Avoiding Temptation

K.A. Linde

Copyright © 2013 by K.A. Linde

All rights reserved.

Cover photo © Toski Covey Photography

Cover Designer: Okay Creations

Editor and Interior Designer: Unforeseen Editing

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

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

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To History and Fairy Tales

—August 25th

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

Note to the Reader

Sneak Peek

Gold

Chapter One

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Other Titles by K.A. Linde

The phone buzzed noisily on the nightstand.

Lexi groaned. She wasn’t ready to get up and go to work yet. Throwing her arm out to the nightstand, she tried to switch off the alarm, but it continued to ring. Peeling her eyes open, she grabbed the phone off the nightstand.

“Who is it?” Ramsey murmured, pulling her back against him.

The screen flashed in her hand—Jack Howard. It was too early for that. She had to be at work soon, and she had far better things on her mind.

“Jack.”

“Too early,” Ramsey whispered, kissing her shoulder.

“You read my mind.”

Lexi clicked the Ignore button and let it go to voice mail. “I’ll call him back.”

“Mmm…” His lips traveled up to her neck. “Time for you to get up anyway.”

“No,” Lexi said, pulling the white covers up over her eyes.

“Come on, you’re going to be late for work,” Ramsey said, prying the covers from her hands.

She squirmed against him under the sheets, tangling their legs together.

“Can’t make me,” she quipped, turning over and burying her face into his toned chest.

“Oh…I can make you late,” he murmured into her mass of curly brown hair.

His nose found her ear, and he lightly brushed against it, causing her to squirm for all new reasons.

“Good,” Ramsey said. His hand trailed lightly down her spine before resting comfortably at the small of her bare back.

She hummed into his chest as he kneaded the tight muscles. Lexi’s hands wound up into his hair, and she slowly peeked back up at him. The smile on his face was lazy, comfortable, and so incredibly endearing. She couldn’t believe that after everything they had been through, he could still look at her like she was the greatest prize he had ever won.

“You’re so distracting,” she grumbled, pulling lightly on his blond hair.

“I’m the one trying to get you out of bed even though all I want to do is keep you in it all day,” he said before kissing her forehead.

“You’re going to make me late,” she teased, tugging harder on the locks of blond hair and pulling his lips down to her.

He didn’t argue with her as their lips melded together. She couldn’t figure out how he always tasted so unbelievably delicious. She hadn’t felt him get out of bed to brush his teeth, but the faint taste of peppermint lingered on his breath.

Nibbling slightly on his bottom lip, Lexi sucked it into her mouth. His breathing hitched, and he grasped her hips forcefully between his hands. She could feel the indents he was making in her lower back, which only fueled her forward. Sliding her leg across his body, Lexi straddled his hips and slowly started grinding herself against him. He assisted her in the movement, rocking her hips and pushing her harder against him. She could feel him growing for her through his green boxers. She wasn’t far behind him.

“You can’t go into work,” he groaned into her ear. “I’m not letting you.”

Lexi responded by pressing her lips to his. He smiled against her lips, encouraging her onward. He tried to push her harder, but she resisted, teasingly licking his lips as lightly as she could manage.

He growled deep in the back of his throat and grabbed her head, crushing their lips together. Lexi opened her mouth, allowing their tongues to connect, and she responded with her own enthusiasm. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she relaxed into his eager embrace.

He broke from her lips to kiss across her jawline, and she happened to take a glance at the alarm clock.

“Shit!” she cried, rolling off of him.

Ramsey groaned, reaching back for her. “Are you serious?”

“I’m actually going to be late if we continue,” she said, lying on her side next to him. She watched his chest heave up and down. A smirk crossed her face as she realized how turned-on she had gotten him.

“If you keep looking at me like that…” He trailed off, running his hand seductively down her side.

She giggled and swung her legs off the bed. “Sorry, I still need to shower.”

“I need a cold shower,” he mumbled, watching her stand up in nothing but peach lacy underwear.

“Well, you can go after me. Must be nice being your own boss,” she said with a shrug as she walked to the bathroom.

“I’ll let you boss me around.”

Lexi twirled around, her hair swishing over her shoulder, to look at Ramsey. Her expression was scandalized as if she couldn’t believe he would say such a thing. She tried to remain serious for as long as possible, but the devilish look on his face as he stared at her like he was going to eat her up broke her resolve.

“Get your ass over here,” he demanded, scooting up on the bed to get a better look at her.

“You can watch my ass as I walk out the door,” she said, popping open the bathroom door.

Ramsey’s playful expression faltered and then fell off his face. When Lexi realized what she had said, she anxiously pushed her messy hair behind her ear. She hadn’t meant it the way it sounded, but with their history, it hadn’t been exactly the best phrasing.

Gulping hard, Lexi ducked her embarrassed face into the bathroom. She knew it was stupid to get so flustered about her statement, but some habits were hard to break. They’d had too many ups and downs to take her comment lightly—even if she had meant it that way.

Two years just hadn’t been long enough for them to completely forget about their breakup—at least, not with everything else that had happened since then.