Bad Boy Next Door: Excerpt

Bad Boy Next Door Excerpt

Bad Boy Next Door by Melissa Blue

Copyright 2013

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

Cover Art by Melissa Blue

Jesus Christ.

No wonder Ryan had a thing for her. She'd coaxed her hair into big, spiral curls that framed her heart-shaped face. Her rich, dark brown eyes were lit with a laugh that tugged her full mouth into a smile. Skin, just as dark brown as her eyes, looked soft and touchable. The simple black dress gave more than a hint of the femininity beneath. The silver heels elongated slender legs that had no end.

Tonight, and any night she went out on a blind date, Penelope looked like something he should bite just to have her taste fill his mouth. But he never did. Never would.

He spent a lot time with a lot of bad people. He always felt tainted by his life whenever he was around her. Although she didn't look it tonight, Penelope should be with someone who didn't own a set of lockpicks just in case a closed door needed to find itself conveniently opened.

Still, he couldn't help but flirt back like he'd done for the past two months. It was driving him a bit insane to not close the distance in the hallway and kiss her already. He persevered, leaning heavily on his doorjamb.

He needed a damn medal, both for restraint and stupidity. “What did the door do to make you go postal?”

“Not a thing. I'm just a rage-aholic. You should see how I rip into paper when I get on a tear.” She grinned at the intentional pun. “What are you doing home this late at night and stalking me?”

“Got a tip and was heading to a secret meeting. Stepped out and here you were destroying property with your head. I decided to announce my presence and make no sudden moves.”

“Oh.” Her shoulders slumped. “I won't hold you up then.”

He didn't want to leave. He never did whenever they had a moment alone. “My source is always late. I've got a few minutes to help defuse your rage.”

“It's nothing really.” She shrugged. “My roommate is convinced I should only date nice guys. I just came from another one of those disastrous dinners. You caught me in a moment of pure frustration.”

“Frustrated and angry.” He paused. “At yourself, your friend, or the date?”

She shook her head and the curls brushed along her face. “All of the above and I don't know why.”

He scoffed at her answer. “Yes, you do.”

She laughed softly. “Why do you think that?”

“Because I know human nature.” And that was the truth. Ryan had witnessed more than his fair share of it. “I see the seedier side, but it's all the same.”

Penelope made a noncommittal noise and then said, “Your job has left you all noir.”

“Somewhat.” Which was why Ryan kept his feet planted in his doorway. “Doesn't change the fact you're probably angry at yourself for going on another date. Angry at her for offering. And at him...don't know why. Probably a jackass. It's not rational, but it's human nature.”

“It's petty,” she argued.

“I repeat—human nature.”

She laughed as he'd known she would, and the sound did wonderful things to his spine. Stay against the doorjamb. Don't move. Not one goddamn step. “Ah, are you feeling better now? Will it be safe for me to leave my apartment, knowing it won't be torched?”

She bit the corner of her mouth to contain the flirtatious smile. “Your valuables will be safe from me.”

“My work here is done.” He felt safe that his craving for her had been fed and he wouldn't do anything stupid.

Ryan turned to close his door, and her heels clicked against the hard wood floors of the hallway. She was going inside. He'd sighed in relief from dodging another bullet, but when he faced her again, Penelope had closed some of the distance between them. Enough for him to know intimately her perfume had a light musk. The scent filled his head with nonsense about leaning down and slanting his mouth over hers.

She moved closer and her hand ate up the last of the distance. Light as a feather, her fingertips rested on his arm. If she kept them there one second longer, he'd do something dumb and irrevocable. It would lead down a road where he wouldn't take her rough, but he'd damn sure would take her every which way but loose.

She glanced up at him, mouth parted, about to speak. His gaze fixated on her bottom lip. Pink. Her mouth definitely looked like something he should bite into. Just once to get it out of his system. Her eyes widened and the sweetest, softest noise fell from her lips, but she didn't step back. Yeah. He shouldn't close the distance.

But...one time would be enough, right? He'd warn her off after that. If he had to, Ryan would pick Penelope up, dump her into her apartment, and make sure she'd lock the door tight to keep him out.

But...goddammit, just this once, he'd kiss her.

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Guest Post: Rosanna Leo and the Selkie

Please give a warm welcome to Rosanna Leo to the blog!

