The Winner
Takes It All
Something New # 2
Something New # 2
By: Jennifer Dawson
Releasing December 2nd, 2014
Zebra / Kensington
For two stubborn people…
Corporate mogul Shane Donovan
sees the ultra-cool, collected Cecilia Riley as an ice queen—even if he can’t
deny that, on the surface, she’s a work of perfection his body can’t ignore.
Forced to spend two weeks in the same house for his sister’s upcoming wedding,
Shane senses that deep down Cecilia mirrors his need. And he’s determined to
draw her into a sexy game that will melt away her reserve...
Losing is not an option…
Career-driven Cecilia Riley
has just enough free time in her schedule to head out of town for her brother’s
wedding. But her agenda is thrown for a loop by the presence of Shane. Though
his over-confident attitude leaves a lot to be desired, his insanely hot body
has kept Cecilia up nights. Unsure what game Shane is playing, Cecilia takes
the bait, bent on resisting him at all costs.
Shane rubbed his gritty eyes
in the silent, dark kitchen, illuminated by the screen of his laptop as he sent
off another e-mail. Twenty-five more to go.
He glanced at the digital
clock on the stainless steel microwave. Five after eleven. He’d been working
through his e-mails for the last couple of hours and the list of problems from
his battle with the new head of city planning was growing exponentially. He
really should be in the office, dealing with the city contract from hell, but
he refused to disappoint his sister. It wasn’t her fault she had to get married
at the worst time.
He opened an e-mail from his
VP of Communications. After the first sentence his eyes blurred and his mind
drifted to other things . . . namely Cecilia.
Where had she disappeared to?
She’d gone upstairs after
their interlude this afternoon and he hadn’t seen her since. It seemed unlikely
she’d avoided him—Cecilia Riley wasn’t the kind of woman who tucked tail and
ran at the first sign of a little challenge. So why hadn’t she shown up at
dinner?
When Mitch asked Charlotte
about her daughter’s whereabouts, the other woman just got a troubled
expression on her face and said she didn’t know. Mitch shrugged it off and the
conversation moved on.
Shane had wanted to probe but
held his tongue. He wasn’t ready to explain his interest to anyone. He’d
waited, none too patiently, for one of them to go find her, but neither of them
moved from the dinner table and Maddie hadn’t seemed inclined to track down the
missing Riley. Didn’t they see something was going on with Cecilia? It was
clear as day. But her family seemed unconcerned with her well-being.
It bothered him on some deep
level he didn’t quite understand.
When she hadn’t shown up by
eight thirty he’d lost patience and texted her, but unlike before, she hadn’t
texted him back with one of her sassy remarks. While his phone cheeped, beeped,
and rang at a steady clip all night, it had never once been her.
The sleek, gunmetal-gray
Mercedes she drove still sat in the driveway and hadn’t moved.
As far as Shane could tell
she’d locked herself into her room and hadn’t come out.
The question was: Why?
He pinched the bridge of his
nose and squinted, wondering if he was going to need fucking reading glasses
soon. He kept meaning to make an eye doctor appointment, or at least tell
Penelope to make him one, but he conveniently kept forgetting until he stared
at a screen for four hours straight.
It wasn’t that he cared about
getting old; he didn’t. But his age reminded him everything else had aged too,
and he didn’t know quite what to do with himself. It was like he was still
going Mach 10 while the rest of the world had gone into slow motion.
Since his dad had died he’d
been working his ass off. From the second he’d received the call about the car
crash he’d been in crisis mode, fixing the mountains of problems left behind by
two ill-prepared people, taking care of his siblings as his mother focused on
Maddie’s recovery and struggled with her grief, paying off debt after debt.
He’d barely breathed all those years. Barely thought. He’d just put his head
down and bulldozed through every obstacle that came into his path.
Then one day he’d finally
looked up and realized he’d done it. He’d saved them all. His mom would never
have to work a day in her life. His brothers and sister were grown. And,
somehow, after all his years of being a slacker, a fuckup, he’d built a company
that employed thousands of people with a bottom line that still staggered him.
Everyone was finally safe.
Finally secure. If he died tomorrow they’d be taken care of. He’d made sure
what happened before would never happen again.
Only, he couldn’t seem to
break out of panic mode. That feeling of being one step from disaster still
plagued him.
He frowned, not liking the
direction of his thoughts.
He had a company to run, a
contract to straighten out, and e-mails to answer. This wasn’t the time to turn
introspective. He refocused on the message from his VP, shot off his comments
and opened the next e-mail.
Twenty-four to go.
The kitchen door swung open.
He expected Mitch or Maddie, but instead it was Cecilia.
She screamed, her hand flying
to her chest as she pulled a silky robe tightly around herself. “Are you trying
to give me a heart attack?!”
He grinned. Instantly the
vague unease troubling him disappeared. “Sugar, I was here first. You walked in
on me, not the other way around.”
She tied the sash around her
waist, cinching it far too tight than he thought necessary. “Don’t call me
sugar, that’s despicable.”
He chuckled, wondering what
she had on under those clothes. “Where have you been hiding all night?”
Her shoulders squared. “I
haven’t been hiding, you arrogant ass. If you must know, I fell asleep.”
“And woke up on the wrong side
of the bed, I see.” He stretched his legs and watched her with avid interest,
wishing for much better light so he could see more of her.
“What are you doing?” she
asked in a haughty tone, taking another couple of steps into the kitchen.
He waved at the computer.
“Answering e-mails.”
