Cassie Gambol is on the run. In what seems like another lifetime, her ex-husband nearly ended her life and effectively ended her successful career as a vascular surgeon. But even though the justice system found him guilty of attempted murder, he fled while awaiting sentencing and Carly Sunderland became Cassie Gambol.
Fleeing Los Angeles, she heads to small and off the map Petal, Georgia to start her life again.
Shane Chase, a man who’s held himself away from commitment since his fiancée dumped him several years before knows the beautiful newcomer is hiding something. He’s wildly attracted to her strength and her underlying vulnerability as well.
But the last thing Cassie wants is another big, overwhelming man who wants to control her life. A battle begins between Shane, who knows what he wants and Cassie, who knows she needs to do everything she can to keep a distance between herself and the very handsome sheriff.
But Cassie’s ex is back and he wants her dead.
“I’m gonna kiss you now, Cassie Gambol.”
“Why? I mean, why do you want me? I don’t understand it. I can’t lie and tell you I don’t know you’ve been regarded as a player here in Petal. I like men, yes, but I’m afraid of being a casual indulgence to a man like you.”
“There’s not a damned thing about the way I feel about you that’s casual. Now, I’ve been dying to do this for so long.” He closed the last bit of distance between them and he brushed his mouth over hers. His lips were lush and delicious, spicy and masculine, just like the rest of him. They both groaned as he moved away.
“Cassie, you fascinate me. I’m shocked by how much I want you. I think I started wanting you when you kicked my ass at pool. No, I’m a damned liar. Since you stumbled out of your wrecked car and called my momma Crash.” He put his face into her neck and inhaled deeply. “God, you smell good.”
“Shampoo, sweat and a little bit of Delice,” she breathed out, running her tongue over the lips he’d just touched with his own. A sense of unreality washed over her. The connection between them was warm and sticky. Lethargic with want, she let him hold her against his body. The heat of him blanketed her skin. Her nipples hardened against the wall of his chest and a libido that she’d thought beaten out of her roared back to life. There was a moment where she wondered if she was dreaming. Hell, if it wasn’t she sure didn’t want to wake up.
“Mmm.” He licked his lips as she’d just done and a shiver ran through her. “You taste good, too. Better than you should. I ought to be running out the door but damned if you don’t make me want things I’d thought I’d never want with a woman again.”
His hand rested at the small of her back, hot and inescapably present. The other rested on her shoulder. He held her in his orbit physically and mentally. His presence was so intense it boggled her mind. Things tightened low in her gut as her skin tingled everywhere he touched her. And yet, aside from general nervousness, she wasn’t afraid.
She caught her lip in her teeth and he groaned softly. “I know you want me too.” Leaning in, he pressed a hot, wet kiss to the hollow just below her ear. “I can feel your nipples against my chest,” he murmured, breath stirring the wisps of hair around her ear. His tongue darted inside and then he caught the lobe between his teeth. She shivered, going weak in the knees. “But I want more than your physical need of me. Let’s have dinner. Some snuggling on your couch. A liberal smattering of smooches. Let me get to know you as a woman.”
“I…yes.” She nodded, incapable of further speech. Especially when his grin widened and he looked like a predator. They sat down and began to dish up the food, digging in. He watched her and she laughed. “What? Do I have a bean spout between my teeth?”
“No,” he chuckled. “I just like the way you look here with me.” He shrugged. “And I like that you eat. Not like some dainty thing who wants everyone to believe she survives on air and mist, but you eat like a real person.”
“Is that your finessed way of telling me I eat like a pig?”
He threw his head back and laughed. “Oh the unwinnable guy question. Darlin’ you do not eat like a pig. You eat like a human who likes to eat. I like that.”
She narrowed her eyes at him for a moment and shrugged before going back to her plate. She’d only just put the weight on she lost from the hospital and afterwards in the last three months or so.
They kept a wide berth around what happened the night before but Cassie was pretty sure Maggie had told him about Terry. He didn’t seem freaked, which made her more comfortable.
After they’d eaten, he helped her clean up and get the dishes in the dishwasher before they retired to the couch.
“Let’s get comfortable here, shall we, darlin’? Because I have some serious smooching planned and we should do it right.” He winked and pulled her into his lap, her body straddling his.
The hard ridge of his cock fit up against her and she undulated, grinding herself over him without even thinking of it. Little flares of pleasure played up her spine and the muscles inside her pussy fluttered and contracted.
One of his eyebrows rose slowly and his hands slid to rest at her waist. “So that’s how it’s gonna be, huh? Mmm. You feel so damned good, Cassie. I need to kiss you again.” Arching his neck up, he brought his lips to hers with crushing intensity. Her head swam as she drowned in him. In a myriad of ways he affected her, overwhelmed her, turned her on and turned her out. Helpless to do anything more than hang on, she slid her hands up his chest and neck and into his hair. The soft, cool silk of it flowed over her skin, his skull solid and sure beneath her palms.
Grunting in satisfaction, he slanted his mouth to get more of her. His tongue slipped in between her teeth and he tasted her, met her warmth with his own. Her elemental flavor rocked him, he couldn’t get enough. When she sucked at his tongue, he pulled her to him tighter and delighted in the moan that came from her lips. Swallowed it down with the rest of her that he took from the kiss.
God he wanted more. The luscious flesh of her bottom lip seduced him as he sucked it into his mouth. Arching into him with a breathy sigh, she traced the outline of his upper lip with the tip of her tongue. Down over the seam of his mouth where her lip was captured, the wetness of her tongue, the tentative and yet utterly carnal way she responded, drew him in.
It’d never been like this with a woman before. Intense, sure. Really good, that too. But so good, so right that it made his chest ache with want and need of this woman in his arms? Never.
Damn, he was falling for Cassie. Scratch that—had fallen for Cassie and he wasn’t running. No, he wanted more. Wanted to gorge himself on every drop of her he could get as long as he could get it. He wanted to see what kind of tomorrow he could build with this woman. Cassie Gambol wasn’t a casual indulgence at all, she was big league addiction and instead of fear, there was only joy that he’d found it at last.
It took every bit of his self control to keep his hands resting at her waist instead of sliding down to cup her ass. She was so soft against him, so warm and pliant—everything sexy and earthy, he wanted to take her in the grass under the moon, the dew on his naked skin as he watched her in the silvery light. She was a goddess come alive in his arms.
