Guilty Cravings (The Steamy South 1) Read online

  Guilty Cravings

  By Nicole North

  To Detective Nick Sullivan, Emily Grant was a forbidden temptation from the first moment he saw her three years ago…when she married his brother, Jared. Even after their divorce, Nick kept his distance, unwilling to betray his brother. But now that Jared’s been murdered because of an ancient erotic artifact and someone is threatening Emily, Nick can’t stay away.

  As a killer lurks in the darkness of the hot Savannah nights, Nick protects Emily…and tries to keep his hands off her. But when Nick realizes she's been fantasizing about him and playing with her sex toys, he can’t resist handcuffing her to the bed and helping her out a little. He thinks he’ll still be able to walk away if he doesn’t cross the ultimate line. But when magical erotic forces come into play, how can he deny giving Emily, and himself, exactly what they’ve both been craving?

  Guilty Cravings

  Nicole North

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  Guilty Cravings Copyright 2012 Nicole North

  This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission from the author. This book cannot be sold, shared or given away because this is an infringement of the copyright. This book is a work of fiction. The characters, names, incidents, locations, and events are fictitious or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental or from the writer's imagination.

  www.nicolenorth.com

  Dedication

  To my wonderful husband. Thank you for always being there to support and encourage me. And thank you for believing in me.

  Acknowledgments

  Special thanks to Carol E., Eliza Knight, and my critique group.

  Guilty Cravings

  Nicole North

  Chapter One

  “Damn you for getting yourself killed,” Detective Nick Sullivan muttered into the silence of the empty room. He stared out the second floor window at the view his brother, Jared, must have gazed at hundreds of times—the narrow street in the historic district of Savannah with its nineteenth-century homes and Spanish moss dangling from ancient gnarled oaks.

  Jared had flirted with the dangerous edge of criminal activity too long, and now he’d paid the ultimate price. The murderer had made the car crash into the river look like an accident, but Nick knew the truth.

  Because of everything he’d learned up to this point, along with a healthy dose of gut instinct, he believed he would find the most important piece of evidence—perhaps the stolen art object itself—hidden here at Jared’s ex-wife’s home. They’d been divorced a year and he doubted she knew anything about the object. But if she did, she could be in danger too.

  Illegal activity or not, Jared was still his big brother, and Nick loved him. He would do whatever it took to put the bastard who’d killed him behind bars. Since Jared’s death three weeks ago, Nick kept remembering his freshman year of high school when the senior jocks had tried to beat up on him. Jared, a senior, had stepped in and defended him. How could he do any less for his older brother now that he was no longer able to defend himself or tell what happened to him?

  Nick knew part of it, but he had to uncover the rest and see what kind of tangled mess Jared had gotten himself into.

  Nick had spent the last hour searching through every closet, drawer and corner of the spotless Victorian house where Jared and Emily lived during their marriage. Since their divorce last year, when Emily received the house as part of the settlement, she'd lived here alone. The only thing Nick had learned so far in his search was that Emily was a neat freak.

  Getting a whiff of a faint but familiar fragrance, he glanced aside at the mahogany chest to his right. She’d left the fancy lid off the bottle of spray perfume—the only thing out of place in the room.

  He picked up the half-full bottle. The combination of lavender, vanilla and some other floral scent wafted up his nose.

  Damn. The seemingly innocent fragrance reminded him of the two times he’d been near Emily—when he’d kissed her cheek and welcomed her to the family. The enticing scent also reminded him of the burning guilt that had always tormented him for being strongly attracted to his brother’s bride.

  “Don’t think about that,” Nick muttered to himself, setting the perfume down. He slipped across the oriental carpet that covered the creaking wood floor and passed between the small fireplace and a four-poster, mahogany bed to peer out the side window at the empty off-street parking area below. The last thing he wanted was for Emily to catch him snooping.

  He felt guilty as hell for rummaging through her personal things, but this was the best way to find out if the object in question was hidden here. If Jared hid it well, she probably didn’t even know of its existence.

  Nick turned back to scan the bedroom, all frills, designer purple silk and embroidery. He didn’t suspect Emily of murder. She was one of the most in-demand wedding planners in Savannah, and her whereabouts during the time of the murder were easily verified. Besides, he knew the murderer was male.

  Though the home had obviously been remodeled recently, considering the updated kitchen and baths, it still retained some distinctive features like a dumbwaiter and slightly skewed doorframes. The house might also contain secret passages or hidden compartments.

  If he didn’t find anything during this search, he’d have to ask for Emily’s help. His stomach tightened at the thought of seeing her again, face to face. He hoped like hell he wasn’t as drawn to her as he used to be. The last thing he wanted to do was lust after his brother’s ex.

  Nick crouched and opened the nightstand drawer, filled with paperbacks. After removing them, he searched the bottom of the drawer. Nothing. As he replaced the books, the police badge, along with a man’s bare chest, on one of the covers caught his eye. One of those sexy romance novels. He snorted, then scanned the others. They were all about cops except one, which featured a man in a kilt.

  And then he made the connection.

  “What the hell?”

