Going For It

  Going

  For

  It

  by

  Liz Matis

  CONTENTS

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Also by Liz Matis

  Praise for Liz Matis

  Epigraph

  CHAPTERS

  1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

  8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13

  About the Author

  Preview: Playing for Keeps & Love By Design

  Little Hondo Press

  Contact: [email protected]

  Going For It

  Copyright © 2012 Elizabeth Matis

  Digital ISBN: 978-0-9840098-3-1

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, scanning, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or hereafter invented, without permission in writing from the author.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Also by Liz Matis:

  Playing For Keeps – print and eBook out now, audio book – August 5, 2012

  Kindle Edition

  Love By Design – print and eBook out now, audio book in 2013

  Kindle Edition

  Praise for Liz Matis

  Playing For Keeps: A Kindle Best Seller

  RT Book Reviews: Playing For Keeps is entertaining … an engaging storyline will keep readers turning the pages … readers will enjoy the unfolding relationship and anticipate the sequel featuring the secondary characters

  Book Junkie: In Liz Matis’ latest from Little Hondo Press, Playing For Keeps you will get a wildly sexy romance with depth and laughs. A page turner, bring on the sequel.

  Love By Design

  RT Book Review: Readers will get a kick out of these characters as they walk through a world of fashion and celebrities and soak up all the glitz and glam that a wild child and a bad boy could possibly provide.

  Love on the Book Shelf: Don’t hold this book too tight - you’ll burn your fingers. Recommendation: Read this one if you need some warming up this winter. No joke. It’s also the perfect just-before-bedtime reading, if you’d like some nice, sultry dreams.

  ReRead: Totally worth it.

  And my lips are numb with such unbridled passion

  Your naked shoulders reflect the shining of the night as I

  contemplate the dance of my fingers

  through your hair.

  We love as there is not tomorrow

  We love as lovers

  I want to kiss even the shadow of your silhouette

  in the street projects

  And I want you to feel for a moment that you

  belong to me.

  Juan M. Frisanccio Muño

  Chapter 1

  Would he just leave already? Feigning sleep until Jake made his exit taxed Hannah’s nerves and her resolve. Last night had been a mistake and she couldn’t blame her poor judgment on alcohol nor from the romantic vibes surrounding Samantha’s wedding day. Marriage was the furthest thing from Hannah’s mind when she fell into bed with the best man.

  Only dirty, hot sex had been on her mind—all day long—even during the church service.

  Who thinks that way in church?

  The devil had visited her right there at the altar. A sexy Satan in the solid form of Jake Miller standing confidently next to the groom as the vows were repeated, winking across the space to where she stood as the maid of honor. She had tried summoning the prayers of her youth in an effort to ward off the naughty feelings he evoked. Recalling the line, ‘Now I lay me down to sleep’, but that only led her thoughts further astray. What was wrong with her?

  But it wasn’t a matter of what was wrong with her, but what was so very right about Jake. Simply remembering his expertise in the bedroom caused her brain to take a vacation from all reason and for her soul to risk eternal damnation by lusting after him in a house of God. Her heart—encased in an iron box—was in no danger at all. Sealed shut with neither a lock nor a key for any man to search for. Fool was the man who did.

  Hannah resisted the urge to stretch and ignored his not so subtle attempts to wake her up. Why couldn’t he be a normal male—piss and get the hell out? But there was nothing normal about Jake. Nothing. Hannah’s body still hummed with the proof. She smiled in her fake sleep.

  “Dreaming of me?”

  His rough voice, even sexier in the morning, washed over her as if she were bathing in a pool of ancient aphrodisiacs. How long had he’d been watching her? “No, of waffles.”

  His deep throaty laughter vibrated through her insides. Hannah was certain he could talk an orgasm out of her if he wanted to.

  “I’ll make you some. After…”

  Jake pulled her close but she refused to nestle up against his warmth. “No need. I’m on a diet hence the dreaming of waffles. You may go.”

  Instead of complying he growled and rolled her onto her back using his weight to pin her to the mattress. His heavy erection pressed against the softness of her belly and she tried to squirm away but that only made his sex settle between her legs. His naughty chuckle annoyed and turned her on all at the same time. She raised her chin in defiance. But she wasn’t going anywhere. Built like the football player he was, his physical strength sent a rush of liquid desire through her body. Now, she didn’t want him to go.

  “Listen up Hannah. I’m not one of your boy toys who you can play hot and cold with.”

  She started to deny it but the look in his eyes stopped her.

  “And if you try it again I’ll make you so hot for me you’ll have to beg for it.” Those full lips crushed her mouth in a smoking kiss that left no doubt in her mind that he could do just that.

  Hannah stroked the smoothness of his bald head, wondering what he would look like with hair. But Jake Miller was so damn sexy without long locks that she imagined there were men who shaved their heads to emulate the Cougars flashy running back.

  Damn Samantha and Ryan for getting married. Hannah had become an expert in avoiding Jake and now she wanted to chain him to her bed and never let him leave despite the fact that only minutes ago she claimed to have wanted him gone. She didn’t want him as a boy toy—she wanted to enslave him. But it was he who was enslaving her. With his kiss and his touch and oh…

  “You’re in my blood, Hannah, but don’t expect me to bleed for you.” With that, he flipped off the bed and pulled on white boxer briefs.

