Still Irresistible

Still Irresistible
Dawn Atkins

Rescuing the family ranch is the only reason Callie Cummings is home.To do that she must face the most infuriating–yet irresistible–man on the planet! Years ago she had an unforgettable fling with Declan O'Neill. And, oh my, can he still fill out a pair of jeans. Watching him strut across a corral is like waving a red flag.With that kind of enticement, how can Callie not be head over heels in lust with Deck again? Steamy sex aside, Callie's visit is strictly temporary. Nothing–and no one–can keep her from her big-city life. But if that's really true, why are thoughts of her and Deck riding into the sunset so tempting?

They knew exactly what they wanted from each other

Deck pulled Callie close and kissed her. Heat and relief surged through him. It was the same and different at once. Familiar and new. Just as strong, but more certain.

How the hell had this happened? Deck was foggy on exactly what had led to him holding Callie in his arms, taking her soft mouth, but he wasn’t sorry. He’d started it. He knew that. Something about seeing her again, the past so fresh between them.

He’d meant to comfort her, but had lost control, and now her breasts were pressed against his chest, his cock was hard against her belly, and her sweet tongue was in hot pursuit of his own.

He took her ass in both hands, yanking her tight against him. She moaned, trembling as she had all those years ago, but she wrapped her legs around his waist, telling him what she wanted. He felt the hot drive to be inside her, making her come, coming himself.

“Deck,” she said, pulling back. “What are we doing?”

He tried to halt the free fall. “You want to stop?”

“Maybe we should.” She bit her lip, shivered. “But I don’t want to.”

Dear Reader,

This book means a lot to me. It’s about the healing power of love. Like Callie, I lost my mother at too young an age. Also like her, I tend to run from emotion, instead of facing it head-on. And, as Callie’s high school counselor wisely noted, what you resist, persists.

When she comes home to rescue her father’s guest ranch, Callie faces her fear that she’s guarded her heart so well she no longer has the capacity for deep love. With Deck’s help, she works through that and emerges more open and loving because of it.

Though Deck stayed in town, he, too, put his emotions on hold. Callie helps him open up and risk his heart for a great and healing love.

This book is also about coming home. A city girl who moved a lot, I’ve wondered what it would be like to return to the same small town you grew up in to see people who’ve known you forever. That could be as comforting as a warm fire in winter or as suffocating as a down pillow over the face. Callie feels a little of both.

I like the way Callie and Deck work their lives out in the story. I hope you do, too.

All my best,

Dawn

P.S. I’d love to hear your thoughts. Write me at dawn@dawnatkins.com. For news, visit www.dawnatkins.com.

Still Irresistible

DAWN ATKINS

TORONTO • NEW YORK • LONDON

AMSTERDAM • PARIS • SYDNEY • HAMBURG

STOCKHOLM • ATHENS • TOKYO • MILAN • MADRID

PRAGUE • WARSAW • BUDAPEST • AUCKLAND

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

This is award-winning Harlequin Blaze author Dawn Atkins’s twenty-third published romance novel. Known for her funny, spicy romances with a touch of mystery, she’s won a Golden Quill Award for Best Sexy Romance and has been a several-times Romantic Times BOOKreviews Reviewers’ Choice Award finalist for Best Blaze, as well as a finalist for a Romantic Times BOOKreviews Career Achievement Award for Best Love and Laughter. With her husband and son she lives in Arizona, where—like Callie Cummings, the heroine of this book—she loves the desert. Unlike Callie, she gets ve-r-r-ry nervous around horses.

Books by Dawn Atkins

HARLEQUIN BLAZE

93—FRIENDLY PERSUASION

155—VERY TRULY SEXY

176—GOING TO EXTREMES

205—SIMPLY SEX

214—TEASE ME

253—DON’T TEMPT ME

306—AT HER BECK AND CALL

318—AT HIS FINGERTIPS

348—SWEPT AWAY

391—NO STOPPING NOW

To my grandfather, who never wanted his illness

to keep me from my “book work,” and to the

Valley of the Sun Hospice, true angels, who

made his passing heaven.

Acknowledgments

Eternal gratitude to Joe Collins, paramedic, firefighter and all-around answer man, and to ranch woman and author Susan Yarina, who saved my writerly life. Any factual or procedural errors in their areas of expertise are completely my own.

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4