“Is that right, Red?” His deep baritone was captivating now.

  I took a breath and released it slowly, determined not to give an inch. Unfortunately, I realized that Dylan had been right. He definitely didn’t stink. His scent was musky, masculine, and he exuded something that reminded me of sex, sin, and hot, sweaty nights of carnal pleasure.

  Shit!

  “Get off me, Lancaster,” I insisted, never allowing my gaze to waver.

  “I’m not on you yet, Red,” he answered huskily.

  I was wrong about his eyes!

  I froze as I noticed that his irises were darker, and filled with something that looked like…sheer, unadulterated lust.

  Holy shit!

  “Last chance. Back the fuck off.” I hated the fact that my voice sounded slightly panicked.

  I was honest enough with myself to admit that it wasn’t fear that was making me edgy.

  It was Dylan’s eyes, his sexy British accent, and the way that he was looking at me right now.

  I could handle the asshole.

  I wasn’t so sure about the sexy Brit persona.

  I took another deep breath, and then bit back a groan as I was overwhelmed by Dylan’s I-want-to-fuck-you-into-multiple-orgasms scent.

  He lowered his head until I could feel the warmth of his breath on my lips. Those puffs of air smelled minty and fresh, making me want to grab him by the hair and yank his head down until I could taste that hint of peppermint on my tongue.

  “What are you going to do if I kiss you, Red?”

  “Don’t do it,” I warned him.

  No matter how much my body was clamoring for Dylan’s touch, I wasn’t about to let this asshole manhandle me like he’d done with countless women before me. Dylan Lancaster was playing with me. I was simply his…entertainment.

  He grinned, and the action lit up his entire face. “Now that sounds like a challenge,” he said.

  I pushed against his chest. “It’s not,” I snapped.

  My entire body tightened as his mouth landed on mine, and his lips coaxed me to respond.

  For a moment, I couldn’t fight the attraction, and I opened, allowing Dylan’s lazy but thorough exploration.

  My arms snaked around his neck, and I answered every blatant caress of his tongue.

  He teased.

  He tempted.

  He tantalized.

  And oh, my God, the man could provoke a reaction from an inanimate object with a kiss as sinful as his.

  Kylie! What the fuck are you doing? He’s a male slut, and you know it!

  I squeaked as I tried to move away from temptation by turning my head, and breaking lip contact. “Let go of me.”

  Dylan’s body stayed exactly where it was, and he tried to connect our mouths again.

  If he doesn’t move, I’m screwed. I’d let myself get sucked right back under his spell again.

  So I did what I’d already thought about doing earlier.

  My knee came up in a quick motion of desperation, and connected directly with my target.

  “Fuck!” Dylan let out a groan as he let me go. “Bloody hell! Why did you do that?”

  I scrambled away from the wall, and moved until there was nothing behind me but air. I watched Dylan as he clung to his family jewels, and sucked air in and out of his lungs like it was the most difficult task he’d ever done.

  “I told you to let go.” Honestly, I did feel a little bit guilty. I had led him on. A little. Not on purpose, but my hormones had gone from zero to overdrive in less than a second when he’d kissed me.

  It had taken my brain a little longer to catch up.

  “You wanted that as much as I did,” Dylan accused.

  “You caught me off guard,” I argued. “And then I remembered that you were a man-whore, and I definitely didn’t want it. I didn’t knee you that hard. It could have been worse. You’re still a baritone.”

  Dylan’s breathing evened out, but his hand was still protectively holding his junk. “I don’t give a fuck who you are—leave this house. Now.”

  I shook my head. “Not happening, big guy. We never really got around to introductions, but I’m Kylie Hart. My best friend is going to be marrying your brother in approximately six weeks. I’m here to make sure nothing goes wrong, and there’s no more negative press, here or in the UK, before that happens. Damian and Nicole deserve this time stress-free to plan their wedding, and spend some quality time together without having to put out fires that you create.”

  “I’m not planning on raining on their parade,” Dylan grumbled.

  I beamed at him. “Good. Then we’ll get along fine.”

  Dylan grimaced as he stroked his crotch like he was trying to decide whether or not I broke something vital before he said, “I don’t need a goddamn companion.”

  “Oh, I’m not planning on being your companion, Dylan.” I reached down to scoop up Jake. “In six weeks’ time, you’re going to clean up your act, and then you’ll fly back to London for the wedding. After that, I don’t give a damn what you do because Damian and Nic will be on their honeymoon.”

  “I’m not going to the wedding.”

  Oh yes, you are.

  I curled my fingers around the handle of my suitcase. “I assume the bedrooms are upstairs?”

  “You’re not going upstairs,” he growled. “Leave.”

  “This isn’t your house, so technically, you’re a squatter,” I informed him. “This place belongs to Damian because you signed everything over to him. And I highly doubt he’s going to kick me out. Believe it or not, he likes me.”

  He raised a brow. “I highly doubt that. You’re a thoroughly unlikable female.”

  I laughed. “I’d be completely likable if you weren’t such an asshole.”

  I could see the muscle in Dylan’s jaw twitch, and I knew he was losing his patience, if he ever had any to begin with, so I said, “I’ll just show myself upstairs.”

