The Grinch Makes Good

2012-05-23T22:11:32Z

Limecello: Created page with "{{DEFAULTSORT:The Grinch Makes Good}} Category: 1997 Releases Category:Category Romance {| cellpadding="2" style="border:3px solid lightgray; font-size:86%" align="right"..."

{{DEFAULTSORT:The Grinch Makes Good}}
[[Category: 1997 Releases]] [[Category:Category Romance]]
{| cellpadding="2" style="border:3px solid lightgray; font-size:86%" align="right"
|-
| colspan="2" align="center" width="175px" | [[Image:Grinchmakesgood.jpg‎|175px|thumb|center|2009 UK Edition]]
|- style="background:lightgray" align="center"
| colspan="2" | '''By [[Alison Kent]]'''
|-
| valign="top" width="75px" | '''Publisher''' ||width="100px" |[[Harlequin Temptation]] [[Harlequin Temptation By The Numbers|#664]]
|-
| valign="top" | '''Release Month''' ||December 1997 (US)
|-

* '''Author''': [[Alison Kent]]
* '''Publisher''': [[Harlequin Temptation]] [[Harlequin Temptation By The Numbers|#664]]
* '''Year''': 1997, December
* '''Setting''':
* '''Series''': None

==Book Description==
===Blurb===

'''''From the back cover of [[Harlequin Temptation]] [[Harlequin Temptation By The Numbers|#664]], December 1997 2009, US Edition:'''''

'''Ho-Ho-Hold Me!'''

At the age of thirty-one, Brooke Bailey still believed in Santa Claus. She was determined to spread joy throughout her apartment building . . . whether a certain neighbor wanted it or not.

Indeed, for Dr. Duncan Cox, Christmas was his least favorite time of year - and his busiest. Around the emergency room at Mercy Hospital, he was fondly referred to as the Grinch. Still, to help his best buddy woo Brooke, he secretly filled her stocking with twelve gifts, for the twelve days fo Christmas.

Lo and behold, Duncan enjoyed her joy! Could the Grinch and Santa's Little Helper end up together in a passionate affair? Only in the season of miracles . . .

===Excerpt 1===

'''''From the inside cover of [[Harlequin Temptation]] [[Harlequin Temptation By The Numbers|#664]], December 1997, US Edition '''''

===Excerpt 2===

'''''[http://alisonkent.com/grinchmakesgood.php#excerpt]:'''''

Duncan glanced up at the alcove archway then back Brooke's direction. A hint of a true smile crossed his mouth. "Just my luck. Stuck beneath the mistletoe with the trash."

Brooke couldn't help it. She laughed, aloud and full-bodied and the temptation grew. And grew. But she wouldn't give in. She wouldn't. That didn't mean she wouldn't enjoy the moment. Or take it a bit further to see what else Duncan might reveal.

Learning more about him couldn't hurt in her quest to change his mind about Christmas. Especially now that he'd let slip just enough to truly rouse her curiosity. "You missed it earlier. Quite a show."

"Here?" He gestured overhead. "Lydia catch another unsuspecting victim?"

Brooke stayed where she was, her fingers wrapped around the figurine. "JJ."

His eyes widened, flashed golden in the light. "She caught Jay?"

"Not Lydia," Brooke answered, shaking her head. "Sally."

She watched a dozen thoughts cross his mind, the implications of his friend and her friend and where that kiss might or might not lead.

"Wow," he finally said, set the trash bag at his feet, parked a hand at his waist. The other rubbed at the back of his neck. "That surprises me. About JJ."

"Why?" Her interest peaked. "He was a good sport about it. So was Sally. Better than I think I would've been," she added, immediately regretting the admission when the doubting Thomas look in his eyes told her he planned to change the conversational direction.

He crossed his arms and stayed where he was, under the mistletoe, as if his bold defiance of tradition presented a challenge to her Christmas spirit. "You? Miss Merry Christmas? Not a good sport?"

