Tantalizing Maria Read online

  Tantalizing Maria

  The Temptation Saga: Book Seven

  Helen Hardt

  Contents

  Praise for The Temptation Saga

  Praise for Helen Hardt

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Epilogue

  The End

  Message from Helen Hardt

  Also by Helen Hardt

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  This book is an original publication of Helen Hardt.

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  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not assume any responsibility for third-party websites or their content.

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  Copyright © 2016 Waterhouse Press, LLC

  Cover Design by Waterhouse Press, LLC

  Cover Imagery: Shutterstock

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  All Rights Reserved

  No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic format without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

  Praise for The Temptation Saga

  Helen Hardt makes you love each and every one of her characters. I started thinking who I would want to read more about from Bakersville, but I decided Ms. Hardt just needs to write about the whole damn town, and I am sure there are neighboring towns as well. Her words are magic, and you become engulfed by them. I really cannot say enough wonderful things, but I don’t want to give anything away. Not a country girl? You don’t know anything about ranching or care for cowboys? Forget all those notions and read this series!

  ~Delightfully Dirty Reads

  I took this book to bed with me and I didn’t sleep until 4 a.m. Yes, it’s that damn engrossing, so grab your copy now!

  ~Brenda’s Book Beat

  Helen Hardt writes a cowboy like no other.

  ~Whirlwind Books

  Praise for Helen Hardt

  Flawlessly written and in my opinion a work of art…

  ~Girly Girl Book Reviews

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  Is it hot in here? I mean it’s July, the sun is blazing, but I’m sitting in an air conditioned house sweating bullets. Congratulations Ms. Hardt, you dropped me into the middle of a scorching hot story and let me burn.

  ~Seriously Reviewed

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  Ms. Hardt creates magic…

  ~The Romance Studio

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  Helen Hardt writes as smooth as a hot knife cutting through butter. Her words take you away and you feel like you are watching the story play out right in front of you.

  ~Delightfully Dirty Reads

  For everyone at Waterhouse Press for believing in this series!

  Prologue

  The kiss was deep and passionate.

  Maria Gomez hadn’t known kissing could be so succulent and full of longing, yet so true at the same time. For truth existed in this kiss—a truth she had never felt before.

  Never had the juiciest Colorado beef or the richest chocolate tasted as divine as Jeff’s mouth on hers.

  Truth. Pure truth laced up in craving and wonder.

  Maria wasn’t all that experienced. She was still a virgin at eighteen, but she’d done her share of kissing. From a shy peck from Leo Martinez when she was fourteen to making out with Greg Black in his car and at myriad parties senior year of high school—yeah, she’d been around the block as far as kissing went.

  All of those kisses seemed like the cover band to sit through before Styx finally took the stage.

  Jeff Bay? He was definitely Styx.

  Jeff was a rebel—a cowboy who wore black leather and rode a Harley Davidson Fat Boy. Tall and built, he could easily model for GQ. His walnut hair hung below his ears in lazy waves, and his brown eyes were smoky and smoldering. His full pink lips curved up in a slightly lopsided smile that melted Maria’s heart. His skin was the color of peach cream. Maria loved the contrast with her own olive complexion. And when he took off his shirt? Oh my. Those broad shoulders and sculpted arms pointed the way to a gorgeous chest and abs. His nipples were two brown coins nestled in just the right amount of dark hair sprinkled over his chest.

  And his butt—covered in jeans that hugged those hips and glutes just right and then snugged around his muscular legs all the way down to his black cowboy boots.

  Jeff’s full lips slid over hers with the perfect combination of caring softness and reckless abandon. When he probed his tongue between them and entered her mouth, she nearly swooned. He tasted of cinnamon and strawberries, with an accent of wild and savage. His groan vibrated, more than sounded, against her cheeks.

  She kissed him back. Not like she’d kissed any other man…no, boy. For in this moment, she knew she’d never kissed a man before. The others had all been boys. And she kissed him back for the first time as a woman, not a girl.

  Passion. Eagerness. And agony. Yes, the pure agony of knowing she would never experience another kiss like this.

  So this one would have to last. She twirled her tongue with his, lapped up all she could of Jefferson Bay, because he’d never kiss her again. Not silly Maria Gomez. Jeff was twenty-one, a rebel and free spirit. Why he was bothering with her, she had no idea. But she’d question it later.

  Right now, she’d enjoy it.

  Every single second of it.

  He kissed her harder, with raw animal power. She returned his kiss eagerly. Too eager maybe? She didn’t care. This might be the only time she’d ever be kissed like this.

  When he ripped his lips from hers, her heart sank…but then soared when he smiled down at her with those sparkling brown eyes.

  “Damn, Mia.”

  No one had ever called her Mia before. She’d always been Maria to her mama or sweet pea to her daddy, when he was alive. The endearment from Jeff’s lips rang in her ears like joyful bells. She curled her lips upward in a shy smile.

