Spotlight: You Send Me by Jeannie Moon

YOU SEND ME, a new Compass Cove novel is LIVE!

In YOU SEND ME, Jordan and Nick must let go or their separate pasts in order to seize their future together in this charming fake engagement romance.  Fans of Susan Wiggs and RaeAnne Thayne have fallen in love with the Compass Cove series from International Bestselling Author, Jeannie Moon.

Download YOU SEND ME or add it to your TBR pile on Goodreads! Then keep reading to get a sneak peek and enter the giveaway for a $25 Amazon gift card or books from Jeannie Moon!  

Release Date: May 29, 2018
Publisher: Tule Publishing Group
Series: Compass Cove
 
Jordan Velsor didn’t want to need anyone. After dumping her cheating fiancé, caring for her sick dad, and nearly being crushed along with her car during a violent storm, she’s pretty much at her breaking point. If anyone needs some luck, it's Jordan, but the last thing she wants is gorgeous Nick Rinaldi, her landlord’s grandson, hovering over her while she nurses a bad cold. The wounded Navy doctor seems too good to be true... which means he probably is. 

Nick Rinaldi left the Navy broken and adrift, wondering if he would ever practice medicine again. When his grandparents' tenant is almost killed by a falling tree during a storm, he discovers Jordan is not only in shock, but suffering from pneumonia. Not one to miss an opportunity to play white knight, Nick arrives at her cottage to take care of her during the storm... But the lovely teacher has a fierce independent streak, and as he learns more about her, he wants to do more than merely help. 
 
Can Jordan and Nick let go of their separate pasts and seize their future together?

Excerpt

Copyright © 2018 Jeannie Moon

The deep rattling cough woke her from a restless sleep. This cold was kicking her ass, but even though all she wanted to do was burrow under the covers, she was out of tissues, and the dog needed to go outside.

Glancing out her window, the weather had worsened. She almost would have been content putting out a pad for Gertie to go inside, but her tissues and cough medicine were in the back seat of her car. She had to go out regardless.

“Come on, Gertie, time to pee.”

With a whimper and a moan from her spot at the other end of the couch, her little rescue buried her face in the corner. Gertie was no dummy.

“Look, if I have to go out, so do you. Your bladder is the size of a thimble, and it’s going to get even worse later.”

The dog sighed—sighed her annoyance at Jordan. A dog with an attitude. Didn’t it figure? Gertie practically rolled off the plush cushion and settled on her back on the blue patterned rug. Her short little legs were straight up in the air, feigning death.

Jordan felt pretty dead herself, but they still had to go outside.

The wind howled, and all the windows in the cottage shook like it was going to lift up and fly away. Gust after gust provided a not-so-subtle reminder that the nor’easter currently blowing across Long Island was going to make all their lives miserable. This storm was brutal. It had been wreaking havoc for the last twelve hours and based on the latest weather report it had slowed down to a crawl, meaning it was going to stick around for a while.

Grabbing the dog’s leash, Jordan gently nudged the little furry blob on the floor. Nothing. She didn’t budge. “Gertie! Come on!”

Ninety-nine percent of the time, she loved the little mutt. This moment definitely fell into the one percent.

After she broke her engagement, Jordan had the sudden urge to have a pet. A lot of people told her it would pass, but she knew that wasn’t the case. Jordan needed unconditional love in her home, so she kept her eyes open for the right opportunity. She couldn’t handle a puppy or a kitten, so when she wandered around a rescue fair one Sunday this past September, she found herself completely enamored with Gertie. A stubby-legged little mutt, Gertie was a tube of golden fur with a pointy snout and big, soulful brown eyes. She was about five years old, and her owner had just died, leaving the little dog all alone.

Jordan felt a kinship with the pooch, and took her home that day.

Lina Rinaldi, who usually frowned on her cottage tenants having pets, took to the dog right away, and Gertie loved the older woman right back.

As Jordan stared at the lump still upside down on the floor, she was about ready to offer Mrs. Rinaldi full custody. Then a deep, rasping cough shook Jordan to the core. It racked her body violently, and pain shot around her chest. God, she felt awful.

“Come on,” she said firmly to the pooch. “We’ll skip the leash this time. Out and in. Let’s get this over with.”

