Blazing Bedtime Stories, Volume VI

  Join bestselling authors Tori Carrington and Kate Hoffmann as they journey to the naughty land of Once Upon a Bedtime...

  MAID FOR HIM… by Tori Carrington

  A mermaid asleep on the deck of his boat? Kieran Morrison is sure it’s a dream. Daphne Moore knows differently. She is a mermaid...and her crush on Kieran means she’s playing with fire. Falling for a human (even a super-hot one) is a bad, bad idea. But when a chance encounter with Kieran—on land—leads to a sizzling and wickedly satisfying night, Daphne finds herself torn between her sea life...and her suddenly oh-so-hot sex life!

  OFF THE BEATEN PATH by Kate Hoffmann

  When her best friend Alex Hansen invites her to a remote retreat, Greta Adler is delighted. But when the owner, an attractive and aggressive older woman, makes her move on Alex, they find themselves posing as lovers. It all goes off without a hitch...until the friends find themselves alone in a bedroom with the sweet, delicious taste of sin on their lips. But will a sizzling late-night encounter burn their friendship to a crisp?

  Look what people are saying about these talented authors!

  Of Tori Carrington…

  “Get out the asbestos gloves to read this one, it’s almost too hot to handle.”

  —Writers Unlimited on Reckless

  “Consistently excellent authors with surprising emotional depth.”

  —The Romance Readers Connection on Reckless

  “One of category’s most talented authors.”

  —EscapetoRomance.com

  Of Kate Hoffmann…

  “Sexy and wildly romantic.”

  —RT Book Reviews on Doing Ireland

  “Fully developed characters and perfect pacing make this story feel completely right.”

  —RT Book Reviews on Your Bed or Mine

  “Sexy, heartwarming and romantic…a story to settle down with and enjoy—and then re-read.”

  —RT Book Reviews on The Mighty Quinns: Teague

  ABOUT THE AUTHORS

  RT Book Reviews Career Achievement Award–winning, bestselling duo Lori Schlachter Karayianni and Tony Karayianni are the power behind the pen name Tori Carrington. Their more than fifty novels include numerous Blaze miniseries, as well as the ongoing Sofie Metropolis, P.I. comedic mystery series with another publisher. Visit www.toricarrington.net and www.sofiemetro.com for more information.

  Kate Hoffmann began writing for Harlequin Books in 1993. Since then she’s published nearly seventy books, primarily in the Temptation and Blaze lines. When she isn’t writing, she enjoys music, theatre and musical theatre. She is active working with high school students in the performing arts. She lives in southeastern Wisconsin with her cat, Chloe.

  TORI CARRINGTON

  KATE HOFFMANN

  Blazing Bedtime Stories: Volume VI

  Maid for Him...

  Tori Carrington

  This book is dedicated to blazing fairy tale lovers everywhere.

  And to Brenda Chin, for being an awesome editor and an even more awesome human being.

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Epilogue

  1

  WILD WIND BLOWING, water swirling, pressure building, an untamed torrent assaulting from without and filling the blood within.

  Daphne Moore found something fundamentally intoxicating about nature’s violent tempests; storms had a way of clearing away toxic debris, cleansing the soul, baring what was important.

  And they served as a reminder of why she’d chosen the sea over land nearly ten years ago, why she would permanently confirm that decision in one short week.

  Beneath the churning surface of the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Southern California, the sea was calm…still…beautiful.

  Leisurely swishing the fish tail that was her body from the waist down forth and back, she glided through the welcoming water, relishing the feel of it against the upper part of her body that was still human, her breasts tingling, her long red hair flowing back from her face as she went.

  Land or sea?

  When she was presented the choice on the day of her sixteenth birthday by her parents, she hadn’t hesitated: the sea. It was here that she belonged; here that she was needed.

  The chaos of man interested her not at all.

  She eased to a stop, keeping herself stationary with a barely noticeable wave of her long, silvery green tail, watching a school of tuna swim by, a spectacle of movement and glinting silver, the storm raging above having little to do with their forever restless movements.

  She smiled and reached out to skim her fingers against the smooth flesh of one of the dolphins that inevitably followed the tuna, on the lookout for the sharks that trailed them.

  Down here, everything made sense. There was a natural order she found predictable, comforting.

  Including mermaid rules.

  At sixteen, a choice was extended to both children born of committed mermaids and those born of those who had chosen the human route: join us. Live life as a merperson or as a human. It was more of a ritual decision, since the ability to take either form remained.

  Until you were twenty-five and asked to make a final choice.

  Her mother had chosen life as a human.

  Daphne intended to choose life as a mermaid.

  The tuna and dolphins moved on, leaving her momentarily alone.

  If every now and again she experienced loneliness…well, that was between her and the coral reef deep below. She understood it had nothing to do with her love of the sea.

  Rather it was love, itself, that posed the problem. Both of the familial and romantic variety.

