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REVIEW – SUGAR DADDY (Sugar Bowl, #1) by Sawyer Bennett

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Sugar Daddy Ebook Cover

SYNOPSIS:

Seduction has never been so sweet! The New York Timesbestselling author of the Cold Fury series—Alex, Garrett, Zack,and Ryker—returns with the first novel in a hot new trilogy.

Sela Halstead lost her innocence in a way that no sixteen-year-old should ever have to endure. She’s spent years trying to forget that night even while wondering about the identities of the monsters who brutalized her—until a telltale tattoo flashes across Sela’s TV screen. The incriminating ink belongs to Jonathon Townsend, the millionaire founder of The Sugar Bowl, a website that matches rich older men with impressionable young women. Obsessed with revenge, Sela infiltrates Townsend’s world, only to come face-to-face with a tantalizing complication: Beckett North, his charismatic business partner.

The tech mastermind behind The Sugar Bowl, Beck always gets what he wants, in business and in bed. And yet, for a man who’s done every dirty thing imaginable, there’s something about the naïve, fresh-faced Sela that sparks his hottest fantasies. Because with her, it’s not just about sex. Beck opens up to her in ways he never has with other girls. So why does he get the feeling that she’s hiding something? In a world of pleasure and power, the shocking truth could turn them against each other—or bind them forever.

Note: Sugar Daddy ends on a cliffhanger. Sela and Beck’s story continues in Sugar Rush and Sugar Free!

*****Patty’s Review*****

*****FIVE+++ STARS*****
{Netgalley ARC}

“I want to crawl inside of you, Sela and feel every inch of you against me. I don’t want any barriers and I don’t want any fucking walls between us. Just you and me, touching…you melding into me, me into you. I want to know what that feels like with you…

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WOW…JUST WOW!!!! I have read Sawyer Bennett’s Cold Fury series and really enjoyed them but, HOLY HELL, I really think this one right here is her BEST yet!!! There are some seriously dark elements to the story but aside from that, the decadently sinful steam factor had me panting quite a bit!! I was literally on the edge of my seat the entire last 30 % of the book! Now this is how you write a story!! I had so many dang feels going on and I know I do this often but I totally fell in love with the Hero of this one ladies. Get ready to swoon and to be seriously turned on by Mr. Beck North!!

Sela Halstead is a beautiful young Grad student, who has suffered through one of the most traumatizing experiences that could ever happen to a young girl. She was brutally raped and sodomized by several men when she was just sixteen-years-old. It has left her severely broken inside and early on she had a few failed attempts at suicide. Now at the age of twenty-two, she knows the identity of the ringleader of her gang rape…Jonathan Townsend. He is a billionaire businessman who grew up with a silver spoon in his mouth. He’s the epitome of a wealthy douchebag. The guy likes his women blonde and submissive. Drugging and raping young women is par for the course as far as he’s concerned. Sela sees his name splashed all over the papers and news regarding his successful online dating service called theSugar Bowl. It caters to very wealthy older men who are looking to date beautiful young women and vice versa. They maintain in their contracts that this is not a paid escort service and that sex isn’t one of the benefits but it’s understood by all that sex is definitely part of the package. Sela has vengeance on her mind and sees a way in. She dyes her hair brown and goes through a little makeover to hide her identity from Jonathan so that she can infiltrate his organization by becoming one of his Sugar Babies. Unfortunately for her, he doesn’t fall for her bait as he is only interested in submissive blondes. BUT she does catch the eye of his business partner and long-time friend,BECKETT NORTH.

OH MY GOD! When Beck comes into the picture, I was a goner. This guy is gorgeous and quite the ladies man and has this seriously HOT ALPHAMALE thing going on. Sela catches his attention almost immediately and all he wants to do is get her naked and do all kinds of naughty things to her. Sela decides to go back with Beck to his hotel room, thinking that he’s her way to get to Jonathan. Beck is only seeing this as one hell of a hot one night stand but after a few rounds of sex with Sela, he becomes addicted to her. And Sela is definitely feeling some intense attraction towards Beck as well. She has never been able to enjoy sex or to experience an orgasm from it since the rape, but that all changed after just one night with Beck. These two can’t seem to get enough of each other and I, for one, was not complaining! Some of it made my heart rate pick up and left me salivating for more.

