Take Me

By Diane Alberts

A sexy category romance novella from Entangled's Brazen imprint...

It's all fun and sexy games...until someone gets married.

Some women are more dangerous than others. For me, it's like a stoplight. Green means go. Yellow is proceed with caution. And red? Red means you'd best run like hell, because that woman is gonna be serious trouble. The red hair on that hot little Vegas showgirl should be my warning, but I'm a sucker for breaking the rules...

Morgan Collins is a dancer with a body meant to bring a grown man to his knees, and keep him there. Yet I can't resist the sexual attraction—intense, fierce as hell, and red-fucking-hot. But I won't let myself get burned after one night of booze and lust. All I have to do is walk away. Except when I wake up the next morning, Morgan is my wife...and all hell is about to break loose.

Previously released on the Ever After imprint in August 2013.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Publishers
• Release date: Aug 26, 2013
• ISBN: 9781622662401

Book preview

It’s all fun and sexy games…until someone gets married.

Some women are more dangerous than others. For me, it’s like a stoplight. Green means go. Yellow is proceed with caution. And red? Red means you’d best run like hell, because that woman is gonna be serious trouble. The red hair on that hot little Vegas showgirl should be my warning, but I’m a sucker for breaking the rules…

Morgan Collins is a dancer with a body meant to bring a grown man to his knees, and keep him there. Yet I can’t resist the sexual attraction—intense, fierce as hell, and red-fucking-hot. But I won’t let myself get burned after one night of booze and lust. All I have to do is walk away. Except when I wake up the next morning, Morgan is my wife…and all hell is about to break loose.

Previously released on the Ever After imprint in August 2013.

Table of Contents

Dedication

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Epilogue

About the Author

Don’t miss the rest of the Take a Chance series!

Try Me

Love Me

Play Me

Shillings Agency series

Temporarily Yours

Stealing His Heart

Seducing the Princess

Faking It

Falling for the Groomsman

Kiss Me at Midnight

Divinely Ruined

On One Condition

If you love sexy romance, one-click these steamy Brazen releases…

No Romance Required

Burn for Me

Falling for the Marine

Dirty Deal

His to Keep

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

Copyright © 2013 by Diane Alberts. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means. For information regarding subsidiary rights, please contact the Publisher.

Entangled Publishing, LLC

2614 South Timberline Road

Suite 109

Fort Collins, CO 80525

Visit our website at www.entangledpublishing.com.

Brazen is an imprint of Entangled Publishing, LLC. For more information on our titles, visit www.brazenbooks.com.

Edited by Shannon Godwin

Cover design by Heather Howland

Photography by DepositPhotos

ISBN 978-1-62266-240-1

Manufactured in the United States of America

First Edition August 2013

This one goes out to my husband, Greg. I love you.

Chapter One

Mike Worth leaned back against the bar and surveyed the Friday night crowd packed in the small, dimly lit room. He held a cold Lager in one hand, had his best buddies surrounding him—whose recreational basketball team had won yet another game earlier in the evening—and a full night of open possibilities in the great city of Vegas ahead of him. What more could a guy ask for?

Well, maybe a hot woman with no attachment issues or dreams of a white wedding dress…but he could also be fine just the way he was.

Not that he had anything against marriage, per se. The institution was interesting, and he liked to study the general notion of fidelity from afar. But for him? Nah. He got bored when he ate the same meal two nights in a row—how the hell was he supposed to be satisfied with waking up next to the same person every day for the rest of his life?

Madness. Pure madness.

Of course, the fact that his best friend, Garrett, was about to marry Mike’s little sister, Kiersten, wasn’t madness. It made perfect sense. His sister deserved every happiness in the world, and if she wanted to wake up to his dumbass of a best friend staring at her every day, then so be it.

To each his own. Or her own.

Garrett better damn well take excellent care of her or else he’d forget the whole friend thing and come down on him harder than an anvil on Wile E. Coyote. And Garrett damn well knew it, too.

The devil himself slid into the barstool next to him and slapped him on the back a little bit harder than necessary. "So, you ready to be my best man? Or are you going to stay true to character and try to help me escape the wedding, instead of stay in it?"

If you were marrying anyone but my sister, I’d do my bro-duty and toss you out of the rectory window, screaming at you to run for it before you make the biggest mistake of your life. Mike lifted the beer to his lips and took a long draught. But, since you had to be a dumbass and pick my sister out of all the women in the world to fall in love with, you’re getting married whether you have frozen feet or not.

