I cant remember when I didnt want you, Serena.
The wind caught a few strands of her hair, and David brushed them back, resting his hand on her cheek. And if you think Im relaxed, well
He glanced downward, and she followed his gaze. Hello. Even the thickness of the denim couldnt hide the erection straining against his zipper.
It was in a desire-blurred haze that Serena registered him laying her back on the soft blanket, pressing his weight against her. He surprised her by taking her hand and placing it against her breast, which ached for attention, the pebbled peak thrusting forward.
Other women dont affect me like this. Just you. And I dont believe other men make you feel this way.
Definitely not. Serena stared into his eyes, but couldnt bring herself to admit the truth.
Do you get this aroused with anyone else, Serena? This hot?
It was a guess on his part, but an accurate one. She was hot and she was ready for more.
Dear Reader,
My author motto is Passion, Laughter and Happily Ever After. I work to include these elements in all of my books, but no couple I've written about before has shared a passion quite as intense as Serena Donavan and David Grants.
Friends since college, Serena and David had a very hot one-night stand the last time he visited her in Georgia, and though neither of them can forget the intimate encounter, Serena insists it was a mistake. Shes free spirited and easygoing in many ways, but her past has left her guarded about serious relationshipsespecially with someone like David, whose affluent corporate lifestyle is very different from her own. Now, with his company relocating to Atlanta, David has the perfect chance to reignite the sparks between him and Serena. When he hires her to help organize a charity auction his company is sponsoring, his ulterior motive is to seduce her into taking a chance on love. And seduce her he does.
I hope youll visit my Web site at www.tanyamichaels.com to read more about how your purchase of this book helps raise money to fight breast cancer, like the bachelor auction my heroine and hero plan, and I hope you enjoy watching Serena and David find their way to happily ever after.
Best wishes,
Tanya Michaels
Books by Tanya Michaels
HARLEQUIN TEMPTATION
968HERS FOR THE WEEKEND
986SHEER DECADENCE
Going All the Way
Tanya Michaels
www.millsandboon.co.uk
MILLS & BOON
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Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
1
DAVID GRANT didnt believe in signsunless of course they happened to suit his purpose, as was the case this April morning. The fact that his employers had voted to transfer their corporate headquarters to Atlanta of all places was definitely a good omen.
Congratulations, David. Lou Innes, the I in AGI VoiceTech, polished his glasses with a linen handkerchief as he beamed at David from the opposite end of the conference table. The announcement that David would move from Boston to Georgia and spearhead the relocation also came with an almost guaranteed earlier-than-anticipated vice-presidential promotion. Im sure youre already working on exciting plans for our new location.
Yes, sir. David flashed the confident grin hed inherited from a long line of Grants. I certainly am.
Atlanta offered unparalleled opportunity. Especially for Davids love life.
When hed gone to his parents anniversary bash in Savannah last summer, hed scheduled an extra day to spend with his best friend in Atlanta, as hed been doing ever since he and Serena Donavan had attended Georgia Tech together. Normally on these layovers, Serena subjected him to whatever little hole-in-the-wall restaurant she was currently enamored with, and they caught up on any happenings they hadnt covered by e-mail. The next day, he would catch a cab to Hartsfield and fly back to Boston. His August visit had followed the familiar pattern.
Except, after the hole-in-the-wall restaurant and before the cab to the airport, theyd spent one incredible stormy night making love in Serenas studio loft apartment. That was new. According to the tense un-Serena-like e-mail that had awaited him when he got home, it had also been a mistake.
David disagreed. But with her stubborn streak, hed need patience and finesse to bring her around to his way of thinking. Luckily, he had both.
Their first few exchanges following his trip had been awkward, and he sensed she would have avoided talking to him if he hadnt initiated contact. But as their friendship slowly resumed its former flirtatious tone, hed been confident that, while he could have made faster progress in person, time was on his side. Then, right before he was scheduled to be in Georgia for Thanksgiving, shed surprised him by announcing shed started seeing someone.
As an overachiever who thought nothing of clocking sixty-hour weeks, David was used to his hard work paying offthis morning was a perfect example of the success he usually enjoyed.
With the meeting adjourned, the executives around the rectangular table began to disband, and the president of finance, Richard Gunn, approached, a wide grin beneath his graying moustache. Congratulations. I dont have to tell you how rare it is that we give opportunities like this to someone as comparatively new to the company, but theres no question youre the man for the job.
Thanks. David stood to shake the older mans hand. At thirty-three, David wasnt exactly fresh from college, but he knew he was younger than the other candidates theyd considered for the relocation. Ill give it my all.
Wed expect nothing less of you.
Hed never given them reason tohed been proving himself ever since his grad-school interview with the communications technology partnership of Andrews, Gunn and Innes. David had been eager to be a part of the strides the company was making in the field of voice-related software, and hed been pleased by the fact that the firm was in Massachusetts. David had deliberately looked outside the southeast to make his mark, which made him something of an exception in his family.
The Grants of Savannah often had things handed to them by virtue of their social status and wealth, but he enjoyed the challenge of relying on his merits rather than on his name. A definite contrast to his older brother, Ben, who had made it clear that when he ran for Congress next year, he planned to milk his connection to the two previous Senators Grant for all it was worth. But David looked forward to returning to Georgia now and demonstrating just how successful he could be on his own.