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Beck is enamored with Sela and the feeling is quite mutual. He asks her to enter into a Sugar Daddy agreement with him, whereby she moves into his place and he pays off all of her college loans. It’s not meant to last for more than a month. But as time goes by, Sela starts to truly fall for Beck and she may be working her way into his heart as well. This puts Sela in a bit of a conundrum because she knows going through with her plans of revenge against Jonathan, could very well end up costing her relationship with Beck. And this relationship has become something truly special to her.

I would love to go on about this book because I really did love it to death! I just didn’t know that Sawyer Bennett had it in her to write such a captivating story with darkness embedded in it. I also can’t believe how incredibly evil she is to end this book on a cliffy of such a grand scale!! It had me crying my eyes out!!! I mean I just don’t know how I am going to get by these next couple of months without getting the answers I so desperately need right at this moment!!!

Be sure to one click this one!!!

 

 

*****Mel’s Review*****

4.5 Stars!
(ARC provided by author)

 

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Sela Halstead is a 26 yr. old woman with a tragic past that still haunts her. She has tried to move forward with her life & is currently working on her master’s degree in psychology at Golden Gate University in San Francisco. She thought she was moving past her issues, but one evening she see’s a man on tv named JT that takes her back 10 years to the horrors she can’t forget.

She decides she wants revenge against this man she blames for destroying her life. She wants vengeance. She wants to make him suffer as she has & then completely end him. He owns a multimillion dollar dating website called The Sugar Bowl & she decides to pose as a sugar baby to get close to him.

When she realizes it’s not going to be easy to get near JT, she sets her sights on his very gorgeous business partner Beckett North who seems very interested in her. She decides to use Beck to achieve her goals & carry out her agenda.

 

As Sela becomes more involved with Beck, she develops a connection that she’s never felt with another man. He’s kind, charming & really a decent guy. She starts to feel guilty about using him to carry out her plan for retribution. He’s suddenly becoming important to her, & she’s wondering if she could let the rage & anger go for a chance at happiness and a normal life. This beautiful man seems to want her in his life & also gives her the most incredible pleasure she’s ever experienced.

 

-“There’s an innocence about you. The fact that I can give you something that no other man has…well, let’s just say that does nice things to my ego.”

-I’m not sure if he’s magic or just so damned dedicated to the cause, but it was effortless on his part. I’m betting he could probably just look at me a certain way and I might explode.

-Beck North was the best thing that ever happened to me.

 

The longer Sela is with Beck the less broken she feels. Suddenly she has so much to both gain & lose. Her feelings have her torn about what to do. Can she give up her revenge for love? Before she can make that decision everything blows up in her face & we are left with a major cliffy. I loved this book so much! You will need the next book immediately after reading this! So addictive!!! :))

LIVE – SUGAR DADDY (Sugar Bowl, #1) by Sawyer Bennett

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Title: Sugar Daddy
Series: Sugar Bowl #1  
Author: Sawyer Bennett
Publisher: Loveswept
Genre: Contemporary Romance

Release
Date: May 24, 2016

 

Blurb

“This book devastated me in the most wonderful way,” raves Meredith Wild. In Sugar Daddy, the New York Times bestselling author of the Cold Fury series proves that vengeance is sweet—but seduction is to die for.Sela Halstead lost her innocence in a way that no sixteen-year-old should ever have to endure. She’s spent years trying to forget that night even while wondering about the identities of the monsters who brutalized her—until a telltale tattoo flashes across Sela’s TV screen. The incriminating ink belongs to Jonathon Townsend, the millionaire founder of The Sugar Bowl, a website that matches rich older men with impressionable young women. Obsessed with revenge, Sela infiltrates Townsend’s world, only to come face-to-face with a tantalizing complication: Beckett North, his charismatic business partner.The tech mastermind behind The Sugar Bowl, Beck always gets what he wants, in business and in bed. And yet, for a man who’s done every dirty thing imaginable, there’s something about the naïve, fresh-faced Sela that sparks his hottest fantasies. Because with her, it’s not just about sex. Beck opens up to her in ways he never has with other girls. So why does he get the feeling that she’s hiding something? In a world of pleasure and power, the shocking truth could turn them against each other—or bind them forever.

