Dee Tenorio has become a favorite of mine over the last few years. Her characters are fun and charming and the storylines she weaves around them pulls the reader right into the goings-on for front-seat interaction, whether it’s fast-paced action or tender lovemaking.
Locke and Susie are great together, despite her need to keep herself apart from others and ready to run at a moment’s notice. This is the one time she’s not immune to the life she now has, nor the man who makes her heart thump. Will Locke back off once he knows Susie’s full story?
You be the judge of that after reading this teaser we have for you today.
Summary:
Locke Jackman is single, childless…and he has a bad case of empty nest syndrome. For years, as he fought tooth and nail to keep his brothers and sisters together after his parents died, his entire life was focused on his responsibilities.
Now his siblings have all moved on with their lives, and there’s no one around to distract him from his overpowering attraction to his sister’s best friend. Their mutual desire is stunning…but then again, so are the secrets keeping them apart.
Susie Packard’s nightmarish marriage taught her what happens when she gives in to her weakness for powerful men. Too bad the big, stoic frowner across the street—the one who sets her bells jangling just by breathing—has her in his sights.
Try as she might to keep her emotional distance, Locke is determinedly knocking down all her walls. But as much as she wants to be the woman he needs, she knows better than most—passion may have its rewards, but every secret has its price.
Prologue
She felt like water, gliding across his skin. Sleek. Welcoming, molding to the planes of his body until all traces of his rough edges melted away. Her lips caressed his jaw, her breath a whisper that resonated to his bones. He couldn’t get enough of her. Her taste filled his mouth, tart and sweet. Some floral scent he didn’t recognize entwined itself into his veins, heating his blood, driving him to bury his face in her hair and breathe her in until he was drunk.
She seemed just as hungry, just as desperate. Her hands coursed over him, stroking, pulling, demanding. Her touch sent fire down his chest, across the muscles he never gave much thought to but seemed to transfix her. She took a near-evil pleasure in making him tremble for her. Even now, maybe especially now, he quaked. The wanting—the need—raked through him, and he couldn’t wait any longer.
Locke raised himself above her, cradling her slim body in his arms. He still couldn’t believe she was here, that she’d come to him. Not for this, he knew, even as his mind disconnected from every logical, fathomable reason he should never bring Susie Packard into his bed. Neither of them could have expected this. But here she was, her slim thighs wrapped tight around his waist, skin slick from the pleasure he’d already wrung out of her, lips swollen from his own and his name on her breath as he sank deep within her. He didn’t dare close his eyes, though the pleasure near blinded him, unwilling to miss a single second of what might just be the most incredible moment of his life.
Her eyes, still glowing with that fire he only saw when she was looking at him, sharpened, and her brow furrowed. Her hands cupped his face, as if she were trying to smooth the lines of his possessiveness away. “Locke, no. Don’t look at me that way.”
He levered himself up, inadvertently thrusting deeper as he captured her hands. He wasn’t a small man in any respect, and he knew he towered over her, glaring down. Slowly, his control straining to a fray, he stirred his hips against her. She arched, the tips of her teeth digging into her bottom lip, her gaze never slipping. Daring him, refusing to admit what he could feel in every touch of her fingertips. Her mouth. Her legs that tightened on him, making it impossible to move away. This meant as much to her as it did to him. Damn, stubborn woman wasn’t going to admit it. She rocked, trying to spur him on, but he kept up the maddeningly slow pace.
She tugged, not to pull her hands away, but to bring him closer.
“Tell me what you need,” he growled, unable to soften his voice, meaning it from the bottom of his soul. “Anything.”
She stared at him for a silent, breathless moment…then shook her head.
He clamped his jaw tight, his body shuddering as he stopped. She whimpered, but that was it. Taking this as far as she could, he decided. That was all right, he could play this game as long as she would. Longer. Because there was no way he could let her walk away from him again.
Fitting himself over her, he knotted their hands together, placing them just above her head on either side of the pillow. A kiss, little more than a slide of his lips over hers, drew another whimper from her. The tight tips of her breasts trailed across his chest, tempting and inflaming him. He gasped in a shocked breath when her sex suddenly tightened around him, flexing as if to draw him deeper. Rippling until his eyes nearly crossed. He swore, but he didn’t thrust as she’d clearly planned. God, he wanted to, but the groan of frustration she gave was worth it. At least he wasn’t killing himself alone.
He lowered his face to the curve of her neck, licking the salt from her skin, breathing her in again, an addict already, wanting her until he felt as if his entire body was on fire for her. Burning from the inside out to give her everything, to be her everything. If only she’d let him.
She shook in his arms, quivering but not surrendering. “I can’t, Locke. I can’t give you what you want.”
He lifted his head to meet her gaze, now nearly wild with painful truth. Or at least, what she seemed to think was the truth. If he kept holding back, he’d break something fragile between them. What, he wasn’t sure, because everything seemed fragile right then. Whatever it was, he couldn’t risk it. Wouldn’t. He closed his eyes, relenting.
Her breath shuddered over him as her body relaxed. Accepting him, if only for now. She kissed his cheek—an apology? Gratefulness?—heading unerringly toward his mouth. Even so, she seemed to think she had to make the line she’d drawn as clear as possible. “Tonight doesn’t change anything. It can’t.”
He stared at her, making sure she met his gaze before he shook his head. “Tonight changes everything.” Before she could argue—because she would—he took her mouth and let his control snap.
