By Susan Mallery
With more than 25 million books sold
worldwide, New York Times bestselling author Susan Mallery is known for
creating characters who feel as real as the folks next door, and for putting
them into emotional, often funny situations readers recognize from their own
lives. Susan’s books have made Booklist’s Top 10 Romances list in four out of
five consecutive years. RT Book Reviews says, “When it comes to heartfelt
contemporary romance, Mallery is in a class by herself.” With her popular,
ongoing Fool’s Gold series, Susan has reached new heights on the bestsellers
lists and has won the hearts of countless new fans.
Susan grew up in
southern California, moved so many times that her friends stopped writing her
address in pen, and now has settled in Seattle with her husband and the most
delightfully spoiled little dog who ever lived. Visit Susan online at www.SusanMallery.com.
Remember that boy from high school, the one who you thought
about while listening to romantic songs on the radio, by yourself, in the dark,
sobbing because he didn’t return your feelings? Remember how seeing him in the
hallways at school made your breath catch in your throat? And if he caught your
gaze and smiled at you, your spirits soared.
Remember him?
What if he was your best friend? And what if you went to his
house before school one day so you could walk together as you always did… only
he was gone?
Gone-gone. The doors were open, the closets were empty, and
you never saw him again. He just… disappeared.
That’s what happened to Patience McGraw when she was a teen.
As JUST ONE KISS begins 15 years later, Patience is at work in a salon in
Fool’s Gold, California when Justice returns.
"Patience?"
She didn't recognize the male
voice, but turned anyway. A man stood in the entrance of the shop. He was tall,
with dark gold-blond hair and deep blue eyes. His shoulders were broad and he
had the kind of face that would be happy up on a movie screen. Nice, but she
had no idea who he...
She felt the cape flutter to the
floor as she really looked at the man moving toward her. He was a few inches
taller, a lot more muscular, but his eyes... They were exactly the same. They
even crinkled when he smiled at her.
"Hello, Patience."
She was fourteen again, standing
in that empty house, more scared than she'd ever been in her life. There hadn't
been any answers. Not then or since. No solution to the mystery. Just questions
and a gnawing sense that something had gone terribly wrong.
"Justice?" she asked,
her voice more breath than sound. "Justice?"
He gave her a slight shrug. The
familiar gesture was enough to send her flying across the shop. She flung
herself at him, determined to hang on this time.
He caught her against him and
held on to her nearly as tightly as she held on to him. He was warm and solid
and real. She pressed her head against his shoulder and inhaled the scent of
him. A clean, masculine smell that had nothing to do with the boy she
remembered. This wasn't happening, she thought, still dazed. Justice couldn't
be back.
Yet he was, and here. But the
man was very different from the boy and the moment got awkward quickly.
Justice has returned to Fool’s Gold to open a bodyguard
academy with a few of his ex-military buddies. (This is Fool’s Gold, where we
go light on danger and heavy on humor, charm, and fun, flirty romance.) Justice
leapt at the chance to return to the town that took him in at a very tense
point in his life, and he was eager to see Patience again, his sassy, beautiful
friend.
She’s just as open-hearted as she was back then, unstained
by the darkness in the world, darkness he lives with every day. The moment
Justice holds her in his arms, he vows to protect her from himself. Patience is
everything good and pure in the world, and he won’t ruin that. She draws him
like sunlight on a cold day, but though he can’t resist the need to be near
her, to kiss her, he won’t allow himself to fall in love.
Enter the JUST ONE KISS blog tour contest once a day every day from May 28 through June 9 for a chance to win a $25 Amazon or BN.com gift card! And because this blog was set up by Fool’s Gold Cheerleader Melissa Leigh, if you win, she’ll win a gift card, too!
Are you still in touch with the boy or boys you had a crush on in high
school? Did they grow up to be as cute as you thought they would?
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