Authors: Kim Lawrence
Wild and Willing!
“I’m not interested in one-night stands.”
Adam’s arrogance brought a tide of color to Anna’s smooth cheeks. She had imagined it might be interesting to get to know him, but that didn’t mean she’d intended to jump into bed with him! “Don’t you think your moral superiority is hypocritical when you’ve been privately lusting after me since you walked into the room?”
“Everything you do screams sex! The dress, the way you move….”
“This is a party. I came prepared to enjoy myself,” Anna replied.
“I’d noticed.” Adam took her face in his hands and tasted the sweet moistness of her mouth. Later he’d have leisure to regret his action, but at that moment all he was aware of was an intense hunger….
Wanted: three husbands for three sisters!
Anna, Lindy and Hope—triplet sisters and the best, the closest, of friends. Physically, these three women may look alike: but their personalities are very different! Anna is lively and vivacious, Lindy is the practical one and Hope sparkles with style and sophistication.
But they have one thing in common: each sister is about to meet a man she will tantalize, torment and finally tame! And when these spirited women find true love, they’ll become the most beautiful triplet brides….
Turn the page to enjoy Anna’s story in
Wild and Willing!
The Secret Father
(Harlequin Presents® #2096)
An Innocent Affair
(Harlequin Presents® #2114)
KIM LAWRENCE
Wild and Willing!
CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
A
DAM
D
EACON
turned his head to watch the progress of the young woman on the dance floor. He considered himself too old to be interested in such a child, but he doubted he was the only male present unable to take his eyes from her supple, rhythmic contortions. Each sinuously sensual movement of her slight frame echoed the heavy throb of the popular tune the band was playing.
‘Want to dance?’ his companion asked, watching his absorption with a speculative smile.
‘Not my sort of dance.’ He switched his attention. Rosalind was intelligent and beautiful, and he hadn’t heard a thing she’d said for several minutes. She was also far too astute to miss this embarrassing fact, but too polite to mention it. It was one of the qualities that made her a great companion.
‘Good, isn’t she?’ Rosalind murmured.
Adam didn’t pretend to misunderstand her. ‘You know the wild child?’ His green eyes flickered in the direction of the young woman just in time to see her throw her arms around her partner’s neck and kiss him on the mouth. The music had ended, and she smilingly ignored several entreaties to continue.
‘Wild child!’ Rosalind Lacey gave a laugh. ‘How appropriate,’ she said with a grin. ‘Yes, you could say I know her.’ She gave a secret smile.
The music had stopped and she gestured to the girl who waved back and began to weave her way through the throng of revellers. ‘I’ll introduce you.’
Adam wasn’t pleased. Whilst he might have been entertained by the abandoned performance, his interest
didn’t extend further. He had never understood why mature men were attracted to young girls with undeveloped personalities. He had no wish to meet a teenager with an exhibitionist streak. The thought of laboured conversation made him frown before his expression turned politely bland as the slender brunette approached.
Closer to, he could see she wasn’t beautiful. Her features were not as perfectly proportioned as her lissom body. The masterful nose and full mouth were too big for her small oval face. It was the eyes that captured attention. Wide-spaced, warm brown and slanted like a fawn’s, they were fringed by extravagant dark lashes. There was, however, none of that creature’s coyness in the direct gaze.
‘Are you all right, Anna?’ Rosalind asked anxiously. It was rare to see any external evidence of her sister’s old injury, an injury that had tragically halted a promising career as a ballet dancer.
Adam’s keen, professional eyes had also noted the way the girl was placing most of her weight on one leg. He automatically looked at her legs; not much was concealed from his eyes in the short black dress she wore. It was a scrap of fabric that moulded the thrust of her small, high breasts and flared slightly at the hemline, which was very high. He couldn’t see any visible sign of injury in the slim, shapely line of her legs through their black fine denier covering; they looked in remarkably good shape!
‘Don’t fuss,’ Anna replied with impatient good humour.
Adam raised his gaze to find the remarkable pair of dark brown eyes, still shining with exhilaration after her performance, watching him with amusement and not a trace of self-consciousness.
‘You’ll recognise them again,’ she observed with a straight face, stretching one elegant ankle in front of her.
‘You were limping,’ he accused, just to rectify any
wrong ideas she might have about his interest. Her poise was precocious even at a time when childhood grew ever shorter.
