Tempt (Take It Off)
Read Tempt (Take It Off) Online
Authors: Cambria Hebert
TEMPT
(a
Take It Off
novel)
***This is a new adult contemporary novel and contains sexual content and graphic language. It is not intended for young adult readers.***
Stranded and alone with not one, but two wickedly enticing men.
Ava arrives at the airport, expecting to board a commercial flight to Puerto Rico. But a plane ticket isn’t waiting for her. Instead, she finds a guy with dark curly hair wearing seriously ratty jeans and holding a sign with her name on it.
He may not look like a pilot, but he is. And he’s her ride.
So now it’s just Nash and her on a tiny tin can of a plane flying over the Atlantic. When a thunderstorm comes out of nowhere, it proves to be too much for the little aircraft.
Ava and Nash plunge from the sky and end up on an uncharted deserted island.
Stranded.
As if that isn’t bad enough, Ava starts to desire more than just rescue—hunger for more than food. Nash is only too happy to oblige… but it seems they might not be as alone as they thought.
And Nash might have some competition in claiming Ava’s body… and her heart.
EMPT
Take It Off Series
CAMBRIA HEBERT
TEMPT Copyright © 2013 CAMBRIA HEBERT
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions
thereof, in any form without written permission except for the use of brief
quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Published by: Cambria Hebert
http://www.cambriahebert.com
Interior design and typesetting by Sharon Kay
Cover design by MAE I DESIGN
Edited by Cassie
McCown
Copyright 2013 by Cambria Hebert
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents
either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used
fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead,
business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.
Paperback ISBN:
978-1-938857-30-0
eBook ISBN:
978-1-938857-31-7
Heven
and Hell Series
Before
Masquerade
Between
Charade
Bewitched
Tirade
Beneath
Renegade
Heven
& Hell Anthology
Death Escorts
Recalled
Charmed
Take It Off series
Torch
Tease
Contents:
EDICATION
To Regina Wamba. We started out as designer/client and we grew to be colleagues and friends. Your designs inspire and awe me. One of the best decisions I ever made when I started writing was hiring you to give my books beautiful faces.
Beyond that, this book is for you because you’re the one who titled it.
TEMPT
I felt my heartbeat against my chest—a slow, steady rhythm, kind of lethargic and lazy. But that was because I was barely breathing. Actually, I was holding my breath.
He touch
ed me.
His fingers drifted over my skin like a breeze on a summer day. It was a feather
-light caress that never ended because he didn’t lift his hands.
It started at my collarbone
, drifted out across my shoulders, and then descended downward until he hooked his fingers around my elbow, brushing against the sensitive spot on the inside of my arm. Downward he traveled until his fingers pulled away from mine to hover just barely over the tops of my thighs.
Then his direction reversed
, climbing upward so the slightly rough pads of his fingers traced the outline of my belly button and then dragged over my ribcage.
Tiny shivers raced up and down my spine
, creating goose bumps that scattered over my scalp and caused my eyes to flutter closed.
His hands splayed
around my waist, gripping my flesh and pulling me closer, but he didn’t kiss me. He buried his face against my neck and used his tongue to wet a circle of tender skin, then pulled back slightly to blow across the area.
I shuddered.
My body started to arch into him, but something caught my arm, something large and warm. It wrapped around my bicep in a possessive manner, causing my head to turn, and I cast a glance in the direction I was being pulled.
My heartbeat accelerated instantly. The lethargic rhythm was chased away by a shot of adrenaline so pure that I could taste it on my tongue.
He yanked me away from the teasing, gentle caresses and cupped my face in his palm, lowering his lips toward mine. Excitement crackled along my nerve endings, and my tongue jutted out to moisten my lips.
Just as he was about to claim my kiss
, I was yanked away again, this time by the one who had me first.
I cast a look to my left at green
irises flashing with possession and then once again to my right where chocolate eyes gleamed with jealousy.
I was caught in the middle of two very enticing choices.
A choice I didn’t want to make.
Brown
-eyes stepped closer, his body brushing against the entire length of my arm. He reached out and pushed the hair back over my shoulder, exposing the side of my face. He leaned down and captured my earlobe between his teeth and sucked it into his mouth. The gentle suckling sounds that whispered through my ear loosened something deep inside me.
I turned my head toward him, not wanting him to stop.
But green-eyes was not to be cast aside.
His palm covered my breast, gently kneading the area and causing my hardening nipple to brush against the smooth fabric of my bikini top. And then his mouth was on my neck, pulling the skin into
its moist warmth and massaging it with his tongue.
Two mouths…
Two sets of hands…
And my single body.
I wasn’t sure who to touch, who to grab, but I didn’t want either of them to stop. The sensation of being kissed in more than one place in a single moment made a moan escape from my lips.
My fingers began to twitch, wanting to
elicit a shiver of their own.
As my hands lifted away from my sides
, I vaguely wondered whom they would reach for first…
Scientists, philosophers
, or whoever the group of people who sat around a desk and made up the list of the Seven Wonders of the World were wrong. There aren’t seven. There are eight.
Number eight being men.
