LENGTH: Long Novella Cover art (c) Jenny Dixon 2004
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Amanda firmly believes in keeping things strictly professional between herself and her coworkers, and seducing a man ten years her junior is the last thing on her mind when Cole suggests they finish up their work at her place. Cole has his own agenda, however, and she quickly discovers that she isn’t the hunter. She’s the prey.
Rating: Contains graphic, explicit sex, adult language and violence.
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"Four and 1/2 Stars! SEDUCTION is a great love story with just the right amount of passion and suspense. I enjoyed reading my first romance by Kimberly Zant. She keeps the reader eagerly turning the pages and wondering what will happen next. I can’t wait for more romance by Kimberly Zant, and I would recommend putting her on your auto-buy list." BJ Deese, eCataRomance Reviews "ABSOLUTELY THRILLING!" Kimberly Zant has spun a wonderful web of suspense, intrigue, seduction, and rolled it all into a romance, with enough steam, you wont be able to put it away till tomorrow. If you want a romance that keeps you on the edge of you seat, then this is the one for you." Shelina Emery, Independent Freelance Book Reviewer
SEDUCTION
by
Kimberly Zant
© copyright by Kimberly Zant, June 2004 Cover Art by Jenny Dixon ISBN 1-58608-481-x New Concepts Publishing www.newconceptspublishing.com
Chapter One
Amanda Fitzgerald frowned, trying to focus on the court brief she had in her hands as her fellow assistant DA, Cole Macguire, sauntered through her office again. She’d been an assistant DA for years. She was used to working in an overcrowded office humming with activity and ordinarily she was able to filter out most of the activity around her and concentrate without a lot of trouble. Today, it was different, but she wasn’t sure why. Removing the hated glasses she’d started having to wear just to get her eyes to focus so she could read, she dropped them onto her desk and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Headache?" His voice was deep, husky and it tingled along her nerve endings like a mild jolt of electricity. Her head snapped up and she blinked to focus on the man who’d spoken. "What?" she asked distractedly. His dark brows rose slightly, his gaze assessing her in a way that made her uncomfortably aware of how small her office suddenly seemed. "I’ve got a bottle of painkiller in my desk if you’ve got a headache." She stared at him for a full minute before the comments finally sank in that he’d noticed her concentration was off. Or maybe he’d noticed she was massaging her eyes? The surprising thing was that he’d noticed at all. They worked in an office full of overworked people who had little or no life beyond their work. They were fortunate when they made it home in one piece at the end of the day without being hit by a semi-tractor trailer. The most surprising thing, though, was that Cole had actually been paying enough attention to her to notice anything that might suggest she had a headache. Actually, the most surprising thing was that he’d noticed and initiated a conversation. She was about to tell him thanks, but no thanks, when it dawned on her that the throbbing she’d been trying to ignore actually was a headache. "Thanks, I’d appreciate that." When he’d left, she simply stared at the open door. Cole Macguire had been working in the office nearly a year and she was pretty sure that that was the longest ‘personal’ conversation she’d had with him. It said a lot for him that she even knew how long he’d been working in the office. With the exception of Cole Macguire, she seriously doubted if anybody in the office knew how long anyone else had been there. There were a grand total of five women in the office, three secretaries and one other assistant DA like herself. She’d be willing to bet every single one of them knew to the day when Cole had first been introduced around as the newest assistant DA. He was the office ‘baby’, not quite fresh out of college, because he’d come to them with an already impressive resume, but he was still shy of thirty. He was an absolute heart stopper, however, and she doubted any female of any age was immune to the charm that went along with his dark, smoldering good looks. The vacuous looks the women in the office, who ranged in age from twenty two to fifty, had cast his way for the first six months he’d worked with them was a testament to that. She wasn’t immune, and she’d never looked at a younger man with any interest at all in her entire life. As far back as she could remember, she’d had a taste for ‘older’ men. In her teens, that had been the older guys on campus, but she hadn’t actually dated anyone closer than five years older than her in years. She rather thought that was because she had no patience, had never had any forbearance, with immaturity, irresponsibility, or pure stupidity. If she’d wanted a baby, she would’ve had one. She qualified that thought. She did want a baby. She’d finally woken up to the fact that she was damned near too old to have one anymore, and the realization in itself was enough to make just about any woman panic, especially one like herself who’d been wanting a baby for years and kept putting it on hold for her career. What she didn’t want was a baby that would never grow up, i.e. immature male that had to be babied forever. She’d dated seniors when she was a freshman in high school, college men before she got to be a junior, and gone upwards from there. She’d been married, and divorced, three times before she’d finally given up on the whole concept. She’d never considered herself particularly pretty--although she did have a good figure and worked hard to keep it that way--but attracting men had never been a problem for her. She was a strong woman. She attracted two kinds of men; the ones who wanted the challenge of dominating a strong woman, and the ones that were looking for a mother. After three tries, she’d decided she just didn’t have the patience for a relationship. She’d been single again for a whole two years. Maybe, she thought as Cole strode into the room once more and her heart did a strange little flip flop, that was the problem… because that also meant she’d been celibate for two whole years. Where had the time gone! Talk about a suppressed libido! She was shocked and horrified when she realized she