âIâm going to take you to bed, Selenaâ¦â
âYouâre very direct,â she said in a near whisper.
âLooking at you makes me feel I donât have time to lose.â Edison shrugged. âBesides, I know what I want.â
âAnd you take the quickest route to get it?â she asked breathlessly.
His voice was suddenly silky. âNo woman trying to stay out of a manâs bed wears a dress like that.â He eyed the filmy creation, and savored a fantasy about how heâd circle a taut nipple with his tongue until she writhed from the pleasure. There were many things he had in mind for Selena. Oh, yes⦠He could be as imaginative as her erotic diary.
âYouâre very sure of your ability to get a woman into bed.â
He grinned. âItâs what happens after sheâs in bed that interests me.â He lightly traced her bare shoulder with one finger. âOf course, if you need to talk first, we certainly can. Some women call it foreplay.â
Selenaâs lips twitched with a smile. âHow obliging.â
He tugged her closer. âI can be much more obliging than thatâ¦.â
Dear Reader,
First, I want to thank you for taking Night Pleasures off the bookshelf! Just like you, I love to be entertained by a strong, sexy man who spices my fantasies, something thatâs naturally led me to want to try my hand at Temptationâs sexiest books, the HEAT miniseries.
In this story, code-cracker Edison Lone solves word puzzles, and he loves discovering and fulfilling a womanâs secret passions. When heâs asked to crack the code of a steamy, erotic diary, how could he and his fantasizing lady love share anything but pleasure at night?
Needless to say, I truly hope youâll laugh, cry and be breathless with suspenseâall in anticipation of that final wonderful moment when you just know these two people are perfect for each other!
Enjoy!
Jule McBride
âWEâVE REACHED A CRISIS point,â she said, pretending to nibble a sandwich, her lips barely moving. âWeâve got to get rid of Edison Lone. Now.â
He sat beside her on a park bench, wearing one of his many finely tailored suits, the uniform of what he wasâa major power broker in the most power-hungry city in America. As her low, husky voice rippled through him, he decided that some men would be threatened by her raw sensuality, others by her intelligence, and still others by the power the woman wielded in Washington; he was simply aroused. He was her lover, and each word affected him like a slow-drip aphrodisiac feeding straight into his veins. Slowly, he turned a page of the classified ads in this morningâs free tabloid. âAny suggestions about how to rid ourselves of Lone?â
âOh,â she purred. âIâve got a few.â
âCare to share them?â
âOnly if youâre good.â
A mental vision of how sheâd looked last night, stepping naked from the octagonal swimming pool in her estate in Arlington, made it difficult to hide his surging arousal. âLast night I was good, wasnât I?â
âOr bad, depending on which way you look at it.â
âI looked at it from every angle.â
âYou mean you looked at me from every angle?â she murmured.
âThat, too. And I didnât see any part of you complaining.â
Her trace of a smile vanished. âNo, but weâll both be complaining if Edison Lone gets any closer to finding out what weâre up to.â
Actually, theyâd be tried for treason. Glancing from the tabloid, he stared past a fountain toward Pennsylvania Avenue. âSpeaking of breaches in security, are you sure you werenât followed?â While they interacted in business contexts, theyâd never been seen together socially.
âOf course I wasnât. But we had to meet. Phone lines are never secure. And weâve got to get Edison Lone out of the picture.â
âPermanently?â
She considered. âNoâ¦at least not yet. That would look suspicious.â
âLater?â
âLater, if we have to, weâll makeâ¦arrangements.â
âPermanent arrangements?â he echoed, his neck prickling with a sudden chill. âYou think the manâs that dangerous to us?â
âHe could figure out what weâre doing. Heâs the best code cracker in Washington.â
Edison Lone had also been a child prodigy, an early Harvard graduate, and was a Mensa member. He was more patriotic than George Washington, too. âRumor has it heâd send his own children to the electric chair if he thought they were messing over Uncle Sam.â
âNot his children. He doesnât have any. Nor ex-wives. Heâs a confirmed bachelor,â she told him.
âMaybe weâve found his Achillesâ heel. With any luck heâs secretly gay. We could use that against him, couldnât we?â
âEdison Lone? Gay?â She nearly choked. âThe man possesses so much testosterone heâs probably taking supplements.â
âI said secretly.â
âEverybody knows he likes women.â