The reason men weren’t added as a wonder of the world? Because men probably made up the list to begin with.
I knew
trying to figure out men, trying to have one in my life was a fruitless effort, but it didn’t stop me from having a relationship. It also didn’t stop me from getting hurt.
Just when I was getting over
the epic failure that was my ex, my grandmother died.
So basically, I
felt like I’d boxed about ten rounds, the entire time holding my own, and then I was knocked out. Cold.
And now here I
was, wandering through the insanely large, insanely busy Miami International Airport so I could get on some plane and fly off to Puerto Rico because my grandmother’s dying wish was for her ashes to be scattered over the ocean there—the place where she met my grandfather over fifty years ago.
How did I get elected for the job?
I was Grandmother’s favorite. I was between jobs. I was down on my luck. I needed a free vacation to a beautiful place.
Right. Because flying to some foreign country (though
, I guess technically, it’s not a foreign country since it’s considered a US territory) with a special suitcase just for the remains of my beloved grandmother and then parting with them to an ocean is considered some nice vacation.
Clearly, my family is
a bunch of whackos.
Even still, I love my family and my heart still ached over my grandmother’s passing
, so here I was. The suitcase rolling along behind me tipped, and my bags toppled to the floor. With a great sigh, I stopped and turned, righting the one on wheels and then bending over to pick up the one I had balanced on top.
I slid it over and unzipped it, peering inside at the bubble
-wrapped urn. Nothing appeared to be broken. “Sorry, Kiki,” I murmured, using the name I called her since I could speak, and then zipped it closed. Deciding not to take any more chances with the smaller bag, I carried on, rolling the bigger one behind and carrying the other in my free hand. I also had a messenger-style purse strapped across my shoulder and it banged against my thigh with every step.
I made my way through the rapid
ly moving crowds, toward the gate I was told would have my ticket. Why I couldn’t get an electronic one like everyone else in the modern age I would never understand.
As I approached the gate
, I couldn’t help but be distracted by a man leaning against one of the nearby walls. He was reading a newspaper, holding it up in front of his face so all I could see were the two long-fingered hands holding the paper and his body from the waist down.
He
wore a pair of beat-up jeans, really beat up. Like, with holes and hanging strings. The denim was faded in some spots and the fabric seemed thin and likely soft to the touch. His T-shirt looked as well worn as his jeans, except it didn’t have any holes in it. All I could see of it was gray and just the front hem was tucked into his waistband, exposing a tan leather belt.
The way he lean
ed against the wall, kind of slouching with one foot out farther than the other, drew attention to his shoes. The boots were the same color as his belt and they appeared sturdy and not nearly as used as his clothes.
I couldn’t tell you why I was so drawn to him. That was all I could see. He just looked like some regular (albeit lazy) guy waiting around for his plane to arrive. Although
, he was reading the
New York Times,
which made me snort. He didn’t really look like the kind of guy that would stand around reading that paper.
I snorted to myself
again. He probably had a
Penthouse
just inside the paper and was really reading that.
My gate was off to my right and I turned, eyeing the counter and noting that there weren’t as many people in this section of the airport as the other parts I
’d just walked through. The woman behind the counter had perfectly combed hair slicked up into a bun on the back of her head. She was dressed in a navy blazer with the airline’s name on the breast, and she sported a polite look on her face. When I stopped at the counter, I parked my bags next to me and flipped the top of my messenger bag open to reach inside for my wallet and ID.
“My name is Ava Malone
. I was told my ticket to Puerto Rico would be here waiting for me.”
The woman took my ID and looked at it and then handed it back to me. Her manicured fingers flew over the keyboard behind the counter and then she paused and looked up. “You’re plane is already here.”
Alarm spiked through me. “Am I late? I thought I was an hour early. As soon as I get my ticket, I’ll go board. Will they hold the plane for me?”
She gave me an odd sort of look. “I’m sure it will wait
, seeing as how you are the only passenger.”
Confusion made me speechless. I felt my face scrunch up in an odd sort of way as her words replayed through my head. “I don’t understand,” I said slowly. “I can’t be the only person flying to Puerto Rico today.”
She shook her head. “Definitely not. But you are the only one who had a private plane come and fetch her.”
A private plane? To fetch me?
“You must have the wrong person,” I said, holding up my ID again. “You should check again. I should just have a ticket here. For one of the commercial flights.”
“You’re Ava Malone, correct?”
I glanced at my ID just to be sure. That’s what it said, right there beside my horribly embarrassing photo. “Appears that’s me,” I muttered.
She smiled. “Your pilot is around here somewhere,” she said, craning her neck to look around. Her eyes settled on someone across the room and she smiled. “He’s right over there.”
I turned, following her gaze. There next to the guy with ratty jeans was an older gentleman in a suit, holding a briefcase. I lifted my hand to wave at him. He got this puzzled look on his face and then waved uncertainly.
“Are you sure?” I said, feeling my cheeks heat with embarrassment as I glanced back at the woman.
I turned back around to glance again. The gentleman with the suit was gone. My eyes darted around, looking for him, but once again were drawn to the guy with the newspaper. He must have felt my stare because his head shot up and I saw his eyes peek over the top.
