That’s just one of the reasons I love you.”
“You love me?” He reached out and tipped her chin up with his finger, and she watched his lips form
the question.
“Uh-huh.” Not her most articulate as far as answers went, but she was going for heartfelt, so he’d have to cut her some slack. “You make me feel alive, make me want to take impossible chances. There’s a
hundred and one reasons why this—why us— shouldn’t work, but there’s a chance it does and I want to take that chance.”
“You have a list of reasons?” That note of amusement was back in his voice and she felt her cheeks
blush. “I hope it’s a long one,” he continued. “Long enough to survive the next fifty years or so.”
HE PULLED HER onto the Harley, facing him. The seat wasn’t built for two and if they’d actually been
moving, her position probably would have racked up a thousand and one safety violations. Daeg’s pulse
pounded as Dani wriggled closer, enjoying the tight fit.
Putting his arms around her, he held on tight. With a small squeak, she lost her balance and fell into his embrace, her feet on his, her legs gripping his thighs. He could have sat like this for hours.
Or forever.
“I love you,” he told her, since now that he’d said the words once, he wanted to repeat them again and
again. Say them every morning when he woke up next to her and every night when he went to sleep beside
her.
She wanted him.
He’d let go and she’d still come back.
Just because he could, because she was here in his arms and there was less than an inch of empty space
separating them, he leaned in and kissed her. Kissed her long and deep, letting all the love and affection he felt show on his face because he knew she’d have her eyes open, like always.
“Bet you didn’t expect this rescue job would turn out quite like this,” she said once they finally broke apart, both breathless for air.
“Well,” he began, “I usually plan for a happy ending.”
“Mmm,” she said, pulling him back in for another kiss.
“But,” he added a long time later, “with you, I had an ace up my sleeve.”
“Oh, no,” she exclaimed when he liberated the crumpled sheaf of yellow notepad paper from his back
pocket. “You didn’t.”
“I’m perfectly happy to cheat.” He waved the paper over her head, teasing her when she made a mad
grab for it. “And besides, this was more like inside intel. No good soldier would ignore that kind of
opportunity.”
“You read my list.”
“More than once.” He grinned at her, his chest almost bursting with pride and happiness that Dani loved him. “I see this as my own personal to-do list. And because I know how you feel about keeping things
equal, I made a companion chart for you.”
He separated the stack of pages into two and passed her a section.
“That,” he growled, leaning in to nip lightly at her ear, “is a chart listing the probable moves in your seduction of me and how I’d likely react. Some pointers, if you will, and a few fantasies.”
She ran a finger down the list, her lips moving as she counted. When she reached the bottom, her eyes
widened. “More than a few, soldier.”
“I don’t know if I can be that man,” he said in the interests of fairness and full disclosure. “The one on your list. But I want to try.”
“Good,” she whispered, pressing her lips against his mouth. “You are aware that as the number of trials increases, so does the probability of success?”
“So we should do this again.” A grin flashed across his face. “Often. And in bed.”
She grinned at him. “Absolutely.”
“You know what this means, right?” he asked, moving in for another smoking-hot kiss. “One hundred
percent probability of love.”
* *
Keep reading for an excerpt from TAKEN BY STORM by Heather MacAllister.
Ten years ago one devastating night changed everything for Austin, Hunter and Alex. Now they must
each play their part in the revenge against the one man who ruined it all.
Austin Treffen has the plan… Hunter has the money… Alex has the power!
Read each of their stories in the captivating Fifth Avenue trilogy,
only from Harlequin Presents:
Avenge Me by Maisey Yates
Scandalize Me by Caitlin Crews
Expose Me by Kate Hewitt
And don’t miss the Fifth Avenue prequel that started it all, Take Me, by Maisey Yates!
Order your copies today in ebook format.
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We hope you enjoyed this Harlequin Blaze story.
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1
ZOEY ARCHER WAS three steps away from her desk when the phone rang. Three steps toward her
first weekend off in months. And she hadn’t even left early, unlike all but one of her colleagues—the weird girl who spoke to people in a variety of accents and dressed in monotone outfits that didn’t quite match under the greenish fluorescent light of the Loring Industries customer-service call center, deep in the heart of Texas.
The phone chirped again. Weird Girl shot a look at Zoey, grabbed a pinkish red jacket and ran out the
door before the call could roll over to her section. Zoey wondered what life Weird Girl was running to
because nobody chose working in a megacorporation’s customer-service call center as a career. This was a survival job, one people kept to pay a few bills until they became successful in their real lives.
Zoey’s real life, however, was...complicated, meaning she’d taken a few wrong turns on the road to
success. She wanted a career where she could help people, but, to be honest, many people no longer
wanted her help—specifically, those she’d encountered in the health-care and teaching professions, the
food-service and travel industries and anyone who ran a children’s summer camp. People loved her, at least in the beginning. She was described as sincere, enthusiastic and full of great ideas. She’d also been called impulsive, but Zoey considered herself proactive. She took charge and made things happen.
Unfortunately, some of those proactive things had been mistakes. Huge mistakes. Expensive mistakes.
Her intentions had been good, but the execution was flawed, as they say.
But she was always a big girl about it. When she messed up, she accepted responsibility, apologized,
tried to fix whatever she’d gotten wrong and paid for any damage, even when she couldn’t afford it. Did she learn from her mistakes? Sure. Did she get a chance to prove it to those she’d wronged? No.
She understood why people were reluctant to give her a second chance. Money couldn’t fix everything
and some opportunities were lost forever.
However, recommending a competitor’s product because Loring’s cream caused a rash had not been a
mistake...even though going off script had landed her on the night and weekend shift in the shipping center to prevent her from talking to actual customers. And it had cost her a boyfriend, who hadn’t liked the fact that she worked every night. But even that hadn’t been a mistake.
Management had meant the suspension as a punishment, but Zoey had become inspired while filling
thousands of orders during the Christmas season. She happened to know a thing or two about skin care.
For years, she’d mixed her own organic moisturizers and soaps. The complaints she’d fielded in the
customer-service call center had shown her that the world needed her products. That’s how she could help people—by offering them a better alternative. Nobody would get a rash from her creams and lotions, unlike the cheap chemical cocktail Loring put out.
Not that the Loring Quality Control Department had appreciated her input. Well, they’d had their
chance. They’d pay attention to her when she started selling her Skin Garden products online, and word of mouth created a huge demand. In fact, she was going to go home right now and mix up a new batch of
lemon–olive oil balm.
Never mind that it was Friday night, party night. Zoey didn’t have anyone special to party with, anyway.
And honestly? She wasn’t all that torn up about it. She hadn’t had a date since Justin—wait, Jared...or was it Josh? Whoever it had been didn’t matter. All her ex-boyfriends had been fixer-uppers who she’d tried to fix—er, help. Ultimately, they hadn’t wanted her help, either.
So no more wasting her life on time-consuming, energy-zapping relationships. No more distracting
boyfriends. From now on, it was going to be all about Zoey.
The whole weekend stretched ahead of her. Zoey hung up her headpiece, slung her purse over her