Roman Holiday 4: Ravaged: A Loveswept Contemporary Romance Read online

  He limped toward the bathroom, ignoring the pain in his heel.

  Lifting it into the sink, he cleaned it as best he could with just water. From the hand-sanitizer dispenser on the wall, he filled his palm with cool, sterile gel and spread it over his wounds.

  It hurt, but that didn’t matter.

  He wrapped his foot in toilet paper, wet his face and hair and neck, and looked at himself in the mirror until his hands stopped shaking and nothing he felt showed around his mouth, between his eyebrows, or in his eyes.

  When he was satisfied, he returned to the site. He knocked on the trailer door, pushed past Ashley’s dumbfounded expression and the boxes crowding the floor, and claimed the sleeping bag from one mattress.

  He locked himself in his truck and laid towels on the seat. The sleeping bag went on top.

  He crawled inside it.

  Too hot. Too close.

  But he fell asleep as soon as he closed his eyes.

  BY RUTHIE KNOX

  Ride with Me

  About Last Night

  Along Came Trouble

  Flirting with Disaster

  Truly (Coming Spring 2014)

  Novellas

  Room at the Inn

  How to Misbehave

  Making It Last

  Roman Holiday (Serialization)

  PHOTO: MARK ANDERSON, STUN PHOTOGRAPHY

  USA Today bestselling author RUTHIE KNOX writes contemporary romance that’s sexy, witty, and angsty—sometimes all three at once. After studying British history, she became an academic editor instead. Then she got really deep into knitting, as one does, followed by motherhood and romance novel writing.

  Her debut novel, Ride with Me, is probably the only existing cross-country bicycling love story. She followed it up with About Last Night, a London-based romance whose hero has the unlikely name of Neville, and then Room at the Inn, a Christmas novella—both of which were finalists for the Romance Writers of America’s RITA Award. Her four-book series about the Clark family of Camelot, Ohio, has won accolades for its fresh, funny portrayal of small-town Midwestern life.

  Ruthie moonlights as a mother, Tweets incessantly, and bakes a mean focaccia. She’d love to hear from you, so visit her website and drop her a line.

  www.ruthieknox.com

  Be sure to continue your Roman Holiday with Episode 5: Ignited

  Roman wiped sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand. His color was up, his chest heaving. “I can build a better fire than you,” he said.

  “One match?”

  “Anyone can build a one-match fire.”

  “You can do better? Oh, tell me you bought flint and steel at REI, and you can strike a fire off one of those keychain things.”

  “Not flint and steel. I can start a friction fire.”

  “With just sticks? You cannot.”

  “I can.”

  “Do it, then.”

  “It’s a pain. I’m not going to do it just to show you.”

  “Do it,” she repeated. “Doitdoitdoitdoooooit.”

  “Does that actually work on people?”

  “You’d be surprised.”

  Roman stood up and reached for the camp towel he’d left on the bench next to her. She could feel the heat coming off him, all those charged particles in the air between them. He bumped her with his bare knee, and she looked at the black hair on his legs, the runnels of sweat.

  “Sorry,” he said. “I’m disgusting.”

  She wanted him just like this, though. Braced over her with his arms trembling, his heat sinking into her skin. One delirious, stupid, ecstatic glide, and she’d have him inside her, and she could stop all this mental lusting. This weird obsession with Roman and his Roman-ness.

  Not that he’d go for it, even if he were available. The man probably had sex in the dark, beneath a top sheet, with his eyes closed.

  And wiped his girlfriend down with a damp washcloth afterward.

  Coming December 9th. Preorder now!

  Curious about something? Want to ask the author a question or chat with other readers?

  Visit the Roman Holiday forum at http://​forum.​ruthieknox.​com and join the conversation!

  Or subscribe to the Roman Holiday mailing list at http://​www.​ruthieknox.​com/​roman-​holiday-​mailing-​list/ to be notified when new episodes are available.

  And don’t miss the Camelot series which begins with a deliciously sexy original novella, in which a good girl, Amber Clark, learns, How to Misbehave. Her brother Caleb meets headstrong Ellen and the two bump noggins—and bodies—in, Along Came Trouble. Sister Katie Clark enters a no-strings fling that looks an awful lot like falling in love—or, Flirting with Disaster. Lastly, revisit Amber and a story that will take you to new heights with a desire reinvented, Making It Last.