Worth the Challenge (30 page)

A new lover, an old flame, sultry moonlit nights. Why let inhibitions stand in the way?

Moonlight Mirage

© 2012 Sami Lee

Bandicoot Cove: The Wedding, Book 3

Two years ago, Hayley Bryant left Australia on a round-the-world odyssey that changed her life, and her attitude. After that, coming face to face with the man whose rejection sent her packing shouldn’t affect her at all, right?
 

Except there’s one thing that hasn’t changed—her former boss Mitchell Wood makes her burn as hot as ever. The difference is, Hayley’s now a grown woman who knows how to get what she wants, and she wants Mitch. Trouble is, she hasn’t come to her friend’s wedding alone. Her very sexy friend with benefits, Ty Butler, might pose a problem.

Business was always Mitch’s first love…at least until he hired his little sister’s friend as an intern. Pushing her away was the right thing to do, but now his sister’s wedding has Hayley re-entering his life—and the empty place in his heart. Soon he’s acting less like the consummate workaholic and more like a man crazy in love. But Hayley’s “plus one” is an unexpected obstacle.

Fortunately, Mitch has never been one to shy away from a little competition…

Warning: Bilby Island’s sensual spell strikes again. Book contains hot lovin’ made in beautiful tropical surrounds, some exhibitionism, voyeurism and bondage. Best read with a margarita in hand and the fan switched to
high
.

Enjoy the following excerpt for
Moonlight Mirage:

“Are you calm?”

In a strange way, he was. Even with the force of his sexual needs coursing through him, the sense of urgency had faded to the background. Not fighting the inevitable was freeing. He wanted Hayley more than he’d ever wanted another woman, and admitting the truth of it was more calming than he ever would have expected. “Yes.”

“Are you here, in this moment with me?”

His answer was the absolute truth. “There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”

At last, Hayley took her hands away from his face. “Open your eyes.”

The brightness caused Mitch to flinch as he raised his eyelids. The muted colors of predawn had disappeared. What replaced them were brilliant rays of light in every conceivable hue from bright fuchsia to flaming orange to deepest magenta.

Mitch regularly rose at dawn. He’d seen sunrises before. But this explosion of color was unlike anything he’d ever experienced. Was it because of the location or the woman standing beside him?

Or was it simply that he had never really looked before?

“Isn’t it beautiful?”

Mitch stared at the view before him, not turning his head to look at Hayley. He was afraid to. If the sky took his breath completely away, he was pretty sure his lungs would collapse if he saw Hayley bathed in all that glorious light. Unable to speak, he merely nodded.

“This is what I wanted you to see,” she said. “The start of a brand-new day when everything is untouched until this amazing kaleidoscope of color washes over it, like painting on a blank canvas. When you truly experience the sunrise, you have to believe anything is possible.”

Was she right? Could anything happen? Could Hayley forgive him for being a blind asshole, for not knowing what he was rejecting when he pushed her away? Could a woman like Hayley Bryant ever really want a boring, stuffed-shirt workaholic like Mitch Wood?

“Mitch?”

Mitch took a deep breath, filling his lungs in case it was the last time he’d be able to do it for a while, and turned to look at her. His chest seized, his heart stopped. The slightest of breezes lifted the curled strands of her hair, causing them to float around her face. The golden tresses were shot through with intense orange, making it look like a halo had formed around her. But she was more beautiful than any angel heaven could produce. She was a woman, and she was real, and she stood right before him with the look of wonder and awe on her face reflecting everything that was going on inside him.

For a long time she held his gaze, saying nothing as the sky changed colors around them. Then her gaze lowered, trailing over his face until finally landing on his lips. It was all the invitation Mitch required. Without a word, he stepped toward her and brought his hands up to cup her face. Then he dipped his head.

He wouldn’t have thought it possible for someone to taste like the sunrise, but Hayley did. She was beautiful and golden, and she enveloped him in glorious warmth. He let their lips meld in their own way, not trying to drive the kiss, using no technique whatsoever. The kiss turned brighter and hotter and more vivid until Mitch felt infused with the heat and life that was Hayley.

