Exclusive Excerpt: Big Easy Temptation (The Perfect Gentlemen) by Shayla Black and Lexi Blake - Vilma Iris | Lifestyle Blogger

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Exclusive Excerpt: Big Easy Temptation (The Perfect Gentlemen) by Shayla Black and Lexi Blake

BIG EASY BANNER

If you love seduction, scandal and suspense, The Perfect Gentlemen series is the perfect series to devour! On May 3rd, bestselling authors Shayla Black and Lexi Blake are releasing the third sizzling installment—Big Easy Temptation.

After a passionate affair took a turn for the worse, Dax and Holland split ways, until fate once again pushes them together. Dax works to untangle clues in a conspiracy while Holland protects dangerous secrets. Worse yet, once they’re reunited, passion recklessly reignites.

I’m so excited to share with you a sneak peek of Big Easy Temptation, out next week!

Pre-order Now: Amazon Kindle | Amazon Paperback | iBooks | Barnes & Noble

Synopsis

May-03The New York Times bestselling authors of the Masters of Ménage series present the third scintillating novel featuring the privileged, wealthy, wild men of Creighton Academy—the Perfect Gentlemen.

Years ago, Naval officer Dax Spencer and NCIS agent Holland Kirk indulged in a steamy affair—until she betrayed him in the wake of his father’s death. Dax tried to put her behind him with a payback of his own. But he never forgot Holland…

Now, as Dax and his fellow Perfect Gentlemen unravel a web of lies, he discovers his family’s tragedy is part of a much larger conspiracy. Soon, all clues point him back to New Orleans…where Holland waits, protecting her deadly secret and holding a torch for the only man she’s ever loved.

Once reunited, they can’t fight the passion flaring hot and wild. But something sinister lurks around every corner, from the elegance of the Garden district to the beauty of the bayou. Dax and Holland may find their way back to each other—if they survive…

Excerpt

“I haven’t eaten that much in forever,” she admitted. “After work, I usually heat up something in the microwave.”

“Why would you do that when you’re such an amazing cook?”

She blushed sweetly. “I like to cook, but I rarely do it. Cooking for one isn’t much fun. I don’t like to waste all that food. My uncle’s recipes usually feed a dozen men. Though you ate almost everything I made the other night.”

He would have eaten more if it kept her talking to him. “So what was the special occasion that night? You made gumbo and pie. Did I interrupt something?”

“No, not at all. I was experimenting.” She huffed a little and set her wineglass down. “That’s a lie. I made it for you. I remembered how much you love chess pie and the fact that you can’t get it outside of the south. I wanted to impress you.”

He wanted to reach out and pull her into his lap, to cuddle her and thank her properly. He settled for a smile. “Consider me impressed, sweetheart. It was amazing. I haven’t had anyone give a damn about me in so long I think I’ve forgotten what it felt like.”

“I can hardly imagine that’s true. You’re Captain Awesome.”

He rolled his eyes. “Apparently the men call me that. I’m sure it’s because I turn a blind eye to some of the stupid stuff they do. It can be hard to be stuck on a ship for months at a time. If they want to start a broom hockey league when they’re off duty, who am I to stop them? No, I was talking about women, Holland. It’s been a long time since a woman cooked for me. I think it was my college girlfriend. And she majored in ramen noodles, so I’m not sure that counts.” There was something deeply intimate about a woman cooking a meal. There was something special because it hadn’t been any woman. It had been Holland.

“How can that be true?” She shook her head as she stared at him, as though trying to figure him out. “You have women chasing after you constantly.”

She assumed so many things about him. He could clear up a few misconceptions. “They chase after me a lot, but most women aren’t actually interested in me. They like being seen with me. If they’re into politics and power, they’re hoping to get close to Zack or Roman. If they want money and glitz, then Gabe or Mad. They want me to take them out and show them off so they’ll get their pictures in the tabloids. They don’t know the real me and they don’t want to. They certainly couldn’t care less that I love gumbo and chess pie.”

“I hadn’t thought about it that way,” she mused. “That sounds like a lonely way to live.”

“It’s starting to feel that way.” When he was younger, he hadn’t been looking for anything serious. Good-time girls had seemed like the perfect solution. He’d just wanted to have fun and hang with his friends. Then Zack had gotten married and the things he’d once sought seemed pointless. “Hell, most of the men under me are married with children. At some point the playboy thing becomes less a way of life and more like a joke.”

“You could get married tomorrow if you wanted to.”
“I don’t want to just get married. I want to be in love. Everyone looks at marriage like it’s the prize to be had. It should be the inevitable outcome of the real prize.”

“Being in love?”

“Loving a woman so much that I know I won’t ever want another one the way I want her. Knowing she completes me in some inexplicable way and I do the same for her. Marriage, children, the house in the suburbs, they don’t mean a damn thing without that foundation.”

Series Reading Order

Books should be read in order.

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