Blowing It Off

By Lexxie Couper

Blowing It Off, by award winning contemporary romance author Lexxie Couper, Book 1 of her Stimulated series, takes you on an exciting journey of mystery, humor, and desire. Two sexy Australian arson investigators light the fires of passion in this contemporary menage romance.

A suspicious fire has destroyed the studio of glassblower Phoebe Masters. And she knows what that means - a visit from the region's best arson investigators. The two men who reduced her heart to cinders. Men she'd hoped never to see again.

One wild weekend with Phoebe overwhelmed Will Bradley and Damon Hunt. Like morons, they blew if off, burning any chance for a triad romance with the talented beauty. The investigation gets them back in her life, but now they have to prove the three of them were meant to be together. Their strategy? A body-blazing inferno none of them will ever be able to extinguish.

But will the small town of Morpeth survive their desire? And more to the point, will Phoebe?

This contemporary suspense novella contains two hot Australian men who may very well make you want to fly to Australia to experience you own sensual menage romance. Cost of airline ticket not included with purchase. Blowing It Off is not intended for readers under the age of 18.

Previously Published: (2014) 5x5 Publishing | Ellora's Cave

• Language: English
• Publisher: Book Boutiques
• Release date: Feb 9, 2016
• ISBN: 9781944003180

Lexxie Couper

Lexxie Couper started writing when she was six and hasn't stopped since. She's not a deviant, but she does have a deviant's imagination and a desire to entertain readers with her words. Add the two together and you get erotic romances that can make you laugh, cry, shake with fear or tremble with desire. Sometimes all at once. When she's not submerged in the worlds she creates, Lexxie's life revolves around her family: a husband who thinks she's insane, an indoor cat who likes to stalk shadows, and her daughters, who both utterly captured her heart and changed her life forever. Contact Lexxie at [e-mail], follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/lexxie_couper or visit her at www.lexxiecouper.com where she occasionally makes a fool of herself on her blog.

Book preview

Blowing It Off

Stimulated, Book 1

Lexxie Couper

Published 2016 by Book Boutiques.

ISBN: 978-1-944003-18-0

Copyright © 2016, Lexxie Couper.

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Book Boutiques.

This book is a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, locales, or events is wholly coincidental. The names, characters, dialogue, and events in this book are from the author’s imagination and should not to be construed as real.

Manufactured in the USA.

Email [e-mail] with questions, or inquiries about Book Boutiques.

Blurb

A suspicious fire has destroyed the studio of glassblower Phoebe Masters. And she knows what that means—a visit from the region's best arson investigators. The two men who reduced her heart to cinders. Men she’d hoped never to see again.

One wild weekend with Phoebe overwhelmed Will Bradley and Damon Hunt. Like wankers, they blew it off, burning any chance for a triad romance future with the talented beauty. The investigation gets them back in her life, but now they have to prove the three of them were meant to be together.

Their strategy?

A body-blazing inferno none of them will ever be able to extinguish.

But will the small town of Morpeth survive their desire. And more to the point, will Phoebe?

Content Note: This novella contains two hot Australian men who may very well make you want to fly to Australia to experience your own sensual ménage romance. Cost of airline ticket not included with purchase. Blowing It Off is intended for a mature audience.

Previously Published

(2014) Lexxie Couper

Dedication

For Val Meglis. Because she is awesome.

Acknowledgements

Editor: Heidi Moore

Cover Art: Valerie Tibbs, Tibbs Design

Morpeth is a real village, forty minutes’ drive north of my home. The places and beauty of the town mentioned in this tale are true. The people I mention, not so much.

Chapter 1

Morpeth, Australia

"You know they’re going to call the big guys in for this, don’t you?"

Sliding her fingers over the smooth, solid length gripped firmly in her left hand, Phoebe Masters flicked a sideward glance at the tall streak of stunning blondeness beside her and bit back a sigh. I don’t want the big guys.

The blonde—a.k.a. Sami Charlton, a.k.a. BFE (Best Friend Extraordinaire), a.k.a. Australia’s most successful female motocross rider—let out a chuckle. I don’t think you’ll have a choice, Pheebster. Your studio’s been gutted. With a fire this bad you know they’re going to call in the investigation team. If Dad was alive he’d tell you the same thing.

Phoebe’s stomach lurched and she ground her teeth. Damn it, when she’d upped and moved from Newcastle to the utterly parochial, completely charming historical village of Morpeth six months ago, she’d planned to never see the investigation team again.

And I don’t believe for a second that you don’t want to see them.

Sami’s calm statement made Phoebe’s pulse pound just a little harder in her neck. She bit back another sigh. Here she was, standing in the smoking, charred remains of what was once her studio, the place she spent every day blowing molten glass into artworks of stunning beauty, with the acrid, wholly jarring stench of scorched wood and wet timber stinging her sinuses with every breath. Reminding her with no uncertainty that everything she held dear and valuable was destroyed—and she was thinking about Damon Hunt and William Bradley.

I don’t want to see them, she grumbled, glaring at the object she gripped in her hand, the only thing salvageable in the heartbreaking mess. A long, thick shard of glass that, thanks to the fire, now looked like a massive, slightly demented glass dildo.

See who?

The gruff male voice behind Phoebe made her jump, the glass length almost slipping from her fingers as she did so. She pulled a face, wrapping her fingers tighter around the accidental dildo like it was her one and only life preserver. No one.

The investigation team from Newcastle, Sami said to the elderly man now standing on Phoebe’s left. This has to be arson. There’s no other explanation for such an accelerated burn of materials designed to withstand high temperatures, don’t you think?

