Sweet but Sexy Boxed Set Read online

  Sweet, But Sexy Boxed Set

  Eight Contemporary Romance Novels—Sweet Can Still Be Sexy!

  Amie Denman

  Janet Eaves

  Jan Scarbrough

  Jennifer Anderson

  Jennifer Johnson

  Maddie James

  Magdalena Scott

  Constance Phillips

  Copyright © 2014 Turquoise Morning Press

  Sweet, But Sexy Boxed Set

  Media > Books > Fiction > Romance Novels

  Category/Tags: contemporary romance, sweet romance, love, sexy romance, small town, beach, Christmas, reunited, kisses, boxed set, collection

  Digital ISBN: 978-1-62237-319-2

  Digital release: July 2014

  Editing by TMPress

  Cover Design by Calliope-Design.com

  Stock art photos by www.thinkstockphoto.com

  All rights reserved. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work, in whole or part, by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, is illegal and forbidden.

  This is a work of fiction. Characters, settings, names, and occurrences are a product of the author’s imagination and bear no resemblance to any actual person, living or dead, places or settings, and/or occurrences. Any incidences of resemblance are purely coincidental.

  This edition is published by agreement with Turquoise Morning Press, a division of Turquoise Morning, LLC, PO Box 43958, Louisville, KY 40253-0958.

  Table of Contents

  SWEET, BUT SEXY BOXED SET

  BLUE BOTTLE BEACH

  Amie Denman

  ALL THAT’S UNSPOKEN

  Constance Phillips

  CROSSROADS

  Janet Eaves

  SECRETS

  Jan Scarbrough

  MY BROTHER’S WEDDING

  Jennifer Anderson

  DOUBLE DOG DARE

  Jennifer Johnson

  HARD CANDY KISSES

  Maddie James

  BUILDING A DREAM

  Magdalena Scott

  SWEET, BUT SEXY BOXED SET

  Where sweet can still be sexy!

  Turquoise Morning Press presents eight sweet contemporary romance stories that will convince you that sweet, can still be sexy! We’ve selected sweet and “sweeter” stories from some of our most popular romance authors to showcase in this set—stories that will take you from the beach to Christmas, from small town to big city, from keeping secrets to building dreams.

  After all, sweet and sexy romance, comes in all shapes and sizes, right? The stories in this collection include:

  Blue Bottle Beach by Amie Denman—Mitchell finds Jackie irresistible as he romances her on Blue Bottle Beach, but he has no idea she should be in her cubicle in Chicago balancing the sheets for one of his many companies. Amie is an Amazon bestselling author (Unforgettable Heroes).

  All That’s Unspoken by Constance Phillips—The only thing standing in Nate’s way is Hailey, the woman who left him eight years ago without even saying goodbye. Constance is a TMP 2013 Reader’s Choice Award nominee (All That’s Unspoken).

  Crossroads by Janet Eaves—Desperation has a way of changing everything…. Janet is an Amazon bestselling author (Love in a Small Town, Unforgettable Heroes).

  Secrets by Jan Scarbrough—How was she going to keep her secret? It had been with her like a living thing for twenty-one years. Jan is an Amazon bestselling author (Love in a Small Town)

  My Brother’s Wedding by Jennifer Anderson—Allison Daughtry is catapulted into a past life when she returns to her childhood home to attend her brother’s wedding. My Brother’s Wedding received a StoryFinds.com cover award.

  Double Dog Dare by Jennifer Johnson—When Cheris McDowell wakes up in a hotel room next to the husband she doesn’t remember meeting, she decides the only practical solution is a quiet divorce. Jennifer is an Amazon bestselling author (Unforgettable Heroes).

  Hard Candy Kisses by Maddie James—New Year’s Eve is just around the corner and Patti Jo Baker has tried every trick in the book to land a date for the annual New Year’s Eve Bash at The Lodge. Maddie James is an Amazon bestselling author (Love in a Small Town, Falling for Grace, The Heartbreaker, and more).