Utterly lost, Mitch wasn’t even aware of taking her down to the sand. One minute he stood with his arms wrapped tight around her, the next they were horizontal. Writhing beneath him, Hayley drove her fingers through his hair, holding him to her. His fingers found their way beneath the hem of her top, trailing over the smooth flatness of her stomach. It wasn’t enough, so he shoved the garment upward, exposing Hayley’s breast to the gentle morning breeze. He cupped the soft mound and squeezed.

Into his mouth, Hayley gasped. Beneath him, her body arched, her back coming off the sand as she sought a more complete touch. Mitch granted her wish, using his thumb to graze her pebbled peak. It blossomed under his ministrations, growing ripe and plump and all too tempting. Breaking free of Hayley’s ravishing mouth, Mitch trailed his lips downward, over her collarbone and shoulder. He kissed around the puckered flesh, narrowly avoiding the sensitive point that silently begged for his attention.

Hayley’s grip on his head started to pinch as she tightened her hold. “Mitch, please.”

Lust surged through his veins. Goddamn, that was what he wanted to hear. Hayley desperate for his touch, begging him for it. “Ask again.”

“Oh, God. Just put me out of my misery.”

“
Ask
, damn it.”

She gasped at his rough delivery, but when Mitch stared into her eyes he saw no discomfort or revulsion. All he saw was molten heat. Watching him, Hayley very deliberately circled her lips with her tongue. Mitch almost burst the seams of his shorts. Then she rasped, “Please,” and all Mitch could hear was that throaty request and the roaring of his blood in his ears.

Not breaking eye contact, Mitch lowered his head and enclosed her nipple with his mouth, taking it in one long, slow suck. Crying out, Hayley curved her spine, thrusting her eager flesh deeper into him. Mitch rolled the distended peak against his tongue until Hayley said his name over and over again, punctuating it with breathy little pleas that drove him insane.

When he lifted his head, Hayley’s hoarse protest delighted him. Mitch gazed down at her and was awed by the sight she presented. Her golden hair was tousled, the strands splayed across the sand like sunrays. Her green eyes glittered as bright as gems as they stared back at him. Her magnificent breasts trembled with the force of her ragged breaths, and her skin was flushed pink with arousal.

She was exquisite. The very thought that another man had seen her like this sliced him open, ruining the perfect beauty of the moment. Unprepared for the pain of it, Mitch defended himself in the only way he knew how—attack, contain, control.

“How can you let
him
touch you when you respond this way to me?” he growled. “You’re mine, Hayley. Promise me he’ll never lay a hand on you again, and I’ll make you scream for me. Right here. Right now.”

Worth the Challenge

Karen Erickson

Together, they’re magic. Now to capture it in a bottle…

Worth It, Book 3

For once in his errant life, Rhett Worth is ready to prove to his older brothers he’s more than good looks and a woman-melting smile. Except he’s screwed up. And it’s about to hit the fan as he prepares to tell them he’s failed to deliver the master perfumer, Michel Durand, to create Worth Luxury’s signature scent.

Then salvation walks through the boardroom door, all wrapped up in a petite, seductive package.

Gabriella Durand is prepared to beg the Worths to give her capricious father another chance. Instead, she finds the devastatingly handsome Rhett Worth offering it to her as if he’d planned it all along. And Gabriella, hungry to emerge from her father’s shadow, jumps at it.

Soon they’re in Maui to hunt for the perfect scent…and find it in the tropical breeze that washes across their entwined bodies. Now the pressure is on to capture that passion in a bottle—before they let love complicate the delicate mix. Before a whiff of betrayal threatens to destroy everything.

Warning: The last of the Worth brothers, he’s the wildest one of all. Expect lots of challenges, much yearning, plenty of vulnerabilities revealed—and lots of macho Alpha behavior on the hero’s part. Don’t worry, though. He’ll be begging for the heroine’s love before the end, we guarantee it.
 

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This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.

Samhain Publishing, Ltd.

11821 Mason Montgomery Road Suite 4B

Cincinnati OH 45249

Worth the Challenge

Copyright © 2012 by Karen Erickson

ISBN: 978-1-60928-858-7

Edited by Amy Sherwood

Cover by Angela Waters

All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

First
Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
electronic publication: October 2012

www.samhainpublishing.com