Facing It (30 page)

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Sheriff’s deputy Troy Lee Farr is tired of being the department screw-up. The harder he tries to prove himself, the worse it gets. The only thing that’s gone right recently is getting a second chance with Angel. Except she’d rather jam on the brakes than rush into a new relationship. Now he has to work hard to prove his worth as a romantic prospect.

Troy Lee is a patient man, and it isn’t long before Angel is falling into him as hard as he’s fallen for her. Just as Angel begins to think of him as more than a fun date, her past—and Troy’s dangerous reality—threatens the tentative happiness they’ve found in one another.

Reminding them both that security is tenuous…and unconditional love is the biggest challenge of all.

Warning: Cops who talk like cops, explicit older woman-younger man lovin’, and two-boxes-of-tissues emotion.

She stared at him, her voice gone, swallowed up by surprise and sheer, overwhelming joy. One thumb hooked in his pocket, he appeared relaxed and almost boneless in his jeans and a T-shirt emblazoned with “26-2”. Somehow, she tamped down the swamping desire to throw herself into his arms.

His eyes gleamed, burned. “Don’t.”

“Don’t what?” She finally found her ability to talk, although the words came out shaky and small.

“Don’t hold back.” His blue gaze dark and serious, he didn’t temper the words with a grin. “I don’t want you to.”

She tucked damp hair behind her ears, suddenly aware they were talking about more than the obvious. “Are you sure about that?”

One corner of his mouth hitched up. “I’ve always been sure.”

“What happened to just for fun, no sex or expectations?”

A chuckle escaped him in a low rumble. “I had to say something to get you to go out with me.”

She laughed, eating him up with her eyes, wondering what she was supposed to say or do next.

He held the cellophane packet up again. “So do you want your fortune cookie? I mean, I drove four hours—”

“I want you.”

His eyes went from smoldering to blazing. “Angel baby, I’m yours. Hell, I’m so yours it isn’t funny.”

A hot stare trembled between them, and in one step forward, two steps backward, her back landed against the wall inside the door and his mouth covered hers, kissing, teasing, devouring. She pushed at the door with one hand and somehow got it closed.

He lifted his mouth, chest heaving. He nuzzled her ear, uneven warmth rushing over her skin with each of his breaths.

“I want to know everything about you,” he murmured, hands moving over bare shoulders. His lips found hers. “What makes you moan, what turns you on, what makes you come apart.”

“Yes.” Her knees threatened to weaken, to leave her melted and boneless in his arms. “Oh Lord, Troy Lee, I want that.”

And more, that elusive something more, that specialness she’d never been for any other man. She wanted to lose herself in him, fall into them.

“Let me.” He dipped the very tip of his tongue between her lips, teasing, tantalizing, while his body pressed into hers, so she felt every hard inch of him. “Let me know you all over.”

She surged up against him, wrapping her arms around his neck. In a silence punctuated by kisses, she drew him the short distance to the dimness of her bedroom. He stared at her and sifted his fingers through her hair, stroked along her throat and shoulders, hooked his forefingers beneath her camisole straps and slid them down her arms. In their wake, he danced caresses along her bare skin.

“I’ve dreamed about this, about you,” she whispered, shivering as fingertips, callused from strumming guitar strings, feathered over her collarbone and traveled down to just touch the rise of her breasts.

“Me too.” He traced the lacy edge of her camisole. “Dreamed about you, thought about you, fantasized about you.”

“Fantasized?” Her breathless voice dripped with the arousal he brought to life within her. No one had ever claimed that she’d inspired his fantasies, and all sorts of wicked possibilities tumbled through her head as she pondered what he’d imagined, what he’d done while thinking of her. She flicked a glance up at him, from his burning gaze, to his fly and back again.

A slow, devilish smile revealed white teeth and he leaned in to whisper near her ear, “Yes, I did, while thinking about you, if that’s what you’re wondering.”

