Manhunting
Harlequin Blaze
February 2010
Watch out, guys! These ladies mean business…
The Chase by Benita Krahn
Samantha Drexel has always loved Nick Stack…or at least she’s loved his music. So when Sam first meets the sexy songwriter, she's already halfway seduced. Lucky for her, Nick's more than willing to finish the job…
The Takedown by Joanne Rock
Luke Owens has been trying to avoid the sensual allure of Tori Halsey, his best friend's little sister, all his life. But all bets are off when she decides to take him down and have her way with him!
The Satisfaction by Lori Borrill
Kitty Colburn has never believed in resisting temptation. And right now, she's got a fierce craving for chef Josh Beeker. Now all she has to do is convince the notorious playboy that sex with her could be wickedly delicious…
Read the Excerpt
"No one said anything about a threesome."
The scantily clad female model glared at her two studly co-workers for the afternoon. The male models had just walked onto the set in photographer Tori Halsey's home studio, their hips swathed in leather loin cloths that must serve as some art director's idea of caveman regalia. Apparently the loin cloths weren't working for the suede bikini-wearing leading lady though. With a pout, she turned to Tori and tossed her fiery red curls.
"I am out of here!"
Thinking fast, Tori set aside her camera. She needed this one last shot before she could pack up for the day and forget about sex-drenched Valentine's Day photos for at least a few months. As a freelance camera person for CrownCraft, the greeting card company, Tori knew Valentine's Day notes were their industry's biggest sellers next to Christmas cards, so Cupid's holiday took up a large part of her work calendar.
Enter the caveman three-way.
Or exit, as it were. The redheaded model dodged lights and set props as she stormed toward her dressing room, leaving the two bare-chested studs behind.
"Angie, this shot will take us twenty minutes," Tori called after her, wishing her job didn't amount to sweet-talking temperamental talent so often. The Christmas shots were easier. She usually slated a skiing trip up north and snapped a few shots of snow-covered pine trees or cardinals alighting on window sills. Simple, easy stuff that didn't require social skills and afforded her time to pursue the more artistic work she enjoyed. But the romancey Valentine's Day pieces still paid the bills that gave her independence from her close-knit farm family in central Florida. "And I'll let you bill it as an hour, okay?"
"That's not the point!" Angie insisted, stomping her high heel for emphasis.
And how charming that the modern sexualized ideal of cave life involved suede bikinis and high heels.
"You're uncomfortable with the ménage idea?" Tori peered back at the set where the two muscle bound men had decided to do pushups to pass the time. An old modeling trick that made the guys' veins stand out, the push ups would serve the photos well. Assuming she ever got Angie back in the frame along with them.
"My grandmother shops in CrownCraft," she hissed under her breath, her blue eyes betraying the real reason for her objection. There was genuine fear there.
Tori smiled. She could totally appreciate the way a family could judge you. Pigeonhole you as the "crazy artist." Decide that you weren't fit to take care of yourself with such a bohemian lifestyle. Heaven knew, Tori's two older siblings had sided with their parents a decade ago to decide Tori wasn't responsible enough to manage her own life. They'd added up her general impulsiveness, a passionate nature and one really bad decision and somehow came up with total incompetence on her part… But she digressed.
Wasn't that why she'd moved to the opposite end of the country, so she didn't have to dwell on other peoples' opinions?
"Tell you what. We're shooting in black and white anyhow, so no one will recognize that distinctive hair of yours. And we can make this shot all about the guys' shoulders and your bod, so we'll just turn your head to the side, okay? Grandma will never know that's you tucked between two hot guys."
Angie bit her lip and peered back over to the stud muffins who'd swapped to one-armed push ups by now. "You're sure?" She didn't even try to rip her gaze away from the testosterone display.
"Absolutely." Tori didn't blame the girl for her choice, but if she were in Angie's shoes, Tori would have objected to the suede bikini with pumps rather more vigorously than being sandwiched between the men. "I'll show you a test shot on the computer."
Tori barely had the words out before Angie fluffed her curls and sashayed her way back toward the men, eliciting appreciative looks long before she reached her mark on the floor where Tori wanted her to stand.
Another crisis averted.
It was all in a day's work at this time of year. With Valentine's Day only a week away, the traditional cards were already on the shelves, but the torment of taking sexy pictures continued now that Crown Craft had ventured into e-cards. They were really pushing into the youth market this year, and the highly stylized sex vignettes were somewhat of a Tori Halsey specialty.
