STORY EXCERPT

“No,” she said, her gaze dancing from his to the woman. She rested her forearm on the counter and leaned close, dropping her voice to a decibel he barely heard over the chatter in the café. “That empty seat right there has been waiting for her.”

Kalvin turned and damn near swallowed his tongue as his gaze collided with a set of truly potent and mesmerizing blue eyes. Despite the dark lines beneath them and the immediate cloud of caution that shadowed their beauty, they were the kind of eyes a man could drown in and he felt himself going under with no hope of swimming back to the surface. Jet-black hair fell like a curtain around a face that obviously hadn’t seen a good night’s sleep in weeks and yet still managed to be angelic. The long, satiny strands draped over her slender shoulders, bare but for the thin spaghetti straps of her colorful tank top that clung to a pair of perfect breasts, a well-toned abdomen, and a flat stomach.

“Holy shit,” he whispered before he could stop himself and watched as apprehension and a flicker of attraction flashed through her amazing eyes. Her gaze dropped to his shirt, locked on the Maltese cross with Silver Island Fire Department printed beneath, and her beautiful face paled. She backed up a half-step and he reflexively shot a hand out, curling his fingers around her forearm to stop her. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you. I just…” He thought fast and went with the first thing that came to mind. “I wasn’t expecting to turn around and find a woman as breathtakingly beautiful as you standing behind me.”

Her gaze lifted to meet his and a bit of color returned to her cheeks. Her lips turned up in a hint of a smile and she gave a half-laugh. “I bet you say that to all the girls.”

Kalvin chuckled, watching in absolute fascination as she gathered her wits and masterfully tamped down the fear in her eyes. “I assure you, that was a first.” He stood and her gaze fell again, this time taking a leisurely stroll down his body that had his cock hardening to the consistency of stone. “Will you join me for lunch? Please?” he added as an afterthought.

She drew her bottom lip thoughtfully between her teeth and glanced at the empty stool. Her mouth was as absolutely perfect as the rest of her and he could easily picture how impeccable it would look wrapped around his pulsing cock.

She turned her head and shot a look around the café, giving him a tantalizing view of the slender column of her neck. His tongue tingled to lick its way down her smooth-looking flesh.

“There doesn’t seem to be any other open seats.” Her tone was laced with a hint of disappointment as she looked back at him. “I guess I don’t really have a choice. That is, if you don’t mind.”

“Of course not.” He eased aside to allow her room to move between the stools and take a seat, noting the bookstore bag she placed on her lap beneath her small purse. “Kalvin Fitzpatrick,” he introduced himself, extending his right hand for her to shake.

“De—Faith. Faith Randal.”

Her slight stammer prevented him from feeling the full effect of her delicate hand in his for all of a half-second. Then he forgot about his suspicion that she’d just lied about her name as the sensation of the skin-to-skin contact traveled up his arm and rained fiery embers of desire through his body that set off a true inferno in his cock.

“What can I get you to drink, Faith?” Arianrhod asked and then let out a half-giggle. “Forgive me for eavesdropping. I’m Arianrhod. I run the Karma Café.”

Faith smiled. “It’s nice to meet you. I met your mother in the bookstore. She’s a…very interesting woman.”

Arianrhod threw her head back and laughed. “That she is. So what would you like to drink?”

“Just a water with lemon, please.”

Arianrhod lightly slapped the countertop. “Water with lemon coming up.”

“The special today is some kind of funky chicken wrap,” Kalvin told Faith. “I ordered a loaded double cheeseburger and fries.”

She lifted an amused brow. “Not much for wraps, are you?”

“The cheeseburgers here are the best on the island.” It was the truth, even if he’d settled on that answer because it was far less suggestive than the first response that had entered his mind. He thoroughly enjoyed the right kind of wraps. In particular, the kind that would put him with her in a place where she would wrap her sexy stems around his waist as he settled between her legs and positioned his cock to enter her sodden pussy.

“Here you are, Faith,” Arianrhod said brightly as she returned with the glass of water. “And what can I get you to eat?”

Faith glanced down at the menu she hadn’t bothered to open and her bottom lip disappeared between her teeth again. Kalvin shifted on his stool, his balls drawing up painfully at the sight. Christ, just watching the woman was going to make him blow his wad in his pants.

“Kalvin said there’s a chicken wrap on the lunch special, but he’s recommending the loaded double cheeseburger.” She clucked her tongue, flattened her hands on the counter, and made a humph sound. “I’ll have the cheeseburger, no pickles, and fries, please.”

“I’ll have it out shortly.” Arianrhod turned briskly and hurried to the kitchen to turn in the order.

Kalvin noted the lack of a wedding band on Faith’s hand as he propped his elbow on the counter and turned slightly to face her. Come to think of it, she wasn’t wearing any jewelry at all. No makeup either, save for the light pink lip gloss glistening on her mouth. He preferred his women that way, naturally beautiful without any of the manmade garbage that covered it. “No pickles?”

