Surprise Me...

“Hello there,” Melanie whispered, slipping between the silky sheets.

“Mmm.”

“Are you awake?” She stroked the length of his naked back, following the bumps of his spine, his sexy bum—

He started. “Whah th—”

“Shhh. It’s Melanie, you dope.”

“Melanie.” His hoarse whisper nearly made her giggle. Poor guy must have been in a deep sleep.“What—How—”

“Don’t talk, just lie back…and enjoy.” She planted kisses, collarbone to throat, throat to chin, searching for that sexy mouth.

Found it. She lingered. Suddenly strong arms came around her and he was on top so fast she barely had time to react.

“Melanie.” The whisper again, this time softer, sweeter, more tender. Something wasn’t right.

His lips found hers dead on target, as if he could see in the dark. She lay still from shock—the man could kiss.

But it wasn’t just his technique, the kissing was…different somehow.

As if he loved her.

Dear Reader,

Edgar is my first brainy hero ever, and though the story sounded great while I was writing the synopsis, when it came to writing Edgar’s scenes, I wasn’t so sure. Was this man attractive enough to interest Melanie? Frankly, at first he wasn’t even attractive enough to interest me!

But as the book progressed, I found myself getting a little weak-kneed over him, right along with Melanie, and when I wrote the last chapter, I realized I was crazy about him. As much as I love the suave alpha man, I might just have to write more heroes like Edgar.

What do you think? Enjoy a good geek once in a while? Drop me an e-mail through my website,www.IsabelSharpe.com and let me know!

Cheers,

Isabel Sharpe

ISABEL SHARPE was not born pen in hand like so many of her fellow writers. After she quit work to stay home with her first-born son and nearly went out of her mind, she started writing. After more than twenty novels—along with another son—Isabel is more than happy with her choice these days. She loves hearing from readers. Write to her at www.IsabelSharpe.com.

SURPRISE ME…

ISABEL SHARPE

www.millsandboon.co.uk

MILLS & BOON

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To Joe Biebel,

who helped me learn about fencing,

and who I bet has never been mentioned in

a romance novel before

1

“SO…?”

Melanie Hawthorne took a leisurely sip of her mojito, served with a stick of Hawaiian sugar cane at her favorite after-work hot spot, The Wicked Hop, and carefully put the glass back down on the bar. She knew exactly what Jenny was asking, but she was going to enjoy this to its fullest. “I’m sorry, so…what?”

Jenny accepted her drink from the friendly blond bartender they liked to flirt with. Usually she was surreptitiously checking out the scene, but right now she was 100 percent fixed on Melanie. “So…have you seen Stoner since that night in Edgar’s apartment?”

“Nope. I did mention I hang here after work a lot. So maybe he’ll show. I know last night he had a rehearsal with his band.” Just the thought that Stoner might seek her out, that they might start something hot, launched that familiar internal flutter. She loved men, bad boys in particular. And she meant bad. Arrogant jerks, selfish users, whatever label you came up with, Melanie homed in on them with unerring precision. She’d love to change, heck, she’d tried to change, tried to convince herself she could date a sweet, steady guy, like her best friend and co-worker, Edgar Raymond. Last week, though, she’d been in the act of suggesting that exact solution on Edgar’s couch when his so-hot older brother, Stoner, had walked into the apartment. Melanie had fallen, boom, and that was that. New guy. Same old story.

“He sounds so-o-o dreamy, I can’t wait to see him.” Jenny sighed. “You always land these incredible men. I mean I’m still happy with Noah after three years, but believe me, I don’t mind living vicariously.”

Yeah, incredible men. For the few hours or days or even weeks of blissful fun until they invariably moved on to the next pretty face, leaving her to grieve her latest disaster until against all odds—and common sense—her natural optimism resurfaced. Melanie had the hunt/capture/lose-the-prey-again sequence down to a science—a science she, after all her rejections and failures, hoped would someday land her the mother lode, the Real Thing, True Love, a guy-to-call-her-own for more than a few sweaty, athletic hours or days or weeks. “Just call me Lucky Mel.”

“Ooh, is that him?” Jenny’s brown eyes had about tripled in size. She brushed her black, slanted bangs out of the way and stared toward the entrance, craning her neck to see through the crowd. “Tall, dark hair, bodacious bod.”

