Authors: Marilyn
Sweet Insanity (14 page)
Her lips twitched. “You make it sound worse than it is.”
“You intrigue me. How bad is it?”
“We have a unique relationship.”
“Unique or kinky?”
“Do I look as if I’m into kinky?”
“Are you?”
She gave him an annoyed look. “I know the difference between kinky and unique. I said unique and that’s what I meant.”
“Ah. A woman who knows what she wants.”
“Damn right I know what I want.”
She might know what she wanted, but did she know what was good for her? “And it’s him?”
“Yes. You have a problem with that?”
“I’m not sure yet. I’ll let you know when I am.”
She gave him a cool look. “Never mind. I really am sorry if I misled you.”
Her gaze revealed no deception. Her voice betrayed no insincerity. Damn his luck. The first woman to excite him in years had plans for her Friday night that didn’t include him. “So you were just toying with me?”
“Of course not. I don’t toy with other people’s emotions.”
Emotions? Where the hell did she get off thinking she’d managed to toy with his emotions within the space of the few minutes they’d been talking? “Then?”
She glanced around, as if looking for someone before she met his gaze again. “This was a bad idea.”
Not from his standpoint.
She stood up.
He rose, staring across the table to lock his gaze with hers. The impulse to will her to remain proved difficult. But fifty years of living with Rayna had taught him how unpredictable human women were. The more a man tried to bind them, the more they struggled to be free.
She sucked in a breath, looked away from him, and shook her head. “Sorry I imposed on you.”
Her soft, sensual voice stroked his passions. He walked around the table to look down into her eyes, managing to resist the temptation to lean down and brushed his lips against her lovely neck. “What’s your name?”
“I have a date for the night,” she reminded him. “And I’m not looking for other entanglements at the moment.”
“Ah. I see.”
“You see what?”
“That this date of yours is so controlling he doesn’t allow you to even mention your name to other men.”
He watched her lips compress and her dark gaze narrow. “You’re wrong if you think he or any other man controls me!”
“I’m very glad to hear it. What’s your name?”
“Cayenne.”
“Cayenne? Like the hot peppers?”
She nodded.
“And is it an appropriate name for you?”
A slow, sexy smile spread across her face. “I still have my moments.”
He glanced at her neck. She filled the night with exciting possibilities. “Do you come here often, Cayenne?”
“Do you?” she countered.
“Why do I get the impression that if I say yes you’ll never come here again?”
She laughed. Her laughter, like her smile, was warm and seductive.
“Do you come here often?” he asked again.
“When I’m feeling tense, I like to dance. I’ve been here a few times when I felt the need to unwind.”
“Alone?”
“No.”
“Always with the lucky bastard in tow?”
She sighed. “I don’t think he considers himself particularly lucky.”
“Then why are you dragging his sorry ass around?”
She frowned. “I thought you understood.”
“You thought I understood what?”
“That I want him back. You did agree to help me get him back. Didn’t you?”
Rayna! Damn it. It would be a cold damned day in hell when he did anything to aid her getting back with a man who didn’t appreciate her. “If he doesn’t want you, fuck him.”
“It’s not that easy.”
“Why not? Don’t you think you deserve more than an asshole who doesn’t appreciate you?”
“Yes. Of course I do.”
“Then what’s the problem?”
She compressed her lips. “There isn’t one.”
“Isn’t there?” he challenged.
She sighed. “Haven’t you ever wanted someone who didn’t want you anymore?”
The bastard didn’t want her? “Not lately.”
“Then consider yourself lucky.”
The ache he heard in her voice touched a nerve. He softened his voice when he spoke again. “It stings?”
“Like hell,” she whispered, her lips quivering.
He brushed his hand against hers. “It will pass, sweet.” The endearment, the equivalent of which he’d only ever used with one other woman, tumbled from his lips.
“When?” she asked.
He inhaled slowly. What idiot had hurt her and made her look and sound so wounded? “Is he married?”
She shook her head. “Not anymore he’s not.”
“Are you married?”
“Not since he isn’t.”
“Ahh. He’s your ex?”
She nodded. “Yes, but I want him back.”
“I see.”
She laughed. “I must have had too much to drink already. You’re so easy to talk to; I’m standing here telling my troubles to a complete stranger.”
Rather than feeling like a stranger, she felt like someone he had ached to meet since he’d lost the only woman he’d ever loved.