  A forbidden memory from three years ago invaded to his mind. The men in Jared and Emily’s wedding party, including Nick as best man, had worn Irish kilts for their formal dress. During the reception at the hotel, after everyone was half-drunk on expensive champagne or scotch, Nick had a quickie with one of the bridesmaids upstairs in what was supposed to have been an empty suite.

  While Cassie was going down on him, he’d seen movement from the corner of his eye, near a closet. In the dimness, the person appeared to be wearing a white dress. It must have been Emily. She hadn’t said a word from behind that closet door, and neither had he. In fact, the knowledge that she watched had turned him on even more.

  A bolt of sexual excitement burned through Nick now just as it had back then, along with guilt. But not enough guilt to keep him from opening one of Emily’s erotic novels to a dog-eared page. In the scene, a police officer had handcuffed a woman to the bed and she loved every minute of the sensual torture. The descriptions were vivid and the sex scene graphic. Was this the type of thing Emily fantasized about?

  “Hell.” That was something he definitely didn’t need to know.

  He closed the book and shoved it into the drawer. But he couldn’t shove away his own arousal. The sizzling image of Emily handcuffed naked to a bed taunted him. She’d be spread out before him, at his mercy. She’d beg him to touch her, to lick her. He’d be tempted to do that and more.

  Cursing, he searched the chest, then moved to the dresser. A jumble of lacy panties of every color filled the top drawer. He stopped short, hesitant to touch them. This had to be forbidden. Everything about Emily was forbidden. But he had a job to do, a very personal job that had nothing to d
o with being an undercover narcotics officer in Atlanta.

  A red lace thong lying on top caught Nick's eye and he held it aloft. “Damn,” he muttered. He could easily imagine her in this. Not that he’d ever seen her anywhere close to naked. But he knew she had a cute little ass. That was obvious even in the dresses she usually wore. And this thong would look sexy as hell strung between her round ass cheeks. His cock throbbed. Unable to resist, he brought the lace to his nose and sniffed. Of course she’d laundered it, but he still smelled her perfume on it.

  Dropping the scrap of lace and forcing himself to concentrate on the job, he dug beneath the frilly lingerie and encountered a box. It could be the antiquarian object he’d been suspicious about. He removed the box and flipped it open.

  A vibrator?

  “What the fuck?” he muttered. Angelic Emily had been using a vibrator? It was bright pink and shaped like a small penis. The image of her sliding the buzzing toy over her slick clit popped into his mind. She’d be naked, lying on this bed, her slim curvy legs thrown wide apart. She’d be moaning, her eyes closed. Need spiked through him, making his dick rock hard.

  Emily was beautiful, with curly, honey-blond hair and big blue eyes. But she was also classy, wholesome and innocent—at least he’d thought she was—and not his type at all.

  So why did he get a hard-on any time he thought of her? Why the hell did he have to force himself to stay away the whole time Jared had been married to her, and after?

  She was a female, that’s why. He was attracted to almost any beautiful female. No big deal.

  He slammed the box closed and stuffed it back into the bottom of the drawer. Next to it, he found a purple jelly dildo.

  “Don’t even think about it,” he muttered. No, he couldn’t fantasize about how he’d like to toss this skinny five-inch dildo out the window and give her some real satisfaction. His cock twitched in his jeans, eager and able.

  He shoved the giggly dildo aside, and found several more sex toys hidden in her drawer, including purple anal beads made of one single piece of silicone. Popping these beads, from tiny to about one inch in diameter, up her sweet little ass while she begged for more would likely give him a coronary.

  He couldn’t believe what a stash she had. He was going to have to totally shift his concept of Emily. She might look like innocence personified, but clearly she was a woman with a healthy sexual appetite.

  Perhaps an appetite that matched his own.

  Naughty Emily—that was his new name for her.

  A door slammed downstairs.

  Shit.

  He hid her toys beneath the lingerie and softly closed the drawer. Footsteps echoed up the creaky old steps. He slid across the polished hardwood boards to hide underneath the high, four-poster bed a few seconds before she strode into the room. He watched her feet in those sensible beige heels. Emily, you are such a chameleon.

  Now how was he going to get out of here? He hadn’t expected her to come home at two in the afternoon. He hadn’t heard a car in the driveway—then again, his attention had been on other things.

  Emily slipped off her shoes, then removed her skirt, hose and other things he couldn’t see. Okay, she was probably naked. His erection raged back to life. Yes, he felt guilty that Jared’s wife had always made him horny, but he couldn’t help it. She was lickable.

  She disappeared into the connected bathroom and turned on the shower. Now was his chance. He silently slid from beneath the bed.

  * * * *

  The shower took forever to heat up in this old house. Emily Grant twisted her hair into a knot on top of her head and clipped it. Walking to and from her bridal shop in the Savannah heat, she sometimes had to shower twice a day. Thank goodness she was done for the day and could spend the rest of it in bed with a book. But first, she had a new, delicious smelling, pomegranate shower gel to try. She hurried back to the bedroom to retrieve it.

  A man was creeping across the floor away from her. She screamed and froze.

  Muttering curses, he spun and faced her. Broad shoulders, longish blond hair and silver eyes.