  “If you think you can tolerate six weeks with me, you’re delusional,” he said.

  There was something in his voice that stopped me from tossing back a smartass reply.

  Something desperate.

  Something vulnerable.

  Something…tormented.

  I hated the fact that I couldn’t completely harden my heart when it came to Dylan Lancaster. I didn’t exactly like him, but he had suffered significant loss.

  I headed for the stairs with my suitcase in tow. “We can do this easy and friendly, or you can make it hard. Your choice.”

  “What are you, my mum?” he taunted.

  “No, I’m your new babysitter for the next six weeks.” I kept heading for the stairs without looking back at him.

  “You’ll be gone in twenty-four hours!” he called after my retreating figure.

  My heart ached because I could hear a little bit of fear in his tone, like everyone before me had abandoned him, so he just expected that everyone else would, too.

  I’m not going anywhere, big guy.

  I wasn’t just here to make sure Dylan stayed out of trouble, although that was definitely one of my goals.

  Nicole had given me a partnership in ACM, even though I didn’t have the funds to buy in.

  In return, I wanted to do something to thank her for being more like a sister than a friend. And for trusting me to take care of her mom’s business. I really wanted to give Damian his brother back. The real Dylan Lancaster. Not the asshole who was currently inhabiting his body.

  It was the one thing that would mean everything to Nicole and Damian.

  I smiled as I climbed the stairs.

  I couldn’t think of a better wedding present than that.

  EPILOGUE

  Damian

  Two Weeks Later…

  MAYBE IT SHOULDN’T have been quite so easy for two people from different countries to work out how they were going to spend their life together.

  But it wasn’t difficult at all.

  My crazy woman loved England. Hell, she even loved the rain, and didn’t mind that it sometimes seemed like London was perpetually gloomy compared to Southern California.

  Nicole had wanted to give ACM over to Kylie, but her best friend had refused to take more than a partnership until she could afford to buy Nicole out. I was amazed at how gleefully Nicole had accepted that offer, and had readily given Kylie free rein to run the domestic offices while she stayed a silent partner in the UK. Not that Nicole was planning on becoming a woman of leisure. She wanted to drum up more international business for Kylie whenever possible, and she was planning on returning to corporate law.

  One of the things that had made Nicole absolutely ecstatic was finding out that she could actually land a job in London working as a corporate attorney. Essentially, she could practice US law in London, so her résumés were getting sent out to every company that had an available opportunity.

  I’d offered to place her in Lancaster International, but all that had gotten me was a giant eyeroll and a sweet thanks-but-no-thanks kiss.

  I got that Nicole needed to pursue her own goals, find her own way, separate and apart from me, but I didn’t want her to go too far. No doubt she’d snag a lucrative job in London. She had too much experience and education not to get her choice of positions.

  The only downside about Nicole deciding to stay in England was her love of the water, and the lack of balmy beaches here in the UK.

  Luckily, her husband-to-be had access to the entire world at his fingertips, and a private jet to fly us wherever she wanted to go.

  As promised, Leo was working on getting me certified for scuba during his brief visits to England, so I’d be able to take Nicole to dive anywhere in the world she wanted to go.

  “Is everything okay, Damian? You look deep in thought,” Nicole said as she walked into the sitting room and curled up on the sofa right next to me.

  I shot her a guilty grin. “I guess I was supposed to be working.” I set my laptop aside. “But my mind keeps leading me to more stimulating places.”

  She scooted closer, and I pulled her into my lap.

  I still had a hard time believing this woman was really mine, so any close physical reassurance I could get was definitely helpful.

  She made a face. “Do I really want to know where your dirty mind has been for the last couple of hours?”

  “You love my dirty mind. Admit it, woman.”

  She smiled. “Okay. Sometimes I do.”

  I lifted a brow. “Sometimes?”

  “Okay, maybe it’s a little more often. Is that really where your mind has been?”

  “No. I was thinking about us, and how lucky I am to have you.” I didn’t see a single reason not to be totally honest with Nicole about everything.

  Her face softened. “You know I feel the same way.”

  I knew she did, and that fact still fucking amazed me every single day.

  “Did you decide where you want to go for our honeymoon?” I wanted Nicole to choose our destination since I’d pretty much been everywhere.

  “I want to go to so many places, so it’s hard to make a final decision.”

  “We’ll get to all of them, eventually.” I hoped she’d be free enough to travel with me when I had to go. Leaving her behind would be pure hell for me.

  She sighed. “I’ll think about it more and let you know. Have you heard from Dylan? Is he coming to the wedding?”

  “He was invited.” My twin was still a sore spot for me. “I can’t force him to come. I guess if he shows up, he shows up. It’s not going to make or break our wedding. This is about us, not him.”

  “I know,” Nicole said, sounding contemplative. “But I know you two were always close.”

  “I’m content in the knowledge that I’ve done everything I can, love. Ultimately, he has to decide what he wants.”

  It killed me to be hands-off with Dylan, but I had no choice if I wanted him to stand on his own two feet. I’d released a substantial amount of money into his bank account, a sum that would probably last him several years.

