To Feel Again (1Night Stand #1)

By Valerie Mann

When Leah loses her fiancé, Mark, in Afghanistan, it takes nearly a year to get to the point where she’s ready to live again. Although she doesn’t want an emotional commitment, a night of consensual sex, even with a stranger, might help bring her some closure after Mark’s death. Enlisting the services of Madame Evangeline’s high-end, online dating service, One Night Stand, promises exactly what Leah is looking for—sex with a man she doesn’t have to see again, but one who will satisfy her physical needs now that she's ready to move on with her life.

Jackson Castillo has no desire to go on a date with one of Evangeline’s clients. One Night Stand uses his hotel for its client’s rendezvous, but otherwise, he never gets involved. When Eve threatens to take her business elsewhere unless he helps her with a particular case, he’s no fool. He’ll go on the date. But he won’t sleep with the woman.

When one thing leads to another, his good intentions to stay out of the bedroom with Leah are shattered. The sex is phenomenal, but there’s more to Leah he wants to explore. After she leaves the next morning without a goodbye, he’s both disappointed and royally pissed. Will he let her go or find a way to convince her she’s ready...to feel again?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Decadent Publishing
• Release date: Mar 11, 2011
• ISBN: 9781936394807

Book preview

To Feel Again

A 1 Night Stand Story

By

Valerie Mann

Smashwords Edition Copyright © 2011 by Valerie Mann

ISBN: 978-1-936394-80-7

Cover art by Dara England

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

All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work, in whole or in part, in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.

Published by Decadent Publishing Company, LLC

Look for us online at:

http://www.decadentpublishing.com

~DEDICATION~

To my besties, KR, OS, BD and the rest. You know who you are.

Prologue

I need a favor, my dear. Eve paused as the nonstop tapping of a keyboard on the other end of the line echoed in her ear.

Such a driven man. He needs to find an outlet. Some relief, or at the very least, a distraction from his relentless, busy schedule.

A deep voice finally resonated with resigned impatience. What can I do for you, Eve?

I have a client with a very…special request. I’d like your help. She paused, already knowing what the man’s response would be. A big, fat no fucking way. Not that the reply would deter her in the slightest. Once she set her sights on satisfying her clients, nothing kept her from that goal. Which made her the very best at what she did.

He didn’t bother to hide a sarcastic snort. I’m afraid to ask. Last time you called with a ‘special request,’ I had to pay my maintenance guys overtime to reinforce hooks in the ceiling. I still don’t want to know what that was about.

Not that I’d tell you anyway. But, I promise no hooks this time. She hesitated, aware of the need to tread carefully. Jackson, this woman’s profile is very sad. She lost her fiancé in Afghanistan nearly a year ago. She misses him desperately and has had a difficult time moving on.

More tapping. Obviously distracted, Jack grunted a non-committal, Uh, huh.

She feels a one-night stand with a man similar to her fiancé would bring her some closure.

The rapid tapping

Reviews for To Feel Again (1Night Stand #1)

[mom2lnb · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

To Feel Again is the first story in Decadent Publishing's popular 1NightStand series. Each story in the series stands alone but has the common thread of one or both of the protagonists hiring Madame Evangeline, the owner of 1NightStand, a high-end, online, dating service, to set up a date for them that will end in a one night stand. The Castillo brothers, owners of a hotel chain that is contracted with Madame Evangeline to provide a venue for these dates, sometimes appear as well. In fact, Jackson Castillo himself is the hero of this first novelette.In the series opener, our heroine, Leah, requests a one night stand on the one year anniversary of her finance's death in Afghanistan. She wants to be done grieving and move on and believes that having hot sex with a stranger for one night will help her do that. I wish the reader had been given a little more background on where Leah was in the grieving process and why she thinks this is the only way to move forward with her life, but I was willing to accept that this was her personal truth. I did like that Leah was determined and knew what she wanted but that didn't stop her from being more than a little nervous about the experience. I also liked that Jackson recognized this and was able to make her feel comfortable with him. For his part, Jackson only accepted the date as a favor to Madame Evangeline and because she twisted his arm a little from a business perspective. He went into it not intending to sleep with Leah, but all his good intentions flew out the window the minute he laid eyes on her. In the end, it was sweet that Jackson got offended when Leah walked out the next morning, and that he went after her, with every intention of bringing her back.The author did a good job of expressing the sexual tension between Jackson and Leah, and I liked that they took some time to have dinner and get to know each other a little before going to bed. The love scenes were steamy, and I thought they had good chemistry together. However, due to the brevity of the story, I didn't find it to be 100% satisfying. The character, plot and romantic development are pretty minimal, but probably the best one could hope for in such a short story. Also, there are no unrealistic declarations of love (which is understandable given the nature of the story but still something I prefer to have in any romance), and the ending was more of an HFN than an HEA. Overall, To Feel Again was still a nice story and had some decent romance in it. At least, I found myself willing to buy into the idea that Jackson and Leah had a chance at becoming more to one another than just a one night stand even though we don't really get to see this play out. The writing itself was solid too, which was a plus, so all in all, I would call this a pretty good read. It has definitely left me open to reading more of the author's work and to checking out more of the 1NightStand novelettes.