  Building a Dream by Magdalena Scott—Chloe McClain is an artist, so she’s used to creating something from nothing. This time, though, the project is bigger than her usual canvas. Magdalena is an Amazon bestselling author (Love in a Small Town, Unforgettable Heroes).

  BLUE BOTTLE BEACH

  Amie Denman

  There’s no better place for a bachelorette party than Key West, Florida. Jackie and her accountant friends call in sick and escape wintry Chicago to celebrate in the sunshine, but an unexpected twist breaks up the party. On her own for a weekend in America’s least inhibited city, Jackie meets a man who makes her heart do a tropical dance. Mitchell is handsome, charming, and knows just where to touch her. If he looks a little familiar, the thought is quickly lost on the hot sands.

  Mitchell finds Jackie equally irresistible as he romances her on Blue Bottle Beach, but he has no idea she should be in her cubicle in Chicago balancing the sheets for one of his many companies. What will happen when Mitchell and Jackie eventually look past their attraction to discover he’s her boss? Will a hot weekend in Key West still sizzle in wintry Chicago at the corporate Christmas party?

  Chapter One

  The leather-skinned bartender leaned close to Jackie so she could be heard over the cheerful chaos of the Duval Street bar.

  “Getcha another margarita?”

  “No, thanks,” Jackie said. “This is already number three.”

  “Just getting started,” the bartender muttered. “Though I hate seeing a pretty young girl drink alone.”

  “I’m not alone,” Jackie said.

  The bartender glanced pointedly toward the empty seats on both sides of Jackie.

  “Well, I guess I am now. My friends found somebody to dance with a few doors down.”

  The bartender raised her eyebrows. “We got dancin’ here.”

  They both looked at the girl in the pink bikini top and cut-offs dancing right on the bar about ten feet down from Jackie.

  “I don’t think I can top that,” Jackie said. “I’m a lousy dancer.”

  The bartender smiled. “My daughter’s a hell of a dancer, ain’t she?”

  Jackie nodded and watched the bartender as she made the circuit of the U-shaped bar and offered drinks. Most of the partiers were in obvious groups of at least two or three, but Jackie sat in a cool shadow of loneliness. Her friends, Leah and Teri, already hooked up with someone and they were probably burning off their drink calories right now. Jackie risked a glance around the bar. She couldn’t be the only person sitting alone. A man directly across from her had an empty seat on both sides of him. She tried to sneak a glance at him, but the margaritas and the unpredictable light made it hard.

  Jackie raised her margarita glass to her lips and tasted the crusty salt. She raised her eyes and saw a pair of eyes looking straight into hers over the rim of another glass.

  The man across the bar locked eyes with her.

  It was like he reached across the distance and tugged her out of her seat. She held his eyes for a heartbeat then glanced down into her margarita glass. Her pulse raced faster than the Key West soundtrack throbbing from all the bars on Duval Street.

  The bartender stepped in front of her and cut off her view of the handsome stranger.

  “I keep telling her she oughta put a video of her dancin’
on YouTube,” the proud mom said.

  Jackie nodded. “She’s got talent.” For something. Jackie cocked her head and watched the girl dance. She should put her show on the internet. She might get sponsors and then she’d be in the black ink when it comes to partying. Jackie smiled into her large margarita glass. You can take the accountant out of the office, but you can’t drown her head for numbers and spreadsheets—even with potent Key West drinks.

  The bartender leaned on the shiny wood. “Here for the weekend?”

  “Uh-huh. Supposed to be a bachelorette party, but it totally fell apart.”

  “What happened?”

  Jackie laughed. “Groom-to-be showed up. Can you believe it? Guess he thought it would be a great surprise.”

  “Bet you were surprised.”

  “Yep. And now the bachelorette is holed up with him at the Hyatt for the weekend.” Jackie sipped her drink. “And the rest of us are on our own.”

