Need Me (Broke and Beautiful #2)(65)

He dragged a hand through his unkempt black hair. “Am I still drunk, or are you dressed like a rabbit?”





An Excerpt from

YOURS TO HOLD



Ribbon Ridge Book Two by Darcy Burke In the second installment of Darcy Burke’s contemporary small-town saga, the black sheep of the Archer family is finally home, and he’s not looking for love . . . but he’s about to find it in the last place he ever expected.





Kyle Archer pulled into the large dirt lot that served as the parking area of The Alex. He still smiled when he thought of Sara coming up with the idea to name their brother’s dying wish after him. It only made sense.

The hundred-plus-years-old monastery rose in front of him, its spire stretching two hundred feet into the vivid blue summer sky. The sounds of construction came from the west end of the property, down a dirt lane to what had once been a small house occupied by the head monk or whoever had been in charge at the monastery before it had been abandoned twenty-odd years ago. It was phase one of the project Alex had conceived—renovating the property into a premier hotel and event space under the Archer name, which included nine brewpubs throughout the northern valley and into Portland.

Alex had purchased the property using the trust fund left to each of them by their grandfather, then set up a trust for each sibling to inherit an equal share of the project. He’d planned for everyone to participate in the renovation, assigning key roles to all his siblings. And he’d made his attorney, Aubrey Tallinger, the trustee.

She’d endured copious amounts of anger and blame immediately following Alex’s suicide because to all of them it had seemed unlikely that she’d established the trust without knowing what Alex had planned. But she insisted she hadn’t known, that Alex had told her he was simply preparing in the event that he died young, something he’d convinced her was likely with his chronic lung disease.

However, things hadn’t quite worked out the way Alex had envisioned. Not everyone had been eager to return to Ribbon Ridge, least of all Kyle. He shook the discomfort away. He’d f*cked up. A lot. And he was trying to fix it. He owed it to Alex.

While Alex had been tethered at home with his oxygen tank and debilitating illness, the rest of them had gone off and pursued their dreams. Well, all but Hayden. As the youngest, he’d sort of gotten stuck staying in Ribbon Ridge and working for the family company. His participation in the project should’ve been a given, but then his dream had finally knocked down his door, and he was currently in France for a year-long internship at a winery.

Kyle stepped out of Hayden’s black Honda Pilot. He’d completely taken over his brother’s life while Hayden was off making wine—his car, his job, his house. Too bad Kyle couldn’t also borrow the respect and appreciation Hayden received.

He slammed the car door. It wasn’t going to be that easy, and he didn’t deserve it to be. He should have been driving his own goddamned car, but he’d had to sell it before leaving Florida so the same shit that had driven him from Ribbon Ridge wouldn’t also drive him from Miami.

But hadn’t it? No. Things hadn’t gotten as bad as they had four years ago. No one had bailed his ass out this time. He’d learned. He wasn’t the same man.





An Excerpt from

THE ELUSIVE LORD EVERHART



The Rakes of Fallow Hall Series by Vivienne Lorret Vivienne Lorret, the USA Today bestselling author of Winning Miss Wakefield, returns with a new series featuring the three roguish bachelors of Fallow Hall. Gabriel Ludlow, Viscount Everhart, was a fool to deny the depth of his feelings for Calliope Croft, but the threat that kept him from her five years ago remains. Now he must choose between two paths: break her heart all over again or finally succumb to loving her . . . at the risk of losing everything.





“Surely you’ve heard of the Chinese medicinal massage,” Gabriel said, attempting to reassure her. Yet the low hoarseness of his voice likely sounded hungry instead. Slowly, he slid his thumbs along the outer edges of the vertebrae at the base of her neck.

“I don’t believe I have,” she said, relaxing marginally, her voice thin and wispy like the fine downy hairs above her nape teasing the tops of his thumbs.

“Taoist priests have used this method for centuries.” His own voice came out low and insubstantial, as if he were breathing his final breath. As it was, his heart had all but given up trying to lure the blood away from his pulsing erection. This was a terrible idea.

He was immensely glad he’d thought of it.

His fingertips skirted the edge of her clavicle. Hands curled over her slender shoulders, he rolled his thumbs over her again.

Calliope emitted the faintest oh. It was barely a breath, but the sound deafened him with a rush of tumid desire. As if she sensed the change in him, she tensed again. “Are you trying to seduce me, Everhart?”

“If you have to ask,” he said, attempting to add levity with a chuckle, “then the answer is most likely no.” Yet even he knew differently. The most likely was said only as a way of not lying to himself. He wanted to seduce her, slowly and for hours on end.

For five years he’d wanted to feel her flesh beneath his hands. For a moment this evening, he’d even thought this one touch would be enough to sate him. He hated being wrong.