She wouldn't let his teasing get to her. But she now knew she could get to him by being honest. She stroked the figurine again. "I'm not big on public displays. When it comes to certain things."

"Like kissing?"

She nodded, took her honesty further. "At least a kiss like that."

One of Duncan's eyebrows went up. "Oh yeah?"

Oh yeah. That kiss had moved her. She couldn't tell him how much or in what ways. Wasn't even ready to make that admission to herself.

The admission that she'd thought of him, Duncan. Had wanted to kiss him, Duncan.

No. She wasn't ready to make that admission at all. "I guess you'd have to ask one of them about oh yeah. What I don't understand, though, is why JJ kissing Sally would surprise you."

He lifted one shoulder in a shrug. "He's always been a one woman kinda guy."

This time she took her honesty to the limit. "So. Why can't Sally be that woman?"

He regarded her then, intently, intimately, looking at her with those hooded bird of prey eyes. The dim light gave that look a quality that had Brooke wanting to take a step back almost as much as she wanted to take one forward, to feel that gaze up close, inches away, focused and clear and certain in its purpose.

He glanced down to the floor, then back up, shoved his fists in his pockets and said, "I thought you were that woman."

She knew he'd thought that because JJ had thought that. Perhaps until as recently as tonight. But JJ didn't think that any more. And Duncan needed to know the truth. She needed him to know the truth.

"JJ and I are good friends," she said. "We've dated. A few times. We both knew that was as far as it was going to go. He needs a go-getter. Like Sally. And I need . . . "

She let the thought trail, stroked a finger over the figurine. This was an area she wasn't ready to face, let alone discuss with Duncan Cox.

"You like that?"

At his question, she looked up. He nodded toward the figure. She smiled. "I love it. It's perfect. The best second day of Christmas I could have imagined."

He seemed to think a moment, to consider what had passed, to dwell on her words, as if trying to understand or make sense of the same type of musings that had her tied up in knots. As if waiting to speak until he ordered his thoughts.

She moved to the side of the alcove, closer to where he stood while avoiding where he stood. She wanted, needed to be close when he said what was on his mind. Wanted, needed to see his eyes.

He kept them on the figurine. "That was a public display. Finding that in your stocking."

"It wasn't so bad. You'd prepared me. The crowd was a friendly one," she teasingly said. "And after yesterday's pear, I had an idea it would be something simple that I wouldn't mind sharing."

She balanced the birds in her palm, concentrated on them as well as her thoughts. "There are other things that would be harder in public."

"Like a kiss."

They were back to that. She'd thought talking of that type of intimacy with Duncan would make her uneasy. But strangely he was comfortable to talk to.

She found it wasn't hard at all to raise her eyes to his. "Yes. Like a kiss."

After a long thoughtful moment, his eyes flared, darkened, grew powerful in their regard. "Or like singing?" he finally asked.

How was she supposed to inhale when he looked at her that way with those eyes? Those coffee cocoa dangerously perceptive eyes. "I don't sing in public."

"You sing in private. In the mornings. When you shower," he said, his voice a low private whisper by the time the last of the words escaped.

"You hear that? Me? Singing?" Please say no. Please say no.

But he nodded. And said, "Yes. I hear you singing."

She ignored her stiff shoulders, her tight jaw, the ceramic lines of the tiny figurine cutting into her fingers and strove for nonchalance. "Isn't that where people are supposed to sing? In the shower?"

"I don't," he answered.

And, after her breath took flight at the end of a long sigh, she managed, "I know."

"I wondered. About that. If you realized."

What? That they were both wet and naked virtually the same time each day? How could she be human and female and not realize? She smoothed back her ponytail. "Sure. The pipes are old. I hear them. I hear the floor creak under the tub. Or I guess I hear the tub creak over my ceiling."

When he stepped away from the archway, his toe caught the corner of the trash bag. Bottles clinked and cans clattered on the short slide across the floor. The air in the alcove grew warm and close and the scent of the spruce needles pungent.