Do you have plans for lunch? Richard asked. In light of your possible promotion, I might even consider picking up the tab. Unless youd rather celebrate with the lovely Tiffany? Id ditch me for her any day of the week.
Actually, Tiff and I, um, decided to part ways over the weekend. Tiffany had decided, anyway. David had been rather bemused when she broke up with himmostly because he hadnt realized they were dating.
Richard frowned at his gaffe. Oh. Im sorry.
No, its for the best. Im about to move, and Tiffany will find someone more suited to her in no time.
Tiffany Jode was intelligent, gorgeous and the heiress to a small fortunesmall as compared to national budgets. She and David ran in the same social circles and had ended up in bed on several enjoyable occasions. But the evenings theyd spent together had as often been a product of coincidence as of deliberate planning, and hed never thought of Tiffany and himself as a couple. So he certainly hadnt seen the breakup coming. Hed mentioned a few weeks ago that the AGI partners were considering Atlanta for their new headquarters, and that hed enjoy returning to Georgia, if given the chance. On Saturday, when the subject had come up over their lunch at Turner Fisheries, shed grown silent, barely touching the nearly famous clam chowder. On the way back to her place she asked if hed even once considered inviting her to move South with him.
An immediate and unintentionally appalled no hadnt been the answer shed wanted.
Ah, well. Richard clapped David on the arm. Youre a young man with plenty of other options. And theres a lot to be said for the bachelor existence.
Yes, there was. David had led a rich and varied social life for the last few years, work permitting. He enjoyed women. Even if lately hed been subconsciously comparing them to the one who had pushed him away.
Lunch sounds good, David said, lifting his charcoal suit jacket from where it hung on the back of his chair.
Excellent. Ill have Francine call ahead to get us a table at the club. Meet you in about an hour?
That gave David just enough time to finish outlining a report he was supposed to summarize this week and maybe read a few e-mails. But after hed returned to his office, all he could think about was his impending return to the land of peaches, bad traffic and sexy Southern women. He hadnt mentioned to his family that he might be moving back. He knew theyd be excited about his being just a few hours from home, and hed wanted to wait until he knew for sure.
Now, he could tell them he was not only moving, but that before this time next year, he would quite probably take over as AGIs Vice President of Business Development. The current VP had lived in Boston his entire life and had no desire to relocate now, within a few years of retirement, whereas David was young, ambitious and had contacts in the southeast. The partners could have put the move in the hands of Richard Gunn, who would also eventually transfer to Atlanta, while Andrews and Innes remained in Boston running the technological development side of the company. But obviously they wanted to give David this chance to prove himself.
He savored the thought of announcing the promotion to his proud family. Much as he loved them, he reveled in the knowledge that they hadnt exercised any of their considerable influence to get him the position.
David had e-mailed Serena about the possibility of relocation, but in a vague, almost hypothetical way. When her oh, that might be nice response hadnt exactly denoted her jumping for joy in front of her computer monitor, hed strategically dropped the subject. I just didnt want to jinx my chances at the leadership role. Not that he believed in jinxesunless it was convenient.
He could call her now, he thought, as he glanced through his window at the soft rain that had begun to fall. April showers were hardly rare (hence the popular term), and the undoubtedly chilly mist outside bore no resemblance to the summer deluge that had taken him and Serena by surprise. Still, considering the way shed been crowding his thoughts since the news this morning, it didnt take much to bring that August downpour to mind.
Theyd started the evening at an outdoor café in her eccentric neighborhood. Sharing a bottle of wine, theyd talked about being single, swapping progressively naughty anecdotes about their love lives before the unexpected storm sent them fleeing to her apartment, a renovated building that had once been a public school.
David had been sexually aware of her since hed first seen her years ago arguing with someone in Student Affairs. But throughout their college friendship, which had begun while he briefly dated her roommate, one or both of them was usually involved with someone else, up until the time David had gone to Boston. Most of Serenas boyfriendssuch as the current touring artist David had dubbed the Happy Wandererwere Davids polar opposites. So, when hed spontaneously kissed her in her apartment, it had been without the usual Savannah Grant guarantee of getting what he wanted. He hadnt been absolutely one-hundred-percent sure shed kiss him back.
But she had. And then some. Shed gone from a flirtatious friend he met for a few annual dinners to a blond siren with glinting brown eyes and a body like hot satin.
His memories played in digitized HiDef with surround-sound: the wanton invitation in her body as shed reclined across that ridiculous purple couch of hersa couch he hadnt been so inclined to mock the next morningthe glow of her ivory skin and the tiny gold navel ring illuminated by flashes of lightning. The feel of her beneath his hands and mouth as hed conducted a slow, teasingly soft exploration in direct contrast to the urgently pounding rain on the roof above them.
It had been sexual nirvana, and when his plane had touched down the next day at Logan, hed already been thinking about how soon he could get back to Atlantanot that theyd discussed seeing each other again. Theyd overslept, and hed barely caught a cab in enough time to make his flight. Then hed come home to that damn e-mail that professed her longstanding affection for him and ended with the insistence that they resume a platonic friendship.
Since her announcement that shed started dating Happy, David had dated plenty, too. Hed had a good time, but hed yet to reexperience the explosive chemistry hed shared with Serena. He supposed theyd never know what would have happened if she hadnt been too busy to see him when hed returned to Georgia for the holidays.