Tempted

“Do you want to try out the sex survey?” Brooke asked

Marc glanced at the magazine, then at Brooke. His eyes grew dark. “I’m game if you are. But no cheating.”

Brooke wrinkled her nose at him. “I don’t cheat.”

“That’s good to hear.” He stretched out on his side, propped his head in his palm and patted the sleeping bag in front of him. “Still, I think you’d better come down here so I can look into your eyes when you answer,” he said, grinning.

She hesitated for a moment, then scooted down until she lay on her side facing him. They weren’t touching physically, but a keen sense of intimacy surrounded them.

“Okay,” he said. “Let’s get started.” He paused over the questions, deliberating which one to choose. “Here’s a good one,” he said. “‘If someone completely turned you on, would you consider having a hot fling with them?’”

Brooke’s skin tingled. The question addressed an issue they’d been avoiding since yesterday morning’s kiss. With her new motto, Just Do It, ringing in her head, she answered, “Well…yes, I guess I’ve considered it.” She gathered up her courage and looked him in the eye. “With you.”

Dear Reader,

The title, Tempted, just about sums up the premise of this book. When my sensible heroine, Brooke Jamison, finds herself stranded with her very sexy ex-brother-in-law, Marc, she can’t resist the temptation to shed her inhibitions and indulge in a few of her favorite erotic fantasies. Two days of blissful confinement changes everything between them, but can she risk her heart on a man who is as commitment-shy as they come?

Hot, sexy, erotic…Those are the elements inherent in the BLAZE subseries that allowed me to push personal boundaries and make this one of my most sizzling books to date. I hope you enjoy Brooke and Marc’s story, their sensual journey and the passionate discoveries they make along the way.

And be sure to watch for my next ultra-sexy Temptation BLAZE novel, Seduced, available in December 2000. Meanwhile, I’d love to know what you think of Tempted. You can write to me at P.O. Box 1102, Rialto, CA 92377-1102. I always write back! For a list of upcoming releases, check out my Web site at www.janelledenison.com.

Fondly,

Janelle Denison

Books by Janelle Denison

HARLEQUIN TEMPTATION

679—PRIVATE PLEASURES

682—PRIVATE FANTASIES

732—FORBIDDEN

759—CHRISTMAS FANTASY

Tempted

Janelle Denison

www.millsandboon.co.uk

To Carly Phillips and Julie Elizabeth Leto, for your extraordinary friendship and unending encouragement. Viva las Divas!

And to Don, for understanding that our astronomical long distance phone bill is a legitimate business expense.

Contents

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Prologue

“THIRTY-FIVE YEARS of marriage. Are you as impressed as I am?”

The deep, masculine baritone murmuring into her ear from over her shoulder caused Brooke Jamison to shiver. She turned and faced the owner of that sexy voice—her former brother-in-law, Marc Jamison. She met warm gray eyes framed in sooty lashes, and a mouth tipped in a lazy, sexy smile that was as natural as his gregarious personality. His thick, black hair, looking as soft and enticing as midnight, had been tousled by the slight breeze cooling the early August evening. In an attempt to maintain an executive image for his electrical contracting company, he wore his hair short, but the ends that curled over the collar of his sports jacket bespoke the rebel he was.

Startled by the unexpected flutter of awareness that tickled her belly, Brooke focused on his question and her answer. “Your parents’ marriage is amazing, and inspiring.”

Sliding his hands into the front pockets of his chocolate-colored trousers, Marc looked briefly to the guests gathered in his parents’ lavishly decorated backyard to celebrate Kathleen and Doug’s thirty-fifth anniversary. “So, are you having a good time?”

“Yeah, I am,” she admitted, glad that she’d accepted his mother’s invitation to join the celebration. She’d been hesitant at first, considering her and Eric’s divorce had been finalized two weeks before, but Kathleen and the rest of the Jamison family had made her feel welcome, including her ex-husband. Despite the inevitable end to their marriage, she and Eric still maintained an amicable relationship, rare among divorced couples. Still, Kathleen’s invitation had initially taken her off guard.