  “I think he’ll be okay,” Nicole said softly. “Maybe he just needs more time.”

  I was on board with giving him all the time he needed. I’d restructured the upper echelons of Lancaster to put my executives to work, and decrease my workload.

  I could stay hopeful, but be prepared in the event that Dylan decided he never wanted to come back as a partner in Lancaster International.

  I tightened my arms around Nicole as I said, “Don’t worry about Dylan. That situation is out of our control.”

  “I’m not worried about Dylan,” she corrected me. “I’m worried about you.”

  Bloody hell! The woman could see right through me. I found that both comforting and frightening at the same time.

  “I’m the happiest guy in the world, love. In one more month, I’ll be married to you.” I took her left hand, and kissed the ring I’d put on her finger a few days after I’d asked her to marry me.

  Nicole had wanted a simple design, so all I’d insisted on was having a total of thirteen stones.

  It was our lucky number, after all.

  “I love my ring,” she said when I released her hand.

  “More than you love me?” I teased.

  Okay, I was joking, but maybe I was fishing, too. A guy couldn’t really hear those words often enough.

  “Not even close,” she assured me. “There’s nothing and no one in this world I love more than you, Damian Lancaster.”

  And…there were those three little words I loved to hear so damn much.

  Nicole had a little smirk on her face as she leaned down to kiss me, one that told me that she’d known exactly what I’d wanted.

  That’s the problem with falling for a smart, insightful woman like her.

  I’d always have to be on my toes.

  “Kiss me,” I demanded when she hesitated.

  “Bossy man,” she said in a scolding tone. “Do you think you can always get exactly what you want?”

  I held back a groan of frustration. She was going to hold back just because I hadn’t asked her nicely.

  I reached behind her head. “Yes. Yes, I do.”

  One pull, and her lips were on mine without a hint of resistance.

  And then, I had everything I wanted, and more.

  The End

  Thank you for reading Damian and Nicole’s story!

  Dylan Lancaster’s story, Tell Me I’m Yours, is being released in June of 2021.

  Amazon US

  Amazon UK

  Continue Reading for a teaser of my book The Billionaire’s Obsession~Simon

  Chapter 1

  Simon Hudson stood silently in the shadows of the opulent lobby, his hands in the pockets of his jeans and one shoulder propped against the frame of a large window that faced the street. His whole body was tense, his dark brown eyes scanning the

  sidewalk with the intense and total focus of a madman.

  Where in the hell is she? It’s ten forty-five.

  He knew Kara was working tonight. She had called in sick for the last two evenings, but was back to work at Helen’s Place, waiting tables on the swing shift. He had checked. His mother owned the bistro where Kara worked and was generally pretty forthcoming with information when Simon wanted it, but he was careful. If he wasn’t, his only parent would be hounding him to find out why he wanted information on Kara. His wonderful but inquisitive mom would be like a bloodhound after a scent if she thought that Simon’s interest was anything but casual. He would be nagged to death, his mother wanting to know exactly what his intentions were with Kara.

  Simon frowned. Like he had any intentions? He had fantasies and all of them involved Kara spread out on his bed, screaming his name as he made her come, over and over.

  Simon took a deep breath and slowly blew it back out, trying to get his body to relax and telling himself that he must be insane to take exactly the same position, night after night, for some woman who he had never officially met. But here he was…again, his back to the curious doorman, leering out the window like an unbalanced stalker, waiting to get a glimpse of Kara Foster. Something about the woman brought out strange, territorial, and protective instincts that kept him here, keeping watch, waiting for her to walk by his condo building on her way home from work.

  And then, when he spotted her, he’d do the same thing he always did. He’d follow her at a distance, trying not to alarm her, and wait until she had let herself into her apartment safely before he turned around and walked back home.

  He wouldn’t talk to her, or even get close to her. He never did. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to, but Kara was going to nursing school and working full-time at his mother’s restaurant. According to his mom, Kara adamantly refused to date because she didn’t have the time or energy to put into a relationship. She was probably right about that. The insane woman didn’t sleep enough, eat enough. She had no one who even worried about her except for his mother…and Simon. Hell, in the last year, Simon had probably cared more about Kara’s well-being than a dozen family members would have, and he couldn’t even call her a friend. Problem was…he wasn’t a family member, and his feelings were far from brotherly.

  God, she was sweet!

  Simon had to bite back a groan of frustration as he thought about the first time he had seen Kara, her blue eyes flashing with humor, black tendrils of silky hair escaping from her ever-present ponytail and her lithe body moving gracefully from table to table at his mom’s restaurant. At the age of twenty-eight, she still retained a look of innocence and vulnerability that had Simon caught in her uninten- tional web. He’d been a prisoner there ever since.

  His mother spoke about Kara as if she were her daughter, and Simon knew that Kara and his mother had a special bond: one not formed by blood, but by a special friendship. Shit…if Kara were

  younger, Simon was pretty sure his mother would adopt her. Lips twitching slightly, Simon hoped his mother never expected him to be like a brother to Kara. It wasn’t happening. His cock stood at attention, rock-hard and ready, every time he saw her. What in the hell was it about this particular woman that made him so edgy and restless?