Victoria Dahl - The Guy Next Door

And damn, it couldn’t be more perfect.

THREE DAYS LATER, STILL snowed in, Buddy came to the bed and barked. Natalie didn’t hesitate. She nudged Jett.

“Hmm?”

They were both naked. Again. Or maybe still. Jett had dressed to get them food and to take Buddy out, but so far she’d only been partially clothed at any given time.

She hadn’t been out of the room once—and hadn’t minded in the least.

“Jett?”

“Mmm…Natalie.” He tried to pull her closer, already kissing her shoulder, his hand sliding around to her stomach.

The man was insatiable.

She was so lucky.

“Buddy has to go out.”

Letting out a sigh, Jett turned to his back and managed to get his eyes open. He yawned, stretched and lifted up on an elbow to look at her. “Hey, beautiful.”

Very softly, Natalie said, “Hey.”

He lifted one brow then smoothed the sheet away from her breasts. “Didn’t I tell you that you wouldn’t need clothes?”

“You were mostly right.” Natalie swatted the sheet back down. “But if I had clothes, I could offer to take a turn with Buddy.”

“I don’t mind.” Jett patted her hip and rolled out of the bed. “Be back in a few.”

Skipping boxers and a shirt, he pulled on jeans, stepped into his shoes and grabbed his coat. Buddy, already well used to their routine, danced around him.

Jett hooked the leash to his collar. “He looks energetic this morning, so I’m going to walk him around the halls a little after he takes care of his business.”

“Want me to order room service while you do that?”

“Naked?” He gave her a mock frown. “Hell no. I’ll bring something back with me.”

And so it went. Natalie did little to nothing while Jett pampered her in the most outrageous ways. She was still in the shower when he returned. She heard him and started to turn off the water, but then the shower curtain moved and he stepped in behind her.

He kissed the nape of her neck and wrapped his strong arms around her. “Natalie?”

She put her head on his shoulder. “Hmm?”

“This is the best damn vacation I’ve ever been on.”

Shaking her head, she laughed and said, “You’re easy.”

Slowly, the grin slipped over his face. “I’ve had you all to myself all this time. It’s been perfect.” He set her back from him again. “But the damned snow has finally stopped and the roads are getting cleared. No way could we make it to the cabin. The side roads are going to be screwed for a while. But it looks like we could head back tomorrow morning, if that’s what you want to do.”

Only one more day alone with him. Natalie sighed. “I’ve loved every second here with you.”

“But you’re worried about your sister, right?”

“Yes.” Before getting in the shower, she’d checked her email account. “I got an email from her.”

“And? You don’t look happy about it.”

Far from happy, she was now more concerned than ever. “There was something wrong with the message.”

“What kind of wrong?”

“It was too brief, and far too cryptic to be from Molly.”

“What did it say?”

“Just that she’d be gone for a while, off having some fun for a change, and that she’d get in touch when she could.” Natalie shook her head. “That’s not her. She’d have told me where she was going, given me a way to get in touch with her.” Natalie chewed her lip. “If she was going to have fun, she’d want me to know about it.”

“The way you want her to know that you’re having fun now?”

Natalie nodded. It was so frustrating that she couldn’t reach Molly. And deep down inside herself, she knew something wasn’t right. “If you’re sure you don’t mind, I think we should head back.”

“Of course I don’t mind. If it was one of my sisters, I’d be the same.” His sexy mouth lifted into a grin. “Speaking of my sisters, they’re going to go even more nuts for you once they know we’re getting married.”

Natalie touched the middle of his chest then dragged her finger ever so slowly downward. Life was ready to intrude, but she still had today. “Guess I better make the most of our remaining time, then.”

“Sounds like one hell of a plan.” Jett closed his eyes when she circled her hand around him. “As long as you remember that our remaining time is forever.”

What kind of trouble is Natalie’s sister, Molly Alexander, in?

Find out in WHEN YOU DARE, the first of a sizzling new trilogy from Lori Foster and HQN Books.

Coming soon!

This book is dedicated to all the bangin’-sick teenagers I’m blessed to have in my life.

I won’t embarrass you by printing your names.

Dear Reader,

“Rule number one is never, ever fall in love with a guy you meet on spring break….”