Garrett held up his feet. My toes are fine.

Good. Or I’d burn them the fuck off, then carry your crippled self down the aisle to say ‘I do.’ Mike shuddered. Shit. Even saying that hypothetically makes me want to gag.

Garrett cracked up. You just wait. One of these days you’ll meet a girl who makes you forget everything you wanted out of life and show you how much you were missing.

Mike groaned and scooted away from Garrett. You sound like such a girl right now. Just so you know.

That might be true, but I’m in love. Garrett shrugged and ignored the woman across the bar eyeing them both as if she couldn’t decide which one to hit on.

Though Mike would normally help her make the right decision—AKA him—he ignored her, too. Tonight wasn’t about picking up women. It was about Garrett’s bachelor party.

Please. You’re ruining the perfectly good buzz I’ve got going on here.

His friend raised a dark brow. Funny. I didn’t hear you argue about my prediction.

Did I argue with the Mayans who said the world would end in 2012?

How could you? They’re dead.

Exactly. He grinned. And I would be too before I ever made the mistake of getting tied down. Death before marriage, I say. He held his beer high and used a thick Scottish brogue to say, They’ll never take my freedom!

Oh God. Their buddy Stephen approached and rolled his hazel eyes. "Please tell me you guys aren’t arguing about which parts of Braveheart weren’t true to history again. Last time you guys got started, I fell asleep in a strip club. During a fucking lap dance."

Alistair, their team’s point guard, chuckled and scooted closer. His green eyes shined with laughter. That was pretty damn funny. It was even funnier when the stripper slapped you and stormed off.

Hilarious, Stephen drawled.

Mike held his hands up. We’re not talking about history tonight. We were actually discussing marriage…and why I’ll never do it.

Alistair pinched his lips together. Never is a hell of a long time.

Not long enough when you’re talking marriage. Mike took another drink. I’ll stay in the green zone, thank you.

Green zone? Garrett asked, his brow wrinkled.

Alistair grinned and moved closer. Is this that ‘stoplight theory’ you were babbling about the other night?

Yep. Ready to hear about it?

Hell yeah, Alistair said. This should be good.

Stephen held his hand up. Wait. If it’s going to be as long as I think, then come sit in the booth Riley’s saving over there. Some hot chick just left it empty and we snagged it before someone else could.

Booths in this bar were hard to come by, so none of them wasted time getting off their asses. As they walked, Mike turned to Alistair and pointed a finger in his face. And don’t mock me for caring about accuracy in historical movies. My fucking job as a history teacher is to know history, so obviously I’m going to slam something that’s not one hundred percent accurate. It’s a well-known fact that when the English—

Alistair threw his hands up. "I know, I know. I heard you the first million times. So calm the fuck down."

Mike slid into the booth. It’s your fault for being the only one of us who isn’t a teacher. Why a cop would want to hang out with a bunch of middle school teachers is beyond me.

I’m beginning to wonder the same thing myself, Alistair said, sliding into the booth opposite Mike. His red hair and green eyes screamed of his Irish heritage—as did the smattering of freckles across his nose and cheeks. "I wanted a break from the hard-asses I spend all day with but I didn’t mean to go quite so far to the extreme as I did with you fucks."

Yeah, whatever. Everyone knows math is the best, Garrett, a math teacher himself, said as he approached the booth. If you didn’t want to hear about variables and Pythagorean Theorem—

Mike cut in with, No one wants to hear about that shit, Garrett.

Oh, and history is so much more enthralling? Garrett asked, sliding next to Mike and slamming his elbow into Mike’s ribs in the process. Hearing about how dead guys died and the mistakes they made before those deaths?

Hell yeah it is. For one, you could—

Oh, both of you shut up. Science is the best, Stephen said, not even cracking a smile. I’m the only one here who knows how to make a noxious gas so odorless that it could kill everyone in this room, and they wouldn’t even know what hit them.

Alistair groaned and held his head. Fucking nerds. Seriously guys. Stop. Just stop.

Fine. Stephen said, motioning to Mike. So tell us about your ‘stoplight theory.’

Garrett laughed, his blue eyes sparkling. Oh, I can’t wait to hear this one.