*****

I am so happy to be visiting with the lovely Melissa Blue today, and to be able to share the news of my newest book The Selkie. It is an erotic paranormal romance set in Orkney, Scotland. In that part of the world, there are legends about the mythical selkie folk, shape shifters who shift from seal to human form. They merely need to shed their seal pelt and they can live on land for a time. Selkies are legendary lovers. In fact, the myths say that if a human woman is unsatisfied with her love life, she need only cry 7 tears into the sea to call an immortal selkie man. He will love her as no human man can.  Tantalizing, don’tcha think?

In preparing this post, I was trying to recall why I wanted to write about a selkie in the first place. Certainly mythological creatures of all sorts have always attracted me…the males in particular. It could be the allure of the beach. Perhaps it’s the Scottish thing, but selkie men don’t tend to wear kilts. In fact they don’t wear much of anything.

That could be the reason right there.

No, I think one of the main reasons is my fascination with sea creatures. I’m not talking Nessie here. I’m talking about those fantastical beings who dwell beneath the depths, the ones whose very existence cannot be disproved. Ethereal mermaids who lure sailors to a watery demise. Sirens who call to hapless men from their craggy rocks. Selkie men, who are reputed to be unbelievable lovers whose good looks can devastate. What’s not to love?

Actually, now that I think about it, you can blame Aquaman. Was I the only little girl in the 70’s who lusted after this buff cartoon character? That shiny blond hair. Those hardened abs. His insane swimming ability. Think of the things we could do underwater!

Well, so there you have it. I suppose The Selkie is my homage to Aquaman, although not a direct reference in any way. Indeed, all my books have an origin in the interests of my childhood. Greek myths, vampires, firefighters. They all show up in my stories.

Should I be concerned that I also had a crush on Snap, Crackle and Pop? Menage literature…here I come!

*****

Blurb:

This was supposed to be her year. However, after losing her job and discovering her fiancé cheating, Maggie Collins has her doubts. When her grandmother dies, she hits rock bottom. Maggie travels to her grandmother’s home in Orkney, Scotland to sort through her gran’s things, only to discover the old woman has left her a seal pelt as her inheritance. She also learns that others are after the pelt.

To add to her frustration, Maggie’s dreams are filled with luscious images of a long-haired man, images that draw her to the magical beaches in Orkney. Although she’s lost her trust in men, this dream man inspires her with a lust she’s never known before.

Calan Kirk has also been dreaming. Dreaming of Maggie, the mortal woman who arouses him as no other woman ever has. Meeting her in the flesh when she arrives in Orkney is nothing short of spontaneous sexual combustion. But she is a human, and not to be trusted. He needs the seal pelt, not a red-haired temptress.

As a thief ransacks Maggie’s grandmother’s house, Maggie and Calan are thrust together. They must search for the animal skin, a mythical relic which once found, will either bring them together or rip them apart forever.

 *****

Excerpt:

She was attempting to stand on her wobbly legs, only to fall back down on her bottom, when she heard the sound of splashing water. Thinking it was her seal, Maggie turned to look.

Her breath caught in her throat. It wasn’t the animal at all.

It was a man. He was rising out of the waves, walking toward her. She froze. He was nude, utterly nude, and was staring at her with overflowing intimacy. As if they’d had, God help her, relations.

And she realized, with sudden panic, they’d had! In her dreams. He was the seal-man from all her sex dreams.

No. Impossible.

Her first instinct was to call for help, but there was no one near. And then she realized with frightening awareness that she didn’t want any help anyway. Glued to her spot, she couldn’t help but drink him in.

He was beautiful, if unnervingly wet and naked. He had long, shiny, brown hair that hung down past his shoulders. His face could have belonged on an ad for expensive cologne, and he had a body to match. Sculpted shoulders gave way to arms corded in muscle. His defined chest was blanketed by a smattering of sparse, brown hair that led tantalizingly to his rock-hard abs.

Maggie held her breath as her gaze traveled lower on his body, taking in trim calves and thighs a quarterback would envy. And, she noted with simultaneous hunger and horror, his penis was the biggest she’d ever had the pleasure of seeing. It was thick and long and glistening with the droplets of water that yet cascaded over his body. And it seemed to be reaching for her. She gulped, and forced herself to look back up at his face.

There was a faint glow about his skin, a shimmery aura. Dismissing it as a trick of the moonlight, she shook her head.

He was almost upon her, and his full lips were taut in a teasing grin. Maybe he was a surfer who’d lost not only his board, but his shorts in the waves. She knew she should be frantic, but wasn’t. There was something in his brown eyes that was so familiar, so soothing, even as they swept over her own body with lustful appreciation.

He stopped in front of her, and stood boldly, unashamed of his glorious nakedness. She managed to spit out one hushed word. “You.”

“You,” was his equally awed reply.

 *****

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