His to Seduce Read online

  His to Seduce is a work of fiction. Names, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  A Loveswept Ebook Original

  Copyright © 2017 by Stacey Lynn

  Excerpt from Love, Always and Forever by Alexis Morgan copyright © 2017 by Patricia L. Pritchard

  All rights reserved.

  Published in the United States by Loveswept, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.

  LOVESWEPT is a registered trademark and the LOVESWEPT colophon is a trademark of Penguin Random House LLC.

  This book contains an excerpt from the forthcoming book Love, Always and Forever by Alexis Morgan. This excerpt has been set for this edition only and may not reflect the final content of the forthcoming edition.

  Ebook ISBN 9781101967980

  Cover design: Caroline Teagle

  Cover photograph: © Kisilev Andrey Valerevich/Shutterstock

  randomhousebooks.com

  v4.1

  ep

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  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

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Epilogue

  Dedication

  Acknowledgments

  By Stacey Lynn

  About the Author

  Excerpt from Love, Always and Forever

  Chapter 1

  Camden

  My back hit the metal shelf behind me and I cringed.

  “David.” I gripped his shoulders tighter. His hands squeezed my backside as he moved us.

  “Fuck, sorry.” In the darkness it was almost impossible to see, but my eyes slowly adjusted as he pushed aside a stack of tablecloths and placed me on a table. “Better?”

  His hand gently brushed down my cheek and goosebumps popped on my arms.

  What was I doing?

  The salty Jamaican air had scrambled my senses.

  Or I was tired of being alone. Tired of being the outsider among all my friends who had recently found the loves of their lives. I was thrilled for them, especially Tyson and Blue, whose marriage we had celebrated earlier on the beach of a Jamaican resort. In the last year, I’d watched three of my closest friends fall in love and find the men of their dreams, along with their happily ever afters. I was genuinely happy for them, but I was also tired of being the one who always went home alone.

  This…whatever it was with David…gave me a break, if only for a moment.

  “Please,” I whispered, and leaned into his palm now cupping my cheek. His hands were strong. Long, tanned fingers that had made me think of naughty things like this for months.

  In the darkness, I saw a flash of his white teeth. “I like it when you beg. When you need me.”

  Tonight’s need was selfish. A moment to forget the loneliness. A moment to take what I’d been too chicken to go after for months even though it was right in front of me.

  He’d been right before my eyes, flirting relentlessly and trying to break me down. Tonight, I was tired of fighting the pull I’d felt for him despite how wrong I knew he was for me. This was one night. A moment of wildness I didn’t usually indulge in, but who didn’t enjoy getting laid at a friend’s wedding? It was almost a requirement.

  His hands dropped to my knees, spreading them wide so he could step in between them.

  His fingers teased my thighs, running up and down my bare flesh until I shivered from the softness of his touch.

  My eyes were half-lidded when I forced myself to look at him. I saw only his lust for me, and my heart rioted against my rib cage.

  Damn…he wanted me. It was as thrilling as it was terrifying.

  One of his hands left my leg and cupped the back of my neck. He pulled me to him until our foreheads touched.

  “I want this,” he said, his voice thick and gruff. “Tell me you want this.”

  “I want it.”

  “Tell me you want me.”

  I couldn’t. A long time ago I swore to myself I’d never be vulnerable again. I certainly wasn’t about to make that admission when all I currently wanted was a night of pretending and forgetting.

  “Camden, I want you to know that when I sink into you, when I push your panties to the side and run my fingers through your wetness, this isn’t a one-time thing for us. This is the beginning.”

  I shivered again. From his words, his promise—something I so desperately craved but was too terrified to take hold of.

  I shifted my hips, pulling him to me until his erection brushed against my center.

  “Tonight.” I gasped as he rubbed against me in the perfect spot. “It’s all I can promise.”

  He chuckled, moving his mouth against my cheek, down to my jaw and my throat. “We’ll see about that.”

  —

  My breathing was still erratic as I pushed down my gray silk dress, the same dress everyone in the bridal party had worn for the wedding.

  “You okay?” David asked.

  I couldn’t look at him. My pulse pounded and my fingers were trembling when they went to my hair to smooth it back. It was no use.

  “I look like a mess,” I said, unable to see myself in the darkened closet where we’d just had sex. But I knew I did, based on the hair that had escaped my clips and pins. God. I’d just let David, a man I’d avoided for months despite my physical attraction to him, sweep me into a darkened supply closet and screw me senseless during a wedding.

  A wedding! My friend’s wedding!

  Panic rolled through me and I flashed my eyes to David.

  He was calm as a cucumber, tucking his white linen shirt back into the waistband of his gray dress pants.