  His yummy caramel skin begged to be licked like a candy apple and like a spoiled child denied a treat Hannah whined. “But what about?” She pointed to the erection straining against the fabric of his briefs.

  “I think I made my point.”

  “But…”

  Jake walked back to the bed. “Don’t make the mistake of thinking I’m ruled by this.” He took her hand and rubbed his cock with it, biting his lip and tilting his head to the side like he was trying, but failing to prove his statement. He raised her hand to his heart. “Or by this.”

  But Hannah thought that had to be a lie. The beat beneath her palm, rapid and unsteady, matched her own.

  “Not even here.” He quickly tapped his bald head then slid her fingers down to his cut abs. “I go with my gut.”

  Her nails dug into his chiseled flesh, not an ounce of fat on him. He could easily land an endorsement deal for men’s underwear. No stuffing required. “And what does your gut tell you?”

  Backing away, he grabbed the rest of his clothes, flipped them over his shoulder, and left the room without a word.

  “Good.
I wanted you to leave in the first place,” she huffed.

  “I’m going to make us waffles,” he yelled from the hallway. “My gut is hungry and you look hungrier.”

  Hannah grabbed the pink silk robe hanging from the four-poster bed and followed him into the kitchen as she slid it on. “I have a shoot within two days. I can NOT eat waffles.”

  He ignored her, grabbing the waffle iron and plugging it in. He hummed a tune as he raided the fridge and mixed up the batter with strong, steady strokes. Jake looked at home in her kitchen like he’d only been gone a weekend and not months, which again annoyed and charmed her all at the same time. Even though he was unshaven and shirtless, he almost seemed domesticated but Hannah knew better. Men like Jake could not be tamed. It was better to return them to the wild before you became attached. It was a lesson she’d wished her Mother had learned.

  Did he just sprinkle nutmeg in the batter? Her mouth watered.

  As he poured the batter into the waffle maker he stopped humming and asked, “What I don’t get is that we had this big blow-out about you doing Playboy—you break up with me over it—and then you don’t do it. Why?” He looked at her with a penetrating gaze.

  His light brown eyes reminded her of the wolf she’d admired at the Central Park Zoo. Jake forbid Hannah to pose and nobody tells her what to do so she told him to take his archaic views of women and shove it up his ass. Until last night they hadn’t seen nor spoken to each other in seven long sex deprived months. At least she’d been sex deprived. She’d bet Jake lasted all of a day before he moved on. “Well, it wasn’t because of you.”

  “Then why not do it?” He took the pants he’d thrown onto the chair and pulled them on.

  “You are so full of yourself.” She gave a snarky laugh. “Victoria Secret gave me another year on my contract. I negotiated to be on the cover of the swimsuit issue. Which is a miracle, aging model that I am.”

  “Aging? Hannah you’re barely into your thirties.”

  Thirty-one, to be exact. Hannah shuddered at the number. She was ancient compared to the hot slutty girls of today though she supposed that’s what the supermodels of the late nineties thought about her when she burst onto the scene. “I’m a dinosaur.”

  Jake zipped up. “You’re more beautiful today.”

  Hannah huffed in disbelief.

  He approached her with a gleam in his eye and pulled the bow that held her robe together and slid his hands up the swell of her hips. “You were the girl next door, but now you’re a beautiful female fatale with curves.”

  “Fat.” She pushed him away. In the real world she wasn’t but in the fashion world? She was a horse. But Victoria Secret liked curvy models and she was more likely to be fired for being too skinny than for gaining a couple of pounds.

  “Really Hannah?

  She looked away remembering the latest designer who pinched at her waist and told her she was thickening. Thickening!

  “Your body would drive any man insane. Believe me, I know. I’m one step away from Bellevue.”

  “Hmm, so says the man who left me high and dry not five minutes ago.”

  Anger flashed in his eyes. “Is that what you want—a lap dog to do your bidding?” He lifted her up onto the counter and pushed himself between her legs. “Or a man who knows what you want? What you need. And will give it to you.”

  He kissed her with a hungry thirst, like a vampire ravenous for blood. Hannah reveled in her feminine power as he lost control. She felt exactly like the female fatale he’d claimed her to be. She’d won. He’d take her right there, right now. No man could resist her. Then the waffle iron dinged. Jake stopped and stepped back before she could tightly wrap her legs around his torso.

  “Enjoy the waffles.” He lifted the handle of the iron and grabbed his shirt and pulled it on.

  “You’re leaving?” she nearly shrieked the question. Hannah couldn’t believe it. Her body pulsed with want. With need. How could he do this to her?

  “That’s what you’ve wanted ever since you woke up this morning.”

  She couldn’t stop the frown she knew was forming on her face. Great, now I’m risking damn wrinkles over this man!

  “Your move, Hannah.”

  She meant to say something clever, to regain some sort of dignity, but the door had already shut. Just as well. How dignified could she be sitting on the kitchen counter, her robe and legs wide open with steam from that damn appliance spouting into the air?

