Guilty Pleasures Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  CARLA AND THE PIRATE KING

  NINA AND THE MOVIE STAR

  NANNY MAUREEN AND THE CELTIC WARRIOR

  J.P. AND THE REGENCY RAKE

  TIFFY AND THE SULTAN

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  PRAISE FOR BERTRICE SMALL’S

  Pleasures Series

  Passionate Pleasures

  “Small delivers a marvelously sexy story . . . that’s smart, sassy, and definitely sizzling . . . a great love story that just happens to be filled with erotic love scenes.”

  —Romantic Times

  “A fun, well-written romantic fantasy.”

  —Genre Go Round Reviews

  Dangerous Pleasures

  “A pleasurable erotic tale. . . . Fans will enjoy Bertrice Small’s fine character study.”

  —The Best Reviews

  “The queen of sensual romance has done it again . . . sizzling.”

  —Romantic Times

  “Erotica has never been done more tastefully or been more captivating.”

  —Romance Junkies

  Sudden Pleasures

  “Arranged marriages are nothing new but the spin that Small puts on her contemporary version is hot and different . . . definitely scorching.”

  —Romantic Times

  “Full of emotions and unruly feelings . . . an entertaining read. . . . Ms. Small writes every character realistically and with realistic faults.”

  —Romance Junkies

  Forbidden Pleasures

  “Small is the queen of steamy romance, and this sequel to Private Pleasures is a truly entertaining fantasy that delivers. . . . Fans of erotic romance will not want to miss Emily’s sexual awakening.”

  —Romantic Times

  Private Pleasures

  “One of the best erotic novels I have read this year. . . . With her trademark savvy, sass, and sensuality all wrapped up in one seriously beguiling package . . . [a] winner.”

  —A Romance Review

  “A complete success . . . gritty, truthful, and of course, extremely sexy.”

  —Rendezvous

  “[A] XXXX tale . . . fans of erotica will enjoy.”

  —Midwest Book Review

  PRAISE FOR

  BERTRICE SMALL

  “Ms. Small delights and thrills.”

  —Rendezvous

  “Bertrice Small creates cover-to-cover passion.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  ALSO BY BERTRICE SMALL

  The Pleasures Series

  Passionate Pleasures

  Sudden Pleasures

  Dangerous Pleasures

  Forbidden Pleasures

  Private Pleasures

  NEW AMERICAN LIBRARY

  Published by New American Library,

  a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,

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  Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices:

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  First published by New American Library,

  a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

  First Printing, August 2011

  Copyright © Bertrice Small, 2011

  All rights reserved

  REGISTERED TRADEMARK—MARCA REGISTRADA

  LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA:

  Small, Bertrice.

  Guilty pleasures/Bertrice Small.

  p. cm.

  ISBN : 978-1-101-51727-7

  I. Title.

  PS3569.M28G85 2011

  813’.54—dc22 2011009675

  Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

  PUBLISHER’S NOTE

  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. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party Web sites or their content.

  The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

  http://us.penguingroup.com

  For Laura Cifelli—

  It was brief but you were a lovely editor,

  and you always made me laugh.

  Thank you.

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  For those of you who have not previously read one of the Pleasures books, a brief explanation of the Channel is in order. The Channel is a secret interactive network known only to women. It is obtained through a cable or satellite provider. It allows you to live out your wildest fantasies between the hours of eight p.m. and four a.m. daily. Men have no idea it exists. If they did, they would want it for themselves, or regulate it, or, worst of all, take it away from us.

  The five previous novels in the Pleasures series have each dealt with the story of one woman and her involvement with the Channel. They have all taken place in the small town of Egret Pointe. This work of fiction, however, while still set in Egret Pointe, will tell you five short stories about five different women, four of whom have appeared in the previous books. The fifth is a new character employed by a previous heroine.

  I hope you will enjoy reading Guilty Pleasures as much as I have enjoyed writing it. But remember: This is a work of fiction. So please don’t call your cable or satellite providers and ask for the Channel. But . . . maybe one day.

  CARLA AND THE PIRATE KING

  Carla Johnson had been married for more than thirty years to a good man. They lived in a large comfortable house on Ansley Court in the small town of Egret Pointe. Their children were grown and not a problem. Rick had a thriving law practice with his best friend, Joe Pietro d’Angelo, in the village. Carla had gone back to nursing at the local hospital. And together they had a fun social life and a regular sex life.