  “What did we do?” I asked. I pressed my hand to my chest to calm my heart rate, but it was useless. “They’re going to know. And—”

  He curved his arms around my shoulders and slid his lips against mine. It did nothing to quell the stampede I felt inside me. Instead, everything increased…the heat flooding my veins, the pounding in my ears.

  “We did what I’ve been wanting to do ever since I first saw you. That’s what happened.” He pulled back to whisper in my ear, “It was incredible, and I want more of you. On my bed, in the light so I can see you.”

  I shook my head. “We can’t.”

  “Oh. We can.”

  I squeezed my eyes closed before forcing myself to look at him. David was gorgeous. Lean and handsome, with short sandy-blond hair that was cropped in a professionally styled cut. His blue eyes were beautiful, even though I couldn’t see them clearly at the moment. When he’d first showed up at Fireside Grill months ago, I’d barely been able to pull my eyes off him. It was still difficult, but months of practice had helped me at least act like I wasn’t affected by him. He wasn’t only sexy, but calm and laid back. He laughed easily and often. He’d shown up in Latham Hills after his friend Aidan�
��s son died in a skateboarding accident and then made himself at home behind the bar at our friend Declan’s Fireside Grill restaurant.

  For months now, he’d made it clear he wanted me. My resolve to stay away was dwindling by the day, especially after this.

  He was my complete opposite. And absolutely wrong for me.

  “David,” I sighed. “That was a—”

  He pressed two fingers against my lips. “Don’t say mistake. It wasn’t. It was wonderful. And besides,” his lips lifted into a grin, “you promised me the night and it’s not nearly over yet.”

  “Everyone will know.” This wasn’t me, and everyone knew it. I didn’t succumb to temptation, despite how good the promise of it was. My life was controlled and ordered. Planned out to the letter. I couldn’t afford to let myself get swept away in the silliness like the rest of my friends. I didn’t have that luxury. It was my lists and organization and neurotic planning that had kept me sane for the last sixteen years.

  “I don’t care.” His fingers slid to my jaw and then to my neck before sliding around to the back. I shivered from his gentle touch. From the way he made me feel. “Turn around.”

  “What?”

  “Your hair’s a mess and I want to fix it.”

  “Oh.” My hands went back to my hair but he stopped me, taking my hands in his and tugging them to my side. “I can do it.”

  “I know, but I want to.”

  Turning me around, his hands glided up my arms to my hair and I began to relax. My auburn hair was long and thick and held back with dozens of pins, half of it up and the other half curled in a way that would have taken me hours to do had I done it myself.

  Fortunately, Blue had covered the cost for all of us at a salon at the resort where she and Tyson had swept us away for their last-minute wedding. Not having much family, and a small circle of friends, they’d decided to forgo a typical wedding and whisked everyone to Jamaica for a long weekend. We’d arrived yesterday but hadn’t had much time to relax. Most of the day and night and then this morning had been busy with wedding preparations.

  “That feels good.” I sighed as David began releasing pins and gathering them in his hands. I relaxed, leaning forward and holding on to the table in front of me. The table where I’d sat minutes ago and had sex. I inhaled a deep breath, calming myself before I panicked again. “Thank you for helping me with this.”

  “My pleasure,” he whispered, as if now he cared about anyone hearing us. “We’ll get this done and then say our good nights. Think anyone missed us?”

  I laughed awkwardly. “If they noticed we were gone at all…”

  The only reason I’d allowed David to take me away from the reception was because it had been just the two of us. He’d walked up to me at the bar, bought me a drink, and then before I knew it, after flirting like he’d been doing for months, he was tugging me down a hallway. I’d thought maybe we were going for a walk when he asked me if I wanted to get away for a moment; I hadn’t expected him to guide me into a closet and kiss me.

  But what a kiss it had been.

  “They noticed. They’re probably thrilled.”

  “I’m not sure I can talk about this.” He slid his hands into my hair and I groaned. My head fell forward as he massaged my scalp with his strong fingers. I didn’t typically like having my hair touched and played with. His sure and confident touch made me forget why for a moment.

  “I like that what we just did makes you nervous. I bet when I pull you back into the hallway and take you to my room for round two, your chest will be bright pink.”

  I was stuck on the thought of going back to his room for round two and it took me a moment to realize what else he’d said. “Don’t tease me.” I pressed my hand to my chest to hide the heated skin. Splotchy wasn’t attractive.

  “Hey.” He turned me around again and cupped my cheeks with his palms. All the lightness evaporated from his tone as he moved close to me. “I’m not teasing you. I think it’s sexy as hell when you blush. When it starts at your cheeks and spreads to your neck.” A finger trailed down my skin as he spoke, making me shiver…and yes…blush.

  “We should go back to the wedding.”

