Authors: Desiree Holt,Cerise DeLand
Until the Dawn
Until the Dawn
Madison Sommers is sure she has the world in her hands—a great job working for the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, a beautiful townhouse in Georgetown, her ambassador father finally at home rather than at the other end of the world. And in Dan Foreman, a lover she adores. The sex is beyond anything she could have imagined, for Dan knows how to use every part of his body, including his talented hands and mouth, to give her screaming orgasms. She wonders if life could possibly get any better.
Then Dan disappears and her world turns upside down—until he reappears in the dark to addle her brain with the hottest sex she’s ever known and a secret that could bring down the country.
An Ellora’s Cave Romantica Publication
Until the Dawn
ISBN 9781419929403
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Until the Dawn Copyright © 2010 Desiree Holt & Cerise DeLand
Edited by Helen Woodall
Cover art by Syneca
Electronic book publication September 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.
UNTIL THE DAWN
Desiree Holt & Cerise DeLand
To our favorite thriller writers and inspirations! Daniel Silva, Brad Thor, Nelson DeMille, Vince Flynn. We love you.
Trademarks Acknowledgement
The authors acknowledge the trademarked status and trademark owners of the following wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction:
Bell UH-1: Bell Helicopter Corporation
Blackberry: Research In Motion Limited Corporation
Bush Intercontinental Airport: City of Houston (Texas)
Dodge: DaimlerChrysler Corporation
Glock: Glock Inc. Corporation
Hyatt Regency: Hyatt Corporation
Jacuzzi: Jacuzzi Spas International Inc.
Keurig: Keurig, Incorporated
Kia: Kia Motors Corporation
Mercedes: DaimlerChrysler AG Corporation
Metro: Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
Patek: Patek Philippe SA
Stetson: John B. Stetson Company
Desiree Holt & Cerise DeLand
Dangerously gorgeous guys were not on Madison Sommers’ list of acceptable men.
Since the age of sixteen, she’d stayed away from any man who didn’t look like an accountant and have the libido of one. She stayed away for her sanity. For her career.
But one look at Daniel Foreman four weeks ago as he appeared in her office for an interview had Maddie eating her words. And later, as she saw his tempting self day after day, eating her heart out, too.
Not a smart move, Maddie, girl, to crave this luscious piece of man in your bed. In your
cunt.
Still, admiring Dan’s tight ass, the come-to-daddy pecs, the black-as-thunder hair and those grass-green eyes made her turn away now to thread her fingers through her chignon, take another sip of her gin and tonic and swallow her desire for him.
“Good thing you faced me, Madison, sweetie,” crooned Josh Holbrook, their mutual boss’s press secretary as they stood at the bar of the North Capital Street Hyatt ballroom. “You were about to lose your Ice Queen nickname drooling over Danny Boy.”
Madison chuckled at her friend’s insight. “Can’t hide anything from you, can I?”
“Nor should you.” Josh lifted his martini in a toast. “That’s how you and I serve our country,” and he tipped his head toward the white-haired hulk who was the Speaker of the House, “and our god, over there.”
“So what do you think of Dan’s performance so far?” she asked the co-worker whose opinion she trusted above all others on the Speaker Paul Trask’s staff.
“He hasn’t been here that long but Dan the Man is stellar. Fast thinker. Knows more about the federal transportation regs than the boys over at 1600. Better yet, he charms 6
Until the Dawn
the panties off every man, woman and beast he deigns to smile at. And the only girl he really wants—” Josh arched a blond brow at her, “is you.”
“Please,” she scoffed, but her traitorous pulse jumped at the very idea.
Josh snorted. “Do not tell me you haven’t noticed.”
She had. Oh, she
had.
The startling green eyes that slid down her body the first day she interviewed him for the job of policy analyst on homeland security issues. The height, tall as heaven, all six-four hovering over her when he appeared at her desk as if he were a shield protecting her from hell. The mouth, generous and oh so kiss-me-baby sweet. The voice like gravel that scraped her raw with wild desire to strip and have him then and there. Anywhere. On her desk, on the floor. All be damned, Dan Foreman made her want to chuck every rule she’d ever made about whom to date and whom to fuck.
“What do you two think?” that booming voice came from behind her. “Can we blow this party now?”
Maddie turned, her body spinning against flesh that was a wall of stone. Dan Foreman was hard, massive and warm. Her hand reached out to steady herself from pressing against him. But Dan snatched up her fingers to hold her palm to his chest and what do you know, her pussy wept in want of him. “Ohh, I think we’ve done our duty for tonight.” She gazed up at him, continuing to cream so much her thong got soaked with need. Her mouth opened at the half-lidded beauty of Dan’s manly face. “We can leave.”