Gertie rolled over and trotted to the front door, giving Jordan the side eye as she waited. Donning her parka and a pair of lined wellies that she pulled over her pajama pants, Jordan grabbed the remote and unlocked her car. When she opened the front door, she was hit by a blast of wind, rain, and sleet that stung her cheeks and chilled her to the bone. “Lord, it’s miserable.” Looking down at Gertie, she nodded. “Okay, let’s make this quick.”

The two of them bolted outside, with Gertie heading for her favorite patch of grass and Jordan heading for her car. She stopped when she coughed so hard she could barely breathe. It hurt. She’d never had a chest cold that hurt so much. Finally, yanking open the door, she heard her pooch barking from the small covered porch. Jordan grabbed the bag that was filled with some basic food provisions, juice, tea, tissues, and a selection of over-the-counter cold remedies. She slammed the car door shut, and on her way back inside she noticed the whitecaps on Jennings Bay. The wind was forcing massive amounts of water into the coves and harbors around town, and she hoped the it didn’t breach the seawall surrounding the property. Jordan’s cottage was closer to Cove Road, but the Rinaldis’ big house was at risk.

Without any further delay, Jordan made it back to the porch, feeling chilled and soaked to the bone despite all the foul weather gear she’d put on. Gertie was barking frantically, having positioned herself under the old wooden swing, and Jordan was starting to lose her patience.

“Gertie, what the hell is the problem?”

That’s when she heard the groan and crack. Jordan looked up just as a large section of an old oak tree, about fifty feet from the house, gave way. Throwing her body against the wall to avoid any debris, Jordan watched as the massive tree split in half and came crashing down, crushing her car in the process.

If she had waited ten more seconds to head outside, Jordan would have been killed.

Frozen in place for—she didn’t know how long—Jordan startled when a large, strong arm wrapped around her.

She looked away from the wreckage in the front yard and into the gorgeous face of Nick Rinaldi.
“Damn. Are you alright?”

Was she? She wasn’t sure. Jordan tried to answer, but she had trouble catching her breath. Sucking in air, he kept her steady when they walked into the house.

Waiting for the dog before he closed the door, Nick sat her on the bench in the entryway. Glancing in the canvas tote from the market, his brow furrowed.

“You’re sick? What’s wrong?”

With a low rattling cough that had him pressing the back of his hand to her forehead, she muttered, “Chest cold.”

Shaking his head, he helped her off with her boots and jacket. “Let’s get you settled in bed, and I’ll go get my bag. You’ve got a lot more than a chest cold.”

“My car…”
“We can’t do anything about your car until the storm passes, so put it out of your head. It’s the last thing you need to worry about.”

“Are you kidding? Not worry about it?” How was she supposed to get to work or see her dad? How was she supposed to do anything if she didn’t have a car? The pain in her chest wasn’t just from her cough at that moment, but at the wave of dread—helplessness—that rushed through her.

“One thing at a time.” Nick, a former Navy doctor, was single minded. And as much as Jordan didn’t want to admit it, he was right. In this weather, there was nothing she could do.

“Come on,” he said. “Lead the way.”

“I’ll be fine,” she said, stopping in her tracks. Those few words taxed her already strained system. She coughed painfully into her arm while Nick guided her into her room. The coughing spell was so violent, ripping at her tender lungs, she couldn’t even object as he tucked her into bed.

Sick as she was, Jordan wasn’t blind. Nick Rinaldi had been on her radar since he landed back in Compass Cove the previous fall. The guy was gorgeous, smart, and a gentleman to the core. But he’d settled back in with his grandparents almost six months ago, and other than a token hello, or a polite smile, he rarely spoke to her.

Still, with his lean frame, dark hair, and kind eyes, he checked a lot of boxes.

She thought she heard him mutter something about being stubborn, but her lack of breath didn’t allow a response. If anyone was stubborn, he was. The man of mystery was a well-known do-gooder, and obviously she was his next project. There was only one problem with that. She didn’t want his help. Needing people was a slippery slope, and Jordan had no intention of heading down that way again.

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About Jeannie Moon

Jeannie Moon, author of fifteen novels, has always been a romantic. When she’s not spinning tales of her own, Jeannie works as a school librarian, thankful she has a job that allows her to immerse herself in books and call it work. Married to her high school sweetheart, Jeannie has three kids, three lovable dogs and a mischievous cat and lives in her hometown on Long Island, NY. If she’s more than ten miles away from salt water for any longer than a week, she gets twitchy.

