A Major Seduction
BLURB
His
little sister’s best friend has grown up…too much…for this Marine to
handle—without a little discipline to keep her in check.
Major
Mike Cava has worked hard not to see Maria Thompson as anything but his
baby sister’s best friend. Not an easy feat when Maria’s done her best
to throw herself at him for years. Except in the two years since he’s
seen her last, Maria has grown way up. Good God, she’s stunning. But now that he’s really seeing her, she isn’t seeing him.
Maria
spent the past fourteen years mooning over a man who never saw her as
anything but a little girl, and she’s done. Or so she tries fooling
herself. She’s twenty-four years old, and it’s past time she grew up and
over him. But now Mike’s giving her “those” looks. Oh, wow.
With the help of her best friend—Mike’s sister—she’ll prove she’s more
than woman enough to handle him. His dominance, his kink in the bedroom,
his huge, hot body. But just when she thinks they can make a go of it,
he pulls back. She can’t do it anymore. Loving, being hurt, loving,
being ignored. This time if Mike wants her, he’ll have to prove it.
She’s done.
And he’s just realized he might have made the biggest mistake of his life in pushing her away…
EXCERPT
“I
didn’t realize knitting was so exciting.” Mike stared from his sister
to Maria and raised a brow. As usual, the man intimidated just by
breathing. He stood heads above her, probably at six three or four. He
wore jeans and a tight T-shirt. The breadth of his chest, the size of
his biceps and thighs, and his amazing washboard abs gave him a power
over Maria she should have found embarrassing.
When she could stop wheezing, she’d blush. She knew she would.
“You okay?” Mike frowned.
Olivia elbowed her in the side.
“Ow. Fine.” She coughed. “Er, just had something go down the wrong way,”
Maria rasped and coughed again to give truth to the lie. “So what can
we help you with, Mike? Looking for knitting needles? Yellow yarn? A
fold-away cutting station?”
He laughed. “Yeah, right. I’ll get right on knitting as soon as I finish my needlepoint.”
Olivia leaned closer to Maria and confided, “He did make a latch hook
Snoopy rug when he was little. He finished his before I did.”
“Hey. Mom made me.” Mike flushed.
God, he was hot. Maria cleared her throat. “So what can we do for you?"
He stared at her and frowned. Even his annoyance attracted her. So not
fair. She concentrated on being done with him. Trying hard to forget her
crush. Really trying.
“Mike?” Olivia prodded.
“Just wanted to see if her date went okay.”
“Oh?” Olivia exchanged a puzzled look with Maria.
Maria
explained, “Bobby and I were walking on the beach and passed by Mike
last night. I hadn’t even thought about it. It’s just so easy to park
near the house and access the beach there.”
“Right.” Olivia had a crafty look Maria recognized. But she sounded blasé when she asked Mike, “So what now? She’s fine.”
He opened his mouth then closed it. His brows drew closer together. “So did he?”
“Did who what?” Maria asked, not sure what he wanted from her.
“Did Bobby ‘go down on you’ again?” he growled. “He was dying to, remember?”
Olivia gaped at him.
Maria didn’t know what to say.
“Well?” He put his hands on his trim hips, and his biceps looked like fleshy boulders.
Olivia turned to her with a huge grin on her face. “Did he?”
“Oh my God. No, he did not.” She turned and snapped at Mike, “Not that
it’s any of your business. What the hell is your problem?”
All the tension seemed to deflate from him. “Oh. Good.”
“Good?” She didn’t know what to think. “Where the hell do you
get off asking me about my sex life? I’m twenty-four years old, not
twelve. Besides, I don’t ask you how many bimbos suck you off on a daily
basis.”
“Whoa.” Olivia looked from her to him and held up her hands in surrender. “Easy, guys.”
“You want to know, just ask me.” This Mike she’d never before seen. And wow, she wanted to get to know this angry, sexy, forceful man like nobody’s business.
“Well, I don’t want to know. I’ll be in the back room.” Olivia
escaped to the office and closed the door behind her, leaving Maria and
Mike alone together.
“Go ahead. Ask.” Mike crossed his arms over his chest.
“I don’t want to know,” she said primly. “But if I want Bobby to eat me
out, I’ll ask him. And fuck you very much if you don’t like it.”
He just stared at her. After a moment, he said, “Nice mouth, princess.”
“Whatever. Mike, get out.”
“Wait. What?”
“Buy something or get out. I’m running a business, not a charity.
Seriously though, my love life is not your concern.” Not that it had
been in middle or high school either, yet he’d still taken it upon
himself to look out for her.
“It is.”
“Excuse me?”
An older lady took a step inside the store.
Mike turned around to see who’d entered, still glaring, and the woman
turned around and left. He looked at Maria again and scowled. “You’re
like my little sister.”
“I am not your sister. At. All. And you know, I’m glad.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re an asshole.” She let her festering anger free. “I can
date or fuck whoever I please. You don’t like it, too bad.”
He stomped three steps to the counter and loomed over her. “I care about my sister. I care about you.”
Not the way I wish you would.
“I’ve been living without you for a long time, Mike. My little-kid
crush disappeared years ago. I have sex. I like sex. And I like men.
There. Now you have the deets about my love life. Buy something or get
out.”
He grabbed a ball of yarn and set it before him. “There. Look. I didn’t mean to piss you off. I’m just not used to you—”
“Not following you around like a puppy dog? Lapping up any stray form of
affection? God, I was pathetic. But no more. I deserve a guy who wants
me for me. Besides, you’re too old. You’re what, thirty-four?”
“Thirty-one,” he bit out.
“I’m twenty-four and in the prime of my life. I need to live a little,
you know? Hell, you can barely handle me saying the word ‘fuck.’ Imagine
me doing it.” She wiggled her brows, pleased beyond measure when his
expression darkened and his gaze traveled from her mouth to her breasts
and back up to her eyes.
Holy shit. Mike Cava had just given her the proverbial eye-fuck!
“Imagine, hmm?”
Excited but not willing to be drawn into a conversation that would
inevitably backfire and have him scurrying away, she shrugged off the
discussion. “That’ll be four-nineteen.”
“Huh?”
“For the yarn.”
He
reached into his pocket and slapped a five on the counter. “Keep the
change.” He leaned closer still, until she could feel his breath on her
lips. “Honey, you want to play footsie with your guy friends, fine. But
keep that shit away from my sister.”
“Because she’s all virginal and pure? Please.” She laughed at him,
knowing Olivia would find that funny as hell. The girl acted all
prudish, but she liked sex as much as Maria did.
His eyes looked so dark she’d swear they were black. “Please, what?”
She felt as if she’d fallen under a spell. She wanted to look away but
couldn’t even blink. He licked his lips, and she did the same. “What?”
“Please, Sir.” He reached his big hand forward and caressed her neck, and her entire body lit on fire.
“Sir?” she squeaked.
“Yeah, that’s what they call me unless they want a good spanking.” He gripped her chin with enough firmness to make his point.
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