  But all that didn’t mean a girl couldn’t long for something a wee bit more exciting, which was precisely the purpose of the Channel. With a special remote from the Channel, you could program your wildest fantasy and actually live it. Nowadays the Channel remote could program two fantasies, so you could switch from one to the other if the first bored you. You could delete your fantasies and replace them with new fantasies whe
never you wanted.

  Carla Johnson, however, had only one fantasy programmed in her remote. The year was 1680, and she was Captain Raven, a dangerous and feared pirate queen. When she had originally programmed her fantasy, Carla had sailed her vessel out of Jamaica. Recently she had created a small island called Amorata Cay, belonging to her alone, that served as her home port. It was a hilly landscape with cliffs that fell into the sea but for a half-moon cove bordered by a small sandy beach.

  She had created a house high in the hills that gave her a 360-degree view of the sparkling turquoise sea surrounding Amorata Cay. This was where Captain Raven came for refuge when she was bored with the excesses of Jamaica and her pirate world. The only other humans on Amorata Cay were her servants. Captain Raven didn’t keep slaves, and her servants were available only when she inhabited the island. When she wanted her privacy, her crew would leave her on Amorata Cay and return to nearby Jamaica for their own amusement. A carrier pigeon kept her in touch with Jamaica.

  In the fantasy, her alter ego, Captain Raven, would sail the Caribbean, taking fat merchant vessels for their cargo and wealthy passengers for ransom or whatever else they might offer her, but she never deliberately sank a ship or killed. That wasn’t a part of her pirate fantasy, although the other captains peopling her secret world mocked her for it. And oddly the bounty on her head was greater than that for any of the other seagoing outlaws. A woman who captained a pirate ship, could use a sword as well as she did, and commanded the respect that Captain Raven did was not to be tolerated.

  Carla had enjoyed her fantasy for several years now, but of late it hadn’t seemed quite as exciting and fun as it once had. She suspected that was why she had created Amorata Cay and the beautiful home, which she seemed to prefer inhabiting rather than slumming in the waterside taverns of Jamaica, fighting, drinking, and getting screwed by various handsome men. There was no excitement in it any longer.

  “Hey, babe!” Her husband, Rick, came through the kitchen door from the garage and planted a kiss on her cheek. “How were things in the ER today?”

  “Quiet, thank God,” Carla replied. “One kid who fell out of a tree and broke his arm, an early labor, and an oldster with a small heart incident. The kid got a cast and went home. The other two were admitted. What’s new with you?”

  “I’m going to Europe with Ryan Mulcahy,” Rick said in a rush.

  “I thought Joe took care of his legal business,” Carla said.

  “He’s Ashley’s attorney. I’m Ryan’s,” Rick replied. “They didn’t want a conflict of interest with their two businesses.”

  “I don’t see how there could be a conflict between a guy who does restorations and reproductions and his wife who sells sexy underwear and nighties,” Carla noted.

  “Neither do I,” Rick admitted, “but they wanted separate lawyers.”

  “So why are you going to Europe?” Carla wanted to know. “And how long will you be gone?”

  “A week, ten days. Ryan is buying a controlling interest in a small company that makes perfect replicas of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century furniture hardware. They have the original molds. The company is in Austria. Then we’re going to England on our way home. He’s got another small group of artisans there making replicas of antique clock corners, hands, and dials. He’s debating about buying them up,” Rick told his wife.

  “Well,” Carla responded, “I guess that’s why you took those new courses in international law last year. This has been in the works for a while, huh?”

  Rick nodded. “Yep,” he said. “Ryan asked me almost two years ago if I would represent him. I told him that I didn’t have enough of a background for what he wanted, that I was just a garden-variety country lawyer. While I could be there for him nationally, international law was a whole different thing. You know how he is. Just shrugged and told me to go get what I needed. Joe agreed. So I did.”

  “You are something else, Richard Johnson,” Carla said admiringly. “I know how hard you studied so you could do this.” Then she chuckled. “You’re going to make a lot of money out of this. I want that superdeluxe cruise next winter. We can do a half round the world. Be gone for six weeks. First-class all the way!”

  Rick laughed. “You know what, babe? You plan it, book it, get the tickets. We haven’t had a real vacation in years. We’re due. As soon as you have the dates set, I’ll let Joe know, and he can cover for me while we’re away.”

  “You mean it?” Carla was delighted.

