Ashes, Ashes, They All Fall Dead (42 page)

An Excerpt from

by Cheryl Harper

Cheryl Harper returns with another fun, fresh tale from the wacky Elvis-themed Rock’n’Rolla Hotel. Summer’s hit Memphis, and things between Tony and Randa are about to heat up. She’s hiding something, and he’s determined to make her come clean. She may be up to Tony’s challenge, but can Randa handle the fire between them?

H
e pointed at the pool. “Show me what you can do, Miss Captain of the High School Swim Team.” Gorgeous pools and cloudless days like this one weren’t meant to be wasted, not even by expensive girls who lived in fear of wrinkles.

Randa started to shake her head but changed her mind. He could see the second she decided which face she was going to put on. She ran a teasing finger down his arm, and he fought a shiver. “You’ve got it, Tony.”

She stood beside the lounger and reached up to peel the floppy straw hat off before she shook out her hair. Tony hoped he wouldn’t be required to contribute to the conversation. Anything that came out of his mouth this second would sound like, “God, yes. Please, yes. Show me the suit now.”

Randa dropped her sunglasses on the hat and slowly unbuttoned the white, long-sleeved, gauzy cover-up before stripping out of it quickly. She let it drop from her fingers—right onto his lap—and Tony nearly nodded his thanks. His eyes were glued to her. He’d hoped for a bikini. Those hopes were dashed. Instead she wore a pretty conservative one piece that was cut high on the hips and low enough to tease at the V of her breasts. And the rest of her was nothing but perfect, satiny skin. “Still too skinny, Tony?”

He nodded and tore his eyes away from her hips, her tiny waist, and her perfectly sized breasts to watch her face.

Her teasing smile slipped a bit, and he thought he saw honest desire in her eyes. She took an awkward step away from him and then seemed to remember her audience. She turned and glanced over her shoulder before moving to stand at the end of the pool. She executed a flawless shallow dive and made four quick trips up and down the length of the water. He tried to be objective. She was a clean, fast swimmer. But none of that mattered. She could be doggy-paddling and refusing to get her hair wet, and he’d still think she looked amazing. He watched her float around aimlessly for a minute or two before she swam over to the side of the pool.

The sight of her climbing out was unforgettable. Possibly life changing. More than anything he wanted to kiss her, strip her, and take her. With her hair wet and slicked back from her face, he could see teasing, intelligent blue eyes. And her body would bring stronger men than Tony to their knees. It was a damn good thing the sight of a water drop disappearing into the shadow between her breasts had frozen his tongue and nailed his feet to the concrete. He might have embarrassed himself then and there.

Instead he nodded mutely as she slipped into her cover-up and asked, “Meet you in the lobby at four?” He watched her move quickly across the hot concrete in her bare feet and felt the despair of a man who was going shoe-shopping soon.

He didn’t want her to burn her feet. Or to be unhappy. Or to be here for anything other than to see the finest Elvis-themed hotel in the world. He wanted her to be a normal girl, maybe one who worked nearby. One he could have met at the bookstore.

He watched Randa pause at the door to the hotel and scan her room key. Before she disappeared inside, she smiled and waved at him over her shoulder. And he and his frozen tongue loosened up enough to say, “Shit.” He was in for it. No matter how this turned out, he was going to have regrets. She was here through the weekend. That was enough time to fall under her spell and give up all the hotel’s secrets. That would be just about right. From famine to feast to famine again so quick he’d probably lose his mind.

Then again, if he didn’t go any further with her, he’d spend unhealthy amounts of time thinking about her wet and half dressed. Probably for the next fifty years. She was like the world’s most perfect steak. He couldn’t let her go, but eating her would ruin other steak for him.

Eating her? Apparently the brain breakdown had already set in. He shook his head as he grabbed his towel and went to his apartment.

An Excerpt from

by Codi Gary

Katie Conners is finished being Rock Canyon’s good girl, and, after one too many mojitos, she starts making a list of things a girl like her would never do. When the sexy local tattoo artist finds Katie’s list and offers to help her check off a few of the naughtier items, Katie may just wind up breaking the most important rule of all:
Good girls 
don’t
 
fall in love with bad boys.

S
he tried to pull away from him, cursing the tingles his warm hand caused. Glaring, she attempted to sound firm, “Let go of me. I’m tired of your games. I don’t know why you think it’s funny to play with someone’s emotions, but I’ve never done anything to you, and I find it humiliating that you would make fun of me over something I did when I was having a bad day. It makes you a bully, and I want you to leave me alone.”

Chase didn’t release her, just reached out with his other hand and started to pull her toward him. Her heart pounded as all that mouthwatering muscle drew closer to her and he slipped his arm around her waist.
She
might think Chase was lower than pond scum, but her hormones sure didn’t agree.

Katie stopped struggling and tilted her face up just as he said, “I can’t do that.”

She froze as he let her wrist go and trailed his hand up her arm slowly, making every single cell in her body scream to get closer but a lifetime of good breeding and manners kept reciting:
Good girls don’t . . . good girls don’t . . .

Still, the part of her that hadn’t been held by a man in a long time wished we would kiss her until her brain shut up.

He didn’t kiss her like she wanted him to, though.

Chase ran one hand through her hair and cupped her cheek with the other. “Sweet Katie, the last thing on this earth I’d want to do is upset you, but I have to say, it is really hot to see you all riled up.” He slipped his thumb over her bottom lip and continued, “Your mouth purses when someone irritates you and you’re trying not to say anything. I’ve noticed you do that a lot. But your eyes heat up when you’re ticked off, and that’s hard to miss. Like now.”

Katie was holding her breath as she swayed toward him, and he whispered, “Do you know what you want?”

Did she? “Yes.” She drifted a little closer, unable to resist him. It was his eyes. No, the way he smiled. Maybe . . .

“Do you know where you want it?”

His words were penetrating the fog of desire, and she blinked at him. “What?”

Sliding his hand from her lip to her shoulder, he asked, “Do you want it here?”

She finally registered what he was asking and said, “I don’t want a tattoo.”

“Are you sure?” he said teasingly. “ ’Cause I have a binder full of things you might like. Of course there are some items we could check off the list that don’t involve binders, needles, or tattoos. Let me think . . .”

She needed to move away from him so
she
could think. She took a breath, but that was a mistake. He smelled amazing, and she was so tired of being good all the time. She was thirty years old, and the man she was supposed to spend the rest of her life with had picked someone else. Maybe if she had been more daring and less rigid, Jimmy wouldn’t have dumped her. She would never know now. She couldn’t change the past, but she could let go now, just this once.

Slipping her arms up around his neck and ignoring his surprised look, she said, “Chase, if you want to kiss me, will you just do it already?”