Gail Chapman may be the chaperone for her teenage daughter and friend, but after meeting Key West neighbor Jesse Batista—a sultry, sexy, earring-wearing sea captain with a big secret—Gail is the girl who’s gone wild.

This novella was inspired by a real-life trip with my teenagers to Key West. But hold off on those plane tickets. The only place you’ll find Jesse is right here in these pages.

Happy reading!

Susan Donovan

“BUT, MOM! HOW CAN YOU DO this to me?”

Gail Chapman looked up from her morning newspaper and into the angry face of her seventeen-year-old daughter, Holly. “The answer is no,” she said again. “There is no way on earth I am letting you go to Florida alone for spring break. Do you think I don’t know what kind of trouble a girl can get into down there?”

“But I’ll have Hannah with me!”

Gail tried to keep a straight face, but the idea that Holly’s best friend, the voluptuous Hannah Marko, would somehow provide a barrier between her daughter and disaster was laughable. The two of them were Thelma and Louise without a lick of life experience or a decent map. “I said no, and that’s my final decision.”

“God!” Holly stomped her feet like an enraged toddler. “I can’t believe you’d mess up my entire senior year like this! You’re ruining my whole life!”

“Actually, I’m helping you avoid that very thing.”

“Aaauuuggghh!” Holly balled up her fists. The veins and tendons stood out from her neck so much that Gail thought she looked like the Incredible Hulkette in size-three skinny jeans.

“The answer is no, Holly.”

“But you don’t understand—”

“Sure I do,” Gail said, calmly removing her reading glasses and folding her hands on the kitchen table in front of her. “I am not a shut-in, sweetheart. I know all the temptations the world has to offer.”

Her daughter made some kind of dismissive clicking sound at the back of her tongue before she said, “What-evs.”

Gail sighed.

“But Daytona Beach is perfectly safe, Mom!” Holly twirled around on her Uggs and flopped into the other kitchen chair. “There’s lifeguards, like, every ten feet down the sand! And police everywhere! And, you know, their whole economy depends on tourism, so, like, they have to make sure nothing bad ever happens to the spring-break kids because that would be bad PR and totally negatively affect their economy!”

Gail was impressed by her daughter’s logic, but it was all a load of bull and they both knew it. “The answer is no,” she said again, standing up and clearing away her breakfast dishes. As she rinsed them out in the sink, she felt Holly press close behind her.

“Please, Mommy?” Holly made the plea in her cutest, sweetest, little-girl voice. “No.”

“Dad would say yes!” Holly’s voice had magically regained its full measure of teenage torment. “If I lived with Dad, he’d let me go!”

Gail nearly choked as she placed her bowl and spoon in the dishwasher. Holly was right. Her dad would likely endorse any vacation that included alcohol poisoning, random disrobing and waking up in a stranger’s hotel room, since that was pretty much his preferred getaway. It was all a moot point, of course. Holly couldn’t move in with her dad anytime soon, since Curtis Chapman would be a guest of the federal prison system for another four years. And that was contingent upon good behavior, which had never been his strong suit.

“No, Holly. That’s my final answer.”

“You’re being unreasonable! Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t be allowed to go!”

Gail turned. She put her hands on Holly’s upper arms and held her firmly. She looked right into her daughter’s big, beautiful brown eyes—a move that now required her to look up instead of down because her baby was about an inch taller than her. She spoke slowly and seriously.

“A terrible disease. An unplanned pregnancy. An auto accident. Being hit by a bus. Drowning. A shark attack. An unintentional starring role in the Sluts of Spring Break DVD available for $19.95 on the Internet.”

Holly’s mouth fell open.

“What?” Gail asked. “Did you think I’m some nerdy small-town English professor with no idea of what goes on outside of Beaverdale, Pennsylvania?”

Holly blinked. “Well…yeah.”

Gail kissed her daughter’s cheek, keeping her smile hidden. “I need to get ready for my nine o’clock class. You’ve got five minutes until the bus gets here.”

“But, Mom—”

“We’ll talk about it more this evening,” Gail said, heading toward her bedroom. “Maybe we can come up with some kind of alternative plan, okay? Maybe you and Hannah can do something fun a little closer to home.”