Tempt Me Twice 1 (9 page)

His lips slanted over mine, then moved back in the other direction, like he was sampling me, trying to find what felt best. It all felt good to me, and when I groaned into his mouth he pulled back, panting, a look of wonder on his face.

“You’re so soft.” He kissed me again, his fingers tangling in my hair. In that moment, there was no Nick, no crazy family, no dark secrets. There was only us.

I pressed myself against him, wanting more.

Wanting everything.

Sliding a hand between our bodies, I toyed with the button at the top of his jeans. He pulled back, groaning when I pressed a kiss to the base of his throat.

“This is a bad idea,” he finally managed, his lips finding my earlobe. A jolt of white hot arousal surged through me as his teeth nipped at the delicate flesh.

“It doesn’t have to be.” Giving in to impulse, I sank my teeth lightly into the hard muscle of his bicep. He hissed and rocked his hips forward against mine, his erect cock pressing into the softness of my belly before he pulled fully away, putting a distinct space between us.

We eyed one another, both of us breathing hard. Jax pulled himself together first, raking a hand through hair that was now tousled from my fingers.

“We should go.” He eyed me like he was still thinking of burying his face in between my breasts.

“Why?” No way could I let this go. I finally had what I wanted within my reach. I wasn’t going to let him go so easily. “We’re adults. We want each other. Why do we have to deny ourselves?”

Jax looked like he was thinking of evading the question, but I crossed my arms over my chest. “I deserve to know, Jax.”

His eyes narrowed, but finally he nodded, a single jerk of his head.

“You deserve to be treated the way a man should treat a woman. I don’t know if I can do that.” He huffed out a frustrated breath at my puzzled expression.

“Kayla, I need to have control during sex.” He waited, his eyes watching me intently as my mind frantically whirled, trying to figure out what he meant.

I thought of the erotic photographs he’d taken, the ones where the models were bound with rope. Understanding slowly dawned.

Instead of feeling repulsed, like I was pretty sure he expected me to, I felt... heat. Great rolling waves of it, licking along my skin, warming the space between my legs.

“That’s not going to make me run, if that’s what you’re trying to make me do,” I finally said slowly. Need was a tight ball in the depths of my belly.

Jax looked at me like I was insane, then laughed shortly, fisting his hands in his own hair. The corners of his lips turned up in a self-deprecating smirk, and I sucked in a breath wondering what he was going to throw at me next.

“All right then, how about this?” Crossing the room to where I stood, he bent so that he was whispering in my ear. The feel of his warm breath on the tender flesh made me rock my body forward towards him.

If he’d meant to surprise me with his next words, though, he succeeded. It was something about him that I never would have guessed.

“I’ve never had sex with a woman.”

THE TEMPT ME TWICE SERIES

This story is told over the course of several short novels, each of which continues the story of Jax, Kayla and Nick.

Tempt Me Twice 2- available October 28, 2013!

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Also by Kate Laurens

Love Me Twice

Love Me If You Dare

Love Me For Me

Turn the page to read an excerpt from

Love Me If You Dare by Kate Laurens.

Copyright 2013 by Kate Laurens

“U
h-oh.”

I had been swaying to a song by Bruno Mars, my arms in the air, when Caroline’s voice filtered through. Opening my eyes, I saw her looking over my shoulder with apprehension.

A big hand was on my shoulder before I could ask her what was wrong. That hand pulled me, spinning me around on my heels. With three vodka sevens in me, I lost my balance, falling against the rock solid chest of the guy who had grabbed me.

The scent of soap and something that was uniquely
him
combined in my nose and told me who it was before my eyes actually took him in. My pulse quickened, my heart beginning to beat double time, as I looked up and my vision confirmed what I’d already known.

Thick, dark gold hair that stood up in spikes all over his head. Eyes that couldn’t quite decide if they were hazel or green. Chiselled features that were normally set in inscrutable lines.

I must have surprised him, because right now he looked like he’d seen a ghost. His hands ran up and down my arms, feeling the flesh as if he wasn’t sure I was real, and I shivered under the touch.