His shoulders were broad, his body fit and she licked her lips. He drew his hands from his pockets. His steps brought him close and she trembled. The tiny Christmas candles glittered off the lightest strands in his hair, caught sparks of light and heat in his eyes.

Oh, God. She brought clenched fists to her chest, backed into the wall beside the stockings.

He was taller than she'd thought, he was leaner than she'd realized, he was closer than she'd ever thought he would be. And he knew about her showers.

She could smell him now. No imagined steam, no conjured soapy scent. But male skin heated by arousal. Cloth bearing more of the same as he raised both hands to either side of her head, skated his palms lightly over her hair, the same way she did so often, back over her ears and down her nape as if he'd watched her and knew the gesture.

Then he leaned forward, his body still a foot from hers, and touched his lips to her ear. "I like your hair. The way you touch it." He inhaled slowly, an excruciatingly drawn-out intake of air. "And I like the way it smells. I'd wondered about that. After hearing you shower."

A shiver stole through her, from his warm breath on her ear, from his words, from the laying bare of his imagination. Arousal tightened her breasts, weakened her knees, stirred her body between. She caught back the whimper, the barest gasp at the back of her throat, closed her eyes and lifted her chin.

He could have her. All of her. She was that aroused. And that frightened by a vulnerability that wasn't what she was used to feeling, didn't know how to fight.

Her skin burned beneath layers of knit dress and lace hose. Her muscles ached from the reflexive clenching and easing that came with each inch he leaned closer, each inch he halted, each inch he leaned in.

His body touched hers, barely, his chest grazed her breasts, barely, his thighs bracketed hers, barely. His shoulders rose; his stomach pressed into her belly. Fully.

He was aroused as well.

She opened her eyes, looked into his, watched his pupils react as his hands left her hair to skim lightly down her neck. His palms grazed her shoulders, his thumbs pressed into her collarbone and her pulse jumped.

He felt it. She knew that by his eyes, by the flare of his nostrils, by the breath that fanned warm against her skin before his lips touched her cheekbone, traveled to her ear, worked lower. A wisp of air hissed from between her teeth.

He moved his hands down her arms, curled his fingers easily around her biceps, nuzzled his way from her ear to her shoulder. "I like the smell of your neck."

She raised her chin to give him better access, wanting to say something in return, but she couldn't find the words, couldn't voice the compliment she so wanted to return.

He smelled the way she loved a man to smell. His hair clean, sifting through her fingers as she held his head close. His face lightly spiced, nicely rough as his end of the day beard grazed her jawline.

His hands were warm where they held her arms, his thighs hard against her hips. But it was the center of his body searing the center of hers that was her focus.

She could barely breathe.

He seemed to sense her dwindling control, lifted his head. Her neck cooled in his absence. But she found that the heat in his eyes warmed her through.

"I like the way your eyes flash," he said. "I like to hear you laugh."

Oh, God. Oh, God. What was happening here? Her body was betraying her, responding to this man she didn't know at all yet sensed she had known forever. She found him attractive, yes. Admired his dedication, of course.

And the fact that she was even attempting to inject logic into this moment proved how far gone she was.

So she gave up, gave in, raised up on tip-toes to better align his arousal with hers. He hissed. She whimpered, brought her arms around his neck and let him know he was welcome.

Nothing else mattered at this moment but his body and her body and if he didn't put his mouth on hers and kiss her soon she was going to die.

So she kissed him.

File:Grinchmakesgood.jpg

2012-05-23T22:00:28Z

Limecello: Cover for Harlequin Temptation #664 The Grinch Makes Good by Alison Kent this was the December 1997 cover for the title. Image obtained from Alison Kent's website.

Cover for Harlequin Temptation #664 The Grinch Makes Good by Alison Kent this was the December 1997 cover for the title. Image obtained from Alison Kent's website.

