Feeling like a big jerk for doing anything and everything she could think of to try to keep herself from doing something really, really stupid like falling for him, she said, “Look, Chase, you really have been nice.” Despite having been slow to hand her a towel last night, she silently amended with a flush. “But, despite how great you’ve been—” she purposefully left off a reminder as to what she’d been doing in the bathtub the night before “—we’re not going to…well…you know.”
Ugh. She wasn’t used to having conversations like this.
She half expected—half wanted—him to tell her she was wrong. That they were, in fact, most definitely going to end up doing well-you-know if she stuck around much longer.
Instead, his expression grew even more serious. “Earlier, when we were out in the vineyard, when I asked you to stay, you didn’t want to. But I didn’t let up until you finally gave in.” He ran a hand through his hair, clearly upset with himself. “I would never want to force you to do something you don’t want to do, Chloe. I don’t ever want to take something from you that you don’t want to give me.”
This was the perfect opening. It was her chance to tell him she’d never had any intention of staying, to make it clear that there was not going to be any further connection between them, and that it was time for her to be moving on.
So then, why did she find herself saying, “You didn’t force me to stay. I wanted to stay.”
The pure truth of that statement resonated within her solar plexus. Because it turned out the truth didn’t care if she wanted it to be true, or not.
“I want to stay,” she said again in a firmer voice. She wanted to spend more time with Chase. She shouldn’t. But she did. “But I don’t want to be in the way.”
“You could never be in the way,” he said. And then with a grin that was softer this time, and somehow even more potent, he said, “You were saying something about how you and I aren’t going to…?” He paused, letting the unsaid words hang in the air between them.
She should have come back with a quick retort, something to put him in his place. But right at that moment, with the Napa Valley sun shining down on her and grapevines budding to life across rolling hills as far as the eye could see, there was nothing left but honesty.
“I haven’t had a male friend in a very long time.”
He was silent for a long moment, and even though the butterflies in her stomach had her keeping her eyes on the horizon, she could feel his gaze on her.
“I’d be honored to be your friend, Chloe.”
Her breath caught in her throat then, and she liked him so much it was almost impossible not to grab him and kiss him.
Sure that he could hear her heart beating in her chest because it was so loud to her own ears, instead of kissing him, she had to be content with whispering, “I like you, too.”
“This story has it all – raw passion, emotional connections, and a fun element that makes it a delight to read!”
~ 5 stars for THE LOOK OF LOVE
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Excerpt from BREATHLESS IN LOVE (Maverick Billionaires)
Will Franconi has a dark past that he’s kept a closely guarded secret—very few people have ever heard his real story and he plans to keep it that way. After surviving a hellish childhood, he’s now living the dream life where everything he touches turns to gold. But something’s missing. He doesn’t quite know what, until a simple letter from a teenage boy brings Harper Newman into his life—a woman who just might fill up the empty places inside him…if only he could ever be worthy of her love.
Oh yes, Will Franconi was dangerous. Extremely dangerous as he drew her to the passenger side of the car and her stomach fluttered with the hand-to-hand contact.
Harper hadn’t dated in over a year, ever since she’d realized that she was an easy target. Not only for men who wanted to get at her brother’s trust fund, but also because after so many years of working to take care of herself and Jeremy, she hadn’t had much time left over to nurture her other relationships. First she’d become involved with a man who wanted Jeremy’s money but not Jeremy. And then she’d rebounded into a relationship with a guy who had sworn he would always be there for her and Jeremy—at least until he’d found a far lower-maintenance woman.
After that, Harper had decided love and marriage simply weren’t in the cards for her.
Not that getting in the car with Will was akin to dating him, of course. She couldn’t imagine what a rich playboy like him would want with a completely ordinary woman like her. It was just that she hadn’t been this close to a good-looking man in a very long time. That had to explain why her heart was pounding hard and her skin felt flushed.