“Let’s just say I’ve had enough sour stuff lately,” she said without meeting his gaze.

The woman for you isn’t on the island yet. She’s got dyed jet black hair and frightened blue eyes. She’s running from something or someone and, when she gets here, there’s going to be trouble.

ADULT EXCERPT

Delilah wanted to forget. She wanted just a few hours where something in her life would feel normal again. Except nothing about being with Blaze felt normal. It had been years since she’d been with a man and, even then, she’d never felt this brutal need to be touched, taken, and held forever. The need felt far more than sexual. It stretched deep inside, reaching places in her soul no man had ever been.

She knew what he was asking permission to do and she wanted it. Still, her heart ached with the knowledge that what was happening between them was quickly turning into an affair she wouldn’t be able to walk away from. And she’d have to. A part of her understood that. But, dear God, how would she ever survive the fallout?

“Touch me, Blaze,” she heard herself whisper and felt the final nail drive into the coffin that sealed her fate. “Make love to me. Make me forget.”

A primal growl left his throat and then he was kissing her. He slanted his mouth over hers, licked his way between her lips, and she accepted him without hesitation. She relaxed against him, delving her fingers in the back of his hair as he took the kiss deeper, making love to her mouth with a sensuality that had her head racing with ecstasy. It stole all her thoughts, claimed her very being, and had every nerve ending in her body screaming for more.

One of his hands dropped to her ass, holding her firmly against him as his other hand fumbled with the clasp of her bra. His cock pressed at her belly, a thick wedge of tantalizing hardness she wanted to feel ramming inside her. Juices slickened her folds, seeped from between her pussy lips, and soaked her panties. His touch had ignited a flame deep inside, one she knew wouldn’t be extinguished until he thrust his dick into her aching channel.

He broke the kiss, licked his way down her jaw, and she let her head fall back, fighting to breathe as his tongue traveled down her neck. Her hands fisted in his hair as he folded his body, bending slightly to trace the lace of her dress just above her breasts with his tongue. He surprised a gasp out of her the next moment when he straightened and spun her around in his arms. His movements returned to being slow and steady as he peeled off her dress and bra, his hands sparking a sizzling path of awareness on her flesh as they glided down to cup her breasts.

Her head fell back on his chest, her eyes closing on their own accord as his large hands worked her breasts, his slightly callused palms teasing her nipples to beaded points.

He nuzzled his face in the side of her neck, nipped, and then licked the tiny dart of pain away. “Damn, you feel so good.” His voice was a rough velvet against her sensitized flesh.

A soft whimper left her throat as he released her breasts, his hands returning to their exploration of her body. Her dress had gotten hung on her hips and he pushed it down, snagging the thin straps of her panties with this thumbs and taking them down, too. She felt both garments fall to pool around her feet as his hands flattened on the front of her thighs.

“Spread your legs for me, darlin’.”

She couldn’t have argued if she’d wanted to. Feeling completely under a spell of his casting, she opened for him, her breath lodging in her throat as one of his hand moved between her legs to cup her pussy.

“So hot,” he murmured, the warm of his breath against the side of her neck sending white-hot bolts of desire shooting through her system to collide with the inferno blazing in her pussy. “So wet.” One finger slipped between her folds, swirled in the juices that coated her most sensitive flesh, and eased back out again.

She opened her eyes to see his hand coming up, his finger covered with her cream. She watched, rolling her head on his chest, as he brought the finger to his mouth and licked it clean.

A low, appreciative growl rumbled from his chest. “So tasty.” He met her gaze and the heat in his eyes made her feel as if she were burning alive. He didn’t look away as his hand returned to her pussy. The finger delved between her folds again, this time with a partner, and he circled her opening with the pad of both before slowly pushing the digits side-by-side into her flaming channel.

She clenched her teeth, sucking in a breath as her muscles protested the invasion for all of a half-second before stretching to accommodate the width of his fingers.

“Damn, you’re tight.”

“It’s been a long time.”

“How long?”

“Years.”

His fingers stilled inside her as he stared at her, disbelief twisting with what she could only define as happiness in his eyes. “I’ll take it easy, darlin’. I promise.”

Delilah chewed her bottom lip, loving the way it sparked a newfound heat in his eyes. “I promise you don’t have to.”

He covered her mouth with his, filling her with the dark taste of passion as his fingers wiggled inside her cunt. He curled them, stroked the inner walls of her channel, and wriggled them more until he found her g-spot.

Pressure built, her womb convulsed with the need to orgasm, and she moaned into his mouth. The heel of his palm ground against her clit as his fingers started to pump in and out of her pussy and she blindly reached an arm behind her, wound it around his neck, and fisted it in the back of his hair. Quivering with needs so deep she wondered how she didn’t pass out from the desire, she thrust her hips forward, drawing his fingers even deeper inside her, and felt the damn break. Every muscle in her body tensed, quaked, and released as pleasure more intense than anything she’d ever felt tore through her pussy and spread through her system.

“Fuck, that was hot.”