He would never be good. He didn’t even want to be good.

But he also didn’t want to be this.

Interlude

Caleb had Kelly propped up on a wide window ledge in a back hall of a historic house that was used now for upscale banquets and parties. He was holding one of her legs up, her thigh hooked over his forearm, and he was fucking her fast and rough.

She was about to come hard, and she had to bite her lip to keep from making any sounds as the pleasure built up in a tight coil.

“That’s right. I can feel how tight you’re getting. You know you like it hard this way.” He sounded hoarse the way he did when he was really into it.

She stifled a helpless sound as her pussy squeezed around his cock in response to the erotic words. She was clutching his neck and shoulders, desperately trying to hold on in her precarious position.

“Tell me how much you like it,” he demanded, spreading her open even wider and bracing himself with his other arm.

“I like it hard. So much.” She had to lean forward and bite into his shoulder, over the jacket, of his tuxedo to channel the powerful sensations.

“You like that someone might catch us?” His words were choppy and breathless from his effort, but still impressively controlled. “You want someone to see us like this. All those stuffy people at the party. You want them to know how well I can fuck you. It really turns you on. Doesn’t it?”

She made a little whimper of sound, waves of heat and cold washing over her.

“Tell me.”

“Yeah,” she gasped. “It turns me on.”

“Oh, fuck, you’re going to come so hard. Come now, Kelly, blossom. Come now.”

She came at his words, her pleasure uncoiling in spasms of pleasure that made her whole body shake. She hid her face to smother the sounds, and she held on to him as she heard him grunt a few times before the tension in his body released in a hot rush.

“Oh, God,” she was gasping as their bodies started to relax together. “Oh, God.”

As he came down, he pulled her more tightly into his arms, so she was wrapped fully in his embrace. She could feel the emotion in his grip, as powerful as the desire she’d felt before.

She returned it. She couldn’t help it. There was no going back for her now. She was on this road, and she had to see it through—no matter what the consequences.

He was pressing little kisses against her face before he found her lips softly. Her mouth clung to his needily.

He might not be guilty, she reminded herself. It could be that circumstances had lined up to cast a shadow over him, but the shadow might not be based in reality.

He was cool and controlling and sometimes heartless. He was ruthlessly ambitious, and his ethics were dubious. But there was so much more in him than that. There was a softness to his soul that he never let anyone see.

But she had seen it. He might not be guilty.

“We better get back,” he said, with one last stroke of her hair.

“Yeah.” When he took a step back, she straightened up, pushing down the skirt of her evening dress. It was wrinkled now. No hope for it.

When she took a step, she winced at the soreness—mostly her thigh being stretched so far for so long. He reached out to wrap an arm around her, supporting her weight with his strength.

“Thanks,” she said, with a breathy laugh. “I’m okay. It was worth it.”

He might have killed her father. She just didn’t know. And, until she knew, she had to live torn apart like this, surrendering her body and heart without ever surrendering her will.

She was going to find the answers. She was going to see this through. She already had an idea for getting some of the information she needed.

“Do you have any idea how crazy I am about you?” he murmured, leaning down to kiss her again.

She did know—a truth that made everything worse.

She was under no delusions in this. One day, he would find out about her. If he wasn’t guilty, he would never forgive her. If he was, then he might kill her.

But this was the road she was on.

“What’s the matter?” he asked, looking concerned when she couldn’t quite pull out of her brooding. “Was I too rough?”

She smiled, shook her head, and told him the truth. “Of course not. I know what I’m in for, when it comes to you.”

About the Author

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.

You can email her at clairekent.writer@yahoo.com and find her online at:

clairekent.com

Facebook.com/NoelleAdamsAuthor

@NoelleAdams3

The Editor’s Corner

July is the month for sizzling romance and Loveswept has all the books for your reading needs right here.

In New York Times bestselling author Marquita Valentine’s Take the Fall, the first spin-off novel from her successful Boys of the South series, passions run hot as a rugged, brooding marine rekindles an old flame. Elisabeth Barrett begins a heartfelt new Briarwood series with a tale of forbidden love, broken promises, and second chances in Once and Again. Club Sin returns in Commanded, a decadent new romance from USA Today bestselling author Stacey Kennedy. Next, USA Today bestselling author Claire Kent’s deeply sensual story of love, lust, and deception, Sweet the Sin, where a woman searching for the truth discovers that she’s sleeping with the enemy. Another USA Today bestselling author, Serena Bell teases all five senses in Turn Up the Heat, a poignant, tantalizing novel of fantasies long hidden…and finally indulged.

The heat is on in Cassie Ryan’s story of temptation and total surrender, My Obsession—a powerful master gives his dream girl a new beginning in the dungeons of decadent ecstasy. Violetta Rand’s explosive new Lies & Leather series kicks off with a red-hot motorcycle racer who rides hard and plays for keeps in Loving Lucas. And New York Times bestselling author Tracy Wolff poses the question: Do nice guys always finish last? In the new Extreme Risk novel, Slashed, a burned-out underdog and a vulnerable tomboy defy the pressure to be perfect and go after what they really want.

If you adore billionaire romances that are blistering hot, don’t miss Tracy’s Play Me series, now available as one book!

My, it’s hot in here. And it won’t cool down for August—just wait until you see what we have in store!

Until then,

Happy Romance!

Gina Wachtel

Associate Publisher

USA Today bestselling author Claire Kent continues her emotionally charged story of longing, betrayal, and insatiable desire as Kelly Watson and Caleb Marshall find themselves in a deadly standoff of seduction. Darker the Release Coming soon from