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.
