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Monte picked up one of the strawberries and held it out in front of him
Torie looked up at him and opened her mouth to receive the fruit. Monte rubbed it along the outline of her lips before placing it in her awaiting mouth. Torie closed her lips around the berry, but did not bite down. Instead, she sucked it firmly and then released it. Monte’s mouth fell open as he stared at her.
Torie stuck out her tongue and licked the fruit in a circular motion. She let her tongue dance around its tip and then its entire circumference, before closing her mouth over it again. This time she bit down and removed a large chunk of the ripe berry. She moved closer to Monte with juice dripping down from her bottom lip. He leaned in, catching her mouth in his. They kissed until the strawberry was gone. They disengaged from their fiery kiss and Torie placed both hands on Monte’s shoulders and pushed him backward until he was lying on his back. She swung her left leg over his body and straddled him. She sat down on his upper thighs and, though he tried to pull her up higher to make contact with his throbbing manhood, she wouldn’t budge.
“Patience,” she said.
KIM SHAW
is a high school English teacher in New Jersey, where she resides with her husband and two children. In addition to writing and teaching, she is working on a literacy project aimed at improving reading and cultural awareness in her community.
Lift Me Higher
Kim Shaw
MILLS & BOON
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Lift Me Higher is dedicated to people who are more interested in what they can do to uplift others than in how they themselves can benefit.
You know who you are.
Dear Reader,
I wrote Lift Me Higher because I wanted to look at a relationship from the male perspective. Too often attention is paid to the single mother and how difficult it is for her to balance family, career and passion. Lift Me Higher asks, “what about the single father?” Men are burdened with the expectation that they be strong and unsusceptible to heartache. Monte Lewis shows that a real man is one who can put it down on the job and at home, while still being human and vulnerable. He’s a man who knows that with a real woman by his side, there is nothing he can’t do. I hope you enjoy his story.
Currently, I am working on several different things. There are so many interesting characters taking up space in my brain—like the sexy firefighter who likes his women as hot as his fires, until he gets burned, or the grocery clerk turned lottery winner who finds that true love doesn’t need a bunch of zeroes on the end! I continue to write to entertain, enlighten and inform, and I thank you for your continued readership.
Sincerely,
Kim Shaw
Contents
Chapter 1: Simply Stunning
Chapter 2: You Can’t Have It All
Chapter 3: Trapped
Chapter 4: The Scent of Roses
Chapter 5: Cards on the Table
Chapter 6: Undress My Heart
Chapter 7: A Father’s Love
Chapter 8: In Too Deep
Chapter 9: Hesitant Heart
Chapter 10: Dear Mama
Chapter 11: Lean on Me
Chapter 12: Lights, Cameras…Action
Chapter 13: Shadow of Doubt
Chapter 14: Trouble in Paradise
Chapter 15: Too Good to Be True
Chapter 16: Confessions
Chapter 17: Secrets
Chapter 18: Pride Is a Poor Substitute
Chapter 19: Home at the Holidays
Chapter 20: Hello Hollywood
Chapter 21: Missing You
Chapter 22: On My Mind
Chapter 23: Opposing Forces
Chapter 24: A Friend Indeed
Chapter 25: Moving On
Chapter 26: At a Standstill
Chapter 27: Ghosts of the Past
Chapter 28: No Surrender
Chapter 29: The Hard Choices
Chapter 30: New Beginnings
Chapter 31: Permission Granted
Chapter 1
Simply Stunning
Monte scanned the day’s calendar on his PDA as he moved toward the elevator bank for floors twenty through thirty-one of midtown Manhattan’s Time Warner building. He adjusted his red tie and smoothed the lapels of his midnight-blue Brooks Brothers suit absently, thinking about all he had to do in the day ahead of him. The lobby area was just beginning to buzz with activity at seven forty-five on a Tuesday morning. Monte had an eight-thirty meeting and a string of conference calls to follow. It would be a busy day as usual, through which he would plow tirelessly, making deals come together seamlessly. No matter, he thought, because by five o’clock Monte would call it quits for the day. His boys had a Little League game that evening and, with him being their coach as well, it definitely wouldn’t do for him to be late.
Monte opened the Daily News paper he’d tucked beneath his arm, turning
