"No way."
"Chicken?"
"More like old enough to know better. In fact--" She tried to pull him back out of the water. "--my feet are knowing better right now."
But instead of getting out, he pulled her in deeper and she gasped. "Calvin! What are you doing?"
He would have told her if he knew, if he had a clue just what he was trying to get himself into, but before he could respond, fat drops of water started falling down on them. Moments later the sky opened up, Noah's ark style.
"There's a boathouse over there," he said, pulling her down the beach.
Sixty seconds later they were out of the storm, taking shelter in the small covered boathouse with one faint light bulb hanging from the ceiling. Rain was lashing out across the dark lake and the wind had kicked in big-time.
She wiped her hair away from her eyes. "Oh my God, we're soaked." Her clothes were plastered to her, her thin, wet sweater and form-fitting jeans leaving very little to the imagination. Too little for his peace of mind. "This wasn't at all what I had planned for the rest of the night."
"It's been good, Sarah. Real good." She shivered and he scanned the boathouse, finding what he was looking for in the corner. "Here," he said, wrapping the towel around her back.
"Thanks." She wrapped it around her. "Isn't there another one?"
"Nope."
"This one is big enough for us to share."
There was nothing he wanted more than to get in there with her under the towel, pressed up against her, her heart beating against his. "That's probably not a good idea."
"You're wet. The wind is blowing. It's a good idea."
No, it wasn't. But there was no denying her.
Or himself.
He moved closer, and she held open the corners of the towel to let him in. He barely stifled a groan as her arms came around him, closing the towel around both of them. She was tall, but he was taller, and her head fit against his shoulder. Just like it always had.
"Better?"
He could feel her breath against his skin, was burning up from the heat of her warm body against his. He almost couldn't get the word out, the word that was both complete truth and a complete lie all at the same time. "Better."
And then she looked up at him, and the desire sliding across her features, along with a deep, elemental yearning he saw in her eyes, had him damning the consequences.
"Do you have any idea how badly I want to kiss you?" he asked. "Right here. Right now. Just one kiss so I can finally know if you taste as sweet as you used to. So sweet I've never been able to find anything else like it. Like you."
It was the only out he could give her, the chance to get the hell out of here and back to the safety of her mother's house on the lake. But instead of running, her eyes dropped to his mouth, the pulse in her throat beating a wild rhythm.
"Just one kiss," she echoed in a breathless whisper.
Only, before he could kiss her, her hands were in his hair and her mouth was slanting across his. Soft. Warm. Sweet.
Perfect.
All these years he'd kept away from alcohol, not wanting to risk falling into the trap his father had, but Sarah's mouth was a million times more addictive than anything he'd ever known.
She's the biggest risk of all was the only sane thought left in his head, but this wasn't about sanity. This was about taking everything he'd wanted, needed for so long, from the only woman who had ever mattered to him.
He cupped her jaw in his hands and made love to her mouth, nipping at her full lower lip, tasting the corners where her lips came together with the tip of his tongue. Moving his mouth temporarily away from those sweet lips, he ran kisses across her jawline, then down into the hollow of her neck to taste the pulse point that beat so wildly for him.
She gasped with pleasure, her chest rising and falling against his, and more than a decade of self-control shattered inside Calvin as he kissed her.
"Sarah, sweetheart," he whispered against her skin. "We need to get out of here. Need to go somewhere no one can burst in on us."
"Calvin?" His name was a soft question on her lips, but when he reached out to brush the hair back from her face and her eyes locked with his, instead of desire, he saw panic move in. "Oh no." She inched away from him, but they were tangled up so tightly against each other beneath the towel that she couldn't make any headway. "I shouldn't have--we shouldn't have done that."
"Don't you think I know that?" Her eyes widened at his words, at the touch of his hand on her chin as he tilted her head back up to his and forced her to meet his eyes, to see the truth of his feelings for her on his face. He knew he should have stopped when he'd felt her vulnerability in the way her lips trembled beneath his. When he damn well couldn't afford to lose his heart to her again knowing that she was going to be leaving the lake soon. "But do you really think either one of us can stop it?"