  The bartender glanced over Jackie’s shoulder. “Hope you make the best of it,” she said and then moved down the bar.

  Jackie gave her glass a reckless little swirl and watched the yellowish drink dance close to the edges of the cup. I’ve been making the best of things since I made my first batch of lemonade years ago. She still had the ledger book from her lemonade stand, scrawled in her 8-year-old handwriting.

  It was time to go. Maybe it wasn’t too late to catch up with her friends after all. Digging through her purse for a few bucks to leave on the bar, she felt someone lean over her from behind. Warm breath brushed the back of her neck. It was loud in the bar, but a man’s voice vibrated in her ear and she turned toward the sound.

  “Whatever they’re paying her,” he gestured toward the bar dancer, “they ought to double it.”

  “I don’t know,” Jackie said. “Looks like it might be gratis work to me.”

  The dark haired stranger leaned on the bar beside her. His green eyes slipped from her face to her breasts and down her bare legs to her feet in their strappy sandals. The slow glance made her feel like she’d just stood on the bar and removed all her clothing, right down to her lacey underwear. For an insane moment, she rejoiced that her bra and panties matched for once. Just in case.

  “Of course, they could just be paying her in alcohol,” she added. “I’d say about a case of tequila would be a fair trade.” She needed a little humor to break the tension sizzling in the air. Maybe it was the humidity, but the air was suddenly thick and close as it brushed her skin.

  “You know a thing or two about entertainment fees?”

  “Just enough to get me in trouble.” Jackie wanted to kick herself. Where was this flirty talk coming from? She never did this. She didn’t hang out in bars, didn’t usually talk to strangers, and certainly didn’t know a thing about dancing drunk on shiny bars in a tropical paradise. Maybe that was it. The tropical atmosphere was going to her head. She wouldn’t be doing any of this back in Chicago.

  “I like the sound of that,” he said, moving even closer.

  He was close enough for Jackie to see the slight stubble of dark beard on his square jaw. If he’d shaved that morning, it was a good sixteen hours ago. She breathed in a clean masculine scent mixed with expensive cologne. She hoped she smelled even half as nice as he did. Her scent was more Coppertone than cologne, but fair-skinned girls didn’t take chances.

  He wasn’t dressed for bar-hopping. Dress trousers and a button-down oxford defied the usual Key West shorts and faded t-shirt standards. She looked him over from head to toe just as he had done to her a moment ago. It was only fair. The crisp white shirt was unbuttoned down the front with sleeves rolled up to his elbows. Olive skin and a few chest hairs showed through the open shirt. No belt. No shoes.

  He looked like a man who just walked out of a business meeting and straight into a bar in Key West. Except he must have stopped just outside the bar and tried to remove as much respectability as possible. Now that would be a strip-show worth paying for. Jackie wondered where he stashed the shoes and belt. He looked expensive. He probably left them with his briefcase in the back of a limo.

  “So you’ve had some bar-dancing experience?” he asked.

  Jackie laughed. “Not exactly.”

  He looked at her shapely legs. “Just the dancing, then?”

  “Uh, yes,” she said. Holy cow. She mentally slapped herself on the side of the head. Of all things to lie about, she had to choose dancing. Her legs were shapely from rollerblading along the lakeshore in Chicago and hitting the gym when her friends talked her into it. She couldn’t dance her way out of a parking ticket. Now she was really glad the bar was too crowded for a dance floor. No danger of him asking for a free sample.

  “So you’re a professional dancer,” he said. Boy, in addition to dangerous good looks, this guy had a talent for jumping to conclusions. Better sense told her she ought to end this flirtation before she ended up in over her head and on the wrong side of the balance sheet. But it was too much fun playing these numbers. She was only in town for the weekend, and she’d blown a lot of money on the plane ticket. When you consider return on investment, you gotta grab your chances when they come.

  “Yep,” she said. “Dancer. And I’m guessing you’re a…” she paused and squinted one eye as she pretended to concentrate. “Circus clown.”