“Oh,” she said, tugging the
lapels of the robe closer together. “Don’t let me disturb you. I just came for
some water.”
He gestured toward the
cabinets. “Third door on the left.”
She moved across the floor
with the practiced, studied grace of a rich girl.
Coming from a humble
background, he’d never thought that was something he’d be attracted to, but she
made it work. He’d bet dollars to doughnuts she’d taken years of ballet.
She reached for a glass, her
back arching, her calves flexing as she stood on tiptoes to grab what she
wanted. The moonlight streamed in from the window, casting her in its glow, and
his breath caught. In the pale light her face was still soft from sleep, her
hair rumpled, and she lost all that polish.
Goddamn, she was beautiful.
His cock stirred. It was more than her face; there was something about her,
something that reached inside of him and squeezed.
One day in her presence had
rid him of all his delusions that he could keep her at arm’s length. She was a
mystery that had gotten under his skin and now he had to figure her out.
He wanted her and intended to
have her.
She moved to the fridge and
filled her water from the automatic dispenser before lifting it to her lips and
taking a long drink. The delicate cords of her neck worked and he remembered
earlier this afternoon when her pulse had hammered under his thumb, belying her
cool nature.
When she was done, she turned
and looked at him, one hip cocked. “You’re staring.”
He’d thought a lot about his
strategy with her, and in the end, he’d decided brutal honesty would be most
effective. He shrugged. “You’re a gorgeous woman, of course I’m staring.”
Her brow furrowed, as though
the statement perplexed her. “Even though you don’t like me?”
He flipped the lid of his
laptop down. “Maybe I misspoke earlier. I don’t know you well enough to like or
not like you. I think you work damn hard to keep yourself at a distance, and
until now, it’s worked.”
She glanced at his computer,
then took another sip of her water and placed the glass on the newly installed
granite.
“Don’t you need to get to your
e-mail?”
He gave her a slow, easy
once-over. Gaze skimming down her body, over the swell of her breasts and curve
of her hips covered in powder-blue silk. “What are you wearing under that
robe?”
She laughed, shocking him. It
was full and throaty, matching that porn-star mouth of hers. The sound vibrated
straight to his balls, sending a jolt of powerful lust through him. “As if I’m
going to tell you.”
He knew a challenge when he
heard one. “You don’t have to tell me. I can come over there and find out.”
She tilted her head to one
side, her expression speculative. “What exactly is your game here, Shane?”
He liked the sound of his name
on her lips. Liked the way she didn’t skirt around the issue even better. “My
plan is to take you to bed. It’s just a matter of when.”
She straightened for a
fraction of a second before relaxing back against the counter. “Isn’t that a
bit presumptuous?”
“Hell, it’s a lot
presumptuous,” he said, meeting her eyes in the eerie moonlit glow. “But it
doesn’t make it any less true.”
“You’re very crass,” she said,
still looking completely unruffled.
It was an act, he was sure of
it. He didn’t know exactly what lurked under that cool exterior, but he knew
she wasn’t unaffected. If he touched her, she’d be hot. Ready.
As easy and casual as she, he
smiled. “If I was being crass I’d say, ‘I’m going to fuck you’ and call it a
day.”
She sucked in her breath, just
a quick little intake. “The words don’t matter much, but the fact that you act
like I don’t have a say, does.”
He stood.
She straightened.
He took a step around the
table.
Her gaze darted to the kitchen
door before shifting back to him.
He stopped, giving her a
chance to run, not the least bit surprised when she didn’t.
They were alike that way,
unable to resist a dare.
He advanced. “You have a say.
You asked me my plan and I told you. What you do with the information is your
choice.” When he reached her, he put his hands on either side of the counter,
trapping her.
She looked up at him with
those storm-blue eyes. “I don’t recall giving you permission.”
He laughed. “I’m more an
ask-for-forgiveness-not-permission type of guy.”
She swallowed hard but said
nothing.
He was close enough to feel
the heat of her body, see the bead of her nipples, the fast rise and fall of
her chest. “But I’ll respect a no.” His gaze dropped to her mouth. Those lush,
fuckable lips. “Even if I know it’s a lie.”
Loved it - talk about opposites attracting each other! Cecilia is seen as an ice queen, but Shane sure knows how to melt her! What starts out as insane chemistry, leads to something much more special. I loved seeing Cecilia evolve into the woman she was meant to be instead of the the woman she thought she wanted to be. I have found a new book boyfriend to add to my collection - talk about a dirty talker! Sexy & funny, this book will keep you entertained for hours!
This is a must read if you like hot sex, dirt talk and happy ending. I am now a big fan of the author and look forward to the next book, perhaps about Shane's brother James and Gracie?
Jennifer Dawson grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and
graduated from DePaul University with a degree in psychology. She met her
husband at the public library while they were studying. To this day she still
maintains she was NOT checking him out. Now, over twenty years later, they’re
married and living in a suburb right outside of Chicago with two awesome kids
and a crazy dog.
Despite going through a light FM, poem writing phase in high
school, Jennifer never grew up wanting to be a writer (she had more practical
aspirations of being an international super spy). Then one day, suffering from
boredom and disgruntled with a book she’d been reading, she decided to put pen
to paper. The rest, as they say, is history.
These days Jennifer can be found sitting behind her
computer, writing her next novel, chasing after her kids, keeping an ever
watchful eye on her ever growing to-do list, and NOT checking out her husband.
Thank you for hosting today! Better add this one to my TBR pile!
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