Melanie tried to turn around casually, but turning around casually was pretty hard to do moving as fast as possible. She scanned the bodies by the front door and shook her head. “I don’t see him.”

“Aw.” Jenny sucked down more mojito to cushion the disappointment. “So he’s a rock star, huh?”

“He plays in a band. ‘Imploding Bovines.’”

“Imploding…ew, really?”

“Some statement about the world economy and the beef industry and the environment…I don’t know.” Melanie shrugged, wishing she was sitting where Jenny was so she could monitor the entrance. “Edgar was kind of rolling his eyes when he told me. I don’t think he and his brother get along too well.”

“Well, if Stoner looks and acts anything like you say, they sound like exact opposites.”

“I guess.” She took another sip of her mojito, noting that the drink was half-gone; she’d better slow down. Edgar was…Edgar. Big nose, horrible hair, ghastly fashion sense, but great teeth and a fabulous smile, gorgeous blue eyes—the nicest man in the world. Of course, him being a great catch in all the ways that mattered, Melanie felt only sisterly affection no matter how hard she tried. God forbid she fall for a man who would treat her well.

“Omigod. That’s got to be Stoner.” Jenny clutched Melanie’s arm and pointed. “There. Beside the tall guy with the red shirt. All in black. Wow, you totally weren’t kidding. Those blue eyes are amazing. I can feel the heat from here!”

Melanie turned, adrenaline burning from chest to toes. Stoner shared those blue eyes with Edgar, but while Edgar’s eyes were warm with shy friendliness, Stoner’s blazed with sexual mischief which made Melanie weak in the…everything.

Like the first time she saw him, he wore black. Black tight T-shirt and black jeans with a silver-studded belt. Black hair, not quite as thick and curled as Edgar’s, in a tousled I-don’t-care style that probably took him hours. “That’s him.”

Stoner scanned the bar coolly until his eyes lit on Melanie’s, and his sex appeal shot across the room as if he’d cast a hook. She was hit. All he had to do was reel her in.

He swaggered over, and while the crowd didn’t really part to let him through, it almost seemed that way to Melanie because she couldn’t believe the male power he had, and she couldn’t stop staring.

“Hey there, Mel-a-nie.” He kissed her cheek; his warm lips lingered, making her shiver. “How ya doing?”

“Great, now that you’re here.” She looked him straight in the eyes, buzzing full throttle from the mojito and his presence.

“Good to hear.” He winked and cocked his head toward Jenny. “And who’s this?”

Jenny nearly slid to the floor in her eagerness. “Jenny Tremont. I work with Melanie. We’re so going to come hear your band!”

Melanie kept herself from rolling her eyes. So going to come hear your band? Jenny was twenty-nine, but sometimes managed to sound like a tweenager groupie. “You’re playing at Bad Genie Rock Lounge this week, right?”

“You remembered.” He lifted his chin toward the bartender, who came over as if he’d been waiting all night for his chance to serve this drink. “I’ll have a Leinie’s Red and whatever these ladies are having, another round for them.”

“Ooh, thanks, Stoner.” Jenny batted her black-lined eyes at him. “I’ll be loose and easy after two of these.”

“Yeah?” He grinned a predator’s grin, which probably made all the women in visual range immediately wish they were prey. “How about you, Mel? Your barriers go down after a little alcoholic lube job?”

Melanie wasn’t an English major, but she thought that metaphor was pretty mixed up. However, substandard grammar was not going to stand between her and a chance for fun time with Stoner.

“Barriers?” She arched on the stool, tilted her head. “What barriers?”

His laugh was low and rich, so much like Edgar’s it startled her. Their voices were eerily similar, too. If she turned around when he was talking she might get them confused. But that was about the only way to mistake one for the other, and she saw no reason to turn her back to Stoner…until later, maybe. “You are my kind of girl, Mel-a-nie.”

“Mmm, no.” She waggled her finger at him, loving the way he leisurely half sang her name. “I’m all woman.”

“I stand corrected.” He took his beer, clinked it with her glass, then Jenny’s, then with hers again. His eyes skittered over her body and landed on her mouth with intensity that made her feel already kissed. “Yeah, you are all woman.”