  And damn him if those waffles didn’t smell really, really good.

  Chapter 2

  Jake flagged a cab outside Hannah’s posh Eastside address. Only after climbing in and giving the driver his downtown one did he allow himself to fume. You’d think she’d be happy he hadn’t rushed out the door like a gigolo or that he wasn’t a pig who got off on seeing his girlfriend naked in a magazine and brag about it to his friends.

  It was bad enough his teammates had posted pictures of Hannah from the Victoria Secret catalog all around the locker room to taunt him. To remind him of what he lost when she dumped him.

  But last night he’d won her back.

  Now he had to figure out how to turn this into a winning streak. The long months apart from Hannah had him questioning everything from his manhood to his sanity. He tried calling her at first, but when she didn’t return his calls his pride demanded he play it cool. Still, that didn’t mean he hadn’t listened intently to every word Samantha said in case she let some vital piece of information slip or relieved when Ryan would throw him a bone with the simple statement of ‘She’s not dating anyone.’ Then Jake would act like he didn’t care and even though his teammate knew the score he’d let Jake slide.

  The gossip pages, where Hannah often appeared, offered nothing. But that didn’t mean she wasn’t sharing another man’s bed.

  The not knowing was torture.

  For a while he tried pretending she didn’t exist—that her loveliness was a figment of his imagination, but her soft moans along with her fevered pitch screams of his name haunted his dreams. Hannah was so right—he did dream of her.

  So when he saw the deep rose color of the bridesmaid dress, the memory of the lingerie she wore that first night they made love lingered throughout the day. Jake wondered if she chose the color on purpose to torment him. During the ceremony he undressed her inside his wicked mind—the dress falling to the floor unveiling the bra and panties underneath and then down to nothing but the natural rose-colored areas of her banging body. God worked a true masterpiece when he created Hannah. Before he left he should’ve asked the priest for an emergency Confessional. Hell, when it came to Hannah he’d need a priest on speed dial to keep up with his sinful thoughts and deeds.

  One thing was for certain she didn’t have to worry about re-purposing the dress, as it now lay shredded on the bedroom floor. His deep satisfied smile reflected off the window of the cab.

  Yes, he won last night and this morning, but what next? Hannah tossed men to the side like they were her playthings she’d gotten bored with. She needed a strong man to call her on her crap.

  She was used to men giving her anything she wanted but they never gave her what she needed. Jake could, if she’d let him.

  Granted he mishandled her initial decision to pose nude. In the end she declined the offer and even though she said it had nothing to do with him, she lied. It had everything to do with him and his belief that she wasn’t a plaything.

  What was up with models anyway? Jake dated quite a few and all of them were insecure behind the glitz and glamour. Paid to be pretty, models should be the most confident of women. He didn’t get it.

  But he wanted to get Hannah because there was something so vulnerable about her that grabbed at his heart. Her smile could bring him to his knees faster than a three hundred pound tackle.

  With eyes as big and blue as the Texas sky where he played college ball and long hair that swayed like the amber waves of grain, Hannah embodied the traits of the Mid-western beauties that won M
iss U.S.A. pageants, but with the Jersey girl attitude that was her birthright.

  Last night he’d beat out twenty of his teammates for the bride’s garter and the right to slip it onto the maid of honor’s long sleek leg. For a moment he felt like Prince Charming but then Hannah ruined the fantasy by ordering him to get it over with it and he turned into the Big Bad Wolf and rode that garter all the way up the stairway to Heaven and brushed her sex with his finger. It wasn’t over. Not by a long shot.

  But where did he go from here? Just show up at her doorstep tonight? Ask her out on a date? No, not after telling Hannah it was her move.

  His cell rang with the ringtone to Roy Orbison’s Pretty Woman and he laughed wondering when she had the chance to download it. “Miss me already?”

  “Hardly. My vibrator will take care of what you didn’t.”

  “Go for it. We never did finish that phone sex experiment.”

  He heard a frustrated sigh at the other end. Last time they tried it he ended up at her apartment for the real thing.

  “I think that experiment was very successful.” Hannah finally said.

  Jake laughed. “Remember that when the batteries die.”

  “Hey, you’re the one who left.”

  “Point taken. Now, what’s up?”

  “I have a charity dinner to go to tonight and I was wondering…wondering…”

  Jake let her stutter, he was a most patient man.

  “…if you would escort me?” The words rushed out of her mouth.

  Jake could feel the grin widening on his face. “Hannah, are you asking me out on a date?” he asked slyly.

  “Noooo. No. Like I said—escort.”

  He pictured her checking out her flawless manicure as she said it. And while he loved when those blood red nails scratched and dug into his back when she came he knew he had to be strong. “Escort? Sorry the name does not fit the man.”

  “Oh, and you don’t consider me a trophy girlfriend?”

  “Girlfriend.” Jake considered the term for a moment. “Now that’s more like it. But trophy?” He gazed out the window thinking of all his past accolades and felt the weight of the Super Bowl ring on his finger “I’ve got plenty of trophies. None of them keep me warm at night.” He lowered his voice on purpose knowing Hannah would cave.