Note: Sugar Daddy ends on a cliffhanger. Sela and Beck’s story continues in Sugar Rush and Sugar Free!

 

Purchase Links
AMAZON US / UK

 

Author Bio
New York Times bestselling author Sawyer Bennett is a snarky Southern woman and reformed trial lawyer who decided to finally start putting on paper all of the stories that were floating in her head. Her husband works for a Fortune 100 company that lets him fly all over the world while she stays at home with their daughter and three big, furry dogs who hog the bed. Bennett would like to report that she doesn’t have many weaknesses but can be bribed with a nominal amount of milk chocolate.
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REVIEW – GOOD GIRL (Love Unexpectedly, #2) by Lauren Layne

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Good Girl Ebook Cover

SYNOPSIS:

Lauren Layne brings all the unpredictable heat of her USA Todaybestseller Blurred Lines to an all-new cast of characters! Country music’s favorite good girl is hiding away from the world—only to find herself bunking with a guy who makes her want to be a little bad.

Jenny Dawson moved to Nashville to write music, not get famous. But when her latest record goes double platinum, Jenny’s suddenly one of the town’s biggest stars—and the center of a tabloid scandal connecting her with a pop star she’s barely even met. With paparazzi tracking her every move, Jenny flees to a remote mansion in Louisiana to write her next album. The only hiccup is the unexpected presence of a brooding young caretaker named Noah, whose foul mouth and snap judgments lead to constant bickering—and serious heat.

Noah really should tell Jenny that he’s Preston Noah Maxwell Walcott, the owner of the estate where the feisty country singer has made her spoiled self at home. But the charade gives Noah a much-needed break from his own troubles, and before long, their verbal sparring is indistinguishable from foreplay. But as sizzling nights give way to quiet pillow talk, Noah begins to realize that Jenny’s almost as complicated as he is. To fit into each other’s lives, they’ll need the courage to face their problems together—before the outside world catches up to them.

*****Patty’s Review*****

*****4.5 STARS*****
{Netgalley ARC}

Somewhere in my heart, I know that it doesn’t get better than what I’m feeling right now. Not just the physical pleasure, although that’s certainly there, in a major way. But the way he watches me when he thinks I’m not looking, the thoroughness with which he takes care of me and Dolly, the quiet goodness of him…
I want this. I want it all with him, no matter how short our time together.

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I’ve read a ton of Lauren Layne books so far and I know that this lady can seriously write a good romcom. She also has the knack for writing stories with gut-wrenching angst as well. Good Girl has that couple that starts off seriously hating each other while at the same time they have an undeniably strong attraction for one another as well. This combination makes for some incredible SCHMEXY times!!

Jenny Dawson is country music’s latest ”IT GIRL”. Her agent had her move out to Hollywood to boost her popularity with her fans, but Jenny hasn’t really loved living so far away from her family and close friends back in Tennessee. The paparazzi have been pretty cruel about her current weight issues in the tabloids, but she’s been somewhat taking it all in stride. Her life is about to become fodder for the front page of all the gossip magazines and social media sites when an actor she barely knows and only spoke briefly to at an awards show, starts spreading ridiculous rumors about her. He claims they had an affair that is currently jeopardizing his marriage. Soon other B-List actors are jumping on the bandwagon spreading lies about her whorish ways, and poor Jenny gets falsely labeled a homewrecker. This has her running from Hollywood to a place in Glory, Louisiana, that she remembers being a safe haven for her when she was a young girl. It’s also the place where she got inspired to write her first album and she’s hoping that it will help her get her creative juices flowing again.

Noah Maxwell, aka Preston Walcott, is the owner of the once musician’s retreat that Jenny has booked a room at to escape the current tabloid frenzy. The place is pretty much falling apart and up until Jenny called to rent out the place, Noah actually had no idea of its existence. Since he’s currently trying to escape drama in his personal life, he decides to stay at the retreat while also taking on some much-needed DIY projects.

When the two meet, they instantly form misguided opinions of each other and the insults start flying pretty quickly. But there is this underlying serious heat between them as well. Jenny thinks that Noah is the caretaker of the retreat and that his best friend, Vaughn, is Preston Walcott, the owner of the establishment. So Noah decides to go along with the charade. Noah is good at throwing the dirty innuendos at Jenny and momma mia, that scene where he just shows up in her bedroom while she is taking care of her needs??!!!!! That could be one of the HOTTEST scenes LL has written to date!