Will put her hand on the roll bar. “Hold on tight right here.”
Everything he said seemed to have a double meaning, turning something ordinary into something sexual. But she knew it had to be her sex-starved brain adding the extra meaning.
She lifted her skirt slightly to step inside, then slid down into the leather seat. Picking up the ends of the seat belt, she looked at them, unsure how the contraption worked.
“It’s a five-point racing harness,” Will explained as he got into the driver’s seat beside her.
When she started fumbling with the hooks and levers on the harness, he said, “Let me help you.”
The next thing she knew, he was settling a strap over her shoulder, his fingers brushing her collarbone as he brought it down across her chest. Thrill bumps raced across her skin with the near contact. She inhaled his scent—shampoo and soap and very sexy male—and her body tingled. Pulling the harness down to her lap, he flicked the latch closed with a snap, and she felt the pressure of his touch just below her belly. Low enough—and intimately enough—that her pulse rate shot up.
As he started on the other strap, his fingers skimmed the air just above her breasts, not quite touching, but barely short of a breath away. Harper didn’t look up, didn’t dare meet his gaze, just in case he realized the effect he was having on her. He snapped the second latch, buckled the belt across her lap with a simple flip of the two pieces she’d already connected, then cinched the strap.
“Comfortable?” With the sun behind him, his eyes were shadowed, but she could have sworn heat sparkled in their depths.
“I’m fine.” Her answer was low, breathy, too close to a moan.
He pulled back slowly, his gaze still dark and intense, making her pulse beat even harder. After he secured his belt, he started the engine with a roar, and put a hand on the gear shift. “Ready?”
With a man like him, she didn’t think she’d ever be ready. But she managed a nod.
He took off with a burst of speed, and she hung on to the door with one hand, clutching the seat tightly with the other, down by the gear box where he wouldn’t see.
“Don’t worry,” he yelled over the rush of wind, “I won’t go too fast.”
Didn’t he get that everything he was doing was already too fast?
Her hair whipped around her face, and she had to let go of the seat to pull it back. She needed two hands to bunch the thick locks at the back of her head, out of her eyes and her lipstick. She was flying free beside him, held in only by the harness, as the wind screamed past her ears.
And he was smiling, watching her.
“Look at the road,” she shouted at him.
She felt him brake as he went into the turn at the end of the runway. It felt like they were going too fast, but the back end didn’t slide as he went into the second turn, heading down the opposite runway. Her body swayed and jostled in the leather seat. She could taste the salt air on her lips. In the distance, she could see Jeremy jumping up and down, punching his fist high.
Will went faster and faster, making her blood pound in her ears and the wind beat against her chest. She should
have told him to slow down, to stop and let her out. She should be calling him a maniac, even screaming at him.
Yet right then, Harper had the insane urge to raise her arms in the air like a teenager on a roller coaster. A crazy voice inside her whispered, Do it.
Unable to resist the pull of excitement and the thrill of the speed racing through her, she let herself go, throwing her hands up and her head back.
It was as exhilarating as it was terrifying. Maybe it was the combination of fear and danger and the pure joy of soaring through the air that made her feel so alive, with every nerve firing.
Or…maybe it was the man beside her.
* * *
Harper was utterly gorgeous, the sun sparkling in her wind-tossed hair, ecstasy glowing on her face. She didn’t shout or cheer—but she did hold up her arms. And she smiled.
The most beautiful smile Will had ever seen.
He wasn’t even near freeway speed, yet the shriek of the motor, the rumble of the pipes, and the open sky above them made it seem as if the car were flying at over a hundred miles an hour.
Just as he’d promised, he took her around only once. He didn’t want to push her limits.
Not yet, anyway.
While harnessing her in, it would have been so easy to touch her, to let his fingertips graze her gorgeous skin. His heart had hammered with the desire to put his hands on her. Even now, his fingers sizzled with her heat, and her sweet scent filled his head. But he could tell that she wasn’t like the women he usually spent time with—women who knew the score and were in it for what they could grab before he moved on.
