STORY EXCERPT

As Emily entered the clattering noise of the hotel restaurant, she didn’t understand why she was so nervous. Breakfast with Graham Wells! She still didn’t know why she had agreed to meet him, except that he had been so charming, his eyes crinkling as he looked at her, and his face carved by attractive lines as he smiled. He had been terribly sexy, too, with that salt-and-pepper mane of his falling around his face and his lean body dressed all in black.

She caught sight of the western writer at probably the same instant he espied her, since he immediately rose to his feet and waited for her to approach the table. He was wearing a steel-gray button-down, left open at his browned throat and with the sleeves rolled up. The tailored shirt was tucked into black jeans that outlined a flat midline and clung to well-defined thighs. He looked just as sexy as she remembered. He held out a chair for her, and she slid into it. She looked up into his face. “Good morning, Graham.”

“Emily.” He smiled down at her. With a couple of lithe strides, he skirted the corner of the table and took the chair opposite. He shifted slightly sideways in the chair so that he could lay a muscular forearm on the table top. “I wasn’t sure you would show up.”

“Well, I might have had a few second thoughts.” She brushed a lock of her hair back behind her ear. A fine strand caught in the leather-and-metal cuff, the tug of the hair giving her a sting of pain before it slipped free.

Graham chuckled. “As I said before, you’ve a way about you, Emily Watson.”

They ordered, and over their breakfast, they talked. She was partway through his book, and she asked curiously about the historical background in the story. “It seems to me you must have done a massive amount of research to give it such a feel of reality.”

Graham nodded. “Yeah, I’ve spent a lot of time investigating western mining and the old legends of stolen gold. I’ve hiked a lot of the territory in question. There’s still a surprising amount of the western wilderness left.”

Emily stirred cream into her coffee. “I thought you looked like someone who had spent a lot of time outdoors.”

“You mean, a face burnt to leather!” He laughed, his deep-set eyes crinkling at the corners. The heavy-lidded dark gaze held a satirical gleam.

Emily shook her head. She narrowed her eyes, regarding him closely. “That’s superficial. It’s…something more than that. After all, there are tanning beds! No, it’s simply the way you carry yourself, your quiet watchfulness. If I had to define you, Graham Wells, I’d say you could be a very dangerous man. I don’t think you’re a stranger to the sudden caprices of life or death.”

Graham was silent. He stared at her for such a long moment that she started to feel uncomfortable. Emily busied herself with her coffee cup, and while she sipped, she wondered how she could retrieve the conversation. She had spoken in a half-teasing fashion. It had gone wrong somehow.

His face had become expressionless, something unreadable glinting in his eyes. Finally, he shrugged his well-defined shoulders. “I’ve seen my share of ugliness, if that’s what you mean. I’ve experienced loss. But I don’t let it define who or what I am.”

“I never meant to insult you!” Emily realized she had crossed an unseen line. She set down her cup. “I’m sorry! I’ve obviously spoken out of turn.” She was relieved when his hardened expression eased back into a slight smile.

“No problem.” Graham nodded across the table at her. He leaned back in his chair, at ease with his arm bent at the elbow and resting on the table. His sinewy fingers played with an unused spoon. “You’ve left yourself wide open, Emily. So, what about you? How has life treated you?”

Emily gave a rueful laugh. “I should have known you’d take advantage of my bungling!”

“That’s right, you should have. You still haven’t answered the question.”

Emily shrugged in her turn. “Oh, well, like you, I’ve known loss and tragedy. But I’ve also known great happiness. And that is what I prefer to remember.”

Graham suddenly grinned at her, his lean face creasing with his amusement. “You’re an optimist, then? A believer in happy-ever-after!”

Emily corrected him quietly. “I choose to be optimistic, and I don’t believe I’ve ever known of a real happy-ever-after.”

“Now that’s just sad, darlin’.” His amused expression dropped away. He regarded her with something like sympathy. “But I think I know just what you’re saying. It looks like we have something in common, Emily Watson.”

“What’s that?”

“We’re both realists. We don’t really believe in fairy tales or legends of lost gold.” His voice had dropped to an intimate level as though they were alone in their own world. He was smiling at her again, but with a curiously softened expression.

Emily was captured by his enigmatic gaze, but she couldn’t support his steady regard. She dropped her own gaze. He made her feel uncomfortable and excited and confused.

It wasn’t a very good way to be when she didn’t know what to think about their developing acquaintance. She had a feeling she knew exactly where their acquaintance was going, if only she let herself. After all, she had already admitted to herself that she fancied him. Yet something inside of her was resistant. “I really must go! Thank you for breakfast, Graham.”

He stood up with her. He wasn’t smiling anymore. His deep-set eyes smouldered with banked heat. “Any time, Emily. I mean that!”

The low, gravelly voice resonated on her nerve endings. Emily tried not to shiver. She couldn’t disguise the hitch in her breath, however. Heat rose to her face.

She smiled and nodded, looking away quickly. She hurried away.

