Romancing the Alpha: An Action-Adventure Romance Boxed Set (87 page)

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Off the Charts (a Serendipity Adventure Romance Prequel)

Uncharted (Serendipity Adventure Romances, Book 1)

Entangled (Serendipity Adventure Romances, Book 2)

Windswept (Serendipity Adventure Romances, Book 3)

Adrift (Serendipity Adventure Romances, Book 4)

Island Fantasies

Veiled Fantasies

Desert Moon

Desert Blood

Desert Fate

SADIE HALLER

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GENRE: Contemporary Romance

DESCRIPTION:

The last person Biddy expects to greet her at the start of her secret four-week eco-activism island adventure is a red-blooded alpha male, and the irresistible camera operator proves to be a big, bad complication she's unable to resist.

Turn the page to begin reading
Tainted Pearl
, or
click here to return to this anthology’s Table of Contents.

“Have you lost your fucking mind? We go on tour in barely six weeks and you decide to go play eco-terrorist? What if you get hurt? It’s not like we can just order up a new bass player off the Internet, you know.”

If there was one thing Biddy could count on, it was Honeycunt’s compulsion to say exactly what she thought—Tainted Pearl’s lead singer had absolutely no filter.

“Calm down, woman. I’m not an idiot. As much as I wanted to get in on the real action, fighting illegal fishing and whaling on an off-shore campaign wasn’t a serious consideration. I’m going as an observer on a small island where they slaughter entire whale pods in the name of tradition. The sole purpose of the campaign is to document and share what we see with the world—it’s strictly hands-off. The only action I’m going to see is what I capture through the lens of my camera.”

“Jesus, Biddy, couldn’t you just donate a fuck-load of money instead?”

“Of course I could, but that’s way too easy. I want to feel like I’m doing something. Throwing money at an issue isn’t enough for me, anymore.”

Honeycunt reached over and patted Biddy’s knee. “Sweetie, I know you mean well. Really, I do, but we’re not just talking risk of injury, here. You could get arrested, and while that on its own could cause problems, if you got charged with a crime and convicted, that would totally fuck up your ability to travel for the rest of your life. You wouldn’t be able to tour.”

This was one thing Biddy hated about being in a band. Always having to weigh her personal wants against the best interests of the group. “Look, I’ve been through all this with Owen. He said all the concerned-manager things he gets paid for, and I promised all the good-client things necessary to keep his head from exploding. Honestly, I’ll just be photographing events as they unfold. I won’t be interfering in any way. It’s a done deal and you’re going to have to trust me. I leave tomorrow. If it makes you feel any better, I’ll check in every day.”

“You’d better. It won’t stop me worrying, though.”

“I know.” Biddy glanced up at the clock. “Look, I need to get moving. I still have to pack.”

“Do not take any chances.” Honeycunt pointed her index finger at Biddy. “Not just because you’d fuck up the tour for the band, but because we love you and want you to be safe. Promise me.”

“I’ll be careful. I promise.”

***

Biddy hadn’t been surprised by the reaction of her band mate at all. Which was why she waited until the last possible minute to reveal her plans for the six week break between finishing their latest album and their next tour.

Normally when they were in between recording and touring, she’d spend her down-time doing risk-free activities like vegetating in front of the television and catching up on her reading.

She discovered the Red Earth Ninjas during their last break. She had fallen asleep in front of the TV and woken up in the middle of a documentary about the group of environmental activists.

By the time the show was over, she knew she wanted to help. She’d fired up her laptop and spent countless hours researching the group and their activities.

She’d already taken into account all the issues Honeycunt and Owen were concerned about. She’d thought long and hard about her decision, and she hadn’t been bullshitting when she told them she would be staying out of trouble.

Risk of injury or a criminal record weren’t the only things she’d be worried about. She’d struggled long and hard over whether to out herself. Biddy valued her privacy above all else, and she worked very hard to keep her band persona separate from who she was in real life. Boots was loud, flamboyant, and had a serious boot fetish—hence the nickname. Biddy was quiet, shy, and did her best not to stand out in a crowd.

