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Play with Me
Leslie Kelly
Pilot Amanda Bauer has always craved sexual adventure. Luckily for her, she’s currently getting her thrills by indulging in naughty games with hunky Reese Campbell! They get together every couple of months for days filled with fantasy and wild, no-strings sex.And nobody else knows about it. Nobody!It’s the perfect private indulgence… until they find themselves on the internet!
About the Author
LESLIE KELLY has written more than two dozen books and novellas for Blaze
and Temptation. Known for her sparkling dialogue, fun characters and depth of emotion, her books have been honoured with numerous awards, including a National Readers’ Choice Award, and three nominations for the RWA RITA
Award.
Leslie resides in Maryland with her own romantic hero, Bruce, and their three daughters. Visit her online at www.lesliekelly.com.
To loyal romance readers everywhere.
In this economy, I know it’s got to be really tough to indulge your reading habits. I sincerely appreciate each and every one of you who keeps buying books so that I can keep writing them.
Thank you so much.
Dear Reader,
After my title One Wild Wedding Night was released in 2008, I heard from a lot of readers. Most of them especially enjoyed Tony and Gloria’s story—the last one in the collection—about a married couple trying to recapture the sizzle by playing a little game of strangers-in-a-bar.
The idea of playing sexy games is definitely an exciting one. Years ago, I was one of those readers who snapped up 101 Nights of Grrreat Sex, the book where you tore open an envelope that suggested an entire sensual scenario for you and your partner (the things we do for research). And the concept of keeping things fresh by enacting role-playing fantasies never left my mind.
So when I got the chance to contribute to the popular Forbidden Fantasies series in the Blaze imprint, I wanted to do the theme justice. Having a secret affair and indulging in lots of sexy, role-playing games sounded both forbidden … and extremely sexy. Blazingly so, in fact.
I love hearing from readers. If you would like to let me know what you think of Play with Me, please drop me a line through my Web site, www.lesliekelly.com, or visit me on my blog, www.plotmonkeys.com.
Thanks and happy reading!
Leslie Kelly
Play With Me
Leslie Kelly
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
Table of Contents
Cover (#uaeefcf8c-a904-5db7-b860-3138aa8fc4fd)
About the Author (#u98d500c0-1bf9-56e6-ad76-c1abc587128c)
Title Page (#ud500dee4-32a3-5aea-898a-c041f7199c67)
Prologue (#u10096b85-fa1d-5c7e-8412-839fbfb21d8a)
Chapter One (#u837f6a2f-6c1a-5d53-abad-cede2d6dc8b5)
Chapter Two (#u3801c2e4-acf4-557e-861e-6d714d87cbb3)
Chapter Three (#u7a43a345-2902-5baa-bf24-aedcd82174bf)
Chapter Four (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Five (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)
Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)
Prologue
Columbus Day
“DO YOU KNOW WHAT your problem is?”
Reese Campbell didn’t even look up as the door to his office burst open and the familiar voice of his extremely nosy, bossy great-aunt intruded on what had been a relatively quiet October morning. Because that was one hell of a loaded question.
Hmm. Problem? What problem? Did he have a problem?
Being thrust into a job he hadn’t been ready for, hadn’t planned on, hadn’t even wanted? That was kind of a problem.
Being thrust into that job because his father had died unexpectedly, at the age of fifty-five? Aside from being an utter tragedy, that was absolutely a problem.
Battling competitors who’d figured him to be a pushover when he’d stepped in to run a large brewery while only in his mid-twenties? Problem.
Dealing with longtime employees who didn’t like the changes he was implementing in the family business? Problem.
Ending a relationship because the woman didn’t appreciate that he—a good-time guy—now had so many responsibilities? Problem.
Walking a tightrope with family members who went from begging him to keep everything the way it was, to resenting his every effort to fill his father’s shoes? Big effing problem.
“Did you hear me?”
He finally gave his full attention to his great-aunt Jean, who had never seen a closed door she hadn’t wanted to fling wide open. He had to smile as he beheld her red hat and flashy sequined jacket. Going into old age gracefully had never entered his aunt’s mind. Keeping her opinions to herself hadn’t, either.
“I heard,” he replied.
“Well, do you know?”
What he didn’t know was why she was asking. Because she didn’t want an answer. Rhetorical questions like that one were always the opening volley in the elderly woman’s none-of-your-damn-business assaults on everyone else’s private life.
He leaned back in his chair. “Whatever it is, I am quite sure you’re about to tell me.”
“Cheeky,” she said, closing the door. “You’re bored.”
No kidding.
“You’re twenty-nine years old and you’re suffocating. For two years, you haven’t drawn one free, unencumbered breath.”
