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.
JUST ONE KISS Exclusive Video.
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 Brenda Rumsey, 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?
