Desire in the Dark
Desire in the Dark
Alise has been in love with Mac since she moved to New Eden, Washington.
Unfortunately, the sexy attorney considers her a friend…and not one “with benefits”.
Just as Alise decides unrequited love is for fools and poets, a freak thunderstorm plummets the town into darkness and traps her with the man who has starred in her every erotic fantasy for the past year. A blackout. Wine. A gorgeous man. Anything could happen.
An Ellora’s Cave Romantica Publication
Desire in the Dark
Desire in the Dark Copyright 2010 Naima Simone
Edited by Jaynie Ritchie
Cover art by Syneca
Electronic book publication April 2010
The terms Romantica® and Quickies® are registered trademarks of Ellora’s Cave Publishing.
With the exception of quotes used in reviews, this book may not be reproduced or used in whole or in part by any means existing without written permission from the publisher, Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Inc.® 1056 Home Avenue, Akron OH 44310-3502.
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This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.
DESIRE IN THE DARK
Naima Simone
To the One who continues to bless me with ideas both big and small. As always, everything I do is dedicated to You.
To my husband, who gives me “the look” that says “I have no clue what you’re talking about but I’m listening anyway”. You support and encourage me “anyway” and I love you for it.
Author Note
You may recognize Mac and Alise as the best friends of Selig Richardson and Caitlin Madison in
Sweet Ultimatum
. The latter couple’s marriage reunited these troubled lovers and so they deserved a story of their own. I hope you enjoy it!
Naima Simone
“I’ve decided to fuck Vince.”
McKenzie “Mac” Dunn’s head jerked up from the contract he studied. His incredulous blue stare snapped to her face and Alise couldn’t deny the surge of satisfaction that coursed through her. For once in the year and three months since she’d known and befriended the lawyer, he looked at her with something over than sisterly affection.
’Bout time.
“Come again?”
“God willing.”
A corner of his mouth—his luscious, bitable mouth—twitched with humor.
“Cute.” Mac leaned back in his black leather chair and dropped the sales contract she’d brought by for him to examine on the top of his neat desk. “Now you care to explain that statement?”
“I thought it was self-explanatory, counselor.” Alisa shrugged, the gesture nonchalant when inside her stomach did an uneasy roll. She’d made the decision to have sex with the man she’d been dating for the last three months. Her mind was made up—hell, her pussy was more than ready to end its sexual fast. Her damn heart just had to get on board. “If everything goes according to plan, by Sunday night I’ll be walking funny but feeling good.”
Mac shook his head, a rueful smile playing over his lips. “Ever heard of playing hard to get?”
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“Heard of it, just don’t believe in it. Besides,” Alise scowled, leaning forward to jab a finger in his direction, “I’ll have you know that Vince asked me to go away with him this weekend. Not the other way around.”
“Okay.” Mac grinned and she had to glance down at her hands on the pretext of cleaning non-existent dirt from under her fingernails. A reserved man by nature, on very few occasions had Alise witnessed an honest show of emotion from him. But when he did…
whoa boy
. The full, sensual lips he’d inherited from his Irish-Italian father lifted and crinkled the corners of the exotic tilted eyes of his Eurasian mother. Gorgeous.
Simply…gorgeous. The rarity of the smile punched the breath from her chest. “Look, I believe you,” he continued. “It just seems to be moving a little too fast. You’ve been dating, what? Two months?”
“Three,” Alise corrected, holding up the same amount of fingers. “And no, we are not ‘moving too fast’. Besides, when you haven’t had sex in two years, there’s no such thing.”
Mac blinked.
Then blinked again.
“Two years?” he croaked. After clearing his throat, he bent forward, pinning her with an incredulous stare. “You haven’t had sex in two years?”
Alise groaned, squeezing her eyes shut. Damn, she hadn’t meant to let that slip. She lifted her lashes, peeking out from under them and wanted to cringe. He stared at her as if she were some kind of fugitive from the freak show—horrified disbelief and fascination. She squashed the urge to pat her chest and check for a third breast.
“Could you please not gawk?” she snapped. “We all don’t have stacked Amazons fighting to get into our beds.” An image of the tall, built women Mac dated—the opposite of her—flashed through her mind and she scowled.
“You want to get a stacked Amazon into your bed? Sorry,” he apologized at the sound of her dark growl. He shook his head. A heartbeat of silence. “Two years?” She rose from the edge of her seat and he held his hands out, palms up, as if warding off her 7
Naima Simone
imminent attack. “Look, you can’t blame me for being surprised. I mean, look at you, Alise. A beautiful redhead and successful business woman. Surely there hasn’t been a shortage of opportunities. Why haven’t you—”
“Gotten my groove back?” Alise supplied. Again he laughed, and once more her heart dived south of nowhere. Maybe she should confess the truth. Just lay her cards out on the table and allow the proverbial chips to fall where they may.
