Bare
Devotion
The Bayou Bachelors #2
by
Geri Krotow
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Pub
Date: 9/11/2018
Sweet
and sultry, hot and wild…that’s desire, Louisiana-style. And
there’s no one better to explore it with than one of the Bayou
Bachelors…
Returning to her
flooded New Orleans home to face Henry Boudreaux, the man she jilted
at the altar, is the hardest thing attorney Sonja Bosco has ever
done—even before she discovers she’s pregnant. Sonja backed out
of the marriage for Henry’s sake. He wants to be part of his
father’s law firm, and his parents will never approve of an
interracial marriage. Better to bruise his heart than ruin his life.
Henry can’t forgive
Sonja, and doubts that he can trust her again. But learning that
they’re going to be parents means there’s no avoiding each other.
Springtime on the bayou is already steamy enough…now they’re
living in the same small space while their damaged house is repaired.
And with each passing day they’re getting a little more honest. A
lot more real. And realizing that nothing—not even New Orleans at
Mardi Gras—glows brighter than the desire they’re trying to deny…
Sonja
bit into the almond croissant with the hunger that had plagued her
everyday of the past few weeks. Like clockwork, her appetite returned
late morning after the morning nausea passed.
She
knew the exact night she’d conceived the baby. Her body had felt
‘different’ after the lovemaking session with Henry that had
lasted the better part of a late winter night after they’d won a
particularly challenging case. At first she hadn’t been able to
pinpoint it and blamed her exhaustion on prenuptial jitters. The week
before the wedding her breasts swelled, her nipples became sensitive
to the shower spray, and she’d felt as though her period was about
to start at any moment. But of course it hadn’t. She’d known two
days before the wedding for sure. Thank God she’d only shared it
with Poppy. If Henry had known she didn’t think she’d have been
able to walk away from marrying him as she had.
The
memory of leaving her soulmate at the altar made the pastry feel
heavy in her stomach and she paused, closing her eyes and breathing
in and out slowly to ward off a wave of nausea. Anytime she
remembered their wedding day she felt sick all over again.
“Is
it that good?” Her eyes flew open at the sexy baritone that only a
few weeks ago had coaxed an orgasm out of her as he spoke dirty words
into her ear while he moved over her, inside her, again and again.
“It’s
delicious.” She put the croissant down on a napkin, next to her
stack of files. Henry’s gaze dared her to look away and she never
backed down from anyone, so she stared back. A quick flash of disgust
shadowed his face before Henry looked away and sat in the seat
opposite her, reaching over for his files. Usually they sat together,
ready to work until whenever it took to get the day’s items checked
off. It wasn’t going to get easy, ever, to know he thought so
little of her. Knowing she deserved it for something he didn’t even
know about yet—the baby—made it worse.
“I
imagine you need time to go over these.” A deft verbal pitch to see
how she’d react. Would she go high, admit she should have been back
in the office last week, or go low and blame him for her staying
away, or ignore it? “Alesia sent me the files last week. I’ve
read through them all.”
He
had to be playing her—Alesia told Henry everything. He’d know
she’d had copies to analyze. Their roundtrip tickets to Bali had
gone unused, so it wasn’t as if she’d been out of the country and
unable to do any work.
“Any
concerns?” He kept his face low, focused on the paperwork, but she
saw the blood vessel just above his collar, pulsing in rhythm to his
heartbeat. Whenever Henry was agitated that was his tell. She used to
like to lick it right before he came. Heat erupted between her legs
and made her squirm. Apparently her guilt over not telling him about
the baby wasn’t the only reaction she couldn’t shake. She clasped
her legs together under the heavy mahogany table, grateful Henry
didn’t have x-ray vision.
“No,
nothing to speak of.” Her voice was low and throaty and she wished
she’d tendered her resignation. It would be so much easier,
especially now when every damned hormone in her body was setting off
emotions she didn’t even know she was capable of. But a deft
noncompete clause she’d signed when his father had hired her
prevented her from going out on her own just yet.
Brilliant
blue eyes watched her with usual alertness. “You sure about that,
Sonja? You’re acting like something’s not sitting right with
you.”
“It’s
just this.” She motioned very slighting between them, using her
finger. “Awkward with a capital ‘A,’ am I right? We didn’t
talk about it as much as we probably should have this morning.”
Of
course dearest Deidre’s appearance had shut down any chance of the
conversation they needed to have in private. The curiosity in his
eyes turned to frosted crystal.
“Let’s
get it out on the table, then.” He splayed both hands on the dark
polished surface, and she wondered if he’d forgotten about the time
they’d both arrived to work early, too early. They’d ended up
here, naked, in under five minutes. Did he see her naked body as
she’d knelt on all fours, waiting for him to take her?
“There
is nothing here. Whatever we shared was wiped out when you decided to
ignore my attempt to explain my actions to you.”
“Wait
a min—”
“No,
hold up.” He shot down her attempt to interrupt him with a flick of
his hand. “You made your choice. And you’ve decided to continue
on at this firm. We both need to raise the funds to get the house
rehabbed well enough to sell. Fine, I get it. But don’t think for
one minute that there is anything other than our working relationship
at stake. We’ve always enjoyed that, correct? And I’m willing to
work with you, until the day you decide to leave the firm. Because,
let’s face it, I’m not going anywhere. This is my family firm.
