Synopsis
In the first novel in USA Today
bestselling author Claire Kent’s deeply sensual story of love, lust,
and deception, a woman searching for the truth discovers that she’s
sleeping with the enemy.
Portrait artist Kelly Watson keeps her relationships simple and steamy,
with no strings attached. She’s had a hard time trusting other people
since she was a child, when her father was murdered for trying to blow
the whistle on corporate corruption. Nearly twenty years later, Kelly
finds herself in the arms of a seductive stranger—the very same man who
may have ordered her father’s death. And even as she plays him, using
hot sex as a means to revenge, Kelly is tormented by one question: Is
she committing the ultimate betrayal?
Caleb Marshall has spent decades forging a high-powered career,
rejecting intimacy for the convenience of fast women and cheap thrills.
But Kelly intrigues him, pushing commitment buttons he didn’t know he
had. Still, something is wrong. Despite their physical and emotional
chemistry, Caleb feels the fear inside of her. Now the only way to keep
her safe is coming clean, before secrets and lies destroy their
connection—no matter how deep, intense, and addictive it may be.
Excerpt
“Pet portraits?” the man asked
skeptically, with that same smug laughter in his eyes.
“What’s your point?”
“Nothing. You’re just that type, aren’t
you?”
“What type?”
“Pet portrait artist. At one with the
universe. Lover of flowers and trees and all furry creatures. Filling
the world with pretty objects and warm fuzzies. I bet they call you
Blossom, don’t they?” His tone was bone dry, as if far above such
sentiment.
He probably was. She could tell even
from their brief interaction that he was too intelligent, too
experienced, too competent to have patience with anything trite or
saccharine.
She liked that about him. Despite her
intentionally bohemian appearance just now, she was as far as possible
from those feelings herself.
“You don’t know me at all,” she said,
pleased at the cool aloofness of her tone.
It just made him smile. When his dog lay
down with the Frisbee, panting blissfully, the man started walking
toward him, evidently expecting Kelly to fall in step with him. “I know
a little about you. I know you paint pet portraits. I know you’re
wearing vegan sandals and are reluctant to cut your hair. And I know
you have on your bracelet various charms of dogs, cats, birds, and
flowers.” He arched his eyebrows. “I think I’ve got a pretty clear
sense of you.”
The bracelet was stupid, but her clients
always liked it, and her hair was indeed very long, hanging down to the
small of her back. But this arrogant man couldn’t be more wrong.
He might be eerily observant, but he
knew nothing.
“Is that right?” she replied, giving him
arched eyebrows in response. “You might be surprised about me. But
there’s no way I’d be surprised about you. I’d know your type in my
sleep.”
“Blossom, you could know my type in your
sleep, if you asked nicely.”
She felt another tingle of excitement at
the sexiness of his tone but ignored it. “You wear a suit to work every
day, don’t you?”
“What does that have to do with
anything?”
“Nothing. It’s just your type. You’re
one of those guys who wears a business suit like armor—going through
the world as if the nameplate on your office entitles you to whatever
you want. As if your bank account makes you superior.”
The words weren’t particularly gentle,
but he looked interested rather than offended. “What makes you think I
have anything impressive in my bank account?”
“Please. I know roughly how much that
watch you’re wearing costs.”
B ecause of the Watsons, her adoptive
parents, Kelly was in good shape financially, but she didn’t own
anything except her car that cost as much as the watch he was wearing.
“And I bet you’re wondering why would I
spend money on something so superficial when I could be donating it to
all the homeless animals in the world?” Again, he was teasing in that
intimate way, as if he really did know her.
“I’m not like that,” she told him,
speaking only the truth.
“Sure you aren’t.” He flashed her a
grin. “What happened to your client, anyway?”
Kelly had actually forgotten about her
client, so absorbed in the conversation had she been. She gave a little
jerk and turned back to scan the park, focusing on the entrance, but
there was no sign of another man with a German shepherd. “I think I’ve
been stood up. It happens sometimes.”
Just then, her phone chirped with
another text, so she reached in to pull it out of her bag. “Maybe
that’s him.”
When she focused on the screen, she
realized it wasn’t her client. Are you sure? I’d make it worth your
while. Promise.
She sighed. Jesse. Why the hell wouldn’t
he just give up?
“Not your client,” the man beside her
said.
She glanced up. “How do you know?”
“I’m pretty good at reading expressions.
Who is it? Your boyfriend being annoying?”
He was actually quite close. Impressive,
given that they were strangers. “No. Just a guy who won’t take no for
an answer.”
“He has my sympathy.”
She sucked in a breath. “Why should he
have your sympathy?”
He had that smug, heated amusement in
his eyes again. “To get a taste of a hot little thing like you—and then
get the door slammed in his face? Can’t help but feel sorry for him.”
“I didn’t slam the door in his face. I
was nothing but honest with him. He’s the idiot who ignored what I told
him and keeps bumbling on toward something he already knows he can’t
have.”
The man chuckled and reached out to run
his fingers gently down a long strand of her hair. “It doesn’t matter
what you tell him, blossom. You’ve got this gorgeous, untouched
sweetness about you. It’s like a promise and a challenge.”
Her whole body went hot at the texture
of his words, at the tension and power she could feel in his hand, his
shoulders, his gaze.
She knew what he was referring to. She’d
been born with clear creamy skin, pink cheeks, big blue eyes, and a
heart-shaped face that gave the impression of innocence. There was no
way she could dress that would change her natural look, even though
she’d desperately tried when she was younger.
“Don’t assume the way I look is the way
I really am,” she said, her pulse starting to throb in her wrists and
her throat. She knew how to recognize the look in this guy’s eyes.
He wanted her.
And despite his smug superiority—or
maybe because of it—she wanted him too.
* Review to come
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Author Info
Claire Kent has been writing romance novels since she was twelve years
old. She has a PhD in British literature and, when she’s not writing,
teaches English at the university level. She also writes contemporary
romance under the pen name Noelle Adams.
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ANNA
CAMPBELL has written ten multi
award-winning historical romances for Grand Central Publishing and Avon
HarperCollins and her work is published in sixteen languages. Anna is
currently engaged in writing the "Sons of Sin" series, which started in
2012 with SEVEN NIGHTS IN A ROGUE’S BED. The fourth book in the series,
A SCOUNDREL BY MOONLIGHT, is out in April 2015. Anna lives on the
beautiful east coast of Australia where she writes full-time.
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