Mike thought about it. If Garrett had followed his rule, Kiersten would be alone. Get lost. You’re the only man this doesn’t apply to.

Garrett rolled his eyes. So glad to hear I get a pass.

You’re welcome. Now go get us some more drinks. This speech isn’t for you.

Seriously?

Seriously. Mike stared him down, and Garrett finally sighed and got up. Mike pulled some money out of his pocket and handed it to Garrett. But here. Tonight’s on me.

Fuck you, Mike. But he took the money.

Once Garrett headed off for the bar, Mike leaned in and lowered his voice. The rest of you need to listen up. Especially you, Al. You got way too close to the red light last week. He set his bottle down and bent closer. You all know I love women. Every size, shape, and color. They’re all perfect, in my eyes.

Alistair smirked. Yeah, I think it’s safe to say we all know that.

But as with anything in this world, if you have too much of a good thing, you get used to it. Start to wonder why in the hell you bought a whole case of hazelnut coffee, instead of just a few packs. And then you’re stuck drinking a piss poor choice for coffee—one you liked a week ago but now you never want to fucking see again.

Mike chugged the rest of his beer and scanned his buddy’s faces as he did so. They looked at him with varying degrees of interest—but they were all hanging on the edge of their seats to hear the rest. He’d missed his calling. He could have been the next fucking Oprah.

But he’d have been an Oprah for single dudes.

So I’ve come up with the perfect solution to this problem that afflicts men everywhere.

You make it sound like a medical condition, Alistair said.

It is, in some ways. Marriage should be a healable condition. Mike grinned. But anyway, my solution to avoiding this issue altogether? You can compare your time with a woman to a stoplight.

Alistair laughed. A stoplight? Are you fucking kidding me?

Do I look like I’m kidding?

Riley

Reviews for Take Me

[lisa.hines · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Try Me by Diane AlbertsMy rating: 4 of 5 starsTry Me by Diane Alberts is the first book in her Take a Chance series. This book starts with Jeremy, our hunky Marine stranded in the Las Vegas desert, beat up, thirsty and hungover. His savior is none other than the one that got ran away seven years ago, Erica. This is a story full of life's strange coincidences, people's misunderstandings of situations, and how they make what turns about to be the wrong decision based on that misunderstanding. It's about second chances, and lasting love for who the person is and not just how the person looks on the outside.Once again a book from Entangled publishing has been a thoroughly enjoyable read.This book has a Happily Ever After and no cliffhanger.Up next...Love Me (Take a Chance #2)

[drez-3 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A little anti-climactic, but otherwise good story.

[tanat-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Try Me (Take a Chance, #1) by Diane Albert’s

Reading Try Me by Diane Albert’s has lead me to go find out if she has written more books, I enjoyed this story it is a fast read and quite enjoyable. Oh and did I mention a sexy looking Marine.

Diane’s writing is good, words flowed well, I thought both characters had great chemistry together, plus the cover wow, I probably shouldn’t admit half the reason I signed up to read and review this was because of the cover…but it was worth it.

We meet Jeremy who is off on leave, drinking and fighting he wakes up in the desert bruised and bloody. Knowing he needs to get moving before he dies for dehydration he sticks his thumb out for a ride.
Erica driving down the highway stops to help someone out and cannot believe her eyes when she sees its Jeremy the man she loved and rejected.

This story is fantastic, sexy Sergeant Jeremy Addison still loves Erica, Erica still loves Jeremy ….but can they put the past behind them and start over? Does true love conquer all?

All you can do is go purchase Try Me to find out! I would recommend Try Me to anyone who loves romance a bit of heartbreak and finding lost love and starting over. Diane Albert’s is one fantastic author and I cannot wait to read more of her books.

[bookwhisperer · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Try Me was an wonderful and captivating love story. Young and in love Erica and Jeremy both made mistakes. Confident that their futures will never be together; they have lived the past eight years trying to move forward. Even though this is proving harder than anticipated; neither of them though. It they would find one another on a lonely desolate road in the desert. Erica is a wounded and fragile woman after what life has unfolded for her in the past few years. Determined that Jeremy will be like every other man she has known; she is determined to keep herself at a distance. This proves harder than planned when Jeremy begins pressing her boundaries, and searching for a way into her future. This story was very short, and over in a blink of the eye, but not without securing me as a new fan. I am anxious to see what else the Take a Chance series has to offer.