Connect with Jeannie at: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Pinterest

Spotlight: The Surviving Girls by Katee Robert

Pre-order THE SURVIVING GIRLS and add it to your TBR pile on Goodreads! Then keep reading to get a sneak peek and your chance to enter the giveaway for a $25 Amazon gift card or books from Katee Robert!

A fierce survivor and a fearless FBI agent battle a copycat serial killer in a gripping thriller from New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Katee Robert.

Twelve years ago, Lei Zhang and her friend Emma Nilsson miraculously lived through the notorious Sorority Row Murders that left twenty-one of their sisters dead. Still wrestling with the trauma but finally out of the limelight, Lei and Emma are now devoted to helping other victims find closure. But most disturbing for Lei—beyond the gut-wrenching survivor guilt—is that the killer was her boyfriend. He’s behind bars, but she’ll never lower her guard again.

When a copycat killer targets Lei and Emma, FBI Agent Dante Young is put in charge of anticipating the sociopath’s every move. But what he doesn’t expect is his immediate and overpowering attraction to Lei. The closer they get to each other, the more desperate and terrifying the questions become: Who wants to finish what the killer started—and why?

Now Agent Young vows to protect Lei at all costs. If they have any chance of a future together, first they have to stay alive…

Excerpt

Copyright © 2018 Katee Robert

Watching the women interact was fascinating on a level Dante wasn’t prepared for. He’d known Lei and Emma lived together, but he hadn’t had the opportunity to take a step back and consider the implications of that arrangement. Emma teetered on the edge of a breakdown and used Lei to pull herself back from the ledge . . . everything made a lot more sense.

They’d formed a symbiotic relationship, of sorts.

There wasn’t much data concerning situations like this one, mostly because they rarely arose, and each case was too individual to tie together in nice, easy studies. It stood to reason, though, that coming out of that sorority house as the only two survivors would send these women into one of two futures. In one, they never saw each other and pretended the other didn’t exist rather than be faced with the perpetual reminder of what they’d gone through.

In the other, they realized that no one would ever know what they went through as intimately as the other person who survived—and leaned on each other as result.

Lei was the one who finally met his gaze, and hell if her inky-dark eyes didn’t take his breath away despite the circumstances. Clarke had pulled both women’s photos on the way over there, but they were old—from their sorority days. Both beautiful in their own way, though they were a study in opposites. Emma had the sweet southern thing going for her, all blonde hair, big innocent blue eyes, and curves that suggested southern cooking. He couldn’t tell if her soft tone was practiced or natural, but it pricked at him every time she spoke.

Lei . . . She was something else altogether. She was petite in a way that should have read frail but reminded him of a blade waiting to be unsheathed. There were muscles beneath her light-brown skin, and he guessed that she’d have no problem keeping up with the monster dog at her feet during a search. Her straight black hair was pulled back into a no-nonsense ponytail, which left her features in stark relief. Beautiful, but doesn’t like to draw attention to it. Might as well have tried to hide the sky.

Fuck, get it together. You’re here to interview them, not to lose your damn mind over Lei Zhang.

Yes, she was beautiful, but he’d dealt with beautiful women before without jeopardizing his professional persona. Dante didn’t know what it was about this woman that called to something in him, but he had to shelve it.

He couldn’t afford to be distracted.

She clasped Emma’s hand but turned her body to face him more fully. “The night of the murders, I let Travis Berkley into the Omega Delta Lambda house. We’d been dating four months and he told me he had a surprise.” Her lips twisted. “It was against the rules, but girls broke the rules all the time.”

He noted her knuckles whitening where she held Emma’s hand, but her voice maintained its steady tone. “We had sex. Approximately an hour later, something changed. I still have problems putting it into words. Travis just . . . shifted. It was like he’d taken off a mask and I didn’t recognize the man beneath. He hit me. A few times.” She absentmindedly touched the little hooked scar on her cheekbone. From Travis’s ring. “I passed out. When I woke up, he’d barricaded my door shut and I could hear their screams.”

Lei’s breath hitched, and it was almost as if she inhaled and Emma exhaled. The blonde lifted her chin. “I was in the basement studying when it started. Finals were coming up, and I was struggling in history and needed the extra study time. The first sign of something wrong was Travis hauling Sarah—” She cut herself off and flinched. “I’m sorry. It’s hard to say their names, even now.”

Clarke huffed out a breath. “You don’t have to name every single girl he killed. We know their names. We know their stories. We just want to hear how it all went down from your perspective.”