“I have to confess I’m surprised your family wanted me here, considering I’m technically not part of the family anymore.”

A small frown pulled at his dark brows, her admission obviously causing him concern. “Hey, once you’re a Jamison, you’re part of the family forever, didn’t you know that?”

Brooke smiled, liking the way that sounded. Unfortunately, in her experience families divided when couples split up. The dissension and emotional upheaval her own father had caused when he’d ended his marriage to her mother had been monumental. Without compunction, he’d shattered fragile family ties, forcing Brooke to mature beyond her thirteen years and leaving his other daughter hurt and disillusioned.

“That’s not usually the way a divorce works,” she returned, taking a sip of her drink.

“You divorced Eric, not the rest of us,” he countered easily. “My parents adore you, my mother thinks of you as the daughter she never had, and I think you’re pretty special, too.”

His complimentary words were simple and sincere, yet she was suddenly, inexplicably entranced by the warm glow in his gaze. Ignoring the odd racing of her pulse, she looked away and found her ex-husband trapped in a steady stream of one-sided dialogue with his uncle George, a boisterous man who reveled in dominating the conversation. The beefy hand resting on Eric’s shoulder guaranteed he wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

Eric’s hazel eyes met hers over Uncle George’s balding head and silently pleaded, “Have mercy on me, please.” He flashed her one of the endearing smiles that had won her over when she’d first met him, but now failed to elicit any stirring of desire or the inclination to help him out of his predicament.

Marc followed her line of vision to his brother and groaned. “Eric looks miserable, and we both know how long-winded, and boring, my uncle can be. Think we ought to go save him?”

An amused smile tipped the corner of her mouth as she considered Marc’s question for all of two seconds before breaking eye contact with Eric and leaving him in his uncle’s clutches. “No, I don’t believe I will,” she said without a hint of remorse. “It’s no longer my job to rescue Eric, or play the doting wife.” He was on his own, as she was. And she was pleased to discover she was fine with that.

Marc studied her expression intently. “You’re doing okay, then?”

“More than okay,” she verified, nodding. “Though after a two-year marriage, it seems strange to be single and available again.”

“I’m sure that status won’t last long.” He leaned toward her, so close she caught the faint scent of mint on his breath. “Between you and me, Eric never knew a good thing when he saw one. I was really hoping you’d be ‘The One.”’

She blinked up at him, not quite understanding what he meant. “‘The One’?”

“Yeah, the one woman who could make Eric settle down.”

Now it was her turn to frown. There was something in the depth of Marc’s eyes she couldn’t quite decipher. A hint of disappointment, she realized, but didn’t understand its source.

“I’m only one woman,” she said. “And that obviously wasn’t enough for Eric.”

Eric had tried to conform to their wedding vows, but ultimately he’d realized and admitted that he was a man who couldn’t commit to any one woman. A genetic flaw, he’d told her, passed on from father to sons. Except Eric’s father, Doug, had chosen to make his marriage work after his one indiscretion. Judging by the closeness Doug and Kathleen now seemed to share, their relationship had endured.

Resignation flickered across Marc’s lean features. “If that’s the case, it doesn’t leave much hope for me.”

His words held a longing she found curious. In the years that she’d known Marc she’d discovered that he steadfastly avoided serious relationships, didn’t commit himself to any one woman and preferred to play the field. He embraced bachelorhood.

So why, then, did she get the impression that he wished differently?

Placing her empty glass on the corner of the rented bar, she decided that talk of anniversaries and marriage was getting the best of her and making her come to absurd conclusions about her brother-in-law. Making her feel things she had no business feeling.

She called up a smile. “It’s getting late. I’d better say my goodbyes and be on my way.”

He nodded, his charming grin lightening the moment. “I’ll walk you to the door.”

Half an hour later, after an endless round of hugs and farewells from the entire Jamison clan, Marc escorted her to the foyer. He rested his hand lightly at the base of Brooke’s spine, the heat of his fingers penetrating through the black linen pants she wore. Her heart thundered in her chest, and she couldn’t help but wonder how a simple touch from Marc could evoke such a startling response.

