Overdrive TheLookOfLove June14 (27 page)

“Yes or no?” he repeated.

She tried to say yes, but all she could get out was, “You already know the answer.”

He shook his head, just as she'd known he would. He wasn't the kind of man you could fool. He was too smart. Too quick.

“I want to hear you say it, Janica. I need to hear you say it.”

His need rocked through her. She couldn't say no to him. Just as she couldn't say no to herself, to her own desperate need.

She licked her lips. Opened her mouth. Finally whispered, “Yes.”

That one small word was all it took for him to take over. His hands moved so fast from her back to the low neckline of her short black dress that her breath caught in her throat.

Through the thin fabric she could feel his hands on the curves of her breasts and her nipples beaded almost painfully. Because she was small enough to let the built-in bra in the dress do the work of keeping everything in place, her nipples jutted out at him, silently begging him to touch her.

A split second later, he ripped the front of her dress open, fully exposing her breasts to his hungry eyes.

She gasped in shock. Who was this man, she wondered as she instinctively moved to cover herself.

Before she could, his hands came around her wrists to hold her arms at her sides.

“No. Let me see you.” His chest was rising and falling hard. “I've waited so damn long.”

His eyes burned her skin, causing a flush to travel all across her breasts. But the heat did nothing to stop her nipples from hardening further.

“My God, you're beautiful.”

No one had ever looked at her this way, like she was absolutely, impossibly perfect.

“So beautiful, Janica, I can't believe it.”

She tried to say something but she still couldn't catch her breath. Not with her dress ripped open to her waist. Not with Luke's eyes drinking her in. Not with those wonderful things coming from his mouth.

Not with her wrists immobilized by his strong grip.

And then he was bending his head down and she felt the first flutter of his soft hair against her collarbone as he lowered his mouth down over one breast.

A low, uncontrollable moan of pleasure shook her throat. She wanted to put her hands on the back of his head, hold him there forever against her, but he wouldn't let her go.

All she could do was stand there and let him taste her.

Oh my god. His tongue. And then—yes, yes, yes!—his teeth were lightly scoring her sensitive flesh.

“Luke.”

His name was a plea. For mercy.

Or maybe, for the exact opposite.

And that was when she realized he understood her better than she did herself, because instead of letting up, instead of giving her a chance to catch her breath, he shifted his dangerous attention from one breast to the other.

The touch of his lips, his tongue, the dark stubble on his jaw, stroking across her untouched skin, sent another jolt of pure desire through her, head to toe, strong enough that she didn't know how her body was managing to hold it all inside without breaking apart.

She arched into his mouth to get closer, every cell in her body focused on three square inches.

His jaw was covered in rough stubble and she loved the way it felt as it scraped and scratched against her skin.

And then his mouth was traveling up over the small curves of her breasts, across her collarbone, settling in the hollow. His tongue tasted her there, and it struck her that feeling Luke's kiss on her shoulder was one of the most erotic moments of her life, outranking every orgasm she'd ever had with anyone else.

She wanted to taste him too, wanted to run her hands and mouth over every inch of his beautiful body. But he was still holding her too tight.

She tried to pull herself out of his bonds and his hands tightened on her wrists.

He pulled his mouth away from her skin. His eyes were dark, dangerous.

“Don't fight me. Not tonight.”

It wasn't just the sensual spell he had wound around her or the look in his eyes that had her giving in. It was the fact that those five words, said in such a commanding voice, held not only more desire than she'd ever known, but also more pain.

Luke needed her.

She'd never been the kind of woman who looked for broken men to try and heal. But Luke wasn't just any man. He had always been special. Even when she wished he wasn't.

She'd been waiting for five years – no, a decade or more - for this moment to come to fruition.

And now that it was here, she would willingly walk down whatever path he wanted to lead her down.

Deep down, she knew that Luke Carson was destined to give her great pleasure. Bigger and better than she had ever dreamed was possible.

And, if dreams really did come true, maybe he'd give her even more than pleasure.

Maybe he'd give her love.

...Excerpt from LOVE ME (Take Me sequel) by Bella Andre ©2010.

* * *

CANDY STORE

© 2010 Bella Andre

On the verge of losing her candy store, Callie Moore decides to blot out her troubles with a tall, dark,
handsome stranger. Derek McNear isn't about to turn down a cute, curvy blonde who offers sizzling-hot sex in a commercial refrigerator at his best friend's wedding reception. But the next day, when
Callie discovers that Derek is the consultant she has hired to save her store, they find it difficult to
concentrate on business. Especially when giving and getting pleasure in each other's arms is so much
more fun!

Enjoy the following excerpt for
CANDY STORE...

Callie's Candies didn’t open until 11 a.m., Monday through Friday, but Callie always had plenty to do in the morning.

The best was making fudge or coating truffles in coconut and peanuts. The worst was going through her inventory and doing her orders for the week.

This was inventory day, of course. Callie sighed with dismay. Today of all days, she could have used a long, therapeutic session with some caramel and nougat.

“Figures,” she muttered, as she walked into her small office at the back of the store and put her purse down. She took off her suit jacket and laid it across the back of her desk chair. Unbound by the jacket, her breasts felt free and immodest in the white lace camisole, reminding her yet again of her wanton behavior at the wedding.

“Forget about it. You’ve got work to do,” she lectured herself and got straight to it, intent on ignoring the new sensual sensations her body was sending her.

Picking up her clipboard and supply spreadsheet, she went to her dry storeroom first and noted what was low. Moving to her walk-in refrigerator, she checked materials off her list from the top shelf first. The bottom shelves were deep and she had to get on her knees to count cocoa bars. The position was awkward, with her rear end pointing straight up, her hands and knees sprawled unladylike on the floor.

Squirming around, trying to get comfortable in her clumsy position, she said, “One, two, three, four,” aloud as she counted stacks of the finest imported cocoa bars.

Immersed in her counting and in the painful crick that was building up in her neck, she was surprised by footsteps coming up the short hallway and then stopping at the doorway to her storeroom.

“We’ve got to stop meeting in refrigerators like this.”

Callie’s heart almost stopped beating. She would have recognized that smooth, deep male voice anywhere.

She froze in place, unable to get her limbs to work. She couldn’t believe that Derek’s first image of her outside of her client's wedding was like this—could she be any less sexy, she wondered dejectedly—in her own damn commercial refrigerator.

Her face, she was sure, was going to be flushed a deep shade of red when she finally stood up, considering that the man she had been lusting after for the past twenty-four hours had walked into her store unannounced, just in time to witness her pawing through her shelves on her hands and knees with her butt sticking straight up in the air.

“On second thought,” he said, his voice washing over her like hot caramel, “I think I like it.”

...Excerpt from CANDY STORE by Bella Andre ©2010.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Bestselling author, Bella Andre, has always been a writer. Songs came first, and then non-fiction books, but as soon as she started her first romance novel, she knew she'd found her perfect career. Since selling her first book in 2003, she's written twenty-one "sensual, empowered stories enveloped in heady romance" (Publisher's Weekly) about sizzling alpha heroes and the strong women they'll love forever for Simon & Schuster, Random House, and Grand Central Publishing. Her books have been Cosmopolitan Magazine Red Hot Reads twice (Game For Anything and Wild Heat) and have been translated into German, Thai, Japanese and Ukrainian. If not behind her computer, you can find her reading her favorite authors, hiking, knitting, or laughing. Please visit her at:

http://www.BellaAndre.com

http://www.twitter.com/bellaandre

http://www.facebook.com/bellaandrefans