Today on First Kiss Friday, we welcome romance author, Viviana
MacKade, and an excerpt from her Contemporary Romance with a dash of suspense,
“Painted Love,” as part of the Lawbreakers boxed set. The four-author set is
available for $0.99.
Thou
shalt not steal.
Oh, but
Florence had, and would do so one last time.
Ten
pieces her grandfather painted for her because he loved her.
Ten
pieces her mother lost, along with anything else, for loving the wrong
man.
She
couldn’t get back everything he’d wasted away, but she’d be damned if
she’d give up those paintings.
Easy
and genuine, Rhett loves his life–his family, his market, his town. Until he
meets a British woman with grey eyes and a cute little
smile. The woman he’s been waiting for.
The
thing is, to love her is easy, but can he trust her?
When
Rhett pushes to uncover her agenda, Flo knows she will lose something–the man
she loves or what she’d been fighting for years.
Which
road will she choose?
First Kiss Excerpt
Flo headed to the kitchen and the
sink–wasn’t that why Rhett was here?
A broken trash chopper?
She should say something. Right.
Something funny. Or flirtatious. Scratch that, it was too soon for flirting.
Right? Although, Rhett did look like a man with dirty thoughts rambling in his
mind. Or maybe it was only an echo of her dirty thoughts. And dirty dreams
about him. Hot, sultry dreams full of naked skin and sighs.
Rhett walked right behind her, then at
her side. When their arms brushed, a shiver ran down her spine, her heart
scrambled in shallow beats. Flo took a long breath hoping to quiet the
distress.
He stopped in front of the sink; she
took refuge by walking to the big window and resting her back on it. The whole
room stood between them now, nothing but space to protect her from answering a
silent call, a call that could not be expressed in words, not be explained by
logic.
With his back to her, Rhett took his
wallet from his back pocket, let it drop on the counter beside the sink along
with the car keys; she snatched an old receipt, started folding and unfolding
it. No man should look like that in jeans and a white t-shirt, it wasn’t fair.
Something needed to be said. Anything,
to quiet that frenzied heartbeat, the wild breathing. She opened the mouth to
blabber some nonsense but no sound came. Because at that moment, Rhett turned
to face her, serious as if he debated a life-or-death decision, and finally had
the conclusion. Rhett took a step toward her. Then another. And stopped.
Move, her mind screamed, move, and think
of something to say, to do. But those stupid feet wouldn’t let her go anywhere.
All she could do was stare at him, at this man that must have cast a spell on
her. Magic–absurd, bordering on ridiculous, and the only explanation.
Flo gathered enough nerves to swallow.
“Is that broken for real?” he asked,
inching his head toward the garbage disposal, his eyes on her, always on her.
“Yes."
He nodded, absentmindedly bumped the
knuckles on the close-by table once, twice. “Okay.”
Her lungs failed to breathe, felt unable
to carry on the simple task of getting air in, then out. She’d never wanted,
needed, someone like this–with every drop of blood, every cell of the body,
every corner of the mind.
“I’ll see what I can do to fix it,” he
murmured. “Later.”
All her blood flew down at her feet in
one splash, leaving her head dizzy, empty of all but primal hunger.
He straightened, a fighter before the
battle, and took another step on. One only, letting the ultimate choice fall
squarely on her shoulders.
Florence took it, flew and crashed into
him, those thick black waves finally running through her fingers, his sweet
mouth taking all she was all too willing to give.
A low, hungry moan escaped her lips when
he picked her up, when she wrapped her legs around his hips. And the moan
turned into a sob when he backed them up until she hit the wall.
His lips, hot and talented, only
hungered more; the weight, the pressure of his body only stressed how much she
wanted to feel him inside her. She wriggled free, grabbed the hem of his
T-shirt and pulled it up, over his head and away. Glorious. Long, tanned
muscles. Hot, hot skin to nibble, bite, taste.
Her teeth scratched his chest. She
chuckled at his groan. But then his hand fisted in her hair, forcing her to
look into his laughing eyes. “Oh yeah? Is that how it’s gonna be?” he murmured
before pulling a bit more, exposing her throat and he feasted on it, then down
to her breast still covered by that useless tank top. He let go of her hair to
get rid of her clothes, with quick, precise pulls and tugs.
And when she stood naked in front of
him, panting, aching, he stopped. For a long, thick instant he did nothing but
looking at her. Every curve, every shadow. He raised a hand, and steady fingers
brushed gently her cheek, her mouth.
He seemed to have forgotten any of the
urgency of an instant earlier, taking her into a place where everything was
coated in softness, where time never ended and actions were simply embodied
feelings.
She reached for him, both hands on the
side of his handsome face, drowned into the dreamy blue of his soft gaze. Tears
prickled the eyes when he took that hand, kissed her palm.
Slowly, she unbuttoned his jeans, helped
him get rid of any clothes then stretched on him, linking her arms around his
neck, reveling in being skin on skin and in the trail of small kisses he was
leaving on her ear, throat, shoulder.
He picked her up, carried her to the
bedroom. And in sweetness, she gave all of herself to him.
“Painted Love – Lawbreakers Boxed Set” is
available through:
AMAZON
for $0.99
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