Treat or Hex?

By Jane Colt

FROM EXCITING ROMANCE AUTHOR JANE COLT

Your actor best friend dons a sexy Halloween costume and tries to seduce you. Is it him or his character? Love or a game?

Drama student Gabrielle is distressed to find herself lusting after her best friend and improv partner Paul. Refusing to give in to her desire and ruin their relationship, she attributes her feelings to having gone too long without sex. Bree's friend Natalie proposes the perfect solution—a Halloween party featuring a special guy for her horny friend.

But the party is more complicated than Gabrielle imagines. Since they're actors, when she and Paul get in costume, they become different people—the rakish Mississippi Gambler Colonel Bartholomew W. Davis and sexy Bourbon Street Madam Miss Tiffany. She is shocked when Paul comes on to her! Is he as attracted to her as she is to him? Or wait! Is this just another round of improv chicken'—a game they play in which they try to rattle the other so much that they break character?

Natalie asks for the green light to seduce Paul. Gabrielle's sure thing' fails to show. Three horny witches tempt Paul with a foursome. He agrees! Or does he? And what about The Colonel's offer to pay Miss Tiffany for a night of pleasure? Gabrielle's head is spinning. Jealousy, lust... Such confusion!

Could it all be a trick that leads to a romantic treat?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Totally Bound Publishing
• Release date: Oct 13, 2020
• ISBN: 9781839434402

Jane Colt

Jane Colt began writing romances to deal with the stress of a ‘day job’ that’s mainly about examining the various ways people treat one another badly. An incurable romantic, her stories give her hope that we really can live happily ever after—even if only in our imaginations. She writes erotic romances because, having been raised in a morally rigid home, she wants to encourage in her readers a healthier, ‘sex positive’ outlook. She especially wants her heroines to be as sexy and passionate as they desire. You can count on the fact that her couples end up in love and having great sex! … OK, maybe they have the sex first! Her stories aim to be light-hearted, fun, upbeat—and sexy! No dark, brooding, broken, tortured guys who need fixing. Just great, handsome, smart, sexy, ‘real men’ whose only weakness is being unable to resist the women she pairs them with. Think Lifetime or Hallmark movies plus hot sex! She’s lived on both coasts of the U.S., recently leaving the beaches of Los Angeles to return home to the glorious autumn foliage of western Massachusetts. Married, she and her spouse are happy to be the devoted servants of two adorable cats. She loves traveling. Favorite cities: San Francisco, Boston, Venice, London, London, London! By the way, anyone who knows her would be shocked to learn she writes erotic romances. “Jane Colt” is a pen name. So, shhhhhh.

Book preview

Author

TREAT OR HEX?

JANE COLT

Treat or Hex?

ISBN # 978-1-83943-440-2

©Copyright Jane Colt 2020

Cover Art by Claire Siemaszkiewicz ©Copyright October 2020

Interior text design by Claire Siemaszkiewicz

Totally Bound Publishing

This is a work of fiction. All characters, places and events are from the author’s imagination and should not be confused with fact. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, events or places is purely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form, whether by printing, photocopying, scanning or otherwise without the written permission of the publisher, Totally Bound Publishing.

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The author and illustrator have asserted their respective rights under the Copyright Designs and Patents Acts 1988 (as amended) to be identified as the author of this book and illustrator of the artwork.

Published in 2020 by Totally Bound Publishing, United Kingdom.

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Totally Bound Publishing is an imprint of Totally Entwined Group Limited.

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Your actor best friend dons a sexy Halloween costume and tries to seduce you. Is it him or his character? Love or a game?

Drama student Gabrielle is distressed to find herself lusting after her best friend and improv partner Paul. Refusing to give in to her desire and ruin their relationship, she attributes her feelings to having gone too long without sex. Bree’s friend Natalie proposes the perfect solution—a Halloween party featuring a special guy for her horny friend.

But the party is more complicated than Gabrielle imagines. Since they’re actors, when she and Paul get in costume, they become different people—the rakish Mississippi Gambler Colonel Bartholomew W. Davis and sexy Bourbon Street Madam Miss Tiffany. She is shocked when Paul comes on to her! Is he as attracted to her as she is to him? Or wait! Is this just another round of ‘improv chicken’—a game they play in which they try to rattle the other so much that they break character?

Natalie asks for the green light to seduce Paul. Gabrielle’s ‘sure thing’ fails to show. Three horny witches tempt Paul with a foursome. He agrees! Or does he? And what about The Colonel’s offer to pay Miss Tiffany for a night of pleasure? Gabrielle’s head is spinning. Jealousy, lust… Such confusion!