He remained still, silent. Wary. Because so far, his eccentric, opinionated great-aunt was absolutely, one hundred percent correct.
Suffocating. That was a good word to describe his life these days. An appropriate adjective for the frequent sensation that an unbearable weight had landed on his chest and was holding him in place, unable to move.
As Aunt Jean said, his breath had been stolen, his momentum stopped. All forward thought frozen in place, glued to that moment in time when a slick road and a blind curve had changed everything he and his family had known about their former lives.
“You need some excitement. An adventure. How long has it been since you’ve had sex?”
Reese coughed into his fist, the mouthful of air he’d just inhaled having lodged in his throat. “Aunt Jean …”
She grunted. “Oh, please, spare me. You need to get laid.”
“Jeez, can’t you bake or knit or something like a normal great-aunt?”
She ignored him. “Have you gotten any since that stupid Tate girl tried to get you to choose her over your family?” Not waiting for an answer, she continued. “You’ve got to do something more than deal with your sad mother, your squabbling sisters and your juvenile-delinquent brother.”
He stiffened, the reaction a reflexive one.
“Oh, don’t get indignant, you know it’s true,” she said. “I love them as much as you do, we’re family. But even apples from the same tree sometimes harbor an occasional worm.”
The woman did love her metaphors.
“So here’s what you do.”
“I knew you would get around to telling me eventually.”
She ignored him. “You simply must have an adventure.”
“Okay, got it. One adventure, coming right up,” he said with a deliberate eye roll. “Should I call 1-800-Wild Times or just go to letsgetcrazy.com?”
“You’re not so old I can’t box your ears.”
A grin tugged at his mouth. “The one time you boxed my ears as a kid, I put frogs in your punch bowl right before a party.”
An amused gleam lit her eyes. “So do it again.”
Reese’s brow furrowed. “Excuse me?”
“Be wild. Do something fun. Chuck this cautious-businessman gig and be the bad-ass rebel you once were.”
Bad-ass rebel? Him? The guy most recently voted Young Businessman of the Year? “Yeah, right.”
He didn’t know which sounded more strange—him being that person, or his elderly great-aunt using the term bad-ass rebel. Then again, she had just asked him when he’d last gotten laid—a question he didn’t even want to contemplate in his own mind.
She fixed a pointed stare at his face. “Don’t think I’ve forgotten who I had to bail out of jail one spring break. Which young fellow it was who ended up taking two girls to the prom. Or who hired a stripper to show up at the principal’s house.”
Oh. That bad-ass rebel. Reese had forgotten all about him.
“The world was your playground once. Go play in it again.”
Play? Be unencumbered, free from responsibilities?
Reese looked at the files on his desk. There was a mountain of order forms, requisitions, payroll checks, ad copy, legal paperwork—all needing his attention. His signature. His time.
Then there was his personal calendar, filled with family obligations, fixing his sister’s car, talking to his brother’s coach … doing father stuff that he hadn’t envisioned undertaking for another decade at least.
All his responsibility. Not in a decade. Now.
It wasn’t the life he’d envisioned for himself. But it was the life he had. And there wasn’t a thing he could do about it.
“I’ve forgotten how,” he muttered.
She didn’t say anything for a long moment, then the elderly woman, whose energy level so belied her years, laughed softly. There was a note in that laugh, both secretive and sneaky.
“Whatever it is you’re thinking about doing, forget it.”
She feigned a look of hurt. “Me? What could I possibly do?”
He knew better than to be fooled by the nice-old-lady routine. She’d been playing that card for as long as he could remember and it had been the downfall of many a more gullible family member. “I’m going to leave a note that if I am kidnapped by a troupe of circus clowns, the police should talk to you.”
She tsked. “Oh, my boy, circus clowns? Is that the best you can come up with? I’m wounded—you’ve underestimated me.”
“Aunt Jean …”
Ignoring him, she turned toward the door. Before she exited, however, she glanced back. “I have the utmost confidence in you, dear. I have no doubt that when the right moment presents itself, you will rise to the occasion.”
With a quickly blown kiss and a jangle of expensive bracelets decorating her skinny arm, she slipped out. Reese was free to get back to work. But instead, he spent a few minutes thinking about what Great-Aunt Jean had said.
He didn’t doubt she was right about the fact that he was bored. Stifled. Suffocating. But her solution—to go a little crazy—wasn’t the answer. Not for the life he was living now. Not when so many people counted on him. His family. His employees. His late father.
Besides, it didn’t matter. No opportunity to play, as she put it, had come his way for a long time. Not in more than two years. The word wasn’t even in his vocabulary anymore.
And frankly, Reese didn’t see that changing anytime soon.
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