  “Nick?”

  His gaze, darkening to smoldering, slid slowly down her body and back up. “Good god,” he muttered, low and deep.

  I’m naked! Burning with mortification, she shrank back into the bathroom and shoved the door closed. Where was her robe? Back of the door. She yanked it off the hook, her hands trembling as she struggled into it.

  “Shit! What’s he doing here?” she whispered. Her late ex-husband’s younger brother had no business coming into her house uninvited, especially her bedroom, even if he was sex on legs.

  Once she was covered in the silky pink robe, she inched the door open, half hoping he’d be gone. Maybe he’d only been a figment of her imagination. No, he was still there, but in a different spot, near the door.

  “Trying to escape?” she asked, coming into the room.

  “Eh, yeah.” He appeared to be examining the doorframe.

  “What’re you doing here?”

  He blew out a harsh breath as if he were letting off steam, and finally glanced her way. One would think gray eyes were cold, but his burned into her. “It’s a long story.”

  “I’ve got all day,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest. He wasn’t getting off the hook that easily, no matter how smoking-hot he was. She knew he was the type who’d try to charm his way out of any tough situation. And though he was three years younger than her ex, Nick was two years older than Emily, which made him twenty-eight, plenty old enough to take responsibility for his reckless actions.

  He motioned toward the bathroom. “Your shower’s still running.”

  “Don’t move.” On shaky legs, she ran into the steamy bathroom, shut off the water, then returned. “Okay. Explain what you’re doing in my bedroom. How did you get into my house?”

  Nick shifted on his booted feet, apparently searching for the answer on her ten foot ceiling. “Where do I begin?” He finally met her gaze. “Jared was murdered.”

  She was expecting anything but that. Sudden chills prickled across her skin. She’d known her ex-husband died three weeks ago. His car had careened off a bridge into the Savannah River where he drowned. “How do you know he was murdered? The police said it was an accident.” Even though Jared had been a jerk who’d cheated on her, he didn't deserve to be murdered.

  “Don’t ask me to explain how. I just know.”

  “So, why are you here, in my house? In my bedroom?” He made the cool, spacious room seem smaller and hotter. Even the subtle male scent of him was an intrusion—leather and some pheromone-laced cologne. Few men had been in this house during the past year. Her friend Tia thought she should get out more. Get laid. But who the hell needed a man?

  “I was looking for a clue or evidence. Jared had a lot of antiquities lying around. Maybe some so rare and valuable someone would be willing to kill for them. I already searched his apartment and didn’t find anything. I thought he might have hidden something here. Or maybe you got something in the divorce that was more valuable than anyone realized.”

  She shook her head. “I didn’t get any of his antiquities. He put most of them in storage or safe deposit boxes while we were still married. He always had a safe too.”

  “The safe in his apartment was cleaned out,” Nick said. “Does this house have any concealed nooks or secret passages where Jared might have hidden something?”

  “No. There’s a safe, but it contains nothing but my important papers.”

  “Damn,” Nick muttered. As if lost in deep thought for a moment, he scratched the short stubble on his square jaw. She wondered what it would feel like brushing against her sensitive skin. A prickle of excitement raced through her.

  Abruptly, his attention shifted back to her, his gaze dropping briefly to her cleavage. She tugged the robe tighter over her breasts. Her tingling nipples were beaded so hard, she couldn’t hide them beneath the thin material. Was he remembering what she’d looked like naked? r />
  He turned toward the door. “Well, I’ll get going.”

  “Wait. You think you can simply break into my house anytime you want? You didn’t say how you got in, or why you didn’t ask my permission first.”

  He gave a slight grin which was far too charming. Naturally, he’d try to wriggle out of this. “You don’t want to know.”

  “Yes, I do. You’re supposed to be a cop. What're you doing breaking and entering?”

  His jaw clenched hard and his silver eyes turned piercing. “I am a police officer, and I wasn’t breaking and entering.”

  “Really? What do you call it, then?” Her heart-rate spiked with excitement at her own daring words. Was she nuts to challenge him this way? She didn't think so; she truly wanted to get to the bottom of why he was in her house uninvited.

  “Look, I know I’m out of my jurisdiction and bending the rules. My only brother was murdered. I have to find out who did it and see them behind bars.”

  “The end justifies the means?”

  His hardened cop look intensified. “Exactly.”

  “So, you picked my lock. Or did you break a window? Why didn’t you drop by—and use the doorbell—when I was home? I would’ve let you search.”

  He shrugged, giving her a dark and mysterious look. “I didn’t know if you would. I preferred that you weren’t here, telling me where to look. I had to cover all the bases.”

  Holy crap. She hoped he hadn’t searched her lingerie drawer. She kept things in there no one could ever know about. Certainly not him. Not the man she hated herself for fantasizing about. Even when she’d been married to his brother.

  A blush seared her entire body and he happened to be observing her with that expression in his eyes—the one he’d had the first time they’d met at her and Jared’s engagement party. What the hell was that look? It crackled with tension and electricity…a communication. A connection. Almost as if he wanted to pounce on her, but he always glanced away or walked off.