Could it really be that he wasn’t appalled to find me back in town? The sparks that I’d spent my time at college trying to dampen flickered, then burst back into the roaring fire that I’d always felt around him.

“Ella?” Those ever changing eyes narrowed and he cocked his head. I sucked in a breath when he used my sister’s name. I saw the second that he realized his mistake, but by then the pain had sliced through my veins.

“Out of everyone,” I started, my voice shaking as I stepped away from his touch. “Out of everyone who knew us both, I thought you would be able to tell us apart.”

Emotion that I couldn’t quite identify flickered over his face. I didn’t stick around to figure out what it was. Spinning, I shoved through the crowd of people, stumbling on the shoes that suddenly made my feet ache.

The combination of too much vodka, emotions running high, and the shock of seeing him again made me nauseous. I thought I might puke.

The downstairs bathroom had a line that snaked down the hall.

I’d only been here a few times, several years ago, but I remembered there was a small bathroom off the bedroom upstairs. I knew Caroline wouldn’t care if I used it, so I kicked off my shoes and, picking them up, hurried up the cheaply tiled stairs.

“Shit.” Clasping the edges of the porcelain sink in my hands, I bent over the basin and sucked in deep mouthfuls of air. My heart was thundering in my chest, adding to the sick sensation that threatened to smother me.

Dylan McKay had looked at me and seen the ghost of my dead twin. What he didn’t know was that he was
my
ghost, the mistake that would never stop haunting me.

The mistake that didn’t ease the want.

Bracing my weight on the sink, I looked into the mirror, cringing at what I saw. Sweat had melted away my makeup, the charcoal around my eyes smeared in a way that made me look manic. The shock of seeing Dylan had made me pale and sickly.

No wonder he’d confused me for my sister. Still, after what had happened between us, I’d expected... well, I wasn’t sure what I’d expected from Dylan.

More, I guess. Or else nothing at all.

Sighing, I splashed cold water on my face, then scrubbed with paper towel. With my skin naked, I looked more like the Kaylee that the people of this town knew and remembered.

Maybe that was who I was destined to be. No matter how I fought it, it seemed like I couldn’t ever escape the past.

Finger combing my messy, sweat dampened curls, I pulled them back in a ponytail with an elastic band that I found in the top drawer of the vanity. With it the transformation was complete, even though I still wore the siren red dress.

I was Kaylee Sawyer, the girl who had always stood in the shadow of her twin, the girl who had made a tragedy happen by not being content with staying in the shadows.

The reminder pressed down on me, and for an unhappy moment I considered calling Joel. I couldn’t tell him about Dylan, oh hell no, but he’d try to cheer me up just because I was hurting.

I dismissed the thought as soon as I had it. I had to stop reaching out to him like he was my boyfriend, unless I was actually prepared to give him that commitment.

If I hadn’t already known that I wasn’t, the mess that Dylan had made of my heart in the two minutes I’d seen him would have spelled it out.

“Get me out of here.” I shuddered, reaching for the door. I half meant the party, and half meant my home town in general.

The hair on the back of my neck rose as I left the bathroom. It gave me enough of a split second warning that I didn’t jolt when I found Dylan standing just inside the entrance to the small bedroom.

His arms were crossed over his muscular chest, and his expression was stern. He seemed to fill the entire room, just by standing in it, something that I remembered well.

Dylan had always seemed larger than life. Just like Ella.

“What do you want?” My voice was sharp, even waspish, as I halted just outside the bathroom. I curled my toes into the floor, concentrating on how the short carpeting prickled the bare soles of my feet.

I didn’t care that I was being short. What did it matter, after all? Dylan had been Ella’s friend, not mine.

“I’m sorry.” There didn’t seem to be a whole lot of emotion behind his words, but that was just Dylan. Stoic. A rock.

Not expressing how he felt didn’t mean that he didn’t feel it.

“It’s fine.” It wasn’t—of course it wasn’t. But all of the emotions that had been pushing at me all day had scrubbed my heart raw, and I couldn’t handle the thought of a confrontation. Not that I’d ever been any good at them.

“When did you get back?” Though his face remained nearly expressionless, those eyes raked over me.