Melanie tossed her hair and pouted to suck the straw of her drink, making sure he was watching. The familiar sex-machinery inside her hummed steadily now. This was going to be one excellent evening. Instinct told her so, and her instinct when it came to men and sex was never, ever wrong. Stoner would be a passionate, selfish lover, slightly rough, mostly unschooled, a lover who assumed his own amazing-ness would turn her on so terrifically that he didn’t need to do much more than just be him. Gymnastic, inventive, a show-off, he’d use many rooms and many positions.

Bring it on.

There was nothing like that first time, when she could be a man’s perfect fantasy woman. Nothing like the erotic excitement of new bodies discovering each other, finding ways to please—light, lovely, no baggage, no boredom, no boundaries.

“So you’re Edgar’s brother.” Jenny took her sugar cane stick out of her drink and bit down, sucking out the sweet syrup. “Yup.” He drained half his beer as if it were lemonade. “You don’t seem much alike.” “Never have been.” “Even as kids?” Melanie asked.

“Not even. I was into everything, and he was scared of everything. Bugs, worms, even the swing.” He laughed. “I’d push him like a few inches on that thing, and he’d scre-e-eam.”

Melanie immediately felt protective of poor baby Edgar. “I was scared of bugs, too, as a kid. And thunder. Still am, though not as much.”

“Yeah?” He grinned his sexy grin again. “If it storms while I’m in town, you run to me, baby.”

“I will.” She let her eyes smolder at him. “Maybe even if it doesn’t storm.”

“Whoa.” He rocked back on his heels, chuckling. “I’d take you up on that in a heartbeat, Mel-a-nie.”

“You may have to.” She licked her lips sensually.

Jenny muttered something else under her breath, nearly making Melanie giggle in the midst of her sex-goddess act. “Luckily, Edgar grew up braver than that.”

“Seriously. And he is one smart dude.” Stoner nodded slowly. “Smart plus classy. Like my parents.”

“You come from class?” Jenny sounded so surprised that, thank goodness, Stoner cracked up instead of being insulted. Point in his favor, he could laugh at himself. “I mean, I didn’t mean—”

“Nah, it’s okay. Go figure, huh? I never fit into that country club shi—stuff, sorry, ladies.”

“Country club?” Melanie was astounded. Edgar? How could she not know that about him?

“I was a rebel from the beginning. Gave my parents hell.”

“Ha.” Another reason Melanie loved bad boys. She understood them. “I was like that, too.”

“Yeah?” He moved closer, his hip touching her thigh, bared by her short clingy black skirt. “A wild one, huh?”

“My poor grandparents haven’t recovered yet. They had to move to Florida to get away from me.”

“Aw, c’mon.”

She giggled, nearly emptying her mojito. “Maybe not only to get away from me.”

“What about parents?”

“Mom was even wilder than me. She wasn’t around much, and when she was, there were different men in and out all the time.”

“In and out, huh?” He rotated his hip back and forth against her thigh. “Tell me more about that concept.”

She would, but her mind had turned to lust-mush. “Maybe later?”

“Definitely later.”

“Her mom just came back to town.” Jenny finished her mojito and picked up the one Stoner had bought her. “She’s trying to settle down and change her ways.”

“Aw, man.” Stoner shook his head sorrowfully. “You can’t fight who you are. There’s no point. Like I said, I knew early on I was different from my family. There was nothing I could do about it but be me. So that’s who I am.”

Melanie wanted to applaud. “I totally agree with you.”

“Well, then, cheers, girl—sorry. Ms. Mel-a-nie, she is a-all woman.” He clinked their glasses, drained his beer and thunked it on the bar. “And I am sad to say, I gotta get going.”

Melanie’s adrenaline petered out abruptly.

“Already?” Jenny looked as bewildered as Melanie felt.

“I have somewhere to be tonight. I just stopped by to see if I could catch you.” He slid his arm around Melanie’s shoulder. “Bang, you’re caught.”

Melanie tipped back to look directly into his bottomless blue pools of sex. “I know.”

