скачать книгу бесплатно
Off Limits: New for 2018! A hot boss romance story that takes love to the limit. Perfect for fans of Darker!
Clare Connelly
‘I want to taste you tonight.’With chemistry this hot, it’s worth getting burned…Billionaire Jack Grant is totally off-limits to Gemma Picton. He’s wild, deliciously dangerous…and her boss. When working late turns X-rated, it’s better than her wildest imaginings—and Gemma’s imagined a lot! But Jack has major emotional baggage, so when she starts wanting to heal his heart as well as enjoy his body she knows she’s in big trouble…
“I want to taste you tonight.”
With chemistry this hot, it’s worth getting burned...
Billionaire Jack Grant is totally off-limits to Gemma Picton. He’s wild, deliciously dangerous...and her boss. When working late turns X-rated, it’s better than her wildest imaginings—and Gemma’s imagined a lot! But Jack has major emotional baggage, so when Gemma starts wanting to heal his heart as well as enjoy his body, she knows she’s in big trouble...
“Dare is Harlequin’s hottest line yet. Every book should come with a free fan. I dare you to try them!”
—Tiffany Reisz, international bestselling author
CLARE CONNELLY was raised in small-town Australia amongst a family of avid readers. She spent much of her childhood up a tree, Mills & Boon book in hand. Clare is married to her own real-life hero and they live in a bungalow near the sea with their two children. She is frequently found staring into space—a sure-fire sign that she’s in the world of her characters. She has a penchant for French food and ice-cold champagne, and Mills & Boons continue to be her favourite ever books. Writing for Mills & Boon is a long-held dream. Clare can be contacted via clareconnelly.com (http://www.clareconnelly.com) or her Facebook page.
If you liked Off Limits, why not try
A Week to be Wild by JC Harroway
Legal Seduction by Lisa Childs
Ruled by Anne Marsh
Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk (http://millsandboon.co.uk)
Off Limits
Clare Connelly
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
ISBN: 978-1-474-07109-3
OFF LIMITS
© 2018 Clare Connelly
Published in Great Britain 2018
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF
All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.
By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.
® and ™ are trademarks owned and used by the trademark owner and/or its licensee. Trademarks marked with ® are registered with the United Kingdom Patent Office and/or the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market and in other countries.
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
Version: 2018-09-27
This book is for romance readers everywhere, who fall in love again and again with the characters of our creation.
You give our stories life just by reading them.
Thank you.
Contents
Cover (#u88861c9e-2afd-57a8-8ab2-5fdb309568a1)
Back Cover Text (#u8baaf6a3-9ff1-53f0-a82d-afbfdaf38026)
About Bio (#uf799e0c0-f9b8-5055-8378-51528ef0ab77)
Booklist (#uf20c4236-ff70-5d48-bb6e-931e7abab843)
Title Page (#ufb0fffe7-f17f-5912-8585-c48d73ebe6bc)
Copyright (#u080446a8-4700-55f7-a95f-af9509125ce4)
Dedication (#u49390c35-c869-5a73-9040-e22286ccca1f)
Prologue (#u4ec786bb-e9cc-56ba-8c57-fc42e0716e1f)
Chapter One (#udac3ed90-0c61-5efa-a746-d76d39b126d7)
Chapter Two (#udb37c6b3-c694-5a19-bac3-a73c9ce4f574)
Chapter Three (#ue6890211-fe1c-5099-81b2-4c978777b61a)
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)
Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Thirteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Epilogue (#litres_trial_promo)
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
Prologue (#u697d782f-5ce1-53b4-a34f-e2c965695d4f)
‘YOU’VE GOT THE Prime Minister calling in ten minutes.’
Jack nods, showing not a flicker of response at the prospect of this. Then again, nothing about Jack Grant is what you’d expect. For a self-made billionaire-investor-cum-philanthropist-cum-sex-god, he is wild, disrespectful of authority and the establishment, and rough around the edges. Deliciously so.
