Sweet Seduction Secrets (Sweet Seduction, Book 8): A Love At First Sight Romantic Suspense Series Read online

  Sweet Seduction Secrets

  Sweet Seduction Book Eight

  Nicola Claire

  Contents

  Copyright

  About the Author

  Free Download

  Also by Nicola Claire

  Message From The Author

  Dedication

  1. I’m In

  2. After All, I’m A Professional

  3. Simply Non-Existent In The Real World

  4. And That Power Was Now After Me

  5. But I Was Not Going To Be Alone When I Got There

  6. Fuck Friendships And Fuck Your Friends

  7. One Fucking Day

  8. The Shell Was Cracking, God Alone Knew What Would Fall Out

  9. Fucking Hunter Spooks

  10. Great, An Army Ambush

  11. There’s Something About Charlie

  12. This Was Going To Hurt

  13. Black Didn’t Even Cover It

  14. Lovesick Fucking Puppy

  15. Take Me Back To Nick

  16. Why Should We Trust You?

  17. You Fucking Care

  18. Because, Sometimes, A Guy Just Has To Take The Fall

  19. I Would Have Caught You

  20. Really, I Had No Fucking Idea At All

  21. It Was A Bit Of This And A Bit Of That

  22. And I’d Been Blind

  23. This Is Me Catching You, Firecracker

  24. Veritas Lux Mea

  25. One Way Or Another, This Ended Tonight

  26. And Then Everyone Was Firing

  27. We’re Family

  28. She Was So Far Out Of My Fucking League

  29. We Protect Our Country

  30. My Name Is Charlie

  31. Already Aware That I’d, Well And Truly, Been Fucking Caught

  32. But It Couldn’t Be Mine

  33. You Had Me From The Very Start

  34. A Fucking Killing Machine

  35. For People Like Me

  36. The One And Only

  37. And I Felt It All

  Another Message From The Author

  Review Request

  Free Download

  Copyright © 2016, Nicola Claire

  All Rights Reserved

  ISBN: 978-0-473-35040-6

  nicolaclairebooks.com

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organisations is entirely coincidental.

  All rights are reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author.

  Cover Art by LA LA

  Image credit: 123RF Stock Photo

  Image #11601023 & #33196008

  Created with Vellum

  About the Author

  Nicola Claire lives in beautiful Taupo, New Zealand with her husband and two young boys.

  She's tried her hand at being a paramedic, bank teller and medical sales representative, (not all necessarily in that order), but her love of writing keeps calling her back.

  She has a passion for all things suspenseful, spiced up with a good dollop of romance, as long as they include strong characters - alpha males and capable females - and worlds which although make-believe are really quite believable in the end.

  There's nothing better than getting caught up in a compelling, intriguing and romantic book.

  When she's not writing or reading, she's out on her family boat at Lake Taupo, teaching her young boys to fish, showing them the beauty that surrounds them in nature and catching some delicious trout for dinner.

  Creating rich worlds with dynamic characters and unexpected twists that shock and awe has been pure bliss for this author. And just as well, because there's a lot more story yet to tell...

  For more information:

  @NicolaClaireNZ

  168567699926093

  www.nicolaclairebooks.com

  [email protected]

  Free Download

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  Three free books to get you started!

  Starter Library

  * * *

  Also by Nicola Claire

  Kindred Series

  Kindred

  Blood Life Seeker

  Forbidden Drink

  Giver of Light

  Dancing Dragon

  Shadow's Light

  Entwined With The Dark

  Kiss Of The Dragon

  Dreaming Of A Blood Red Christmas (Novella)

  Mixed Blessing Mystery Series

  Mixed Blessing

  Dark Shadow (Coming Soon)

  Sweet Seduction Series

  Sweet Seduction Sacrifice

  Sweet Seduction Serenade

  Sweet Seduction Shadow

  Sweet Seduction Surrender

  Sweet Seduction Shield

  Sweet Seduction Sabotage

  Sweet Seduction Stripped

  Sweet Seduction Secrets

  Elemental Awakening Series

  The Tempting Touch Of Fire

  The Soothing Scent Of Earth

  The Chilling Change Of Air

  The Tantalising Taste Of Water (Coming Soon)

  H.E.A.T. Series

  A Flare Of Heat

  A Touch Of Heat

  A Twist Of Heat (Novella)

  A Lick Of Heat (Coming Soon)

  Citizen Saga

  Elite

  Cardinal

  Citizen

  Masked (Coming Soon)

  Wiped (Coming Soon)

  Scarlet Suffragette Series

  Fearless

  Breathless (Coming Soon)

  Blood Enchanted Series

  Blood Enchanted

  Blood Entwined (Coming Soon)

  Lost Time Series

  Making Time (Coming Soon)

  Message From The Author

  And here we are, book eight of the Sweet Seduction series. Did you ever think we’d get to here? The end of the road, the end of such a delightful journey? And what a journey it’s been. There’s a few people to thank and a few memories to share, but with this last instalment, Sweet Seduction Secrets, I thought we might just go back to the beginning…

  The premise behind Sweet Seduction has always been “love at first sight.” For some people, this concept is as foreign as, say, the pronunciation of Karangahape Road. And, I must agree to a certain extent, that maybe some folks are right to mix lust up with love, or to assume that feeling they get upon meeting someone is just butterflies, and not your body trying to tell you something BIG is happening.

