Risk It: Paolo's Playhouse, Book 2 (7 page)

He took a step closer and surprised her by sighing. “Now, Hailey, why don’t you tell me what you’ve really been doing in Faith’s apartment every Friday night for the past few months.” He walked toward her and she froze. He mumbled something under his breath, and her gaze followed him as he walked around her to his door, then leaned back against it, blocking any chance at escape. His muscled arms crossed over his massive chest, and he stared at her with an intensity she found unnerving.

“How do you know my name?”
And how did he know about Fridays at Faith’s?
She stalled, trying to think of a way out of this mess. It was one thing to fantasize about doing a guy this hot, but another to actually do it. Should she apologize nicely, flirt, or maybe offer some kind of financial restitution?

He smiled, a lazy grin that widened as he glanced from her eyes to her mouth, and lingered over her breasts. “I know a lot about you, Hailey. I know you used to live in Abberwick before you moved across town. I know you’re good friends with Faith and your three other pals, the women who hang around Friday nights watching me.”

She flushed at the accusation in his tone. “If you didn’t want to be watched, you should have closed the curtains.” A pitiful defense, but it was all she had.

“Tsk, tsk.” He shook his head. “Never admit to the crime. And especially not to your victim, unless you mean to make things right.”

“Look,” she began in a shaky voice, “I’m sorry if you think I did something you object to. You’re a good-looking man. And if I happened to glance at you a time or two through Faith’s window into your
brightly lit, exposed apartment
, I apologize.”
 

He grinned, and her heart raced like she’d run a marathon. God, why couldn’t he be an arrogant jerk with no sense of humor? Her fear faded as if it had never been there, and suddenly her sex drive shot into high gear, shocking the crap out of her.

“Hailey, you have one hell of a fire in those hot, whiskey-brown eyes.”

Sure, but have you ever looked into her eyes? Frigid bitch
, resounded in her thoughts, and she wondered how Gage saw her as someone so different from the woman her coworkers saw on a daily basis.

“I think you’ve made a mistake, Mr., ah…” she paused, waiting for him to fill in the blank. When he continued to grin, his hungry gaze wandering over her body, she froze him with the look she regularly gave Eddie at work.

Unlike Eddie, however, Gage didn’t frown or glare back in disgust. His mouth quirked at the corner, and to her bemusement, she had an almost irresistible urge to kiss him there.

“My name’s Gage. And if you want to know my last name, you have to take me to dinner.”

“Take you to dinner?” she repeated blankly.

“Yeah, if you want to stay out of jail for being a Peeping Tom, and if you want to know exactly who you’ve been spying on.”

“I told you, I wasn’t spying—”

“Save it.” He held up a callused hand. “Dinner or jail? Your choice, sweetheart.”

Sweetheart?
The annoyance she should have been feeling at the inappropriate pet name was smothered under another wave of lust. On his lips, the endearment sounded like a come-on. One she was all-too-willing to hear all over again.

What the hell am I doing? He’s locked me in his apartment, and now he’s blackmailing me into dinner? That or jail? Is this how he gets all his girlfriends? A glance over his superbly conditioned body made her rethink the notion. And then, to her astonishment, she found herself nodding hesitantly while her mind shrieked at her to say no.

Risk It

Natasha Moore

Time to put out…or get out.

Paolo’s Playhouse, Book 2

On the outside, Amy has the American dream. Two busy kids, a job she loves, a big house thanks to her husband’s climb up the corporate ladder. What she hasn’t had in a long time…is sex. Sure, she’s too exhausted at night to think about it, but maybe Will’s long hours at work aren’t the real reason he rarely touches her anymore.

Feeling her marriage teetering on the edge, she rents the voyeur room at Paolo’s Playhouse. Maybe bringing back the memory of the one wicked thing they used to do together will relight the sparks.

Will loves his wife, but she’s never been one to take chances—except for the time before kids, when they’d camp out in a club’s back booth, getting all worked up watching the dirty dancers. Their careers have seriously cut into their “us” time, and if she’s booked them a sexual playroom, it sounds like she’s serious about solving the problem.

When Will shows up way,
way
late, Amy wonders why she bothered, and if her plan to relight the flame has only made it painfully clear that it’s too late to try.

Warning: Sparks flying, angry words flying, clothes flying, and a loving couple trying to find their way back to each other.

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This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.

Samhain Publishing, Ltd.

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Risk It

Copyright © 2011 by Natasha Moore

ISBN: 978-1-60928-689-7

Edited by Sue Ellen Gower

Cover by Scott Carpenter

All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

First
Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
electronic publication: November 2011

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