  “We’ll wave to them as we leave.” He licked his lips and grinned. One of his hands moved back until the doorknob clicked, the door opened, and light from the hall flooded in. “I need you.”

  Need. No one needed me. No one had ever needed me. He might have been saying he just wanted my body, but I didn’t care.

  I liked the way the admission rolled off his lips.

  I grinned then, unable to stop it as he pulled the door open and his eyes dropped to my chest. He winked when he looked at me and tugged me into the hall.

  “Tonight,” I reminded him. “I promised you tonight.”

  “Sure, Camden. For tonight.”

  He might as well have called me a liar.

  We walked down the hall, back to the reception area, and I clung to his hand holding mine. I ducked my head, embarrassed to see anyone, but when we got back to the restaurant, it was empty.

  My head snapped to him and he laughed, throwing his head back. “Looks like everyone had the same idea we did.”

  He winked at me again, and darn it. He was so cute when he was playful, which he generally was. Strong jaw and cheekbones, perfectly straight nose, David could have been a model, admired by millions on a billboard if he wanted to be with his long and lean but finely formed frame.

  “Well.” I grinned and shook my head in disbelief. “I guess I don’t have to worry about them seeing us together.”

  The humor evaporated from his eyes and I wanted to kick myself. I’d made it clear to my friends for months that I wouldn’t date David. I craved financial stability and safe men. A bartender who swooped into town could just as easily flee whenever the mood struck.

  In that moment, I wasn’t thinking about David’s job or his lack of money or anything except the fact that I’d done something outside my comfort zone and my friends would think it was hilarious.

  I was twenty-nine years old and just had my first taste of wedding sex in a closet that could potentially lead to my first one-night stand. In my mind, I heard Suzanne and Chelsea’s unending, gleeful laughter.

  Before I could explain that it was my behavior I was embarrassed about, he turned and tugged me forward. “I can take you back to your room, Camden. I don’t want to pressure you into this. If that’s all that was for, just a way to get off with someone while you were at a wedding and feeling emotional, I get it. But I’m telling you now that I want more.” He dropped his hand from mine and stepped back. “Your choice.”

  In for a penny, in for a pound. I’d agreed to this, and not only that, I wanted it. I wanted to see David’s body like he wanted to see mine. I wanted to throw away my lists and my carefully planned life, if only for a night.

  I felt something with David, something I had tried to ignore. It felt like freedom and fun and a wildness I had never experienced before. As he stood in front of me, waiting, there was no choice.

  For the night, I was letting go of everything and taking what I was tired of denying myself.

  I sucked my bottom lip between my teeth and stepped forward, pressing my palm to his chest. It tightened beneath me, and David peered down at me with beautiful blue eyes brighter than the Caribbean Sea.

  “Take me to your room, David. And show me what else you have planned for me.”

  Chapter 2

  David

  I slid my key into the door of my private bungalow and pushed it open. As much as I wanted to throw Camden over my shoulder and not give her a choice, I could practically hear her thinking. She was worrying. She was debating turning around at any moment. In the last five months, Camden had become someone I studied, mostly from a distance.

  Camden was uptight. She was more serious than the rest of her friends, and she regarded everyone with wariness. But I saw something different in her, too. I had learned that once you’d earned her loya
lty, she’d die for you. I saw the way she loved her friends as if they were more important to her than anyone else in the world. I saw the way she fought for them and defended them. She couldn’t hide everything beneath her straight, professional skirts and blouses always perfectly pressed, and her hair always wrapped and tight at the base of her neck.

  Since the first night I’d talked to her, I’d had multiple fantasies about what her hair would feel like, how soft it would be, how beautiful if she simply let it down. My dick was still hard from running my hands through it. It was even softer and more beautiful and longer than I could have ever imagined.

  Fuck, I wanted her. I wanted to be the man that solved her puzzle, despite knowing I’d been hiding something really big from her. But like Camden had her secrets and reasons, I had mine. I wouldn’t bare those to anyone, either, until I knew I could trust them.

  Perhaps we actually had something in common.

  “You still doing okay?” I asked, as I held the door open and gestured for her to enter. She’d chewed on her lip so harshly I saw marks on it when it popped from her teeth.

  “Yeah.” She grinned and stepped inside, tucking a chunk of her hair behind her ear when she pushed past me. “Have anything to drink in here, though?”

  “At the bar.” I pointed in the direction and followed her. God, she was pretty. Her hair was curled and wild and draped down to her waist at the back, hiding the openness of the dress that exposed almost everything. The skirt of her dress swayed back and forth, curving around her ass and hips in the most spectacular, teasing way.

  I unbuttoned my white shirt at the wrists and rolled them up, meeting her at the bar. “What would you like? There’s some wine and beer in the fridge.”