That First Kiss
by J.C. Valentine
Night Calls #2
Publication Date: June 18, 2013
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Erotic, Romance
Mercurial and charming, Tate Larson is a rising author and playboy who has a different woman on his arm every night of the week. Focused on his work, Tate has no plans to settle down any time soon. That is until he meets his pretty new assistant, Piper Donovan.
Desperate to escape the promise of backwater living, Piper ditched her Alabama hometown and never looked back. That was almost two years ago. Now that she is out of a job and her bank account is running on fumes, she’s desperate to find a job, fast. She finds the break she is searching for when she lands a position at Bookish Temptations. A little dancing and a lot of drinks with the girls seem the perfect way to celebrate. After a brief but explosive encounter with a man she was never supposed to see again turns out to be the same man she will be bending over backwards to please, her every instinct tells her to run. But when running means leaving the life she has struggled so hard to create, Piper decides her only option is to continue working for the devastatingly sexy Tate Larson…even if it kills her.
Unable to deny their growing attraction, they struggle to keep their distance in a relationship that requires anything but.
Tate stepped closer, setting his glass on the counter. Unsure what he was up to, Piper held her ground. She nearly sighed when he lifted his hand to brush the back of his knuckles across her cheek.
“Did I scare you?”
For a moment, Piper got lost in the warmth of his eyes. At his touch, her body flamed, acutely aware of his potent masculinity. It was the second time that day he had managed to tilt her world on its axis.
“I should get home. It’s late.” She purposely ignored his question and stepped back, putting much needed distance between them. Her shaking legs barely made it to the front door, and she was just slipping her purse over her shoulder when Tate’s smooth voice stopped her.
“You didn’t answer my question.”
“What question was that?”
He spun her around and her eyes widened as he backed her up against the door. He leaned forward and, bracing his hands on either side of her head, hovered over her. “Did I scare you?” His face was so close, she felt the whisper of his lips against hers as he spoke.
“You don’t scare me,” she said breathlessly. Piper was shocked at the kind of responses this man could evoke from her, how readily her body responded to him. She shouldn’t have been responding to him at all. He made her so angry, the only thing she should be feeling for him was hatred and resentment, but every time he looked at her a certain way or spoke her name in a certain tone, her traitorous body melted for him. It was humiliating.
“You look scared,” he observed, the corners of his mouth twisting slightly.
“What are you doing?” Piper flattened herself against the door as Tate tilted his head toward her.
“Thinking,” he said, distracted.
“About what?” Her heart pounded and she was finding it harder to breathe.
His lips whispered across hers. “Kissing you.” He dragged his lips down the slope of her jaw to her neck. “Tasting you.” When he reached the curve of her shoulder his hand dipped between her legs and cupped her throbbing mound. “Fucking you,” he whispered, placing a succulent kiss to her heated flesh.
Piper’s eyes squeezed shut as she struggled to regain her senses. This was unacceptable. Her body screamed for contact while her mind shouted for her to run. To slip away and get the hell out of there before any more damage could be done.
Her mind won.
J.C. Valentine is the USA Today and International bestselling author of the Night Calls and Wayward Fighters Series and the Forbidden Series. Her vivid imagination and love of words and romance had her penning her own romance stories from an early age, which, despite being poorly edited and written longhand, she forced friends and family members to read. No, she isn’t sorry.
J.C. earned her own happily ever after when she married her high school sweetheart. Living in the Northwest, they have three amazing children and far too many pets and spend much of their free time together enjoying movies or the outdoors. Among the many hats she wears, J.C. is an entrepreneur. Having graduated with honors, she holds a Bachelor’s in English and when she isn’t writing, you can find her editing for fellow authors.
Sign up for J.C.’s newsletter and never miss a thing! http://bit.ly/1KxXWWB
Leave a Reply