Sweet Surrender (Sugar Rush #3) Read online

  Sweet

  SURRENDER

  A Sugar Rush Novel

  Book Three

  NINA LANE

  © 2017 Nina Lane. All rights reserved.

  Kindle Edition

  ISBN: 978-0-9981059-5-6

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

  SWEET SURRENDER is a very sexy contemporary romance by New York Times bestselling author Nina Lane. It can be read as a standalone or enjoyed as part of the Sugar Rush series.

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  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  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

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Acknowledgements

  Also by Nina Lane

  Chapter

  ONE

  Perfect legs.

  Long and shapely with toned calves and delicate ankles. Legs that curved in all the right places and could wrap around a man to pull him closer. Legs he wanted to touch, even though they were encased—so wrongly—in thick, industrial nylons. Even worse, they emerged from under an ugly, black skirt and extended down to a pair of flat, sensible shoes that were probably old-lady orthopedic.

  But those legs. Good thing he was an expert on women’s bodies, or he might have ignored her. As it was, he’d been struck by the beauty of her legs the second he stepped into the chaotic mess of the Sugar Rush Candy Company’s library. She was standing on a ladder by a high bookshelf, her attention on a row of books and her legs right at his eye level.

  He stopped behind her, his gaze following the line of her calves up to her ass. He couldn’t make out any hint of its roundness under the straight skirt, but no way did a woman with legs like that have anything less than a perfect, heart-shaped ass.

  “Need any help?” he asked, his voice unnaturally loud in the cavernous space.

  She shrieked.

  Tyler flinched.

  The woman twisted around with a gasp, one hand grabbing for the shelf. A book thudded to the floor. She teetered. He caught sight of wide, startled eyes behind a pair of glasses just before he darted toward her. His arms shot out the instant she lost her balance on the ladder rung and pitched forward.

  She landed in his arms, her feet hitting the floor and her body falling against his in a warm, sweet-smelling bundle that jolted something loose inside him.

  Well, damn.

  He hadn’t expected her to be soft and apparently young, with full breasts that pillowed right up against his chest and—

  “I’m so sorry.” She gripped his T-shirt for balance, her gaze colliding with his, her face close enough that her breath brushed his lips. “I didn’t hear you come in.”

  “I’m a ninja like that.”

  As pick-up lines went, it totally sucked, but all the blood was rushing from his brain and straight to his dick. He couldn’t form a coherent thought. Every ounce of his awareness was focused on the feel of this woman in his arms.

  Under any other circumstances, he’d hardly be surprised by his reaction, but the past six weeks had been such a fucking disaster that he’d smothered his sex drive under the weight of guilt and self-disgust. Now he was unexpectedly holding a woman who smelled like a thousand good things and whose curvy, soft body fired his lust back to life. A woman who reminded him of everything he loved about the female species.

  “Are you okay?” he asked.

  “Yes.” Her voice was warm and throaty, like she’d swallowed a butterscotch.

  She pulled away from him, her breath expelling on a rush. Her breasts heaved under the formless shape of her suit jacket.

  Tyler’s heart was beating unusually fast. Her eyes met his, her shock fading as she straightened her glasses and tugged the lapels of her jacket together.

  “I was…I was just looking for a book for Mr. Stone,” she explained.

  Mr. Stone. His pleasure dissipated. That meant either his eldest brother Luke or second-eldest brother Evan. The superheroes who’d saved Sugar Rush a dozen years ago and were now steering the company all over the world like a couple of candy-making caped crusaders. She must be their Girl Friday. He was sure he’d never met her. He’d have remembered her.

  She bent to pick up the book that had fallen to the floor. Her skirt tightened, displaying exactly what he’d suspected—a round, perfect ass that, like her legs, had no business being held prisoner by ugly fabric.

  “Kate,” he said, her name coming to him in a burst. “Luke’s secretary.”

  “Executive assistant.” She straightened, her eyebrows lifting.

  “Tyler Stone.” He extended a hand. “Family fuckup.”

  “Ah.” Her fingers closed around his, sending warmth up his arm. “Yes, we’ve communicated via email about Sugar Rush events, as well as Luke and Polly’s upcoming wedding. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

  “Hasn’t everyone?”

  “Your reputation does precede you.” She tugged her hand from his when he would have held it for a minute longer than was appropriate just because he wanted to. She stepped back, holding the book against her chest. “What are you doing here?”

  “Dying a little.”

  “I beg your pardon?”

  He glanced around the wood-paneled room, the reality of his situation crashing back in on him. Before he’d been told about his punishment, he’d barely remembered there was a basement library at the corporate headquarters of the Sugar Rush Candy Company. He sure as hell hadn’t known, or cared, that it was a fucking disaster.