Take this situation: Jack, in his bed, naked as the day he was born, uncaring that he should have been at his desk an hour ago. That I can see most of his beautiful back and backside. That my insides are clenching with hot, steamy lust.
‘About...?’
It’s a lazy drawl as he flips over and pierces me with those intelligent green eyes. His accent is pure Irish brogue. Like Colin Farrell after a night of cigarettes and booze: deep, hoarse and throaty.
‘The latest episode of The Great British Bake Off.’
I roll my eyes. We’ve been negotiating to buy a huge swathe of Crown land for the last six months; it’s at the highest level of negotiation and, given the media interest, the Prime Minister has become involved.
‘What do you think?’
His laugh is a rumble that barrels out of his chest. ‘Well, every man needs a good scone recipe.’
‘And you’ve got one?’
‘Sure.’
He grins. It’s a grin that is at once devilish and charming, and I know how easy it must be for him to get women into bed. And that’s before you factor in the body, the money, the power.
‘Nine minutes,’ I snap.
His grin unfurls like a ribbon on his face. My heart kerthunks. I ignore it. Stupid heart.
‘Did you book Sydney?’
‘Yes.’
He arches a brow at my impatient tone and, as if to contradict it, stretches in the bed, his arms high over his head, his body gloriously on display for me.
‘And, Amber?’
I don’t mean to sigh but when the Prime Minister’s office is calling I feel there should be some air of responsiveness. Jack, apparently, doesn’t agree.
‘All arranged.’
Lucy’s sister is taking a year’s sabbatical from her job as an executive at a bank to manage the foundation’s start-up year. She’s insanely qualified and personally motivated.
‘Salary agreed; she’ll be based out of Edinburgh, as we discussed.’
He nods, but makes no effort to move.
‘Seriously, Jack. Eight minutes. Get the hell up, already.’
‘Ouch. Did you get out of the wrong side of bed this morning?’
He runs his fingers down his chest, drawing my attention to the ridges of his abdomen, the flesh so perfectly smooth and sculpted. My mouth is bone-dry.
‘No.’
‘You’re even crosser than usual,’ he teases, and my lips tighten impatiently.
As it happens, he’s right. I got The Invitation this morning. The one that arrives every year, beckoning me to come and pay homage to my parents’ marriage.
Ugh.
It’s my least favourite social event—and the one time I’m forced to remember who I really am. The one time a year my parents recall me to the mother ship, reminding me that no matter what I do, professionally or personally, I’ll always be Gemma Picton. Lady Gemma Picton.
Ugh.
‘Sit down. Tell me all about it.’
He pats the bed beside him and I roll my eyes again, hoping he won’t know how sorely I’m tempted. Just once I imagine giving in to this—the electrical current that is arcing between us. I never would...never could. He is as off-limits as hell is hot—the stuff of fantasies and nightmares.
‘No, thanks.’
‘What is it?’
‘Nothing. Personal stuff,’ I say, and he shrugs.
But there’s curiosity in his eyes. A curiosity I have to ignore. Along with desire. Lust. Want. Need.
We have our boundaries and we definitely know better than to cross them.
Jack pushes the sheet off, exposing the tattoo that curls across his lower back and snakes around his hips to the tops of his legs. It must have hurt like hell to get it done—especially on the skin of his thighs, right near his cock.
I asked him once why he’d got it. His answer? ‘Seemed like a good idea at the time.’
He doesn’t care that I see him naked. It’s not the first time and undoubtedly won’t be the last. Sometimes I wonder if he’s goading me, waiting for me to react. After all, it’s classic workplace sexual harassment.
Except it isn’t. Because I’m not harassed.
I’m amused. And more than a little turned on.
In the two years since I started working for Jack I’ve probably seen him naked on average once per week. That’s over a hundred stare-fests and he is totally worth staring at. I don’t think he used to be like this. Before this there was her.
