To Bedevil A Beauty (Southern Sanctuary - Book 5) (27 page)

“No
ring.”  Ramsey agreed readily.

Berry
arched her neck as he trailed kisses down her throat.  Hadn’t he agreed a
little too readily?

“I
want the band-aide.”  Ramsey breathed against her ear.

“You
what?”  Berry immediately pushed him away, her hands trembling…
meld?  The two of them melded?  Entwined, unbreakable, for life… for
their very, very long lives when their blood intermingled.  “You don’t
even know what that means… being melded.”

“I
know it’s permanent.  I know it means more to you… to your family, than a
ring.  I want the band-aide Berry… I want you… I want it all.”

Berry
gripped him tighter.  “You won’t ever be able to walk away.  We’ll
fight.”

“I
love fighting with you.”

“You’ll
annoy me.”  Berry groused, half teasing, half serious.

“I’ll
distract you with kisses.”

“You
promise to quit looming over me all the time?”

“Sure.” 
Ramsey agreed readily, dropping a butterfly soft kiss on to those kissable red
lips of hers.

“And
no more flirting with me, especially in public.”

“Your
wish is my command.”  Ramsey dropped another kiss on her lips.

“And
that look you get in your eyes… no more of that.”

“You
got it.”  Ramsey bent forward for another quick kiss but Berry stopped him
by planting one of her fingers over his warm soft lips.

“Are
you just agreeing to everything I say so I’ll say yes to the band-aide?”

“Yes.” 
He mumbled softly, from behind the pressure of her finger.

Berry
studied him closely for a moment, his rugged handsome face, the intriguing
scars, his slate grey eyes lit with dark desire.  “So tomorrow you’re
going to go back to looming, flirting, staring at me and being annoying?”

 Ramsey
kissed her finger and smiled.  “Count on it.”

Berry
found herself smiling as well, withdrawing her finger.  “Then yes to the
band-aide.”  This time she kissed him.

*                        
*                     
*

Much
later, Berry snuggled against Ramsey’s large, solid, very naked chest. 
“If you want, we could go over to Hidden Cove tomorrow to meet your
relatives.  Maybe tell them we’re getting melded.”

Ramsey
reached over to stroke away a few of Berry’s dark glossy curls.  “Maybe in
a few days when Sinclair gets back.”

“Gets
back from where?”  Berry levered herself up onto her elbows so she could
see his face.

“I
sent him on a little errand.” 

“Errand?”  
Berry had felt him tense, there was definitely more to this than Ramsey was
letting on.  “Tell me.”

“So
demanding and we’re not even melded yet.”  He grinned as she sent him a
glare.  “Okay, as soon as I heard they had Granger in custody and were
transporting him back to New South Wales, I sent Sinclair down to talk to him.”

“About
what?”  Berry was confused.

“Let’s
just say that the shadows are going to be haunting Granger until he gives up
the details on those hidden bank accounts of his.”

“Oh,
Ramsey.”  Berry couldn’t believe it.  “That’s wonderful.  All
those poor people and Joanne!  They can have their money back.”

“And
you Berry.
 
I know he stole from you as
well.”

Berry
nodded, squeezing him tight in a hug.  “Thank you.”  Oh Heavens, she
would have money.
 
She could buy a new
car.
 
She could afford nice clothes
again.  And a big ass - cat-proof - lock on her closet door.
 
Though she didn’t think she could part with
Great-Great-Aunt Etta’s cast offs.

“You’re
very welcome.”  Ramsey ran his hands down over her soft silky flesh.

“How
can I ever repay you?”  Berry asked in the huskiest, sexiest voice she had
in her repertoire, rubbing her body against his. A thousand and one naughty
options open to her.

“Well
as the new permanent Southern Sanctuary Chief of Police, I believe I can come
up with an idea or two.”

“Really?
 
Permanent?”  Berry bought a hand up to
cup his cheek.  “When did that happen?”

“Yesterday…
well technically, Monday.”

“But
we weren’t even speaking then.  I’d cut the cord on us.”

“And
I was bound and determined that I’d talk you around.”

“Confident
there Hotshot?”  She leant down and kissed him.

“Even
if it took the rest of my life to convince you that we were meant to be
together Berry, I would have kept on trying.”

“So…” 
Berry hovered over him, a smile on her lips.  “You know my magic and how
it works right?”

Ramsey
smiled, hauling her up so she was straddling him. If she still had doubts then
he wanted them dealt with here and now. “Bring it.”  Meeting her gaze in
the dim light, prepared for whatever she had to ask him.

“How
can I make you happy?”

Ramsey
chuffed a laugh.  That was Berry, full of surprises. Damn, he was one
lucky man.  Slate grey eyes met sparkling dark chocolate.  “Just be
you Berry… just be you.”

Berry’s
magic kicked in, she blinked once… then twice, instead of laughing and having
her wicked way with him, there was suddenly a worried frown on her face. “Hold
on, why did I just picture me gifting you with a cat in way too many possible
futures?”

Ramsey
shifted slightly.  “About that… I was thinking maybe you and I could get a
cat.”

“Seriously?” 
She reared back.  “A cat.”   Shuddering at the very idea.

Ramsey
rested two large hands on her waist in case she was thinking of making a run
for it.
 
Why did everyone react so badly
to the cats?  Limbo and his buddies had been awesome tonight.  “Come
on, just think about it… an attack cat of our very own.” He cajoled.

“No.”  
Berry shook her head.  “No… no…absolutely not… no.”
 