  With its coffered ceiling and mezzanine stretching across two walls, the library might have once been nice. But now books and ledgers haphazardly stuffed the floor-to-ceiling wooden shelves, memorabilia cluttered the cases, and open file cabinets overflowed with papers, maps, and photographs. A huge oak desk sat against one wall, the surface scattered with papers and an ancient computer. Everything was dusty, crumbling, yellowing, and old.

  Except for Kate. Despite her granny clothing, she was young. And she smelled damned good, like caramel or something. Only better.

  Too bad she was a cliché with her severely cut suit, black-framed glasses, and her hair scraped back into a bun so tight it looked like it was stretching her eyebrows up. With her long legs and that perfume, she would’ve otherwise been appealing. If not almost hot.

  He flopped down in the desk chair and put his feet on a low filing cabinet.

  “I’ve been banished here by the king of the realm.” He spread his arms wide to encompass his new home. “I got into some trouble recently. Well, I’ve been in trouble for a while, but this last one was a doozy. My father sentenced me to do penance down here in the dungeon.”

  He fully expected her
to ask, “What kind of trouble?” because that was the only interesting part of his explanation.

  Instead she asked, “What kind of work?”

  “I’m supposed to whip the library into shape.” Tyler scratched his head. “I guess the former librarian wasn’t known for his organizational skills.”

  According to Evan, the Sugar Rush Library and Archives had been Fred’s domain for close to forty-five years before he’d passed away two months ago. Since the library wasn’t used regularly, Luke hadn’t immediately advertised for a replacement.

  Only when Evan’s environmental team had started using the archives to research Sugar Rush’s cocoa bean crops and sustainability issues had he informed Luke that they had a “situation” on their hands.

  With Fred at the helm for so many years, no one had ever paid much attention to how the library was run or the fact that it was a mess. Fred could apparently produce a requested book or ledger in thirty seconds, and if the place looked more like an old bookshop from a horror movie than the library of a multi-million-dollar global candy company, the other employees neither minded nor cared.

  Except for now, when the C-suite actually needed to use the damned archives and found themselves at a total loss without eagle-eyed Fred the Librarian.

  And when Tyler’s father and brothers needed to “teach him a lesson.”

  Why they thought he could actually get anything done here was beyond him. It wasn’t as if he knew the first thing about libraries.

  Then again, this was less about the actual library than it was a way for the Stones to pull Tyler into line. His father had tried to do that over the years with threats, arguments, and cutting him off financially, but the punishments had never stuck.

  This was different, though. In the past he’d been caught for minor offenses—underage drinking, trespassing, a few lame attempts at vandalism. But he’d never done anything bad enough to mess with his family’s reputation. He’d sure as hell never destroyed property or been arrested.

  Until now.

  Yeah, he’d fucked up royally. And he was lucky he hadn’t been killed, as his father had reminded him multiple times.

  Guilt stabbed him. He fiddled with a pen on the desk, aware of Kate watching him.

  “So you’re the new librarian.” Her gaze skirted over him, taking in his torn jeans and white T-shirt. “Good, because we need one. Why are you starting on a Friday?”

  “Just to get the lay of the land.” Especially since he couldn’t remember ever having set foot in the library, not even when he was a kid.

  “Well, several projects need library resources at the moment,” Kate said. “Mr. Evan Stone is compiling information about education initiatives. He’s ready to offer scholarships for students to participate on the Cocoa Bean Team.”

  Tyler wasn’t surprised Evan had recruited Luke’s assistant to help launch the Cocoa Bean Team, the sustainability project he’d been setting up for the past six months. This coming summer, a group of Sugar Rush employees, volunteers, scientists, researchers, and students would join a farmers’ collective in Venezuela to study and help with local infrastructures and cocoa bean crop production.

  Tyler didn’t really get the whole thing, though that was often the case with Sugar Rush projects, but the employees had been buzzing with excitement about it for a while now, and apparently the company was already getting tons of great publicity.

  Yet another reason his colossal fuckup couldn’t get into the press and screw up Evan’s work and reputation. If it had been any one of his other brothers, Tyler might not have cared as much, but everyone—including him—had a soft spot for Evan, whose congenital heart defect and four surgeries had never prevented him from going after what he wanted. Including his girl Hannah, who was now living with him at his beachside cottage in apparently blissful happiness.

  All of which meant Tyler had to suck it up and fix his mistake. Even if the toppling piles of books and crammed file cabinets felt like a mountain. Even if he had no idea where to start.

  “Also, I’m compiling information about Sugar Rush’s history of candy for the new revamp of the website, so I’m looking for vintage ads.” Kate approached the desk, gesturing to the book she still held, which bore the title The Origins of Candy. “And I need data on the latest ‘healthy chocolate’ trends for Mr. Stone.”

  “Which Mr. Stone? Luke or Evan?”

  “Mr. Spencer Stone.”

  Christ. Now she was working for his lab-nerd brother too?

