Pure Lust (Lust for Life)

Jayne
Kingston

Book 4 in the Lust for Life
series.

It’s not every day a guy gets a
second chance with his first crush.

When Diego runs into Claire after
not having laid eyes on her for more than twenty-five years, he wants to get to
know the sexy, provocative, beautiful woman she’s become in every way
imaginable—in and out of bed.

When he very boldly offers to show
her the night of her life, Claire would like to say no for a whole list of
reasons. But the annoying kid who sat behind her in grade school has grown into
a stunningly gorgeous, extremely charming specimen of man—the kind any woman
would have  a terrible time refusing.

Diego not only makes good on every
word of his offer but that first amazing night leads to two weeks so intensely
passionate it may take the Jaws of Life—or a stalker with a knife—to pry them
apart.

A Romantica®
contemporary  erotic romance
from
Ellora’s Cave

“I’m sorry, sir, but visiting hours were over almost two
hours ago.”

Diego Rodriguez stopped five paces from the nurse’s station
he’d just passed and turned back. The woman who’d spoken was tall and pretty
with the kind of glowing skin and fit body that told him she took very good
care of herself. Maybe a few years older than him—which put her in her
early-to-mid forties if he was right—there was also something about her
no-nonsense expression that screamed ball-buster.

Oh, but he did love a challenge.

“I’m sorry,” he told her with a smile, holding his hands up
as he approached the desk. “I just flew in from California to see my baby
sister’s first baby.” He waved his right hand near his head affably and
broadened his smile. “I’m still on West Coast time. I guess I didn’t realize
how late it is here in Ohio.”

She held his gaze for a beat. “Does that always work for
you?”

He shook his head, genuinely not understanding. “What’s
that?”

“The green eyes, toothy smile, one-two punch?”

That made him smile for real. “About ninety percent of the
time, yes.”

“
Huh
.” Her tongue pushed her cheek out. She scanned
him quickly, face to chest to stomach and back up to his eyes. “I would have
guessed that number would be higher.”

“I meet a
lot
of people on any given day.” Doctors,
nurses and medical office managers. Hotel, bar and restaurant employees and
customers. Except for his established clients, his job as a pharmaceutical rep
put him in touch with a lot of new people in the different cities and states he
traveled to week after week. He was going to miss it once he started working in
an office every day.

But he wasn’t in this particular hospital talking to this
particular nurse for business.

Just for fun, he gave her wedding set a long, meaningful
look.

“Can’t win ‘em all, I suppose,” he told her regretfully.

Her nostrils flared and mouth quirked, letting him know he’d
gotten to her. Diego thought he had her convinced to let him stay until she
visibly brought herself back from wherever her thoughts had wandered and said,
“I’m sorry, but no one without a wristband gets in this late at night. She
could be sleeping.”

He was about to tell her he knew damn well his night-owl
sister was awake because she’d just texted him asking why it was taking him so
long to get there—with a couple of classically Eva expletives thrown in for
good measure. But before he could open his mouth his best friend came up on his
left and draped an arm over his shoulders.

“I have a wristband.” Oscar held his left arm toward the
nurse so she could see the hospital-issued bracelet. “And it would make my wife
really
happy if you would let her big brother in to see her tonight.”

Diego wasn’t sure he was ever going to get used to hearing
Eva referred to as wife by the man who’d been his closest friend since
kindergarten, even if he had seen their relationship coming from a mile away.

The nurse narrowed her eyes at Oscar. “Fine.” She shifted
the look to Diego. “For the record, this does not make me part of the ninety
percent.”

Yeah right
. “Duly noted.”

Diego would have had a great time showing her just how fast
he could prove her wrong if she wasn’t married.
After
he visited Eva and
Oscar’s new baby.

“What’s the ninety percent?” Oscar asked.

Still looking at the nurse as they moved away from the
nurse’s station, Diego grinned. “It’s an inside joke.”

She made an impatient shooing motion at him, but she was
blushing as well.

“You look like you’ve been up for a week,” Diego told Oscar
as they hugged.

“Just two days.” Oscar gave him an exhausted smile. “Can you
believe she was in labor thirty-six hours? I knew she was tough, but man…” He
blew out a breath and shook his head in disbelief, his eyes both wet with
emotion and full of pride.

Diego put his hands in his sweatshirt pockets. “You sure
she’s up for visitors?”

