Anna Madison has faithfully avoided her old flame for six years,
even though their Main Street restaurants are only a few blocks apart.
The sting of his rejection was enough to make her swear off dating for
good, but when her successful restaurant is damaged
in a fire, she's left to the mercy of the one man she's spent years
proving she doesn't need...and convincing herself she doesn't want.
Mark
Hastings can't say he's happy being alone, but at least his heart is
safe. Burnt out from running the Briar Creek diner,
he's ready for a change. He tells himself he's just being neighborly by
letting Anna use his kitchen, but being by her side again stirs up
temptations he might not be able to resist a second time around.
Mark leaned in, catching a whiff of her sweet scent as he
did. He closed his eyes briefly, trying to capture the single sense. When he
looked up, Anna was staring at him, her gaze hooded. He could lean in, just
another inch, remember what it felt like to kiss her mouth, to feel her soft
curves pressed against him.
He pulled himself back in the stool instead. He was here to
find her friendship again. Nothing more. “The bookstore’s doing fine now; I see
people in there all the time. It’s never looked so great.”
Anna sighed through a small smile. “It does, yes. But…that’s
not what has me worried. I took out a
loan to match Grace’s investment. She’s covering rent and the bookstore
renovation; I’m covering well…everything else. For now. It was all going to be
fine. More than fine. And then--”
“The fire.”
She nodded. “The fire.”
“How bad is it?”
She met his stare. “Bad.”
He let out a low whistle. It was exactly the kind of
situation that made Hastings to appealing. The place was paid up; they owned it
outright. A new venture, of any kind, could never offer the same security. One
day it could be booming, the next…
“Does Grace know?”
“No,” said quickly, “and I don’t intend to tell her.”
He leaned into his elbow. “So what’s your plan, then?”
She looked at him quizzically. “I intend to win this
contest!”
He burst out laughing, hearing his own foolish desires in
her preposterous statement. Until now, winning had been a vague notion, not
something he was banking on, but hearing her say it aloud, a desire to not only
compete but to win, made him suddenly believe it was possible. That anything
was possible.
“I do intend to win!” Anna cried, but even she couldn’t stop
from laughing. The sound rolled through the room and pulled at his heart,
filling holes he didn’t even know were there.
He didn’t realize he’d stopped laughing until she did. The
air went still, punctured only by the sound of his heart beating in his chest,
and he knew he couldn’t hold back any longer. Without thinking, or daring to
consider the consequences, he leaned into her and her eyes flashed with
surprise, her lashes fluttering quickly as he slid off his stool and closed the
distance between them.
A gasp of surprise escaped her throat as he brought
his lips to hers and his hands came around her waist, pulling her close to his
chest until he felt her body relax on each kiss. He sensed her hesitation, but
he couldn’t pull back, not when her lips were on his, her sweet taste filling
his senses. She parted her mouth, and he pulled her closer, feeling the soft
swell of her breasts against his chest. His groin pooled with warmth as her
thighs rubbed against his. He pressed his palms deeper into her back, and
lower, resisting the urge to explore her hips, knowing if he did he wouldn’t be
able to stop. And he should stop--he
should. But…he couldn’t.
He kissed her, as if for the first time, tasting the
forbidden fruit, knowing it was wrong, wrong, wrong, even thought it felt so
damn right. He tore his lips from hers, letting his mouth roam her neck,
burying himself into her hair, that coconut-scented hair, and breathed into her
ear, wondering if she would run, if she’d push him back, tell him to go.
He pulled back, watching the way her eyes searched
his. He should say something, explain himself, but there was nothing to say.
Anna’s cheeks were dotted with pink as she picked
up a knife and pulled the vegetables from the basket. His gaze lingered her on
a few moments more, watching the way she expertly chopped and diced, the way
they’d been instructed in school, fingers tucked.
“Anna.” His voice was low and husky.
He should tell her it was a mistake, that it
couldn’t happen again. That he wanted to be friends, to make her understand
once and for all that it was all they ever should have been.
“We should get to work,” she said abruptly, and he
hated the slight quiver in her voice. “We still have a lot do and we leave for
Cedar Valley tomorrow afternoon.”
They’d be at the lodge for two nights; he’d have
time to talk to her then. For now, she was right. It was time to get to work,
put all personal matters aside, and focus on winning this contest. And getting
what they wanted at long last.
A great second chance novel that you will fall in love with! I loved this cute romance that will tug at your heart.
Mark and Anna have a past. A past that no one else in their small New England town knows about. Which is quite the feat for a town where everyone is into everyone else's business. The two have spent the last six years avoiding each other. But when a fire at Anna's cafe forces her together with Mark in order to keep her family business afloat... memories, pain and feelings all come to the surface. With a meddling Aunt and sisters who only want the best for their sister... the two find themselves working together and finding the emotions of past are hard to swallow. Especially when Anna is holding a BIG secret that could forever push Mark away.
Characters are well developed with lots of personality, making you fall in love with each and every person. This was the first book that I have read from Olivia and will definitely be adding the rest of her books to my TBR.
Mark and Anna have a past. A past that no one else in their small New England town knows about. Which is quite the feat for a town where everyone is into everyone else's business. The two have spent the last six years avoiding each other. But when a fire at Anna's cafe forces her together with Mark in order to keep her family business afloat... memories, pain and feelings all come to the surface. With a meddling Aunt and sisters who only want the best for their sister... the two find themselves working together and finding the emotions of past are hard to swallow. Especially when Anna is holding a BIG secret that could forever push Mark away.
Characters are well developed with lots of personality, making you fall in love with each and every person. This was the first book that I have read from Olivia and will definitely be adding the rest of her books to my TBR.
Having grown up in New England, Olivia Miles attended McGill
University in Montreal, Quebec before settling in Chicago where she
lives with her husband, their daughter, and two ridiculously pampered
pups. When she is not chasing after her little ones,
she is hard at work creating feisty heroines and alpha heroes with a
heart. A city girl with a fondness for small town charm, Olivia enjoys
highlighting both ways of life in her stories.
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