Wick Christa - Tempted By Trouble

Copyright 2019 by Christa Wick

Billionaire. Swamp gator. Former special ops. And current pain in her a.

Law student Gina Banks knows that getting in bedliterallywith billionaire Austin Long is just plain trouble. Sure, shes taken a few risks to try to stop the expansion of Skipjack Bay. And yes, okay, the first time she met with Austin to plead her case, shed technically been trespassing.

But this? His bed, his rules, his massive, lets just say confidence. Not to mention his uncanny ability to make her come...completely undone. Its all beyond crazy. Still, the chance to help the families in her hometown is something she cant turn down. So, she agrees to his terms.

Total surrender. Hers. To him. A simple business deal where they both get what they want.

The absolute last thing Gina expects is for Austin to want her to surrender her heart to him, too.

Previously published as Black Gold 1 & 2, (c) 2012 & (c) 2014 revised throughout with newly added content and an extended ending.

Note: This is an extra steamy Far Too Tempting standalone with character cameos from the hot & sweet standalone, Tempted Beyond Reason, formerly titled Waking Up Her Curves, which has similarly been republished with revisions and new content.

Clothed in a clingy emerald green dress that stopped two inches above her knees, Gina Banks stepped away from the line of trees backing the Boudrot estate. Glancing to her right, she noted she was a football field away from the big house and conveniently close to what looked like one of two guest cottages.

Gina memorized the distance from the nearest cottage to where she stood, then returned to the tree and retrieved a plastic bag from the local grocer. The bag contained a dollar store flashlight, an empty champagne flute and a pair of suede pumps that perfectly matched her short, sleeveless dress. She took off the hiking boots she'd bought for five bucks at a thrift store then slid the pumps on.

After checking one last time to make sure her car key remained wedged down the front of her bra, she grabbed the champagne flute then hid the bag and boots behind the tree. With little natural light and no mirror, she ran a hand over the upswept braids, smoothing here and there until it no longer felt like she had just walked half a mile through branches and brambles with snakes slithering through the underbrush.

With a smile, she headed toward the back of the big house. Tea lights sparkled along the veranda like fireflies attracted by the sounds of a string quartet drifting across the dew laden lawn. Schubert played if she wasn't mistaken. Her stomach knotted when the fortissimo broke violently to a pianissimo chorale and she recognized the composition as Death and the Maiden.

Her grip on the delicate stem of the champagne flute tightened. "That song's not for you, girl."

If anything, the song played for Austin Long, the man she was risking snake bites, navigational errors and arrest to speak to. She had exhausted all conventional means. Half a dozen subordinates at the Long Shore Oil Development headquarters had hung up on her multiple times each; registered letters had been refused at the front desk; and security had forcefully escorted her from the building more than once.

She had been ready to chain herself to the front stepsa questionable strategy for a third-year law studentbefore she luckily caught a scrap of office cross-talk on her last phone call to the company's executive suite.

Nine p.m. this Sunday at the Boudrot estateyes sir, Mr. Long will be in attendance.

Reaching the back of the house, Gina frowned. The building was beautiful. Massive, with two-story pillars and a porch that wrapped all the way around the house, it exemplified antebellum architecture. She had loved the look of such homes as a child until she learned the ugly history surrounding them.

Forcing the frown back into a smile, she stepped onto the rear porch. She walked toward the center of the building, her free hand trailing along the wall in bored elegance, slowing only occasionally to test the handle on the double glass doors until she found one unlocked.

The smile turned genuine as she slipped inside. The host had security checkpoints at the front of the house and the long oak-lined drive. Filthy rich, Rory Boudrot had plenty of paid help to keep people like her out.

Smart and determined, she didn't need an invitation.

Following the music led her to an oversized, candlelit parlor. There were a few men in formal dress milling around. The women on the arms of those men startled Gina. They lookeddelicately putlike high-class call girls.

Chill, Gina. It's a party filled with trophy wives, not hookers. Don't look shocked or you'll get kicked out before you even find Long!

She moved around the room, smiling and looking for the familiar features she had studied a hundred times over in the local papers and on the internet. Seeing that he wasn't among the men there, she put her champagne glass down and grabbed one that was full. She pushed hers to the back so no one would notice it didn't match the others then walked through the open double doors to the next room, where more couples lingered. At the third room she stepped into, couples sat on couches and

What the heck?

Gina turned away from the too ardent and far too public embrace of the nearest couple. Opening the closest door to her, she stepped through and found herself in a long hall. Closing the door behind her, she rested against it, closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

Okay, maybe crashing the party was a bad idea. Maybe Long wasn't even there.

Only he was.

Gina learned that the moment she opened her eyes. Austin Long, in the flesh, and staring intently at her. As he approached Gina, she couldn't help but notice the predatory sway of his hips, his center of balance pushed low, his whole body ready to spring into action.

A West Point graduate, eight years special operations after that before resigning his commission to run the family oil business four years ago, Long wasn't the kind of man she'd mess with if she didn't need to. Unfortunately, an entire communitythe one she'd grown up inneeded her to fight for them.