“Oh yeah. She’s wide awake, cooing over the baby.” Oscar’s
voice caught and he swallowed hard. And then he smiled. “I can’t wait for you
to see her. She’s amazing.”

“I’m going now.” He gave his friend an affectionate, closed-hand
bump on the shoulder. “Go home and get some sleep.”

“Oh no. I’m just going to shower and pick up a couple of
burgers from Paddy’s,” he said, referring to the popular corner bar near his
and Eva’s house that served huge burgers and hand-cut french fries. “You want
one?”

“No, I’m good. I’ll keep her company ‘til you get back.”

He watched Oscar get into the elevator before he made his
way down the slightly darkened, quiet hallway, making sure he gave the nurse a
wink as he passed. She shook her head as if she found him annoying but smiled
as she looked down and went back to whatever she’d been doing.

He stopped short outside of Eva’s room when a woman in
dove-gray scrubs came out backward, quietly saying something about coming back
to check on her the next day, not looking where she was going as she pulled the
door closed. Then she jumped as if he’d shouted boo when she turned and found
him standing right behind her.

They both dove for the electronic tablet she was holding as
it slipped out of her arms. Diego got a hand under it at the same time she
grabbed the sides, and for a moment her chin-length hair brushed the side of
his face. His head filled with the ripe berry scent of her and his reaction was
instant, visceral.

“I’m so sorry,” she said, embarrassed and breathy, as she
straightened.

A small section of glossy chestnut hair had become stuck to
her lips—plump lips that were a sweet, natural pink and tempting as fuck. She
pulled the lock of hair free before Diego could act on the impulse to do it for
her.

Her large gold-brown eyes went wide as she looked at him.
She didn’t have to look up very far since she was only maybe three inches
shorter than his height of six foot even. And then her expression collapsed.

“Hello, Diego,” she said tersely, hugging the tablet to her
chest.

He hadn’t dated her, that much he knew for sure. He was
admittedly a man with a revolving bedroom door—and he liked it that way—but he
rarely forgot the women he’d dated and he never forgot the ones he’d slept
with.

He bit the bullet and asked. “I’m sorry, have we met?”

The look she gave him told him she wasn’t surprised he
didn’t remember, which only confused him further. She squared her shoulders and
lifted her chin.

“Your sister will be happy to see you,” she told him, her
tone all business.

She started to turn as if she meant to walk away but he
caught her lightly by the elbow. “That doesn’t tell me who you are, or how we
know each other.”

Her expression was icy. “How about fat cow? Does
that
name ring any bells?”

He scanned his memory, came up with nothing.

“I didn’t think so,” she said, and left him standing there,
admittedly watching the perky twitch of her very fine ass as she stalked away,
her hot-pink running shoes silent on the polished floor.

And then a chill went zinging down the length of his spine.

It couldn’t be… Could it?

Diego watched until she turned the corner, shook off the
chill and went in to see his sister. “Hey, little mama,” he said as he stepped
into the room.

Eva looked up from the bundle in her arms and gave him that
huge smile all seven of their father’s children had inherited. She didn’t look
as if she’d had a hard time giving birth. Her skin was a little pale but clear
and her eyes were bright. The strawberry-blonde hair she’d gotten from their
mom was pulled into a neat ponytail.

“Uncle Diego.” She hooked her free arm around his neck when
he bent to hug her, then shifted gingerly on the bed, making room for him to
sit beside her.”You made it.”

“I couldn’t miss my first niece’s birthday, now could I?”

The other four of Diego’s siblings who’d had kids had all
had sons, seven of them in all. The running family joke during Eva’s pregnancy
had been that Eva, being the tomboy rebel of the family, would have the first
girl. They’d been right.

He sat on the bed, careful not to crowd her. “How are you
feeling?”

“Like I was hit by a goddamn runaway train that stopped,
backed up and fucking ran over me again.” She passed the baby to him. “Uncle
Diego, I am pleased to introduce you to your niece, Olive Miranda Rodriguez
Gaudin.”

“That’s a whole lot of name for such a little thing.” He
touched the tiny hand Olive had fisted against her cheek and she grunted and
curled her lip. “She’s definitely your kid,” he said, and Eva nudged him gently
with her shoulder.

“Isn’t she beautiful?” she asked in a reverent whisper.