“I should be home to Edgar’s place by midnight.” He glanced carelessly around the bar, then angled his head lazily back toward hers. “I’m heading right to bed.”

Her petered-out adrenaline came flooding back.

“Really…”

“I hear Edgar doesn’t lock his apartment at night.” His voice had dropped, for her ears only. She was getting every word. “Or at least he’s going to forget tonight.”

She pretended to look shocked. “How careless.”

“And guess what.” He leaned forward until his lips touched her cheek. “Edgar is such a good guy that he’s given up his bedroom for me so I can sleep in when he has to get up for work.”

“Is that so?” She could barely get sound out, battered by a surge of hormones broadcasting their readiness for this man. Tonight. After midnight. In Edgar’s—

Edgar’s bed? With Edgar in the apartment? Oh, no. She couldn’t—

“It’s a nice big bed. Clean sheets.” His voice rumbled through her, his lips brushed her cheek at every syllable. “Very comfortable.”

“Your brother…”

“Won’t be home. He’s visiting a friend in…Chicago. Lastminute thing.”

Melanie frowned. Edgar hadn’t told her that. Though, if he wasn’t going to be home…

“Well.” She turned. Stoner’s lips touched the corner of her mouth. “That might change things.”

“I hope it does.” He lingered a blissful second, then drew back and took her hand for a formal shake. “Very nice to see you, Ms. Mel-a-nie.”

“And you, Mr. Stoner.”

“I hope to see you again—” he brought her hand to his mouth for a gallant kiss ”—very soon.”

“We’ll see.” She kept her cool, all the while dying to jump down from her stool and go skipping around the bar shrieking yes, yes, yes!

Nothing in this world, nothing, fired her up like a sexy guy wanting her. The pumped-up thrill took over her, made the world a fabulous place bursting with possibilities.

Stoner said goodbye to Jenny, left one last piercing blue look with Melanie and exited the bar, probably sure they were staring at his fabulous shoulders and ass disappearing into the crowd, which they both were.

“What did he say? What’s going on? Are you going to meet him later?”

Melanie smiled dreamily. Why fight it? She knew inviting random encounters was a bad way to live, knew it was a crazy way to look for love, knew men who approached her like this were not in the mood for any kind of real relationship, but heck, she couldn’t resist. She had her mother’s genes. And look at Mom—fifty-one and only recently deciding it was time to renounce her self-indulgent lifestyle.

Which meant Melanie had another twenty-five years of fabulous high after fabulous high to look forward to. Starting tonight, with the current man of her dreams, through an unlocked apartment door into a nice-size room holding a big, clean and ready-for-action bed.

MELANIE STRODE DOWN Water Street in the cool night air, checking her watch by the nearest streetlight even knowing it would be exactly one minute later than the last time she checked it. Which put her at forty-five minutes past midnight, enough time, she hoped, for Stoner to have made it back from wherever he’d gone, gotten into bed as promised, and to have given up on her and fallen asleep.

After Stoner left, she’d had another mojito with Jenny at The Wicked Hop, then they’d gone to hear a band at the Milwaukee Ale House, where she drank a lot of water and nursed a beer for appearances, not wanting to show up in Stoner’s bed too drunk to function. Before it was time to leave, though, she’d poured back one last mojito to make sure any inhibitions—she didn’t have many—would be on hold.

So now, well-hydrated, high on adrenaline and that last quickly downed drink, she was on her way.

To Stoner. Oh, yeah.

At the entrance to Edgar’s funny little building, she pushed through the outer door…then stopped. Oh, no. Stoner might have made sure the door to Edgar’s apartment would be open, but the inner door to the building was locked. She’d have to buzz him to let her in, which wasn’t the end of the world, but announcing herself would spoil the fun of creeping into the bedroom and jumping him in the dark. Not that he’d be totally surprised, but she never had actually told him whether she’d show, so she had a shot at a stealth attack.

Maybe someone would come out? Thursday night, it could happen this late. She peered through the glass, hand next to her face to block the light from the foyer. The last several steps of the staircase were visible…and empty.

Three impatient, fidgety minutes later, they were still empty, but the now familiar row of buzzers next to the door gave her another idea. Sledge, the artist/sculptor/jeweler, lived in Edgar’s building on the second floor, the guy she’d met when Edgar took her to buy a necklace for his longtime “girlfriend,” who turned out, incredibly, not to exist.

