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Book Excerpt:
Better Naughty Than Nice
There should be a law against a scene like this. Not only did the kitchen smell like heaven, but a Greek god in a moss green shirt stood at the counter slicing radishes on a wooden cutting board. It wasn’t a stretch for Hayden to imagine that marriage to Riley could be exactly this wonderful.
Well, maybe not quite. Unless Riley had really changed, he couldn’t cook a lick, and neither could she. They’d have to hire their hosts, David and Marlena, to complete the picture.
Riley glanced up. “Hi, Hayden.”
“Hi, Riley.” As she’d figured, the shirt matched his eyes. No fair. Nobody should look that good slicing radishes. Or be so accomplished at it that he could continue to smile at her and slice radishes at the same time.
“Ouch! Shit!” Riley jerked his hand back from the cutting board and stuck his finger in his mouth.
Marlena set down the cookie sheet and turned to him. “Riley, did you cut yourself?”
“Yeah.” He stared at his finger, which was still bleeding. “Got a bandage?”
“I’ll get one.” David left the kitchen.
Hayden curbed her instinctive urge to offer help and sympathy. Both highly competitive as kids, she and Riley had suffered through many scrapes, cuts and bruises together. She’d broken her arm on a fall from her bike and he’d kept her courage up as they’d walked all the way back home. His years on the high school football team had been agony for her, and the night he’d dislocated his shoulder had been pure hell.
But a cut finger was hardly in that league, and besides, those days were over.
“I’m so sorry.” Marlena ripped a paper towel from the holder mounted under a cabinet and handed it to Riley.
“Marlena!” David called from the bowels of the house. “Can you come and help me find the first aid kit?”
“I’ll be right there!” Marlena rolled her eyes. “Excuse me a minute. I swear it’s right in front of him.”
Once Marlena was gone, Hayden couldn’t help herself. He looked so damned good. She walked closer, wondering if he smelled as good as he looked. Sure enough, he was wearing some yummy brand of aftershave. “Are you okay?”
“I’ll live.” His green eyes grew hot as he gazed at her. “But it’s your fault.”
“My fault? How can it be my fault?” Dear God, but she wanted to kiss him, which was so not appropriate. “I was clear across the room.”
“And wearing a low-cut dress guaranteed to make a guy forget he’s cutting radishes with a sharp knife.” He glanced down at her cleavage before meeting her gaze again. “You did that on purpose, didn’t you?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Kiss me.
“The hell you don’t. One look at that neckline and I was transported to a blanket in the bed of my pickup on a warm spring night with a very naked Hayden Manchester.”
Heat curled between her legs, wound up through her belly, tightened her nipples, and finally flamed in her cheeks.
His eyes became as hot as molten glass. “I’m sure you planned it that way,” he said softly.
“You’re imagining things.”
They’d come together as if magnetized, until the space between them wasn’t worth talking about. She knew from the way he was breathing that if she glanced at his fly, she’d probably see a bulge there. Tempting herself, she looked down. Sure enough.
“Happy, now, Hayden? You’ve had that effect on me ever since we hit puberty. Apparently nothing’s changed in that department, either.”
She looked into his eyes. “For you, maybe. I’ve moved on.” Liar.
He swore under his breath. “If that’s the way you feel, then why the hell did you wear that dress tonight?”
“Vanity,” she admitted in a moment of brutal honesty. “I wanted to see if I could still turn you on.”
“But nothing about me turns you on. Is that what you’re saying?”
“Yes.”
“Let’s test that with a little kiss, shall we?”
Her heartbeat thundered in her ears. She glanced toward the ceiling. “I don’t think that’s allowed. There’s no mistletoe.”
“I don’t need no stinkin’ mistletoe.” His arm went around her so fast that she barely had time to gasp in surprise before his mouth covered hers.
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