A View to a Thrill (Masters and Mercenaries Book 7) (53 page)

The invitation stares out at her from the window of a French Quarter boutique. The store’s owner claims to have no knowledge of the strange candle. But Cassidy can’t resist its intoxicating scent or the challenge written across its label in elegant cursive. With the strike of a match and one tiny flame, she will call forth a supernatural being with the ultimate power—the power to unchain the heart, the power to remove the fear that stands between a person and their truest desires.

* * * *

From
THE FLAME
by Christopher Rice …

The house is dark, save for the sparkling footprints dotting the foyer's hardwood floor. Gold flecks swim in each one, waterborne siblings of the luminescent particles that swirled through the candle's halo as soon as she lit the wick. They have to be Andrew's footprints, but she's shouted his name several times and he hasn't answered.

For the second time that day, Cassidy is soaked from head to toe and questioning the nature of reality. The rain roused her after she lost consciousness. By then, the candle's glass container was completely empty, as if someone had wiped it clean of every last drop of wax while she'd drifted between sleep and waking, utterly drained by the most powerful orgasm she'd ever experienced.

LSD. Acid. Or maybe that Datura stuff Native Americans use for vision quests. Whatever it is, I'm still feeling it.

"Cassidy!"

She cries out. The front door is still open. Shane stands on the porch, soaked from head to toe. When she sees the tiny gold flakes dripping from his earlobes and the tip of his nose, pooling slightly in the hollows of his eyes, her breath leaves her.

Wide-eyed, his jaw tense, he closes the distance between them. He runs an index finger along her forearm and turns up a fingertip glistening with the same gold particles that highlight his face, that swim in the footprints all around them.

"What's going on?" Shane whispers.

"I don't know…" she says. It feels like a lie.

It
is
a lie. She accepted the invitation written on that note; that's what's happening. She lit Bastian Drake's candle at the scene of her greatest desire and now…and now…

Shane's lips are inches from hers. Rain swirls through the open door behind him. Flashes of lightning turn the branches outside into giant claws. But they don't frighten her. They do, however, seem to send a word of warning:
Stay inside. It's not safe to run. The answer, if there is one, is inside this house.

"Andrew…." she whispers. "We have to find Andrew."

Shane follows her upstairs with bounding strides.

The master bedroom is empty. When she sees the alarm clock's blank screen, she realizes the power's out. She's about to scream her husband's name again when she sees him in the doorway. He is naked and dripping wet. Streaks of gold outline his nipples. They travel the hard ridges of his obliques and fringe the heft of his cock, which jerks from his sudden arousal. The sight of Cassidy and Shane standing together in the shadowed bedroom makes her husband instantly and powerfully hard. While it's too dark to see his face, she can see his muscular chest rising and falling with deep, sustained breaths. He always breathes like that when he's getting ready to pounce. To lick. To taste. To ravish.

"Get on the bed, Cassidy," he says, his voice low and deep.

Yes. Please. Now. If it's a mistake, I'll blame the candle. I'll blame Bastian Drake. But I want it now. Both of them. Here. Now.

In a flash of lightning, she sees Shane's expression. It's a portrait of astonishment and desire as he looks back and forth between the two of them. An expression just like the one he wore when he kissed her for the first time. Not fear, but a kind of dazed wonder over the fact that life could suddenly deliver something so unexpected and all consuming.

When Andrew grips the back of Shane's neck, this visual reminder of their moment at The Roquelaure House enflames her desire. Then her husband says, "Take your panties off, Cassidy," and it feels as if her skin has become a thin layer of radiant heat can no longer contain the desire coursing through her veins.

Hands shaking, Cassidy unbuttons her skirt, kicks her way out of it. It turns into a brief struggle because she can't look away from what's happening in front of her. Bent at the waist, Shane runs his tongue up the side of Andrew's body, following a slender thread of gold all the way up to her husband's pecs. When he reaches Andrew's nipple, Shane sucks it briefly, loud enough to make a pop.

