Donna Hill - Touch Me Now

A touch of desire…

When her engagement falls apart, Layla Brooks heads for the one place she’s always felt at home—Sag Harbor. Far from the hectic pace of New York City, she can concentrate on her massage therapy business. And business is all she’s interested in, despite her friend Melanie Harte’s offer to find her someone through her exclusive Platinum Society matchmaking service.

Then Maurice Lawson checks into the local B & B and one glance tells Layla that the dark-eyed, intense veteran needs healing, inside and out. Both are stunned when their therapeutic sessions become charged with raw passion. But when every touch is this electrifying, the only thing to do is to give in tonight and every night.…

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Before you start reading, why not sign up?

Thank you for downloading this Mills & Boon book. If you want to hear about exclusive discounts, special offers and competitions, sign up to our email newsletter today!

SIGN ME UP!

Or simply visit

signup.millsandboon.co.uk

Mills & Boon emails are completely free to receive and you can unsubscribe at any time via the link in any email we send you.

Dear Reader,

Welcome to the lush and often lavish world of Sag Harbor, New York, steeped in rich African American history, folklore and romance. I felt this was the perfect place to set my latest series, Sag Harbor Village, and introduce you to new faces as well as reacquaint you with some familiar ones.

As many of you may recall in Dare to Dream, Desiree Armstrong and Lincoln Davenport found each other in Sag Harbor. Melanie Harte from Heart’s Reward, owner of The Platinum Society, has a mansion on the hills of Sag Harbor. And of course there is Rafe Lawson from my Lawsons of Louisiana series, who frequents the services of Melanie’s matchmaking enterprise.

Now I would love to introduce you to my latest visitors to Sag Harbor: the talented masseuse Layla Brooks, godsister to Melanie and soror to Desiree, and the über sexy and mysterious navy SEAL Maurice Lawson. Yes, you have the name right. Maurice is the nephew of Senator Branford Lawson!

So sit back, put up your feet and let me take you on a journey of sensual pleasure, life-changing discoveries and the healing of the heart and soul in my latest offering, Touch Me Now.

Happy reading,

Donna

Contents

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Epilogue

Preview: Everything Is You

Prologue

It was late afternoon. The lunch crowd, what there had been of it, was gone. Business was slow, slower than usual for this time of year. Everyone was hurting, it seemed. She’d been let go from the paper months earlier, but had been lucky enough to pick up a few extra hours at Jack and Jill’s the local lounge and jazz spot in the West Village, and she had begun to build a pretty solid list of clients from her massage business thanks to Brent.

Thoughts of Brent brought a smile to her face and a rush of sensual excitement through her veins. There were times when she still wondered how she’d gotten so lucky. Brent had women running after him like a buy-two-get-one-free sale at Macy’s. But she was the one that he wanted. He’d proved it to her time and again and there wasn’t a day that went by that he didn’t tell her that he loved her or did something to show her.

She wiped down the tables and glanced with a sense of awe at the dazzling diamond on the third finger of her left hand. In six months she would join the ranks of her girls Melanie and Desiree and become a married woman. She’d picked out her dress. Simple and elegant Desiree had said. It was going to be a small, intimate wedding, only their really close friends and immediate family. Melanie offered her place at Sag Harbor for the wedding and reception. Layla couldn’t wait to be Mrs. Brent Davis.

“Daydreaming again?” Mona asked, sidling up next to her. Mona Clarke ran Jack and Jill’s and in the six months that Layla worked there, they’d become more than employer/employee, they’d become friends. Mona completely understood that Layla’s job at the lounge was only temporary and that her real love was the art of massage, the power to heal through touch.

Layla turned and a shy smile teased her full lip-glossed mouth. “That bad?”

“Yes, very,” Mona said, with her fist on her hip. “Hey, I got this.” She took the cloth from Layla’s hand. “It’s slow as maple syrup in here today. Why don’t you go on home to your man, see what he can do about that cheery disposition of yours,” she teased.

“You sure?”

“Yeah, go ahead. Unless you really need the tips you’re not going to make today. Go, go, practice some of your massage techniques on that fine specimen.”

Layla wiggled her brows. “Hmm, maybe I will.” She gave Mona a quick kiss on the cheek. “I owe you,” she called out as she hurried to the back to get her purse.

“See you on the weekend.”

Layla stopped at the local market on her way home and picked up some fresh vegetables and seasonings for a stir fry meal and a bottle of Brent’s favorite wine. She still had a few hours to prepare everything before Brent got off work. She wanted things to be extra special. In fact she planned to take Mona up on her suggestion and try out a new massage technique on him that she’d been mastering and maybe that new Victoria’s Secret lingerie that she’d splurged on. A wicked thought tickled her belly.

With her purchases in hand she strolled the four blocks to her apartment, intermittently stopping to check out the window displays at boutiques and artisanal shops along the way.

She climbed the stairs to her walk-up and came to a dead stop at the front door, momentarily alarmed by the sound of movement inside until she heard Brent’s voice. She let go of a breath of relief. Calling 911 would have really screwed up her afternoon. Brent home early. The surprise was on her.

Layla turned her key in the door all ready to leap into Brent’s arms but came to a grinding halt when she saw Brent and two suitcases in the middle of the floor.

He slowly turned to her with his cell phone still at his ear. There was a look in his hazel eyes that defied explanation. She’d never seen it before or since—her own terror, disbelief and pain reflected in someone else’s eyes.

All he said was that he was sorry. He couldn’t do this. He didn’t love her. He never wanted to hurt her. He was leaving.

She was certain she’d screamed, threw things, demanded answers, maybe she even begged him not to leave. Who knows? None of it changed anything, anyway. He was gone.

What was she going to do now with the pieces of her heart scattered all over her hardwood floors and her soul on the other side of the door walking into a life without her?

Chapter 1

One Year Later…

Summer came early to New York. Memorial Day was three weeks away and the temperature was already in the low eighties. If this was any indication of what the next three months would bring it was going to be a long, hot summer in the city.

Layla Brooks sat on the sill of her third floor walk-up apartment of the prewar building that faced Washington Square Park. She peered out of the smudged window at the entanglement of humanity on the streets below. Absently she fanned herself with the stiff, white envelope that boasted a Sag Harbor address—a world away from where she lived in the West Village.