  “Nothing to say?”

  “What do you want me to say?” she asked coyly.

  “Tell me you enjoyed that as much as I did. That you want to kiss me forever. Because damn, honey, I could sure kiss those beautiful lips of yours for even longer than that.”

  Her lips parted of their own accord.

  “God, what a sexy little pout.” Jeff shook his head, biting his lower lip. “God damn it all to hell.”

  And he crushed his mouth to hers again.

  Chapter One

  Thirty-Two Years Later

  “Mia, and the lovely Angelina.” Jefferson Bay’s deep voice was laced with sarcasm as he opened the door to his hotel room.

  “We need to talk,” Maria said.

  “Perhaps you and I had best talk in private.”

  Maria shook her head. “This is Angie’s business. After all, she’s the one who’s about to lose her inheritance.”

  “So you didn’t find a suitable suitor after all?” He clicked his tongue. �
��How very sad. But how very lucky for me. I now own half a ranch.” Grandpa Norman had done one thing right, anyway. He might have disinherited Jeff in favor of his older brother, Wayne, the golden boy, but he left a loophole. Any unmarried daughters couldn’t inherit from Wayne, and their portion would revert to any of Norman’s living issue.

  In other words—Jeff.

  His grandfather had been one big male chauvinist pig. And that sad fact was going to work in Jeff’s favor.

  “You don’t own anything yet, Jeff,” Maria said, her voice shaking. “Angie still has over a month to get married.”

  Yes, of course. The codicil. Seemed Grandpa’d had a change of heart, and an unmarried daughter could marry within two months of the golden boy’s death and still inherit. “Let me guess. She’s holding out for love, right? Love is overrated.”

  “Is it?” Maria inched closer to him. “Is it really? Don’t you remember?”

  Jeff stilled his hammering heart. This woman still affected him, but he had to keep his head. “I remember only that you betrayed me by sleeping with my sainted brother. I may have loved you, but you didn’t return my love.”

  Maria’s eyes misted. “That’s not true, Jeff. You know it’s not.”

  Jeff inhaled, his heart betraying him once again. God, he had loved this woman. More than his own life, he’d loved her. And part of him still did. Beside her stood the daughter who had come between them, the daughter she’d conceived with his brother, the daughter she’d named after his long-dead mother. Angelina was a beautiful girl. Her creamy skin was much like her father’s, and her dark hair as lustrous as her mother’s. Green eyes, like sparkling emeralds, pierced into him. A twinge of regret niggled at him. She was innocent in all this, after all.

  Still, Jeff was entitled to her share of Bay Crossing, and he meant to have it.

  “I know only your betrayal, Mia. You slept with my brother and had his child—this beautiful girl in front of us. It’s only fitting that I be the means to the end of your and Wayne’s love child.”

  “Damn it, Jeff, you know I was never in love with Wayne.”

  “Really?” As much as he wanted to believe what she said, he couldn’t. “A marriage that lasted this long and produced three children? You’re lying.”

  “You were going to prison.”

  God, to think of the stupid mistakes he’d made when he was young. But he hadn’t killed anyone. “I was innocent! I would have fought, Mia, if I’d thought there was even a ghost of a chance that you and I could be together.”

  “Why didn’t you?”

  He raked his fingers through his salt-and-pepper hair. Because I’d lost everything. I’d lost you.

  “Because you made it clear you thought I was guilty. Dear Granddad had all but hanged me already.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me you were innocent? I would have believed you. I would have stood by you.”

  “No, you wouldn’t have. You had already run to Wayne by then.”

  “I ran to Wayne because—” She choked into sobs. “My God, I can’t do this.”

  Angie embraced her mother. “She just lost her husband, for God’s sake. Can’t you take it easy on her? I’m the one you’re trying to ruin. Your argument is with me, not her.”

  Jeff shook his head. “How little you know. You’ve told your children nothing of me, have you, Mia? Yet you stand there and tell me you had feelings for me all that time ago.” He stifled the emotional turmoil of watching the traitorous woman cradle his niece, and then he glared at Angie. “I can hurt your lovely mother by hurting you. Icing on the cake.”

  “No, Jeff,” Maria gasped out. “I won’t let you do this to her.”

  He smiled. Not a nice smile. He knew it. He wasn’t feeling overly nice right now. “I don’t see that you have much of a choice.”

  Angie spoke then. “I’m sorry, Mama. I’ve already told you I’m not marrying Frank. And there isn’t time for me to fall in love.”

  Good. Don’t marry Frank. Don’t marry anyone. I deserve a piece of Grandpa’s pie.

  “You’re right, Angie.” Maria steadied herself, taking some of her weight off Angie. “You’re not going to marry Frank. You’re not going to marry anyone you don’t love just to get a piece of land.”

  Works for me. “Then I think we’re done here,” Jeff said, moving toward the door. “Nice to see you, ladies.”

