LOVE'S BOUNTY by Nina Pierce

LOVE'S BOUNTY by Nina Pierce

Tilling Passions Book 2

A woman determined to protect her heart...

Landscaping in Delmont, Maine hasn't been DEIRDRE TILLING's only passion. Up until two months ago, it had included a live-in lover. Jilted for the third time in as many years, Deirdre's decided to give up on love. With her feet firmly planted on the path of one night stands, she finds herself heating up the sheets with a dark haired stranger she met at her new employer's party. But one night with the man who is both sexy as hell and compassionate, may not be enough.

An agent hell bent on proving himself...

DEA agent, AYDEN SCOTT, has a lot to prove after a disastrous drug bust in Miami three years earlier that left a member of his team dead. Working undercover as lead investigator, he's determined to bring down an elusive drug cartel smuggling heroin into central Maine. He'll use any means necessary to complete his objective, including sleeping with the suspected drug Lord's landscaper, Deirdre. He just hadn't expected the feisty redhead to be so much more than long legs and dangerous curves.

One night neither of them can forget...

Deirdre and Ayden both thought one sexually explosive romp in the sack would be the end of their relationship. But Deirdre's arrest for heroin possession and her father's near-fatal heart attack prompts Ayden to confess his true identity. When Deirdre is kidnapped by the drug cartel and used as a pawn, Ayden is forced to choose between his heart and his mission. The question is...who will survive his decision?

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Excerpt:

The condo they entered was utilitarian, the living room furniture leather and heavy wood and very masculine. The whole first floor was visible from the front door where she stood frozen, too flustered by her own audacity to move. Austin closed the door and stepped around her, heading to the other side of the condo and into the small kitchen area.

"Can I get you something to drink?" He ducked his head into the fridge, his jeans pulling snug across a nicely curved ass. "I don't have much. Coffee. Water. Wine." He stood up and looked at her. She almost giggled at the way he tilted his head to one side, sort of that lost puppy, take-me-home kind of look. His blue eyes mirrored her confusion.

"Deirdre, can I get you anything?"

Yeah, those luscious lips between my thighs. Deirdre shook her head. Coffee. She was here for a cup of coffee before she drove home. Nothing more. But her body was screaming for something else.

"Wine sounds nice."

"A New York Riesling or an Australian Pinot Noir?" Austin held up two bottles.

No, just coffee. She couldn't drive home with more alcohol in her system. It was rutting season and even this late at night the moose would be on the move. Her little Toyota truck was no match for one of those behemoths. "Whichever one is white," she said, wondering why she was letting her body make all the decisions.

Deirdre walked over to the stereo system, perusing the CDs haphazardly strewn about on the receiver. It was the only thing out of place in his condo.

"I have Mozart and Def Leopard and everything in between. Choose your poison." Austin's voice washed over her shoulder as he stepped up behind her. She could feel the heat of his chest against her back. Not the soft, round, plump feeling of a woman, but the steel power of a man. Heat shot through her veins, hitching her breath and pressing her nipples against her lace bra.

She took the glass he offered, moving to the couch and away from the intoxicating scent of his spicy cologne.

"Something quiet." she said. "After the loud bands at the party, it would be nice." Actually, she needed something to soothe her pulsing nerves. "You live here long?" Deirdre sipped the wine, grateful Austin's attention on the stereo kept him from seeing her shaking hand. What was she doing here?

"A few months. I have some business up and down the coast. When it's over I'll head back to Boston." He turned and lifted his glass of ice water. "Here's to enjoying the beautiful Maine autumn."

"You're not drinking?"

"Too many wild nights. I'm giving my liver a rest."

The quiet strains of piano music filled the room. She recognized the artist as one of her father's favorites. Immediately, her brooding thoughts turned to her family.

There had been so many nights in the last few months she'd sat with her father in the quiet of their home in town. She and her two sisters rotated nights, giving their mother a short reprieve from the hopelessness of growing old. Deidre couldn't count the number of times she'd played the CDs, hoping to give him strength and courage in the memory of who he once was. But it seemed he'd given up on life. Now, they all watched as his body withered its way to death.

"…Deirdre, yoo-hoo, you okay?" Austin was bent over, intently staring into her eyes, only inches from her nose.

"Sorry, Austin. Drifted off for a moment. What were you saying?"

"I was talking about my consulting firm, but obviously that put you to sleep." He sat on the leather couch, lacing his fingers through hers, pulling her down next to him. "Sit. Enjoy the wine and the music."

Though Deirdre had had only two one-night stands in her lifetime, one in college, and of course, Bobby, she could distinguish genuine interest from lust. It was concern she saw in the cobalt pools of Austin's eyes and the gentle curve of his mouth. She leaned against him seeking solace in the solid feeling of his body.

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BLIND LOVE by Nina Pierce

BLIND HER WITH BLISS by Nina Pierce

Tilling Passions Book 1

He's a shock jock looking to reform. She's an accountant hoping to cut loose. Can love open their eyes to forever?

