by Bella Andre
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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Excerpt from THE LOOK OF LOVE (The Sullivans)
Chloe Peterson is having a bad night. A really bad night. The large bruise on her cheek can attest to that. And when her car skids off the side of a wet country road straight into a ditch, she’s convinced even the gorgeous guy who rescues her in the middle of the rain storm must be too good to be true. Or is he?
As a successful photographer who frequently travels around the world, Chase Sullivan has his pick of beautiful women, and whenever he’s home in San Francisco, one of his seven siblings is usually up for causing a little fun trouble. Chase thinks his life is great just as it is—until the night he finds Chloe and her totaled car on the side of the road in Napa Valley. Not only has Chase never met anyone so lovely, both inside and out, but he quickly realizes Chloe has much bigger problems than her damaged car. Soon, Chase is willing to move mountains to love—and protect—her, but will Chloe let him?
The two of them hiked up the hillside, and the view took Chloe’s breath away.
Chase took a waterproof blanket out of the basket and laid it on grass that was still damp from the previous night’s rain shower.
“Wow, you really come prepared,” she said.
“I’ve got a good crew.”
“You certainly do. I enjoyed watching you work,” came out of her mouth before she could hold the words inside.
His smile was like a warm caress over her skin. “I liked you being there.” He laughed and admitted, “I was trying not to show off.”
Amazed by how easily he could make her smile, she said, “Most guys don’t admit stuff like that.”
She half expected him to say something like, “I’m not most guys.” Instead, he surprised her yet again by asking, “So, what do you do?”
He was being so careful with her. She felt it in every glance, every word. Even now, when he could so easily have asked her where she was from or why she was running, he was getting to know her another way instead. Just as he hadn’t touched her without her permission last night. It was as if there was a silent agreement between them—he wouldn’t push too far or get in too deep unless she allowed it.
The big question was, would she dare let him in?
Chloe didn’t have an answer. How could she, when she was afraid to even acknowledge the question?
He handed her a gourmet sandwich full of goat cheese and grilled yellow and orange bell peppers, and as she took it from him, she said, “Well, most recently, I’ve been waitressing.”
“But what do you like to do?”
Most people would have stopped at her day job. But not Chase. He was truly interested. And that honest interest went a long way toward shoving aside her reluctance to talk about herself.
She paused before answering, “I make quilts.”
People never knew what to make of that. Most assumed it was a hobby. Others just thought it was plain weird or boring. Men, without exception, dismissed it as just another housewife craft. Chase, however, gave her a sincerely interested look.
“Tell me more.”
Downplaying it like she usually did, she said, “I like seeing how fabrics come together in patterns.”
“I don’t know much about the quilting world,” he said, “but I’ve photographed a few quilt shows and art quilts for various publications, and what I’ve learned about technique and the skill that’s involved in making them has been really interesting. I’d love to know more. When did you start?”
Chloe rarely had a chance to wax on about her love for quilting. Not since she’d been a member of a quilting guild years and years ago. She missed those women—and their shared passion—terribly.
Which was probably why she actually found herself telling Chase, “I started quilting when I lost a close friend from college in a car accident. She had been so passionate about it. Her mom actually owned a store in town. It was the only way I could think of to keep up my connection to her. And it gave me something else to think about—the motion of my hands and the needle, the patterns of fabric and shape, the building of something that I could create. Sometimes I can almost feel her watching me from up above with a smile on her face.”
“I’m sure she is.”
Chloe started at Chase’s words. Had she really just said all of that to him? Somehow he had gotten her to talk about her passion for quilting—a subject that would have put nearly every guy on the planet to sleep. But he wasn’t snoring yet. And she found herself wanting to tell him more about herself, more than just her love for quilting.
She wasn’t at all comfortable acknowledging that Chase had just become the exception. And that it had felt so good to share herself with someone who was really listening. Not when she knew that she was being stupid, letting herself think that this fantasy of sitting with a gorgeous guy on a hilltop in Napa Valley had anything to do with her real life.
It didn’t.
She put down her sandwich and made herself face him, but before she could say anything, he said, “Uh-oh. That’s not a good look.”
She wasn’t going to smile. There was no place for grinning when she needed to set him straight, when she was about to make her position on the two of them perfectly clear.
“Why are you being so nice to me, Chase?”
“I like you.”
The glow his words caused was too bright. Too warm. Forcing herself to blot it out, she said, “You don’t know me.”
“I’m starting to.”
No pause. No smooth words. No trying to charm her into agreeing with him. Didn’t he realize just how much harder his honest responses were making this for her?
“Is this what you do?” she asked.
“What am I doing?”
“You keep helping me, making me breakfast, asking Jeremy to be nice to me all day.”
He frowned, and she could see that he was confused. “Is there something wrong with wanting to make you smile?”
&n
bsp; Oh. Wow. Why did he have to say that?
She couldn’t think of any other man who’d simply wanted to make her smile. Not even the man she’d married. Especially not the man she’d married.
Frustrated with herself for being so soft—so easy to turn to goo—she made herself come at him one more time with, “I get it if you’re into saving people, but—”
“I’m not a saint, Chloe.”
His low voice cut her accusation off in midstream, and she found herself unable to look away from his serious expression.
“I’ll always take care of my family,” he continued, “but I’ve never gone out looking for women who need to be saved. And even though I hope you’ll soon trust me enough to tell me what happened to you, trying to boost my own ego by saving you is not why I asked you to stay.”
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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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
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 – IN KINDLE UNLIMITED
Take Me series
Love Me – IN KINDLE UNLIMITED
Take Me
Stand-alone Novels
Candy Store – IN KINDLE UNLIMITED
Red Hot Reunion
Tempt Me, Taste Me, Touch Me
Hotshot Firefighter series
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
The Walker Island series – IN KINDLE UNLIMITED
Be My Love
No Other Love
When It’s Love
All For Love
Forever In Love
The Four Weddings and a Fiasco series – IN KINDLE UNLIMITED
The Wedding Gift
The Wedding Dance
The Wedding Song
The Wedding Dress
The Wedding Kiss
Stand-alone Lucy Kevin novels – IN KINDLE UNLIMITED
Falling Fast
Sparks Fly
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Having sold more than 8 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 fin
d 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