  But I never set out to prove that love at first sight exists. I know it does. I don’t need to prove a thing. It’s real. At least, the type of love that blindsides you, that comes out of nowhere and smacks you on the head, making your heart race and your palms sweat and your tongue feel three sizes too big for your mouth, is real. The type of love that involves attraction, for sure, respect and admiration, interest and intrigue, desire and longing, and, sometimes, much more.

  It’s the type of love that continues to grow, morph into “traditional” love, but that’s not to say it wasn’t “real” love to begin with. It’s cunning and sneaky, it’s unexpected and sometimes unwanted. It’s not always convenient or appropriate. It just is.

  And I know it exists, because it happ
ened to me.

  I still remember the first moment I laid eyes on my husband. I remember what tie he wore, and for those who know me, my memory is not always that sound. But I can envisage the colour and pattern intimately; burned into my brain in that split second. I remember the feelings and sensations as they rushed through me. The realisation, in that one brief moment, that my life would never be the same again.

  I may have dismissed the notion immediately. But true love has no boundaries, even though obstacles may lie in its way. Love, and yes, that type of love, love at first sight love, is just the same.

  If you’re lucky enough for it to be real.

  It was real for me. And I credit that moment, over a decade ago, with much of Sweet Seduction’s success. Because it was real. Because it was all consuming. Because the world did stop spinning as this tall man in a business suit stalked in through the door to my new place of employment, held his hand out in a commanding way to shake, with not just a little anger and challenge in his eyes, (later I was to discover that anger and challenge was because he’d been landed with the ‘new girl’ only that morning by telephone and was none too happy), and stole my breath away.

  The romance that ensued, and in all honesty has continued since, has been the basis for much of what I write. Not just this series, but everything. I have lived and I have loved and every day I am grateful for that. I wouldn’t be able to do what I do without my husband’s and my romance as a backdrop to the stories I write. So, the first thank you must undoubtedly go to him. To that moment. To love at first sight.

  Now, there’s more people to thank than just Hubby. Over the course of the series, to date, some tens of thousands of books have been downloaded. Hundreds of fans have emailed, messaged me on Facebook, Twitter or Goodreads, and genuinely made writing the next book so much more important, just so I’d get it right. For them. Books seven and eight followed a similar path as each other, slightly different from earlier instalments in this series, simply because of reader requests. You wanted more of the ASI guys, more of the Sweet Seduction girls, and much more of the male leads. Alternating points of view became the norm and I’d like to think helped you, as the reader, to see into both the protagonists’ heads. Making the story more engaging.

  So, thanks to the readers, for getting in touch, for telling me what you like, for asking for more, and for making this series even better.

  And lastly, towards the end of the series a fantastic group of gals got in touch with me, individually and after the fact for some, to start up a fan club and a street team, because of their love of Sweet Seduction. Both the Sweet Seduction Café fan club on Goodreads and the Sweet Street Seducers street team on Facebook have been a wonderful source of inspiration as the series came to an end. So, thank you to those outstanding few who took their love of the series one step further and through it gave me something so very special and heartwarming, something I will always treasure and no doubt think back on, as I do that moment, when I first met my husband.

  Well, that’s it. And if you made it to book eight, thanks for sticking with Sweet Seduction right to the end.

  You guys rock! I mean it. You can take that as being very real.

  ♥ Nicola

  For: Jamie & Whitney, cheerleaders extraordinaire!

  Chapter 1

  I’m In

  Charlie

  "Welcome to ASI, Charlie. I just know you're going to make a great addition to the team."

  If only he knew. But then, if Nicholas Anscombe, of Anscombe Securities & Investigations, was aware of just who I was and who I actually worked for, never mind the real reason why I was here, he wouldn't be so eager to file that employment contract I’d just signed.

  "I'm sure we can do a lot of damage together, Nick," I replied, perfecting a friendly smile that was more acting ability than true emotion.

  I don't have normal emotions. They've been trained out of me.

  “You know, you remind me of someone,” he said, accompanied with a casual smile; it was shockingly devastating. Well it would have been, if I’d fallen for such things.

