The Tall Dark & Deadly Box Set
By Lisa Renee Jones
Copyright 2012 Lisa Renee Jones
These ebook’s are licensed for your personal enjoyment only. These ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share these books with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you’re reading these book and did not purchase it, or they were not purchased for your use only, then please return to the supplier and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. To obtain permission to excerpt portions of the text, please contact the author at lisarenjones@gmail.com
All characters in this book are fiction and figments of the author’s imagination.
www.lisareneejones.com
Secrets Exposed
By Lisa Renee Jones
Copyright 2012
Prelude to the TALL, DARK, AND DEADLY series which includes:
Book .05 PRELUDE : Secrets Exposed - Out Now
Book 1: Hot Secrets - Out Now
Book 2: Dangerous Secrets - Out Now
Excerpt from the highly acclaimed: If I Were You
Also available
Book 3: Beneath the Secrets - Out Now
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to the supplier and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. To obtain permission to excerpt portions of the text, please contact the author at lisarenjones@gmail.com.
All characters in this book are fiction and figments of the author’s imagination.
www.lisareneejones.com
Prologue
A shame to bruise such lovely skin.
Her body lay naked on the bed, her long, blond locks positioned just so around her creamy white shoulders. A bright red mark on her left shoulder caught his attention, frustrating him. He gently positioned a strand of her silky blond hair so it wouldn’t show. Wanting, needing her, to look perfect.
Stepping back, he surveyed his work. A slow smile turned up the corners of his mouth. Unable to resist, he moved again and ran his gloved finger down her ivory cheek. Pale and still, she was like a china doll displayed for his viewing.
Beautiful.
Calmness was settling inside him now. His job was done. The power his success yielded was surreal, yet so alive it delivered a boost of elation. She had been a real high, a challenge, where every step of the way had been a battle of wills. She’d offered no cries for mercy, no whimpering, as if she sensed the outcome before it happened. As if she knew he didn’t believe in mercy.
The fight had been invigorating, making him hotter and hotter with every twist and turn of her soft little body. Taking her had been so sweet, so perfect, he’d drawn it out. Slowly he had explored, touching her, moving inside her, soaking in the pure high of owning her.
But in the end, she hadn’t been as perfect as he had first expected. She’d been a disappointment. Because she had given up. Disgust coiled inside him, and he yanked his hand away from her face, remembering the low churn of anger when she had stilled beneath him. It had turned to rage, pushing him higher and higher, forcing him to squeeze the breath out of that delicate little neck.
The calm followed—so bittersweet in the aftermath.
He had hoped she would be different, but she wasn’t. For that he had made her punishment long and painful. Besides, she wasn’t the one he really wanted. The one that, one day very soon, he would have. Balling his fists at his sides, he clenched his teeth. It angered him the way she had left him, going to Washington as if he wasn’t important. He’d had no choice, no option, but to try to find a replacement.
Because she was his light, and without her, he was dark.
He let his eyes slowly close. Come to me, Lindsey.
Chapter One
Lindsey Paxton had to play nice with the very man who was screwing up her life.
The elevator doors opened on the twentieth floor, his floor, and she stepped out into the corridor. A long hallway greeted her, giving her the unnerving feeling that she was in an Alice in Wonderland clip. As she searched each of the heavy oak doors for the proper address, the hallway seemed to get thinner and smaller. Nervousness was very out of character for her, yet the wrenching in her gut refused to be ignored.
At the very end of the hall, she found his apartment number, and forced herself to take a deep, calming breath. She hadn’t realized how apprehensive she was about meeting Mark Reeves, her father’s ex-partner, until she was actually standing in front of his door.
Life as she knew it was going to be impacted by whether she could convince him to take control over her father’s law firm. She needed him to run the firm so she didn’t have to.
Mark had her in a compromising position, and she hated it. She could only pray he was willing to be reasonable. Lindsey reached for the doorbell and gave it a quick jab. Waiting for a response, the seconds seemed to go by like minutes. Feeling impatient, she punched the button again. Seconds ticked by, and still no answer. It would be just her luck to have traveled halfway across the country, and manage to show up at his door when he wasn’t home.
She needed him to be here.
Intent on knocking, wrist in position, the door flew open. To her distress, she stumbled forward, her hand reaching for support, and landing on a very hard, very masculine chest. She looked up in shock to find a man, one she presumed to be Mark Reeves, staring down at her. A devilish smile slid onto his full lips as his eyes rolled down to the placement of Lindsey’s hand. Embarrassment swept over her as she followed his gaze. Yanking her hand away, she took a step backwards as if she had been slapped.
“I, I’m sorry,” she heard herself stammer in a voice that didn’t resemble her own.
Mark leaned a shoulder against the door jamb and crossed one booted foot over the other before clasping his arms in front of his t-shirt-clad chest. The casualness of his attire did nothing to lessen his good looks. If anything it enhanced them. He looked like a young James Dean, standing there, oh, so cocky, and masculine.
He was, in her book, a handsome, real life version of the Devil.
Had he not abandoned her father’s law firm, she would be back in Washington where she belonged. Instead, she was here, in Manhattan, desperate to find a way to get back home.
Mark gave her an assessing gaze. “Did you think holding the buzzer down would assure my attention?” His voice had a lazy quality, but it hinted at amusement. And his eyes were far too alert as they slipped down her body, and seemed to take in each and every detail.
She had carefully dressed in a fitted white, long-sleeved suit. One that was feminine, but not overly revealing. The skirt fell several inches above the knee. It hadn’t felt short when she put it on, but the way he looked at her made her reconsider. Her jacket had a zipper straight up the middle, which she left open just enough to be feminine. His eyes assessed the area as if she revealed more than she concealed.
She had the distinct impression he was trying to unnerve her, and she wasn’t about to let him think he’d succeeded. Despite the heavy weight of his stare, she managed a cool reply. “I didn’t hold the buzzer down. When you didn’t respond, I thought it was broken.”