The old bloke’s wiry salt-and-pepper eyebrows rose up his creased forehead and he tugged at his somewhat scruffy firefighter’s uniform with calloused hands. And what would you be knowin’ about arson and accelerated burn, missy?

Phoebe let out the sigh she’d been holding back for the last five minutes or so. Captain Kilgour, she placed her fingers lightly on the prickly old firefighter’s arm, this is my best friend, Sami. Sami’s dad was the commander of the Newcastle District Fire Investigation Unit. She turned and gave Sami a pointed look. Sami, this is Keith Kilgour, the captain of Morpeth’s fire brigade.

Kilgour squinted at Sami. Was?

Sami nodded. Was.

Phoebe knew her best friend wasn’t going to expand on her answer. The death of her father in a house fire still hurt Sami deeply.

Kilgour’s eyes narrowed even further before he returned his attention to Phoebe. Well, much as I hate the idea of those upstart buggers from the city coming here and tellin’ me my business, the young missy is right. There’s somethin’ about the feel of the place I don’t like. He sucked in his checks and smacked his lips. It tastes wrong.

Sami nodded. Too bloody right.

Phoebe frowned, ignoring the fluttering little knot in her belly at the upstart buggers from the city coming anywhere near her. So what you’re telling me, she grumbled, crossing her arms over her breasts, is I can’t start cleaning up until the investigation team—

William and Damon, Sami interjected.

Phoebe gave her a scowl. Damn, she was one for providing details today. Until the Newcastle team come up and—

Work their magic, Sami finished for her, a grin playing with the corners of her lip-glossed mouth.

Phoebe scowled harder. Were it not for Captain Kilgour standing beside them, Sami would be finding herself the recipient of a bloody good punch to the arm. Work their magic? Under no circumstances were Will Bradley and Damon Hunt working any kind of magic on her again. Ever.

That’s right, Ms. Masters, Captain Kilgour agreed, giving Phoebe what she suspected was supposed to be a reassuring smile. The Newcastle boys will need to take a look at this before you can touch it.

Phoebe let out a shaky sigh. Damn it.

I could take a look around, Dad.

A younger version of Keith Kilgour, dressed in a pristine firefighter’s uniform that almost—almost—hid a paunch and narrow shoulders, sidled his way over the charred mess, giving Phoebe a wide smile as he plucked the glass shaft from her hands. Blue eyes tried hard to hold hers, the effort lost when Captain Kilgour barked out a laugh.

Don’t be ridiculous, Harvey. You barely passed the last fire science and behavior training course.

Harvey Kilgour’s fleshy cheeks glowed red and Phoebe suppressed a need to shuffle her feet. Since moving to Morpeth, she’d more than once had to decline Harvey’s eager invitations to coffee, lunch, dinner, breakfast, a trip to the local drive-in. Six months of being courted by Harvey. And that was the word he used whenever he asked her out, courted, as if their relationship was anything more than determined suitor and non-interested recipient. Several rejections later and he still hadn’t taken the hint. Still, seeing him get shot down by his father was a touch uncomfortable.

It wasn’t that Harvey was grotesque or repulsive; he wasn’t. In fact, he seemed quite personable in a slightly desperate, puppy-dog kind of way. He was polite, charming, had an old-fashioned sense of propriety and an almost boyish innocence about him. He’d turned up with handpicked flowers a few times, had offered to fix anything in her home or studio if needed. When she’d come down with that very nasty dose of the flu, he’d arrived at her door with a steaming boiler of vegetable soup so bloody delicious it was all she could do not to run her fingers around the inside of the pot when it was all gone. Soup he’d made. How could she say no to a guy like that?

How indeed? But she had. Often.

For reasons she couldn’t put her finger on, something in her belly told her to stay away from Harvey—or at least keep him at arms’ length. Something that made her feel…unsettled.

What? More unsettled than the way Damon Hunt and William Bradley make you feel? Is that even possible?

Yeah, but that unsettled had nothing to do with an inexplicable discomfort and everything to do with two tall, dark, sarcastic and alpha-to-the-extreme men awakening sexual longings she couldn’t deny no matter how hard she tried.

A shiver rippled up her spine and before she could shut it out, a flash of memory blinded her…

William’s towering form, buck naked and completely aroused, his dark blond hair a tousled mess, his eyes glinting with hunger as Damon impaled her on his equally impressive cock. Damon’s full lips traveling over her throat, his strong hands squeezing her backside, her moans of rapture a familiar soundtrack to a weekend spent—

Better go write the report—

Can I walk you to the—

Time I hit the road—

Phoebe blinked, the cacophony of voices jerking her from the wholly unsettling memory. Her heart pounding too hard for her liking, she looked at Sami, for the moment needing to focus on one thing, one speaker—and her best friend was the least…vexing. You’re going?

Sami pulled a face. "Yeah, I know. I suck. But I have a photo shoot with Inside Motor-Sport magazine this afternoon and a meeting with my agent in less than three hours."

Phoebe shot her watch a quick glance. With the way her best friend rode the classic Ducati she loved like a…well, a lover, Sami would make it back to Sydney with time to spare, as long as she wasn’t arrested for speeding.

Okay, Phoebe grumbled, turning completely to the Amazonian blonde to give her a hug. Next time come up for longer than just a night.

Sami squeezed her back. Hey, if some prick hadn’t burned your studio down I’d be mooching off you for brekkie and you’d be wishing I’d hurry the hell up and go home.

Phoebe chuckled. "Yeah, you’re