Her husband's low throaty laugh is gentle. Shane's desire for Andrew is a feeling on Cassidy's skin, a tingly blanket, as if invisible hands have just lightly slapped her thighs, squeezed her breasts. As if she is being tweaked and teased and tested by the newness of what they're about to do, by the delicious danger of it. And while everything about Shane's posture says he wants to suck her husband's tongue from in between his lips, Andrew teases him, gripping the back of his neck, holding their mouths inches apart.

"You're afraid, aren't you?" Andrew asks. "Both of you. You've always been afraid of how much you want each other. Afraid of how it doesn't fit into a neat little box." Their lips inches apart now, the two men she loves the most seem connected by a current of fearless desire, a current fueled by her exposed sex, by her wild passion for them both. "Well…
enough
! Both of you. Enough already. I've had enough of watching the two of you together – "

His voice is a low growl and his wording makes her tense. If Andrew is about to punish them, why is he still stroking the back of Shane's neck? Why is he unbuckling Shane's belt with his other hand?

" – All that hunger between you two, and it's got nowhere to go. Well, not anymore. I'm going to give it somewhere to go. I'm going to fuck both of you into loving each other the way you need to. And I don't give a damn if there isn't a name for what I'm about to do. We have
our
names. And that's good enough. Now get on your knees, Shane. It's time for you to taste my wife."

Forbidden Legacy

Trinity Masters
, Book 4

By Mari Carr and Lila Dubois

Now Available!

Click
here
to purchase.

An enigmatic leader…

Harrison Adams has served as leader of the Trinity Masters for a decade. He’s always placed the group above his own needs—even when it comes to the one woman who calls to him. When a dangerous threat to the secret society surfaces, Harrison sets a plan in motion that could save the organization, but it comes with a price.

A steadfast woman…

Alexis turned down an invitation to join the Trinity Masters, afraid to relinquish control over her life, her future…her heart. That rejection means night after night of unrequited lust as she and Harrison are forced to ignore their desires. Her heart aching, she throws herself into her job and her difficult working relationship with her boss, Michael. He’s attractive and maddening, but Alexis has zero plans to give in to the crazy chemistry between them.

An improper proposal…

Harrison asks Alexis to experiment in a ménage relationship with him and she agrees unable to take another moment of longing for him. Perhaps with a third around she’ll be able to keep her heart intact. She is completely unaware their third will be her infuriating boss, Michael. She couldn’t have known how giving herself to them would inflame her desires. Or how much she would enjoy submitting to them.

But when an evil man looking for revenge sets his sights on Harrison, time is the one thing none of them have. And it soon becomes apparent Harrison’s forbidden legacy could destroy them all…

* * * *

He’d waited too damn long for her. Now that he had her in his arms, he wasn’t holding back, wasn’t denying himself this taste. He deepened the kiss, pulling her closer. Alexis accepted the embrace, put her own spin on it as she nipped at his lower lip, demanding access to his mouth. Her tongue stroked his, betraying her hunger.

Harrison grasped her hair, tugging at her long auburn tresses. She moaned when he increased the pressure. Then he twisted their bodies—careful not to break the connection of their mouths—as he pushed her against the desk.

Alexis placed her hands on his shoulders, shoving him away. “What are you saying, Harry?”

“I want you.”

She shook her head, clearly confused. “Is this a proposal?”

His patience was in tatters. Now that he’d opened the gate, the time for conversation was over. There was nothing more to say. At this moment, action took precedence to words. He unbuttoned her blouse.

“Harry.” She insisted on an answer.

“What if it is, Lex?” He kissed her before she could respond. He didn’t want her answer. Couldn’t stand to hear her refuse or deny this. He wouldn’t let her lie to him. Not now. Not ever. He moved his hands, pushing them beneath her skirt.