She stepped away from him as inconspicuously as possible when they reached the carved front doors, effectively dislodging that overwhelming contact that had her body tingling. Granted, she’d been without a man for a year, and Marc was extremely attractive, but she’d never thought of him as anything more than her husband’s brother.

Until now…

His gaze found hers, and the muted sounds of the party faded into the background, making Brooke aware that they were very much alone.

A smile eased across his lips, but his expression was more serious than she’d ever seen it before. “Don’t be a stranger, okay?”

Tamping a sudden rush of emotion, she whispered, “Okay.”

He gathered her into a warm hug she hadn’t even known she needed until she was enveloped by his hard body. Closing her eyes, she breathed deeply, inhaling the scent of warm spice and male heat. Greedily, she leaned into him and absorbed his comforting embrace, reluctant to let the moment go.

As much as she was over Eric, the past year had been difficult, and at times, lonely. She’d moved into her sister’s apartment after her separation, and though Jessica provided female companionship, it wasn’t enough. With Marc’s arms around her, his hands stroking her back, Brooke realized how much she missed something as simple as a man’s embrace, a man’s touch. Eric had never been very demonstrative in their marriage, believing it wasn’t masculine to exhibit tender feelings. Marc had always been one to openly express his affection.

Too soon he pulled back, and she lifted up on her feet to place a chaste kiss on his cheek—the same time he turned his head. Their lips met, momentarily startling them both. Over the past four years she’d shared many platonic kisses with her flirtatious brother-in-law, and this one started as innocently as any, his mouth brushing hers lightly…except somewhere along the way the tenor of the kiss changed, for both of them.

This time his lips lingered a little longer, and his mouth gradually, instinctively, exerted a gentle pressure that surpassed those chaste kisses they’d shared in the past. To her shock, a soft, unexpected moan of pleasure tickled her throat, and his tongue stroked along her bottom lip in tentative exploration.

Her mind spun, her senses reeled, and she struggled to keep her perspective on the situation. Desires and denials clashed, confusing her. Nerve endings that had lain dormant for too long sizzled and came alive. And then she did something incredibly shameless—she touched her tongue to his.

She heard him groan deep in his chest, felt Marc’s large hands on her hips guide her backward…until her spine pressed against the wall, and the two of them were shrouded in a shadowy corner. The heat surrounding her was incendiary. She caught a quick glimpse of the sensual hunger glimmering in his eyes and shivered at the thought of being the recipient of all that wild, frenzied electricity.

She didn’t protest when he framed her face in his large, callused hands, didn’t object or struggle when he lowered his mouth to hers once again. Without preamble, he parted her lips with his, glided his tongue into forbidden territory, and seduced her with one of the hottest, most shockingly intimate kisses she’d ever tasted.

And she let him.

His fingers threaded through her hair, and his thumbs caressed her jaw. Her body swelled, and for a brief moment she felt reckless and wild. The feeling was liberating, exciting…until her conscience rudely reminded her who she was kissing—her bad boy, live-for-the-moment ex-brother-in-law.

Panic edged out pleasure, and she jerked her head back, effectively ending the rapacious kiss, but there was nothing she could do about the slow throb pulsing through her body, making her ache for primitive, erotic things she’d never, ever contemplated with Eric. Unfortunately, her ex-husband had never inspired such consuming lust, such excruciating need.

And that knowledge frightened her most of all.

Frantically, she pushed Marc away, and he immediately stepped back. They were both breathing raggedly, and judging by his bewildered expression, he was just as stunned as she was by the instantaneous flare of desire that had leapt between them. And intrigued—she recognized the thrill of a challenge in his quicksilver eyes.

Knowing that the dangerous, frivolous kind of interest she saw there could only cause trouble to her heart and emotions, she moved around him in a frenzied blur of motion and fled from the house. She sucked cool night air into her lungs, berating herself for a fool.

“Brooke, wait,” she heard his voice, then his clipped steps as he followed her down the brick walkway.