Alison Kent

2012-05-23T21:56:52Z

Limecello: /* Fiction */

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kent, Alison}} [[Category:Authors - K]][[category:Harlequin Temptation Authors]][[Category:Harlequin Blaze Authors]][[category:Texas Authors]][[category:Prolific Authors]]
== Biography ==
[[Alison Kent]] was a born reader, but it wasn't until she reached the age of thirty that she knew she wanted to be a writer when she grew up. Five years later, she made her first sale, and in 1995, she accepted an offer issued by the senior editor of [[Harlequin Temptation]] live on the "Isn't It Romantic?" episode of CBS 48 Hours. The resulting book, [[Call Me]], was a [[Romantic Times Magazine]] finalist for Best First Series Book in 1996.

With her first three [[Harlequin Temptation|Temptations]] on the shelf, she took a break from writing romance novels and spent a few months living one, finding her own hero and practicing every technique she'd learned from a lifetime of reading the best "how-to" manuals around! And the rest, as they say, is history. Having more than 30 titles contracted or in print, she now writes for both the [[Harlequin Blaze]] and [[Kensington]] [[Brava]] lines.

Alison lives in a Houston, Texas, suburb with her hero, any number of their four vagabond kids, and a dog named Smith. Readers can contact her through [http://www.alisonkent.com her website], and chat about craft, the writing life, and favorite books on [http://www.alisonkent.com her very active blog].

She published five novels as an author for [[Harlequin Temptation]].

== Books ==
=== Fiction ===
* ''[[The Badge And The Baby|Badge And The Baby, The]]'' - August 1999 ([[Temptation By The Numbers|Harlequin Temptation #741]])
* ''[[Call Me]]'' - July 1996 ([[Temptation By The Numbers|Harlequin Temptation #594]])
* [[Deep Breath]] - 2006 [[Kensington]] [[Brava]]
* ''[[Four Men And A Lady|Four Men & A Lady]]'' - October 1999 ([[Temptation By The Numbers|Harlequin Temptation #750]])
* [[Goes Down Easy]] - 2006 [[Harlequin Blaze]]
* ''[[The Grinch Makes Good|Grinch Makes Good, The]]'' - December 1997 ([[Temptation By The Numbers|Harlequin Temptation #664]])
* ''[[The Heartbreak Kid|Heartbreak Kid, The]]'' - February 1997 ([[Temptation By The Numbers|Harlequin Temptation #623]])
* [[Red Letter Nights]] - 2005 [[Harlequin Blaze #213]] - ''RT Bookclub Top Pick''
* [[Kiss & Makeup]] - 2005 [[Harlequin Blaze]]
* [[Larger Than Life]] - 2005 [[Kensington]] [[Brava]]

=== Novellas ===
* [["Sara Smiles" in Beach Blanket Bad Boys]] - 2005 [[Kensington]] [[Brava]]
* [[The McKenzie Artifact]] - 2005 [[Kensington]] [[Brava]]
* [[The Beach Alibi]] - 2005 [[Kensington]] [[Brava]] - ''National Quill Award Nominee''
* [[The Samms Agenda]] - 2004 [[Kensington]] [[Brava]]
* [[The Shaughnessey Accord]] - 2004 [[Kensington]] [[Brava]]
* [["Upstairs, Downstairs" in Mother, Please!]] - 2004 [[Harlequin]]
* [["A Blue Christmas" in Jingle Bell Rock]] - 2003 [[Kensington]] [[Brava]]

== Non-Fiction ==
* [[The Complete Idiot's Guide to Writing Erotic Romance]] - 2006 [[Alpha Books]]
* [[Totally Charmed: Demons, Whitelighters and the Power of Three]] - 2005 [[BenBella Books]]

==Series/Related Titles==
==== [[Smithson Group / SG-5]] ====
* [[Deep Breath]] - 04/2006 [[Kensington]] [[Brava]]
* [[Larger Than Life]] - 06/2005 [[Kensington]] [[Brava]]
* [[The McKenzie Artifact]] - 02/2005 [[Kensington]] [[Brava]]
* [[The Beach Alibi]] - 01/2005 [[Kensington]] [[Brava]] - ''National Quill Award Nominee''
* [[The Samms Agenda]] - 12/2004 [[Kensington]] [[Brava]]
* [[The Shaughnessey Accord]] - 11/2004 [[Kensington]] [[Brava]]
* [[The Bane Affair]] - 10/2004 [[Kensington]] [[Brava]]

