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  Seducing Samantha

  An Ashland Pride Novel

  by R. E. Butler

  Copyright 2013 R. E. Butler

  Seducing Samantha (An Ashland Pride Novel)

  by R. E. Butler

  License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the author.

  **Cover Artist: Ramona Lockwood**

  This ebook is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination and not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locations is coincidental.

  Disclaimer: The material in this book is for mature audiences only and contains graphic sexual content and is intended for those over the age of 18 only.

  * * * * *

  I’d like to thank Jennifer Moorman for editing this book.

  Special thanks to Jacq McNeill and Jackie G for beta-reading for me, and to Alex G. for handling my Facebook Page. For the fans who wanted to know what happened to the mountain lions from The Wolf’s Mate Book 3, I give you the first in the new series, Seducing Samantha. I hope you love the cats as much as I do.

  Table of Contents

  Preface

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Contact the Author

  Other Works

  Coming in 2013 … Book 2 in the Ashland Pride Series

  Preface

  Eight-year-old Ben Fallon swung his feet as he sat in his third grade music class. His teacher, Miss Thomas, was talking about the upcoming spring concert. She hadn’t been their teacher long, just since January when the old teacher retired to go somewhere warmer than Ashland, Indiana.

  Ben eyed Miss Thomas carefully. She was short like his cousin’s wife, Callie. And she had a nice smile. And pretty blonde hair. She didn’t wear a ring on her finger, which he had heard meant that she wasn’t married.

  As he watched her play the piano while the girls in the class sang, he wondered if he could get his dad to meet her. He heard his cousin Callie say that there wasn’t anything better than a man in uniform, and his dad had joined the Ashland police force when they moved to town a year and a half ago.

  As he began to sing along to the bouncy song, a plan formed in his mind. It wouldn’t take too much, he didn’t think, to get his dad to the school to meet Miss Thomas. She was pretty and nice, and unlike his real mother, she was human and wouldn’t hate him and ignore him. Plus his dad was lonely. All the mountain lion males were — from his dad to his uncles James, Grant, and John, and his cousin Alek, to the new pride members who had come from their old homes in Pennsylvania.

  Ben didn’t understand why mountain lion females hated their children, but he knew it wasn’t really supposed to be that way. What he wanted was what the other kids in school had — a mom who would love him and his two brothers like they belonged to her. A mom who would tuck them in at night and read them stories. Cuddle on the couch with them. He loved his dad very much, but he felt like he was missing out on something important by not having a mom.

  All he had to do was get his brothers in on the plan, and soon he might have a mom to call his own.

  Chapter 1

  Samantha Thomas wiped the dry erase board clean, humming the spring concert songs. She couldn’t get the songs out of her head, and it was driving her batty. They were adorable and sweet and everything an elementary school music class should be singing. But now, after two weeks of listening to the songs every day, she didn’t think she’d ever be able to get them free of her mind.

  Her hand slowed on the board because she was dreading going into the school office to check her inbox before heading home. Her ex-husband, Mark, was the acting principal of the elementary school, having just taken the position the month before. Two years ago, Mark left her for a younger woman because she’d discovered that she was rendered sterile due to a childhood illness. Mark was obsessed with his family name living on, and even though they’d been married for several years, he apparently had no trouble walking away and finding someone else.

  They had both worked in neighboring school districts, him as a vice principal and her as a music teacher. The house they had shared belonged to his family, so she moved back home with her parents, which was humiliating and comforting at the same time. And then she began to search for a new job, somewhere away from Indianapolis and the bad memories. She’d found one, finally, in the small town of Ashland.

  She started at exactly the same time the principal retired after the new year, and to her horror, Mark was brought in as the acting principal. In their first, awkward meeting, he promised her it was only temporary until the school year was over, and she certainly hoped that was the case. She didn’t want to think about spending every future school year seeing him daily, especially since she’d noticed the picture on his desk of his new wife, and the framed picture of an ultrasound next to it.

  It was like a knife in her gut every time she walked in there. Two years and she still ached at being tossed aside so callously for something she couldn’t control. She felt low. Like less than a woman. And it ate at her.

  Steeling herself, she grabbed her purse as she shrugged into her coat and headed to the office to check her box. Pausing before she entered the main office, she saw that his door was closed, and she rejoiced inwardly as she grabbed her messages and raced out into the main hallway.

  Flipping her hood up, she buttoned her jacket and leaned into the door to open it, bracing herself against the bitter February chill. When the door shut, she heard a small child crying and looked around, finding one of her students sitting on the steps, shivering.

  “Ben?” she asked in alarm, moving to him and putting her hand on his shoulder.

  He raised his tear-streaked face, his blue eyes luminous. “I-I missed the bus,” he hiccupped, scrubbing at his cheeks.

  “Oh, that’s not such a big thing, sweetie. Come on, we’ll call your dad, okay?”