Well, Mac, funny thing. Since I’ve moved to New Eden I’ve been suffering from a terrible
case of unrequited love. Just recently I decided to move on because I realize this man will never
truly see me. He will never recognize me as the woman who loves him, who would give him
everything if he but looked at me.
Oh yeah. By the way.
That man is you.
Mac stared at Alise Layton, caught somewhere between appalled and floored. Part of him still couldn’t grasp her stunning revelation. Petite—only reaching his shoulder in heels—and slender, he hadn’t lied when he’d called her beautiful. The soft, tumbling curls framing her heart-shaped face shone bright like the pulsing heart of a flame.
Elegant auburn brows arched over dark brown, expressive eyes while her wide, mobile mouth was always curved into a smile or grin.
Alise had moved to his picturesque hometown of New Eden, Washington a little over a year ago and she’d immediately captured his attention. Hell, how could anyone miss her? Like the flame her hair reminded him of, she was never still. After handling the lease for her gift and coffee shop, he’d sat back and watched in awe as she conquered a town that could be cliquish to newcomers with her joy and enthusiasm. No one could withstand the sparkle in her brown eyes…including him.
He’d only given the title of “friend” to one other person. In the short time she’d made New Eden her home, Mac had come to count Alise as another, bringing the grand total to two.
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Desire in the Dark
Which made the twinge of anger he’d experienced at her blunt announcement bewildering. His friend had found someone she liked enough to enter a physical relationship with. He should be thrilled for her, not wanting to hunt the man down and punch him in the face for propositioning her. Shit, he’d introduced Alise to Vince! A lawyer in the firm they both worked for, Vince Tremont was a nice man.
Perfect for Alise.
Yet Mac still wanted to beat the shit out of him.
“With moving here from Seattle and starting the gift shop, I haven’t had time for serious dating.” Alise broke into his thoughts, answering his earlier question. “Vince is cool and hell, Mac,” she shrugged, “I miss sex. Everything about it. The touching, the sounds, even the scent of it.”
Her lashes lowered as if even then she were imagining what she described.
Fuck, he knew he was.
Her pale, willowy body arching, that glorious fall of fire spilling down her back.
Full, pink-tipped breasts jutting forward as slender hips rolled in a sinuous ride. Her long, elegant fingers sliding up the flat plane of her stomach and slender ribcage to twist and tug on hard, pointed nipples. Her eyes at half-mast, hooded with the pleasure curling her lips in a siren’s smile.
His cock pulsed, and the pants that had fit fine moments ago suddenly became too tight around his aching erection.
Mac dropped his gaze back to the sales contract on his desk and the reason behind Alise’s visit to his office. He picked up the stapled sheaf of papers but instead of reading the verbiage regarding title insurance all he could envision was Alise taking her pleasure…from him. It had been his body—his cock—she’d been riding like a jockey taming the wildest thoroughbred. His hips that had been bucking between her slim thighs, his fears of fucking a woman her size absent in the face of the lust tearing through him.
“Mac?”
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Naima Simone
He lifted his eyes to meet her questioning regard.
“You went quiet on me. Did I embarrass you?”
He snorted. Embarrass? No. Made him hot as hell? Yes. Shit, it had been a couple of weeks since he’d fucked a woman. Maybe that’s why inappropriate thoughts about his friend besieged him.
Hell, he needed to get laid.
Tonight.
“What do you say we call it a night?” Mac pushed his chair back from the desk and rose to his feet…and avoided answering her question. “The sales contract looks in order but I’ll go over it again tomorrow morning just to make sure.”
“Okay.”Alise stood but a small, confused frown marred her brow. He didn’t blame her. He’d never been abrupt with her before, much less kicked her out of his office. But for the first time since the start of their friendship, Mac found himself uncomfortable.
He didn’t care for the irrational anger and…and…jealousy eating at him.
Jealousy
, he scoffed to himself, circling his chair to grab his long, black coat off the corner stand. That had to be a mistake. Possessive and woman were two words that did not coincide in the same sentence.
Like Washington and drought, they just didn’t go.
“Okay,” she repeated, slipping her purse strap over her shoulder. “Did you want me to stop by tomorrow afternoon?”
“No.” His quick denial almost made him flinch. “No, I’ll call you when I’m finished and have someone drop it by the store.”
Mac turned and didn’t miss the flash of hurt that crossed her face. Regret squeezed his gut in its painful vise. He almost moved across the room to draw her to his chest, hold her there and apologize for his abrupt behavior. Then the image of her trapped in the throes of passion assaulted him and his feet remained rooted.
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“Fine,” she murmured, ducking her head and slipping into her jacket. “Just let me know. Mr. Reeves would like the sale completed as soon as possible and I’d prefer to be an owner instead of a lessee.”
“Understandable.” Mac, feeling like a coward, waited until Alise headed toward the office door before following. Just as his hand touched the knob to shut the door behind them, the ominous roll of thunder reached them. He glanced over his shoulder to the dark window just as the hard patter of rain beat against the glass in a furious tattoo.