One Crazy Kiss: Mystery of Love Novella, No. 4
One crazy kiss will keep you coming back for more.
Kate Carson has goals, first and foremost to build her flower shop into a chain. And a love affair with Joseph Swann just doesn’t fit in with her plans. Especially since he’s a funeral director and her flower shop’s biggest customer. Mixing business and pleasure is always a bad thing.
But there’s that one crazy kiss she can’t forget.
Joe Swann knows what he wants and he’s single-minded about going after it. And he wants Kate. But one crazy kiss isn’t going to do the trick.
So what will the sexy funeral director come up with that Kate simply can’t resist?
One Crazy Kiss is an introduction to the next full-length Mystery of Love novel. However, it can be read alone and is not required reading for the next book.
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Excerpt
One Crazy Kiss
Mystery of Love, Book 4
© 2018Jennifer Skully
CHAPTER ONE
“I didn’t recognize you with so many clothes on.” Standing on her condo doorstep, Joseph Swann smiled like a funeral director who’d just sold his most expensive velvet-lined coffin.
And he had probably had, since he was an excellent salesman. Not to mention handsome, suave, intelligent, and far too funny—and sexy—for a funeral director.
Kate blatantly ignored his sexual innuendo as she swept a hand over her navy blue, below-the-knee dress with a bow tied at the high neckline. Like something treasured by a granny.
“You were so shocked by the real me the last time that I thought I better dress up a bit.” At thirty-five, Kate was way too young for granny status, but the dress’s complete lack of sexual appeal should have just the right effect on Joe Swann. Although she had to admit now that the long sleeves and high neck were a little too warm for the lovely spring evening.
On their first date a few weeks ago—this was their second—she’d wowed him with all black: short skirt, skin-tight low-cut top, and platform heels that nowhere near turned her five foot four into his six feet. She’d gummed her lashes with black mascara and inch-thick eyeliner that had taken days to grind off.
But Joe Swann was back for more.
He was a glutton for punishment. He’d asked her out seven times before he’d finally worn her down. She’d agreed because he was tenacious. It had nothing to do with his charm or the fact that he made her laugh. As for the Goth outfit, she’d been going for the shock value. But instead of turning him off, it turned him on. Then of course, he’d turned her on.
It was all a very bad situation.
He eyed the bow and the neckline and the hemline. And the thick-heeled, two-inch granny pumps. “Amazing how at the shop I’ve never seen you wear those shoes.” He paused a beat long enough to suggest—egad, no!—desire. “Or that dress.” The corner of his mouth ticked in a smile.
For a funeral director, he smiled too much. And his smile made her weak in the knees. Which she couldn’t afford around him.
“Perhaps you haven’t been looking hard enough.” She daintily brushed a bit of lint from the sleeve that ended in a ruffle.
“Oh, I’ve been looking very hard.” He blinked. Slowly. It was flirty. And sexy. And toe-tingling.
Kate had definitely stepped in it now.
One should never give Joseph Swann a gaping hole through which he could throw a sexual innuendo.
Especially when she couldn’t think of an appropriate smackdown.
“Now which look do I like better on you?” He stroked his chin thoughtfully. “Goth or Grandma?” He leaned in close—so close his aftershave enticed her to delicious fantasies—and whispered, “Both are extremely appealing. And both give me ideas.” He blinked that slow, sexy blink, smiled that hot, sexy smile.
She shouldn’t ask. No, no, no. “What kind of ideas?” Darn. She’d asked.
“I can’t tell you.”
Stop. “Why not?” Darn it again. She simply couldn’t stop. What good was an inner voice if you never listened to it?
“Because if I tell you, you’ll stop wondering. But if I keep my ideas to myself, they’ll keep you up at night wondering. And I really want you thinking about me at night.”
She should never have agreed to a second date. Or that first crazy kiss. Because Joe already had her up at night dreaming about him.
But she had accepted the date. And she couldn’t hop away like a startled rabbit. She had to show some self-respect, even if she had once again dressed to kill.
Kill all his pesky desires, that is.
It obviously wasn’t working. Again.
“Shall we?” He held out his arm like a gentleman. “Don’t be afraid. I won’t bite unless you ask me nicely.
She was forced to touch that strong arm, those hard muscles.
And she shivered.
Touching Joe Swann was dangerous.
He settled her into his luxury car at the curb, handing her in, once again like a true gallant. Kate had never had a problem with men opening doors for her. It was polite.
But for Joe Swann, it was a way to get his hands involved. A way to remind her that his kiss was exquisite and beguile her with his all-too-male scent. It went to her head the way his kiss had. Made her want crazy things. Things that were bad for her.
When he slid in beside her and closed the door, she was surrounded. By his maleness. By the memory of his taste. By her own desires.
He was like deep, rich earth, something she wanted to dig her fingers into. Yet he had the headiness of wisteria, where all a girl wanted to do was bury her face in his dark hair and breathe him in.
His phone pinged with a text. He looked but put it back in his pocket.
“You can answer that if you need to.”
“Thanks, but later,” was all he said, his face a tad grim before he masked it.
Okay, fine, she moved on. “So what do you have planned for tonight?” The low, husky tone didn’t even sound like her, and she knew she’d stepped in it. Again. Given him the perfect, priceless, irresistible opportunity.
“Dinner at the Shadow Ridge to start,” he said as he wrapped his long, strong fingers around the steering wheel and glided away from her condo.
But exactly where would the night end?
She did not ask for further details.
Joe Swann had been giving off blatant sexual innuendoes for three months. He had no shame. He wanted a date. He wanted her. She’d put up a brilliant struggle.
Until she’d caved.
“The Shadow Ridge sounds lovely.” How lovely and polite she sounded, too.
A twenty-minute drive down to the ocean lay ahead. Twenty minutes of his scent washing over her. Twenty minutes of his body heat tantalizing her. Twenty minutes of his voice trickling over her like warm caramel.
She hadn’t succumbed to his charms. Though he was charming. A gorgeous, dark-haired, melted-chocolate-eyed man—not to mention funny and smart and successful with an extremely good head for business—saying he finds you attractive ranks right up there with toe-tingling. And breathless. And irresistible.
But she hadn’t succumbed. She’d simply said yes to get rid of him. She’d dressed up like Goth Girl to get rid of him. She’d even told him the truth to get rid of him. That she was all about growing her flower shop into a chain, even an empire. That she didn’t have time for relationships. Or men. Or distractions. Especially a man like Joe, who was decisive, commanding, insistent. In other words, a man who would have no problem telling her what to do.
Joe’s answer to all that? I’m fine with just sex.
How was a thirty-five-year-old woman with healthy needs—and not getting enough to satisfy her—supposed to fight that?
His answer should have satisfied both her desires and her fears.
The only problem? She didn’t trust Joe to keep things strictly casual. He was too persistent when he wanted something.