  She helped him bring his backpack inside and sat him on a bench outside the office. Pulling her cell from her purse, she asked him if he knew his dad’s phone number, and he nodded quickly, entering the number. After explaining what happened to his dad, he handed the phone to Sam.

  “Hello? This is Samantha Thomas, the music teacher.”

  A warm, honeyed voice reached her ears. “Thank you so much, Miss Thomas. I am so sorry that Ben has delayed your evening. I’ll be over as fast as I can.”

  “No problem. I’ll wait with him.”

  There was a slight pause, and then he said, “Thank you.”

  After ending the call, she sat next to Ben and found out he’d missed the bus because he’d forgotten his lunchbox. When he ran back to class to retrieve it, the bus had left without him. She’d been annoyed at herself for delaying going into the office before heading home, but now she was glad that she’d waited. Fate was certainly on little Ben’s side.

  Ben swung his feet back and forth and looked at her with a curious gaze. “Are you married, Miss Thomas?”

  “No. Are y
ou?”

  He laughed. “No, silly, I’m only eight.”

  “Oh, of course.” She nodded with a smile. “No, I’m not married.”

  “You know there are a lot of single males in Ashland.”

  “You don’t say?” She wondered at his use of the word males, but before she could ask him about it, he said, “Yep. My dad is single. He’s a police officer in town. He was a police officer where we lived before in Pennsylvania.”

  “That’s neat. Do you want to be a police officer when you grow up?”

  Ben opened his mouth to answer when a pickup truck stopped in front of the school. Sam stood and looked down to see Ben frowning severely. “What’s the matter, sweetie?” she asked.

  “That’s not my dad,” he said, his frown deepening.

  The door into the school swung open, and Sam’s eyes traveled from a pair of weathered cowboy boots up long, lean jean-covered legs, to a dark leather jacket, worn by an incredibly handsome man. He raked a large hand through his tousled black hair and smiled tentatively at her.

  “You’re not, um,” she tried to find her thoughts, which had fled when his full lips parted into a slow smile, “Ben’s dad?”

  He stopped just a foot from her, and a rush of light cologne and another scent she couldn’t place, something dark and wild, surrounded her. Her heart pounded, and her face flushed. She had an overwhelming urge to wrap her arms around him and find out just how soft his lips really were.

  “No, I’m Grant Fallon, Ben’s uncle. His dad got called out from the station and asked me to come and get him. You’re his teacher?”

  She took his extended hand in hers and found it incredibly warm, and a little shiver of electricity hummed through her at his touch. “Um, yes. His music teacher. Thomas. Um.” Shaking her head, she blushed and mentally kicked herself for sounding like an escaped mental patient. “Samantha.”

  His eyes were emerald green, surrounded by thick lashes. His nose was straight, his jaw square with a light stubble. Good grief, she was ogling him like a teenager.

  He squeezed her hand just slightly firmer and released it. “Are you leaving, Samantha?”

  “Yes, and you can call me Sam.”

  They turned as a group, little Ben appearing disgruntled, and walked outside. Grant opened the passenger door for Ben who climbed up onto the bench seat and folded his arms across his chest after being reminded to say thank you to her. When Grant shut the door, he took her elbow and said, “Which car is yours, Sam?”

  He was going to escort her to her car? Her heart was going to pound out of her chest! What was going on with her? She was nearly giddy and all the man had done was shake her hand and smile at her.

  “The gold Infiniti,” she said and gestured with her free hand to the area where she parked.

  He walked with her, shortening his long stride to match her shorter one. She was five feet five. He was at least six feet. Six hot, hunky feet of … whatever he did for a living. She bet it was something sexy. With those cowboy boots, maybe he was a rancher or a farmer.

  When she unlocked her door with the remote, he opened it for her and didn’t let go of her elbow until she was seated. Chivalry was alive and well in Ashland, and she was aware she was grinning like an idiot at him, but she couldn’t seem to help herself. Handsome and a gentleman. What a great combination.

  “Sam, can I ask you something?” His brows drew together in a frown, and she had the distinct feeling he was nervous.

  Please ask if I want to see you naked!

  “Sure, Grant.”

  Naked. Naked!

  “Would you like to have dinner tonight?”

  Oh. Oh!

  “I’d love to.”

  Relief washed over his face as he pulled out his cell phone from a pocket inside his jacket and dialed her number as she spoke it. Her phone beeped with a text, and she couldn’t stop her silly grin. The message: a simple smiley face. What a great way to end an otherwise typical week.

  She quickly texted her address to him. He smiled down at the screen when it beeped and slid the phone into the inside pocket of his jacket. “I’ll pick you up at seven.”

  “I’m looking forward to it.” Oh my, yes.

  “Me, too, Sam.”

  He smiled, and his whole face lit up. She turned the ignition, and when the car started, he nodded his head and shut the door. She watched him walk across the snowy parking lot. His jeans were far tighter than she realized at first glance, showcasing a perfectly squeezable ass. If anyone asked her what she looked for in a man, she always said that what she was drawn to was his eyes, but that was just polite bullshit. Really, she was an ass girl.