==== [[gIRL-gEAR]]====
* [[Indiscreet - Alison Kent|Indiscreet]] - 01/2004 [[Harlequin Blaze]] - ''RT Bookclub Top Pick''
* [[Wicked Games]] - 10/2003 [[Harlequin Blaze]]
* [[Striptease]] - 08/2003 [[Harlequin Blaze]] - ''RT Bookclub Top Pick''
* [[Bound To Happen - Alison Kent|Bound To Happen]] - 05/2002 [[Harlequin Blaze]]
* [[No Strings Attached - Alison Kent|No Strings Attached]] - 03/2002 [[Harlequin Blaze]]
* [[All Tied Up]] - 01/2002 [[Harlequin Blaze]]

== On the Web ==
* [http://www.alisonkent.com Alison Kent]
* [http://www.alisonkent.com/blog Blah Blog of Alison Kent]
* [http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/windythewise/ Alison Kent at Publishers Marketplace]

The Badge And The Baby

2012-05-23T21:44:17Z

Limecello: Created page with "{{DEFAULTSORT: The Badge And The Baby}} Category: 1999 Releases Category:Category Romance {| cellpadding="2" style="border:3px solid lightgray; font-size:86%" align="righ..."

{{DEFAULTSORT: The Badge And The Baby}}
[[Category: 1999 Releases]] [[Category:Category Romance]]
{| cellpadding="2" style="border:3px solid lightgray; font-size:86%" align="right"
|-
| colspan="2" align="center" width="175px" | [[Image:Book-Cover-TheBadgeAndTheBaby-1999-AlisonKent.jpg‎ |175px|thumb|center|]]
|- style="background:lightgray" align="center"
| colspan="2" | '''By [[Alison Kent]]'''
|-
| valign="top" width="75px" | '''Publisher''' ||width="100px" |[[Harlequin Temptation]]
|-
| valign="top" | '''Release Month''' ||Aug 1999 (US)
|-

|}
* '''Author''': [[Alison Kent]]
* '''Publisher''': [[Harlequin Temptation]]
* '''Year''': 1999,
* '''Setting''':
* '''Series''': None

==Book Description==
===Blurb===

'''''From the back cover of [[Harlequin Temptation]]:'''''

'''Bachelor plus baby . . .'''

Keeping up with his tiny, demanding, precious niece was more than Detective Joel Wolfsley could handle with one leg in a cast. Gangsters, yes. Babies, no. He was a sucker for his sister, though, and the munchkin's mom needed his help. Besides, his plight was the perfect excuse to get up close and personal with the gorgeous kennel owner next door.

'''Equals trouble!'''

Willa Darling took one look at the tough-talking "Big Bad Wolf" holding a baby and knew he was all bark, no bite. Joel might have needed a little help in the diapering department, but he was a family man at heart - no matter what he said. Which meant that in spite of the wild passion they shared, Willa would have to let him go ...

===Excerpt 1===

'''''From the inside cover of [[Harlequin Temptation]]'''''

===Excerpt 2===

'''''[http://alisonkent.com/badgeandbaby.php#excerpt]:'''''

Joel wasn't sure how they'd made it to his bedroom, only that they had. He wasn't going to complain about the trip, not now when they were finally here. Sure, he'd've loved to have wrapped Willa's naked legs around his waist and kissed her senseless the length of the hallway.

But he wasn't a miracle worker. What he was was in a cast. Keeping himself upright when his motor control had been cut off by his libido's jet engine, well . . . he wouldn't have passed a sobriety test if he'd been asked to walk a straight line.

And even if he had been stone cold sober and able to stand arrow straight, Willa was wearing workboots and jeans and he couldn't handle either of those with any measure of finesse.