They wouldn’t find anything new here. Dante knew it, and he suspected Clarke knew it, too. These two women had told their stories countless times over the years, and if there was information they hadn’t shared before now, he highly doubted this would be the time it’d magically come out.

Hearing the story through their own voices was a whole hell of a lot more jarring than reading it in the file, however.

Emma took them through it. How Travis Berkley brought the entire house of girls into that basement, how he was charming and terrifying and told them that he’d let them go one by one . . . if they did exactly as he asked. It wasn’t until the night was over and no one had come to save them that the remaining girls realized what was happening, and even then, they were too afraid to try to overpower him.

Herd mentality. Travis had to have known he could manipulate the whole group as long as he got them scared and in a single place. They believed the pretty lie because the truth was impossible to wrap their minds around.

Emma’s voice shook. “There were still . . . ten of us left when I realized I wasn’t getting out of that house alive—that none of the girls had gotten out alive like he’d promised. When he took the next girl, I hid under the couch.”

“None of those girls saw you hide?” Clarke frowned. “I find that hard to believe.”

“I don’t know. I don’t . . .” She dropped her gaze as if she couldn’t bear to hold her head up any longer. “We were in shock at that point—just sitting there, lost in ourselves. We didn’t talk. We didn’t even look at each other. We just sat there and . . . contemplated the fact we were going to die. I don’t know if they even noticed I was gone. I hid until every single one of them was gone. And he just . . . walked out.”

“He came for me. I guess it was then.” Lei didn’t shrink in on herself. She seemed to grow taller, sit straighter. “I heard him removing the barricade and I panicked. After listening to that all night . . .” She shook her head. “I knew what would happen if he got back into my room, so I climbed out the window.”

Clarke went still. “I saw the list of your injuries. You had a broken arm, your knee was so fucking swollen you shouldn’t have been able to walk, and you had several head wounds and a handful of broken ribs on top of that. How the hell did you climb out a window?”

Lei shrugged on shoulder. “He would kill me if I didn’t. I figured falling to my death was preferable to letting Travis have me, so I took my chances.”

It was only sheer dumb luck that it was late enough in the morning that a student jogging past saw Lei. By the time he’d come back with help, Lei was unconscious in the flower bed and Travis was gone.

Dante sat back, going over the story again in his head. As he suspected, there was no new information, but they’d have been remiss if they didn’t go over it one more time. He exchanged a look with Clarke. The killings in Seattle held some key differences. He didn’t think any of the girls had willingly let the unsub in, and he had carved his message into their bodies when he was through.

A message that might or might not have been meant for Travis Berkley. Hard to believe that someone who’d gone through the trouble of researching the murders would get the killer’s name wrong, but the alternative was that the girls’ deaths were meant as tribute to someone else. Both possibilities stretched the realm of belief and didn’t make a damn bit of sense.

The tension in the room grew like it was a living thing, coiling and snapping between the four of them. Once Dante and Clarke left, things would move quickly. They had to talk to Berkley. They had to head back to Seattle to go over things again with Detective Smith and the ME. They had to track down this bastard before he continued with whatever plan he’d begun with those girls’ deaths.

Dante, at least, would have the comfort of motion to keep him distracted from the scenes that he’d witnessed. Lei and Emma wouldn’t have even that. He leaned forward, catching Lei’s attention. “We can assign a protection detail. I don’t think you’re in any immediate danger, but if it would help ease your mind, I’ll make some calls.”

Lei’s lips quirked up at the edges, but the smile never came close to reaching her eyes. “Dante—Agent Young—we were in immediate danger the second that asshole singled Travis out as someone he wanted to emulate. We’re more than capable of taking care of ourselves.”

On sale May 29th!

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About Katee Robert

New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author Katee Robert learned to tell her stories at her grandpa’s knee. Her 2015 title, The Marriage Contract, was a RITA finalist, and RT Book Reviews named it 'a compulsively readable book with just the right amount of suspense and tension."  When not writing sexy contemporary and romantic suspense, she spends her time playing imaginary games with her children, driving her husband batty with what-if questions, and planning for the inevitable zombie apocalypse. 

Connect with Katee at: Website | Facebook | Twitter| GoodReads | Instagram

Spotlight: The Gallery by Mika Lane

The Gallery
Mika Lane
Publication date: May 30th 2018
Genres: Adult, Romance

What do you do when someone changes the rules of the game? Do you keep playing? Or start your own game?

