Excerpt!
Owen splashed water at my head. I returned the favor as he waded over and picked me up. “What are you doing?”
“You can barely stand over here.” He lifted me higher out of the water. “I’m giving your legs a break.”
“Is that so?”
“Absolutely,” he replied. “One must be sure not to tire when in a precarious situation.” His arms tightened around me.
“I’m pretty sure I could out-swim you on a bad day.”
His brows reached for his hairline. “Is that a challenge?”
“Damn straight.” I pointed to the copse of trees at the bend. “First one from here to the trees upstream wins?”
“Done,” Owen exclaimed, immediately dropping me to get a head start.
“That’s cheating,” I called out before righting myself and working furiously to catch up. It didn’t take long because I was an excellent swimmer. By the time we reached the trees, I was in the lead by several feet.
He stared at me incredulously as he caught up. “Holy shit, you’re fast.”
“I know.”
“You hustled me good, Stevenson.”
“Hey, I told you I could out-swim you, Cooper. If you chose not to believe me, that’s on you.”
“What’s my consolation prize?”
“Why should you get rewarded for coming in last when I don’t get anything for winning?”
He sidled up to me in the water, gently pressing me against the bank. The barest suggestion of a current sent tiny pebbles ricocheting off my feet, the beat of them accurately reflecting the way my heart thumped inside my chest.
“I can think of something that might act as a prize for both of us,” he said suggestively, tracing the edge of my jaw with a finger, tipping it to line up my lips with his.
“How presumptuous of you,” I replied quietly, but I closed the gap between our lips immediately. He tasted of creek water and whiskey. Until now, I’d never have considered that an attractive combination.
As Owen leaned in and deepened the kiss, running his fingers through my hair and pressing his body against mine, I found I couldn’t get enough of it. Enough of him.
I threw my arms around his neck, desperate to get closer.
He wouldn’t be a client for much longer. In a few months, I’d be gone, and unlikely to see him again. It was now or never. I voted for now.
Her company is failing. His plan could save it. Will their partnership move from business to pleasure?
Carla “Carl” Stevenson takes a special joy in running the local timber mill. But when the economy takes a downturn, selling the family business may be her only heartbreaking option. After a prospective buyer takes an interest, she’s horrified by his plans to raze the Frazier forest to make room for cheap cattle farming. To protect her home, she reluctantly turns to the town’s most notorious player…
Owen Cooper can’t believe Carl’s mill is for sale. But the construction company owner is even more shocked that “Carl” is actually a beautiful woman. Moved by feelings he never saw coming, Owen drafts an ambitious plan to save the mill owner’s livelihood… and maybe even win her heart.
Rallying their community around the audacious idea, Owen and Carl find their fates delightfully intertwined. But both their chemistry and the project hang in the balance when he suddenly walks away…
With the whole town at stake, will Carl and Owen save the mill and find their way to true love?
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International bestselling author of more than thirty novels, Kelly Collins writes with the intention of keeping love alive. Always a romantic, she blends real-life events with her vivid imagination to create characters and stories that lovers of contemporary romance, new adult, and romantic suspense will return to again and again.
Kelly has sold more than a quarter of a million books worldwide, and in 2021 she was awarded a Readers' Favorite Award Gold Medal in the Contemporary Romance category for A Tablespoon of Temptation.
You can learn more about Kelly at www.authorkellycollins.com.