Not that the sweet talking of a first time necessarily guaranteed smooth moves. The opposite was usually the case. The guy came fast because, well, hell, he couldn't take the wait any longer. And the lady--because he didn't have experience with any females who weren't true ladies--was more often than not a bunch of nerves about doing the right thing and didn't come at all.

Joel might not be able to sweep Willa off her feet or strip her naked without her noticing his slight of hand, but he would damn sure make her come.

"You weren't lying, were you?" she asked.

She stood in front of him, facing the bed, her flannel shirt held to her chest. Nuzzling the shell of her ear from behind, he reached over her shoulder and tossed the shirt to the floor. Then he reached for the hem of her tank. He took the shirt off over her head then pulled her back into his body and, biting down hard on a shiver, savored her warm and soft and supple skin.

Still savoring, he followed the direction of her gaze--toward his headboard from which a dozen pair of handcuffs dangled. Complete with keys, each was shackled to the narrow railing by one bracelet. No, he hadn't lied. But right now he didn't want to explain the history of the collection.

He growled low in her ear and said, "The better to have my way with you."

"Is that so?" She dropped a light kiss on the forearm hugging her collarbone inches above her breasts.

"Or," he added with a bit of a chuckle. "The better for you to have your way with me."

Leaning her head back against his shoulder, she brushed fingertips over the tiny mark she'd left on his skin. "I think I'd like to have my way with you. But first . . ."

No. No firsts. "First?"

"Will you tell me what you want me to do?"

The invitation was every man's dream and left Joel speechless. At that moment, he couldn't remember having ever wanted a woman with this degree of possessive fierceness. It bothered him. A lot.

But it didn't keep him from saying, "What I want you to do is simple. Let me make love to you."

Willa stared back at him over her shoulder, her gaze confused yet satisfied, her mouth a spoiled pout. "That defeats the purpose of the question, doesn't it?"

"Baby, right now I don't give a damn about the question. Only about the answer." Her head was still tilted back. Her bound ponytail brushed his skin.

Feeling her hair against his bare chest was torture. He hissed out a low breath. "If I don't get inside you and quick, I'm afraid I'm gonna go off."

She kept the line of her mouth straight but he knew it wasn't easy. He knew that because when she turned in his arms to face him, he saw that she'd caught her lower lip between her teeth to hold back her grin.

Of course, she couldn't hold it long. "Are you saying we may be dealing with an accidental shooting?"

He grinned, drew fingers down her spine, stopped when he reached her jeans covered bottom and squeezed. "Does the term weapon misfire mean anything to you?"

Her blue eyes flashed with humor and the recognition that she was about to take a cop to bed. "I suppose you're looking to holster that weapon?"

"Well now darlin'. I'd better do just that." He squeezed again. Both hands. Both buttocks. "Or else we'll be dealing with the consequences of a little friendly fire."

Willa threw back her head and laughed. "You need help."

If anything, he was about to need a mop and a bucket because her breasts were bouncing against his chest and now her fingers were moving.

And they were moving over his skin. And they were unbuttoning the copper buttons that barely held his fly together. And when she'd finished with the buttons and stopped moving, he had a hard time not jerking his pants to the ground.

"Joel?"

"Willa?"

She looked up. "I have a problem."

She had a problem? "Anything I can do to help?"

"I'm having trouble with your pants."

The trouble was that she didn't have them off yet. "What kind of trouble?"

"I'm afraid I'm not going to be able to get them down. I've run into an--" she tilted her head to one side and frowned "--an obstacle."

What she'd run into was his hard-on. "Trust me. It's . . . surmountable."

She rolled her eyes at that. "I'm sure it is. You got your pants on, after all."

Joel frowned. They were either suffering a serious miscommunication here or he was more impressive than he'd thought.

"I mean, I can get them down to your knees without a hitch," Willa continued. "But I'm not quite sure what to do after that."

His cast. She was talking about his cast while he was talking about parts of his body that were as hard as the navy fiberglass. "Ah, that's easy. An old stripper's trick."