In the end, she’d chosen to maintain her privacy. She was no different from any other volunteer who had a job to return to, and she didn’t want to be singled out for special treatment. Besides, she didn’t want REN to exploit her minor celebrity status. Yes, Boots could probably do a lot of good for the organisation by publicly endorsing it, but that wasn’t what she was looking to achieve. Boots was taking a break and Biddy was going to use this time to be herself.

She checked her watch as she walked to her car. Running behind as usual. She mentally reorganised the tasks she still had to take care of before she flew out the next evening. Her ability to procrastinate was legendary, and no matter how hard she tried to get shit done well ahead of schedule, she always, always ended up banging hard up against deadlines. Oh well, like the saying goes, if you leave it until the last minute, it only takes a minute. By her calculations, laundry was her number one priority—she wasn’t going to risk being pulled aside by customs with a day-pack full of dirty underwear.

It was ridiculous that she had at least three loads of laundry to do before she could pack, but recording exhausted her and she was doing well if she managed to make it to her bed before falling asleep after each session.

At least she could handle most of her pre-trip business while her clothes were being washed and dried.

Fuck, if she were organised, she’d have just dropped it all off at a local laundromat and paid to have someone there do it while she was at the studio.

No. If she were organised, she’d have taken care of her laundry earlier. The last thing she needed was the laundry person figuring out who she was and selling her dirty panties online. Eew.

Doug Fraser checked the arrivals board again. The flight status had finally changed to landed. People should be filtering through to collect their luggage any minute. He held up the sign with her name on it—
Biddy O’Mara
.

What the fuck kind of name was Biddy anyway? She was probably some newly retired, grey-haired old spinster who’d taught kindergarten for the last thirty years and was looking for a bit of adventure.

He was feeling more than a little resentful about having to come to the airport to pick up one person. Everyone else had arrived on Saturday, but this special snowflake not only had to wait until fucking Monday to arrive, she’d missed her fucking connecting flight, too. So, he ended up missing out on a great filming opportunity because Karen sent him to be the fucking welcoming committee. Twice. If this Biddy person had just booked herself on this flight in the first place, he could have filmed the local festival and still managed to get to the airport in plenty of time to meet her plane.

“Excuse me, I’m Biddy O’Mara.”

The sing-song voice made him look down. He’d been so focused on watching the area around the baggage carousel for grey-haired passengers, he hadn’t noticed the woman standing in front of him arrive. She was a tiny little thing. He’d be surprised if she was even a full five-foot-two without her footwear, and he highly doubted she’d break a hundred pounds soaking wet. His cock didn’t give a shit either way. She had curves in all the right places, and her nose and cheeks had a sprinkling of pale freckles. He’d always been a sucker for freckles. He willed his cock to settle down.

Something didn’t look quite right. Then it hit him. “Where’s your luggage? Did it go missing?”

She laughed and pointed to the day-pack hanging off her shoulder. “This is it. If it can’t fit in this, I don’t need it.”

“You’re kidding me, right?”

“Nope. This is everything. I hate waiting, so I rarely check a bag.”

A light traveller. He appreciated that. As a free-lance camera operator, he always travelled with a lot of equipment, so when it came to his personal gear, he kept it to the bare essentials. If he were the settling down kind and he wasn’t so sure she’d break the first time he fucked her, she could almost be his perfect woman.

He liked his sex rough with a great big helping of kink. Even if she didn’t splinter from the fucking, she looked so bloody innocent, she’d probably swoon when he got all pervy on her ass. He stole another glance at her. Damn, he sure would like a piece of that.

“Can I carry your pack for you, then? You’ve got to be tired.”

“Completely shattered, but it’s okay, I prefer to handle my own gear. Thank you for meeting me, by the way. I did try to arrange to arrive on Saturday with the rest of the volunteers, but I had a work commitment I couldn’t change. Then my second flight got delayed which made me miss—Shit. I supposed this is your second trip to pick me up today, isn’t it?”