Melanie frowned, boozily distracted by a new thought. What had happened to that necklace if there was no girlfriend to give it to? Maybe the whole scene had been a charade and Edgar hadn’t really bought it. Except that made no sense either because—

Focus, Melanie. The point was that she could buzz Sledge and say she needed to get into Edgar’s apartment, that she was early for a rendezvous and wanted to wait until he got back from…somewhere. With luck, Sledge wouldn’t know Edgar had gone to Chicago.

Good plan. Except it was rudely late to be bothering anyone.

She was reaching for Sledge’s buzzer anyway when jeans appeared on the stairs inside the building, and then rapidly, the rest of a young guy. Perfect.

“Hey there.” He held the door open for her with a friendly smile. “Forget your key?”

“Visiting a friend in 3C.”

“Excellent. Have a good night.”

“Thanks!” Oh, she so would, partly because of him.

Inside, she hauled a mirror out of her bag for one last check, even though she’d already primped in the ladies’ room at the Milwaukee Ale House. Lipstick—check; eyelashes darkened and curled—check; blush not too garish—check; hair appropriately mussed—check; clothes.

Melanie interrupted her routine. A sudden vision appeared, of her mother preparing for a night out with whatever man she was seeing that week or month, exactly like this, checking lips, eyes, cheeks, hair…with Melanie as a little girl watching, torn between admiration for her mom’s beauty, envy at the way she got to fancy herself up, and anxiety, not knowing if the date would last all evening, all night or all week, leaving her and Alana to fend for themselves.

Funny she’d never noticed the similarity of their preparation before, though of course she realized she was like her mom in a lot of other ways, ahem. The association probably occurred to her now because Mom had come back to Milwaukee, apparently hoping to repair the damage she’d done to the relationship with her daughters.

Melanie shoved the mirror into her purse, unwilling to continue even if the connection to her mother was only superficial. Melanie didn’t have kids she was leaving alone and scared tonight. She was the only one who’d shoulder any consequences for her actions.

She started up the stairs, not wanting to dwell on negative thoughts. Tonight was a mission of pure fun.

Up one flight, turn at the landing, up another to the second floor where Sledge lived—she tiptoed past his door—up another, turn at the landing, up again to floor three, apartment C, the door that was supposed to be unlocked.

Yes. She turned the knob silently, took a deep breath, body thrumming with excitement, and slipped into the dark interior. She’d known Edgar two years but had only seen his place for the first time last week, and had been shocked. From the mismatched, horrible way Edgar dressed, she’d expected his apartment to be a typical bachelor disaster.

Nope.

The place was nothing like him—or nothing like the way she thought of him. Sophisticated, stylish, elegant even, cherry-toned woods and green plants and a colorful—and very clean—fish tank, state-of-the-art kitchen, impressive library… Add that to Stoner’s revelation of a country-club upbringing and it didn’t equal the dorky, disorganized friend Melanie thought she knew.

She moved into the living room, eerily lit by the glowing light above the bubbling tank. Straight ahead to the right, a door, ajar as Stoner said it would be. Melanie headed for it, walking silently, hoping he was asleep. She wanted to slide into bed, wake him gently with kisses and caresses, get their intimacy off to a slow, tantalizing start.

Through the door, and into.

The bathroom. Arghh.

She made a quick exit and tiptoed down the hall a few feet to the next door. Also ajar. She pushed it open halfway, pleased when it didn’t protest.

Very dark inside, only the faintest glimmer around the blinds. A body barely visible in the bed, the sound of deep, regular breathing.

Hello, Melanie. Welcome to your perfect fantasy. We hope you enjoy your stay.

Oh, she was pretty sure she would.

As quietly as she could, she laid her purse on the floor, then took hold of the hem of her top and pulled it off slowly, as if she were stripping with Stoner watching. She imagined his reaction, her heightened sensual awareness reveling in the feel of the room’s cool air on her skin. Yes, oh, yes; he liked that, but wanted to see more. Bra unhooked, she let it fall, watching the lump on the bed, imagining his eyes glazing, hands reaching for her.