And then he ripped open the pants leg from the point above his knee to his crotch. Willa smiled. "Velcro?"

"Pretty cool, huh? The wife of a buddy at work fixed me up. Their six year old did a head over heels off his bike and broke his ankle. She'd done the same for her kid. And when I got stuck with this thing--" he indicated the cast "--I asked her if she'd help me out. I have a couple pairs of tearaway jersey pants, but I'm a blue jeans kinda guy."

"This is great," Willa said, fingering the hidden closure.

"Yep. Four pairs of my jeans are now ready for show time on the Richmond Strip." He did a little jiggle, a little bump and grind.

"I like it. I like it a lot," she said and ran her fingertips up his bare inner thigh to the leg of his briefs. "But I do have one more question."

And one more answer was probably all he had left before his knees buckled. "One. That's it."

"It's okay, isn't it? If I make love to you, too?" Her eyes were wide and blue and honest and more giving than he'd ever expected.

He hissed out a long low frustratedly impatient breath. He knew what they were making here wasn't about love but it sure as hell didn't feel like just sex. "As long as you know that what happens here this first time isn't . . . well . . ."

And after all the promises he'd made to himself, he was going to blow it. He'd be doing good to last about as long as a randy virgin schoolboy.

"Isn't, well, what?" She'd slipped her fingers into his shorts now and was feeling up his backside.

He was going to have to stop her before she made it around to his front. "I need to be inside you, Willa. Now. It won't be slow and romantic. Not this time."

"You don't have to woo me, Joel. I'm here. And I want to feel you inside me probably as much as you want to be there."

He wasn't sure how to respond to that, but if she felt even half the need ripping open his gut, this was gonna be a hell of a coming together. "So, you think we can get busy here? Or do you need directions?"

"Directions?" She gave him a know-it-all lift of her brows. "Like how to slide tab A into slot B?"

"Mmm. Something like that."

"You want directions? I'll give you directions." She spun him around and pushed him back down onto the mattress. "Down is a direction, right?"

"So's up," he said and thrust his hips that way.

"Up? Like this?" Leaning forward she ran her palms over his fly and up his belly. He squirmed in the bed, pushing back further on the mattress so that if she decided to straddle him she'd have a place to put her knees. He just hoped she took both their pants off first.

Her hands continued up his sides, over his armpits, his triceps, to his elbows, forearms, wrists, palms, lacing her fingers through his when she reached his hands which were now high over his head. She shifted on the bed until she was doing that straddle thing he'd been waiting for.

Even with her pants on it wasn't far from heaven, feeling her over him, her breasts suspended just out of reach of his mouth. His tongue wasn't quite long enough to do more than flick lightly across her bare nipples when he wanted to draw her deep in his mouth.

She drew deep on him instead, teasing his mouth with light nips and love bites before kissing him full and hard like he wanted to be kissed, with her tongue and her body, both of which he was getting impatient to feel elsewhere.

And then, while he was doing his best to kiss her senseless in return, while he was working to coax her into getting naked so they could get this show on the road, she snapped handcuffs around both his wrists.

With a kiss dropped first on his forehead, then his nose, his chin, center chest and low on his stomach, she hopped up off the bed and left him there.

"Willa?" He called after her when she left the room.

"Don't go anywhere, Joel. I'll be right back."

Oh, she was a funny girl, this one. But she hadn't gone far. He heard her banging cabinet doors, slamming drawers in the kitchen. Then all was quiet and Joel realized he was half-naked with a hard-on and handcuffed to his own bed.

Paradise.

Of course, he probably wouldn't have been so cocky if he'd truly been trapped. But since each pair of handcuffs hung from the headboard by one bracelet and he was caught in the dangling cuff of two separate pairs, well, it would be easy to slide his hands together and open either set.

He only considered it for half a second, then decided to hang around instead and see what Willa had in mind.

A minute or two more and she returned wearing nothing but her white cotton bikinis. Joel's heart slammed to the back of his chest. Seeing her now was nothing like seeing her earlier when he'd been to drunk on her taste to focus on much of anything at all.

