Free Blazing Bedtime Stories by Rhonda Nelson, Leslie Kelly Kimberly Raye

dividing her time between her writing and the pageant circuit.
    “Play to your strengths,” her mother had told her time and time again. “You’re too beautiful to waste yourself on something that may or may not pay off. Go for the sure thing, dear.”
    She’d done just that. She’d entered pageant after pageant until she’d had enough money to open her own business.
    A business that was now failing.
    She ignored the last thought and fluffed a seat cushion. “How many working writers do you know?”
    “None.”
    “My point exactly. I needed something practical.”
    “And writing for a living isn’t nearly as practical as spreading peanut butter on someone’s feet.” At the mention of her latest menu offering, she couldn’t help but grin.
    “That’s crunchy peanut butter. It sloughs off the dead cells andleaves the skin silky smooth. I know it seems unconventional, but it works.”
    “If you say so.” His gaze zeroed in on the journal page and silence stretched around them for several long moments. “ This is what works,” he finally said. “It’s good, Shay. Really good.”
    A tiny thrill went through her. A crazy reaction considering she didn’t care about Matt or his opinion. She stiffened. “I really think we should pick up where we left off with the hair growth techniques?”
    He closed the journal and slid it back onto the shelf. “Full body massage?”
    She had a quick image of herself stretched out on the bed, his strong hands roaming her body. “After that,” she blurted. “You just tell me what comes next and I’ll write everything down.”
    Disappointment flashed in his gaze before he seemed to remember something. His mouth settled into a serious line and he nodded. “Sounds good.” He settled himself on the sofa and Shay sank down next to him.
    A bad move, she realized, over the next half hour as she wrote down several more recipes rumored to stimulate hair growth—everything from a castor oil hair mask to a milk and honey bath—and did her best to ignore the man who sat just inches away. So close she could cuddle up next to him if she scooted just a tad to the right.
    Cuddle? She didn’t want to cuddle with Matt. Even if he did like her writing.
    Because he liked her writing.
    It would be too easy to fall for him, to start hoping and dreaming and— No .
    He wasn’t her type. And she wasn’t his. That much was obvious by the way he held his body so stiff. As if he wanted to be anywhere but sitting next to her.
    That truth echoed home when they finished and he all but jumped up and ran out the door.
    “Thanks,” she called after him as she watched him head for his Jeep.
    He gave her a husky “Don’t mention it,” climbed behind the wheel and then he was gone.
    No, he didn’t like her and she didn’t like him.
    And if you believe that, I’ve got some really nice beachfront property just a few miles outside of town…
    Shay forced aside the notion, turned on her heel and headed for her kitchen. Time to stop thinking about Matt and start growing some hair.
    The sooner, the better.

8
     
    M ATT HEADED BACK TO HIS CABIN and straight into an ice cold shower. The freezing spray pelted him but it did little to cool his burning skin or his throbbing cock.
    He’d drunk himself into a blood stupor over the past few days, but it hadn’t been enough to satisfy the hunger. He wanted sex. He needed it. It was all he’d been able to think about since that night with Shay. That, and the morning after.
    He’d liked cooking bacon for her and talking to her. Being with her. He’d liked it way too much. That’s why he’d raced over when she’d called.
    He’d wanted to see her so badly. To smell her. To feel her. It had almost killed him not to press her down onto the sofa, settle himself between her luscious thighs and feel her wet heat close around him.
    He’d wanted her desperately.
    Correction, he’d wanted a woman desperately. Any woman.
    It wasn’t Shay . Sure, she was more