‘It’s not usually noticeable. Before you say it, Lindy, dear, I know I shouldn’t have danced like that, but it was worth it! I love that tune.’ She gave a blissful sigh.
‘Ever heard of moderation?’ Rosalind asked her sister with rueful affection.
She knew she was wasting her breath; Anna was a creature of extremes. Sometimes she envied her sister her lack of inhibitions, but mostly she worried that Anna’s spontaneity might lead people to miss the sensitivity inherent in her sister’s personality. The total lack of artifice made her seem frighteningly vulnerable to the more cautious Rosalind.
‘Ever heard of death by boredom?’ Anna’s attention flicked to the tall, silent man at Lindy’s side. ‘Either you’re a gatecrasher or Lindy brought you. I wrote the invitations personally,’ she explained, looking him up and down with a candid interest that brought a flicker of disapproval to his eyes.
‘Anna, this is Adam Deacon. Adam, this is Anna, my sister.’
‘You mean there are more of you? I’d have thought your parents would have called it a day after triplets. They must be gluttons for punishment!’
‘Don’t you like children, Mr Deacon?’ Anna enquired.
‘In moderation.’
‘He sounds like just your sort of man, Lindy,’ she mocked gently. Rosalind, with her soft, honey-coloured hair and serene blue eyes, never lost her cool. Anna hoped her sister would one day meet a man who would shake that equilibrium. Was this the man? If so she would have to keep her fantasies to herself.
Rosalind glared discouragingly; Anna’s offbeat sense of humour could be provocative when she chose.
‘Adam is to be the new orthopaedic consultant at St
Jude’s,’ she explained. ‘He’s not my man,’ she added with an apologetic smile in Adam’s direction. ‘I thought it might be nice if he got to know a few people locally. There are only the three of us, Adam; Anna is the eldest, despite appearances.’
‘My apologies,’ he said, startled by this information. He knew Rosalind was twenty-six, but this provocative creature could have passed for a teenager.
‘I was the runt,’ Anna said.
‘So I see.’
Anna’s eyes widened. ‘That wasn’t very kind.’
For someone who was meant to be meeting people, he had an aloof air which was pretty daunting. Did a warm, interesting man lurk beneath the austere exterior? Was the gleam in his eyes humour? She hoped so. It would be a great waste if he turned out to be a beautiful stuffed shirt. He
was
beautiful, though, she conceded.
‘You don’t appear to need your confidence bolstered.’
That, he decided, was a considerable understatement. She had none of the quiet reticence of her sister, who was, he’d always thought, a very serene woman. There was nothing covert about the sexuality the brunette oozed, either. Without intending to his eyes dropped to skim over the sleek slenderness of her slight frame.
‘You dance well.’ He recalled her undulations across the dance floor and felt a distinct tightness around his collar.
Anna shivered. She’d known he was watching her from across the room, but closer to the scrutiny didn’t just send her pulse racing—it made her stomach muscles go into a series of spasms and her throat grow dry.
He had been hard to miss, even in this crowded rom. He was lean and tall, several inches over six feet, with dull gold hair that gleamed under the electric lights. He was the sort of person who made an impact the instant he walked into a room, and his long-limbed grace had captured and held her imagination.
She’d told herself he was probably cross-eyed, or a martyr to acne, but closer inspection had revealed he was neither. Closer to, the air of confidence and authority was more pronounced, as was the fluid, feral manner in which he moved. His eyes were a mysterious green and his skin was faintly tanned; if you added the firm mouth and aquiline nose you had, in short, perfection! If you were the sort of person who was impressed by such things.
She, of course, was not so shallow and superficial, but she was human enough to feel quite pleased when her sister denied ownership of this superb specimen. She wondered if she would ever feel enough for a man to put him above her relationship with her sisters. She doubted it.
‘Can you dance?’ she teased.
‘With less abandon than you.’
‘I can adapt.’
‘Are you asking me to dance?’
‘Should I have waited for you to ask me?’ She gave him a tiny smile and tilted her head on one side in a gesture that revealed the swan-like arch of her neck, and made Adam’s better judgement die an instant death. He’d left recklessness behind years ago, along with his impulsive youth, but somehow he found himself too intrigued to back down from the challenge in her provocative manner.
‘You think I was going to?’ The crackle of awareness that passed between them was almost physical in its strength. The startled flash in her wide eyes revealed she too had felt the sensation.