  “I mean it,” Rick told his spouse. Then he said, “You going to be all right while I’m gone? Maybe you should have one of the girls come home to keep you company.”

  “God, no!” Carla exclaimed. “I’ll be fine by myself. I’m on the seven a.m.–to–seven p.m. shift this month. It will be light when I leave in the morning and light when I get home at night. Rina, Joanne, and Tiffy are all home too, so I’ll have plenty of company in the neighborhood.”

  “And you have your programs in the evening,” Rick said with an indulgent smile.

  “Yep,” Carla agreed. “I do love my telly.”

  He was relieved she wasn’t upset about the trip. Rick didn’t think in all the years of their marriage they had ever been apart for more than two or three days, and that had been when their girls were born. “I’ll call you every night,” he promised her.

  “No,” Carla said. “Call me when you arrive so I know you’re safe. Then call me on Sunday. Remember the time difference between here and there. Besides, I don’t relish being called in the middle of the night, sweetie. Every time the phone rings that late, I think someone has died. Where are you going first?”

  “We’re flying to Vienna. A car will meet us and stay with us until we fly to Paris, and then London,” Rick told his wife.

  “Vienna, Paris, and London? Wow! Do you need an assistant?”

  Rick laughed. God, he loved this woman! “Wish I did,” he teased, “but then I’d have to take that hot new paralegal we recently hired.”

  “Over my dead body!” Carla said. “I think I had better take you upstairs and remind you just where your loyalties lie, sir.”

  “Yes, ma’am!” her husband said, grinning. “I love your reminders, babe. I do!”

  Why did some women whine about their empty nest? Carla wondered afterward. Having her husband all to herself, knowing some kid wasn’t going to burst in on them, was wonderful as far as she was concerned. And Rick, considering he was past fifty now, was still an enthusiastic lover. But having him away would not be such a terrible burden. She had some time coming to her at the hospital, and she would take a nice long weekend so she could enjoy the beautiful home she had created on Amorata Cay. And who knew? Maybe she could come up with some new exciting adventure and end her ennui with her pirate fantasy.

  Two days later she kissed her husband good-bye, but it wasn’t until he called her from Vienna that Carla felt free once more. Rick’s absence was really quite an opportunity for her. She didn’t have to hide out in her craft room, where she usually accessed the Channel from her recliner. She could do it from their bedroom. The day after Rick had told her he was traveling on business, Carla had put in for a four-day weekend. Since she rarely asked to take any of the time she had built up, her request was granted. Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday were hers.

  Rick had left on a Thursday. He called her on her iPhone as soon as he and Ryan Mulcahy reached their hotel. It was just after four in the afternoon in Egret Pointe, but after midnight in Vienna. “Call me Monday instead of Sunday,” Carla told him. “I think I’m going out to dinner at the club with the gang on Sunday.” He agreed and rang off.

  When Carla got home, she didn’t bother cooking for herself. She had eaten a salad at the hospital. She hurried upstairs and quickly undressed, then got into bed naked. It was almost eight p.m., and the Channel opened at eight p.m. sharp. Grabbing her remote, she pointed it at the television in the media center across the room and pressed the A button on it to access her fantasy.
>
  And there she suddenly was. Naked, in her big fourposter mahogany bed with its delicate white netting, which during the day was tied back but now was loose about the bed, keeping her safe from insects. The French doors to the second-floor balcony that surrounded the house on all sides were open. Carla could see the blue sea beyond and the sunrise now dappling the sky with a rainbow of strong colors. A light knock sounded on her bedroom door. “Come in,” she called, and the door opened to reveal her personal maidservant, Violetta.

  “Good morning, madam,” the bondwoman greeted Carla as she stepped into the bedroom. “Shall I prepare your bath for you?” She carried a small tray with a cup and saucer upon it. “I have your chocolate, madam.” Violetta offered the delicate china to Carla.

  The mistress took it and sipped slowly at the brew, which was sweetened with her own sugarcane. “Aye, a bath would be perfect. I have accounts to do today. I think it may be time to go hunting again soon, although frankly I enjoy just being here on the island.”

  Violetta smiled. “It is a pleasant habitat, madam,” she agreed. “I’ll have the bath set up immediately.” Then she bustled out to marshal the male servants to bring the water to madam’s bathing chamber, where the beautiful white porcelain tub with its high back, decorated with delicate rosebuds and edged in real gold, was installed.