Exclusive Excerpt: PRIVATE PARADISE

New readers know my for my dark, edgy romantic suspense, but when I first started out, I wrote super sexy contemporary romance.  No guns, no serial killers, no stalkers (okay, maybe in one book).  Just a sexy alpha hero, a smart, sassy heroine, and an emotional, sexy love story.

After delving into some very dark, villainous psyches in my last few books, I had a strong urge to get back to my roots. So recently, in addition to working on RUN FROM FEAR, I’ve also been working on a fun, sexy contemporary that will be available soon as an e-book.  Fans of my book PRIVATE PARTY will recognize some familiar faces and places. And I hope new readers will enjoy a lighter side of Jami Alden.

I’ll send an announcement as soon as it’s available. In the meantime, here’s a little something to whet your appetite!

Chapter 1

This could not be happening.

That was all Carla DeLuca could think as she stared, dumbstruck, at the man in front of her. The Caribbean breeze ruffled night dark hair that was much shorter than she remembered. His lean features had become bolder, more chiseled, and his broad-shouldered lanky form had filled out substantially. Despite the differences, she had known his face the instant she’d laid eyes on him. Even after over a decade, there was no mistaking those blue eyes, startling against his jet black lashes and brows.

Eyes that crinkled at the corners as he offered a friendly, if guarded smile, and didn’t do a damn thing to help her unglue her tongue from the roof of her mouth.

“Isn’t it amazing?” Her cousin Chris’s laughing voice broke through her daze, and she focused on his smiling face as he clapped the other man on the shoulder. “Who would have ever thought we’d hire Sam O’Connell as head of security?”

“Amazing,” Carla murmured. Mentally steeling herself, she forced herself to meet Sam’s eyes. The effect of those laser blue eyes meeting hers was only slightly less jolting than it had been two minutes ago, when she’d arrived on the terrace of Holley Cay’s dining room to see what Chris’s big surprise was.

After a two month search for someone to head up security at Holley Cay, the exclusive Caribbean resort Chris had started nearly a decade ago which Carla now managed, Chris had found the perfect candidate.

Sam O’Connell.

A man who Carla could happily go to her grave never laying eyes on again.

“Sam,” Carla repeated. “You hired Sam to head up our security,” she said, as though she expected Chris to change his answer, like it was all some horrible joke.

But Chris had no clue what had gone on between Sam and Carla during that hot Las Vegas summer, and if he did, he’d never be so cruel as to pull something like this.

“It’s great to see you again, Carla,” Sam said. His expression gave nothing away, but his voice, still raspy and even deeper than it had been at twenty-one, had the same maddening impact as it always did, curling around her like a warm blanket and sending a little flutter of need to her core. “You look even better than the last time I saw you.”

Not much of a stretch, considering the last time he saw her she was a sobbing mess, practically bent double in pain from the blow he’d just delivered to her heart.

Still, as she felt his admiring gaze roam over her, she was glad she’d had her monthly Brazilian Blowout just yesterday so her psychotically curly hair hung down her back in silky waves and that her short, silky dress showed off arms and legs that were slim and toned from hours on the running trail and thousands of reps in the gym.

That’s right. Take a long look at what you gave up, everything you’ve been missing, she thought.

Then it hit her again, how easily he’d been able to walk away. He hadn’t missed a goddamn thing. The memory of his smirk and the cruel glint in his blue eyes was enough to get her hormones in check and straighten her spine.

She was no longer an eighteen-year-old girl caught under the spell of a seductive bad boy. She was almost thirty years old, in charge of a multi-million dollar operation. And, if Sam and Chris had their way, Sam’s boss.

Right. Maybe when hell froze over.