Lisa Renee Jones - Guilty Little Secrets, WSZYSTKO
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Guilty Little Secrets
Lisa Renee Jones
(c) 2005
ISBN 1-59578-174-9
Guilty Little Secrets
Lisa Renee Jones
Published 2005
ISBN 1-59578-174-9
Published by Liquid Silver Books, imprint of Atlantic Bridge Publishing, 10509
Sedgegrass Dr, Indianapolis, Indiana 46235. Copyright © 2005, Lisa Renee Jones. All
rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or
otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Liquid Silver Books
http://LSbooks.com
Email:
raven@LSbooks.com
Editor
Carol Guy
Cover Artist
April Martinez
This is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents and dialogues in this book are of
the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual
events or persons, living or dead, is completely coincidental.
Chapter One
Lust.
That was what she had felt for Blake Alexander so many years ago. It had been lust,
and nothing more.
She refused to believe that it had been something bigger, more meaningful. Biting
her bottom lip, she fought the disbelieving laugh that threatened to erupt, directed at her
own stupidity. Why, if it had been nothing more tha n lust, did hearing he was coming to
her brother's Super Bowl party make her heart race and her palms sweat?
Sitting on her brother's sofa, Laura Cameron took on the tedious task of peeling the
label from her beer bottle. Desperation spurred the need to do something with all the
nervous energy pouring through her body. Any minute now, Blake would walk through
the front door of her brother's house.
She would be face to face with the man who had inspired pretty much every
nighttime fantasy she had been privy to as a teen. Back then, she had easily conjured hot,
wet, steamy images involving her and Blake naked. Compliments of a wild
imagination—and good dream recall—she had done things with him she had yet—not
then or now—to do in the flesh.
Reality made her sink her teeth into her bottom lip, almost drawing blood. Okay, so
her little fantasies about Blake had lasted well past her teens. She just didn't like to admit
it, even to herself. Years after he had joined the army, leaving her behind—and angry—
she would wake wet with need. The times she had woken up, a near-orgasmic ache
between her legs, were too many to count.
Once she had gone away to college, her fantasies grew more explicit. The more she
evolved into womanhood, the more she played out sensual, tempting scenarios in her
sleep.
And sometimes even in the waking hours.
And he, Blake Alexander, her brother's best friend, the man who was about to be in
the same room with her, would be the focus of her arousal. It had been the move to
Manhattan that had seemed to calm her need for him. Her new life had brought with it a
refuge of sorts. She had been freed from her “Blake haunting.” She almost laughed at the
thought. That's how hot she had been for Blake. She had dubbed her obsession a
haunting.
She didn't want it to consume her again.
Shoving the thought away, she reminded herself that things were different now. She
was twenty- five and a grown woman with life experiences under her belt. Now back at
home in San Francisco, she was the proud owner of a corporate job with Martin's
Department Store. Blake would probably be nothing like she remembered. His impact on
her would be a big, whopping zero.
She frowned and tossed a piece of label on the coffee table. It was just so damned
ironic that Blake had left the army, and returned home only weeks before her arrival.
When her brother had told her Blake had bought a skydiving school with several army
buddies, she had been floored.
“Boo!”
Laura jumped so hard, her beer splattered out of the top of the bottle. Her brother
Matt, now sitting next to her, laughed. “You are too easy to scare, little sis.”
She made a face and wiped at the dampness now on her jeans. “And you are just as
childish as I remember, Matt Cameron. ”
Linebacker big and teddy-bear cute, Matt had blond hair, blue eyes, and a funny
sense of humor to complete the package. He winked at his sister. “But you love me, and
you know it.”
That was the truth. She did love him, and had missed him immensely. “Yes, you big
lug, I love you. ” She gave him a nudge that bordered on a shove.
He wrapped a big arm around her shoulder. “It wasn't the same, having football
parties without a girl here.”
Laura laughed. “Mom would have filled in for me if you’d asked her. She loves
football.” They both knew why he didn't want Mom present. Football made her get a little
crazy.
“Yeah, well, I get all I can take of Mom during the season, ” Matt said with a
grimace. As a high school football coach, Matt often entertained friends with stories
about players and fans. Unfortunately, their mo ther had created a few of his funnier
stories. “It's no wonder Dad took a dislike to the game. I've never seen a woman act like
that over football. Back in my days on the field, the referees knew her by name. She was
lucky she wasn’t banned.”
