Scorched: Complete Series

By Alexis Blake

Lucy’s ordinary life is about to be turned upside down. As she rents the home of the striking man she flirted with over the phone, she’s introduced to a world of extraordinary pleasure, yet the secrets this new man is harboring might cause more harm than good. But as their relationship takes off, Peter begins to pull away - just when she thinks she has it all figured out, Lucy begins to realize she knows nothing about the man she shares a home with...

This ebook contains very hot and explicit descriptions of romantic activity. Only mature readers should download this book.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wild Hearts Romance
• Release date: Feb 24, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310783388

Book preview

Scorched

Published by Alexis Blake

at Smashwords

Copyright © 2015 Alexis Blake

This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be constructed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental. All characters depicted are 18 years or older.

All rights reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author except in the case of brief quotation embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Table of Contents

Scorched Book 1

Scorched Book 2

Scorched Book 3

Scorched Book 4

Scorched Book 1

Lucy fanned herself in the balmy heat of the California sun as she entered her new home—well it was hers for the next year anyway.

Just set the boxes in the hall, please, she murmured as she gazed around the magnificent home.

No problem, miss. This it? The deliveryman gazed at her few boxes of belongings and into the luxurious house. No doubt thinking this New York girl and her tatty possessions didn’t match the house.

Yep, that’s all. She hadn’t brought much with her to San Francisco, just the essentials she would need for the year she would be a manager in training for Carleton House hotels. For three years, Lucy worked night and day to prove herself as an effective weekend assistant manager at the New York location. When she was promoted to a full time assistant, she saw a bright career blooming ahead of her and worked even harder. That was a year ago, now she finally had the opportunity to train to be a senior manager so she would be ready whenever a position opened. If she performed well, Lucy hoped they would place her somewhere exciting, but she secretly wanted to stay in San Francisco if the opportunity presented itself.

She was sad to leave her friends in New York, but Lucy had big plans for her future and if she had to leave her home to make it happen, she wouldn’t let that stop her.

When she first received the offer to train in San Francisco, Lucy worried about the expense of renting a furnished apartment close enough to the hotel in a high end neighborhood. The company gave her a rental stipend of course, but it wasn’t enough. Her best friend, Donna suggested that she inquire about renting a house instead. She recommended a company called Home Away from Home where people who wanted to rent their furnished houses were paired with prospective tenants. And that’s how Lucy met Peter. He wanted to downsize to a smaller condo he was hoping to close on soon, so he needed to rent his larger home in Pacific Heights. He was staying with his sister, Erica until he could move and made Lucy a deal she couldn’t refuse. He reduced the rent to an amount she could easily afford and all she had to do was maintain the pool, water the houseplants, weed the gardens and have dinner with him when she arrived.

Since they’d met on the website, Peter and Lucy had formed a flirtatious friendship and she couldn’t wait to meet him. He was a bit older than the kind of guys she normally dated, but there was something about him she couldn’t get enough of. Just the thought of him now made her flush in anticipation. After their first few conversations turned personal, it was like they both sought out any excuse to call or video chat the other, so they’d made plans to meet as soon as she got settled.

Placing her luggage on the floor beside her boxes, she tipped the delivery guy and went exploring. Peter’s home was a beautiful California Craftsman estate—the home he grew up in. Sadly, his parents died several years ago and left him the house. He’d done some remodeling to make it his own, but ultimately decided it was too big for just him.

The aged hardwood floors were covered with brightly colored Persian rugs. The original crown molding was the same dark color as the floors, cut in straight lines with geometric shapes. The furniture was an antique eclectic mix of carefully chosen pieces. She especially liked the living room with the large, but simple sectional sofa covered in an ivory fabric that contrasted nicely with the darkness of the floors. A floor-to-ceiling mirror occupied one wall of the room. Lucy was intrigued by the geometric gilded frame, but couldn’t understand why anyone would want to see so much of themselves.

As she walked up the stairs, she wondered what secrets she would discover about Peter just from living in his house. He insisted that she take the guest suite at the end of the hallway, but told her to stay out of the master bedroom and the room directly across the hall.

Curiosity got the better of her and she peeked into each room. The first was a huge bathroom, and the next was his office. There were two guest bedroom suites and a large laundry room, but the doors to the master bedroom and the room across from it were locked.

With a frown, Lucy continued on to her bedroom. She was pleasantly surprised to see a queen-sized, four-poster bed covered with a silky silver duvet and pale yellow satin sheets. A teal chaise lounge sat opposite the tall windows and a large dresser of ebony wood, paired with two mirrored nightstands completed the suite.

How on earth did I stumble into such luxury? She couldn’t help her huge smile when she discovered the massive closet and spa-like bathroom with a jetted tub.

Thank you Peter! She would never have been able to afford anything like this without his help. And all she had to do in return was keep up with the light maintenance. Still, she had a niggling thought in the back of her mind that he might expect more. Not that she wasn’t interested in pursuing their flirtation; she just didn’t want him to get the wrong idea.

Lucy really wanted to call to thank him, but she had to get settled right away. She would be expected at Carleton House San Francisco bright and early Monday morning.

She opened the tall windows and let the warm breeze fill the room as she began hanging her clothes in the closet. With her hands occupied, she let her mind wander. What was his bedroom like? And why did he keep it locked? She knew it was wrong to snoop and the man had every right to his privacy, but she wanted to know more about him.

Donna worried about Lucy’s infatuation with a virtual stranger, and insisted on doing a background check. He checked out with flying colors…on paper. He had several degrees from prestigious universities, worked for a software company, traveled quite often but was single with no children. She knew all the essentials about him, but she felt there was much more to Peter than what she could see on the surface. There was something about him she found intriguing, something she couldn’t quite define.

After she finished with her clothes, she let her curiosity get the best of her and wandered back to Peter’s office. There were very few personal items on the desk and she grew frustrated. She wanted something, anything that might give her a little more insight into Peter’s life. Then she noticed something. There were holes in the walls where pictures had once hung.

Now why would he take the pictures off the wall? She frowned as she searched through the top drawer, but all she found was stationary with Peter’s name.

Hmm. Lucy closed the drawer and turned to the side drawers. They contained files and typical office supplies, nothing remotely interesting about the man she was so curious about.

Feeling foolish and terrible for prying, Lucy shook her head and left the room. I should be ashamed of myself! She decided she should be patient and get to know him the old fashioned way.

She went downstairs to the kitchen in search of coffee and was happy to find that Peter had stocked the pantry for her. She found her favorite iced coffee chilling in the refrigerator and smiled at the realization that he’d been thinking about her.

She made her way back up to her room to finish her unpacking. As she arranged her shoes in the cubbyholes, she noticed a canvas box tucked away at the back of the closet. As she opened it, her green eyes blinked in confusion.

The box was full of strange items. There were clamps with soft pads and ones with sharp ridges, a riding crop made of stiff leather, a dog collar with crystal rhinestones. None of it made any sense until she saw the plastic package with a shiny new silver dildo inside.

What the— She realized what she was looking at and Lucy’s stomach