âTell me about the best sex you ever had.â
Jackâs voice was low, intimate even in the large studio, soothing against the click of his cameraâs shutter.
Samantha closed her eyes, trying to forget she was naked under the sheet. Click. âI met this guy at a bar, in college. And he took me to bed. It was the boldest thing Iâve ever done.â Click.
She heard Jackâs footsteps coming closer. âIâm going to move the sheet.â
He pulled the sheet down off her left shoulder, exposing her breast. The fabric bunched and teased between her legs, a cool, smooth bare weight like a feathery loverâs kiss, leaving a fierce ache. She had to remind herself to hold still. Click.
Jack was still standing close; she could feel the warmth of him against her skin. âDid he make you come?â
âOhhh, yes.â She heard him curse softly. Jack slid the sheet off her other breast, this time allowing his hand to follow so his fingers trailed over her, brushing her nipple. She shivered and arched toward him.
âSo it was perfect, emotionless sex.â Jackâs words came out husky. âAnd thatâs what you want from me? All I can say is, you canât protect yourself from the unexpected.â
Samantha opened her eyes to his smoldering gaze. âIâll take that risk.â
Dear Reader,
One day I was talking to a friend who said, âWouldnât it be weird if you kept getting âwrong numberâ messages on your answering machine and it turned out someone was leaving them for you on purpose?â
My writerâs brain snapped instantly to attention. Why any one comment taken out of thousands of statements can be such a trigger I havenât a clue, but immediately I knew there was a book in there. So here it is! The third in the MEN TO DO series. Alison Kent, Jo Leigh and I have had so much fun coordinating our heroines, Erin, Tess and Samantha, and their stories. And if you want more, check out www.mentodo.com!
I love to hear from readers, so if youâd like to write me, please do at www.IsabelSharpe.com.
Cheers,
Isabel Sharpe
From: Samantha Tyler
Sent: Thursday To: Erin Thatcher; Tess Norton Subject: Love
What I canât seem to get my brain to stop obsessing over is: How do you know when love is real? I was so sure it was real with Brendan. Zero doubts. Zero cold feet. I stood at the altar and did the Death Do Us Part thing with my heart so full Iâm surprised it didnât pop out of my grandmaâs dress.
If something that good and that right and that perfect, that I believed in it with every ounce of my naive-assed twenty-something passion, could turn out to be nothing more than neurotic unfounded fantasy, how do you know when itâs real?
Thatâs why Iâm thinking this Men To Do thing might be the way to go right now. Iâm not ready for love. Not until I can get my head around this question and get some kind of answer that makes sense.
But I sure as hell could use some sex.
Samantha
SAMANTHA TYLER INCHED THE Chevy Trailblazer into her Lincoln Park bungalowâs garage. Roughly one millimeter to spare on either side or risk scratching the paint. Obviously the garage hadnât been built to accommodate ludicrously oversized vehicles. But Brendan had insisted they buy the monster, insisted theyâd need it when the kids they never had were born. Brendan knew it would be so convenient for all those lovely romantic excursions they never took.
Brendan had tripped over himself leaving it to her in the divorce settlement and had immediately gone out to buy a black Audi TT Roadster to salve his feelings of rejection and failure, not to mention to attract babes. As soon as she had time sheâd sell this monster and buy herself a sunshiny yellow Volkswagen Beetle. A chick car, not a Sensible Family Vehicle. As soon as she had time.
She hit the brakes and yanked the gear into park, jerked out the keys and grabbed her briefcase. Opened the door carefully so as not to hit the garage wall, and eased and squeezed her body out the half opening and into the humid August-in-Illinois air. Definitely a Volkswagen.
The garage door let out the usual series of protesting groans on its way down, followed by a final resting thud, to accompany her walk through the overgrown garden bordering the postage-stamp-sized lawn. Weeding. Trimming. Fertilizing. Mowing. Everything she saw represented something to do. As if her supposedly safe home environment was nothing but a series of tasks she was failing at.
Life had always been a joyous battle to be fought and won, or at least wrestled into temporary submission. Today life was overwhelming. She had to stuff her emotions into a bank vault or risk collapse. And she was just plain sick of crying.
Samantha jammed her key into the house lock, twisted, turned the handle, twisted again and was in. Blanche and Fudge, her black and white cats immediately came to greet her, mouths open in accusing meows. Feed us now.