When a ruthless gem smuggler mistakes Sarah for her best friend Susan, she's kidnapped and stashed on an island. Her only hope of rescue is Susan's cousin Clint -- a soldier-of-fortune whose my-way-or-else attitude is as infuriating as his muscular body is distracting.
Clint, ex-Navy SEAL turned mercenary, desperately needs a vacation. Rescuing a kidnapped woman from an island paradise isn't what he had in mind. And when he encounters Sarah's sassy mouth and tempting ways, he soon realizes he's the one in trouble.
EXCERPT
“Is Stan─”
“Sshh!” he warned briskly, his gaze returning to hers. “Now isn’t the time for conversation, angel.”
Sarah pressed her lips. She didn’t like being told to be quiet. She dropped her eyes before his steady gaze, beginning to feel self-conscious of their intimate situation. Clint was too sexy and in spite of his gruff ways, she was attracted to him. Sarah recalled the eagerness of her response when he’d had his fingers inside her. She was hungry for that particular feeling again but now was hardly the place or the time.
“You can get off me now,” she spoke quietly, pushing against his shoulders. “They’re going away.”
Clint didn’t budge. “They may have lowered someone to the ground to continue the search,” he reasoned. “Be quiet.”
Sarah listened to the sound of the chopper diminish as it moved further away and raised her eyes to the top of the trees above them where the sky was visible. And where Clint’s gaze was focused. She couldn’t help noticing how thick and muscular his arched neck was. The veins were evident beneath his whiskered jaw.
“You can still get off me,” she insisted, wincing at the weakness in her tone. He glanced down at her. Their gazes met and held. Sarah tried to gauge what he was thinking. After an awkward moment of silence, Sarah looked away, but not before she acknowledged the flame of awareness in Clint’s pupils. His body grew taut.
She caught her breath when his cock turned hard and demanding against her. With little between them, it was easy to determine Clint wasn’t lacking there. And the knowledge turned Sarah hotter. It seemed the danger of being captured was over but another more primal danger threatened her.
She knew she was playing with fire but couldn’t stop herself from acknowledging Clint’s hard-on in the most obvious way. Parting her legs, she arched into the hard shaft, being rewarded when he sucked in his breath.
“You know if I was a smart man I’d roll off, start walking and not look back.”
Sarah stiffened. Then why didn’t he? When Clint didn’t move right away, Sarah closed her eyes so she wouldn’t have to look at him. His closeness was unnerving, catching her off guard when she realized how much she liked his weight against her. However, closing her eyes turned out to be a bigger mistake when all it did was enhance the charged atmosphere between them.
Her ears picked up the low drone of the helicopter as it was all but out of ear shot, but her senses were acutely aware of Clint. His breath was against her face, hot and intimate, his heart beating against her chest keeping rhythm with another more vital part of his body. When he began to grind his aroused cock against her, she began to respond to the situation against her will.
Suddenly, she felt alive. Her breasts became ultra-sensitive, swelling against his chest as her nipples hardened into tight little nubs. In her mind’s eye, Sarah could see his mouth on her, licking and tugging on them until she was breathless and on fire. As her breathing became shallow, she closed her legs to the liquid heat pooling there, denying its existence along with the hard shaft she’d unknowingly trapped there.
Oh God! What is happening to me? An explosive rush swept through her blood. She kept her eyes closed, desperate to ignore the changes in her body, trying to ignore that it was a man like Clint— callous, raw, and totally unlovable—who was turning her on to such a feverish pitch. She struggled to bring her breathing under control, embarrassed when a soft whimper broke the silence.
“Open your eyes,” he demanded in a voice hoarse with desire.
“No.” The way Sarah figured it, if she didn’t look at him, nothing would happen. He couldn’t possible know she was so turned on she was burning up with it.
“I’m going to kiss you.”
It sounded like a threat. Her eyes flew open. “No!” The firmness she tried to inject into her tone came out weak and throaty, revealing her condition. The savage expression on his face frightened her but not nearly as much as the untamed wildfire racing through her body. His body began to move against her, his hardness fitting perfectly in the damp crevice between her legs. The ache in the lower half of her body became a tangible, almost painful, reminder that she hadn’t had a cock in there in a long time. Too long.
“No? Are you sure about that, angel?”
“Yes,” she gasped, mesmerized by the smoldering look in his eyes. “I don’t think it’s wise to complicate things.” Not to mention she was scared out of her wits that she’d enjoy it. And she wasn’t forgetting the fact he’d already fingered her. She’d never hear the end of it.
“One little kiss doesn’t have to complicate anything,” he returned with a wolfish grin.
He was actually teasing her—or was he testing her? “We both know that’s not all you have on your mind,” she pointed out.
“No, but maybe a good fuck will curb that mean mouth of yours."
Right now? That insinuated they might have time for a good fuck, later.
*The Mercenary Way was previously released as Against the Odds, with another publisher. This version contains more content and has been considerably sexed up..