She held her palm up. “No.”

Ramsey
couldn’t help but laugh, pulling her down to kiss him.  “I know where this
conversation leads.  Okay, the question of us getting a cat together can
go on the back burner, for now.” 

Berry
sank into his kiss.  A small part of her already looking forward to the
many, many arguments she and Ramsey had ahead of them.
 
Being melded was only going to up the
stakes.  She knew how much Ramsey liked riling her, prodding her, making
her react.
 
The man would bedevil her at
every turn and to be truthful, she was more than looking forward to it.
 
Their arguments promised to be frequent,
fiery and fun… and the make-up sex to follow… even more so. 

Oh
Goddess, she loved this man.
 
Bring on
the fighting.

The End

About
the Author

Jane
Cousins is a not so mild mannered IT Project Manager by day.  Her greatest
working achievement has been to perfect ‘the silent glare of promised
retribution’ that encourages her team to meet their promised deadlines. 
Over the years her job has taken her all around the world, requiring she live
in the UK, China and Singapore.  Now settled in Melbourne, Australia, she
has adopted the night time persona of author.  Which generally involves
donning a silk mask, hunching over a computer and fighting in the name of alpha
males and their more than a match female counterparts everywhere. 

A
huge fan of witty banter and smoking hot instant attraction, Jane has never let
the facts or inconvenient reality interfere with the telling of a great
story.     Currently she is hard at work on book 6 of the
Southern Sanctuary Series – To Date A Disaster – to be released April
2015.  Prior to that, be on the lookout for Book 3 in the By The Numbers
Series – Three for the Bank Job – Beauty queen & brainiac - Eme’s story.
Coming your way January 2015.

If
you liked this book please rate/write a review on Amazon.

If
you want to keep up to date, read my blog, ask me questions or read reviews of
books I’ve read recently, then log onto Goodreads and become a fan. 

Or
you can follow me on twitter:  
Jcousins_author

Books
by Jane Cousins;

Southern
Sanctuary series:

To
Woo a Warrior

To
Trap a Temptress

To
Wrangle a Witch

To
Seduce
A
Siren

To
Bedevil
A
Beauty

To
Date
A
Disaster (coming April 2015)

By
the Numbers series:

One
For
The Wedding

Two
For
The Show

Three
For
The Bank Job (Coming Jan 2015)

To Woo a Warrior

(Book One –
Southern Sanctuary)

It was common knowledge that Hadleigh
Valhalla was a complete failure when it came to men.   Too blood
thirsty.  Too tall at 6.6ft and without a coy bone in her too voluptuous
body.  If there had been a ‘fun, flirty and feminine’ test she would have
failed it hands down. 

Thankfully she was much more suited to her
role as an Enforcer, protecting her magically enhanced eccentric extended
family on a daily basis from all kinds of nasties.  It was a job she
loved, much preferring to be out there beheading the baddies than dating any
day of the week … much less stressful.

Except now there’s a new threat in
town.  Great Aunt Alma, the family match maker has returned to the fold
and set her sights squarely on all the singletons.  Hadleigh will do
anything she has to in order to avoid Alma’s matchmaking manoeuvres, even if
that means signing on as the newest member of the hit reality TV show
‘Paranormal Exterminators.’

Vaughn, Captain of the Goddess Maat’s elite
warriors has a mission, to find and annihilate any and all magical beings that
threaten to tilt the scales of justice into chaos.  

A paranormal reality TV show provides the
perfect cover.  But there’s trouble on set.  Their only female cast
member has gone missing and they need a replacement fast.  Enter Hadleigh
Valhalla, the most luscious thing on two legs he’s seen in a century. 
From the moment he sets eyes on her he’s determined to make her his.

There’s only one problem, Hadleigh insists
she has a strict no dating policy.  Claiming she’d rather be fighting than
flirting.

 A series of mishaps means it’s a
race against time for Vaughn and Hadleigh to discover just who is targeting the
show and stop them before someone gets seriously hurt or dead.  While
doing so Vaughn intends to teach Hadleigh to break all the rules and prove to
her she is just as much woman as she is warrior. 

His warrior.  His woman.

To Trap a Temptress

(Book Two - Southern Sanctuary)

What
Nell needs is a man - a completely shocking, ridiculously inappropriate,
insanely unsuitable, ludicrously improper man.

Considered
too vanilla in a world full of flavours Doctor Nell Montgomery’s dating life is
a barren waste land with few prospects on the horizon. Tired of being labelled
the
nice girl,
she’s decided she needs a life make-over stat.  With that
in mind she instigates a bold plan to shatter her nice girl image
irretrievably. All she needs is one shockingly inappropriate man. 
When she does find him she intends to seduce the heck out of him and bury her
goody two shoes reputation once and for all.

There’s
only one seven foot tall problem standing in her way.  His name is Drum,
an elite warrior in the Goddess Maat’s guard.  He’s spent over a hundred
years killing magical nasties in the most vile, bloodiest manner possible – and
quite frankly enjoying the hell out of himself.  With a reputation as the
big bad, Drum is used to dangerous women throwing themselves at him.  What
he isn’t prepared for is one gorgeous Doctor who challenges and tempts him at
every turn.

When
the
baddest
of the bad and the sweetest of the sweet
are thrown together on a tropical island with a nameless, faceless danger
stalking Nell, it’s up to Drum to protect her and at the same time prove to his
little temptress that she’s the perfect
not so nice
woman for him.