Body Heat

Body Heat
Adrianne Byrd

Nikki Jamison didn't know being a playwright in New York would end up like this.After a few financial and creative flops, she's determined to put her Broadway dreams behind her. Recalling a friend's story about an empty villa in St. Lucia, Nikki decides that it's the perfect place to recover—in luxury! But when the home owner shows up unexpectedly, Nikki's little white lie leads to an out-of-control marital charade. Hylan Dawson is married. Only problem is he doesn't know it.When Hylan takes off for his vacation home, his plan is to get a little R & R…maybe indulge in a summer fling. But as soon as he arrives on the island, the locals begin congratulating him on his recent nuptials. Hylan feels for his sexy wife, even if she is an impostor.Are the "newlyweds" falling into a bed of sizzling summer seduction—or marching toward a lifetime of wedded bliss?

“Your skin is so soft,” he said, sounding fascinated.

“Ooh.” Her head fell back, exposing her long neck.

Hylan recognized an invitation when he saw one and leaned down to plant kisses on the line of her jaw all the way down to her sensitive collarbone. Kissing her was like finding the golden ticket to the chocolate factory. She tasted that damn sweet. What he really longed for was the taste of her caramel-tipped nipples. So much so that his stomach growled with hunger.

Nikki was lost in the magic that Hylan was creating. As for that little pesky voice in the back of her head, she’d gagged it and locked it in the deep recesses of her mind. All she wanted was for Hylan to keep doing what he was doing. She’d think about the consequences later. She sighed when Hylan’s lips moved away from her neck then started to dip down the center of her body.

He was already the best she’d ever had because she’d never been with a man who’d even bothered with foreplay. Mindlessly, she ran her hand through his short cropped hair and then down his steely shoulders and onto the hard planes of his back. Lord, he had an incredible body.

Body Heat

Adrianne Byrd

ESSENCE BESTSELLING AUTHOR

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

Hylan Dawson is married.

The only problem is…no one bothered to tell him.

Thanks to all my friends and fans who encourage me every day to keep going.

Dear Reader

I hope that you enjoy Body Heat, part of the HEARTS-AT-PLAY GETAWAY series. Hylan and Nikki were fun characters to write and gave me the chance to indulge my penchant for romantic comedy.

The idea for this story just popped into my head one day. It’s a fun spin on the secret-marriage storyline that is a staple of romance novels. I also loved the idea of creating a woman like Nikki, who has the best of intentions but never really thinks things through all the way.

In addition to being part of the GETAWAY series, this is the third book in my KAPPA PSI KAPPA series. I hope you’ve checked out the first two books: Two Grooms and a Wedding and Sinful Chocolate. The fun never stops with these fine frat brothers. In the previous KAPPA PSI KAPPA novels, Hylan was always perfect though we didn’t really know too much about him. I hope his charm and ability to live in the moment win you over.

After reading Body Heat I hope you will visit and drop me a line at my Web site, www.adriannebyrd.com, or check me out on Facebook.

Happy reading,

Adrianne

Chapter One

“Places, everyone. Places!” Nicole Jamison shouted and clapped her hands to make sure she grabbed her small cast and crew’s attention. “Five minutes ‘til show time.” Judging by the looks on their faces they were just as nervous about their opening night performance as she was. It was the good kind of nervous jitters—at least that’s what she kept telling herself every five seconds.

Nicole smiled although every muscle in her stomach was now successfully tied into knots. This was it, the culmination of all of the blood, sweat and tears she’d put into her work for the past five years. Her first Broadway play!

Well, more like off-off-off-Broadway—but hell, it still counted. A year ago things were different. Her script, Hot Comb and Hair Grease, was all the buzz. She and her agent enjoyed the highs and lows of a bidding war over the script. Investors were all lined up to launch Nikki’s once dead-in-the-water career into the stratosphere.

No more ramen noodles for dinner.

No more battling mice and roaches for apartment space.

Most importantly—no more asking her parents for money.

