Free Chapter for You...Sexy Beach Read! 🌴 🌴 🏊♂️ 🔥
Aug 20, 2021 2:21 pm
*Plus a new, .99c release in the Thackeray College world
- see after the free chapter!*
Have the dog days of summer hit you yet?
Man, I remember those. Being a kid, having nothing to do. (Except those pesky chores you did your best to get out of...fast. Being unnoticed by the parentals? Priceless.
Staring up at the endless blue sky. The heat of the Toronto pavement. Going barefoot.
I miss those. :)
Now that I'm an adult, there's lots to do, be it August, or January, or whenever. Yet the dog days of summer still beckon and deep in me, somewhere, I want them back again.
And the one thing that was a pristine delight, something to savor...(other than sopping, dripping ice-cream cones and the rustle of the wind at your back...
...was a new book to dive into. A new series, a new world.
Maybe a whole bunch of books!
Do you agree? Do you have fond memories like that? What book, what series did you love? Glom?
To give you a bit of a treat, hopefully, I'm going to give you a sneak peek into one of the beach read books in my catalogue...Real Deep.
Here, for your reading pleasure, is chapter 26 of Real Deep, book 3 in the Delta North Team Novel Series. It can be read as a standalone, and it takes place on an untouched tropical island.
And it's one of the sexy chapters!
And don't forget. There's a bunch of fast read novellas in the second Delta North Team lineup, as well. Here they are, at Amazon:
Delta Fast Read Novella Collection
Now, for Real Deep.
Setup: Abby and Dare were past lovers, then broke up. They were thrown together again when working on an uninhabited tropical island, on a photo shoot. They've just lived through a hurricane that finally ended its devastation the night before. They took refuge in a cave, and finally got to sleep.
Now...it's morning.
Real Deep - Chapter 26
A snore, a half-snort, and Abby was awake.
Stretching her body lazily, she shrugged her shoulders and flexed her legs, enjoying the slow slide of her muscles as they woke up.
Breathing in deeply, she slid her arms above her head and extended them. Felt something hard. Cold.
Flopped them out sideways. This time, she met something soft. Warm.
“Hey! Who’re you beating up?”
Oh, yeah. Dare.
She wiggled her ass contentedly, shifted, and bumped into his hip.
Dare.
Sleeping beside her.
Her eyes popped wide-open.
Dare Logan, sleeping beside her.
She shot a glance toward him, and the view set her pulse racing, her heart jumping.
He was propped on an elbow, a messy bit of what looked like a sheet spread over his lower body, and he met her with a smile and unusual tenderness from under those half-lidded eyes. The very definition of morning-yummy. “How you doin’, sleepyhead?”
She blinked a few times, and forced herself completely awake. Turning on her stomach and supporting herself on her forearms, she glanced toward the narrow entrance to their cavern. It was all coming back to her. What a crazy, crazy, hell of a day they’d had yesterday.
Had it abated completely? Was the nightmare gone?
Watching the direction of her gaze, he smiled lazily. “I’ve been outside.” He didn’t say any more, simply watched her, with a half-smile on his face.
Her brows lifted. “And?” It took all her effort not to throw her upturned palms into the air in a theatrical gesture.
“And we’re on a desert island in the tropics and it’s a freakin’ beautiful day.”
Her heart lightened. They had survived. The sense of gratitude in her heart overwhelmed everything as she closed her eyes and savored the moment.
All was well.
When she opened her eyes, Dare was still watching her. Light filtered over his face, while the other half was still in shadow.
And that body, with certain parts swaddled under the glaringly white fabric as he lay there, arm stretched along his hip, was off-the-charts sexy.
“Hey!” she exclaimed, a discordant thought registering in her wakening brain. “Why’s it light in here? And what’s this?” She tugged at the fabric covering his interesting bits.
A slow smile spread over his face. “There’s stuff laying all over the place outside. I grabbed this to bring inside.” He pointed upward at the cavern’s ceiling. “There’s a group of holes up there. They give a bit of ventilation, but it looks like the cover around them was blown away. I’m not surprised, either. It’s a total mess out there.”
Abby rousted herself from the comfortable position, then sat cross-legged on the shirt. “And McBully’s tent? How does it look?”
“Absolutely flattened.” He shook his head, his expression dour. “Yours, too. But I think we’ll be able to salvage some of your stuff later.”
“I can’t believe we lived through that. That was awful.” The images of the cataclysm tore through her mind.
The line of his mouth was tight. “Yeah, it was.” He winced, his face shrouded in concern. “But it was worse when I thought you were going to be here all alone. I don’t know what I would have done if I’d lost you.”