  Sure, there were negative aspects connected to her decision, as there were with any choice. First and foremost, she didn’t see her land-loving parents as much as she would have liked. Outside of her not-so-frequent land visits, and their occasional outings to see her on their sailing runs, she rarely saw them. And until they invented a cell phone that operated on something other than electricity…well, she couldn’t exactly call them at will.

  The other…?

  Well, there weren’t very many of her kind making the same decision she had. Her breed was fast approaching extinction, the lure and luxuries of man proving too great a temptation to most at the tender age of sixteen, when all were asked to choose.

  Which meant potential mates were sadly lacking.

  And undoubtedly, her restlessness had a lot to do with her recent infatuation with a man who coasted on top of her beloved sea, but never ventured into it…

  Daphne looked up toward the shifting surface, at the all too familiar hull of the sailboat some fifty yards to the west, the nearby anchor too far from the bottom to be effective against the storm’s violent intentions.

  His name was Kieran Morrison, his fifty-foot classic schooner was named Come Sail Away, and he fascinated her unlike any other human male before him.

  Swishing her powerful tail, she swam upward, breaking through the surface just as lightning brightened the storm-darkened, early morning sky, bringing everything into electric blue relief. She immediately spotted Kieran, struggling with one of the sails that had lashed loose in the wind, his white T-shirt melded to his powerful torso, his jeans soaked to the core, his dark hair plastered to his forehead, his features pulled into a determined grimace.

  So handsome…

  So sexy…

  So forbidden…

  He’d never seen her. And he never would. He
r interest in him would have to remain one-sided. No matter how strongly she was drawn to him and the shadows that clung to him like his now wet clothes. No matter how much she wanted to smooth back his hair and kiss the deep, sad frown from his lips. No matter how much she longed to feel his magnificent hands on her skin and scales.

  Another bolt of lightning lit the sky and she found herself staring straight into his midnight-black eyes.

  Daphne went still.

  The first rule in merpeople relations was that there were no mermaid relations. In order to remain separate and protected, man must never know of their existence. They could never be anything more than a legend told by old sea captains or else suffer the consequences, which included relentless hunting by unique prey-seeking predators far more dangerous than any great white.

  Yet in that one moment, Daphne found herself unable to break free from his gaze, every part of her tingling to brilliant, exciting life…

  * * *

  HE WAS SPENDING too much time at sea… .

  Kieran Morrison knew a moment of gravity as he stood staring out into the waves, sure he’d seen a woman bobbing out there in the thrashing water, looking calm in the midst of the storm.

  But that was impossible. The marina manager had warned him not to go out, that to do so would be suicidal, so he hadn’t expected anyone else to be out. And he’d seen no other boats. If she’d been tossed from a craft, surely she’d be signaling for help.

  His schooner listed dangerously, forcing him to grab the main mast to steady himself. When he looked back out, the vision was gone.

  And she had been a vision. All long red hair, huge green eyes, iridescent skin and high, stiff-tipped breasts that teased the water’s surface.

  Damn, he was losing it.

  Of course, if you listened to his mother, he’d lost it long ago. Certainly before he’d married Clarissa Miles five years ago, although much less after their nasty divorce six months ago.

  He dragged his hand across his wet hair and wiped the mixture of salt and rain water from his eyes. He was seeing things. It was as simple as that. There had been no woman bobbing in those waves looking at him with large, soulful eyes. He’d merely imagined her. She’d been nothing more than a fantasy conjured up from his sex-starved mind. Something his subconscious mind had created to give him an option more enticing than any he’d find on shore. An escape from money-hungry exes, over-worrying parents, demanding business partners and ceaselessly matchmaking friends.

  The sailboat listed again, nearly tossing him overboard.

  He, on the other, was very real, indeed. And although he may have vaguely wished for his end over the past few months, ever since he’d traded his hectic life at the successful commercial fishing venture he owned in partnership with his best friend Mike Dunlop for the tranquility of the sea itself, this wasn’t exactly how he’d envisioned it.

  Trying to steady the runaway boom, he was afraid his realization had come too late…

  Damn it all to hell. Was he doomed to run into every wall life had to offer? He’d wanted nothing more than to…

  To…

  His mind went blank.

  That had been the way of things lately. He wasn’t sure what he wanted anymore. He only knew that the only thing that brought him peace anymore was being out on his sailboat. And he was lucky to have worked hard over the past decade and was wealthy enough to afford to sail as little or as often as he liked.

  As far as women went…

  Well, they weren’t even a part of the landscape. Not after his last experience.

  Why, then, was he imagining beautiful women bobbing in the stormy sea?

  No, not women—a woman.

  A singularly phenomenal one who’d been looking back at him as intensely as he’d been looking at her.

  Mike was right. He needed to get laid.

  Problem was, he couldn’t bring himself to talk to a woman long enough to get her number, much less get her back to his place.

  He really needed to get his shit together.

  The wind and rain whipped at him at once as if in agreement…reminding him that he had more pressing matters to concern himself with at the moment.

