Free Since You've Been Gone (Welcome to Paradise) by Elle Kennedy

your question, if you refuse, I just won’t have sex with you again.”
    He shot her an incredulous look. “You’re using sexual blackmail on me?”
    “Yep. Now that you’ve had a taste of me, I know you’ll want a lot more, and I’m perfectly willing to deprive you of all that sweet lovin’.”
    Despite himself, he started to laugh. “Cocky little thing, aren’t we?”
    Mari dropped the sheet she’d wrapped around her torso and exposed her bare breasts, then eyed him defiantly. “You know you want another piece of this, Bishop. Don’t pretend you don’t.”
    He could have tried to deny it, but his cock revealed his exact feelings on Mari’s nakedness. It immediately got hard and rose to salute the topless woman sitting in front of it.
    “See,” she said smugly.
    He slanted his head. “So you’re seriously going to withhold sex unless I go to that party?”
    “Uh-huh. Not only that, but I’ll go out of my way to torment you. Like, walking around in even skimpier clothing than before. Maybe eating a lot of popsicles. Rubbing sunscreen all over myself. You know, all that super-sexy stuff.” She grinned. “So you may as well agree now otherwise you’re in for a serious case of blue balls.”
    “You’re evil.”
    “And you know I’m right. You need to be there.”
    After a beat, he released another sigh, this one heavy with defeat. “I know.”
    “Good, then it’s settled. You forfeit the Dakotas, we finish up Kansas and Nebraska by Friday, and then we’re heading straight to Paradise.”

Chapter Six
    Welcome to Paradise.
    Six days later, as they drove past the bright-blue sign welcoming them to Austin’s hometown, Mari gasped in delight, feeling like she’d stepped right into a postcard. The mountains in the distance stood tall and proud, their peaks dusted with snow even in the summer, and the lush greenery and rocky hills were vastly more interesting than the flat Iowan landscape she’d grown up in. Here, the air smelled fresher, the colors seemed more vivid, and everything was so much prettier to look at.
    “I love it,” she declared as they reached a rickety old bridge with a sign indicating that “Downtown Paradise” was one mile away.
    In the driver’s seat, Austin nodded absently. And he only got more distracted once they reached the heart of town. Mari knew he was feeling ambivalent about coming home, but she didn’t let his lack of enthusiasm dim her own. Instead, she gazed at the quaint shops and clean sidewalks, the beautiful historical buildings, the town square that was so reminiscent of all the town squares they’d seen during their road trip.
    When they reached the end of the strip, she caught sight of a corner bar with a familiar name—Bishop’s Corner—and quickly turned to Austin. “Is that your brother’s bar?”
    “Yeah,” was all he said, before speeding through the intersection and putting the bar behind them in the rearview mirror.
    “You don’t want to stop and say hi?”
    Austin shrugged. “He’s not there.”
    She wrinkled her forehead. “How do you know?”
    “His pickup wasn’t parked out front.”
    He turned left at the end of the road, driving way too fast for her liking. She would have liked to take the time to admire Paradise some more, but Austin suddenly seemed like he was in a hurry. Which was odd, considering he’d taken his sweet-ass time in getting them here.
    Not that she was complaining. She couldn’t count the number of times they’d had sex this week—and each time was better than the last. With only two lovers under her belt, one of whom had been a fumbling teenager without much experience, she wasn’t exactly an expert when it came to the bedroom, but she knew the difference between meh sex and oh-my-God-you-rocked-my-world sex.
    And Austin Bishop definitely fell into the latter category. The man drove her absolutely wild. He was rough and intense one moment, sweet and tender the next, and she never knew what to expect once