Blu, my gay bestie, was determined to see me win. Of course, I knew that would involve plenty of retail therapy. And chocolate.

I just didn’t know it would include four hot as h*ll men with moves I’d never dreamed existed. And a very different sort of social club.

Goodreads / Amazon

SNEAK PEEKS:

Fortunately, though, I didn’t have to try too hard. Gio lowered my panties, slowly and deliberately by reaching under my dress, until they were at my ankles. He raised one of my feet at a time so I could step out of them. He crumpled them into a ball, and finally meeting my gaze with an intensity that made me sway, smiled as he tucked them into his suit pocket.

Guess I won’t be seeing those again.

When I took my first step, my heel, my expensive spikey high heel, wedged between two brick pavers. The resulting jolt caused me to slosh gin and tonic out of my glass and all over my sister’s watch, which I wore on my right wrist. Dammit. I shook the cocktail off my arm and made sure the watch’s minute hand was still moving. If anything happened to that watch, well, I didn’t know what I’d do. It was the only one I ever wore. Devon had insisted on gifting me a variety of much fancier ones in the time since we’d been married, and even one with diamonds for my thirtieth birthday, but I wasn’t about to stop wearing Lisette’s. It was all I had left of her.


Author Bio:

Writing has been a passion of Mika’s since a young age (her first book was "The Day I Ate the Milkyway"), but erotic romance is now what gives purpose to her days and nights. She lives in magical Northern California with her own handsome alpha dude, sometimes known as Mr. Mika Lane, and an evil cat named Bill. A devotee of the intelligent and beautiful, and lover of shiny things, she’s a yogi, hiker, traveler, thinker, observer, and book worm. She has been known to drink cheap champagne and has way too many shoes.

A National Reader's Choice Awards finalist, Mika always deliver a hot, sexy romp, often with imperfect characters, and a promised happily ever after (or at least happy for now).

She LOVES to hear from readers, and can be found at www.mikalane.com, and facebook.com/mikalaneauthor, when she's not dreaming up naughty tales to share.

Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter


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Excerpt Reveal: The Crown Princess by Kathleen Samuels

Dependable Crown Princess of Cordova, Gwen, is dreading the day she gives up her life for her country. With the day of coronation looming, Gwen decides to make a bucket list of crazy things she wants to do before the big day.  Taking her list, she travels to Las Vegas, a place where no one will question wild behavior and she can be just another normal person on vacation in sin city.  Enlisting the help of Alex, a notorious entitled playboy, she finds herself checking off more than just the items on the list. Is she willing to risk it all and take a chance at falling in love?

Fiercely independent Alex, the black sheep of his family, was raised in the hotel business. Breaking out on his own, he built a successful Resort and Casino on the strip in Las Vegas. When Gwen asks for Alex’s help on completing her list of ‘bad girl’ activities he readily accepts. Who else knows how to let loose but the Billionaire Playboy himself.  But as he starts helping her with the list, he begins to realize that this Princess might be worth trading in his bad boy image.

Exclusive Excerpt

Escape. A single word. A tempting path. And out of Gwen’s reach. She strode across the balcony of the royal palace, her hands clenched at her sides. There had to be some way for her to escape the peering eyes, the criticism.

My duties.

Her troubled gaze drifted over the idyllic scenery of Arens, capital of Cordova, her beloved country. The beautiful greenery that melted into the shoreline usually brought calm and serenity. Not today. Even the light, earthy scent of heather, the flowers influenced by neighboring Germany, didn’t lighten her mood. Pulling her arms tight across her chest, she continued to trace the length of the balcony with quick steps.

“Your pacing is making me nauseous.”

Gwen brought her steps to an abrupt halt and glared at her brother resting so casually against the stone balustrade.

“Oh shut up, Samuel. You’re not the one with the noose around your neck.” Leaving her brother behind, Gwen marched through the open French doors and collapsed behind the centuries-old desk.

She listened as the thump of Samuel’s cast hit the tiled floors, following her inside. He slumped into the chair across from her, grinning at her obvious frustration. She knew she acted childish, but better in front of her closest brother than her aide or, God forbid, the media.

“A noose, Gwendolyn? Really? Don’t you think you’re being a bit dramatic? Duty to the crown, duty to the country. Hail Cordova.” Sarcasm dripped off each word. Samuel hefted his casted foot and plunked it down onto the desk, knocking off a silver picture frame.

