Tori Carrington: Forbidden

Leah advanced on J.T., her dark eyes all hot desire. Stopping in front of him, she kissed him like her life depended on it.

Good Lord, what this woman did to him. “Hello to you, too,” he murmured, cupping her shoulders and pulling her slightly away.

She grabbed his hand and started leading him into the house, leaving no doubt about her motivations for being there. It made him a little uneasy.

“Can a guy catch a shower first?” he asked, stalling.

She turned toward him. “But I want you to be dirty.” The flush of passion on her pale cheeks made it clear what she meant.

J.T. swallowed hard. Just the passion in Leah’s face made him forget about the work that needed to be done, forget that she’d very obviously come out just for sex.

He loved claiming her sweet body. Loved making her go over the edge.

But it was her heart he was after.

And he was afraid he’d never reach it.

Dear Reader,

SLEEPING WITH SECRETS… Intrigued? We have to admit the title of this miniseries grabbed us from the start and refused to let go. It tempted us to step into the shadows, opening our eyes to all sorts of forbidden, sexy ideas that began with our title in the January 2004 Private Scandals anthology and continues with three books for the Blaze line.

In the first story, Forbidden, sexy single mom Leah Dubois Burger had life all figured out…until J. T. West awakened a restlessness in her a year and a half ago, setting off a chain reaction that was as destructive as it was exciting.

We hope Leah and J.T.’s story draws you in and doesn’t let go until the very last page. We’d love to hear what you think. Write to us at P.O. Box 12271, Toledo, OH 43612 (we’ll respond with a signed bookplate, newsletter and bookmark), or visit us on the Web at www.toricarrington.com for hot drawings. And don’t miss the other two books in our SLEEPING WITH SECRETS miniseries. Look for Indecent in June 2004 and Wicked in August.

Here’s wishing you love, romance and compelling reading.

Lori & Tony Karayianni

aka Tori Carrington

www.millsandboon.co.uk

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We warmly dedicate this book to Diana Tidlund

aka Moosehog, the coolest biker babe we know!

May all your adventures be sweet….

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

Epilogue

EVERY TIME IT RAINED Leah Dubois Burger thought of J. T. West. The way he’d dragged his strong fingers down the flesh of her back, tracing a path to her bottom. He’d branded her, claimed her, all the while vividly reminding her what it meant to be a woman.

Unfortunately, it rained a lot in Toledo, Ohio, in April. And J.T. hadn’t been in the city for nearly a year and a half.

And J. T. West was responsible for the biggest mistake of her life.

Leah leaned against the steering wheel of her late model Lexus and stared at the rain pelting the windshield. She’d shut off the car engine so all she heard were the rhythmic drops hitting the hood of the car. Across the parking lot she could make out the blue neon lights of the Kroger store. It was only 7:00 p.m. but the heavy dark clouds had ushered in dusk early making it feel like winter was holding on by its fingernails. A loaf of bread was all she had to buy. She needed it to make Sami lunch in the morning. She pictured her eleven-year-old daughter waiting at their house in Ottawa Hills, finishing the dinner dishes and talking to her father on the phone like she did every night at about this time. Asking when he was going to move back into the house.

Dan…

Leah waited for an emotion, any emotion, to hit her. She’d been married to the man for eleven years and for the past three months they’d been going through post-marriage therapy to try to patch up their marriage. But her ex-husband failed to bruise the outer edges of her thoughts.

J.T…..

The bottom of her stomach dropped out and her heart began pounding harder than the rain against the asphalt. Such a profound reaction, despite that nearly sixteen months had passed since she’d last seen the man. Despite that he had tempted her into an affair that had ended her marriage and plunged her daughter into a preadolescent funk. Yet how could she forget that he’d made her feel alive again for the first time in…well, a very long time. In truth, she hadn’t felt so vital, so free, since that one long-ago August when she was sixteen, he barely eighteen, and the summer had seemed to stretch on forever, making it seem like what they had might never end.

But it had ended.

Only to begin again fourteen years later. After she’d married another man. After she’d started a family. After she’d believed she’d long since grown out of her crush on J. T. West.

A passing car’s headlights cut a swath through the soggy night, making Leah blink. She reached for the umbrella on the passenger seat, then hesitated, deciding a little cold rain might be just the thing she needed to wash away wayward memories of the few steamy weeks she’d spent loving a man who had twice disappeared from her life as abruptly as he’d appeared.

She walked toward the supermarket even as her brain told her she should run. Within moments her beige blouse was plastered against her skin and her tan slacks were soaked and wet. But she couldn’t bring herself to care beyond pushing her thick, blond hair from her face. An uncharacteristic reaction for someone who spent a great deal of time perfecting her conservative yet stylish appearance. First it had been because she was a judge’s daughter, then because she was a prominent attorney’s wife. But mostly she enjoyed taking care of her appearance because she liked to look good, liked to feel feminine. Which was also why she allowed herself one self-indulgence—the supersexy lingerie she always wore. She caught a glimpse of herself in the automatic glass doors the moment before they opened. She barely recognized the bedraggled woman staring back at her. The limp, wet hair. The vacant expression. The untidy clothes. She guessed that she should feel something at the sight, but didn’t.

She pushed herself forward, blinking at the bright lights. It seemed odd that everyone was going on with life as usual. She didn’t know what else she expected. Maybe that they would all pause and look at her as if they knew what she’d been thinking. Or rather whom she’d been thinking about. Whisper comments on her dreadful appearance. Instead the cashiers scanned groceries, the patrons perused the impulse-buy magazines on display at the checkout counter, and the bag boys slid merchandise into white plastic bags, none of them giving her any notice.