He made her an offer she couldn't refuse...

A marriage of convenience—civic activist Suzanne Jorgenson needs a husband to get custody of the child she'd had to give up long ago. Mayor Michael Longstreet, still in love with his long-dead wife, wants to grant his beloved father's dying wish that he marry again. The adversaries agree to put aside their differences until his father is gone and she has her son, then they'll go their own ways.

But neither counted on the fire that has always sparked between them becoming a four-alarm blaze.

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~ Excerpt ~

Michael pulled her close, and her breasts rubbed his chest, her thighs brushed his own. She could feel him harden against her. He leaned in and brushed her ear with his lips. "I want you, Suzanne."

Warm breath whispered down her neck, and Suzanne shivered. "Michael, we agreed—"

"I know what we agreed. I didn't say this was smart." But his large warm hand slid up her back and caressed naked skin. For a moment, he held her so close she could barely breathe from the overload to her every nerve. He was so big, so larger than life in many ways, that he swamped her senses, made it hard to remember anything when he was in the room. Feeling him against her, feeling his body's response stirred something deep inside her.

She tightened her fingers on the back of his neck, sliding them upward into his hair while she pressed her face into his shoulder and tried to remember why she shouldn't crave his touch. She opened her eyes and realized they were in a dark alcove. She started to speak, but suddenly his mouth was on hers, hot and dark and demanding.

With a whimper, she gave in, answering his kiss with all the hunger that had been building for days. Michael took her mouth and gave no quarter, the easygoing man nowhere in sight. The man who held her now kissed her with power and barely leashed passion, his tongue sweeping inside and taking control. His kiss was alternately rough and sweet, fiery and tempting as his strong arms surrounded her, making her feel both protected and all but ravaged.

He broke away for one second, his eyes more vulnerable than she'd ever seen them. "Kiss me," he said roughly. "Kiss me back."

It was what she wanted, what she'd wanted since that first night. Past her defenses he stole like a thief in the darkness. She fell headlong into temptation, pressing her body against his, heedless of anything but this man, this night. When she heard Michael groan and felt his hands on her body, she wanted to strip them both naked, wanted to surrender to his magnetism, to the full power of her own passion, her own greed. Her head spun with magic and delicious fear, climbing toward a high, exhilarating peak, teetering on the edge of some sweet, terrifying ecstasy she'd never known but wanted desperately. She wasn't afraid; she wanted only to go closer and closer to danger until she stood on the edge of that cliff and felt the wind whip her hair and sting her face.

They could have magic between them, if only Michael would believe in love and open his heart. "Oh, Michael, could we make this work?" She let longing and hope spill into every word.

Suddenly he stiffened and stopped, his hands falling to his side. With eyes gone dark with fathoms-deep pain, he looked at her as if he'd never seen her before. "Suzanne, I can't—" He stepped back, his hands out as if to ward her off. "I'm not— God, I can't do this. I love Elaine, I can't—" He stared off into the distance behind her, and she could see him closing the doors and locking them tight, every bit of vulnerability gone as though it never existed.

She wanted to argue with him, to scream that Elaine was dead and she was alive and she could love him if he'd just let her in.

But they had a bargain. And she had her pride.