Praise for the Nauti Boys series
“The Nauti series is one that absolutely no one should miss. The characters are brilliant, sexy, and real, while the high-octane action and soul-gripping plots have you on the edge of your seat. I loved it!”
—Fresh Fiction
“Completely blown away by this surprising story. I could not put [it] down . . . and before I knew it, I had read this entire novel in one sitting. Lora Leigh has spun a smoldering hot tale of secret passion and erotic deceptions.”
—Romance Junkies
“Wild and thrilling.”
—The Romance Studio
“The sex scenes are, as always with Leigh’s books, absolutely sizzling.”
—Errant Dreams Reviews
“Heated romantic suspense.”
—Midwest Book Review
More praise for
Lora Leigh
and her novels
“Leigh draws readers into her stories and takes them on a sensual roller coaster.”
—Love Romances & More
“Will have you glued to the edge of your seat.”
—Fallen Angel Reviews
“Blistering sexuality and eroticism . . . Bursting with passion and drama . . . Enthralls and excites from beginning to end.”
—Romance Reviews Today
“A scorcher with sex scenes that blister the pages.”
—A Romance Review
“A perfect blend of sexual tension and suspense.”
—Sensual Romance Reviews
“Hot sex, snappy dialogue, and kick-butt action add up to outstanding entertainment.”
—RT Book Reviews (Top Pick)
“The writing of Lora Leigh continues to amaze me . . . Electrically charged, erotic, and just a sinfully good read!”
—Joyfully Reviewed
“Wow! . . . The lovemaking is scorching.”
—Just Erotic Romance Reviews
Berkley titles by Lora Leigh
The Breeds
RULE BREAKER
STYGIAN’S HONOR
LAWE’S JUSTICE
NAVARRO’S PROMISE
STYX’S STORM
LION’S HEAT
BENGAL’S HEART
COYOTE’S MATE
MERCURY’S WAR
DAWN’S AWAKENING
TANNER’S SCHEME
HARMONY’S WAY
MEGAN’S MARK
The Nauti Boys
NAUTI SEDUCTRESS
NAUTI ENCHANTRESS
NAUTI TEMPTRESS
NAUTI DECEPTIONS
NAUTI INTENTIONS
NAUTI DREAMS
NAUTI NIGHTS
NAUTI BOY
Anthologies
ENTHRALLED
(with Alyssa Day, Meljean Brook, and Lucy Monroe)
NAUTIER AND WILDER
(with Jaci Burton)
TIED WITH A BOW
(with Virginia Kantra, Eileen Wilks, and Kimberly Frost)
PRIMAL
(with Michelle Rowen, Jory Strong, and Ava Gray)
NAUTI AND WILD
(with Jaci Burton)
HOT FOR THE HOLIDAYS
(with Angela Knight, Anya Bast, and Allyson James)
THE MAGICAL CHRISTMAS CAT
(with Erin McCarthy, Nalini Singh, and Linda Winstead Jones)
SHIFTER
An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014
NAUTI SEDUCTRESS
Copyright © 2015 by Lora Leigh.
Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin to continue to publish books for every reader.
BERKLEY® and the “B” design are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.
For more information visit penguin.com.
An application to register this book for cataloging has been submitted to the Library of Congress.
eBook ISBN: 978-0-698-19448-9
PUBLISHING HISTORY
Berkley trade paperback edition / November 2015
Cover design by Lesley Worrell.
Cover photo by Radius / Superstock.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
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Contents
Praise for Lora Leigh
Berkley titles by Lora Leigh
Title Page
Copyright
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
EPILOGUE
PROLOGUE
Something was wrong. It oozed through her senses like an oily presence, determined to overwhelm her, to overtake her. Dark, invisible chains held her in that place between sleep and conscious awareness. And no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t push past the restraints tightening around her.
Panic raced through her. She knew she had to fight, knew she had to find a way to open her eyes, to force herself to fight. She had to. If she didn’t, then she could die there.
She had to open her eyes. She had to see who was doing this, had to remember. . . . But she couldn’t force them open, she couldn’t move or fight. With each second the sense of danger grew, wrapping around her with razor-tipped bonds.
Hurting her.
Her blood began heating, almost boiling through her veins with so much pain, such agony. It began in her arm, and inch by inch worked along her body until even her brain was on fire.
She couldn’t scream. Her voice didn’t work, the screams and the pleas couldn’t find a path to emit the tortured sounds reverberating through her head.
Icy terror ricocheted through her.
All I have to do is accept it’s real. Just accept it isn’t a dream and the pain will go away. I just have to accept it. It’s not a dream. Accept it, and the pain will stop.
Just accept it.
Accept it and I won’t hurt anymore.
That wasn’t her voice. It wasn’t her thoughts.
What else could it be? If it wasn’t hers, then what could it be?
Oh God, the pain!
It was real. It was really happening. It was real.
The pain eased marginally. Boiling, lava-hot agony no longer ripped at her senses but the pain was still intense, excruciating.
She just wanted it to go away.
—
The whispers moved around her, voices in her head, or were they in the room with her? Demands that she accept it was real.
She was accepting. God, yeah, it was real. Every agonizing second of it was real.
She just couldn’t figure out how it was real. No one should be able to get to her here, at her mother’s inn. Her suite was the safest place she could be. Her mother’s lover, Timothy, was a retired federal agent and revered security gadgets. He would never allow anyone to hurt her like this. She had to wake up. She had to make it stop.
Pain exploded through Zoey’s head with the force of a blow connecting with it, sending shards of white-hot agony tearing through it.