  Maria rushed forward and pounded her fists onto Jeff’s chest. Jeff startled when his skin tightened. Even in anger, her touch still moved him. How he longed to grab Maria and drag her into his arms.

  “Damn it, Jeff, we are not done here!”

  “Mama?” Angie said, inching toward them.

  “You won’t do this to her. I swear you won’t!”

  Jeff steadied himself and gripped Maria’s shoulders, forcing himself not to cave into the desire touching her evoked in him. “I stand to gain everything by doing this.”

  “But you can’t.”

  “You keep saying that, Mia.” He shook her and immediately regretted it. He’d never gotten rough with any woman, and he didn’t plan to start now. “Why? Why can’t I? Why shouldn’t I take what should have been rightfully mine in the first place?”

  Maria whipped her hands upward and grabbed both sides of Jeff’s face. So warm, so sweet. And she smelled the same, like wild berries and sweet vanilla. He forced himself not to inhale.

  Then she plowed into him with her chocolate gaze. “Because she’s your daughter, God damn it!”

  Angie went pale. “Mama?” Her voice squeaked.

  “I’m sorry, Angelina. I shouldn’t have blurted it out like that, but it’s true. Wayne Bay is not your biological father. Jefferson Bay is.”

  Jeff’s knees weakened and threatened to collapse under him. “You’re lying, Mia, and it won’t work.”

  “It’s not a lie, you fool. To be honest, I’m surprised none of you suspected it at the time. If it’s proof you want, you and Angie go for a DNA test. I guarantee the results will show she’s yours.”

  His muscles tensed, and bile rose in his throat. This could not be happening. This child? His? This woman? His daughter? This beautiful girl… She was…what? Thirty-two then? “How? Why?”

  “Didn’t you wonder why I suddenly had an interest in your brother when I’d had none previously? Didn’t you wonder when my baby girl was born a month early? No, none of you gave it a second thought. It seemed so obvious to me, but neither you, Wayne, nor your grandfather batted an eye over it.”

  The words rang in Jeff’s ears. First they made sense, and then they didn’t, and then he was sure this had to be a dream…and then he knew it wasn’t. This was real.

  “I think I might be sick,” Angie said.

  Maria rushed to her and helped her to one of the queen beds in the hotel room. “I’m so sorry, Angie. I never meant for you to find out like this. I never meant for you to find out at all.”

  “At all?” Angie blinked her eyes. “How could you? How could you lie to me all these years?”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Daddy never knew? Never suspected?”

  “If he did I didn’t know it.”

  Jeff cleared his throat. Get a grip. “Mia, I demand an explanation right now.”

  “Yes, I owe you both that much.” Maria sat down on the bed and took Angie’s hand in her own. She rubbed it lightly. “I found out I was pregnant after you were arrested. With all your trouble with the law, I assumed you were guilty.”

  Jeff’s heart began the stampede again. Ire flamed within him. “After everything we shared, how could you know me so little? Do you really think I could kill someone?”

  “No.” Maria shook her head. “But I knew you’d go to prison for a long time anyway. I figured you’d had a hand in it. After all, it wasn’t the first time you’d been at the scene of a crime. There was no way around it. You had a record. I needed to make sure my baby—our baby—had a chance at the life and the name she deserved. So I seduced Wayne and, a month
later, told him the child was his.”

  Jefferson plunked down onto the other bed. “Oh, Mia.”

  “I’m not proud of it. But he adored your daughter, Jeff. She was his favorite. She wanted for nothing while he was alive.”

  “Oh, Mia, you don’t understand.” He lowered his heavy head into his hands. All these years. He’d gone to prison, for God’s sake. To prison, because he thought he’d lost everything.

  Maria gripped Angie’s hand tighter. “What? What are you not telling me?”

  “I only pleaded guilty because I thought you’d betrayed me. I’d been ready to fight. To fight for us. To do anything to get out of the mess I’d gotten myself into and go straight for you. I was going to get a job, make my own way, prove to my grandfather that I wasn’t the fuck up he thought I was. I was ready to prove it to you. For us. Mia…why? You were the love of my life,” Jeff said, his voice wavering. “All this time, I had a child. A child I never knew.”

  “Mama?”

  “Yes, Angie?”

  “Harper and Catie?”

  “They’re your father’s. Er…Wayne’s. I never strayed during our marriage. Not once.”

  “And I—”

  “Jeff is your biological father. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean for you to find out this way. Or to find out at all—”

  “You planned to keep this child from me forever?” Jeff’s voice had deepened, tinted with more anger, almost rage. Yes, he was angry. This woman had stolen his life. “Didn’t you think I had the right to know I had a daughter?”

  “And didn’t you think I had the right to know who my real father was?” Angie demanded.

  Maria’s weight sank down farther into the bed, as though she wanted to melt into it, to melt away and never return.

  “Angie, you had a real father. A real father who adored you.”