Laura laughed. “I remember Dad taking nerve pills before your college games, afraid
she would embarrass you. ”
Matt grunted. “Me?” he said in disbelief. “He was afraid she would embarrass him. ”
The room was already bustling with activity, mostly male in nature. The doorbell
rang, and someone yelled for Matt. He kissed Laura's forehead. “Good to have you
home.”
He was up and gone, but not without showing off a contented smile on his handsome
face. It was good to be home. For a long moment, she savored the thought.
“Laura?”
She looked up to see the very man she had been fretting over just minutes earlier.
Blake.
He stood before her, looking every bit the sinfully handsome male she had
remembered. But better. Experience and age had given him a mature quality that clung to
him like a second skin; made him seem like he knew things. She could almost bet he
knew plenty about pleasing a woman. Laura inwardly cringed. He was already making
her have naughty thoughts.
“Blake.” She said his name as if confirming he wasn't a part of one of her dreams.
Try as she might, her eyes wouldn't stay fixed on his face. They traveled the length
of what had become a delicious display of pure male power. Blake had always looked
good, but now … now he was like a work of art.
His powerful legs rippled with muscles beneath his faded Levis. And then there was
the snug, black T-shirt. She had a new appreciation for the basic tee as of now. At least
this particular one. It did a mighty fine job of hugging a chest so broad and hard it made
her mouth water.
On his six- foot-two frame, his physical presence could easily be considered
intimidating. To Laura, it was like being injected with an instant dose of desire. With
lightning speed, she became aware of the prickling in her nipples. Her arms crossed in
front of her body, reacting to the tiny ache. She prayed her aroused state couldn’t be seen
through her thin, pink tee.
Only Blake did this to her. It was crazy.
Forcing herself to meet his gaze, Laura found Blake’s blue eyes darker, and far more
intense than she remembered. “It's been a long time, Laura,” he said, in that deep,
baritone voice that she had always loved so much.
Simple words, but they evoked much more than a simple response.
Her body quaked with the potency of her attraction to him; so long in the making, so
alive despite the darkness of time apart. All the while, her heart raced with the emotional
intensity seeing him evoked.
She sat her beer on the coffee table, forcing herself to unlock her arms from their
defensive posture, and praying her ha nds didn't shake. “Yes, yes, it has.”
He was staring at her with an indiscernible look in his eyes. She resisted the urge to
cross her arms again, feeling self-conscious under his scrutiny. What did he see? Little
girl … or woman?
“You've changed,” he finally said in a hushed tone.
Her knees were pressed primly together, a reflex reaction to the dull ache that had
traveled with excruciating accuracy from her breasts straight to her core.
She barely found her voice. “Have I?”
A slight smile played on his lips as he stepped forward. Anticipation rushed across
her nerve endings. Would he hug her?
“Yes,” he said as he sat down next to her. Close. He sat really, really close. She
could smell him. She'd always found his scent to be arousing. To touch him would take
nothing more than a raised hand.
It was tempting. Her fingers twitched with the need.
Instead, he reached for her.
Her breath caught in her throat as his hand gently touched her hair. Basking in the
moment, her lashes fluttered shut as his fingers traced a long strand of red. “You changed
your hair.”
Nervously, she forced her eyes open and a smile to her lips. He’d only seen her hair
short. In her youth, she’d wanted to fit in with everyone else. The bright auburn color had
seemed too bold, so she had kept it short to downplay its existence. She would have
colored it had her mother allowed it.
Now, as a grown woman, she felt the freedom of being unique and loved it. Her hair
was long, below her shoulders, and she liked it that way. Her voice was soft as she
replied, remembering his old comments about her fire-red temper to match her hair. She
wondered if he was thinking the same thing.
“It's been like this for years,” Laura told him.
His eyes seemed to go to her lips. It took effort to resist the urge to wet them. “I can't
believe how grown up you are.”
She wet her lips. She couldn't help it. His eyes followed the action, lingering and
then lifting to hers. What passed between them in that moment made her breath catch in
her chest. Hot, primal passion burned in Blake’s eyes, and she forgot everything but him.
Their attraction danced between them, alive and charged with heat.
It couldn't be real. Could it?
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