Her faced burned, even as another flush of arousal sizzled through her, ending in a wet, pulsing heat between her legs. His dark chuckle tickled her ear. “It shocks you, doesn’t it, that I jacked off while thinking about being inside you. You’re awful naïve, for a woman who keeps giving me hell about being older than me.”

With every word, he made teasing little forays just under her camisole. She moistened dry lips. “There haven’t been that many men who would have had reason to think about me and…and…”

“You can’t get it out, can you?” He laughed again, still touching her as he circled to stand behind her, fingertips rubbing maddening trails along the edge of her cami. “Have you ever done it?”

“Done what?” Now his chest pressed against her back, his arms enfolding her as he teased.

His humor rumbled through her and he pressed his lips to her shoulder. “I thought not.”

“That doesn’t mean anything, Troy Lee.” She tried for a stern note, but with his mouth doing sinful things to her neck while he edged the camisole down, she couldn’t pull off more than a husky protest.

“Maybe not.” The thin fabric pooled at her waist. He hooked his thumbs in it and swept it and her loose pajama pants down in one easy movement. Hot palms spread over her belly, covering, heating, enticing. “Or maybe it means Jim Tyre was too much of a dumbass to inspire you.”

“Why are we talking about Jim?” She shivered, anticipating the movement of those long-fingered hands, maybe one upward to her breasts, another down to the damp heat trembling and unfurling at the top of her thighs.

“Because I want you to get that I’m not him.” His teeth scraped at her earlobe. “It’s not going to be about ten minutes in the missionary position, with a couple of quick feels as foreplay. Or maybe having you on top when the mood is adventurous.”

Shock slid over her and she turned her head. “How did you—”

“He looks the type.” His fingers moved in a soft fret over her skin, but his hands didn’t change position. “A little too straight arrow to inspire a woman like you.”

“Like me?” With her head turned toward him, she could see their shadowy reflections in the old mirror above her dresser, light glimmering over her pale nudity while he almost loomed behind her, fully clothed, his face taut with desire.

The easygoing almost-too-pretty-boy was gone. In his place was all male, all man, set on ravaging her. A visceral thrill moved over her. “What do you mean, a woman like me?”

“One who takes charge and likes to make things happen.” He nipped at her ear once more. “One who knows what she wants. You do, don’t you, baby? You know what you want me to do to you.”

Oh Lord, did she. The picture that had repeated in her brain over and over flashed through her mind—her hands wrapped around the footboard, his tall body behind hers, having him all over her while he drove into her again and again.

“Yes.” Her raw whisper tore from her throat.

“Then show me.” All laughter had disappeared from his deep voice. “Make me give you what you want.”

A
Rancho del Cielo
romance

As fires encircle Josh’s life, his troubles mount. His best friend is dead. The woman he’d give his life to protect is pregnant. Secrets he’s held on to for years are spilling free. If he could just find his equilibrium, he could pull himself together. What he doesn’t know is that someone is dead-set on tearing everything he knows apart.

Losing a lifelong friend has finally awakened Miranda McTiernan to how much of her life has been spent in limbo. Now that she’s pregnant, a dream she never believed could happen, the reality isn’t quite what she’d expected. Instead of being happy and secure, she’s scared and hiding a secret that could ruin the future she’s worked so hard to create.

Assuming she has a future…

Warning: Includes a heroine out to get her man, a hero determined to do the wrong thing for the right reasons, and hormones gone wild. Reading with cookies recommended.

Enjoy the following excerpt for
Love Me Tomorrow:

“Hey, Josh. I needed a swim, hope you don’t mind.”

Hairs on the back of his neck rose and tingled at the husky tone of her voice.
Careful. Don’t let her know you’re on to her—whatever it was she was doing
. Thankfully for his blood-deprived mind, it wasn’t hard to guess what that might be. “Nope. My casa is your casa, right?”

