of her jeans was rubbing against the most secret place of her body. She wanted to wrap her arms around her chest to try to quell the terrible aching in her breasts, yet she knew that would only draw attention to them.
Leila had read plenty of books and seen most of the current crop of films which had got past the palace censors. She might have been sheltered, but she wasn’t stupid. This was sexual attraction she was experiencing for the first time and she knew it was wrong. Yet even as she silently urged herself to get out before she made even more of a fool of herself, those rebellious thoughts came back to plague her.
She thought about how her brother behaved. How her own father had behaved. She’d heard the rumours about their sexual conquests often enough. She knew that men often acted on the kind of attraction she was experiencing right now, if the circumstances were right. People sometimes got intimate after nothing more than a short acquaintanceship, and nobody thought the worst of them for doing so. Because physical love wasn’t a crime, was it?
Was it?
‘What might you regret?’ she asked, but she knew the answer to her question as soon as the words had left her lips. Because you wouldn’t need to be experienced to realise why Gabe Steel’s face had darkened like that. Or why he was staring at her with a hot, hard look which was making her feel weak.
‘Does your mother know you’re out?’ he questioned roughly.
She shook her head. ‘I don’t have a mother. Or a father.’ She kept her voice light, the way she’d learned to do. ‘I’m just an orphan girl.’
His eyes narrowed. Darkened. He winced, as if she’d said something which had caused him pain.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said softly and reached out to brush the tip of his thumb over her lips. ‘So sorry.’
The weirdest thing was that Leila wasn’t sure if he was talking to her, or talking to himself. But suddenly she didn’t care because it was happening—just like in all the films she’d seen. He was reaching out and pulling her into his arms and she could feel the heat of his body as he moulded it against her. He framed her face with the palms of his hands and now his mouth was coming down towards hers. He seemed to be moving in slow motion, and Leila felt weak with excitement as her lips parted eagerly to meet his.
Because for the first time in her life, a man was going to kiss her.
Copyright © 2014 by Sharon Kendrick
A SEAL’s Salvation
Tawny Weber
“What exactly do you think you’re doing?”
“Seducing you.”
Damn. That was what Brody had been afraid of.
“You were trying to pretend we’re just friends. Except we aren’t,” Genna murmured. “What we are is crazy attracted to each other. We need to act on that attraction … The total act, with you naked. I’m willing to be on top if you’re still holding on to that friendship myth of yours. That way you can tell yourself I took advantage.”
He made some sort of choking sound, sure if he had any blood left in his brain it would have been words of protest.
Then Genna let her dress fall to the floor. Brody actually gulped trying not to swallow his tongue.
She was gorgeous.
Ivory limbs glowed like silk, the long sleek length of her interrupted by tiny pieces of black lace. He didn’t know where to start. At the top, where the lace cupped the gentle slope of her breasts. Or at the bottom, where it was barely held in place by two tiny strings.
His gaze as hot as the blood rushing through his body, he decided to settle for the middle. At the cherry-red jewel decorating her belly button.
Screw friendship. And screw good sense.
He was gonna let Genna Reilly seduce him …
USA TODAY bestselling author Tawny Weber has been writing sassy, sexy romances since her first Mills & Boon® Blaze® was published in 2007. A fan of Johnny Depp, cupcakes and color coordination, she spends a lot of her time shopping for cute shoes, scrap-booking and hanging out on Facebook.
Come by and visit her website, www.tawnyweber.com, for hunky contests, delicious recipes and lots of fun.
To Birgit.
Here’s to many fabulous books.
I think we’re going to have a lot of fun together!
Contents
1
Ten Years Before
“GENNA, YOU’RE CRAZY. You don’t have to do this.”
“Of course I do. You dared me.” Genna Reilly gave her best friend a wide-eyed look. The one she used whenever she wanted to appear extra sweet and innocent.
The sweet part was usually an act. The innocent part was pure truth, though. But