  “I can’t think who,” I offered as a come-back. My connections here in Auckland were tenuous at best.

  A complete fabrication in all reality.

  “Never mind,” he said with a shake of his head. “You probably get that a lot.”

  Being mistaken for someone else? I smiled. Little did he know.

  "Well, let me show you around the place and introduce you to a few of the guys," Nick suggested, standing up from behind his thick wooden desk, which said more about the guy than his dossier had.

  Nick Anscombe, thirty-three years old, married to Evangeline Rowe, twenty-nine. No dependants, just a team of highly trained private investigators all with some form of previous military training, or simply graduates from the school of hard knocks. No one in this firm didn't have the skills to walk on the shady side of the street, if they so chose.

  I stood up as well and followed him from the room, taking in the broad shoulders, tight fitting black t-shirt that showed off the well defined muscles. He may try to effect the CEO persona, but Nick Anscombe was every bit as capable as his hand picked mercenary team.

  Short, dark hair cut in a perfunctory fashion, setting the trend for his employees, I'd guess. No-nonsense, hard façade, dedicated to the task at hand. I'd read he ran a tight ship, he certainly took the position seriously in his presentation alone. Thick neck and chest, thinning to a trim waist laden with weapons, and then moulding into bulging thighs and a butt you could bounce coins off that his jeans managed to cradle lovingly.

  I suppressed a snort and turned my attention to the eleven cameras I'd counted on the way to his office. Some weren't even on our blueprints, I'd be adding those as soon as I got back to my base. For now, I just double checked their specifications, recommitting them to my mental map. Making sure I hadn't missed any.

  I don't miss anything. But you had to consider all outcomes, even ridiculous ones.

  "You met Carmel at the front desk," Nick said, as he turned yet another corner of ASI's rabbit warren of a floor plan. I was sure the design was intentional. This building could be locked down and cut off in varying degrees. Fall back positions on top of fall back positions. All of it monitored from the infamous ASI control.

  Now that I wanted dearly to see.

  "Yes," I answered. "Most charming."

  "Yeah, that's our Carmel. But don't let the cardigans and grandma stockings fool you. She can hold her own."

  Or the Kel-Tec KSG 12 gauge shotgun hidden under her desk.

  "She works Monday to Friday, eight to five. If we're here on the weekend, entrance is handled by control," Nick added. Nothing I didn't already know.

  "This is the gym," he said, holding a door open for me to precede him.

  Two guys were in the boxing area, one holding a bag, while the other beat the crap out of it.

  "I like everyone to spend some time in here," Nick advised. "It'll be written into your schedule."

  I nodded, noting the four AXIS M3203 ceiling mounted dome network cameras, the panic buttons dotted throughout the room, and the reinforced steel bars on the windows. Only then did I take in the two men, who had stopped boxing and were watching with avid interest.

  New toy, boys. Come and get it.

  "This is Koki Tanaka and Brook Osborne," Nick said. "Guys, this is our new operative, Charlie Downes."

  "Charlie?" Koki, the Asian looking guy challenged.

  "Short for don't-ask-and-I-won't-have-to-break-your-fingers," I supplied with a sweet smile.

  "Ouch!" the salt and pepper one, Brook, exclaimed. "You're gonna fit in just fine."

  I smiled; no doubt it was slightly feral. Two more faces to the names in my dossier.

  Koki Tanaka; an expert at several different martial arts. New Zealand born, Japanese parents, thirty-two years old. And a temper that could rival a stampeding rhinoceros.

  His counterpart, on the other hand, was the rhino's soothing
balm. Brook Osborne; former Army medic, had a calm persona, laid back outlook on life, and could stop a man breathing in seven different ways, barely breaking a sweat to do it. Anatomy was his weapon, or at least how to make it work for or against you was. Thirty years old and had been employed by Nick Anscombe for eight of them.

  "OK, back to it," Nick ordered and spun on his heel to march out of the room.

  I offered a chin lift to the guys, forcing myself to place them at my back as I followed Nick out of the gym.

  "Firing range," Nick succinctly announced at our next stop. This time it was bare. No one practising. "Just advise control if you plan to hone your skills here. Unexplained gunshots tend to put us all on edge."

  Not that the place wasn't under surveillance or anything. I spotted four more cameras on the way in and another three in here as well. This place was wired. No wonder we'd never been able to gain access before.

  ASI was paranoid. Interesting.

  "We have bi-monthly testing," Nick went on. "Either I'll do them, or Jason Cain, our arms specialist. You'll meet him later, he's out on a job right now."

  I nodded. I knew exactly who Cain was. Every single sordid detail, type written, carbon copied, and filed under "top secret" and "classified."

  "Next up, staffroom," Nick advised. "The heart of the place."

  "I thought control would be," I offered.

  "Nah. That's the brains."