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Sunsets & Seduction: Mine Until Morning / Just for the Night / Kept in the Dark
Tawny Weber
Samantha Hunter
HEATHER MACALLISTER
What happens when the lights go out on a hot, sultry summer night? To Jonas Berringer, bodyguard, Tessa Rose is intoxicating forbidden fruit. She has an intimate knowledge of aphrodisiac scents and, alone in the darkness of a power cut, they indulge all their other senses… Larissa can’t help herself when it comes to her hot ex-fiancé Jason Cantrell. Trapped together in a shop full of sexual and romantic props, would it be incredible sex with her ex?Kaia Bennet had trusted dishy undercover cop, Blake McCauley – who’d arrested her! Now, when the lights go out, the feisty cat burglar has a chance to satisfy her hunger for revenge or her hunger for Blake. No lights. No cooling down. No holding back!
Sunsets and Seduction
Mine Until Morning
Samantha Hunter
Just for the Night
Tawny Weber
Kept in the Dark
Heather MacAllister
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
Mine Until Morning Samantha Hunter
About the Author
SAMANTHA HUNTER lives in Syracuse, New York, where she writes full-time. When she’s not plotting her next story, Sam likes to work in her garden, quilt, cook, read and spend time with her husband and their dogs. Most days you can find Sam chatting on the Blaze
boards at eHarlequin.com, or you can check out what’s new, enter contests or drop her a note at her website, www.samanthahunter.com.
Dear Reader,
Summer is here, my favourite season, and I am thrilled to be part of this collection with Tawny Weber and Heather McAllister. In Mine Until Morning, Jonas and Tessa spend a stormy night in a Philadelphia blackout. Blackouts have a way of bringing people closer, and Jonas and Tessa become very close during their adventure.
Jonas is also suffering his own personal blackout due to his recent blindness, but being in a blackout levels the playing field as he helps Tessa cross the city of Philadelphia in order to help a friend. Jonas also has three gorgeous brothers—all of whom will have their own stories, so keep an eye out for my BERRINGER BODYGUARD books.
Animals are a huge part of my life and often appear in my books, and Mine Until Morning is no exception. I hope you enjoy meeting Irish, the feline partner at the Berringer Bodyguard Agency! To find out more about him, be sure to check out Blazeauthors.com, and learn all about our new Pet Project!
Happy summer,
Samantha Hunter
Thanks to Julie Dutt, for help in understanding
scent, soap-making, how to set up Tessa’s soap
shop, and for the great soaps she makes to go
with my books. Check her out on
Twitter: @latherati.
Many thanks to Diana Holquist and Madeline
Walsh for help with Philadelphia specifics.
Particularly thanks to Diana for info about the
Fletcher St. Urban Riding Club that matches
inner city youth with rescue horses, inspiring
the appearance of one of Philly’s Urban
Cowboys in the book.
Many thanks to Eileen at SEPTA Customer
Service in Philadelphia, for quick, friendly
responses about SEPTA Blackout/Emergency
policies and city route information.
And to Mike, much love and thanks for
everything, as always.
1
1:00 p.m.Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
JONAS BERRINGER FLIPPED the Closed sign on the door of the soap shop, Au Naturel. For the ten hours that the shop was open, all he could think about was being alone with the owner, Tessa Rose.
It was a swelteringly hot Philadelphia evening, which was the norm lately. Though it was cool in the storefront, the air-conditioning making it cool where he stood. Plain wood shelves were artfully stacked with every color and scent of soap and lotion he could imagine. Small baskets of samples, lip balms and various other trinkets and testers were placed strategically where customers would find them.
It was classy, elegant and yet still somehow warm and inviting, much like Tessa herself. Aromas of what he now recognized as jasmine, sandalwood, orange and vanilla, among others, filtered through his senses.
The back room wasn’t air-conditioned, and a blast of heat hit him as he walked into the small foundry, the workroom where Tessa made her products.
It was a little bigger than the actual store and twice as pungent. He’d gotten used to it though, and it didn’t seem overwhelming anymore.
Several tubs and two stoves took up almost all of one wall, and there were shelves of wood soap molds and various containers, amber vials and tools there, as well. On the other side of the room, shelves of curing soaps lined a wall next to a refrigerated unit where more perishable supplies were kept. There was a table for cutting and wrapping next to the desk where Tessa did her accounting.
“Jonas,” she said, her pretty blue-grey eyes warming as she looked up before he announced his presence. He knew that she’d been waiting for him, too. They’d been dancing around this, around each other, for several weeks. Now, it was finally going to happen.
He closed the distance between them, oblivious to the slippery coating of lotions and oils slathered on her hands; she’d been working. He didn’t care about the mess as he pulled her up against him.
“Jonas!” she exclaimed with a laugh before he covered her mouth with his in a hot kiss that left no guessing as to how hungry he was for her. He walked her back until she was pinned between him and the table behind her. She moaned, pressing tight against him, returning his passion kiss for kiss.
Jonas buried his face in her neck. “You like driving me crazy, don’t you?” he accused playfully, nipping her earlobe.
Tessa had always been hands off. The boss’s daughter. A woman way out of his league. But being around her 24/7 for the past weeks had pushed his control to the limit, and now all bets were off.
She sighed against his cheek as he nibbled at the soft lines of her throat, and then pulled away.
“I’ve been trying my hardest. I thought you’d never give in,” she said with a sexy smile. “You and that iron control of yours.”
“You have too many clothes on,” he said gruffly.
Continuing to smile at him in that minxlike way she had, she wiped her hands on a nearby cloth and slid the smock from her shoulders that she always wore while making her soaps and lotions.