Her legs were long anyway, but those high cut panties seemed to add another six inches. The curve of her hip was sweet. He'd thought she might be more lean, more . . . solid and straight, but her muscles were all female. Nothing boyish here about her figure.

But what struck him most about her--even more than her legs, her strong arms and great shoulders, or even the way her breasts were as arousing now as they had been inches from his mouth--was her hair. This was the first time he'd ever seen it down.

She'd brought two pie tins back with her along with his box of squat emergency candles. As she went about setting the tins in front of either end of his dresser's mirror, her hair swung about her shoulders. Once she had a half dozen of the plain white votives burning in their shiny metal base, she flipped off the light shining brightly overhead.

Candlelight flickered as the flames ate up the wicks. The mirror reflected the tongues of light back into the room--and over Willa's hair. She turned to face him, leaned back against his dresser, framed on both her right and her left by the flames of living light.

Her hair was fair and colorless in the subdued glow, yet the light played the part of an artist's brush and turned the strands to gold. He needed to remember to tell her how much he liked it down, how good she looked wearing candlelight and white.

But he wasn't sure he'd be able to coherently remember much of anything at all because right then she smiled.

And while she was smiling she worked off his single athletic shoe and one sock. His jeans, already opened, slid down his legs freely--once she guided the fly carefully around his most valuable assets.

He'd only thought he'd found paradise half-naked with a hard-on and handcuffed to his own bed.

Paradise wasn't even the half of it.

2012-01-25T22:47:44Z

Limecello:

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harris, Lynn Raye}} [[Category:Authors - H]] [[Category:Harlequin Authors]] [[Category:Harlequin Presents Authors]]
'''Lynn Raye Harris''' is an author for Harlequin Presents and resides in Alabama. Lynn was a finalist in the 2008 Romance Writers of America’s Golden Heart® contest, and she is the winner of the Harlequin Presents Instant Seduction contest. She loves a hot hero, a heroine with attitude and a happy ending. Writing passionate stories for Harlequin is a dream come true.

Education: Lynn has a B.A. in English, magna cum laude, and an M.A. in the Humanities with a Literature concentration. Her masters thesis was ''The Heroine's Journey: The Quest for Identity in the Selected Fiction of Virginia Woolf''.

== On the Web ==
* [http://www.lynnrayeharris.com/ Official Website]
* [http://www.harlequin.com/author.html?authorid=1836 Harlequin Author Page]

== Books (First Release of Title)==
* ''[[Spanish Magnate, Red-Hot Revenge]]'' - August 2009, ([[Modern Romance|Mills & Boon Modern]] [[Modern Romance By The Numbers|#887]])
* ''[[Cavelli's Lost Heir]]'' - December 2009, ([[Modern Romance|Mills & Boon Modern]] [[Modern Romance By The Numbers|#927]])
* ''[[The Prince's Royal Concubine]]'' - March 2010, ([[Modern Romance|Mills & Boon Modern]] [[Modern Romance By The Numbers|#958]])
* ''[[The Devil's Heart]]'' - July 2010, ([[Modern Romance|Mills & Boon Modern]] [[Modern Romance By The Numbers|#997]])
* ''[[Kept For The Sheikh's Pleasure]]'' (Part of [[Mills and Boon New Voices|Mills & Boon New Voices]] Anthology) - September 2010, ([[Mills and Boon Special Release|Mills & Boon Special Release]])
* ''[[Prince Voronov's Virgin]]'' also called ''Behind The Palace Walls'' (US Title) - January 2011, ([[Modern Romance|Mills & Boon Modern]] [[Modern Romance By The Numbers|#1045]])
* ''[[Strangers In The Desert]]'' - May 2011, ([[Modern Romance|Mills & Boon Modern]] [[Modern Romance By The Numbers|#1075]])
* ''[[Heartless Rebel]]'' also called ''The Man With The Money'' - July 2011, ([[Mills and Boon Special Release|Mills & Boon Special Release]])