Miranda’s smile widened and she sauntered out to the lawn chair beneath the large patio umbrella. She lay below its shade, hiding from the direct beams of the sun, even though it was sinking behind the hills. She had to. Everyone in town knew she burned like a witch in Salem under direct sunlight. Anyone with a brain would know cream-colored skin like hers didn’t need sun anyway.

But he wasn’t supposed to have a brain right now.

So he watched her brush off all the excess water. Her fingers almost seemed to be caressing her own skin, over her forearms up to her shoulders, down her curved neck. He almost forgot how important breathing was when she ran her fingers over the slope of her half-exposed breast.

“Can you bring me a beer?”

She hated beer and he knew it, but that didn’t register right away.

By the time it did, he’d already turned back into the kitchen and grabbed two from the fridge. He almost said something right then, but she turned to him with a diabetes-inducing smile. The little brat thought she had him exactly where she wanted, didn’t she?

“Josh?” She pulled a small bottle of lotion from her tiny terrycloth robe and started applying it to her arms and chest.

He watched, unable to decide which of them to be more disgusted with. Her for thinking he’d fall for this stupid plan to seduce him or himself for being dumb enough to almost prove her right. At her humming, he shook his head and sighed. She was moving so damn slow, the sun would be down before she ever got it applied everywhere it needed to be. “I haven’t seen that suit yet. Is it new?” he asked, handing her the beer, purposely keeping the entranced puppy look on his face. When her fingertips slid between her breasts, it took considerably less effort to do.

“Yup. It showed the most skin. It’s not very me, but I need an allover tan.”

He frowned, accidentally losing his stunned-stupid gaze. “What for?”

“Because men like tans. You turned me down. Now I have to attract someone else to be a father. I figure it’ll help.”

He screwed his brows together in consternation. “I thought you wanted the best family you knew for your baby.” Hadn’t she mentioned something about that when she was prattling about sperm donors? His eyes followed her oiled hands across her skin without his permission. How much lotion did two breasts really need?

Finally, she had mercy and moved on. The problem was that she reached around her ribs one side at a time, her inner elbows pushing the outer sides of her breasts inward so that the shining flesh pressed together and lifted upward and his brain began to throb. She arched her back and ran one palm down her smooth belly in a way that had his throat closing up. God help him if those searching fingers were going where he thought they were.

Instead, just as she touched the edge of that skimpy bikini line, she lowered her hips and strangely, his lungs deflated as if he’d been holding his breath.

“I did, but your family isn’t available.” She actually stopped to blink over at him with a saccharine grin. “Truth is, I don’t have to be so picky. We live in RDC. I’ve known just about every man here all my life. I know
everyone’s
family. There’s plenty of men to pick from.”

His breath stopped moving for entirely new reasons. She’d better not be thinking what he thought she was thinking. “You don’t really believe you can just talk someone into fathering a child for you?”

She gave a spurt of disbelief. “Are you kidding? No one is going to volunteer for that. Not with you constantly browbeating anyone who looks at me.”

He almost let himself sigh, relieved.

“So I’ve decided to become promiscuous. If I’m easy enough, no one will think about you at all.” She had the audacity to wink.

Do not choke.

“You’ve gotta admit, it’s the one thing I haven’t tried. Even you can’t beat up every man in town.”

Do. Not. Choke. Her.

He scratched the side of his head so hard it was likely bleeding. “Aren’t you overestimating here? I mean, not that you couldn’t get their attention, but there aren’t many available men just wandering around RDC, waiting for a promiscuous woman to fall into their laps.”

She stared at him incredulously, but he continued calculating which men in their tiny little town she had to choose from. Thankfully for his escalating blood pressure, pickings were slim. He knew most men close to their ages were married or just damn ugly. Except for the guys at the—

“What about the guys at the firehouse? I’m sure a few of them wouldn’t mind a tumble. What about Andy Raymond? He likes me. He probably wouldn’t turn me down if we went out on a date.”