He’d been so caught up in that sing-song voice of hers, the jump-shift caught him a little off guard. “Uh, yeah, it is. But it’s no big deal.”

“I’m so sorry. I hate it when people get jerked around because of me.”

“Biddy, unless you’re the reason the flight was delayed, it’s not your fault, and there was nothing you could have done. Nobody’s dead or seriously maimed, so let’s keep it in perspective.” What the hell was wrong with him? Not a half-hour ago he’d been cursing her out left and right for being selfish and wasting his time. Of course, that was before his cock hijacked his brain.

“Yeah, I get that it was out of my control, but that doesn’t make me feel any less guilty, I’m afraid. Right now, all I want is a bed and a good eighteen hours of uninterrupted sleep. With the lay-overs, changes in time zones, and everything else, I can’t begin to guess how many hours I’ve been awake. Hell, I’m not even sure what day it is.”

“Well, by the time we get to REN House and settle you in, it’ll be a good time for you to go to sleep.” Poor thing. He’d almost forgotten her journey had started on the other side of the planet.

They hadn’t even made it out of the airport parking lot before she was out. He tried to ignore the twinges of guilt he felt from his earlier grumpiness. Of course it wasn’t her fault, and for someone who, apparently, hates to wait, she got stuck doing a lot of it during her trip. He glanced sideways at the sleeping woman beside him. Mistake. The sight of those adorable freckles and those plump, red lips had his cock swollen, twitchy, and ready to rock.

He couldn’t remember the last time a woman had him so tempted to let his dick run the show. It’s not like he was desperate to get laid. While he was picky—and he could afford to be—he had plenty of opportunities for some choice ass. He peeked over at her again. Her chin had dropped and her mouth was slightly open.

He thought about what it would feel like to slide his cock between those gorgeous lips and wondered if she was as innocent as she looked, or whether she had mad deep throating skills.

He needed to focus his thoughts elsewhere because his jeans were pretty much strangling his cock and he couldn’t do anything to fix the situation until after he got Biddy settled in at REN House.

He considered her name again. What kind of parents name their kid Biddy in this day and age? Given her size and the name she was saddled with, he wondered how badly she’d been teased growing up.

Mmm, he could think of more than a few ways to tease sweet little Biddy. And there he was, back to a mind brimming with inappropriate thoughts. A decent man would declare her off-limits and move on to more casual company. Perhaps he should consider hooking up with one of the other volunteers. There were one or two that looked like they might be good for some no strings fun in the sack.

He pulled into the driveway and turned off the engine. Biddy didn’t stir. He wanted to pick her up and carry her to her bed, but his brain managed to overrule his dick. If he got anywhere near a bed with her in his arms, he was going to be sorely tempted to join her in it. He reached over and gently shook her shoulder.

“Biddy, we’re here. It’s time to wake up.” She didn’t move, so he stroked a finger down her cheek—Fuck. It was even softer than it looked. He wondered if her lips were too. Not the best time to find out. “Biddy, come on, darlin’, wake up.”

Still no response. Fuck it. He was just going to have to act like a grown-up instead of a horny teenager with a life-threatening boner.

He got out of the vehicle, went around to her side and opened her door. Even when he accidentally brushed her arm as reached across her to undo the seat belt, she didn’t budge. She really was done. He slid his arms beneath her and easily lifted her from the truck. She weighed next to nothing. He held her tight to his body out of pure selfishness and his cock throbbed and twitched as she snuggled her face into his chest. She was soft, and even after all those hours of travel, her hair smelled faintly of some fruity shampoo.

Karen, the resident Red Earth Ninjas coordinator and unofficial house-mother, met them part-way along the path to the house. “Poor thing is exhausted. You take her to her room. I’ll meet you there after I get her luggage and lock the truck.”