Lingerie Wars (The Invertary books) (44 page)
Read Lingerie Wars (The Invertary books) Online
Authors: janet elizabeth henderson
"Want to go look at the space downstairs and see what we can do with it?" he said to the top of her head.
"Not right now," Kirsty said. "We have more important things to do."
She took his hand and led him along the hallway and into the bedroom. She opened the curtains wide. Over the road, white snow covered the remnants of her old life, making it clean. She turned to Lake, who did that raised eyebrow thing he thought was cool. Kirsty pointed to the old armchair beside the bed.
"Have a seat," she ordered.
He did as he was told, with an amused smile on his face.
Slowly, Kirsty began to untie the belt of her blue wool dress. Lake's eyes went wide. She let the dress fall open. Lake licked his lips.
"I owe you a striptease," she told him. His eyes shot to hers. "In daylight."
He thought for a minute and then he grinned widely.
"Caroline," he said.
"Yep," Kirsty said as she let the dress fall to the floor. "You should never have expected her to lie."
His gaze darkened as it followed the length of her. Kirsty's heart raced within her.
"Remind me to thank her," he said in that husky lust laden voice of his.
Kirsty reached behind her to unsnap the pink La Perla bra she'd nabbed from Lake's shop - from her shop.
"You may have won the bet, but I'm still keeping your shop," she told him. "This doesn't change that."
Lake grinned at her.
"I wouldn't expect otherwise," he said as she threw the bra at him.
"As we both know," she told him as she hooked her thumb into her panties. "The shop is a separate issue."
He didn't answer as she wiggled her hips to slowly lower the satin and lace.
"After all, you were very clear that I had to fight back," she said as she kicked off the underwear.
She took a step towards him, wearing only the black high-heeled boots he loved so much.
"Looks like that backfired on you, soldier boy," she told him with pride. "Especially seeing as you have completely and utterly lost this lingerie war."
Lake gave her that grin of his that said he knew better, then he grabbed her hand and pulled her onto his lap.
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In the meantime, Invertary book two, is due out soon!
Coming late 2013!
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my website
Madeline Lewis wants to be the next big thing in something - anything. She is tired of failure, although to be fair she does cause most of it, but now she wants to be a success. And the only thing standing between her and world domination is Dean Montgomery, her childhood friend.
Dean has been in Maddie's life so long that he's taken on the attributes of wallpaper. That's something Dean plans to change and fast. He'd tired cleaning up Maddie's messes, he's tired of being the sensible one and he's tired of being invisible. Maddie might be confused about what she wants out of life, but Dean knows what he wants - Madeline Lewis.
She won't know what hit her.
Winner of the 2013 Silken Sands Star Award from Romance Writers of America
Laura needs to interview the hero of the moment to keep her new job with a women's magazine. She'd rather stick a fork in her eye. Twelve years have passed since her disastrous one night stand with Charlie and they've barely exchanged two civil words in that time. She calls him the Neanderthal and he calls her The Iron Maiden. If it wasn't for the fact his sister was Laura's best friend, she wouldn't have anything at all to do with him.
Charlie has come back from a stint in Afghanistan with a souvenir - nightmares. After one afternoon arguing with Laura, Charlie makes a wonderful discovery: she's so irritating, she scares away his dreams. So Charlie agrees to give her an interview - at a price. She has to accompany him on a two week cycling holiday in Holland, that way he might actually get the rest he needs. He takes particular delight in the plan because he knows that Laura hates exercise, loathes the outdoors and despises him. It feels good to have the upper hand for a change.
Laura needs an interview. Charlie needs sleep. And they both need to grow up and get over the past. But not before Laura cycles into a canal, sets fire to a tent and posts nude pictures of Charlie on the internet - all with the hope of getting her story.
It's irritating when romance gets in the way of your goals. And falling in lust with Jack Miller is definitely getting in the way of Davina's plans. Davina has a movie to make and an acting career to resurrect - okay, so it was never alive in the first place, but that's not the point. The point is: she's hitting thirty and she wants to be famous. And if that means making an indie movie with "borrowed" film equipment and shooting the movie in Jack's house without permission - then so be it.
She's a woman on a mission and nothing is going to stop her from achieving her dream. Not even her sexy, ex-cop, landlord who is pretty focused himself. Unfortunately his goals revolve around evicting her from his house, putting her in jail and getting her into bed - and he doesn't seem to mind which one happens first.
This is a self-portrait I did when I was going through my ‘blue period’ – we affectionately call it ‘Janet Smurf’. Now you can see why I write instead of paint!
But enough about that—here’s a little about me. I was born in Scotland and now I live in New Zealand. I’ve been here almost ten years and I absolutely love it! I’m married to a lovely Dutch man who tolerates the fact I make fun of him on my Facebook page. I have two adorable little girls and several mad animals that eat up a lot of my time during the day. This means I do all my writing in the dark when everyone is asleep. I put on some music and entertain myself with stories of people falling in love. It’s such fun to watch the characters screw up from the comfort of my wee office! I’m a trained artist, an ex-teacher and travel junkie. But most of all – I LOVE to talk to people! So if you want to contact me, then please do.
A big thank you to fabulous Scottish fashion photographer
Jodie Mann
for letting me use her beautiful photos on the cover of my book. And another big thank you to Irene Wadsworth, designer of
Impractical Clothes
whose work features in Jodie's photos. Two very talented Scottish women who make my book look wonderful.
Thank you to the ladies of
Romance Writers New Zealand
for their support, humour and encouragement. I would feel like a nutty hermit without you!
Thank you to Liz Dempsey, who reads all of my books searching for mistakes, even though she'd rather be reading horror!
Thank you to my wonderful supportive husband, who after eighteen years together still makes my heart race. Without you entertaining the kids, there would be no books. Although, there would be even more if you stopped constantly interrupting me to ask how the work was going! I love you very much and hope that one day you'll actually read more than the acknowledgement page and make it through a whole book!
And, last but not least, thank you to my readers. You lot are lovely! Your letters of encouragement and support have a huge impact on my life and I appreciate them ever so much. Thank you for reading my books.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is coincidentaCopyright © 2013 Janet Kortlever
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author's intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior permission can be obtained by contacting the author through her website. Thank you for your support of the author's rights.
Cover photos by Jodie Mann
www.jodiemann.co.uk
Clothing in cover photos by Impractical Clothes
www.impracticalclothes.com
Author's website:
www.janetelizabethhenderson.com
ISBN:
978-0-473-24390-6