The old saying might be that you can’t go home again, but Jesse Fraser was well past the point in her life where she was going to be told what she could and couldn’t do. With the ink on her divorce papers barely dry, she loaded her sons, their belongings and headed south towards home, away from her toxic ex-husband, Drake. She was more than ready to get back to the small town where she was raised.
Cornfields, gentle hills and the welcoming faces of her parents reassured her that she had made the right choice. Jesse looked forward to giving her sons a chance to experience a slower pace and a fresh start. What she hadn’t planned on was the rush of memories and the intense pull of the arms of her old high school flame, Levi Murray.
While Jesse wasn’t sure that her life needed any new complications, one thing was certain; Levi wasn’t alone in thinking Jesse was a welcome addition back in their hometown. Cole Green, a man as intense as he was sexy, had other ideas on how Jesse should be welcomed home.
For the first time in years, Jesse had the chance to live her life the way she wanted it, free from the restrictive black cloud she lived under in her unhappy marriage with Drake. While Drake made ashes of her past, she was now free to choose between the fiery spark of her high school flame, or the slow burn of a new romance.
“You have this unnerving way of looking at me like you might know what I’m thinking,” she said, smiling up at him.
He leaned in and touched his lips to hers, a warm, soft contrast to the coldness of his face from the chill in the air outside. “I do, do I?” he said, pulling away from her. “Maybe I do,” he said, bending down to pick up her bag. “That’s a scary thought, huh? Maybe I’m psychic,” he said, his sea colored eyes flickering appreciatively down her long frame.
“Hmm,” she said, tilting her head one way and then another like she was pondering the great mysteries of the universe. “Maybe that explains it,” she said, turning from him to gather up her coat and handing it to his outstretched hands so that he could help her into it.
“Explains what?” he asked, brow wrinkled.
“Two things, really,” she said as they stepped outside her door, Jesse turning to lock the house. Looking back at him, she held his gaze, “You never look at me like I’m a puzzle you’re trying to figure out. Maybe you already know what I’m thinking,” she said as they made their way out to his truck.
He walked around and opened the passenger side door for her and said, “You said two things. What’s the other?”
“You always touch me where I want it next,” she said, fully aware that the glass of wine she had sipped had nothing to do with that admission. She was done playing careful cat and mouse. She watched his face and saw the color of his eyes deepen from the ocean on a sunny day to the color of the water at sunset. My God, he was an intense man. Whatever was rolling around inside him was certainly stirred up.
He leaned into the cab of the truck and put his hand on her neck, cradling her head like she was the most precious, breakable thing he’d ever held. Cole leaned his face next to hers, his lips a mere inch from hers, and looked hard into her eyes. He kissed her then with a heat and intensity that would’ve made her knees weak, had she been standing. He issued a low groan that could’ve been a growl, and she felt her knees instinctively part. Before she even saw him move she felt his hand between her legs, fingers splayed against her lower belly, thumb pressing right on her center. Jesse gasped at the unexpected contact, which encouraged him to press slightly harder. Jesse moved her head forward and down, leaning her forehead against his. Her eyes were shut against the pleasure-pain of it, wanting nothing more than Cole inside her at that moment. He removed his hand and looked hard into her eyes. He backed up, breathing as heavily as she was, and shut the door to the truck. She was beyond turned on and beyond thankful that the night was a dark one.
I'm a small town Midwestern 30-Something, fully in love with corn fields, rolling hills, high school sports and knowing everybody's business.
My true loves are my family, bodice-ripper romance novels, country drives on sunny days and uninterrupted reading time.
When I'm not chasing after my kids, being spelled at, or stepping on broken crayons, I’m typing as fast as my fingers can carry me, spinning yarns and drumming up ideas for the second book in the Coal Country Series, as well as finishing up a romantic comedy/chick lit story that I love.
Thank you so much for sharing the information on my story, Fishing Hole! I hope you get a chance to read the book and love it. This is so exciting!!!
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Hillary DeVisser