Here’s a first for me. Even though Noah is supposed to be incredibly hot and definitely a good lay, I had a really hard time liking him. He was just too much of a douchebag. I didn’t like his hot & cold attitude towards Jenny, and sometimes he was just downright cruel. I loved Jenny and hated that he would throw insults at her that would cut her so deep. I do enjoy when a couple has a ”love to hate” each other dynamic, but the hero is always adorably cocky and impossible not to fall in love with. Noah was just a straight up jerk with an enormous chip on his shoulder. I didn’t find him very attractive, and definitely not worthy of Jenny’s affections.

But as the story progresses, light is shed on why Noah is so bitter and untrusting of people. He’s had a pretty hard life and when he’s reunited with his wealthy father, he was forced to be someone he wasn’t. Noah didn’t enjoy running with the affluent crowd. He was also in a relationship with a woman who only cared about social status and whom he was not the least bit in love with. Now Noah just wants to live a simple life with a woman who truly wants to share it with him. Is Jenny the woman for him? Can she give up her life as country music’s sweetheart and live in the middle of Glory, Louisiana with Noah?

So towards the latter 30% of the story, my heart warmed up to Noah. I loved how he would come to Jenny’s rescue when she needed him and that he even adored her tiny Pomeranian, Dolly!! Oh my, God, did I love that little furball too!!

This book was just utterly enjoying from beginning to end. I laughed, I cried a little, and I seriously got turned on by the crazy hot steam! I honestly have to say this one packs a punch with the schmexy!!

AMAZON US: http://amzn.to/22ekh3L

RE-RELEASE BLITZ – FOR FALLON by Soraya Naomi

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Title: For Fallon
Series: Chicago Syndicate #1 
Author: Soraya Naomi
Genre: Romantic Suspense/Contemporary Romance
 2nd Edition Release Date: May 17, 2016
Blurb

WINNER Semi Annual Literary Awards Novel Grounds: “For Fallon” Best Breakout Novel 2014.We all have a façade, a concealed mask we wear to portray ourselves to the world.Fallon’s mask is real, what you see is what you get. Growing up with two loving parents in Chicago, graduating in Chicago, and now working a job she loves, she enjoys her life.

Her untarnished world is shaken when Luca crosses her path.

Luca’s mask is tightly controlled. Distrust, rivalry, and violence rule his life.

When confronted with insecurities, when the one you love wears his mask perfectly, when your life unravels and you don’t know why, do you keep trusting the person you love?

Everyone has a façade. Everyone has an ulterior motive.

A romantic suspense.

*Mature content

**Cliffhanger. The story continues and ends in For Luca (#2)
Purchase Links
 
AMAZON US / UK
Also Available

 

#2 For Luca

 

AMAZON US / UK

 

#3 For Adriano

 

AMAZON US / UK

 

#4 For Cam

 

AMAZON US / UK

 

#5 For Logan

 

Coming in 2016

 

Author Bio

 

I read many genres but favor intense, seductive, and provocative novels where the male character loves fiercely, without remorse or boundaries. I also adore forbidden love tales and have an odd fascination with kidnapping romances. No, I don’t secretly want to be kidnapped, though!

I have a passionate obsession with the written word and indulge in chocolate pastries much too often.

My debut novel For Fallon (Chicago Syndicate, #1) was released on July 26, 2014. I’m honored that For Fallon won “Best Breakout Novel 2014” in the Novel Grounds Semi Annual Literary Awards.

Author Links

 

Giveaway

BOOK BLITZ – ROCK by JA Huss

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Title: Rock
Author: JA Huss
Genre: Rock Star Romantic Suspense
 Release Date: March 7, 2016
Blurb

He had it all. He lost it all. And all he wants now is a second chance.

RK Saber ran from tragedy five years ago when his car went over the side of a mountain in a prom-night crash. Consumed by guilt, he walked away from Juilliard and morphed into Rock, front man for the global rock-band sensation, Son of a Jack. Five members. Five best friends. Five rising stars burning so bright, they had to know it couldn’t last.