Ha.
As Tori directed the he-men into their places on either side of Angie for the shot, she couldn't help but laugh at the idea of her bogus expertise. How did a woman with no sex life to speak of end up with this kind of professional reputation? It was ludicrous, really.
While her family would always view her love life through the lens of one risky mistake that time she'd hopped on a motorcycle with a guy she barely knew, she'd actually been very conservative ever since. Finding out the guy you'd taken off with for a weekend adventure in the Poconos had a criminal record would scare any woman straight. Of course, Tori hadn't been given any credit for cleaning up her act since then. And no one had ever known the reason behind that mistake had been that she was only eighteen and heartsick over someone else…
Someone she needed to contact very soon if she was going to keep her end of that Valentine's Day manhunting pact with her girlfriends. She just hoped Luke Owens put in his semi-annual Florida appearance soon.
"Beau, could you move your hand a little lower on Angie's waist?" Tori called over the eighties dance music she'd cranked up to keep everyone relaxed and having fun. And maybe to keep her from thinking about her decision to seduce Luke after all these years. She hadn't made such a scary decision since the motorcycle dude. Seducing gorgeous, upstanding, wildly intelligent Luke would be risky for a whole different set of reasons. Mostly because she feared her old crush could come back to bite her in the butt if she wasn't careful. And speaking of butts… "I need your pinkie and ring finger straying south of the border."
While Tori set up all three of the the models for the shot, she recalculated how long it had been since a man's fingers had trekked over her body the way Beau's did on Angie. Over a year. And even then, her last relationship had been all about companionship and comfort. The sex had been safe and enjoyably recreational, but hardly the kind of thing to inspire racy greeting cards. Yeah, she'd definitely hyper-corrected her life after her date for the Poconos had been arrested for leaving New York State while on parole.
Her phone beeped while she was taking the test shot, a welcome reprieve from a crappy memory, so she checked the text message while the photo loaded onto the computer for Angie's approval.
"One week left 'til D-day, girls. Don't forget our agreement. This year, we tell Cupid to go blow and do the manhunting ourselves. Smooches, Samantha."
Gulp. Time was closing in. Tori flipped her phone closed and wondered if she'd been too passive to wait and see if Luke showed up this year. What if he'd found a hot girlfriend back in New York, where he still lived most of the year and they'd both grown up? Tori had lived on a farm in upstate, and Luke had gone to high school with her brother, Tim.
But in his life as a high-powered attorney, Luke had a major client based in Tampa, close to where Tori lived in St. Petersburg. He owned a vacation condo just down the canal from Tori's house on a small water inlet, and while he rented it out most of the year-including to Tori's family who came down to check on her far too often-Luke put in an appearance at least twice a year to meet with his biggest client and snag some time fishing.
She'd been expecting him to show ever since the end of January. What if he didn't come this time?
She didn't want to spend V'day alone any more than her manhunting friends. But she hadn't left herself a lot of time, half-hoping her love life would work itself out if she gave it time and she wouldn't need to hit on an old friend. And old crush.
How's that working for you, Tor? She could almost here her rule-following younger sister's wise-ass voice in her ear. Tonya had taken charge of the family farm's accounting after getting her degree, marrying a man close to home and reaping praise from the whole Halsey clan for having a good head on her shoulders. Tori, on the other hand, had been the "flighty" one from the time she'd used her father's prize tomatoes for an all natural dye to make homemade finger paints.
"The test shot is smoking, Tori." Angie's throaty voice called her back to the job and away from the impending manhunt. "I'm game."
Wasn't that what Tori had said a year ago? That she was game for turning dating into a competitive sport? Yet she'd procrastinated and ignored the whole thing until she was right back in the same boat with no man to kiss her senseless this Valentine's Day. No man to wrap his hands possessively around her waist the way the male models touched Angie.
"Great." Tori forced a smile. "Then let's get back on the set and we'll finish this thing up in no time."
After which, she would find some of her old nerve and start hunting down Luke to fulfill the dating challenge. She refused to be the only one of her friends without a man when February 14th rolled around this year. So even if it meant donning a suede bikini with pumps and draping herself across the seat of Luke's fishing boat, she would make sure he noticed her once and for all.