  The boom swung out of his grip. His bare feet slid on the deck as the sailboat listed toward starboard. He scrambled to grab on to the mast but it was just beyond his reach. He looked wildly around for something, anything to stop him from going overboard…only to find the boom swinging back in his direction. He lifted his hands to stop it. Too late. It hit him clean in the head.

  The last thing he saw was water—lots of it—before sinking below the surface of the sea…

  * * *

  SHE SHOULDN’T BE here…shouldn’t be doing this. But oh, how nice it was to see him up close and personal.

  Daphne lay against the teak deck of the sailboat, knowing enough about the human world and its material possessions to understand the worth of the schooner, as well as the owner’s attention to detail and care of his possession.

  She knew about the human world because she’d lived the majority of her first sixteen years in human form. She hadn’t known she’d had a choice…until her mother had sat her down and told her otherwise.

  She’d eagerly chosen the sea over continued life as the only child of a wealthy Southern Californian couple whom she loved madly, but had no desire to emulate. While her one-time mermaid mother had tried to mask her sadness at her only child’s decision, she hadn’t succeeded. But she had supported it.

  Or, rather, she’d supported Daphne.

  Now, however, it wasn’t the sailboat that captured Daphne’s attention, but its striking owner, who now slept easily in the warm sunshine.

  She knew she should slip back into the water, that she should have the moment she realized he would be okay after the boom knocked him flat out and into the water. She’d swum after him, brought him to the surface and managed with tremendous effort, to get his lifeless body back up on deck where she’d monitored him until she’d judged his vitals to be within normal range. But she needed to regain her physical and emotional bearings. And surely there was nothing wrong with watching him as he slept off the remnants of his ordeal?

  She’d nursed various sea creatures back to health over the years—nudging those beyond her expertise toward the beach and care beyond her ability to provide—so it was difficult to convince herself she was staying to make sure he would be all right. The storm had passed, the waters had calmed, and now she lay next to him, measuring his size against her own, taking comfort in his even breathing, wading in the dangerous pool of need spreading throughout her for this man.

  While it was easy to dismiss her attraction to him as lack of options, well, that didn’t hold any sway now. Not when she was so close she could smell him…kiss him…

  Over a month had passed since she first spotted him out on his sailboat alone. He’d been squinting dark eyes into the sunset, although she’d doubted he’d seen a single ray. It wasn’t hard to see that his thoughts had been turned inward.

  Nearly every day afterward, she’d seen him again, following when he veered in different directions, secretly hoping he might see her, sense her presence like a soft whisper.

  Then five days ago, he’d disappeared…

  With the lightest of touches, she traced her fingertip along the line of his nose, down over his lips and along his strong jaw. She’d been afraid that whatever had driven him to the sea had righted itself, taking him away from her.

  Then, yesterday, he’d returned in the midst of the storm, looking as lost as ever.

  Daphne lay her head against her outstretched arm, basking in the warmth of the sun and her desire for him. How she’d love to feel him, inside and out.

  She shivered, her lips tingling, her nipples hardening and her fin stiffening.

  To make love to him…

  Her eyes began drifting closed. A quiet alarm bell sounded somewhere in the back of her mind, but she was too intoxicated with wanting him to pay it much
heed. Instead, she sighed softly and drifted off to the only place where she was free to be with the only man she’d ever wanted… .

  * * *

  GARDENIAS…

  The exotic scent filled Kieran’s senses as he stirred from sleep. A dull ache at the back of his head drew his hand there. For a moment, he was afraid he was in New Orleans after a particularly nasty three-day bender. Then he remembered the storm, the swinging boom and the consuming waves of the sea…

  He cracked open his eyes, wincing against the bright sunlight, surprised to find himself on the deck of his sailboat. Hadn’t he fallen overboard?

  He absently rubbed his face, trying to make sense out of the situation.

  Well, at least the storm had passed. And judging by the gentle lapping of the Pacific against the hull, the sea had calmed. He raised to his elbows to take in the damage…and his gaze fell on the sleeping figure next to him.

  It was the woman from last night.

  The one bobbing in the water.

  The vision he’d been sure he’d imagined…

  He blinked.

  Then blinked again.

  Her red hair glimmered in the sun and her skin was whiter than bleached driftwood. The tips of her breasts were rosy and taut, her waist impossibly slender.

  But it wasn’t any of those facts that surprised him; he already knew she was beautiful.

  But the six-foot tail and fin where her legs and feet should be definitely made him question his sanity.

  Holy shit…

  He struggled to sit, to get a closer look, to touch the fascinating creature to confirm she actually did exist.

  Was it him or was she glistening? As if a soft mist clung to her skin and scales?

  His gaze fastened on the shadows of her lashes against her cheeks, the perfect line of her lips, the pearl that hung on a gold chain around her neck… He knew such an incredible desire to kiss her, he couldn’t resist.

  He slowly leaned in, the scent of gardenias once again surrounding him, telling him the fragrance was coming from her, was her. He wasn’t sure what he expected when his lips brushed hers, but it certainly wasn’t the rose petal softness, the searing heat, the arc of instant connection which sparked in him an urgent need for more…