Will knew he shouldn’t lead Harper on. She was a good girl. She was someone who deserved the fairytale, a guy who was as good as she was. Not an ex-thief who still battled his demons, who knew that he could never change the blood he came from, no matter how much he wished he could.
Speed had taken away far too much from Harper already—her brother’s independence and her parents’ lives. And yet, he could feel that she craved it all the same. Craved the rush, the thrill, just as much as he did.
Just as much as he craved her.
“Don’t begin this book in the evening—you will read all night long!”
~ 5 stars for BREATHLESS IN LOVE
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More Books by Bella Andre
THE SULLIVANS
San Francisco Sullivans
The Look Of Love
From This Moment On
Can’t Help Falling In Love
I Only Have Eyes For You
If You Were Mine
Let Me Be The One
Come A Little Bit Closer
Always On My Mind
Kissing Under The Mistletoe
Seattle Sullivans
One Perfect Night
The Way You Look Tonight
It Must Be Your Love
Just To Be With You
I Love How You Love Me
All I Ever Need Is You
New York Sullivans
Every Beat Of My Heart
Now That I’ve Found You
Since I Fell For You
Sweeter Than Ever
The Best Is Yet To Come
Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You
You Do Something To Me
Every Time We Fall In Love
Maine Sullivans
Falling In Love All Over Again
Your Love Is Mine
There Goes My Heart
When You Kiss Me
The London Sullivans
As Long As I Have You
THE MAVERICK BILLIONAIRES
Breathless in Love
Reckless in Love
Fearless in Love
Irresistible in Love
Wild in Love
Captivating in Love
THE MORRISONS
Kiss Me Like This
Tempt Me Like This
Love Me Like This
Bad Boys of Football series
Game For Anything
Game For Seduction
Game For Love
Take Me series
Love Me
Take Me
Stand-alone Novels
Candy Store
Red Hot Reunion
Tempt Me, Taste Me, Touch Me
Wild Heat
Hot As Sin
Never Too Hot
BELLA ANDRE writing as LUCY KEVIN
Lucy Kevin is the sweet pen name of Bella Andre. Lucy Kevin books are fun, flirty and romantic—without the steamy scenes.
Married in Malibu series
The Beach Wedding
The Summer Wedding
The Barefoot Wedding
The Moonlight Wedding
Walker Island series
Be My Love
No Other Love
When It’s Love
All For Love
Forever In Love
Four Weddings and a Fiasco series
The Wedding Gift
The Wedding Dance
The Wedding Song
The Wedding Dress
The Wedding Kiss
Stand-alone Lucy Kevin novels
Falling Fast
Sparks Fly
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Having sold more than 9 million books, Bella Andre’s novels have been #1 bestsellers around the world and have appeared on the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists 91 times. She has been the #1 Ranked Author on a top 10 list that included Nora Roberts, JK Rowling, James Patterson and Steven King.
Known for “sensual, empowered stories enveloped in heady romance” (Publishers Weekly), her books have been Cosmopolitan Magazine “Red Hot Reads” twice and have been translated into ten languages. She is a graduate of Stanford University and has won the Award of Excellence in romantic fiction. The Washington Post called her “One of the top writers in America” and she has been featured by Entertainment Weekly, NPR, USA Today, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, and TIME Magazine.
Bella also writes the New York Times bestselling “Four Weddings and a Fiasco” series as Lucy Kevin. Her sweet contemporary romances also include the USA Today bestselling “Walker Island” and “Married in Malibu” series.
If not behind her computer, you can find her reading her favorite authors, hiking, swimming or laughing. Married with two children, Bella splits her time between the Northern California wine country, a log cabin in the Adirondack mountains of upstate New York, and a flat in London overlooking the Thames.
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Visit Bella’s website for her complete booklist: www.BellaAndre.com