She really was. She didn’t have the puffy look some newborns
had, like tiny old people just coming off a three-day bender. He could see
Oscar in the shape of her eyes, but her mouth and the little point of her chin
were all Eva.

“I don’t know,” he teased, playfully skeptical. “It looks
she got daddy’s nose.”

Eva’s head dropped to his shoulder and she started to cry
silently. The entire bed shook with it for a full minute, making him feel like
the world’s biggest asshole.

“Hey.” He cradled the baby in his right arm so he could hold
his sister close with his left. “Eva, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it. I was just
goofing around.”

“I know,” she squeaked. She drew in a deep breath and looked
up at him through teary eyes. “I love his nose, Diego.”

He hugged her close and kissed her forehead to keep from
laughing. “I know.”

“I love all of him so much.” She swiped the tears from her
cheeks, then dried her hands on the blanket over her lap before she touched the
baby’s cheek. “He’s so good to me. Even when I’m a raging bitch…” Her breath
hitched and she put her head on his shoulder again. “He makes me so happy.”

While he didn’t want the same for himself, there was a small
part of him that envied what they had. “He feels the same, you know.”

They both went quiet for a few minutes, both of them
watching the sleeping baby.

When she looked up at him again she was smiling. “You’re
next, you know.”

He knew what she was getting at. His mother had already
started in on him the moment Eva and Oscar were married. “I’m already happy.”

She snorted. “Yeah, so was I. I had that kick-ass apartment
all to myself. I was just starting to make really good money, enough I could
start traveling, having affairs with exotic men in exotic places. Then
wham
,
I fell in love. With friggin’ Oscar.”

For a long time Oscar and Eva’s relationship had been
antagonistic, mostly on Oscar’s part. Although Eva could give as good as she
got. It turned out Oscar had been trying to keep her at arm’s length on
purpose, partly because there was a thirteen-year age difference between them
and partly because he’d thought Diego would kill him if he touched his little
sister. All of it had come to a head a little more than a year ago.

He shook his head pityingly. “Rookie mistake, kid.”

She just rolled her eyes and put her head back on his
shoulder. “You’ve got it coming to you,” she said confidently. “Mama didn’t
raise you to be a manwhore forever.”

He’d learned early on he was not the kind of man who was
designed to be tied down to one woman. Especially not after he’d landed a great
job, traveling all over the country, meeting countless numbers of sexy,
beautiful women day after day.

Monogamy was a pointless effort for him, so he’d adopted the
creed that honesty is the best policy. Right off the bat he let the women he
dated know he wasn’t looking for anything permanent, that way no one got hurt.
It worked most of the time.

Eva was starting to get heavy against his side. “You’re
going to make an excellent mother. You know that, right?” he asked, smoothing
his free hand over her hair.

“I’m glad you think so because I’m pretty sure I’m going to
screw her up before she’s one.” She sighed. “Did you run into my midwife Claire
on the way in?” She angled her head to look at him. “Mom and Oscar know her.
Said the two of you went to grade school together.”

That chill he’d felt in the hallway tingled along his spine
again.

“Her married name is Snow. I don’t remember what she told me
her maiden name was. Something with an R.”

He closed his eyes. “Reagan.”

“Yeah, that’s it. You remember her?”

Claire Reagan, now Snow because some lucky bastard had
married her.

Fat cow
. He’d called her that once in sixth grade.
Fuck.

“Unfortunately,” he muttered.

At eleven years old, Diego had just discovered girls were
better than just playmates. They were pretty and soft and sometimes they
smelled good—and some of them had already started to get boobs. He’d especially
liked Claire and all her girly softness, even though she never talked to him.

Because of the way their names fell on all class lists, he’d
ended up sitting behind her for six years straight. Her hair had been long and
smelled of strawberries back then. More than once she’d caught him rubbing the
silky ends of it between his fingers. He’d liked the way it felt, but more than
that he’d liked it when she would look at him with those sleepy, long-lashed
eyes of hers, even if she was glaring at him for touching her.

He could kick himself that her eyes hadn’t triggered his
memory in the hallway a moment ago. If her eyes hadn’t done the trick, that
full pink mouth of hers should have. She’d nearly driven him out of his mind
with the way she’d always been putting bubble-gum flavored lip gloss on them—to
the point he couldn’t think straight with the urge to kiss her so he could
taste it on her lips.