Gwen retrieved the framed picture from the floor, some of her tension ebbing from her slender body. Five laughing children smiled back at her through the glass. Her older brother, Jonathan, stood in the back with a toothy grin, golden hair gleaming in the afternoon sun. Only ten years old in the picture, but the weight of the country already pressed down on his shoulders. Gwen’s seven years held no worries, her head thrown back in mid-laughter as she watched her five-year-old twin brothers, Samuel and Arthur, dangle from the tree above. Her youngest sister, Petra, swaddled in her mother’s arm, wild red hair peeking from the blanket.

The picture snapped outside the doors of the palace, exactly one month before her mother suddenly took the crown. What a difference it made in her life, her mother transitioning to Queen of Cordova after losing their dear grandmother to cancer.

Preorder Your Copy Today:  Amazon

About Kathleen

Kathleen Samuels knew the moment she picked up a Sweet Valley High book that happily ever after endings were the only books to read. She began writing in junior high school, determined to become an author someday. After college, she became a teacher for children with disabilities, still writing in her spare time. Joining Romance Writers of America in 2011 focused her efforts and she created The Royals of Cordova series. Kathleen is a collector of everything based on the Cinderella story and truly believes she will find her Prince Charming one day. Until then, she will write about them in her books. Kathleen makes her home in Southern California with her two college age children and little Tibetan Spaniel, Jack.

Connect with Kathleen: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

Spotlight: Tainted by Amanda Cowen

Tainted
Amanda Cowen
(Wyatt #1)
Publication date: June 22nd 2018
Genres: Contemporary, New Adult, Romance

Rhys Wyatt is as arrogant as he is beautiful, and Ivy Bishop has been infatuated with him forever. The night Ivy makes her move, it ends horribly, leaving her utterly heartbroken.

Three years later, Ivy is dating Blaine Wyatt; Rhys’s loving and tender younger brother. With Rhys and their past somewhat out of her mind, everything about her relationship with Blaine seems perfect. But when Blaine leaves Ivy alone all summer; neither of them anticipated Rhys to return, or him and Ivy to be stuck living under the same roof…

Rhys never believed Ivy would be all grown up and everything he’s ever wanted – gorgeous, perfectly alluring, and an infuriatingly tempting beauty he has to keep his hands off of. But the more they try to resist each other, the more intense their urges become, until one night changes everything, and Wyatt brothers will never be the same.

Goodreads / Amazon

EXCERPT:

IVY

I pushed open the front door, tossed my keys onto the entryway table and flicked on a light switch.

“Where were you?”

I let out a shrill scream and whipped around, even though I immediately recognized his smooth deep voice. Rhys sat on a bench along the opposite wall leaning back, legs apart and spread, with his muscular arms crossed in front of his chest. My green eyes locked with his blue ones, but his bare chest had my gaze slowly creeping below his neckline. My eyes travelled downwards to see tattooed forearms, a pair of gray sweat pants hanging loosely around his hips, and finally his bare feet.

I pressed my palms down on the table behind me to keep from melting to the floor. “What the hell are you still doing here?” I sputtered.

An amused grin curled on his lips, but he didn’t budge as if he were inviting me to straddle his open legs. “Where were you?” he repeated.

“Why are you sitting here in the dark?” I shot back, even though my voice was shaky.

“Do you always answer a question with a question?” He stroked the five o’clock shadow grown in around his lips with his thumb and index finger. He slouched down further on the bench like he was getting comfy.

“No, not always.” I said, finally able to gain my composure.

“Come on Ivy, don’t make me ask you again.” His smug smile made want to whip off one of Missy’s cowboy boots I was wearing and chuck it at him.

He slowly uncrossed his arms and pressed his palms flat against the bench beneath him on either side of long muscular legs. He leaned forward and tilted his head to the side with a cocky grin. “Your shift must have ended at least three hours ago.”

I just stood still welling up with irritation. What the hell was he still doing here? He bit down on his bottom lip and tucked his shoulder length hair behind his ears. Even though he looked scruffy and older, he still had the same boyish good looks I remembered falling in love with. His new appearance suited him better than his once clean-shaven face hidden under a baseball cap.

“It’s none of your business.” I pulled off my boots in case I really did need them for ammo.