Uptight CPA, JULIE TILLING is tired of doing the right thing. When her friend from high school dies and Julie is the only one who believes he didn’t commit suicide, she takes it upon herself to explore the circumstances surrounding his death. When the investigation takes her into a world of sexy nightclubs and a one night stand that has her heart melting, Julie finds a naughty side of herself she didn’t know existed.

DAMON COREY didn’t come to Maine to become a shock jock. But when his dream of becoming a concert pianist seems unobtainable, the radio station’s offer is too good to pass up. Unfortunately, the one night stands and empty relationships are getting old—that is until a mysterious brunette falls into his arms and wraps around his heart making him believe in love.

With their passion overheating and their sexual encounters exploding, Damon and Julie work to see beyond the masks that have protected them from the world. But will Damon’s enigmatic shock jock persona become Julie’s sexual undoing and reveal Damon as the missing piece that solves the puzzling questions surrounding her friend’s death?

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Excerpt:

Julie trudged across the parking lot into the floral shop at Tilling Garden and Plants. She ran her fingers through the thick strands of hair she’d meticulously straightened that morning. There was nothing left of the salon-sleek hairstyle save for a rusty mass of frizz. What a pain in the ass.

“I’m here,” she called out in unison with the bells jingling over the door. The scent of eucalyptus and jasmine filled her nose and she breathed deep, letting the calming aroma fill her.

“I’m out back.”

“No shit, Sherlock,” Julie mumbled, winding her way through the displays of silk flowers and potted plants, past the empty front counter to the back work room.

“That’s a pretty outfit, Jules. Not everyone can wear grey. But it’s definitely a good color for you.” Her sister Meghan barely turned away from the assortment of roses scattered on her workbench.

Julie wasn’t sure that was a compliment, but she knew her younger sibling had intended it that way, so she took no offense. “Thanks.”

Younger by a year, Meghan looked radiant as always. Nothing ever looked good on Julie. Her sister’s chestnut curls were pulled back in an elaborate French twist with tiny wisps framing her pixie features. Meghan didn’t need to wear the makeup accenting her almond eyes and high cheekbones. Her flawless skin would have been beautiful without the subtle strokes of color. Unlike Julie who attempted to cover the smattering of freckles across her nose and thicken the sparse eyelashes she’d been blessed with.

“So what’s up with the frantic phone call, Meg?” Julie asked, leaning in to give her sister a gentle squeeze and a kiss on the cheek. “Nice bridal bouquet. Hard to believe you’ll be carrying your own soon.”

“I know. How cool is that? Just like Mum and Daddy.” Meghan held out her left hand. The three-quarter-carat marquis diamond caught the afternoon light shafting through the window and sent it dancing on the walls.

Julie tamped down the quick spike of envy. The fact that her sisters seemed to have all the luck in the love department while she continued to strike out certainly wasn’t their fault.

“Anyway, the phone call.” Meghan giggled, shrugging her shoulders. “I just can’t figure out the new filing system you set up in the office. I need the bill for the Harriman wedding tomorrow and Chelsea’s paycheck, but I couldn’t remember the combination to the safe. Then I had these invoices from the flower delivery. Those I just threw on top of the desk, along with the mail for the last couple of days.”

At least she had the grace to blush at her own shortcomings.

“It’s Friday, Jules. Peter and I have a date,” Meghan continued. “I knew you wouldn’t be busy. Could you be a peach and dig it all out for me? You’re so much better at all the organizational stuff.”

Exasperated, Julie bit her cheek to hold in a sigh. “Meg, the combination is the month and day of our parents’ anniversary. Simple. Four numbers.” Since Meghan wasn’t really listening to the details, Julie walked into the little office off the back room as she talked. “The invoices go in the basket on top of the desk marked ‘in’. And you could have sorted the mail to separate the junk from the bills,” Julie muttered the last observation. Two days’ worth of sale flyers and bills littered the otherwise immaculate desk.

“What?” Meghan hollered from the workbench.

“Never mind, I’ll do it. Like always,” Julie said to no one.

“Hello, anyone here?”

The backdoor slammed. Another two steps and her baby sister, Deirdre, would have seen Meghan. Julie rubbed at the annoyance pounding behind her temples.

“Jules is in the office,” Meghan replied.

Tilling Gardens and Plants had been the brainchild of her sisters. Open five years, her younger siblings had floundered financially for the first two. When Julie received her MBA with honors from Northeastern University in Boston, she’d had plans too big to fit into the rural town of Delmont. But her sisters’ not-so-subtle hints at bankruptcy had piled onto her already high level of guilt at leaving home. Add the weight of aging parents with declining health and it had become a burden she couldn’t ignore.

Returning to Delmont as their partner and business manager had ensured Julie would be close should her parents need her. Of course it didn’t hurt that the floral and landscaping business had flourished under her business guidance and was now supporting the three of them quite nicely. Still, the strains of her family obligations often stretched her patience to the point of breaking—like now.

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