ADULT EXCERPT

He could feel the heat of her body. It set his on fire. It was all he could do not to put his hands on her. His cock was already straining at his jeans. He struggled against the innate rise of his glamour. He’d vowed it. He would have her come willingly to his bed. “I want you.”

“I know.”

Graham’s throat thickened and his voiced grated. “Ah, darlin’.” He gathered her carefully into his arms. In the most natural way possible, she molded against his body and lifted her face to him. Graham dipped his head quickly and took possession of her soft reddened lips. He kissed her thoroughly, his tongue delving into the recesses of her warm, sweet-tasting mouth. Her tongue dueled lightly with his until he finally had to lift his head because he was breathing so shallowly. His shaft was throbbing.

He realized he was holding her very tightly. He had his arms wrapped around her, one of his hands splayed wide across a firm buttock, his fingers clutching the under-curve of her soft flesh and drawing her into contact with the evidence of his arousal. His voice was harsh with his surging desire. “I don’t want to go too fast for you.”

She was staring up at him out of those incredibly enhanced eyes. Mystery shined in her eyes. Her lips glistened wetly as she whispered to him on a breath of air. “Don’t go too slow.” Through the vest and shirt layers, she curled her fingers into his sides.

Graham groaned. He reluctantly set her away from him. “Let me get rid of the guns.” He unbuckled the belt and untied the string on the holsters and swung the heavy equipage off of his hips. He looked up when he heard a soft chuckle from her. “What?”

Her eyes gleamed. “I’ve never been had by a desperado. Are you going to take me with your boots on?”

“No.” Graham leaned against the wall and dragged off both of his boots. He dropped them to the floor. He straightened away from the wall and stepped catlike to her. “Now come here, sweet darlin’.”

She smiled. She grabbed the sides of his shirt and pulled, popping open the pearl buttons. The satin vest and black shirt hung open from his shoulders. His leanly muscled chest with its flat brown nipples was revealed, and she licked her lips.

She had shocked him with her aggression, but it only served to enflame him. Graham delighted in the knowledge that, glamour or no, she wanted him in the most primitive way. His hands locked on her shoulders and he yanked her into a hard, possessive, open-mouthed kiss. She twisted her fingers into his mane and gave him back passion for passion. One of her cuffs caught in the strands of his hair and pulled, but he didn’t care.

After that, there were no more words. There were few preliminaries. They practically tore the clothes off of each other. His discarded clothing was scattered on the floor around his feet. She had rid herself of the cuffs. The costly costume was rent where he grasped it and yanked it off of her slender shoulders. She laughed breathlessly. He pulled it down off her, taking with it the half slip and thong. She unclasped the strapless bra and let it fall, and she was naked at last to his hot gaze. “God, woman!”

She still wore the tall black wig and her exotic makeup. Her widened eyes shone. Her half-parted red lips were swollen and glazed by his kisses. Her naked femininity was graced by the curve of the colorful enamel collar and metal ankh lying above her full breasts and with the arm snakes banding her slender arms. The slight round of her belly and her slim hips were a perfect cradle for her feminine mound. Her long legs were flexed by the tilt of the tall gold sandals strapped on her feet.

Desire shuddered through Graham. He was breathing quickly. He had never seen anything more erotic. The jerk of his cock was testimony. He reached for her and started telling her how beautiful she was.

* * * *

He was murmuring to her, the beautiful timbre of his voice resonating through her. Emily didn’t care what he was saying. All those words of admiration and passion were only the background to the rapid beatings of her heart. All she cared about was getting naked and joining her body to his as soon as possible. His hands caressed her body, trailing erotic warmth over her sensitized skin, and set her shivering with excitement. The lust was already consuming her with its heat.

She grazed her hands across his hard, bare shoulders, down his tensed arms, and flat-palmed across his well-developed chest. She reveled in the in the warm delineated contours and the coarse hairs on his broad chest. She was breathing rapidly, and she could smell the heady, natural musk of his heated skin.

She gazed down hungrily over the planes of his leanly muscled body. He was potent. His virility was manifest in his corded muscles and in the well-formed, thick cock standing up rigid against his flat abdomen. Crisp black hairs descended his lower belly and delineated the base of his rooted sex. It visibly pulsed. She lightly, teasingly, ran one finger up its hot length, and his cock jumped. He hissed in his breath.

Suddenly, he swung her up in his arms, and her own breath hitched in sensual anticipation.

He did not carry her to the bed, as she expected.

He leaned against the wall, and he lifted her higher in his arms, shelving her buttocks with his strong calloused hands. She wound her arms around his neck and folded her bent legs like tight wings against his lean hips.

She felt the hot, blunt head of his cock slide over her pulsing clitoris, teasing her, and she groaned. She was so hot and wet, she ached. She wound fingers into his shaggy hair and tugged on it. “Graham!” He needed no encouragement. He positioned her so that his cock head nudged her sensitive opening. At the same time he pulled down on her hips, he lunged up.