hadn’t had a piece of meat in that long. And what a hell of a time to think about it with the office ‘too young for me’ hunk standing by her desk with his groin virtually eye level! He caught her hand, to steady it, she supposed, as he tapped a dose from the bottle into her palm. She stared at the capsules as they dropped, trying not to think about the warm, tingly feeling running down her arm. "More?" Ah the workings of the human mind when they had fire in their pants! She dismissed the images that flickered through her mind. "No! The regular dose will probably do me. I don’t take drugs." To her surprise, he chuckled. It had roughly the same effect on her as his deep voice in general did, except double. It made her stomach clench. "Most people don’t consider nonprescription medicine as drugs." She was still holding the pills, wondering what to wash them down with. "There are prescription drugs and nonprescription drugs. They’re all drugs and they all have side effects and they’re all addictive, if for no other reason that a person gets used to taking something to handle something they’d probably be able to handle on their own if they weren’t too wimpy to try." When she looked up, she saw that he was studying her intently. She hadn’t seen him up close before, hadn’t noticed he had eyes the color of emeralds--black hair, green eyes, dimples--definitely Irish--but as mundane as the thoughts were, the rest of her didn’t feel at all ho-hum about the discovery that he’d invaded her ‘space’. "So law isn’t your only--passion?" She was getting seriously hyper-sensitive. She thought. She was an ADA through and through, though. She couldn’t help but wonder why he’d paused before he used that particular word. "It’s just a personal preference," she said, rising abruptly and putting a little distance between them. "Not religious and not fanaticism. I just don’t like the concept of drugs. If I really need something, I take it. Otherwise, I don’t--Thanks! I’ll just go get something to wash this down with." He was at his desk when she headed back to her office from the water cooler. He glanced up, but she ‘discovered’ a stain on her sleeve at that precise moment and managed to concentrate on it until she’d passed him. Her boss was grooming her to take over after he retired. He’d given her the task of grooming ‘wonder boy’ for her position. Neither decision had been officially announced, but, unofficially, there wasn’t much that happened in the office that everyone else didn’t notice and there were several who weren’t happy about the boss’ decision. She could relate. There were two ADA’s that had been working here longer than her, who’d had their sights on the position it seemed probable that she would land. Cole was at the bottom of the totem pole and shouldn’t have even been considered to fill her position. But Cole was a ‘wonder boy’ and she knew he’d won the boss’ respect or DA Murray Johnson wouldn’t have considered it. She was a female. She’d worked damn hard at her job and she was good at it, but in the back of her mind, she knew that the only thing that really mattered was that she’d been born with a pussy, and it would make the boss look good, politically speaking, to nominate her. Unfortunately, everyone else felt the same way. Even the other female ADA looked at her as if she suspected Amanda had been sleeping with the boss. Johnson was married, however. She avoided involvement with married men when she knew they were married. Even if she hadn’t, she made it a policy not to get involved with her fellow workers. It was unprofessional. More than that, it was just asking for trouble…. And to have everyone snickering and talking about you behind your back which could be uncomfortable and disruptive. On a personal level, she didn’t particularly give a damn what anybody else thought, but it irritated the hell out of her when a room suddenly fell silent at her approach and talk started up again in her wake, and she knew gossip would reduce her chances of getting to be top dog. Not that the position itself made her feel warm and fuzzy--she wasn’t a status kind of gal--but it meant more money, and if she was going to work her ass off, she wanted the money. She was just finishing up a review of the cases she had coming up when Cole came into the office again. It took an effort but she resisted the urge to release an exasperated sigh. He was supposed to be sitting second chair. She was supposed to be keeping him up to date on her strategy. It wasn’t his fault that it irritated her to find herself tripping over someone else when she’d grown accustomed to handling cases solo. It wasn’t his fault that he’d somehow triggered her catatonic libido. She glanced at her watch. Then she did sigh. She’d skipped lunch and now it looked as if she wasn’t going to get within sniffing distance of food before eight o’clock. "Too tired to go over the cases?" She looked up at him and managed a tight smile. "I’m going to have to run down to the vending machine before we start. Otherwise, my concentration’s going to be non-existent." He stretched. "I’m pretty washed out, too. Why don’t we decamp to your place to go over this stuff? I’ll stop and pick up a food type substance on the way over." She almost said no before she even had time to consider it. She knew her instincts were right on target and she should say no, but the offer was so tantalizing she hesitated. She could take a nice, relaxing shower--put on something less professional, which guaranteed it would be more comfortable, and she wouldn’t even have to drag herself into the kitchen to stare at the bare refrigerator. "We should probably just go over this and be done with it. It’s sweet of you to offer, but I don’t want to take advantage of your good nature." He smiled faintly. "You wouldn’t be. I’m starving, too. Besides, I’d like to get out of the office, even if I can’t get out of the work." "You’re absolutely positive?" "Positively positive." "I’m going to go for it. My tail’s dragging. I’ll buy if you’ll fly." They argued over it briefly but finally settled that she would buy since he was doing the fetching. Gathering up the case files, she gave him directions to her house while they walked to the garage. It wasn’t until she’d headed home that it occurred to her that she’d just let a coworker talk her into fraternizing after work… in her home.
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