A lump formed in her throat. Her heart thumped hard in her chest and urged her toward him. Lowering her face to his, she touched her lips to his for a kiss and reveled in the sharp intake of his breath just before she met him. His soft morning scent swirled in her nostrils as she bade him a sultry good morning mingled with another thank you, tasting him thoroughly before she drew away.
“Hey. Where you going?”
“Just waking up.”
Dare sat up, taking care to bunch the sheet up over his lap, but not until she caught a glimpse of naked, tanned waist.
Her perusal of him apparently prompted an explanation. “I washed up outside this morning, on the beach. There’s stray bits of clothing all over the place, but there’s no one on the island. I stayed in the buff. It’s gorgeous out there today. I came to see how you were and to bring you this.”
He reached over to the other side and the sheet slipped. Firm, supple, glorious male ass cheek front and center as he took his time fiddling with something.
He knew she’d look. Was looking. Couldn’t drag her eyes away from…
“Here.” He was back, sheet in place over…Johnny.
Yeah, Johnny.
Saluting the morning. A most cocky, perpendicular, almost ninety-degrees salute.
She really had to drag her mind from this tropical gutter and get back on track.
But Dare Logan had more tricks up his sleeve. “I got something for you.” He held a brown, hairy coconut in his palmed hands, wet, succulent flesh at its split top. “Here. For you.”
The absolute coolness of the moment ricocheted through her. She and the only man she’d ever fallen for were marooned on a tropical island, and he was offering her a native breakfast that he’d gone out to get with his own two, bare hands.
She sighed as she skimmed a slow glance over him. His chiseled, lean body, unruly nut-brown hair with the scent of the ocean still in it, and sexy, soft stubble shadowing his chin.
His blue, piercing eyes gazing into hers.
Shit. This really was another perfect moment.
Her eyes teared over, and she watched him watching her with soulful eyes.
Shit. Still perfect.
“Here. Take a sip.” He leaned toward her, holding the opened fruit under her chin, then tipped it to her lips.
She opened her mouth and the sweet, clean milk coated her lips, trickled down her throat. The cool liquid dribbled down her chin, fell to the hollow of her throat then continued its trek under her tank. It dampened the thin fabric, pasting it to her skin with sweet coconut juice.
Dare lifted his finger to her chin and dabbed the juice away with soft little pats. Raising his fingertip to her mouth, he smeared the pale water along her bottom lip and traced its contours.
Then he lowered his fingers to her cool skin where the trail of milk began again in a wiggly little line, right at her breastbone. She shivered as he drew his knuckle downwards and her nipples budded into tightness.
The soft pad of his finger flattened against her heated skin as her breast rose, in time to her ragged breathing.
A little lower and yes…
…he’d captured her nipple.
Leaning into the moment, she swayed. The pressure was exquisite, and her eyelids shuttered. He drew the tank away from her skin, took advantage of the deep cut of the armhole, pulled the fabric to the middle, and exposed her breast. She felt the hit of cool air.
Bending to her, his hot breath fanned her flesh. Then his tongue made her breast’s reacquaintance, up close and personal. A tiny lick, teasing, as sensation rippled through her. A couple more definite, pressing licks that surged to her core. Slow, methodical. He followed that up by flattening his tongue against the nipple and licking around it in a luscious circle.
A whole menu of booby taste-testings.
Then drawing the tight bud into his mouth, he sucked.
Damn. Her breast, at that moment, existed to be in his mouth.
“Oh.” She clenched the sheet at her side, gripping it hard in her fingers. His lips lapped masterfully on that breast. He awakened all the pleasure points within her flesh with his intense focus, and an arc of electricity shot to her pussy.
She moaned and shifted her core forward.
His hands slid to her ass. Bunching the hem of the long tank in his fingers, he started to draw it up over her hips, up to her waist. Lifting higher until she felt the hit of cool air on her skin, and she was naked.
Just then a splat of water plopped on to her chest, and she squealed, gazed upward. “Ew!”
Dare grabbed the corner of the sheet, wiped off the water. “Come here, out of the way.” He pulled her to his chest, his big hand drawing her tight against him. She drew in his scent, her face against his naked chest. Clean, briny. Like the ocean he’d bathed in today. She nuzzled her nose deeper into the silky hairs covering his chest. God, she was so lucky. Lucky. Her sexy ex consoling her. Maybe…not her ex anymore?
But a thought jumped into her brain, and she went with it. Just you know, in case.
“Any ex-wives with four children tucked away somewhere I should know about?”
His soft, low chuckle reassured her. “No.”
“Any girlfriends? I understand if you…”
“No.”
She drew in a quick breath. That hadn’t hurt too much. “So…nothing serious? In all that time?”