Slowly
, the newspaper came down and something else was lifted. A giant white index card.
It had my name on it.
My stomach did a somersault and my heart started thumping erratically.
Why would that ratty jean wearing,
Penthouse
reading guy have a sign with my name on it?
“See,” the woman said from behind. “That’s him. He has a sign with your name on it.”
“
That’s
my pilot?”
The woman at the counter giggled. She actually giggled like a schoolgirl.
Shoot. Me. Now.
I gathered up my bags and took a few steps forward, intent on finding out just what the hell was going on
, when he lowered the oversized card.
My steps faltered.
The suitcase trailing along behind me kept going and rammed into my calves, making me stumble, and I pitched forward with a startled cry, knowing I was going to go down and praying to the heavens that I didn’t crush Kiki when I fell.
The last thing I saw was the stupid
New York Times
paper fluttering to the floor as Kiki and I plunged disastrously toward the floor. But then he was there, grabbing up the suitcase, saving it from my clumsiness.
I
, however, was not so lucky.
I fell.
Hard. In fact, if my arms hadn’t been free, I would have fallen directly on my face. Thankfully, my hands slapped against the hard floor, saving my nose from being rearranged. When I hit, I fell over, rolling onto my back, and lifted my hands, staring at them in front of my face. My palms stung from the fall and I cringed imaging how many germs were now crawling all over them from touching the nasty airport floor.
“Are you okay?” said a voice above me.
I jerked my arms down, propping myself up on my elbows, and lifted my eyes.
I remembered why I fell all over again.
Light-green eyes speared me from within a face that, even if he left right now and I never ever saw him again, I would not forget. His face was so striking that it would be etched into my mind forever.
His eyes were the color of green sea glass. A bright green but light because it had spent time tumbling around the ocean floor. They were a striking contrast against the rest of him. He was all dark and bronze with a head full of thick dark hair that curled around on his head. It was messy like he never combed it
—though I would think that combing curls would only give him an Afro.
His skin was olive toned, bronzed like he never left the sun
, and he had sharp features—a straight nose, full lips, and cheekbones that sat high just beneath those eyes, which were lined in impossibly thick, impossibly dark lashes.
He was tall (or maybe he just looked that way because I was sprawled on the floor) and had a lean build, but he looked strong
—the kind of strength that came naturally, not the kind of bulk that came from the gym.
As I stared at him like a complete idiot
, he set down the suitcase carefully and squatted beside me. My breath caught (or maybe I just forgot I needed to breathe) when he got closer. He was freaking beautiful. Yeah, I know, guys aren’t supposed to be beautiful, but he was. There was no other word that I could think of that would describe him better.
I was still staring as he reached out and grasped me by the shoulders. The heat of his hands radiated through my
T-shirt and practically zapped me back to reality. “Did you hurt yourself?”
Oh my God, he had an accent.
It was lyrical and caused my tongue to tie itself in knots.
As if perfection just upped its game and got even better.
It wasn’t a full-on Spanish accent, but barely there—a slight roll of the tongue that caused chills to rise up across my scalp and race over my head and down my spine.
I nodded because speaking was still not an option.
“You’re Ava Malone?”
Say it again.
Something inside me begged.
Please just say my name one more time.
The desperation going on inside my own head
was what fully shocked me out of my trance. There was no way I was about to succumb to some beautiful disaster of a man. And yes, I did know that he was a complete disaster because there was no way on this planet that a man who looked like him could be anything but trouble.
“Yes, that’s me. I’m fine
,” I said, shaking off his hands and standing up. “Nice catch by the way.” I gestured to the suitcase that contained Kiki.
He grinned. His teeth were blindingly white against his tanned skin. “Sorry
, it had to be one or the other.”
He didn’t look sorry
, the snake. He probably enjoyed watching me bust my butt. “Uh-huh,” I said, reaching for the suitcase with the urn.
He reached out and took it first.
My back teeth clenched together.
“I can get my bags.”
“After what I just saw, I think your grandmother would be safer in my arms.”
That should have insulted me. It should have alarmed me that he knew what was inside. Instead, all I got was a vision of being tucked against his chest, with bronzed, strong arms wrapped around me and the beating of his heart beneath my ear.
I needed a drink.
A stiff one.
I pushed my raging thirst and apparent horniness to the back of my mind to say, “How did you know what was in there?”
“Was it a secret?” he asked, a little smile playing on his lips.
“Are you a psychic?”
He laughed. It was a warm, rich sound that reminded me of brewing coffee on a cold, early morning. “No. I’m not psychic. I’m just your ride.”
“My ride?” I won’t even describe the vision that floated through my mind when he said
that
.
He nodded like I was two. “Yes. Me
, pilot. You, passenger.” He pointed between us while he spoke.
“You’re a pilot?”
He fished a pilot’s license out of the back of his pocket and held it up. “That’s what it says.”
I scoffed. “I’m surprised that didn
’t fall out of the pocket of those holey pants.”
His smile spread across his face like a slow, contagious disease. A disease that people would actually line up to catch. “My jeans hold in everything that’s important.”
I blushed.