  Swinging her car around the nearly empty parking lot, she snickered to herself as she caught a glimpse of Mark as he walked down the steps from the school. He was thin and unremarkable as men went, and had absolutely no ass.

  Suddenly, amazingly, for the first time, she didn’t cringe when when she saw her ex-husband; she didn’t feel a pang of longing or hatred. She felt nothing towards him, and that was okay. What she did feel, though, was increasingly warm feelings for her student’s hot uncle. What good fortune that she was there to meet him. She couldn’t wait for seven o’clock.

  Ashland was a very small town with one diner that served the world’s best meatloaf, a gas station, a bank, and one school for kindergarten through eighth grade. Older kids went on to a neighboring high school. Her apartment was on the south side of town, and as she idled at a stoplight, she thought back over Grant’s beautiful eyes and sincere smile. Questions pinged in her mind as she eased over a light patch of ice in the intersection and turned left onto Maple.

  How old was he? What did he do for a living? Did he know how gorgeous he was?

  Ahead she saw the gas station and decided to get gas on the way home so she didn’t have to leave early on Monday morning. She turned into the parking lot, and her tires spun. She suddenly wasn’t moving. She was halfway in the parking lot and halfway out in the street. She rocked the car back and forth, but it wouldn’t budge.

  “Come on, damn it!” She tried again to get her tires unstuck, but the car simply would not move.

  Dropping her head to the steering wheel she muttered, “Fantastic.”

  A knock on the window startled her from her dire thoughts of getting stuck halfway in the parking lot all night and missing her date.

  A police officer was bent over and peering into the car with a smile on his face. His very handsome face. She pushed the button on the window.

  “Yes, officer?” She blinked, trying to take in all of him as fast as possible. Dark blond hair, shaved on the sides, sapphire blue eyes, straight nose, slight cleft in his chin. Oh mother of all things holy, they grow hot men here!

  He grinned, flashing a set of straight, white teeth. “You do realize you’re stuck halfway out in the street, right, miss?”

  She swallowed a groan as blush heated her cheeks. She’d not blushed quite so much in one day, ever. “Yes, I’m sorry. My car is stuck.”

  “Uh-huh.” His grin widened.

  He walked around to the front of her car, and she caught a glimpse of broad shoulders under a black wool coat. He looked tall. Maybe as tall as … Grant. She needed to get her head out of the gutter. Just because a hot cop happened to stop to help like some modern-day knight in shining armor didn’t mean that she could ignore her date tonight. And she didn’t want to, anyway. Grant was gorgeous. But so was hot-cop. Who was walking back to her right now.

  “I called for a tow on my radio, Miss …?”

  She extended her hand as he held out his and a little shiver of excitement wove through her, not unlike how she’d felt when she shook hands with Grant. “Samantha Thomas, but you can call me Sam.”

  He looked puzzled for a moment, and then he said, “You’re Ben’s music teacher, Miss Thomas?”

  “Ben? Yes. Oh, you’re his father? What a strange coincidence, running into you.”

  “My brother Grant picked him up, right?�
��

  Oh wow, what a really, really weird coincidence.

  “Yes, he sure did. Thanks for calling for a tow.”

  “My pleasure. My name’s Aaron.” He looked at her with another smile, and her insides went melty.

  “It’s nice to meet you.” They were both quiet for a moment, and she sighed, “You probably have to get back to work?”

  “I’m not going to leave a stranded citizen. Besides,” he straightened and rocked back on his heels, looking as much like an untried youth as Grant had earlier, “if I take off now, I’ll lose my chance to ask you out.”

  It took her a moment to realize that in the six-month dry spell since her last relationship had fizzled, she hadn’t had anyone ask her out. Now, inexplicably, she had two men ask her out in the same day. Goodbye, dry spell. Hello … problem.

  She’d never been in this situation before, but she prized honesty above all else, so she said, “It’s really sweet of you to ask, Aaron, but your brother Grant asked me out to dinner tonight.”

  His blue eyes widened slightly, but his smile didn’t wane. “It’s just a first date, though, right?”

  “Yes.” She frowned, not knowing where he was going with that.

  “Well, if you’re not against another first date tomorrow night, then I’m okay with you going out with Grant first.”

  She raised a brow. “I’m not sure.”

  The tow truck pulled into the parking lot from the other entrance and stopped in front of her. Aaron left to speak to the operator. Within minutes, her car was free of the snow and up into the gas station parking lot. She stopped in front of a gas pump and Aaron appeared, asking for her credit card to swipe at the pump. She handed it to him through the open window, amazed as he filled up her tank for her. When the tank was full, he handed her the card and receipt, along with a business card with his information on it.

  He leaned forward to look at her through the window. “I’d like a chance to get to know you, Sam. You’re beautiful, and Ben speaks highly of you. If you’re interested in another first date tomorrow, give me a call. I’ll be home all day. If not, then I understand.”