  “He’s researching ways to diversify the nutritional composition of traditional chocolate.” Kate placed a sheet of paper at his elbow. “And this is a starting list of books and documents I need for the Cocoa Bean Team. Once you find them, you can either bring them to Luke’s office or call me and I’ll come pick them up.”

  Tyler squinted at the paper—a neatly typed list of stuff including words like strategic initiative, analyst’s report, and risk assessment. No clue what any of that was, much less where to find it.

  “Yeah, this isn’t really my area of expertise,” he hedged.

  “Since this is your new job…” She peered over the tops of her glasses at him. “You’d better make it your area of expertise.”

  Well. She had a strict schoolmarm thing going on too. How much of that was an act? He let his gaze wander over her body. The top button of her white shirt had come undone, revealing a tempting V of pale, creamy skin. Maybe she wore sexy lingerie under her starchy clothes and had a secret erotic side she rarely let other people see.

  He tried to smother a sudden rush of intrigue. A woman had gotten him into this mess in the first place—heck, the female species had been getting him into messes since first grade because he could never say no to them—and he sure as hell didn’t need one getting in his head now. Especially not one who, lush body aside, seemed to define the word uptight.

  “You’re a super-assistant, aren’t you?” he asked. “Able to leap over scheduling conflicts in a single bound.”

  She looked unamused.

  “The more I know about what’s going on, the easier it is for me to do my job.” Kate whipped a crisp white business card out of her breast pocket. “Here’s my card. You can reach me either at my direct number or email. Let me know if you find any historic Sugar Rush advertisements.”

  She started toward the door. Tyler looked at her ass, which unfortunately was once again hidden behind the straight black curtain of her skirt. He picked up the business card. Kate Darling, Executive Assistant, Sugar Rush Candy Company.

  A chuckle rumbled in his chest. She looked like a Kate for sure. A Darling not so much.

  He tossed the card back on the desk and surveyed the mess of a library. His father had made it clear—organize the collections to his standards, pay off the boat damage, and then they would “have a discussion” about Tyler’s future.

  He had no choice. His father had cut off his access to his trust fund and allowance. He’d get paid for his work at the library—standard entry-level salary—which he’d use for basic living expenses and to pay Savannah’s father back for the speedboat. If he didn’t, he risked prosecution. He wasn’t so stupid not to realize he’d still gotten off easy, considering the alternative.

  There was just one question left. How the fuck was he going to get this done?

  He picked up Kate Darling’s card again. Not only did she rule over his older brother’s life of schedules and meetings, she was helping with both the Cocoa Bean Team, and Luke and Polly’s upcoming wedding. And she was doing research about chocolate or whatever for Spencer. In other words, the woman got shit done, even to the high standards of his anal-retentive brothers.

  So if anyone at Sugar Rush could help him with the damned library, it was a hyper-efficient assistant who knew about things like spreadsheets and databases. A woman who actually gave a damn that a book collection was in alphabetical order.

  Relief filled Tyler’s chest, easing the knot of tension that had been there since he’d first been
handed his sentence.

  Kate Darling was his key to finishing the job and getting the hell out of Sugar Rush. All he had to do was convince her to help him. An efficient little do-gooder like her?

  No problem.

  Chapter

  TWO

  “He did what?” Kate couldn’t keep the shock out of her voice, and she quickly tried to conceal it with a delicate cough.

  Since her encounter with Tyler Stone less than two hours ago, she’d been wondering exactly what kind of trouble he’d gotten himself into. But she hadn’t expected this.

  “He could get charged with grand theft auto.” CEO Luke Stone turned from the window of his office, which overlooked a majestic view of the California coastline—not that he appeared to care about the view. His mouth twisted with disgust. “In California, speed boats are included in the grand theft auto code.”

  “Was he…er, under the influence?” Kate set a stack of folders on his desk.

  “Yeah, the influence of a rich, pretty socialite.” Luke punched a few keys on his keyboard. “The boat belonged to her father. Worth a fortune. Tyler decided to take it on a joyride without asking permission and ended up crashing it into a channel marker. Lucky he wasn’t killed.”

  Good lord. And here she thought Tyler had been caught lighting his flatulence on fire or something nonsensical like that. She hadn’t imagined he’d done something dangerous and beyond stupid.

  “Was the girl in the boat with him?” she asked.

  “No, she had the good sense to stay onshore.” Luke heaved a sigh and sat back in his chair. “At least she was able to call the Coast Guard to go out and rescue the jackass.”

  “Will he have to go to court?” Kate asked.

  “Unfortunately, no. My father was going to let him take the fall—court, fines, jail, whatever, but Evan convinced him not to. Last thing we need is shitty publicity, especially right when the company is finally getting so much good press. To have the media all over Tyler for being a dickwad rich kid…no.”

  “Sounds like he still has to pay, though.”