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Beautiful Stranger

Katalina Leon

Lily Fontaine is a newscaster and former beauty queen, but those roles don’t suit her anymore. She’s healing from divorce and ready to make big changes in her life, but first she needs her sexual confidence back.

She wants a lover without the risk of heartbreak and considers hiring a male escort as a special treat. Her best friend offers a provocative solution to her request. On her birthday, Lily returns to New Orleans, the place of her birth, to meet a special man. She plans to fly in and fly out for a three-day weekend of cool music, great food and hot sex, with no emotional attachment and no further contact with her “escort”. She wants to pay to play—what can go wrong?

David is perfect—even if he is eleven years her junior. He’s strapping hot, intelligent and knows how to take charge. The attraction is instantaneous. With just the clothes on her back, Lily sheds her old life and follows a beautiful stranger into bayou country for the adventure of a lifetime.

An Excerpt From: BEAUTIFUL STRANGER

Copyright © KATALINA LEON, 2010

All Rights Reserved, Ellora's Cave Publishing, Inc.

Chapter One

“This is Lily Fontaine signing off for the late, late edition of Channel Three News. Good night and have a beautiful tomorrow.”

The red light on the television camera dimmed. She was off the air and tomorrow was already here. It was two a.m. and technically she was two hours into her forty-third year. She was so eager to leave the television station she bolted from her chair and yanked the microphone off her jacket. It instantly tangled in her dark curls and tugged against her scalp. An exasperated breath rattled out of her. She was trapped. This was yet another small irritation meant to slow her escape. She plopped back into the chair. Her fingers fumbled to remove the mic from her hair as her gaze swept across the cavernous studio with its cold concrete floors. Her heart sank as the mic tangled further. She couldn’t imagine a more pleasureless way to spend her birthday. In a perfect world, right now she would be wrapping her thighs around a gorgeous man and enjoying a bit of fun-spirited, hot-blooded sexual recreation. That’s how she really wanted to spend her birthday. It was going to happen. She would make it happen. The fact she didn’t have a man in her life wasn’t going to stop her from realizing her birthday ambitions. She had a plan. She just needed to get out of here and get on with it.

The tangled mic wouldn’t give. A ridiculous infomercial, featuring overenthusiastic people began. She turned away from the monitors. Where did they find these easily excitable people? It was too late at night to watch that level of peppiness. The studio was uncomfortably chilly. A shiver passed through her. She drew a deep breath and let her thoughts wander.

Lying skin to skin, pinned beneath a warm, muscular body, sounded heavenly right now. She imagined how wonderful it would feel to have a man’s hands wrapped around her wrists, holding her firmly against the mattress as his strong body pressed between her thighs, demanding a hard, fast fuck. Her breath caught. Yes, please. She couldn’t wait for it to happen. She wondered, would it be more fun to surrender to a dominating and demanding lover, or would it be better to take charge and treat the man as if he were a love slave eager to fulfill her every desire? Every selfish desire.

She had so many untested desires. Where would she start? Part of her craved the power of being in control and setting the pace, but another equally strong part of her soul longed for the bittersweet taste of submission. Which one was for her? What did her heart truly want? Her mind blanked. Her lips parted as she stared into space. It was a hard question to answer. They both sounded good. She would be delighted to explore either scenario. Her head spun from the possibilities. She actually hadn’t tried it either way and really didn’t know which she would end up preferring, but she would find out soon enough. Sex purely for fun. Experimentation and adventure were the new marching orders. Now that her libido had finally kicked into high gear, where would exploration start in the mysterious and uncharted realm of sexual freedom?

Her fingers tried to untangle the mic from a different angle but it didn’t work, she was thoroughly ensnared. She could hardly wait to get out of here and enjoy a little male attention, ending a long, sad, self-imposed sexual drought. She knew guilt-free sex for pleasure’s sake would be the perfect birthday present. No decorative wrapping or bows necessary. She’d take her birthday gift in his birthday suit, thank you. Her mind was made up. All she needed now was one interesting man who could keep a secret.

She closed her tired eyes to give them a moment’s rest. Her fingers fumbled blindly with the mic. The knot got worse. She tried to be patient as she reminded herself fun and freedom were just hours away. A slight smile crossed her lips as she mentally patted herself on the back for being decisive and allowing herself a forbidden taste of carnal indulgence. It had taken weeks to work up the nerve to go through with it. The hardest part had been granting herself permission to even consider it. The last crucial step was mustering the courage to make the call, and today she was more than ready to call.