Nikki, however, had underestimated her lifelong run of bad luck. In one fell swoop the bottom dropped out of the economy. Producers rescinded their offers, investors vanished into thin air and then her agent-slash-best friend flat out stopped returning her calls. The only things left were the ramen noodles, the mice and her parents’ constant looks of disappointment and their checkbook.

What followed was a month long marathon of The Oprah Winfrey Show: 20th Anniversary Collection DVD. At first it was sad—no, it was still sad—but what emerged was a new attitude. Nikki, with Oprah’s help, convinced herself that she didn’t have to just accept this reality kick in the teeth. She could pick herself up, dust herself off and go about the business of turning this whole thing around. That’s when the brilliant idea to produce the play herself emerged.

No. It was more like an epiphany—or as Oprah would say, an aha! moment—replete with a choir of angels singing in her head. And the more she thought about it, the more it made perfect sense. Everyone had loved the story once, right? So they would love it again. All she needed was a good word-of-mouth campaign and she would be right back on top.

Problem solved.

Well, not quite. She also needed some money.

So Nikki emptied her savings account, which was enough to perhaps buy a pair of Payless shoes. Next, she convinced her parents to invest a good chunk of their retirement money in the production. It wasn’t easy. Her father laughed for about three weeks and then when he realized that she was serious, he started treating her like she had the plague.

Typical.

Nikki then focused on her soft-hearted mother like a laser beam…and got a check from her. Okay, so it wasn’t a very big check, but it was enough to lease a low-rent, rat-infested theater and buy a few costumes at the Salvation Army. The actors were the only thing that didn’t cost money. In New York, out-of-work actors were a dime a dozen and they were willing to perform for the bare minimum: coffee.

Nikki pulled back the stage curtain and stole a quick peek at the front row. Her mom, beautiful in a cream-colored linen dress—usually reserved for Sunday morning church service—beamed with pride while her humorless father sat ramrod straight in a pair of basic brown khakis and a sky-blue open collar dress shirt. If he was excited about his daughter’s opening night, it certainly didn’t show.

Too many times her father had urged her to give up this whole writing thing and get a real job. Not that she hadn’t tried. She had been everything from a waitress at a café to a much-maligned bill collector in order to pay her bills. What her parents and most of her friends failed to understand was that writing was her bliss. It was what she was born to do.

And tonight was her chance to prove it to the world, share her art, and let the New York theater community know that NICOLE JAMISON HAS ARRIVED.

Nikki drew a deep breath as a bright smile blossomed across her face, while her heart pounded like a racehorse.

“Nikki. Nikki.”

Nicole whipped her head around to see Crystal Cummings, rushing toward her. Alarm bells immediately went off in Nicole’s head when she saw her lead actress’s face quickly turning puke-green.

Definitely not a good sign.

“Crystal, what is it?” Even as the question left her lips, Nikki’s heart sank in anticipation of bad news. What would her life be without bad news?

“I can’t—I can’t go on.” Crystal slapped a hand over her mouth just as a gagging, gurgling, chugging noise rose from her throat. Next, Crystal’s large brown eyes bulged before she took off like a shot toward a plastic garbage can by the small buffet table.

The other actors scattered out of the way, but the sound of Crystal vomiting had a domino effect, causing a few more actors to turn green. That was the beauty of throwing up—either the sound or smell was all it took to spark a real outbreak.

“No. No. No.” Nikki covered a hand over her heart as if that was going to stop everything from falling apart. It took a few more seconds for her to realize that she needed to do something. She rushed over to the garbage can and held Crystal’s long wavy hair away from her face. It was the least she could do. But the stench wafting from the trash can now had the knots in Nikki’s stomach flopping around.

The understudy. Nikki’s gaze whipped around as she looked backstage for Crystal’s understudy. “Where’s Grace?” she shouted, but her question was met with blank stares from the other actors. Then she caught a quick glimpse out of the corner of her eyes. “Grace!”

The woman froze.

A second set of alarm bells went off when she noticed Grace looked like a deer caught in headlights. Definitely another bad sign.