Of course Andy wouldn’t. The kid left a trail of drool behind her whenever she was in the station. Josh’s brain skidded to a halt as he tried to think of a good way to deter her.

“No.” It was all that came to mind.

She turned innocent eyes on him. Some feat, considering that Miranda was the least innocent person he knew.

“Why not?”

“Why not? Why not?”
Shit
. Back to square one. “The gossips,” he finally dragged out of his ass.

“You think your baby would be able to live down your reputation after something like that?” Heartened by her blank blink, he picked up steam. “You know what this place is like. People are going to find out no matter what you do.” Her mouth quirked to one side. “I can afford to move.”

Of course she could. Her illustrated children’s books had been doing well for more than a few years. She could afford whatever she damn well wanted. But the thought of her leaving left him even colder than the prospect of her traipsing around with any guy she could find. He searched for another tack.

“You can’t leave your house. You love that house.” It was falling down around her ears because she refused to update it to safety code, but she loved it.

“I don’t have to sell it. I’ll figure that part out later.”

She continued rubbing the coconut-smelling concoction over her legs, lifting them straight up, one at a time, all but purring at the touch of her own hands. Josh scrambled for something else to think about other than her apparent flexibility.

“Well, it can’t be Andy, he’s only twenty-two.”

“Young is good.” She smiled lasciviously, eyes closed while she sighed, dropping her forehead to press against her shin, wearing a slow grin he could only call sinful. “I like a guy with…energy.”

He couldn’t contain a convulsion.

“Besides, it’s not as if I’m limited to just Rancho del Cielo. We’re not exactly in quarantine here. There’s available men in San Diego. Even Orange County if I want. I could sleep with any number of them.”

“You can’t go around having unprotected sex with people until you get pregnant! It’s stupid and it’s dangerous!” Trump card. It was one thing to let Miranda get away with manipulating him. It was something else to let her get into that kind of trouble with other men. She’d behave now, he was sure.

Except she looked like he’d just stolen her bunny. She lowered her leg and any trace of a smile melted away. Suddenly, she seemed so uncertain and almost afraid, he wanted to scoop her into his arms and just hold her for a while.

Which would lead in all the wrong directions. He had to make sure she understood, and comforting her wasn’t the way to go about it.

“I guess you’re right,” she conceded. “It’s not the same world out there as it was when we were kids. It wouldn’t be safe.” She took a moment to consider her options. “I guess that brings me back to young Andy.”

“Will you stop calling him young?” Josh rubbed his bleary eyes, willing away the idea she’d conjured of her and Young Andy Raymond. Damn, now she had
him
doing it.

“Who? You mean Young Andy? Young, young, young Andy Raymond.” She was too damn giddy about ruffling his feathers.

“Youth isn’t everything when it comes to sex. In fact, it’s usually detrimental.” He leaned toward her. “Experience goes a long way.”

“That’s a good point. Maybe not Andy. I mean, if I’m going to sleep around, I might as well enjoy it.”

Oh, for the love of God.
“You’re not sleeping with anyone!”

“I don’t remember asking permission, Josh.” She rose to her feet, putting her hands on her bare hips in a few lithe movements he shouldn’t have noticed. Unnerved at facing her waist level, he stood too. Unfortunately, for him, the space between the two lawn chairs they’d been sitting on didn’t allow for two adults to stand. He ended up wrapping an arm around her still-wet form to steady them both, and she pressed flush against him. The mixed smell of coconut lotion and Miranda, tempered by chlorine and wide green eyes blinking in surprise, dizzied his senses.

Or maybe it was just feeling her again, his body automatically taking her weight as if it still remembered the one time he’d been allowed. The time he’d been trying for years to forget. Now it was impossible to ignore the electricity he’d only ever felt with her. The air around them crackled almost audibly. His arm tightened on her at about the same time that she rose on her tiptoes and tentatively pressed her lips to his.