Excerpt from THE BEST IS YET TO COME by Bella Andre (c) 2017
Buy THE BEST IS YET TO COME
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The following books in Bella Andre's New York Times & USA Today bestselling series about The Sullivans are out now!
THE LOOK OF LOVE
(Chase & Chloe)
FROM THIS MOMENT ON
(Marcus & Nicola)
CAN'T HELP FALLING IN LOVE
(Gabe & Megan)
I ONLY HAVE EYES FOR YOU
(Sophie & Jake)
IF YOU WERE MINE
(Zach & Heather)
LET ME BE THE ONE
(Ryan & Vicki)
COME A LITTLE BIT CLOSER
(Smith & Valentina)
ALWAYS ON MY MIND
(Lori & Grayson)
KISSING UNDER THE MISTLETOE
(Mary & Jack Sullivan)
ONE PERFECT NIGHT
(A novella guest starring Mia Sullivan and Rafe Sullivan)
THE WAY YOU LOOK TONIGHT
(Rafe & Brooke, The Seattle Sullivans)
IT MUST BE YOUR LOVE
(Mia & Ford, The Seattle Sullivans)
JUST TO BE WITH YOU
(Ian & Tatiana, The Seattle Sullivans)
I LOVE HOW YOU LOVE ME
(Dylan's story, The Seattle Sullivans)
ALL I EVER NEED IS YOU
(Adam & Kerry, The Seattle Sullivans)
NOW THAT I'VE FOUND YOU
(Drake & Rosa, The New York Sullivans)
SINCE I FELL FOR YOU
(Suzanne & Roman, The New York Sullivans)
SWEETER THAN EVER
(Smith & Valentina's Honeymoon Novella)
THE BEST IS YET TO COME
(New York Sullivans spinoff, Summer Lake #1)
CAN'T TAKE MY EYES OFF OF YOU
(New York Sullivans spinoff, Summer Lake #2)
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Click here to download a Sullivan Family Tree!
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BELLA ANDRE BOOKLIST
The Sullivans
The Look Of Love
From This Moment On
Can't Help Falling In Love
I Only Have Eyes For You
Let Me Be The One
Come A Little Bit Closer
Always On My Mind
Kissing Under The Mistletoe
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
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
The Maverick Billionaires
Breathless in Love
Reckless in Love
Fearless in Love
Irresistible in Love
&nb
sp; Wild in Love
The Morrisons
Kiss Me Like This
Tempt Me Like This
Love Me Like This
Game For Love series
Game For Love
Take Me series
Love Me
Take Me
Stand-alone Novels
Candy Store
Ecstasy
Red Hot Reunion
Tempt Me, Taste Me, Touch Me
Hotshot Firefighter series
Wild Heat
Hot As Sin
Never Too Hot
Bad Boys of Football series
Game For Anything
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 Walker Island Series
Be My Love
No Other Love
When It's Love
All For Love
Forever In Love
The 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
Seattle Girl
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Having sold more than 6 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 32 times. She has been the #1 Ranked Author on a top 10 list that included Nora Roberts, JK Rowling, James Patterson and Steven King, and Publishers Weekly named Oak Press (the publishing company she created to publish her own books) the Fastest-Growing Independent Publisher in the US. After signing a groundbreaking 7-figure print-only deal with Harlequin MIRA, Bella's "The Sullivans" series has been released in paperback in the US, Canada, and Australia.
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. Winner of the Award of Excellence, 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. A graduate of Stanford University, she has given keynote speeches at publishing conferences from Copenhagen to Berlin to San Francisco, including a standing-room-only keynote at Book Expo America in New York City.
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 series written as Lucy Kevin.
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 and a 100 year old log cabin in the Adirondacks.
For a complete listing of books, as well as excerpts and contests, and to connect with Bella:
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