Jill Shalvis: Naughty, But Nice

Oh yeah, he thought. No doubt about it, she had a smile capable of rendering a grown man stupid. The outfit didn’t hurt, either.

Or lack of outfit.

Did she have any idea how she looked standing there in the glow of the lamp wearing a sheer black creation with wispy little straps? His tongue tingled to nudge those straps off her shoulders.

This was bad, very bad. It wasn’t often he found himself speechless, but when she stepped closer words escaped him. Unable to stop himself, he reached out to slip a finger beneath her strap, urging it down. He felt her warm, soft skin, felt her breath catch.

Almost unaware, he dipped his head to hers. He didn’t have far to bend. She was tall, which he’d just discovered was an incredible turn-on. Lying down, they’d be chest to chest, thigh to thigh, and everything in between would line up so damn perfectly….

She tilted her head so that now they were mouth to mouth, breathing each other’s air, which was the most erotic thing he’d ever experienced.

She licked her lips and they were so close he felt the brush of her tongue against his lips.

“Mmm,” she whispered. “It’s a night for this, don’t you think? A night for a hot, wet kiss.”

Dear Reader,

My first Blaze novel has finally arrived! I have to admit, I wasn’t sure I could pull it off, writing an extra, extra sensuous love story. But from the very first word of Naughty But Nice, this story wrote itself. It flowed so fast and hot I singed my fingers on a daily basis writing…ahem, shall we say certain scenes?

For that alone, I will forever have a soft spot in my heart for the bad girl Cassie Tremaine and the even badder Sheriff Sean “Tag” Taggart.

I hope you enjoy reading their story as much as I enjoyed writing it. And don’t forget to pick up my good friend Leslie Kelly’s BARE ESSENTIALS book, Naturally Naughty, also available this month.

Happy reading!

Jill Shalvis

www.millsandboon.co.uk

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To Wanda,

You held my hand on this one, and I’ll never forget it.

And to Birgit Davis-Todd,

For always being there when I needed you.

Thanks, ladies, and here’s to many more….

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

Epilogue

Copyright

Ten Years Ago

THE LINE OF CARS heading out of the Daisy Inn was long but giddy. After all, it was prom night. The night of hopes and dreams. The night of spiked punch and lost virginity. The culmination of high school, where one was to have the time of one’s life.

Unless you were a Tremaine, of course.

In the town of Pleasantville, Ohio, the only thing worse than being a member of that family was being a female member.

Cassie Tremaine Montgomery, an extremely female Tremaine, looked over at her date. Biff Walters. Hard to imagine any mother disliking her newborn son enough to name him Biff. But his name had nothing to do with the reason why Cassie had agreed to go to the prom with the tall, blond, gorgeous—but stupid—football star.

No, the reason had everything to do with his graduation present from his daddy—a cherry-red Corvette.

Since Cassie had a love affair with all things expensive and out of her reach, the convertible had been irresistible.

“Hey, baby,” Biff said, catching her eye and putting his big, beefy, sweaty paw of a hand on her thigh. “You look hot tonight.”

How original. Not. So she was blond and five foot ten, with the stacked body of a Playboy model—she’d been that way since the age of thirteen. Which meant men had been drooling over her for four years now. Added to that was the fact that while the men in her family were bastards—some quite literally—the women were all tramps. No exceptions. There was a rumor it even said so in the law books.

She could live with the stigma, or get the hell out of Pleasantville. The town didn’t care much either way.

Unfortunately as a kid, the second option had never been viable. She and her cousin Kate had grown up learning that lesson all too well. Cassie’s mother, Flo, otherwise known as the town vixen, had long ago guaranteed her daughter’s fate by cheerfully seducing as many of the husbands in town as possible.

By default, Cassie was as unpopular—or popular if you asked the men—as her mother.

Which burned her; it always had. So Flo had a weakness. Men. So what? Everyone had a weakness. At least her mother’s was basically harmless.

“Wanna go to the lake?” Biff asked hopefully.

Ugh. The lake was the typical make-out spot just outside of town. Tonight it’d be crowded with overeager guys toting their dressed-to-the-hilt dates, if they were lucky enough to have coaxed them out there.

Not for her, thank you very much. Cassie didn’t share her mother’s weakness for men, and never would.

“Of course you want to go, you’re a Tremaine.” Biff laughed uproariously at that. His fingers squeezed her thigh and moved upward, leaving a damp streak on the designer silk dress she’d secretly purchased at a thrift store.

“All the Tremaine women love sex.” He was confident on this. “The wilder the better. It’s why I asked you to the prom. Come on, show me what you’ve got, baby.” Leaning over, he planted his mouth on the side of her neck, smearing beer breath over her skin.

Smiling when she wanted to puke, Cassie backed away and combed her fingers through the hairstyle she’d spent hours copying from an ad in Cosmo. Fine price she was going to pay for wanting a cruise through town in a hot car. Now she had to figure a way out of the rest of the night. “What’s the rush?”

“This.” Biff, panting now, put his hand on his erection to adjust himself.

Oh, good God, men were ridiculous. The smell of beer and sweat permeated the car’s close quarters. “Biff, they didn’t let us buy beer before the prom, remember? We got carded.”

“I know.” He looked extremely proud of himself.

“So why do I smell it on you?”

His grin was wide, wicked and stupid. “Jeff had a twelve-pack in the bathroom. He gave me half.”

Six beers. Cassie wasn’t afraid of much, and God knows the town thought her a brainless drunk in the making simply because of the misfortune of her genes but, contrary to popular belief, she was very fond of living. “You drank them all?”

“Yeah.” They pulled out of the inn in a show-off peel of tires. The car swerved, making Cassie grab the dashboard with a gasp.

“Don’t worry, baby.” He sent her another ridiculously dumb grin. “I drive better under the influence.”