Take Me If You Dare
For Mariska Stonegate, the gorgeous guy she’s now met is everything she’s looking for in a man – hot, hot and… hot! Just because every pore of his body screams danger and sex doesn’t mean she’s getting herself into trouble…But her sensual stranger is a burned CIA agent on the run and he’ll do just about anything to stay alive… including seducing Mariska one steamy night at a time!
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About the Author
Award-winning author and columnist CANDACE “CANDY” HAVENS lives in Texas with her mostly understanding husband, two children and two dogs, Scoobie and Gizmo. Candy is a nationally syndicated entertainment columnist for FYI Television. She has interviewed just about everyone in Hollywood from George Clooney and Orlando Bloom to Nicole Kidman and Kate Beckinsale. You can hear Candy weekly on The Big 96.3 in the Dallas Fort Worth Area. Her popular online Writer’s Workshop has more than thirteen hundred students and provides free classes to professional and aspiring writers.
Dear Reader,
I’m so excited to be one of the newest Blaze® Babes and I hope you enjoy this, my first Blaze®.
Have you ever done something impulsive or crazy that turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to you? That’s how my heroine Mariska Stonegate finds herself involved with an intriguing and mysterious man. She decides to give in to her instincts and finds a way to spend some quality time with a hunky stranger.
My hero Jackson Walker is a CIA agent on the run. Something has happened and now everyone is after him, and he doesn’t know why. He’s a good guy who has to make some difficult choices in order to survive. When he accidentally bumps into Mariska, he can’t help but wonder what it would be like to have a life with this sexy woman. When she wants to spend a weekend making passionate love, he can’t say no to her.
Please e-mail me at [email protected] and tell me what you think about the book, or you can find me on twitter.com/candacehavens as well as My Space, Facebook and Live Journal, all of which can be found via www.candacehavens.com. I look forward to hearing from you.
Enjoy!
Candy
To my editor Kathryn Lye for the encouragement, and
tough love when necessary. You are the best.
Thank you so much
Table of Contents
Prologue
JACKSON WAS ALIVE. At least that much he could determine from the excruciating pain in his ribs every time he tried to breathe. Testing his arms and legs. He was relieved when he could move them.
Well, there’s that.
As the fuzziness cleared from his brain, he remembered exactly when everything went to hell. The moment he walked into Vladimir’s office at Club Loi in Rayong he had known his cover was blown. The gunrunner greeted him without his smarmy smile, a sign that all was not well. Vlad hadn’t said a word, only motioned to his men.
Jackson fought, but he was one unarmed man against eight with assault weapons. Still he’d been able to take down three of them before someone had coldcocked him from the left with the butt of an XM8. That was the last thing he remembered.
His fingers found the large egg-shaped bump on his temple and he winced. Hope I at least threw a punch as I went down.
Forcing his eyes open, Jackson tried to survey the room. It took a minute to focus. Paint peeled off the ceiling and the room smelled of dirty socks. He wasn’t at the Ritz.
Moving slowly, he sat up on the edge of the bed. From the stiffness and bruising it seemed like every part of his body had been pummeled. Jackson pushed the pain aside. He forced himself to move. Stumbling to the dirty window, he opened it and was assailed by the smell of dead fish. Bits and pieces of a conversation between two fighting fishermen, and a flashing neon light announcing nude girls, told him all he needed to know.
“How the hell did I get to Bangkok?” The words came out in a harsh whisper. Turning toward the sink, he stared at himself in the mirror. His cheek was swollen, lip busted, but he’d looked worse. The bloodied clothes would be a problem. Rolling his neck to loosen the tension, he glanced around the room for something he could use.
He noticed a pile of folded clothes on a chair next to the door. That wasn’t what made him pause. It was the typewritten paper on top that captured his attention.
You’ve been compromised.
If I were you, I’d run.
“Hell.” Jackson shoved a hand through his hair. “A damn burn notice.” He wasn’t dead yet, but he would be in a matter of hours. The Company didn’t like loose ends and that was exactly what he’d become.
1
MARISKA STONEGATE WAITED in the tropical paradise known as the Aqua Bar at the Four Seasons Hotel in Bangkok. The tranquil setting was in crazy contrast to the anticipation that zinged through her body.
Less than three hours ago she’d received a case file on a missing man. Desmond Gladstone, a husband and father of a toddler, had traveled to Bangkok on business three days ago. His wife hadn’t heard from him since the day after he landed. At the wife’s insistence, the hotel finally checked the room. Except for his bag of clothes and toiletries it was empty. The maid said no one had slept in the bed since the guest had checked in. That’s when the wife panicked.
