In New York Times bestselling author Cherry Adair's Blush, Amelia Wentworth is in trouble: she didn't become the powerful CEO of a multibillion cosmetics company without stepping on a few toes in her six-inch heels, and now someone is after her and won't stop until she's six feet under. Amelia goes into hiding as Mia Hayward and thinks she's safe. Enter undercover hit man Cruz Barcelona, posing as a handyman so he can "take care" of Amelia permanently. But when the chemistry between them starts to sizzle, will they risk everything in the name of love?

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"Upstairs," she managed when they broke apart to drag in oxygen, their chests heaving as they gulped air.

"No time." Large hands skimmed down her sides and slid the wet, stuck-to-her-skin nightie up over her sensitive breasts and then over her head. It hit the wood floor with a wet slap. Then his mouth was back.

Thank God. She'd rather kiss Cruz than breathe.

She vaguely remembered what her clumsy fingers were trying to do, and struggled to tug down the zipper. As he made love to her mouth, his teeth scoring her lower lip, his tongue dueling with hers, she inched that damned zipper down. His erection made the task that much more difficult, and that much more distracting.

She arched her back when his palm cupped her breast and he unerringly found her nipple, teasing it between his fingers to pain-pleasure until she whimpered with greed.

More. More. More.

She'd known how badly she wanted this, but Mia hadn't realized the depth and scope of that need. It spread through her, a living, breathing emotional need that shocked her to the core as she rose on her toes to meet him.

With a hard thump of her heartbeat she realized that Cruz was the first lover she'd ever had who was equal to her in every way. It made their encounters even more intoxicating to know that he wouldn't back off. Wouldn't back down. That he'd give her everything she wanted, and knew the things even she didn't know she needed.

It was incredibly strange to have that clarity of truth, considering she knew this man intimately on one level but not at all on another.

Licking her lips, she breathed hard through the spirals of arousal swirling through her body. "I have . . . fresh . . . thousand-count Egyptian cotton sheets on the bed—"

He cut off the inane words with a kiss. Fine with her. She loved the slide and slip of his tongue mating with hers. She loved the pressure of his body crushing her to the wall. After several minutes, or perhaps a week, he lifted his head. His smile predatory as he skimmed his palm down her thigh, then curled his fingers under her knee. "Up," he murmured thickly against her throat.

The hair on his chest teased her breasts and Mia felt the flex and power of his biceps against her side as he drew her leg up high.

"We can't have sex standing halfway up the stairs!" she told him, the sternness in her voice not as effective as usual because she was having a hard time breathing, let alone talking. Standing on her toes, she curled her knee over his hip, opening herself to him, and urging him more tightly against her with her heel on his butt. With little purrs deep in her throat, she scraped her teeth along the prickle of his unshaven jaw. "If we do this here, we'll break our ne—"

"No ifs about it—" His entire body shuddered as he pushed the hard length of his penis deep inside her in one powerful thrust, pinning her to the wall with his driving weight.

The instant orgasm rolled though Mia in enormous waves and she went deaf and blind, all pure, hot, sizzling sensation.

"Yes," he grunted, face tight, eyes black, as he pumped into her, hard fingers gripping her butt. "Just. Like. That."

Get Blush here [2], and check out more great content on XOXO After Dark:

• XOXO After Dark: Free Reads [3]
• Hush by Cherry Adair [4]