Lisa Jones - Hot Target

…to his lips. Another strategic mistake. Luke’s mouth was surely sweet to the touch. Full round lips…alluringly sensual. Addictive…Yes. Mr. Winter most definitely had an air of sexuality.

No way was he a nice guy. He had bad boy, hot nights and great orgasms written all over him. Tempting, spicy, delicious, but not nice. Never nice. And it was exactly what Katie was looking for….

Suddenly, everything else dropped away and there was only Luke before her. Tension, entwined with attraction, exploded. Heat pooled low in her belly, her heart pounded deeply in her chest. Slowly, their eyes met and it was one of those moments, when the look between a man and a woman is about to mean wild, passionate sex.

Dear Reader,

What can I say? I love a hot baseball player, so it’s no wonder one keeps finding his way into my books! And there is something so extra special and sexy about a pitcher. The way he controls the mound. The way he controls the game. The way he wears those tight pants. You get the picture!

When writing Hot Target, I loved the idea of pitcher Luke Winter having control, but giving it to his heroine, Katie Lyons, to earn her trust despite a past heartbreak. The path to that trust, however, isn’t simple. It’s slow, sexy and yes, dangerous. After all, not only is there a stalker on the loose, there are hearts to mend. Eventually, those hearts know where to run, and it isn’t to first base. It’s all the way home for the biggest score of all: love!

I hope you enjoy the romance. Please visit my Web site at www.lisareneejones.com for updates on my new Blaze trilogy coming in 2011!

Happy reading!

Lisa Renee Jones

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Lisa spends her days writing the dreams playing in her head. Before becoming a writer, Lisa lived the life of a corporate executive, often taking the red-eye flight out of town and flying home for the excitement of a Little League baseball game. Visit Lisa at www.lisareneejones.com.

To Matthew and Ronald for giving me so many reasons to enjoy baseball. To Diego for giving me so much encouragement and love. And to Janice for helping me make each book better.

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

EVEN SEX HAD lost its appeal.

And damn if he thought he would ever see that day. But the simple fact was—sex now came with too many hidden agendas.

Gone were the days when sex was just sex, two people’s mutual desire to share their bodies, a release that came with pleasure and maybe some sincere emotion if it was with the right person.

He let out a disgusted snort.

Who was the last woman he was with who hadn’t thought he was a score because he was a pitcher in the majors? He couldn’t even remember. The less naive he’d become, the more he had looked back at the past and realized there had been a lot of bull in most of his adult relationships.

Luke Winter stood behind the mahogany wet bar in the far corner of the basement-level den of his Los Angeles home. It was his room of peace, the place he always chose to unwind and embrace being by himself, a sanctuary of sorts.

A place where he pretended to be normal.

But he wasn’t normal or he wouldn’t be getting death threats from a crazy fan. No, he was a pro baseball player, a pitcher even. He had it all.

Or so everyone thought.

An old television hung from the ceiling, just above the bar, even though a massive big-screen sat in the center of the room. Luke never wanted to miss a major sporting moment because he was across the room. He needed to see the action up close and personal.

Leaning his palms against the railing of the bar, he struggled to stay focused on the television. It was April twenty-sixth, and the Texas Rangers were playing their last preseason game, which normally would have held his interest. He had a special fondness for several of their players. After all, he’d played, side by side, with them for years.

He’d never forget the day he’d gotten the call, the day he was told he was going to the big leagues, pitching for the Rockets. Even years after, and two teams later, playing for the California Hawks, he still loved the Rockets.

Yet today, his mind lingered on the upcoming meeting that his manager had arranged with some security specialist. Katie Lyons.

A woman.

Why had he agreed to meet her? He wasn’t even slightly inclined to agree to extra security. What he really wanted was to be left the hell alone.

What was making him so dissatisfied with life in general? Most people would kill for what he had. Of course, very few understood the things that were lost when you were in the public eye.

He stared in the direction of the television without really seeing it, absentmindedly tapping a finger on the bar.

An impending feeling of capriciousness had consumed his thoughts the majority of the day. He hated feeling as if he didn’t have control over his own existence. Feeling out of sorts, he ran one hand roughly through his hair.

He was known as a nice guy. Well, damn it, maybe that was his problem. He was a walking target. Maybe taking back control would put an end to his sense of dissatisfaction.

Katie Lyons would be the first to witness a new Luke. He didn’t want extra security, plain and simple. So he’d make sure this Katie Lyons hated him so much she not only refused the job, but ran all the way home.

LEAVE IT to a man to get a woman in trouble.

Katie Lyons gritted her teeth just thinking of the loser husband her sister had once hooked up with and had now dumped.

Just not soon enough.

Kyle Rogers, the low-down, scum-of-the-earth jerk, had hooked her younger sister, Carrie, on gambling to the tune of fifty thousand dollars, which Carrie had proceeded to ask Katie for as flippantly as if it were a cup of sugar.

Though Lyons Security was doing well, it had only opened a year ago when, at thirty, she’d decided it was now or never, and she’d taken the plunge. And financially, it was indeed a plunge. Fifty thousand dollars was like asking for water in a desert.

It wasn’t happening.

Only it had to happen or Carrie’s health and well-being would be in jeopardy. Because some wrestler-looking dude kept showing up at all hours of the night, threatening to use the baseball bat he carried around with him to influence Carrie’s pocketbook.

Katie sighed heavily and shoved a long lock of her straight brunette hair behind her ear as she followed her old friend Ron Mortan through the foyer of Luke Winter’s house.

Ron turned to look at her. “You okay?”

Katie forced a smile. “As fine as I can be, considering I let you talk me into this in the first place. You know how I feel about working for athletes.”

“You don’t know what it’s like to work with an athlete. You dated Joey, you didn’t work for him.” His expression held just a hint of reprimand.

Katie’s lips tightened. “I saw how he treated the people who worked for him, and I don’t want any part of being a doormat for some overinflated ego.”