Sunday Smooch

Welcome to another LoveCats DownUnder Sunday Smooch!


Today we have a sizzling smooch from The Billionaire's Bedside Manner by award-winning Desire author Robyn Grady, but first ...

the winner of last week's Sunday Smooch Giveaway is -- jacque!


Congratulations, jacque! Can you please contact Mel Teshco at

melteshco (at) yahoo (dot) com (dot) au

and she'll send you a copy of Ice-Cold Lover.

And now for today's Sunday Smooch from The Billionaire's Bedside Manner by Robyn Grady ...

An unexpected visitor was not something billionaire Mateo Celeca wanted to deal with on his vacation. Especially one as beautiful and mysterious as Bailey Ross. She claimed his grandmother had sent her, so he offered her a place to stay. But there was no way he was leaving his "guest" alone at his mansion. If Bailey needed a refuge, she'd come with him…to Paris.

Being with Mateo soon made Bailey forget all the reasons she'd vowed to avoid romantic entanglements. But falling into bed with him could lead her dangerously close to revealing all her secrets…and falling in love.



[Set-up: Mateo Celeca felt inconvenienced when Bailey Ross unexpectedly landed on his doorstep. But after offering a place to stay while she sorts herself out – after spending time with her, introducing her to his friends – Mateo begins to look at Bailey not with suspicion but desire. When they arrive home from an evening out, the emotions kindling between them these past days and nights ignite into a fire neither can – or wants – to contain… ]

The tall double doors of Mateo’s suite were open. He didn't bother to kick them shut after he'd carried her through. Nor did he switch on any lamps. What she could make out in the shadows was courtesy of the light filtering in from the hall as well as the moonbeams slanting through a bank of soaring arched windows that looked out over that garden and its statues below.

He stopped at the foot of his bed and his voice dropped to a low rasp. "This is what you want?"

Instinctively, her palm wove around the sandpaper of his jaw. She filled her lungs with his scent then skimmed the pad of her thumb over the dent in his chin. "Yes," she murmured.

His chest expanded, his grip tightened then he lifted her higher in his arms as his head came purposefully down. When his mouth claimed hers, Bailey couldn't contain the moan of deepest desire the sensation dragged from her throat. She didn't want to contain anything. And as his mouth worked magic against hers and his beard grazed and teased her skin, she pressed herself up and in, needing to feel even closer.

Needing him as close as it got.

Her fingers wound through his hair while his throat rumbled with satisfaction and the kiss deepened. Even as her mind and body raged with desire, she was lucid enough to recognize the simple truth. Whatever it was that had sparked when they'd met, it had grown to a point where now they were downright hungry for each other. Starving for each other's touch in a primal nothing-held-back, nothing-taboo, kind of way. She could never get enough of this burn…of the flames that already leapt and blazed near out of control.

When his lips gradually left hers, she felt dizzy. Her eyes remained closed but she heard and felt his breathing. At the edges of her mind, she wondered…why was this coming together so intense? So combustible?

He dipped to sit her on the edge of the mattress. With moonlight spilling in, she dragged the dress up over her head then, in her lingerie, watched as he wound the shirt off his shoulders, the sleeves from his arms. When he was naked, he bent near, slid an arm around her waist and drew her up to stand again. Holding her chin, he ran the wet tip of his tongue along the open seam of her mouth while, at her back, he unsnapped the strapless bra with one deft flick. His palm pressed down the dent of her spine and slipped into the back of her panties. She whimpered as her womb contracted and quivered…a tantalizing prelude to the climax she couldn't wait to enjoy.

His fingertips pressed and seared into her flesh while his mouth covered hers completely again, and all the time her insides clenched and pulsed while her limbs and mind went to mush. She wanted this heaven to go on forever. But even more, she wanted him bearing down on top of her. Inside of her. Filling and fulfilling her now.

Her hands ironed down his sides. When she reached his lean hips, she urged him forward, toward her and the bed. With their mouths still joined, she felt his smile before he broke the kiss long enough to wrench back the sheets. With a determined gleam in his eyes, he crowded until the back of her legs met the cool edge of the mattress. His big hands ringed her waist and her feet left the ground long enough for him to lay her gently down. He followed a heartbeat behind.

Looming above her, everything seemed to still as he searched her eyes in a world of midnight shadows. His deep low voice seemed to fill the room. "I didn't ask you to stay here for this."

She drew an aimless pattern through the hair at the base of his throat. "I know."

"Although I'm not sorry you agreed."

She matched his grin. "I'm not sorry you asked."

He dropped a tender kiss at the side of her mouth, a barely there touch that shot a fountain of star-tipped sparks through her every fiber.

He murmured against her lips. "Come with me to France."




To be in the draw to win a signed copy, answer Robyn's question:

"What’s the most romantic city/place you’ve ever visited?"


Come back next Sunday, when the winner of today's giveaway will be announced -- and a smooch from A Risk Worth Taking by Zana Bell will be posted!