“No. There were a couple, but it was no big deal. We got naked. Made out. The end.” A shudder passed through his face. “Really the end, Abby. I saw one of them a few months later, and she crossed the street to avoid me. I tried to date recently, but nothing clicked. Mom tried to fix me up with some girl I heard was really nice, but I wasn’t interested. So when I saw your name listed in some of McMaster’s production listings online …”
She did lurch upright this time. “You knew I was on this shoot?”
He raised both hands in the air, palms facing her. “Whoa. I knew you worked for McMaster from time to time. I’d been consulting with him on a few things, so it wasn’t that big a deal that I found out.”
Oh no. He wasn’t getting off that easy. “But did you know I was on this shoot? Here, on Chandelle?”
He twisted his mouth. “Um, I do believe I read that somewhere.”
“You rat!” She smacked him on the arm. “So you knew? And you treated me like crap when we met? And glowered at me the rest of the time for, oh what. The icing on the cake?”
He dropped his hands and grinned at her. “Busted.”
Rolling her eyes, she shook her head, her wild curls flying everywhere. “You men are so…”
He flashed her a killer smile.
And she just grinned back, wanting for all the world to give him hell, but somehow…she just didn’t want to.
His expression sobered. “It was a long way to Chandelle. But not so long when you think it could impact the rest of my life, you know?”
Pleasure flowed through her. It had been so long since they’d shared intimate secrets easily like this. She hugged it close, resolving to take this memory out later and replay it. “I know. So, this was a plan from the get-go?”
“Consciously? No. Hell, if you were here, other side of the universe, and all that. But things conspired to get me here. And I have to say…bless that damn serendipity.”
“Yeah,” she muttered, her fingers grazing the top of his hand, skimming over his knuckles as he turned it palm up, locking his fingers with hers. Squeezing. “Agreed.”
A quick movement together, their lips yielding. Meeting, tasting each other oh so lightly. Then drawing away, fingers still intertwined, breathing hushed.
He drew a curved finger down her cheek gently.
And then she remembered. The bad spot for him in all this, from everything she’d picked up on. And her happiness soured. “What about the gig in Tokyo? Are you in trouble for blowing it off?”
He pursed his lips into a frown and shrugged. “I don’t know. They have to understand a tropical weather event changes things. But if it’s not meant to be, I have other leads to tug on. Don’t you worry.” But in direct opposition to his words, anxiety creased his forehead, and his smile faded.
There was more to this, she bet.
“Tokyo’s awfully far for you to go. You always wanted to stay close to your mom and Tabby before. Even though your mom remarried. Is that all okay now?”
His mouth slanted downward. “No. The jerk left. Truthfully, that was the best thing he did.”
She winced. Too bad that hadn’t worked out for Barbara, though they’d both hoped, way back then. She copped a look at his face, shrouded.
Still not sharing everything. Protecting her. Her stomach did a gentle flip as she realized this man had apparently boundless depths of love available for those lucky enough to be his.
And she was one of them. Seemed like she’d never stopped being one, on some crazy level, despite what she’d thought.
And he’d always been hers too, she thought. Despite everything that had gone down between them. No wonder she hadn’t been able to move on.
Well, damned if his problems wouldn’t be hers, too. They always were before. “Money issues?”
“Some.”
She had no money, she was as broke as he was. More, possibly.
But…
…she now had the fee from the contest. She obviously hadn’t entered a damn thing. There was a refund policy.
She had that money.
“You said you needed money for some new equipment—is that right?”
“Yeah. A job the guys have started on. Something’s come up, and we can’t rent the stuff either. But it’s the biggest job we’ve ever taken on. Something that would really look good on our resume and speak to being able to take on much bigger jobs.”
He’d sacrificed so much for her, and the thought burned in her—he wasn’t in this alone. No way.
It wasn’t much, but he could have the fee.
But something else she did have—and it was from her previous, well-to-do life—she’d gladly share, work to life for him if necessary. A bit of joy arced through her, because there was a way she could help him. The idea got her breathing quickly, as excitement funneled through her.
One of her father’s business connections, an older man who’d always liked her, when she’d interned one summer, early on at their head office, might be the answer. If she could convince him of Dare’s rock solid ethics and smarts.
The man guarded his money like a tiger guarded a fresh kill, but if a viable business opportunity was presented to him, he was all ears. Though he held a disdain for art, and that included photography, she knew that the nuts and bolts, the practicality of building suited him to a T. “The type of issue that a new investor could smooth out?”
He arched his brows in query. “Well, yeah. But that hasn’t been easy, for all kinds of stupid reasons. The economy. Fairly new business. Take your pick.” His face fashioned itself into a disdainful wince. “That’s why I needed McMaster.”