You, you’ll go out on your own or take a better offer elsewhere.
That’s okay. Until then I expect the best you have to offer, and
for you to kindly refrain from referring to what we shared. It’s
over.”
Sonja
stared at the man who’d hung the moon for her and only saw the
stamp of Boudreaux on his expression. The same look his father had
when she’d told him to take the money and referral he’d offered
her to quit when she and Henry announced their engagement and shove
them up his tight white racist ass. He’d never fire her, not as a
black woman in his otherwise very white, very male firm. And
regardless of his racist views, Sonja brought in a lot of business
for their firm that they’d otherwise never catch. She’d expected
Henry’s father to give her a hard time, but not so much Henry.
She’d been a fool.
“Our
professional relationship never had anything to do with our personal
life. Why should it now?”
Henry
didn’t respond but instead glared at her. He may as well have
thrown a machete at her for how his silent gesture pained her.
The
door clicked open and Alesia entered with trays of lunch food,
followed by two clients and Rick, the firm’s other NOLA attorney.
As she and Henry stood to greet them she eyed her almost-husband. Her
ex-fiancé. The man who’d broken her heart.
Henry
was tall and professional looking, whether dressed in a classic suit
as he was now or in cargo shorts and a t-shirt like yesterday. He’d
been born to inherit his father’s firm, a lawyer’s mind part of
his gene pool. And until their wedding weekend, she hadn’t seen
that he’d also inherited the insatiable need to make everything
appear perfect. Hence the pristine wedding they’d almost gone
through with.
Henry
wasn’t a people pleaser though, especially not to his parents. He’d
bucked their sensibilities and desires by choosing to marry her, a
black woman from a bayou family. Henry had never seen her as anything
other than the woman he’d decided to marry. She believed that. What
Henry had refused to see, however, was that his father was never
going to leave the firm to Henry as long as Sonja was his wife. The
firm was going to be dissolved and all of his father’s money given
to charity, eschewing being generous to either of his sons. Henry’s
younger sister, a social worker, was in the naval reserves and
somewhere overseas, so she wasn’t even on the family radar. She
hadn’t gone to law school; neither had Henry’s younger brother
Brandon. It wasn’t about the money, which was significant, but
about family legacy. Henry was the man to change it, to turn the law
firm into a contemporary, relevant part of the community, serving
diverse clients and causes. He saw that corporate law didn’t have
to mean serving the same good ol’ boys his father had.
But
Henry would never have the chance to improve upon his family legacy
if she were around. The younger siblings had gotten the hell away
from the family dynasty. But not Henry. Henry needed to be part of
his father’s legacy in a way the other two didn’t. Because Sonja
saw this, saw the need in the man she loved so desperately, she’d
had no choice but to back out of their marriage. She’d do anything
for Henry’s happiness, and Henry would never be happy without
knowing he’d made a difference in what his father had began. He’d
never forgive her for leaving him the way she did and that was all
right. Sonja didn’t want Henry’s forgiveness. She’d wanted his
love, understanding and trust, but her expectations had been too
much.
Henry didn’t have it to give.
And
as she watched him, the one man she’d ever pinned all her hopes on,
she had to face the cold hard truth. She was as unworthy of trust as
Henry.
Fully
Dressed
The
Bayou Bachelors #1
There’s
nowhere hotter than the South, especially with three men who know how
to make the good times roll. But one of the Bayou Bachelors is about
to meet his match…
New
York City stylist Poppy Kaminsky knows that image is everything,
which is why she’s so devastated when hers is trashed on social
media—after a very public meltdown over her cheating fiancé. Her
best friend’s New Orleans society wedding gives her the chance hide
out and lick her wounds...
Brandon
Boudreaux is in no mood to party. His multi-million dollar sailboat
business is in danger of sinking thanks to his partner’s sudden
disappearance—with the company’s funds. And when he rolls up to
his estranged brother’s pre-wedding bash in an airboat, a
cold-as-ice friend of the bride looks at him like he’s so much
swamp trash.
The
last person Poppy should get involved with is the bad boy of the
Boudreaux family. But they have more in common than she could ever
imagine—and the steamy, sultry New Orleans nights are about to show
her how fun letting loose can be…
“New
Orleans serves as a strong supporting character in Fully
Dressed as
Krotow gives an inside view on the sights, sounds, and tastes of the
bayou.” —RT
Book Reviews
Geri
Krotow is the award winning author of more than thirteen
contemporary and romantic suspense novels (with a couple of WWII
subplots thrown in!). While still unpublished Geri received the
Daphne du Maurier Award for Romantic Suspense in Category Romance
Fiction. Her 2007 Harlequin Everlasting debut A Rendezvous to
Remember earned several awards, including the Yellow Rose of Texas
Award for Excellence.
Prior to writing, Geri
served for nine years as a Naval Intelligence Officer. Geri served as
the Aviation/Anti-Submarine Warfare Intelligence officer for a P-3C
squadron during which time she deployed to South America, Europe, and
Greenland. She was the first female Intel officer on the East Coast
to earn Naval Aviation Observer Wings. Geri also did a tour in the
war on drugs, working with several different government and law
enforcement agencies. Geri is grateful to be settled in south central
Pennsylvania with her husband.
Follow
the tour HERE
for exclusive excerpts, guest posts and a giveaway!
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