“Good. I think we need dinner,” Dan said, his voice a rough velvet seduction, his eyes drifting from her swept-up hair to her lips and the red silk cocktail dress. His invitation was clearly for her alone.
Her nipples peaked. Her pussy pounded. She bit her lower lip. “I don’t—”
“Eat?” Dan asked, his dark brows rising in shock. “Of course, you do. And I love to eat. Need to. Often. I am a big man. And you are hungry.”
“Oh, yes.” She gulped. What the hell were they talking about here? “I’m tired.”
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Desiree Holt & Cerise DeLand
“All the more reason to eat.” He pressed her fingers against his heart that pounded like a gong against her flesh. “Come with me.”
An invitation she should refuse.
“Okay, you two.” Josh plunked his glass on the bar. “Go. Me? Do not feel remorse for me. I am going home. Gotta get packing for my vacation next week.”
Dan didn’t glance at Josh.
Neither did she.
But as Josh bade his goodbyes, Maddie couldn’t seem to move. Captive of Dan’s charisma, captive of her own weak need to see if he was all she fantasized he was, Maddie gave in and grabbed up her evening bag. “Shall we go downstairs in the restaurant? The fish there is so fresh.”
“No.” Dan took her elbow in a grip that brooked no debate as he led her toward the double doors to the hallway.
“All right, no fish.” She waved goodbye to Speaker Trask and a few guests as she fought to keep up with Dan’s big strides. She racked her brain for places they could go that had plenty of light, bad acoustics and no banquettes where she would be tempted to sit next to him and feel every bulging muscle in his body. “Steak?”
“My pick,” he asserted, his jaw tight and his eyes straight ahead.
“Okay.” She began to stop in front of the elevator, but he hurried her toward the stairs. “Where are we going? The elevator will come in a minute.”
“Yeah.” Dan thrust a shoulder into the stairwell door, pulled her through and pressed her to the wall. “But so will I.” He cupped her chin, her head against the cold cinderblock as he flowed so close to her, she wondered if his breath were hers.
“Watching you laugh with Josh made me nuts. I decided I cannot do this any longer.”
“What?” she whispered, her eyes searching the torrid way his examined her mouth.
“Wait for you to decide when you’re going to taste me.” His arms enveloped her.
His body absorbed her. His lips took hers. Once, fast and hard.
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Until the Dawn
She tore her mouth from his. “Oh, god, I shouldn’t.” Her eyes closed, her head lolled against the wall, but her arms betrayed her as they crushed him impossibly closer, the solid strength of him a wealth she’d never felt before. “I don’t do staff.”
“Look at me,” he demanded, his fingers lifting her jaw so that she stared right into those mesmerizing green eyes. “Christ, you are one beauty. The Ice Queen with a reputation for never doing anyone.” His forefinger traced her lower lip and then inserted it into her mouth where she sucked him with a slow delight. He groaned and with a hand to her ass, pushed her mound up against the hard proof he wanted her. “I am
not anyone
. You know it. I do. So tell me what we both know is true.”
She met his dare with her own madness and on a voice clear with the ring of undeniable fact, she whispered, “I want to fuck you.”
He swallowed hard. “Where?”
She let her purse drop to the floor. Then her hands wended down his sides and between their bodies where she felt the incomparable length and girth of his desire. “If you’ve got something to complement this,” she caressed him through his trousers, “the best place would be here.” She barely finished before he claimed her mouth like a madman who’d never have enough.
“Hold that thought, baby,” he ground out and felt inside one of his trouser pockets.
As he held her against him, he fingered out a strip of packets, tore one off its strip with his teeth and undid his zipper.
And she felt his cock spring free. Pushing him slightly away, she glanced down and gasped at the sight of the thick blue-veined creature pointed up at her. Her knees buckled. “Dan,” she reached out to touch him, stroke him, big and hot and long as sin,
“Hurry.”
He rolled on the condom with a one-handed precision she admired. But flush against the wall, she had no idea what to do, how to proceed. She didn’t do stairwells and fast fucks. He stepped closer, ran a hot palm up one of her thighs and leaned in to 9
Desiree Holt & Cerise DeLand
speak on her mouth. “You kill me in this slip of a dress.” He cupped her lush pubic curls. “Wow, honey. Look how wet you are.”