But….that was serendipity, as he’d said. Just when you thought you were down, deep in the mired hole, it lifted you out and gave you a rare gift. “So you need someone who really trusts the owner of the business? Has, oh let’s say, oodles and oodles of confidence in his abilities?”
She saw the second he got her drift, because his gaze caught on her and disapproval came down like a curtain. He glared at her. “No.”
“And who happens to know he’s a major hunk who always delivers. Good business risk.”
His jaw set, gaze resolute. “I won’t take money from you.”
She smiled. It wasn’t necessary to fight the battle now.
“Okay, Lord of the Universe.” She reached out, tapped his cheek playfully, then grinned. “But if it’s really bad, you have to tell me. Got that? If you’re going to watch out for me, it goes both ways. Deal?”
He didn’t answer, but the lines of his face eased. And she knew, if he needed help, she’d find a way to do it. “So. We good now?”
“Not quite.” He cast a glance toward the exit from their little cavern and nodded his head in its direction. “Okay, little miss-spend-the-morning-in-a-cave-when-it’s-gorgeous-outside. I do believe there was one more matter we had to settle, right?”
“And that would be?”
“Uh, chick flick. Right?”
The look she cast him was one that said he was insane. “Huh? You don’t have the equipment here!”
The grin he shot back was playful, but his eyes darkened to a foreboding cobalt. His gaze traced the route the coconut juice had taken, then skimmed back to her mouth. Outlined her lips with his eyes. As he did, her nipples tightened and suddenly, he…
…well, he looked like the perfect sex slave.
She arched her eyebrows at him, the question apparent in her expression.
His gaze fixed on her. “I most definitely have the equipment available. At hand, and at the ready. And let's change locales, huh?” He waved a hand at the cavern, which suddenly seemed very dark and closed in, despite the trio of sunbeams that speared in from above.
The storm had passed. And that's not what she wanted either, suddenly.
Those sexy blue eyes scrutinized her. "A tropical beach. Haven’t you always wanted to...on a beach? Free? Unfettered?”
Damn. She did want free. And unfettered.
On a tropical beach.
He stood and wrapped the sheet around his groin. Clamping the opposite ends of the sheet between his index finger and his thumb, he fixed her with a defiant expression. “Are you game? Are you willing to come out and see what lies ahead?”
He grabbed his cell phone, ducked to get through the exit...and vanished.
From an Amazon Reviewer...
5 STARS
"Dare is a focused, hardworking contractor – sexy, smart, and handsome as a romance hero should be, and it quickly comes slamming home that he has never gotten over his girl. Beautiful, smart, and talented, Abby is a photographer trying to make her mark on the industry when a dangerous situation on the island necessitates relying on the one man she has sworn never to trust again."
Real Deep Everywhere:
https://books2read.com/RealDeep
Real Deep - Amazon
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Another FABULOUS RELEASE in the THACKERAY COLLEGE WORLD...
LIVE NOW!
Winning Her Love by Alexa Stone
When sorority girl Natalie shares a scorching hot kiss with hockey star Logan on the dance floor, she can’t believe it. They have history, and it’s one they’d both like to forget. The real question is do they also have a future?
https://www.amazon.com/Winning-Her-Love-College-Romance-ebook/dp/B098Z6HWQ2/
Change of Heart by Suzana Thompson
After an injury leaves Riley with no personal memories, all she wants is some semblance of normalcy. Unfortunately, her interactions with Asher are anything but normal. For starters, he keeps accusing her of faking her amnesia. Despite their animosity, there’s a spark between them that can't be denied.
https://www.amazon.com/Change-Heart-Enemies-College-Romance-ebook/dp/B098ZQ9NDZ/
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You're going to LOVE the Thackeray College, New Adult...
LOVE AT FIRST KISS world!
A multi-author collection...just for you!
Oh, that first kiss...
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That's it for this week, my Friend!
If you're so inclined, shoot me a fast email and let me know -
Did you love reading in the summer, as a kid?
Was it a big part of YOUR summer?
I love hearing from you.
🎈🎈🎈
☀️ Have a super week and see you in two weeks. ☀️
xoxo
Happy Escaping!
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Susan's Series
The Delta North Main Series (Books 1 - 7)
&
The Delta North Companion Novella Series (Books 1-6)
&
Nathan Unwrapped (Book 1) + A Refuge Bay Christmas: Their Daughter's First Christmas
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A Refuge Bay Christmas: Their Daughter's First Christmas: Add to GoodReads
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Susan Saxx writes small town military romance with swoon-worthy heroes. Some of it is sexy, some is blisteringly hot, and some is sweet - because it all depends on the couple!
Susan writes in the m/m genre as well.
She also unabashedly loves the various holidays, and Christmas. :)
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