“Damn you,” she muttered against his lips. “I didn’t lock the door.”

He grinned. “Don’t move.” He crossed the room and engaged the lock. Upon his return, he lifted her and urged her to sit on the desk as he pushed her skirt higher.

She worked the knot of his tie loose and then started to unbutton his shirt. Three buttons down, she got fed up and simply ripped the last few free, dragged the cotton away and dropped it to the floor.

Harrison kissed her once more, pressed his lips hard against hers, demanding, unyielding. He reached beneath her skirt and pushed her panties aside so he could draw his fingers along the slit between her legs. She was hot, wet, ready.

Alexis leaned away from him, gasping for breath. “Stop. Wait. We can’t do this.”

He tugged her blouse open, slid it off and found the clasp of her bra. “We’re not stopping.”

“Harry.” She half-heartedly tried to push his hands away, but they soon fell to her sides when he freed her breasts. Bending forward, he sucked one turgid nipple into his mouth roughly.

“God.” She gripped his hair, attempting to hold him to her. Harrison had never been called a gentle lover. He’d always been careful to choose bedmates who liked their pleasure laced with pain.

Alexis threw her head back, digging her fingers into his scalp. “Harder, Harry. God, suck it harder. Need to feel…”

He gave her what she wanted. And more. He cupped the flesh of her breasts, kneading firmly as he continued to draw on her nipples, increasing the suction until she cried out so loudly there was no way his secretary wouldn’t know what was happening in his office.

He tried to make himself give a damn, but he didn’t. Instead, he doubled his efforts until she moaned again.

Once more, he reached beneath her skirt and found the elastic waistband of her thong and garter belt. His actions jerked her back to reality.

“We can’t do this, Harry.”

“Of course we can. This is long overdue. Stop pretending you don’t understand that.”

For more information about the Trinity Masters, Forbidden Legacy, and buy links, visit
here
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His To Take

A Wicked Lovers Novel

By Shayla Black

Coming March 3, 2015

Click
here
to pre-order!

Racing against time, NSA Agent Joaquin Muñoz is searching for a little girl who vanished twenty years ago with a dangerous secret. Since Bailey Benson fits the profile, Joaquin abducts the beauty and whisks her to the safety of Club Dominion—before anyone can silence her for good.

At first, Bailey is terrified, but when her captor demands information about her past, she’s stunned. Are her horrific visions actually distant memories that imperil all she holds dear? Confined with Joaquin in a place that echoes with moans and breathes passion, he proves himself a fierce protector, as well as a sensual Master who’s slowly crawling deeper in her head…and heart. But giving in to him might be the most delicious danger of all.

Because Bailey soon learns that her past isn’t the only mystery. Joaquin has a secret of his own—a burning vengeance in his soul. The exposed truth leaves her vulnerable and wondering how much about the man she loves is a lie, how much more is at risk than her heart. And if she can trust him to protect her long enough to learn the truth.

* * * *

“…What about you? You’re with another government agency, so you’re here to . . . what? Be my lover? Does Uncle Sam think you need to crawl between my legs in order to watch over me?”

Joaquin ground his jaw. She was hitting low, and the logical part of him understood that she was hurt, so she was lashing out at the messenger because she didn’t have anyone else. But that didn’t stop his temper from getting swept up in her cyclone of emotion. “I’m not here on anyone’s orders. In fact, I’ll probably be fired for pursuing this case because Tatiana Aslanov isn’t on my boss’s radar. When it became obvious the agency intended to do nothing, I couldn’t leave you to that horrific death. So here we are. But let me clue you in, baby girl. Uncle Sam doesn’t tell me who to fuck. I can’t fake an erection, even for the sake of God and country. That kiss we almost shared? That was me wanting you because just being in the same room with you makes me want to strip off everything you’re wearing and impale you with every inch I’ve got.”

When he eased closer to Bailey, she squared her shoulders and raised her chin. “Don’t come near me.”