PERFECT KISS
A SERENITY BAY NOVELLA – THE HOWARDS
by Dani Rose
Blurb:
She escaped to find herself, instead, she found him.
Katherine ‘Kit’ Carlson yearns to break free from her mother’s hold and live life on her own terms. Jamison ‘Jamie’ Howard’s knock on her door provides her with the perfect escape opportunity—all she has to do is convince him to help her. If only he wasn’t still angry that she’d walked out on him.
Jamie is drifting through life working a job he’s over-qualified for, and it doesn’t help that his employers are also his brothers. What’s worse, they still see him as a fifteen-year-old incapable of making good choices instead of a grown man. To prove he can stand on his own feet, he has to say goodbye to the past and stake a claim on his future.
When Jamie finds Kit hiding in his car, she begs him to take her with him, but he’s skeptical when she claims to want to escape her mother’s iron grip. They’d been down this road before, but saying no isn’t an option because she still owns his heart. Will taking a risk on Kit lead to the future they’d once dreamed of? Or, will it lead to heartbreak, again?
Excerpt:
Where is the nearest bar? Jamie needed a drink—or three. He looked for a place to stop but couldn’t see one through the morning bumper-to-bumper rush hour traffic on the Boston freeway. Somewhere there had to be a place serving drinks at nine-thirty in the morning.
He’d only wanted closure. Jamison Howard cringed as he pushed his dark brown, not quite black, hair out of his chocolate brown eyes. The first time his therapist talked about closure, Jamie had groaned. He hated psychobabble but it worked—sort of.
Swoosh.
Jamie heard a rustling behind him and checked the rearview mirror. The sound came from inside the car, from the backseat. Was he so angry with Kit that he was imagining noises?
“Ouch!”
That wasn’t his imagination, and the shriek had definitely come from behind him. Someone was back there. An exit came up on the right. Jamie pulled off the freeway and turned into the parking lot of a twenty-four-hour convenience store.
After he parked, Jamie twisted around to check behind him. A blanket on the seat was moving.
“Ow!”
He pulled the blanket back, and his eyes widened.
“Hi, Jamie!” Eyes glowing and mouth pulled into a wide grin, Katherine Carlson waved two fingers at him.
Jamie’s mouth opened and snapped closed then he rubbed the scruffy hair on his chin. He couldn’t have been more surprised if he’d found the president of the United States under the blanket. “Kit?”
“Surprise!”
Her smile stole his breath. After a mental shake of his head, his eyebrows dipped in confusion. Jamie got out and jerked open the back door. He bellowed, “Get out of there!”
Kit laughed. The sound was deep, smooth, and sexy, just the way he remembered it.
“Why are you in my car? Wait. Is this another one of your brilliant ideas? One of your schemes? The kind you always talk me into going along with and then laugh when it blows up in our faces.”
She drew her shoulders up, near her ears, but she didn’t say a word just chewed on her bottom lip.
As Kit crawled out of the car, she straightened her clothes. He’d missed the parts of her that made her unique including how she thrived on the joy of life, believed in the goodness of people and was the love of his life—until she’d left him.
Finally, she grinned. “You look great.”
Voice sharp and rough, Jamie demanded, “Answer my question.”
“I need to use the restroom.”
“What? No. I want to know what you’re doing.”
Kit walked away but looked over her shoulder. “I’ll explain when I come back.”
He growled, “Why were you in the backseat?”
“Because I’m running away—with you,” she yelled back.
Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/2X4tizZ
Author Bio
I fell in love with books when my mother took me to the children’s reading room at our local library. I was eight at the time.
An avid reader, each week I would check out the maximum number of books allowed…ten. Then, I’d hide away in my bedroom and lose myself in the stories.
When I finished the books in the children’s room, I moved on to the Young Adults room. That’s where I fell in love with Daphne du Maurier, Emily Bronte, Mary Stewart, and so many more.
Nothing ever interfered with my reading. I was one of those kids whose mother had to force them to go outside for fresh air. Then, in fifth grade, I wrote my first story about children playing. It was a real page-turner.
Bless Sister Carmelita, she was the first person to tell me to keep writing. So here I am, XX years later (did you really think I’d tell you how long ago that was?), still writing stories.
Author Links:
www.dannirose.com
https://www.facebook.com/dannirosewriter
https://twitter.com/dannirosewriter
Social