I wished I didn’t still feel the tug between us.

“Today.” My voice sounded rusty, as if I hadn’t used it for a very long time. “I’m just here for the summer.” Next year I’d have to be extra diligent to find a job before school was done, so that I could avoid ever setting foot in Fish Lake, Oregon again.

There was a pause, and I stared at the toes that I was still curling into the carpet.

“How’s your mom?” He asked. As I sank my teeth into my lower lip, I told myself that he couldn’t possibly care, but I knew that wasn’t true.

Dylan had always seen too much, and he’d practically lived at our house during the time when my mom’s drinking had gotten worse.

He knew what she was like now, I was sure of it. And if I let him in too close, he would see what I was like too.

Silently, I raised my stare and looked him over. His hair was that same thick golden mess that made my fingers itch to touch. He’d put a couple of inches on his already impressive six feet in the last few years, and the rangy muscle that I remembered had thickened. A hint of something sexy and smoky had replaced the notes of engine grease that had once layered into his addictive smell. The tattoo that peeked out the sleeve of his dark gray t-shirt was new. It looked like some kind of bird, though it was half covered up and I couldn’t quite tell.

I was entranced by it. I wanted to touch it, wanted to show him that I had one too. God, I’d wanted him for so long. Sometimes it felt like forever.

But he’d been Ella’s. Though I’d wanted so badly to believe differently, that meant that he couldn’t ever be mine.

“It’s good to see you, Kaylee.”

I stared at him, shocked by his words, to find the eyes in that inscrutable face raking over me hungrily. Against my better judgment, I felt myself respond, felt the heat begin to grow in my core.

I’d thought that the consequences of the one time I’d given in had dampened any actual urges that I had to act on my desire.

I was wrong.

“I’ve missed you.” His voice was quiet. As he unfolded his arms and stepped toward me panic flared brightly, and my thoughts swirled.

I wanted so badly to take his words at face value. But I couldn’t stop the memory of his face, of the accusation in his eyes, when I’d told him what had happened to Ella. When I’d told him
why
it had happened.

He blamed me. Of course he did. I blamed myself.

There was no way he was happy to see me. Which meant that when he looked at me, he saw someone else.

“Are you actually happy to see me, Dylan?” The words were hard to force out of my dry throat. I felt like I should cry, but I was suddenly just too tired. “Or are you seeing her?”

He stared at me as if I’d struck him. I stared back.

Seeing Dylan was a reminder. I wasn’t the same as I’d once been. I wasn’t going to go fade into a corner.

I just wasn’t that girl anymore.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” His voice was suddenly raw, and in that moment I could see my own grief over Ella, reflected back at me.

He took another step toward me. I wanted to fling myself into his arms, to give in to the need that had haunted my every step while I was away.

Instead I did what good Kaylee would have done. I pushed away from the siren call of his embrace, and I ran.

Turn the page to read an excerpt from

“D
id you find her?”

Hannah stopped walking as she recognized Declan’s voice.

“No. I looked everywhere.”

Quinn.
Hannah knelt down behind the dune and angled herself until both men came into view. The setting sun cast a red-orange halo around them both, creating a beautiful, romantic picture.

“Damn Greg.” Quinn fisted his hands. “He’s such an ass.”

“I never liked him,” Declan agreed. “Now he’s scared off Hannah and I’m not sure if we’ll ever find her.”

Hannah stared at the men. They were looking for her?

“I’d love to punch his face in.” The normally jovial Quinn slammed his fist in his palm.

“Come now, you know violence isn’t the answer.” Declan sighed. “I just wish I knew if Hannah was all right.”

“You don’t believe that she had sex with Greg, do you?”

“I don’t think anyone believes him. He’s an ass, remember?”

Quinn shook his head. “I’m worried about her.”

“Me too.”

“If only we weren’t running late. We could have stopped it.”

Hannah stood and was about to reveal herself when she saw Declan reach out for Quinn. She hunched back down behind a sand dune and watched as Declan wrapped his arms around Quinn’s shoulders. The act was gentle and affectionate. Soothing. It seemed almost as if he was consoling a lover.