When tragedy strikes again and the band goes from five to two, RK is sentenced to… home. Back to the place where all his nightmares started. Back to the memory of all the things he lost. Back to the reality he refused to face before he left.

The Vetti twins were identical in all ways but two. Melanie was insane and Melissa was not. One twin was killed on prom night five years ago and one twin was not. And now that RK has returned home, the twin left standing has quite a story to tell. Could she really be the girl he thought he’d lost forever? Or is Melanie just up to her same old tricks?

ROCK is a rock-star romantic suspense by the New York Times bestselling master of twist, JA Huss.

 

Purchase Links

AMAZON US / UK / CA / AU
B&N / KOBO

Trailer

Excerpt

I take my shirt off as I walk across the hallway, throwing it down on the floor. Missy is standing with her back to me, testing the temperature of the shower. She peeks over her shoulder and smiles. “I know you probably hear this all this time, but damn, Rowan Kyle. You should never take that shirt off in public again.”

I go for my pants, unbuttoning them, unzipping them. She watches every move. And then I kick off my boots and fling them into the hallway with the shirt. She turns all the way around now and I feel myself getting hard as she presses her palm against my cock, squeezing it through my pants.

“If I knew you were coming back I’d have waited for you.”

God, that hurts.

“I just…” She stops, her sad eyes lingering on mine. “I just didn’t think you would. Come back, I mean.”

“I’m sorry,” I say. And I mean it. I’m so fucking sorry I wasn’t her first.

“It’s OK. We get to skip all that awkward fumbling, right?” She swallows hard and I know she’s sorry too. She was the only girl I dreamed about. The only girl I ever wanted. Even after all my rock-star nights, Melissa Vetti is still the only girl I want.

I place both my hands on her cheeks and lean down to kiss her mouth. Her lips part, her tongue seeking out mine. It’s soft, and slow, and short. Way, way too short.

She pulls away, taking her hand off my cock, and turns, stepping into the shower. I let my pants fall to the floor and toss them in the hallway. The shower has a clear glass surround and I watch her as she stands under the water, her fingers massaging it into her hair.

I step in with her and place my hands on her shoulders so I can turn her towards me. “Melissa—”

“Shh,” she says. “I don’t want to talk about it right now. I just want to enjoy this.” She picks up the soap and starts to lather me up, massaging the bubbles along my arms. Over my chest. Up and down my back.

I grab the bottle of shampoo and squeeze some into my palm, then rub my hands together and begin working it through her long, dark, hair as I study her face. The makeup is smearing as I watch. It makes her look like she’s crying.

“I feel like this is a dream,” she says, her soapy hands moving to my front. “I feel like I’ve been granted some wish but it’s all fake and you’re just going to disappear again. Leave me here alone. Lonely. You want to know why I stay home, RK?”

No. No, I really don’t.

“Because I’m lonely. Because you were my life. And I know I was having doubts back when we were about to graduate, but they were small doubts. Growing-up doubts. Not-knowing-what-I-wanted doubts. But I was never going to break up with you, RK. Never. And I was certainly never going to walk away from us.”

Fuck. I guess I haven’t looked at it from her point of view very much. “I walked away.”

“You walked away.” Her frown is so deep it hurts my heart.

“I’m sorry. I don’t even know why—”

“Shh,” she says again. “Later.”

Her hand slides up and down my cock as she looks me in the eyes. It’s a very intimate moment. Probably the most intimate moment I’ve had in years.

“Rinse,” I say.

Missy turns away, and I swear, I know what she’s feeling. Every time she does that I think she will never turn back to me again. I hate when she turns away. I watch as she rinses the shampoo out of her hair. The water streams down her face like that waterfall where we had our first kiss.

She’s not Melanie. How could I ever think she was Melanie?

“Can I make you dinner tonight? Before the show?” she asks when she turns back. The relief that she’s still here is real, as irrational as it is.

“Dinner?” I say, trying to wrap my head around the change of subject. I was about to attack her, lift her up, press her back against the wall, and fuck the shit out of her and now she’s talking about dinner.

“Yeah. Do you still like lemon pasta? Like your mom used to make?”

“Jesus,” I say. “The angel hair with the white wine sauce? I haven’t thought about that in years.”