Underneath, there was a simple yellow sundress with a halter top tied around her very graceful neck. When she reached up to hang the smock on a hook by the worktable, he could see her delectable shape outlined underneath.
He wanted to touch and kiss every inch of her.
“I’ll be right back. I need to lock up,” she said, sliding him a glance, still playing. Tempting him. Making him wait.
“I already did. We’re alone. Come here,” he said.
“You’re so demanding,” she murmured, returning to his arms.
“Desperate for you is more like it,” he whispered against her lips.
“I like the sound of that,” she purred. “And I feel the same way.”
“I can’t get you out of my head,” he confessed, his arms sliding around her.
His hands shook with the effort to slow down, reminding himself that Tessa was a woman to be cherished. A woman he cherished.
He gasped when she nipped at his lower lip with her teeth, apparently rejecting his gentle approach.
“Don’t hold back, Jonas,” she said in clear invitation, linking her arms around his neck.
He swallowed hard, sliding his hands up over her slim arms and shoulders, tugging at the halter tie. Her eyes became smoky, her nipples hardening under the thin fabric.
“I’ll give you whatever you want,” he promised, and he meant it. “Whatever you need.”
“Just you,” she said, sending his pulse racing.
He pushed the dress down until her pretty breasts were bared to his view. His eyes moved over her as if unable to completely absorb how gorgeous she was. Taking a peach-toned nipple between his fingers, he pinched gently, then soothed and pinched again, watching her head fall back, cherry lips parting, the pulse in her throat pounding.
She tugged both his hands up to her breasts and covered them with her own, squeezing. She was so openly sexual, it mesmerized him.
“More, Jonas,” she said, making his cock jerk in response.
Gentleness was forgotten in the wake of desire that took him over. Her apartment was right upstairs, her bed just seconds away, but that was too far, too long to wait. He’d take her here, as he had been fantasizing about for days.
Tugging the rest of her dress away, he pulled her up against him for a deep, hard kiss that made them both breathless, his hands everywhere. Over her shoulder, he perused the shelf of oils and ingredients, breaking the kiss to reach back for a bottle of sweet almond oil.
Dropping a light kiss to her neck as he poured the rich-smelling oil in his hands, and smoothed the slippery-soft substance over her skin. He started with her slim shoulders, strong from the work she did, but still so delicately shaped. Then he worked his hands down over the slope of her back and hips. She leaned back into him with a sigh when he slid around to her front, where he spent long minutes massaging her breasts until her head dropped forward and a small moan delivered from her throat.
She was like a piece of sensual art, a perfectly sculpted woman come to life under his hands.
“Jonas, this all feels good, but I need more,” she said, pulling away as she turned to face him. She stood before him in nothing but slight, yellow satin panties, her skin gleaming where he’d worked the oil over her. “You have no idea how much I want you,” she said, looping her thumbs into the scrap of material and sliding it off until there was nothing between them.
“I think I have some idea,” he whispered, taking off his own jeans and shirt. She walked into his arms and they were skin to skin, finally. The satisfaction of it was mind-boggling.
He ran his hands reverently over her thighs, the rounded globes of her ass, the curve of her hips. His erection jutted against her, eager and needy.
“I want you, Tessa,” he said, his breath catching as he kissed her.
“Then take me,” she invited with a sultry gaze.
He reached for an open jar of honey she had forgotten to put away and dripped golden dollops on her breasts then licked them off. As he finished, she was shuddering and straining toward him, her nails digging into his arms.
His hand slid under her knee to pull her leg up around his hip, his cock brushing against the silky, wet flesh he wanted to bury himself in.
“Jonas, please,” she begged. “Now.”
“Not yet … let’s make it last,” he said. As much as he wanted her, something bothered him. There was something about the light in the room that didn’t seem right. He looked around, making sure they were alone.
A lingering sense of dread held him off for a few more seconds.
What was wrong?
Nothing.
Tessa moved against him, oblivious to any problem.
But it was his job to protect her. That was why he was there in the first place, her hired bodyguard. There had been some threats against Senator Rose and his family, and Jonas had been more than willing to keep an eye on Tessa. In fact, he’d found it difficut to take his eyes off of her.
He glanced around the foundry once more. Nothing was out of place. He was imagining things, and turned his attention back to the woman in his arms.
Words evaporated for long, steamy moments as Jonas gripped her hips, lifting her up completely against him so that he could plunder her mouth as he thrust forward, planting himself deep inside her welcoming body. She was hot, tight, and they fit perfectly, as he knew they would.
She pulled back, watching him as he thrust into her. He could tell when she bit her lip, her eyelids fluttering shut, long lashes brushing her cheeks, that she was close.
He found a steady rhythm and tried to focus on every nuance of her as he held her. Small sounds came from her throat that were sexier than hell, her mouth forming a perfect O as she trembled and started to careen over the edge.
He bent to suckle a breast, flicking his tongue against her hardened nipple. That small touch pushed her over. A soft scream fell from her lips, her body tensing and pulsing around him as she came.
Jonas wanted to join her, but he needed more, thrusting faster, harder, focusing on the heat of her body, how soft her skin was under his hands. Her inner muscles fisted around him tightening and releasing again as she writhed in his arms, and he moved faster.
The satisfaction he’d craved was so close it was almost torture, but he couldn’t quite get there. His body burned as he drove himself into her, precariously hanging on the edge of the orgasm of his life.
Tessa leaned back in his arms, watching him curiously, her expression serene, happy and satisfied, but somehow distant.
