My Sexy Saturday - HIS By Design - Coveting Claire - Passion Worth Pursuing?

Hi Guys
Welcome to my first post with My Sexy Saturday. My post today is from my new erotic romance HIS By Design the spanking rewrite of my bestseller Chances&Choices. The complete book is available NOW for pre-order at the special price of $2.99. The first episode Coveting Claire is $0.99 and available to borrow FREE with Kindle Unlimited. My seven paragraphs today joins the story when Julian and Claire first meet only a year after his wife died and the years of friendship leading to the moment when he finally realized he was in love with Claire and what that could mean...

Julian and Claire didn’t look at each other as the elevator traveled down. They were both silent, caught up in their own turbulent thoughts, each inwardly blaming themselves for overstepping self-imposed, mistaken boundaries.  The elevator reached the ground floor and they walked out of the building into the cool night air, a slight awkwardness between them as he ushered her towards his car.  When they reached the green Audi, he opened the passenger door for her.  He was left-handed and he noticed her gaze went to his ring finger and the pale strip of skin.  He rubbed it again, feeling exposed.  Most people would've looked away, but she surprised him by asking him softly.  “Did you love her a lot?” 

It was in that moment that any awkwardness between them slipped easily away.  She really was still an innocent, but Julian knew she possessed a depth of understanding and courage he needed around him.  No one asked him that.  No one even approached it, got anywhere near it.  Not once since Susanna's  death had he been able to acknowledge the simple fact of loving her.  Everyone wanted him to get over loving her, to move past that fact.  His jaw tightened and he answered, grateful to be able to voice his feelings.  “Yes, very much.” 

That was the only time she ever asked about Susanna, but somehow that moment created a profound bond.  He knew he could call her again to attend another function and there would be no misconceptions, no expectations.  Only genuine, unconditional acceptance and affection.  Slowly, quietly, sweetly over three years their bond built and a deep friendship grew.  Landmarks in their lives were shared.  Her college graduation, his best–selling collections and awards, her first job.  They dated other people, took an unimportant lover here and there, but they were the constant in each other’s lives, the safe, platonic, significant other.  In the solidness of their friendship, they both forgot the feeling of those first passionate moments in front of Claire’s apartment door. The feeling stayed where it suited them both. Safe, quiet and undisturbed. 

Until one sparkling afternoon on the beach in front of Julian’s house when she came running out of the water to flop beside him.  Lying down, she tossed away her long mane of hair, handed him some suntan lotion and asked him to put it on her back.  Then, without so much as a trace of self-consciousness or coquetry, she un-hooked the back of her bikini to avoid strap marks. The sexuality of the moment thrust him back three years to when he took the stairs two at a time to scold a young girl and was stopped in his tracks by the primal beauty of a virgin goddess with cascading, golden locks who was all woman.   

The woman had retreated into the blushes of the girl who became his friend.  Only now, she was emerging full force and he and the plan were well and truly screwed.  He was thankful she kept her eyes closed throughout the procedure and afterwards he went for a swim to counteract the effect she was having on him.  At the time, he told himself it was simply a natural reaction to a beautiful woman and didn't mean anything other than Claire had matured.  But as weeks passed, he knew it was more than that.  He was in love with her.  It wasn't the intense emotion Susanna had elicited, but it was love. 

She started to fill his thoughts more and more.  He started to imagine a future and he began to notice how his sketches took on her appearance.  How much his designs had changed over the past year.  Their cut now flattered her tall, full figure and the color and fabrics were attuned to the cool tones of her pristine beauty.Uneasily, he began to realize how insidiously love for her was infecting him.  It was then he began to fear what that could mean.  How vulnerable he could become.  It was then he was truly grateful for the plan.  He’d carefully nurtured and developed the plan with great success in the past three years.  Claire played an important role in that success.  Her platonic friendship allowed him to bank his emotions, to stay clear of intensity or emotional intimacy on an erotic level.  He’d learned to guard his emotions carefully.  To create a life with a safe structure that couldn't be toppled by emotions as futile as passionate, intense love. 

Been there.  Done that.  No longer part of the plan.

This section of Coveting Claire is also available in The Plan that just is also FREE to borrow from Kindle Unlimited and happens to be on Amazon FREE PROMO SUNDAY  April 19!

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                                       FREE SUNDAY

Blurb

New from #1 Amazon Bestselling Author of the Rancher's Woman and Her Keeper

HIS By Design  - Special Price $2.99 for pre-order only! Will revert to $4.99.

The year a mutual friend convinces Hollywood haute couture designer Julian West to escort feature reporter Claire Fitzpatrick to the Annual Spring Charity Ball it is the start of an enduring friendship. A friendship where both comfortably forget the sizzling attraction that flared between them when they first met.  Now, six years on, that attraction has re-emerged and Julian and Claire discover that the compatibility they share as best friends is echoed in their erotic preferences. As their romance blossoms, it is not long before he takes her across his knee to deliver lengthy bare bottomed spankings both erotic and disciplinary.  But neither of them is prepared for the unexpected passion that rules them both. When they are finally faced with the release of overwhelming emotions Julian has spent years repressing, both Julian and Claire must decide if they will go their separate ways or if theirs will be a a love designed to last.

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