“Yeah. Remember when I made that for you on your seventeenth birthday?” She laughs. It was a fun night. A really fun night. The kind of fun you only have with the girl of your dreams before you turn to drugs and need alcohol and sex to force the fun. “I fucked it all up,” she says through a giggle.

I grin as I picture her attempt to cook me something. “I’m not sure how anyone can fuck that recipe up, but yeah. You did.” She bites her lip and I almost die. “It was perfect though. Because you made it. And you made it special for me.”

“You ate every bite.”

“There was no chance in hell I wouldn’t, Missy. Not after you went to all that trouble. So sure. I’m not gonna complain about a trip down memory lane with you tonight.”

“Good,” Missy sighs. “Good.” And then she grabs the conditioner and the possibility of sex fades away.

I’m actually glad it fades. I’m glad she changed the subject. Turned us in a different direction. I know I hate-fucked her when I first got back into town, and I’m sorry about that. I’d like to take it back and get a do-over. I’d rather wait. Like we did when we were kids. I’d rather wait until we know for sure this is real, and special, and maybe even permanent.I’d like to take my time with Melissa Vetti.

 

 

Author Bio
JA Huss is the USA Today bestselling author of more than twenty romances. She likes stories about family, loyalty, and extraordinary characters who struggle with basic human emotions while dealing with bigger than life problems. JA loves writing heroes who make you swoon, heroines who make you jealous, and the perfect Happily Ever After ending.

 

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Giveaway

 

COVER REVEAL – SOME SORT OF LOVE by Melanie Harlow – Release Date: February 9, 2016

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Title: Some Sort of Love
Series: Happy Crazy Love #3
Author: Melanie Harlow
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Cover Design: Jenn Watson, Social Butterfly PR
Cover Photo: Love N. Books
Cover Model: Franggy Yanez  
 Release Date: February 9, 2016

 

Blurb
On the surface, I have it all—a career I adore, a loving family, the Nixon metabolism but not the Nixon ears, and a salary that supports my lavish taste in designer shoes, fine wine, and lacy lingerie…but I have no one to share it with.Until the day I run into him—my one night stand from college with the cocky smile, let’s-get-out-of-here eyes, and dirty, dirty mouth.Levi Brooks is six feet four inches of hot bearded fantasy. A sexy single dad with broad shoulders, strong hands, and a fantastically big…heart. (I mean, it’s massive. And generous. And it pumps so hard… um. Sorry. Lost my place.)

But he lives for his son, and he’s keeping me at a distance because he thinks I deserve someone better—a man who can give me more time, more attention, more of himself. He doesn’t believe he could ever be enough.

But he’s wrong.

He’s everything.

 

 

Pre-order Links
AMAZON US / UK
iBOOKS
Excerpt

“So.” I glanced out the windows to the patio. “You want to go back out there?”“Not really,” she said.

“You want to get out of here?”

She grinned. “Yeah. I do.”

I watched her rush up the stairs to get her things, and as soon as she was out of sight, I adjusted myself in my pants. My dick had jumped to life the second she said yeah, I do, as if the question had been you want to get naked and fuck? rather than something much less suggestive. Not that I didn’t want to get naked and fuck—hopefully I’d last a little longer than I had in the broom closet eleven years ago—but I didn’t want to make her feel like that’s what I expected. She wasn’t a horny nineteen-year-old college student anymore; she was a doctor, for fuck’s sake. She was beautiful and smart and mature and sophisticated, and a woman like her did not want some Neanderthal who probably needed a haircut and a new pair of shoes to throw her up against a wall for a five-minute fuck.

A woman like that deserved attention all night long. She deserved someone who would undress her slowly and delight in each new inch of her skin as it was revealed. Someone who would run his hands all over her body and find out where she liked to be touched, how she liked to be touched, what she wanted to hear whispered to her in the dark. Someone who would wrap those gloriously long legs around his neck and use his tongue until she begged for his cock, then use his cock until she begged for mercy.

Fuck. I could be that guy.

Except I couldn’t be. Not tonight. Because I wasn’t a horny college student anymore either—I was just a horny single dad who didn’t have the luxury of taking a woman home and lavishing all my time and attention on her the way I wanted to.

