Excerpt!
Brothers Best Friend:
“Why can’t you just get an eyeful and keep your mouth shut like everyone else?”
Todd looked around pointedly. “But there isn’t anyone else.”
“Not this time.”
“Not this time,” Todd repeated more slowly, blinking. The little gems of water on his eyelashes caught a shaft of afternoon light, and sparkled.
So he remembered it too—the last time they’d swam here together.
“I hadn’t thought it through. The wet T-shirt, I mean.”
Todd laughed. “The wet T-shirt was epic. Every hetero-eighteen-year-old-guy’s wet dream.”
At the time, Maddie hadn’t realised her ‘modesty’ T-shirt had plastered itself to every damn curve she’d been trying to hide until it was too late.
Her sixteen-year-old-self’s embarrassment had been minor, she was among friends after all, but was compounded tenfold by her brother’s over-the-top reaction.
Trying to cover Maddie from head to toe with a random towel, Mitchell had ordered his ogling mates to look the other way.
“Bloody Mitchell,” she muttered.
Todd grinned. “If you need me to act all protective and cover you up, I can do that.” He held two hands up, palms cupped as if holding her chest, making Maddie snort.
“Hey, how are you doing that without going under? Are you touching bottom?”
“Tippy toes,” Todd admitted.
It wasn’t just their clothing missing, something else had eased off between them, slowly worn through by continual proximity and shared history. Maddie slid one hand onto Todd’s shoulder, using him as support so she didn’t have to tread water anymore. It felt so natural there, she followed suit with the other one, framing his neck.
“You planning on dunking me?” Todd’s eyes glinted with amusement, but there was something else there too.
A light. A spark…
Attraction?
“The thought had crossed my mind,” Maddie informed him loftily, though to be honest, she was seriously considering his mouth as her next move.
A shiver of excitement ran through her.
“Want to get out?”
No. She most definitely did not want to get out.
Author bio:
Award winning New Zealand contemporary romance novelist and short story writer, Stephanie Ruth lives in the South Island, Te Waipounamu, with her husband, three children, and an ever expanding array of animals. If it doesn't have a happy ending in some form or other, Stephanie's not writing it.
Maybe friends really do make the best lovers…
Barista Maddie Stalwart-Jones has known Todd Kaihanga all her life, but no matter where her brain wanders when she’s not vigilant, she refuses to consider her brother’s best mate as anything other than off limits. It would be all wrong, right? The self-proclaimed pessimist is intent on ignoring the fact her cafe manager is the only guy she can relax and be herself around, and the only person she’s comfortable talking about her dead brother with.
Intent on escaping Wānaka, where everyone seems to have an opinion on her intimate business and family history, falling for Todd would be highly inconvenient.
Todd’s a patient guy, but he’s over waiting around for Maddie to notice he could be so much more than a shoulder to lean on. When Maddie’s mother finally agrees to accept some much needed help with her run down property, it’s a perfect catalyst for Todd to prove to his high school crush that his optimistic streak isn’t a curse, it’s the perfect yin to her yang. The wedding of the year is about to kick off, and there’s only one woman he wants to be dancing with.
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Author bio:
Award winning New Zealand contemporary romance novelist and short story writer, Stephanie Ruth lives in the South Island, Te Waipounamu, with her husband, three children, and an ever expanding array of animals. If it doesn't have a happy ending in some form or other, Stephanie's not writing it.
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