Shaken by what she’d allowed to happen, and refusing to engage in a conversation about her brazen response, she nearly ran to her car. Disengaging her alarm, she slid behind the wheel of her Toyota Four Runner, wincing as his low, exasperated curses reached her. Slamming the door shut, she started the engine, drowning out his voice, then left him standing at the curb with his hands jammed on his hips and his features creased with frustration.

She experienced a twinge of guilt for her abrupt departure, but knew her actions spoke louder than any words possibly could. No matter how much she might want Marc, she wasn’t interested in falling for another Jamison.

1

Three months later

“HERE’S TO YOUR NEW single status, Brooke.” Stacey Sumner lifted her strawberry margarita in a toast to mark the beginning of their weeklong “girls’ retreat” in the Colorado Rocky Mountains.

Brooke grinned at her best friend and co-worker. Clinking her glass with Stacey’s and then her sister’s, she took a drink of the frothy beverage. “How about a toast to seven days of skiing, soaking in the hot tub, girl talk and eating everything we shouldn’t?” At the grocery store on the way up to the time-share cabin she still maintained with Eric, they’d bought enough to satisfy every craving they might have—junk food had definitely been on their agenda.

“Oh, yeah,” Jessica agreed, her pale blue eyes sparkling mischievously. “Sounds like heaven.”

Stacey reclined on the matching love seat cornering the sofa and crossed her long legs. “Seven days of doing what we want, when we want. Spontaneity is the word for the week.”

“And relaxation,” Brooke interjected, thinking of all the novels she’d been wanting to read for the past six months and had brought along to curl up with at night.

“Aw, Brooke, you’re no fun,” Stacey lightly chastised. “This week was supposed to be about spontaneity and shedding inhibitions in celebration of being single again, remember?”

Averting her gaze to the fire crackling in the hearth, Brooke took another drink of her potent margarita. Yeah, she remembered the lecture Stacey had imparted on the drive up to Quail Valley for their ski vacation. But Brooke had always been the quintessential good girl—responsible, dependable and virtuous—thinking long and hard about consequences before acting. She’d even accepted her job as an accountant for Blythe Paints because the position was staid and reliable.

Being reckless wasn’t in her psyche…unless she counted that very spontaneous, uninhibited kiss with Marc three months before. Try as she might to forget about that impetuous embrace, the incident, and the man, invaded her thoughts on a daily basis. And at night, well, she’d never had such erotic dreams, had never woken up so on edge. It might have been her own ministrations that had brought her the release her body sought, but it had been Marc who’d starred in the forbidden fantasies she’d woven.

Dismissing the kiss should have been relatively easy, considering she hadn’t heard from Marc since that night. It was the way of the Jamison men, to seize the moment, then move on before the situation got too complicated. In this case, it was probably for the best.

Ignoring the heat flushing her skin—from the combined effects of tequila, the warmth of the fire and her sensual memories of Marc—she met Stacey’s gaze. “You’re the impulsive one, not me,” she retorted.

Stacey made a sound of mock disgust. “You’re just too exciting for words, Brooke.”

She shrugged unapologetically, casually studying her nails. The pale pink polish was chipped and in need of a fresh coat—she planned on treating herself to a manicure and pedicure sometime this week. That’s about how exciting her life got. Predictable…and boring, she realized.

“Let’s try something different, in the way of girl talk,” Stacey suggested. “If you could create the perfect, ideal male to be stranded up here with, what qualities would he have and what would he look like? Use your imagination. Fantasize a little.”

Unbidden, Brooke’s imagination conjured up thick black hair rumpled deliciously, a hard male body made for sin and pleasure, and eyes that darkened from silver to charcoal with a kiss. The fantasies that crowded her mind were something she refused to share with anyone.

Curling her legs beneath her on the sofa cushion, she shoved Marc from her mind and decided to give her ideal male her best shot. “Looks don’t really matter,” she said honestly, “as long as he’s intelligent, warm and humorous.”

Stacey braced her elbow on the armrest of the love seat and propped her chin in her hand, giving Brooke and her description of her exemplary mate her undivided attention. “And sexy?”

