French Kiss

By Sloane Taylor

Who needs safe and boring when you can play with a pirate on the French Riviera?

Burned-out author Rachel Conklin sparks her creativity on the French Riviera as a fishing boat cook. Things are smooth sailing until she’s thrown overboard into a storm-tossed sea. Rachel awakens to find herself staring into the eyes of a sexy pirate-looking hunk who changes the course of her life forever.

Dr. Henri Bernier is an analytical man with a quiet life and a job he loves. The last thing he expects to find when he anchors his treasured fishing boat in the sheltered harbor of a small island is an accidental mermaid washed ashore. He soon learns his perfect life leaves much to be desired.

Will desire save them or drown them in a perfect storm from their pasts?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sloane Taylor
• Release date: Oct 13, 2015
• ISBN: 9780996519731

Sloane Taylor

Award-Winning author Sloane Taylor is a sensual woman who believes humor and sex are healthy aspects of our everyday lives and carries that philosophy into her books. She writes sexually explicit romances that takes you right into the bedroom. Being a true romantic, all her stories have a happy ever after. Her books are set in Europe where the men are all male and the North American women they encounter are both feminine and strong. They also bring more than lust to their men’s lives. Taylor was born and raised on the Southside of Chicago. Studly, her mate for life, and Taylor now live in a small home in Indiana and enjoy the change from city life. She is an avid cook and posts new recipes on her blog http://sloanetaylor.blogspot.com/ every Wednesday. The recipes are user friendly, meaning easy. Taylor currently has five erotic romance books released by Toque & Dagger Publishing with more releasing in the near future.

Book preview

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French Kiss

Book Four

Naughty Ladies of Nice

by

Sloane Taylor

About French Kiss

Burned-out author Rachel Conklin sparks her creativity on the French Riviera as a fishing boat cook. Things are smooth sailing until she’s thrown overboard into a storm-tossed sea. Rachel awakens to find herself staring into the eyes of a sexy pirate-looking hunk who changes the course of her life forever.

Dr. Henri Bernier is an analytical man with a quiet life and a job he loves. The last thing he expects to find when he anchors his treasured fishing boat in the sheltered harbor of a small island is an accidental mermaid washed ashore. He soon learns his perfect life leaves much to be desired.

Will desire save them or drown them in a perfect storm from their pasts?

Copyright

Copyright © French Kiss by Sloane Taylor, Second Editon

Issued by : Toque & Dagger Publishing

a division of Chafin-Cole Enterprises, 2015

Smashwords Edition

ISBN: 978-0-9965197-3-1

All Rights Reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without prior written permission of the publisher.

This book is licensed to the original purchaser only. Duplication or distribution via any means is illegal and a violation of International Copyright Law, subject to criminal prosecution and upon conviction, fines and/or imprisonment. No part of this book can be reproduced or sold by any person or business without the express permission of the publisher.

This book is a work of fiction. While references may be made to actual places or events, the names, characters, incidents, and locations within are from the author’s imagination and are not a resemblance to actual living or dead persons, businesses, or events. Any similarity is coincidental.

Editor: Helen Hardt

Cover Artist & Interior Design: Kelly Shorten

First Edition Issued by Musa Publishing, 2013

Acknowledgements

The Wenches of Words are a fabulous group of creative authors who smack me on the butt when needed and indulge me when I whine. Extra tipples for; Lizzie T. Leaf, Marci Boudreaux, Sam Cheever, Sara Daniel, Sharon Ledwith, and Vonnie Hughes for whipping this book’s tag and blurb into shape. You gals are the best!

Chapter One

Steel needles stabbed into his bare skin. Again and again. He gritted his teeth. This was not the time to worry about the pain on his sunburned arms. Right now he had to stay alive. He grabbed the slick wheel with all his strength to fight the raging hell beneath him. His heart pounded, echoing in his ears, as yet another wall of icy water crashed over the helm. The salt water blinded him, but he was too afraid to let go and scrub his burning eyes.

His white knuckles ached from the cold while an ungodly heat tore through his tendons. The trawler rocked under another whitecap that crashed starboard side. Acrid bile rose in his throat, and he swallowed hard.

How stupid to take the boat out alone.

Even more idiotic, he had not bothered to check the weather report even though unpredicted squalls were normal along the French Riviera coastline.

Henri struggled to remember the prayers his mother had taught him years ago. All that ran through his mind was rub-a-dub-dub, three men in a tub.

Dieu, if you let me live, I vow to never lust after another woman, or trick my young patients to believe their inoculations will not be painful.

Merde, shit, and every other curse word in every language possible exploded from his mouth only to be swallowed in a crack of thunder.

And why the fuck had he been such an âne sage not to have brought his life vest up to the wheelhouse? Another basic rule he pompously ignored. His family would engrave Smart Ass on his tombstone should his body ever wash to shore.

A small break in the weather allowed him to relax his grip enough to shut the pilothouse windows, but he continued to search for the petite island that should lie just to the east. If only the sky would lighten so he could make out the minuscule blot of land.

His left foot slipped on the gritty deck and the wheel twisted out of his hand. He ducked to clear the fishing spear that sailed past his head before it shot into the sea. The damn rope had broken loose when the massive spike banged into the iron railing.

Everything he had known as a boy—and a man—flashed through his mind. The memory of his father stood out above all. He had been a giant with muscles that bulged when he lifted the heavy tuna nets from the water, but his arms never trembled under the immense weight. Henri had always been proud of his gentle father, even when he had pushed him too far. A smile wrestled with his mouth. Were his papa still alive, he would have filleted Henri for being so stupid—or worse, garroted him if he sank his father’s prized boat.

A thunderclap rattled his teeth as dual serrated lightning streaks shot up out of the whitecaps. Purples and greens blazed with an eerie glow that burned across the sky, and for a brief instant the barren island came into sight. He seized the wheel tighter, and shook away the nostalgia. He swore to keep his promise to God as he steered the aged craft toward safety.

Relief washed over Henri when the squall did a sharp jag west. Now all he had to do was chug his way to land and check out his damage.

RZ

Her lungs ached, but her body lay calm, nestled in blessed numbness that not even the surrounding ruckus disturbed. Wind howled as something icy splashed against what should be her legs, but she didn’t have the energy to open her eyes and make sure. To lie still and savor the fact she was still alive and free from harm was infinitely better. Pain raced up her arm like a hot dagger, destroying her sleep. She cocked open an eye as lightning streaked up from the sea, and all the horror rocketed back into her mind.

The storm hurled the ship like a Wiffle ball in a hurricane. She fled to safety inside a cabin below—the captain’s cabin. Feet pounded on the stairs.

Men cursed.

The stench of unwashed bodies