Excerpt!
Come to my Window by Eve Kasey
For a second, I see nothing but stars, hear nothing but my own breath. For a second, I’m just floating.
As I sink back down to Earth, I scramble to sit up straight, chest heaving, my gaze flying across the alley. My meager sexual experience hasn't come close to preparing me for that. My two partners in college, boys really, had nothing on the guy in the window. All man, all focus.
Fred is lost in his own moment of release, head tipped back while his cock pulses in his hand. Forget the scrambled images on the Spice Channel. Forget Playgirl. Forget Keanu or Chris Cornell. Nothing can be hotter than my neighbor in the throes of ecstasy.
His black hair falls over his eyes as he straightens, gaze on mine.
All focus.
Had I ever been broken? Right then, every crack in my armor feels soldered and strong. Right then, I feel anything but lonely.
I can see how hard he’s breathing. We have that in common.
Adventure? Excitement? Check and check.
“Thank you,” I whisper.
Still gloriously naked, he places a hand on the window, a grateful smile lifting his lips. Pushing my hair out of my face, I do the same. My palm tingles against the cool glass as if I can feel his skin connecting with mine. The moment stretches on, just the two of us sharing an empty alley in moonlight. For a moment, it feels like falling.
I really need to learn his name.
Before I can ask, he drops his hand from the glass and scribbles out a note.
Not a note, I realize as he tapes it up. A number. His number.
I blink frantically, processing that information and what it means. I expected an in-bed adventure because he gave me notice. But talking, really talking, is a new level altogether.
I copy the number down on one of my own sheets of paper.
No way I’ll call him tonight.
Shock is nudging at me as the high wears off. I don't want to be embarrassed about what I've done, but shit. Anyone could have walked down the alley. The lady with the husky below Fred could have seen me with my hands down my panties.
I suddenly recall my horoscope from that morning. Don’t let caution bog you down.
Yeah, another check.
But as my eyes devour my neighbor’s back while he cleans himself up, I can't summon any regret.
He turns and my stomach crashes. I don't think I’ll ever be able to look into his universe eyes and not feel like I’m falling.
Am I?
He makes me feel… everything. Emotions I can't even name.
His sweats cover his lower half again. He taps on the note in the window, brows raised. I nod. I’ll call. After I make a list of topics to cover, of course, in case things get awkward.
His shoulders drop as if relieved, and I feel another rush of affection for my neighbor who has done so much to help me heal. It's a heady feeling, knowing that you make someone’s life better by just being there. By just being yourself.
Smiling, the big, swarthy man brings his fingers to his lips and blows me a kiss.
October 16th, 1995. The day Hazel Elizabeth Bell straight up dies.
One volume, two steamy interconnected romances set in 1995 Seattle
Come to My Window
Hazel Bell has lost everything — her job, her apartment, and her future in Seattle. Now her whole world is a thrift-store wardrobe, a family of houseplants, and a stranger in the opposite window who knows exactly what to say.
They exchange notes instead of names. Confessions instead of introductions. And somehow, the man she’s never met becomes the one person she can’t live without.
Gideon Sarkis knows the truth would end them before they ever begin.
He knows exactly who Hazel is. But she doesn’t know him — or how badly he once hurt her. The more notes they write, the harder he falls. But with his obligations pressing in and her options disappearing, their time is running out.
Some windows are meant to be opened.
But some secrets can shatter everything.
Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door
Ben Pedersen is a ghostwriter stuck crafting someone else’s thrillers when a misdelivered package introduces him to the mystery of unit 203 — and its elusive occupant, Heaven Lee.
Lee is a software engineer burning the candle at every possible end, helping build one of the first online bookstores. She doesn’t have time for nosy neighbors. She barely has time for sleep. But the guy upstairs keeps getting her mail, and he’s funny, patient, and her dog likes him more than the UPS guy. So maybe one coffee not-date won’t kill her.
The neighborly arrangement that follows becomes something neither of them planned. But Lee won’t admit what’s in the misdelivered packages, and Ben’s writer brain won’t let a mystery rest. When curiosity crosses a line, both must decide what matters more: protecting their secrets or fighting for what they’ve found.
Love Next Door is two warm, witty nostalgic love stories about the secrets we keep, the walls we build, and the people worth tearing them down for.
Author bio:
Eve Kasey writes for a design firm by day and reads (and writes!) indie romance novels by night. Her contemporary romances balance swoon and steam while aiming to teach readers something new. She loves romance for the hope the genre conveys as well as the amplification of the simple truth that everyone everywhere deserves a happily ever after - however that looks to them. Eve lives in and loves the Pacific Northwest.
Melanie A. Smith is an award-winning, international best-selling author of steamy romance with smart, self-sufficient heroines and strong, swoony book boyfriends with hearts of gold. A former engineer turned stay-at-home mom and author, when Melanie is not lost in the world of books you’ll find her spending time with her husband and son, crafting, or cross-stitching.
