Tempt Me
A Contemporary Romance
By Shiloh Walker
Published by Shiloh Walker
Cover Art by Angela Waters
Editorial Work by Erin Witschey and Sara Reinke
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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, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Dedicated…as always with love to my husband and kids. Love you…
A note from the author…Do you know? The corset on the model isn’t exactly worn…right, I don’t think. Still, she’s lovely and ‘suits’ Rocki rather well.
I figured out the corset thing through a whole bunch of reading and through buying a corset or two of my own, and wearing them. The book itself came from an idea for Rocki’s character. Rocki’s character was kind of inspired by a model I saw on a website called Hips & Curves.
Yeah, writers get their inspiration even while shopping…
Chapter One
Silk, satin and candlelight. Decadence and romance. That was the image she was going for in the window display of her lingerie store, Lush & Lace.
They still had some long winter days ahead, perfect for cuddling in front of a fire, perfect for candlelit dinners. With just the right amount of dim light and the heavy, red velvet drapes, she knew she could get the right feel. It was all there, in her mind’s eye. Silk, satin and candlelight.
In Roxanne Monroe’s mind, there wasn’t anything sexier.
Well, maybe silk, satin and the feel of a man’s hands as he stripped them away...in the candlelight.
But she didn’t have that now, hadn’t had it in quite some time. At least not outside her imagination or the pages of a book. She wasn’t bitter anymore. After all, she’d had more love in a few years than some women had in a lifetime. She wasn’t entirely aware of the sad smile curling her lips as she stood in the window, fitting a corset around the waist of a mannequin.
It was a glimmering, lustrous ivory, pale and perfect. As she fastened the busk, she paused to stroke the silk and smile. She’d spent weeks trying to find the perfect material—it had to be the right shade, the right weight and the right cost. Everything had to be just right.
Being sexy shouldn’t break the bank, not in Rocki’s mind, but a real corset wasn’t cheap to make, especially the steel-boned ones.
A soft, musical tone filled the air, signifying that someone had just come through the door. “Just a minute!” She did a quick fix on the corset and then hopped out of the window, a smile set firmly in place.
“Welcome to Lush & Lace.”
Back in high school and college, she’d had some idea of going into theater. Then it had changed to costume design. But it was the background in drama that served her well in these moments.
Because the first look she got at the man was almost enough to lay her low. It hit her like a fist in the heart… and lower, all heat and shock. She ignored the little tug she felt in her heart and instead focused on the way her belly went all hot and tight. That was lust, pure and simple.
Let’s hear it for lust, Rocki thought, biting her cheek to keep from smiling as she studied him.
He was, in short, beautiful.
Blond hair—the kind a romance writer might call wheat blond because it wasn’t just one shade of gold, but hundreds—tumbled into his eyes as he glanced down at the woman with him. His skin was tanned, even this far into winter, and somehow Rocki didn’t think it was from a tanning bed or anything artificial like that. She wondered just what he did he to stay so sun-kissed. Speaking of kissing, he had a mouth that was made for that, for kissing all sorts of things. Another mental image that made her knees