A risqué book club inspires three women to be naughty...
THE DIARY
Sydney Tate is writing a fictional erotic diary inspired by the town’s mouthwateringly hot mayor, Matthew Stone. Then her “diary” disappears...and suddenly Matthew is bringing all of Sydney’s secret fantasies to life!
TALK OF THE TOWN
Armed with a seduction how-to guide, librarian Isabel Bennett is pulling out every trick in the book to tempt Sean Hawkins. The oh-so-sexy businessman is about to find out just how bad this good girl can be...
CRAVING YOU
Laura Dawson is desperate to get her gorgeous neighbor, Connor Adams, into her bed. So she turns to an aphrodisiac cookbook to serve up the most tantalizing, irresistible dish Connor has ever seen...herself.
“Seducing a man isn’t rocket science.”
Matthew tilted his head and crossed his arms. “Is that right?”
Sydney stared at his muscular arms, wondering how they would feel around her as he gathered her close to his chest...or braced on either side of her as he lay on top of her...or lifting her as he took her against the wall... She cleared her throat and focused on his eyes. “The how-to-seduce-a-man guide we’re reading for the book club described some male fantasies that seemed ridiculous to me.”
He gave her a thoughtful look. “Such as?”
“Such as having your lover meet you at your office wearing nothing but a coat and heels?” She scoffed. “Would you want your lover to do that?”
“Hell, yeah.”
1
SYDNEY TATE SWORE she was never going to do this again. She scratched out a sentence with her pen. Why had she accepted her friends’ writing challenge? And why had she thought she could write something steamy and make it sound confessional? It shouldn’t be this difficult! She sighed and tried again.
My chest rose and fell as his hand dipped beneath my collar, his fingers splaying against my breast. His skin was warm and rough. I was certain he could feel the heavy beat of my heart. And then—
And then...? Sydney paused and raised her pen. And then what?
She rubbed her forehead and stared at the lined notebook she favored as a journalist for writing down keywords and quotes. Ordinarily she had no problem putting down words. She bought notebooks by the pack because she was constantly running out of paper. But her job as a reporter meant writing down facts—what she was writing now was pure fiction.
She scowled at the page and twirled the pen around her fingers. She had been so confident that she could write a few fictional confessions and prove her point about how easy it was to fake an erotic diary. All because she didn’t think that a published diary was the real thing.
When Isabel Bennett, the town’s librarian, insisted that their book club read The Secret Diary of an Anonymous Victorian Lady, Sydney had supported the decision. It wasn’t her first choice of reading material but she had been curious about why it was a phenomenal bestseller across the nation.
Well, a bestseller everywhere except for the little agricultural town of Seedling, Washington. The Secret Diary was banned from the town’s library and the only bookstore in the area for its erotic content.
But Isabel had bought a copy online and it had become her favorite book. Sydney should have kept her mouth shut and not questioned its authenticity. Laura Dawson, the youngest and wildest member of the book club, didn’t have a problem with the book. Her only complaint had been that there was not enough sex. But Sydney couldn’t help but notice the inconsistencies in the diarist’s story.
It was impossible that Hazel, a sheltered, single Victorian woman, could have risked everything—and had sex with Ernest in so many public places—without getting caught. Sydney should know. She’d survived the crash and burn of a secret love affair of her own.
But she wasn’t going to think about her past mistakes and bad decisions. It had been six months since she’d lost her boyfriend and her career in one fell swoop. She had a new start in a new town. She was still working in journalism. It wasn’t investigative reporting, but she had proven to herself and others that she wasn’t cut out for that.
Okay, concentrate. You write for a living. You can do this. She pressed her pen against the paper. The story was about to get juicy. What happened next?
Her mind went blank. She tapped her pen against her bottom lip. And then...?
Nothing. Absolutely nothing! These characters were going to be stuck at second base forever. She gave a loud exasperated sigh that seemed to echo in her corner of the public library.
Sydney scrawled a big X across the sheet of paper and tossed her pen down. “Come on,” she muttered to herself. “It hasn’t been that long since you’ve had sex. You know what happens next.”