Could it all be a trick that leads to a romantic treat?

Dedication

To the Goddess in every woman!

Trademark Acknowledgements

The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of the following wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction:

Yale: Yale University Not-for-profit Corporation

The Tempest: William Shakespeare

FaceTime: Apple Inc.

iPad: AVC Group LLC

Cinderella: Disney Enterprises Inc.

Central Casting: Disc Intellectual Properties LLC

Starbucks: Starbucks Coffee Company Corporation

Columbia: The Trustees of Columbia University

Siri: Siri Inc.

King Lear: William Shakespeare

Hamlet: William Shakespeare

Catwoman: DC Comics General Partnership, Warner Bros Pictures

Wonder Woman: DC Comics General Partnership, Warner Brothers Motion Pictures

Macbeth: William Shakespeare

Zorro: Zorro Productions Inc.

Othello: William Shakespeare

Batman: DC Comics General Partnership

Lillian Beaumont Theater: Lincoln Center Theater

Snow White: Disney Enterprises Inc.

iPod: Apple Inc.

The Plaza: Plaza IP Holdings LLC

Chapter One

The Setup

Derek nervously polished off yet another glass of wine and sat beside the chestnut-haired woman.

I shouldn’t tell you this, but I’ve kept this a secret for so long it’s killing me. The desperation in his voice startled her. He swallowed and looked straight at her with his penetrating silver-blue eyes. I love you, Bobbie. You’re the most amazing woman I’ve ever met. I love you so much. I’ll die if I can’t have you. He put his hand on her thigh.

Uh-oh. That second bottle was definitely a mistake. She removed his hand.

Come on, Derek, she laughed. You’re drunk and horny. That’s all."

The shine in his eyes dimmed. He was hurt. It may have taken an expensive pinot for me to get up the courage to tell you, but I’m serious. I love you. I’ve been in love with you since the first day we met. But you were so much out of my league—so beautiful, so confident—I was afraid to tell you. We may never get another opportunity. I finally want to confess my feelings.

She studied his face. She saw both love and pain. Oh my God! He means it! Her heart danced and her stomach clenched at the same time. It was everything she’d once dreamed of hearing from him. But it was the last thing she wanted now.

We can’t, Derek. We’re friends. Good friends. But this would be wrong. Her tone was unconvincing, however.

It was bad enough she’d fallen in love with him the day they’d met at work. He was illegally handsome—tall, wavy dark brown hair, square-jawed, hypnotic eyes the same color of the most beautiful sky she’d ever seen and large hands that instinctively sparked fantasies. Surely beneath his stylish clothes was a hard body just as glorious. For someone who could have any woman he wanted, he was surprisingly shy, sweet and unassuming. Worst of all—or was it best of all?—she occasionally saw a glint in his eye that said he would be anything but hesitant in bed. She found intoxicating the idea of his wanting her so much that he simply took her—roughly and selfishly using her body to pleasure himself. He was exactly the kind of guy she’d dreamed about falling in love with. And the British accent was frosting on the cake.

What made things even more tortuous was that ever since Derek’s wife had confided to Bobbie that he was amazing in bed, she absolutely burned for him. She regularly fantasized about him in the middle of the night—their hot, sweaty flesh wrapped in darkness, possessed by lust, her body spent from the number of orgasms he’d commanded out of it.

She nervously pulled her slightly revealing wrap dress against her and tightened the belt. She slid down the couch—as far away as she could get.

"Wrong? he objected. I’m not talking about a meaningless fuck. I want to make love to you. What could be wrong with that?" His tone was earnest and tempting. He moved in her direction.

Maybe the fact that you’re married—she glared—and the ease with which you forget that. She ground her teeth. You couldn’t have told me this before you got married? We met a month before you met Phylicia. And you wait until now to tell me you love me?

She didn’t know if she was angrier at him or his wife. Derek had been a reserved co-worker she’d fallen hard for. When it had become clear he was too shy to make a move, she’d invited him for drinks to tell him she was interested. Her roommate had known her plan, but ‘coincidentally’ showed up at the bar at the same time. When the emergency call had come in from one of Bobbie’s patients, causing her to leave for the hospital, Phylicia had said she’d ‘take care of him’. And she did that in spades. She and Derek had spent the weekend in bed and married a few months later.

I never forget I’m married. I love Phylicia. She’s such a sweet person. I’d never do anything to hurt her, he defended himself solemnly. "But I’ve always regretted not telling you how I felt. And I wouldn’t have said anything now if fate hadn’t put us together in this hotel room a thousand miles from home when the storm diverted our flight. The airline