“You must think I’m an idiot. I’m sorry.”
He shook his head. “Don’t be sorry. Let me buy you a drink and you can get it all off your chest.”
For a moment, he saw a look of acceptance in her dark, beautiful gaze. Then she abruptly shook her head and stepped away from him. “Thanks for the offer, but I’ve had my limit.”
“Then we can just talk or you can talk and I’ll listen and offer silent sympathy.”
“You have no idea how much I’d like to accept, but—”
“Then do.”
She shook her head. “I’d better go find my friends.”
“And the lucky bastard?”
She shrugged. “I came with him.”
“That doesn’t mean you have to leave with him.”
She frowned. “I want to leave with him.”
But not for long if, he had anything to say about it.
Marilyn’s booklist:
Marilyn Lee Unleashed
Stormwaters 2: All of a Sudden
Stormwaters: Family Night
Women of Substance: Just One Look
Shana Mine
Dream Lover
A Cheating Situation
Any Time Any Place
Beauty Is Alisha Hoover?
Blue Desert Heat 1
Blue Desert Heat 2
Blue Desert Tales: Courtesan Seduction
Daughters of Takira: One Night In Vegas
Daughters of Takira 2: Kyla's Awakening
Daughters of Takira 3: Revelations
Falling Hard
Fantasy Knights
Fantasy Knights 2: Endless Love
In Blood 2-Lost Without
Large, Shy & Beautiful
Loving Large—Yours, Only And Always
Loving Large 2—Yours, Now And Forever
Marilyn Lee Omnibus I
Marilyn Lee Sampler
Marilyn Lee Sampler 2
My Mother's Man
No Commitment Required: Naughty Girls
Primal Lusts
Secondhand Lover
Secret Lover
Some Like It Male
Soul Mates
Taking Chances: Falling For Sharde
Taking Chances 2: Nice Girls Do
The Dare
The Quest 1: Hunter's Passion
Torn By Love
Where You Find It
Yesterday's Secret Sins
Red Rose Publishing
Sweet Surrender
Sister’s Keeper
Finding Love Again
Betrayed By Love
Song of Desire
It Had To Be You
One Sweet Night
Tempting Neal
In Blood And Worth Loving
Eye of the Beholder
Night Heat
A Thing Called Love
Summer Storm
Skin Deep
Ellora's Cave
Night of Sin
Bloodlust series:
Conquering Mikhel Dumont
The Talisman
The Taming Serge Dumont
Forbidden Desires
Nocturnal Heat
Midnight Shadows
All In The Family
Moonlight series:
Moonlight Desire
Moonlight Whispers
Long Line of Love series:
Night of Desires
Love Out Loud
Only One Love
Teacher's Pet
Trina's Afternoon Delight
Branded
Road To Rapture
The Fall of Troy
Full Bodied Charmer
Breathless In Black
Playing With Fire
White Christmas
Quest II—Divided Loyalties
Quest III—Return to Volter
Changeling Press
Moonlight Madness
Bloodlust—Nighttime Magic
Marilyn’s homepage:
http://www.marilynlee.org
Email:
[email protected]
Marilyn’s Bio:
Marilyn Lee lives, works, and writes on the East Coast. In addition to thoroughly enjoying writing erotic romances, she enjoys roller-skating, spending time with her large, extended family, and rooting for all her hometown sports teams. Her other interests include collecting Doc Savage pulp novels from the thirties and forties and collecting Marvel comics from the seventies and eighties (particularly Thor and The Avengers). Her favorite TV shows are forensic shows, westerns (Gunsmoke and Have Gun, Will Travel are particular favorites), mysteries (loves the old Charlie Chan mysteries. Her all time favorite mystery movie is probably Dead, Again), and nearly every vampire movie or television show ever made (Forever Knight and Count Yorga, Vampire are favorites).
Marilyn has won numerous writing accolades, including a CAPA award for Bloodlust: Conquering Mikhel Dumont and the following Lub-Dubs Awards for 2009: Lifetime Achievement Award, In Blood And Worth Loving (Best erotic novel and best sci-fi/fantasy/paranormal Award.
She loves to hear from readers who can email her at [email protected] or who can visit her website,
http://www.marilynlee.org
. She has a Yahoo! Group called Love Bytes that readers can join by sending an email to: [email protected]
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