As soon as I had the thought, I felt guilty. Scotty was the love of my life and always would be, and whenever I felt the slightest bit resentful about something I couldn’t do because of him, that resentment was immediately crushed by shame. He didn’t ask to be born wired differently, into a terrible relationship, to a mother who would decide she couldn’t handle being a parent, to a father who wasn’t prepared for any of it. He was completely innocent, and he needed me to be a better man.

Running a hand through my hair, I exhaled and wondered if I should ask Jillian for a raincheck on a night when Scotty’s usual sitter could be there. If he woke up again and I wasn’t home yet, he might never get back to sleep. We’d be up all night, tomorrow would be miserable, and the whole start to the week would be off.

But she was so beautiful. And I hadn’t been this attracted to someone in so long.

“Fuck,” I muttered, checking my watch. What was the right thing to do? If she were a different sort of woman, if her brother-in-law weren’t my friend and client, if we lived three states apart…if any number of circumstances were changed, I’d grab her hand, drag her out to my car, and spend the next thirty minutes fucking her brains out in the back seat. It would feel so good to take control that way, to lose control that way, to release some of this fucking tension. But was that fair to her?

My phone buzzed in my pocket.

“Hello?”

“He’s up again.” Monica’s voice was strained, and in the background I heard the familiar keening of a nighttime meltdown. My chest hurt, the way it always did when Scotty was upset.

“Shit. OK, I’m on my way. Twenty minutes, OK? Thirty at the most.”

“OK.”

“Tell him he can play on his iPad.”

“That’ll just rile him up more. He’s tired. He needs to go to sleep.”

I clenched my fist. “Just do it, OK? It will help calm him until I get there.”

As I ended the call, I heard footsteps above, and then Jillian appeared at the top of the stairs carrying a small suitcase. I watched her descend, the tightness in my chest growing. Also the tightness in my pants. “Hey.”

“Hey,” she said, her face concerned as she reached the ground and saw my expression. She set down the suitcase. “What’s up?”

Sighing, I put my phone back in my pocket. “I have to get home. Scotty woke up and he’s upset.”

“Oh.” She tried to hide it, but I saw the disappointment in her eyes.

“I’m really sorry. I’ll make it up to you, I promise.”

“That’s OK. I understand.”

“Can I call you?”

“Of course.” She smiled, and her lips looked so soft and inviting, I took a step closer.

If you kiss her, it will be that much harder to leave.

I knew it was the truth, but I couldn’t help myself. One kiss. Just one. And then I’ll go. I moved even closer and took her head in my hands.

The curve of her smile deepened. “What are you doing?”

“I’m thinking about kissing you.”

“Stop thinking.”

I lowered my lips to hers and let them rest there, fully intending the kiss to be short and sweet, just a goodnight.

But I couldn’t break it off. I wanted more—I wanted to taste her. Slanting my head, I changed the angle of the kiss, teasing her mouth open with mine, slipping my tongue between her lips. A little sigh escaped her, and my dick jumped to life again.

You have to go, you have to go, you have to go.

But her hands were moving up my chest and my fingers were sliding into her soft brown hair and I could smell something sweet and citrusy on her skin and it mingled with the taste of whiskey on my tongue and oh God, I wanted my tongue everywhere on her body. I wanted make her come with it just so I could hear that little sigh again and again and again. And I wanted to feel my hands in her hair just like this while she got on her knees and took my cock between her lips, looking up at me with those big blue eyes…

Groaning, I forced myself to take my lips off her before I completely lost my senses. “God, I wish I could stay,” I said, resting my forehead against hers. “I wish a lot of things.”

“I know.” She played with my tie again. “I wish I was taking this tie off you, not straightening it.”

“What a coincidence, that’s one of my wishes too.”

She laughed and kissed me quickly. “Another time, maybe. You better go.”
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Author Bio

Melanie Harlow likes her martinis dry, her heels high, and her history with the naughty bits left in. When she’s not writing or reading, she gets her kicks from TV series like VEEP, Game of Thrones, House of Cards, and Homeland. She occasionally runs three miles, but only so she can have more gin and steak.

Melanie is the author of the HAPPY CRAZY LOVE series, the FRENCHED series, and the sexy historical SPEAK EASY duet, set in the 1920s. She lifts her glass to romance readers and writers from her home near Detroit, MI, where she lives with her husband, two daughters, and pet rabbit.

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