“When my brother’s girlfriend gets dropped off by Charlie three hours after her shift ended, I think it’s more than my business. Especially when she stumbles in wearing the world’s shortest skirt.” Rhys’s gaze trailed up my legs as he rose to his feet. He was much taller than I remembered, and I had to tilt my chin upwards to meet his stare.

“I was at an employee bonfire behind the bunkhouse. I wanted to leave, so Charlie offered to drive me to the ranch. If I would’ve known you were still here, I would’ve rather slept in a dumpster than be graced with your presence.” I spun around to separate myself from his intense stare and headed off in the direction of the guest bedroom.

Who the hell did Rhys Wyatt think he was talking to me like that?

Rhys’s hand closed around my elbow, and my body trembled at his touch. I wasn’t expecting every tiny hair to stand on edge when his warm fingers melted into my skin but they did.

“No one knows I’m back in Moose Creek, and I’d like to keep it that way… for now.” Rhys’s voice lowered to a murmur. He gently tugged my backside against his hard groin and whispered in my ear. “Trust me. I don’t want to be here anymore than I want your little body floating around and bumping into me every which way I turn. When you walked in on me last night -” He stopped from continuing his sentence and paused. He let out a warm tense breath and growled against my ear. “This situation isn’t ideal for either of us. So keep your distance and don’t you dare tell anyone I’m back.”

I sucked a sharp breath. It felt like my knees were about to buckle. How could I let my body react to him like this?

“What are you hiding from?” I asked through clenched teeth.

Rhys released my elbow from his death grip. “I’m not hiding.”

I slowly turned around and watched his smooth muscular back arch as he ran both his hands through his brown hair. His chest was so defined that I wanted to reach out and trace my fingers around his prefect pecks. His eyes fell closed and he let out an angry noise from his throat.

“I’m not leaving, Ivy. I’m staying in Moose Creek for the summer and I’m living at the ranch. I’d really appreciate you keeping my presence to yourself right now. That means not telling Blaine either. I don’t need anyone asking questions, especially not Blaine.” When his eyes finally opened they softened. Rhys slowly moved his bare feet across the hardwood floors and I stood frozen in place, mesmerized by his tight body stalking in my direction. He stopped inches in front of me and ran a hand through his thick dark hair. “Do you understand?” he asked.

I nodded. “Understood.”

“Thank you.”

I stood speechless for a moment until he lifted his eyes to meet mine. I expected them to be filled with a proud and pompous smile, but there was something vulnerable in them that I had never seen in him before. His chest rose up and down and his lips stayed slightly parted.

“Goodnight Ivy,” he whispered and disappeared down the hallway.

Author Bio:

Amanda Cowen can be found eating cupcakes, singing off-key, or watching a good RomCom when she isn't trapped on her computer writing stories. She is an "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" fanatic, a hater of roller-coasters and a country music junkie. She lives in Thunder Bay, ON where the summers are short and the winters are long.

Amanda would love to hear from her readers. Become a fan on Facebook, follow her on Instagram @authoramandacowen, or follow her on Goodreads.

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Spotlight: Along with You by Michelle Areaux

Along with You
Michelle Areaux
Publication date: April 6th 2018
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult

A wonderfully raw new novel by author Michelle Areaux that takes you on an emotional journey as you laugh, cry, and fall in love with the difficult side of being a teenager.

“People leave. People lie. People let go. That is how my world works.”

Sixteen-year-old Blair has never had consistency in her life.
After a traumatic event that Blair’s parents wanted to remain a secret, they began moving her around the country in hopes of starting a fresh, new life.
Only, Blair never stays anywhere long enough to start that new life she keeps expecting. Choosing to rebel instead of conforming to her parents wishes, Blair opts for neon colored hair and a sassy streak that pushes people away before they can hurt her first.

Hunter is your typical southern, small town boy. He’s a good guy with a great heart and a passion for helping others.

When Blair and Hunter meet, sparks begin to fly- but not the way either expected.
As Blair struggles to keep her dark secret hidden, Hunter tries at all costs to win over Blair’s heart and her trust.

Complete opposites come together in this novel that challenges the rules of society and who we are allowed to fall in love with. Sometimes, it takes the wrong person to join along for the ride of your life.

Goodreads / Amazon


Author Bio:

Michelle Areaux is a wife, mother, educator, and young adult author. Her love for coffee helps drive her to create magical, fantasy stories.

Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter / Bookbub / Articles about Author




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