“In an understated way. Nothing presumptuous or arrogant.” She finished off her margarita and thought about one of the things that her own marriage had lacked, and that she had often wished for. “His sole focus would be on me and my needs.”

“Oh, yeah,” Stacey said in a throaty purr.

Brooke caught her friend’s drift right away. “And I don’t mean just sexually.”

Stacey wriggled her brows suggestively. “Though being focused on sexual needs doesn’t hurt.”

“I’m talking about emotional needs.” She sounded practical and dull, but didn’t care. After witnessing what her mother had gone through with her father, and her own experience with Eric, those qualities were important to her. “He’d be a good listener, and not afraid to show his feelings. He’d be secure in his masculinity so he didn’t need other women to stroke his ego. And that goes hand in hand with him being monogamous. That’s an absolute must.”

Which certainly left love-’em-and-leave-’em Marc out of the competition.

“That’s very sweet,” Jessica said, a bit of awe in her voice. “Do you think men like that actually exist?”

Brooke glanced at her sister, regretting that Jessica’s illusions about men had been shattered at such an early age by their father’s actions. “Yeah, I do,” she said softly, knowing at the same time that it was only her fantasy.

“You’re so serious about men.” Stacey drained the last of her drink and set her glass on the coffee table in front of her. “Ever thought of just going out and having a wild, mindless affair? Finding some guy that turns you on and having your way with him?”

Brooke imagined ripping Marc’s shirt off, buttons flying. She imagined dragging those tight jeans he wore down his hips, pushing him onto his back and straddling his thighs, then seducing him…

Swallowing a groan, she tried to force those erotic images right out of her head, but she couldn’t ignore that she had wondered a time or two what it would be like to be as sexually liberated as Stacey. To enjoy a man’s attentions without pouring a lot of emotion into the relationship. To just lose herself in mutual pleasure with no expectations, no strings, and without the risk of investing that deep, significant part of herself she could never recover once it was offered.

Men did it all the time. Her ex-husband had been guilty of playing that game, but then again, Eric hadn’t invested the same emotions that she had into their relationship. She’d learned, belatedly, that he’d been incapable of doing so. She’d discovered, belatedly, that she’d been little more than a challenge for her husband, one he’d conquered, claimed, and quickly grown bored with. She’d determined, belatedly, that commitment wasn’t an attribute the men in the Jamison family took seriously.

She knew that, so why was she allowing a bad boy like Marc to get under her skin and consume her thoughts?

“I don’t think Brooke is that kind of girl,” Jessica said when Brooke didn’t answer Stacey’s question.

The corner of Stacey’s mouth tipped up in a lazy, confident smile. “Everyone has a wild side. It’s just a matter of whether or not they tap into it.”

“Very enlightening,” Jessica said with a giggle. “And on that note, I think I’ll go blend the next batch of margaritas.”

Once she’d disappeared into the kitchen, Stacey glanced at Brooke, purpose glimmering in the depths of her eyes. “Ever looked at a guy and thought, I wonder if he’s any good in bed?”

Brooke kept her thoughts centered and focused. “No.”

Stacey considered that for a moment. “Ever looked at a guy’s hands and wondered what they’d feel like sliding over your body?”

Marc had nice hands, large, callused, hot. Her body thrummed at the thought of those palms stroking over her flesh, touching her in sensitive places. “Never.”

“Ever looked at a guy’s lips and imagined the slow, deep kisses he could give…or maybe the different ways he might use his mouth?”

“No, never.” Liar, liar, liar, a voice inside Brooke’s head chanted.

“Ever heard the phrase, ‘just do it’?”

Brooke shrugged. “Yeah.”

“It was meant for people like you.”

Brooke frowned. “People like me?”

“Yeah, people who are too serious and self-controlled. You need to loosen up so you can get in touch with your feminine needs. ‘Just do it’ needs to be your new motto—at least for this next week. Then when we return to civilization you can resume looking for that fantasy man of yours.”

“Just do it, huh?” Brooke repeated, testing out the words, not sure she could be so unreserved and direct—not when she’d spent her life being responsible and sensible in her approach.