Page 39 of Flirting With Disaster

He reached for her hand, needing the connection. “Then yes, it’s yours.”

Her eyes slowly returned to him, a hint of mischief in their depths. “What about porn? Can I have my porn magazines back? I’d like to continue my research.”

“If you research only with me.”

“Money. Can I have all your money?”

“It’s yours.”

She scrunched her nose. “Don’t need it. Sex toys?”

“Don’t need them. You got me.” His fingers linked with hers.

“Almond Joys?”

“All you want,” he whispered.

“Here’s a tough one.” She moved an inch closer, their chests almost touching. “What about a kid? Would you let me have a child?”

He smiled. “I can’t imagine you without one. Mini Jude Duffys are needed in this world. Are we good now?”

She tilted that little red head of hers, examining him, evaluating him. “I suppose I’ll take you back. But only under one more condition.”

“Anything.”

“I’ll need help with a little research.”

“What kind?”

“The kind that says I have to pee on this stick.” She held up the pregnancy test she’d purchased at the drugstore on the way to her walk. “So, if you’re gonna love me, Gabriel Beckette Slauter, love me like you mean it. If not, kiss me like I’m leaving.”

“I’ll do better than that.”

Beck handed her an Almond Joy, picked her up and kissed the hell out of the one woman smart enough to save him from himself.

Take a sneak peek at Naima Simone’s Flirting with Sin, the next novella in The Noble Pass Affaire series.

Flirting with Sin

A Noble Pass Affaire Novella

“Here we go.” The concierge swung the door to the hotel suite open and Neveah rolled her eyes. Jesus Christ, he was so damn happy he practically chirped.

She followed him in and halted just inside the luxuriously appointed suite. Shock and pleasure rooted her feet to the floor, the same as it had outside the resort and in the lobby. Was there anything about this place not screaming history, wealth, and beauty? In the common area of the room, two large, high-back arm chairs and a wide, long sofa gathered around a huge fireplace, and mounted flat-screen television big enough to satisfy the manliest of man caves. An oak dining room table flanked by matching chairs decorated the other side of the open floor plan, while a surprisingly roomy kitchen occupied the farthest end of the room. A quartet of floor-to-ceiling windows granted a breath-stealing view of Lake Noble, mountains and the small village of Noble Pass in the distance. Gorgeous, she breathed. Just gorgeous.

“Here’s your living and dining room combination. Of course, you have full access to the main dining room with all of your meals covered by the hotel. But, just in case you decide to eat in, you have a fully appointed kitchen. You have a tower suite, so there are two balconies. That door there,” he pointed to a door she’d mistaken for a window, “leads to one, and there’s another in the second bedroom.” He waved a hand toward the closed door on the left side of the suite.

The closed door slowly creaked open, revealing the man she would be roomies with for the next seven days.

The rest of the concierge’s spiel fell on deaf ears. She couldn’t catch anything beyond the dull roar reverberating in her head like noise in an empty, vast cave.

Tattoos.

Lots of them.

They swirled in vivid tones of red, blue, purple and black from his wrists, up muscular arms to disappear under a dark, vintage AC/DC T-shirt. More stark lines crept from under his collar and up the strong column of his neck. Most people would’ve probably called his skin “olive,” but that would’ve been a misnomer. It was golden. As if God Himself had trapped liquid sunshine in His hand and created this man out of it.

Tearing her gaze from the strange allure of his throat, she dragged her study down his wide shoulders to his narrow hips and long legs encased in loose denim. He was tall, lean but with a whipcord power not unlike a very large predator.

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