Cherished – featuring SWAY by LAUREN DANE
Copyright 2012, Lauren Dane
All Rights Reserved, The Berkley Publishing Group
Releasing August 7

“Are you cold? I have robes if you like.” He took her hand and she grabbed her glass, following him into the living room.

“I have post-sex warmth still. Unless you’d prefer it.”

He barked a laugh and when he sat, she sat at his feet, her head resting against his knee. He sucked in a breath, unable to resist a caress over her hair, dark and so soft. “It’s safe to say I’m more than fine with you being naked. I just didn’t want you to get a chill.”

Turning her head, she looked him up and down. “Thank you. I think you should know that I find shirtless men in worn jeans and bare feet to be one of the sexiest things ever.”
That warmed him. “Thank you. So tell me about your ink.”

“My dad’s family, my grandmother and grandfather, were first-generation Americans. But when I was a kid we went to Mexico a few times every year to visit extended family. Anyway, some of my very first memories were of the colors in my great aunt’s house. Reds and yellows, blues and greens. Bright and vivid. It’s part of who I am.” She brushed her fingers over the ink on her shoulder and upper arm.

“The woman on your shoulder reminds me of Frida Kahlo.”

“It’s actually based on a painting my grandmother did.” The tattoo was of a dark-haired woman, a flower tucked behind her ear. Her face was made up like a sugar skull. Flowers and other bits and bobs, all Mexican folk art, surrounded her, flowing to her back in a spill of big red roses.

“When it’s totally finished, the back will be a side view of a woman, praying hands, flowing hair, with a sugar skull face like the one on my arm.”

“It’s beautiful work.”