Title: Somewhere In Between
Author: Shirl Rickman
Release Date: April 26, 2016
The art of romance is dead…
Tessa Collins loves people. She loves her job, loves her family—and on most days, loves her crazy best friend, Chad. Determined and independent, Tessa believes in love; she just doesn’t believe romantic love really exists anymore. Real love is for fools.
Jaded and closed off: That’s what they say about Lenox Malone...
He believed in love once; loved his girl, loved writing—Lenox loved romance when the whole world believed it was dead. But then he was scarred by it, and alone. Finally moving past the pain love ignited inside him, he never wants to risk being jaded again.
A journal and a chance encounter…
When the handwritten words of a lovesick stranger find their way into her hands, Tessa’s heart begins to… open. To flutter. To grow. To invite inside her weary heart the possibility that perhaps romance and true love really do exist.
But can it exist for her? Can a chance connection and fate’s design unlock one of the greatest love stories of all?
Their own.
When we came in, I noticed the robe. This will be perfect because I won't have to dig through her drawers. She sits down as I directed while I grab the robe. I can hear her humming, and when I turn around, she’s now trying to yank the shirt she’s wearing over her head.
Arms stuck straight up in the air, unable to move anymore; she murmurs from beneath the shirt, “Uh, Lenox? I’m stuck.”
This time, I do laugh as I walk over to her.
“Stay still. I’ve got this,” I inform her.
Tessa does exactly what I tell her to do as I lift the shirt over her head. I try to keep my eyes off of her, off the smooth skin of her shoulders, off her perky breast.
Kneeling in front of her, I pull off her jeans, and they move over her hips and down her legs. Her smooth, long, beautiful legs. Oh shit, I need to hurry. Once I have them off, I start to stand up, but Tessa stops me when she twines her fingers through my hair. We’re eye level, our gazes locked.
Before I even know what’s happening, she pulls my head forward, pressing her lips against mine.
My mind racing, I freeze as her lips slowly, gently caress mine. Her lips feel so good. I need to stop this, pull away. But, it just feels so damn good. Better than I imagined. She whispers my name against my lips just before she slides to her knees in front of me, running her hands beneath my shirt. My grip on reality slips the moment she deepens the kiss. Pulling her closer, I take everything she wants to give me.
Almost as quickly as it began, it ends. My mother raised a gentleman, and this isn’t very gentlemanly. I lightly grip her shoulders and push her back.
“Tessa, we need to stop. You don’t know what you’re doing. I’d be an asshole if I let this continue,” I state, an edge to my voice because everything in me is at war with the words leaving my mouth.
She gazes at me with a dazed look in her eyes, lips swollen from our kiss. So damn beautiful. Her head dips in a small nod, I reach for the robe lying on the floor next to us, our eyes remaining connected. Pulling the robe over her shoulders, pulling one arm and then the other through the short, silky sleeves.
Once I tie it in front of her, I pull her back against me into a hug. I whisper against her ear, “One day.”
Shirl Rickman is a writer, a dreamer, and an optimist. A small town Texas girl currently residing in the San Francisco Bay Area, Shirl adores her husband, daughter, and two crazy dogs. When she's not dreaming up new love stories, Shirl can be found reading, drinking her favorite coffee, Kona Blend with coconut milk. She loves kindness, laughing and meeting her readers.
