Forget all those other best-friend romances you might have
read.
Jace and Isabella have only known each other…since
kindergarten. And he hasn’t been secretly in love with her…for more than six or
seven years. She doesn't make him bristle with jealousy when she goes out with
other guys…that he’ll admit to. And she doesn’t get all flustered and confused
when she starts to find him incredibly sexy…too often.
But they definitely don’t transform their friendship into
romance…right away.
Isabella has known Jace all her life, and she’s been best
friends with him since high school, when she used to date his best friend. Now
she’s ready to settle down and get married, and she’s decided that her sister’s
wedding in three months is her deadline. She’s going to find the man of her
dreams in time to take him to the wedding.
Now if only Jace would stop acting strange and territorial
so he could help her.
She stared at him fixedly until she
saw the corner of his mouth twitch just slightly.
“I knew it! You’re bluffing!”
“Never.” He was obviously still
trying to hold onto his composure, but his eyes were brimming with humor, and
he was having trouble hiding a smile.
“Cheater!” Bursting into laughter,
she tackled him, playfully pushing him down so he was lying on his back on the
floor. “You’re cheating, and you know it, so you have to forfeit the game.”
She realized her mistake when Jace’s
hard, lean body started to rub against hers. Her heart began to race with
excitement as her breath quickened and shivers of excitement ran up and down
her spine.
His hand slowly slid down her back
until he was cupping her hips, almost—almost—touching her bottom. “I’ll never
forfeit. I’ll go to my death declaring that Zoroastrian is a perfectly
legitimate Scrabble word.”
Despite his light tone, his
expression had changed again. His eyes were hot. So hot. As hot as she felt.
She couldn’t stop herself from
rubbing against him again, and she suddenly realized how tense his body was.
Tense. And tight. And hard.
So hard.
All of him hard.
He shifted beneath her weight, and
every little move he made against her fired all of her sensitized nerve
endings.
She wanted him to roll over on top
of her. Sink into her completely.
She wanted him to bury himself in
her and never come out.
Jace closed his eyes and took a
slightly shaky breath, and she knew now why that was.
He was aroused beneath her. She
could feel it very starkly when she rubbed her pelvis against his.
She made a breathless noise at the
realization, and she trailed her hand down his chest to his belly.
Jace jerked in what looked like
surprised pleasure.
“Jace?” she whispered, her hand
grazing down even further.
It felt like there was some sort of
magnetic force drawing her hand down toward the bulge of his erection. He was
sweating a little—she could see it—and his breath was blowing in and out in
short huffs.
He grunted, not really forming a
complete word.
Isabella’s hand had reached his
belt, and she idly played with the supple leather. Maybe it was the wine. Or
maybe she’d been holding back for too long.
But she heard herself saying, “I
know that we’re just friends, and that we said that kiss didn’t mean anything.
I know touching like this is really against the rules.”
Her hand slipped down even lower,
brushing against the bulge at the front of his trousers. Jace let out a soft
strangled sound in response, as if he were desperately trying to hold himself
back.
The knowledge was all she needed to
know.
He wanted this just as much as she
did.
“But I was wondering,” Isabella continued,
lifting her upper body so she could look down on his strained face, “if maybe
we could break that rule… a little.”
Other books in the
Preston’s Mills series:
Roommating (Preston’s
Mill #1):
Forget all those other roommate romances you might have
read.
Heather and Chris don't hate each other...very much.
And they don't have sex all the time...at least not at first. Chris doesn't go
around shirtless, flexing his muscles and driving Heather wild...too often. And
he doesn't get jealous and possessive every time she goes out with another
man...well, maybe occasionally.
But they definitely don't fall in love...right away.
When Heather comes back to her hometown, she plans to
take over her father's historic restoration business and move into a beautiful
converted apartment in Preston's Mill. Then she finds out she'll have to
partner up with the one man she can never forgive. Chris Dole, who abandoned
her father and betrayed her trust three years ago.
It gets even worse. They don't just have to work
together. They have to become roommates for six months to prove they can get
along. That means Heather will have to play nice with Chris and put up with his
obnoxiousness, his drop-dead sexiness, and his ugly recliner named Flo.
She'll do what she has to do out of loyalty to her
father, but she isn't going to like it.
Noelle handwrote her first romance novel in a
spiral-bound notebook when she was twelve, and she hasn’t stopped writing
since. She has lived in eight different states and currently resides in
Virginia, where she reads any book she can get her hands on and offers tribute
to a very spoiled cocker spaniel.
She loves travel, art, history, and ice cream. After spending far too many
years of her life in graduate school, she has decided to reorient her
priorities and focus on writing contemporary romances. If you'd like to contact Noelle, please contact her at
[email protected]. Or connect with her on Twitter, Facebook,
and Goodreads.