?" She issued the question sternly and then folded her arms across her chest, every pulse point in her body aware of his presence. The way he was looking at her—with a slow and obvious up-and-down perusal of her body—left her in no doubt of what he wanted.
Great, I kissed the man, and now he thinks he has rights.

"We need to talk." He was so still, so contained, and yet everything about him suggested action. "I need your compliance. I want you to do as I say while you're under my protection." He paused. "But you don't like following instructions, do you?"

Her spine straightened. She glanced away, blocking out the thoughts that surfaced. He'd hit a nerve there, but she wasn't about to let him know that. "I don't like being pulled out my life over something that has nothing to do with me."

He looked at her, steadily. "I understand that. Believe me, if you were aware of all the circumstances, you'd be glad you're in witness protection." He paused again, and one corner of his mouth lifted. "In fact, you might even play nicely."

"You reckon?" She threw him a sarcastic glance.

That only seemed to amuse him.

"Why don't you come across the hallway and be social?"

The smile that hovered around his mouth made her lips part as she thought about how that mouth felt under hers, and how brazenly she'd acted when she thought he was Adrian. She wasn't ready to go in there and "be social," because there was no way she could sit with the two of them and chit chat, not yet.

He took a step closer, and it was with such deliberate intent—his eyes never leaving hers—that her heart missed a beat. Frustrated, she lashed out. "Okay, you win. I can't make any calls. But my flatmate will report me missing if she doesn't hear from me, I know she will."

He frowned. "That may or may not be good news."

There was no way she was going to flatter him by asking what his cryptic comment meant. "Look, I need some time alone to get my head around this."

He stared at her for the longest moment, and then nodded. But he didn't make a move to leave. In fact he looked rooted to the spot. "You also need to eat. I've made you a sandwich, I'll fetch it."

Why was it that everything he said annoyed her? "You're too kind."

"I'm trying. Believe me." A wry smile passed over his face. "I'm not your enemy here, Lily, please try to remember that."

His comment struck her oddly, and the way he said her name—as soft as a caress—made her breath hitch. When she met his glance she found him brooding. It was intimate, and somehow intrusive. It made her annoyed, and yet it made her feel outrageously horny, too. She knew she should put her foot down, tell him to get out of the room, and yet the fact he was there at all secretly thrilled her. Wired to every sensation, to every atmospheric change in the room, her skin prickled.

"This'd all be so much more pleasant if you chilled out." Eyebrows lifted, he went further. "We could act as if we were meeting for the first time, like we did earlier today."

The bastard, he had to bring that up—and there was a suggestive glint in his eye as he reminded her of what had gone before.

She shook her head. "You've had your fun with the phone, leave me alone."

"You don't mean that." They were inches apart and he was studying her as if he was aware of how turned on she was by his presence.

"Don't I?" Her body was a mass of conflicting signals. Her blood raced and she was finding it difficult to control her breathing.

Moving quickly, he grasped her around her wrist with one determined hand and drew her arm away from her chest, taking away her shield. His hand felt warm and yet unyielding as he held her wrist, and her other arm automatically fell to her side. "We have unfinished business, and you know it."

Unnerved, she tried to pull away, but when he held on to her and drew her closer still, she melted. "No. That was a mistake. I thought you were Adrian," she whispered. "That's why I kissed you."

That didn't faze him.

"I know. It was a blind date, but you liked what you saw, didn't you? You made your move, and you made it on me." He said it so suggestively.

"You're an arrogant prick." Even so, the memory of what she'd said and done raced through her mind over again, hammering the point home. Her face was on fire.

"Thing is," he said, running one finger down her top and around the outside of her breast, making her head spin, "I enjoyed it, and I think you did too."

There was no answer to that. She couldn't deny it, not after what had happened, and now his thumb rested over her knotted nipple, applying just enough pressure through her top and bra to make her crazy. She'd well and truly dropped herself in it with this man, and by the looks of it he was going to torture her with it for his own amusement.

When she didn't respond, he continued. "Unfortunately I was distracted, and that wasn't very gentlemanly of me, not while you were being so generous with your affections." He lifted her chin with one sure finger. "I feel we should try again, and this time I'll give you my full and undivided attention."

Before she had a chance to deny him or respond, he kissed her full on the mouth.

Lily could do nothing to stop it. Her hands instinctively went to his chest with the intention of pushing him away. When she tried to do so she couldn't seem to apply any pressure. His body was hard and powerful, and hers gravitated closer as her lips parted. His mouth claimed hers, thoroughly, his tongue teasing hers. His hands moved over her bottom, squeezing it through her skirt, holding her against his hard hips so she could feel his erection growing.

I can't do this
. Breathlessly, she broke free, and yet her hands still stroked across his chest and shoulders, learning him, her body pivoting on one heel and her hips locked against his. "You're just trying to embarrass me."

"No, not at all. I'm trying to make you relax."

"Yeah, right." Looking into his eyes she saw that he really meant it. Could it be true? Even if it was true, it didn't stop her being embarrassed. She shrugged his comment off. "Is this what you do to all of the witnesses under your so-called protection?"

He lifted her bodily, and turned her around, pressing her up against the wall in a flash, his hands sliding her skirt up the sides of her hips. "No," he said, voice husky and intimate, "but you're the only one who has ever come on to me before we were even introduced." His eyes flickered. "That makes you pretty damn memorable. Besides, you gave me an invitation I don't intend to let you revoke."

Christ, he was so full-on, and her body burned in response to his hands on her. "What the hell are you doing?"

He ducked down and planted a hungry kiss on her throat. "Touching you…everywhere I think you need to be touched." His hand was under the front of her skirt and it closed over her knickers, cupping the mound of her pussy and making her gasp aloud. He lifted his head, and nodded. "Oh yes, you're hot. You did enjoy it, didn't you?"

"I thought you were Adrian," she shot at him, annoyed, and then moaned involuntarily when he squeezed her pussy. The action took her breath away.

"So you keep saying."

Her clit burned and pulsed inside the hard cup of his palm, and she shifted from one foot to the other.

He moved one leg against the outside of hers, caging her in. "But it's me now, touching you, and your underwear is damp in my hand...how...shocking." He tutted mockingly while he massaged her pussy, ignoring her feeble, half-hearted attempts to push him away.

"You bastard." Her arms felt weak, and her head tipped back against the surface of the wall for balance. Her eyes closed as pleasure filled her groin, her core clamping, aching to be filled by that hard cock he had pressed against her hip.

Then he pushed his hand inside her knickers and one finger sank into her damp groove, brushing over her swollen clit. Her pulse beat wildly in response.

"Tell me you want me to stop, and I will." He paused, loosening his hold, teasing one finger along the damp, sensitive lips of her sex.

"I…" Her head rolled from side to side.

He roved deeper and stroked her clit.

Once.

Aching need shot through her.

Her core spasmed and she squirmed, her hips rolling. "Don't stop," she begged, unable to help herself. "Please don't stop..."

###

5 stars from Just Erotic Romance Reviews
: I’ve always found Ms. Walker to flawlessly write characters and make their motives seem real, and never more so when it comes to a ménage story where the emotions of the characters involved have to be genuine and sincere for the reader to relate and accept what’s happening. This is obvious in Inescapable’s lead trio.