  “Close.” He smiled and held out his hand. “I’m Mitchell.”

  “Jackie,” she said as she slipped her hand into his. He pressed her hand between both of his, removing formality from the handshake. The night was hot. He was close. Jackie’s head swam and she tried to focus on the face only inches from hers. Had she seen him somewhere before? There was something familiar about him, but with a face like his, she’d probably seen him in a magazine somewhere.

  “You work here in town?” he asked.

  “Not exactly.”

  “Cruise ship?”

  A dancer on a cruise ship. Live entertainment. In a strange way, Jackie knew quite a bit about both from her day job back in the Windy City.

  “You guessed it,” she said. “I’m only here for another day and then I’m off to the Southern Caribbean.” Why was she lying to this stranger? Why didn’t she just tell him she was a boring accountant for a huge corporation counting among its assets a talent agency that booked live entertainers? Filling in the spreadsheets was as close as she ever got to any of the action. Not that she hadn’t engaged in quite a few fantasies in her cubicle.

  Right now she danced on the edge of living out a little fantasy night of her own with a man who made her insides feel squishy.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Mitchell suggested.

  Jackie hesitated. The temptation whispered in her ear like an island breeze, but memories of her last impulsive romantic decision flashed over her mind like a bucket of cold water on a beach full of sunbathers. Ouch. She pushed the thought of that disaster firmly out of her mind. That was two long years ago. This is now.

  “I think we’d better stick to the beach,” she said, pointing at his bare toes. “I’m surprised they let you in here without shoes.”

  “Honey, this is Key West.” He stood up and leaned over her as he laid a fifty dollar bill on the bar. The slight stubble on his cheek brushed her ear and sent a tremor down her spine. “You can make up your own rules.”

  Chapter Two

  He held open the back door of the bar and they stepped onto the beach. The night breeze picked up her long hair and teased her bare shoulders with dark silky strands. She didn’t make a habit of leaving bars with strange men, but this guy was different. Sure he was attractive, but it was more than just his sinfully tempting looks. It was like he didn’t belong at the bar watching drunken women dance any more than she did. One look at his clothes made it obvious he was out of his element. Just like she was.

  Of course, there was more to her story, too. The part about leaving town in a day or so was true. In about twenty-eight hours, she would round up her friends and pour them onto a commuter flight ou
t of the tiny Key West airport. Risking a glance at the man next to her in the moonlight, twenty-six hours seemed like a very short time. Jackie’s fingers found Mitchell’s in the dim light and curled around his.

  “It makes me feel reckless,” she said. “The moon, the warm night air, the ocean….” She trailed off. The thought of spending the night with the mysterious dark-haired stranger sent shivers over her flesh. Did he feel the tremor pass through her hand?

  “You love the water?” he asked.

  “Yep. I grew up with it.”

  “Around here?”

  “Nope, but here is nice.”

  He stopped walking and let go of her hand. He stepped close to her and cupped her face with both hands. “Here is nice.”

  A second before it happened, she decided to go with it. Jackie closed her eyes and allowed herself to just feel, not think. His lips were soft, teasing. His hands played with the loose hair falling over her shoulders. Fingertips brushed her collarbones. She swayed closer to him and reached up to pull his head down to hers so she could deepen the kiss. She breathed in his rich deep scent.

  Maybe it was the sand and the moon and the warm tropical air that left her panting. Maybe it was his kiss. She had never been left so breathless by just a kiss. Mitchell pulled back for a second and searched her face with an unspoken question. He breathed heavily. A question mark hung over them like the stars in the far away night sky. The answer was yes.

  It was dark. They were alone on the beach. She didn’t even have to look around to know no one would see them. No one would even care. There was no reason why she should deny her body’s powerful reaction to this man. Mitchell leaned down and kissed her mouth hungrily, urgently. Maybe her knees buckled of their own free will. She knelt on the sand, drawing him down over her.