Sweet with Heat Standalone Romance
by Addison Cole
Releasing February 13th 2019
World Literary Press
The Book Junkie Reads . . . Review of . . . THE CORNER OF HEARTBREAK AND FOREVER (Sweet with Heat) . . . I found something different with Grace and Reed. I found a second chance with them also. I found them to be more than just another couple that had a past and were now present with the present and possible future. I was able to fall in love with their story, their journey back in to each others lives. All this with family, friends, small town, and no explicit sexuality or language. You find a reason to make sure you pick up the next book of this series. Even if its only to see the next deed one of the feisty Montgomery women would find themselves in. The love. The characters. The setting. Their story. All of this fuels the need to find a quite place to curl up and start turning pages and get to know the next heartfelt romance.
Blurb
Leaving New York City and returning to her hometown to teach a screenplay writing class seems like just the break Grace Montgomery needs. Until her sisters wake her at four thirty in the morning to watch the hottest guys in town train wild horses and she realizes that escaping her sisters’ drama-filled lives was a lot easier from hundreds of miles away. To make matters worse, she spots the one man she never wanted to see again—ruggedly handsome Reed Cross.
Reed was one of Michigan’s leading historical preservation experts, but on the heels of catching his girlfriend in bed with his business partner, his uncle suffers a heart attack. Reed cuts all ties and returns home to Oak Falls to run his uncle’s business. A chance encounter with Grace, his first love, brings back memories he’s spent years trying to escape.
Grace is bound and determined not to fall under Reed’s spell again—and Reed wants more than another taste of the woman he’s never forgotten. When a midnight party brings them together, passion ignites and old wounds are opened. Grace sets down the ground rules for the next three weeks. No touching, no kissing, and if she has it her way, no breathing, because every breath he takes steals her ability to think. But Reed has other ideas…
The Corner of Heartbreak and Forever is a Sweet with Heat novel and conveys all of the passion you’d expect to find between two people in love without any graphic scenes or harsh language. If you’re looking for a more explicit romance, pick up the steamy edition, Embracing Her Heart, written by New York Times bestselling author Melissa Foster. Addison Cole is Melissa’s sweet-romance pen name.
Reed was one of Michigan’s leading historical preservation experts, but on the heels of catching his girlfriend in bed with his business partner, his uncle suffers a heart attack. Reed cuts all ties and returns home to Oak Falls to run his uncle’s business. A chance encounter with Grace, his first love, brings back memories he’s spent years trying to escape.
Grace is bound and determined not to fall under Reed’s spell again—and Reed wants more than another taste of the woman he’s never forgotten. When a midnight party brings them together, passion ignites and old wounds are opened. Grace sets down the ground rules for the next three weeks. No touching, no kissing, and if she has it her way, no breathing, because every breath he takes steals her ability to think. But Reed has other ideas…
The Corner of Heartbreak and Forever is a Sweet with Heat novel and conveys all of the passion you’d expect to find between two people in love without any graphic scenes or harsh language. If you’re looking for a more explicit romance, pick up the steamy edition, Embracing Her Heart, written by New York Times bestselling author Melissa Foster. Addison Cole is Melissa’s sweet-romance pen name.
Buy Links THE CORNER OF HEARTBREAK AND FOREVER:
EXCERPT
Pushing thoughts of the past aside seemed a constant battle, and once again he tried to do just that and focus on the job at hand. He’d already removed a good bit of the decking to check out the joists and get a handle on the extent of the damage and was knee-deep in debris when he heard the sliding doors open. He wiped his brow, expecting to see Cade or Marilynn, the owners of the house. His eyes caught on a pair of gorgeous long legs and traveled north, over silky pajamas skimming a scorching-hot curvaceous figure. His gaze slowed at full breasts peeking out from beneath tumbles of thick dark hair, awakening every nerve in his body. Nerves that had been unexcitable for months.
The woman cleared her throat, startling him from his reverie, and his gaze darted up to her face. His heart nearly stopped at the familiar mossy-green eyes staring back at him. His body turned cold with shock, and just as quickly his teeth ground together as his mind spiraled back to their senior year in high school, when Grace Montgomery had been his. Memories of sneaking out after dark, sharing secrets, holding hands, and loving each other fiercely rushed forth—followed by the hurt of her choosing New York over him.
His eyes narrowed despite the unexpected arousal simmering beneath his skin.
“Grace…” Even after a decade her name tasted sinfully good rolling off his tongue.
Her hand slid from the doorknob, hanging limply by her side. She opened her mouth to speak, but no words came. A long moment later, “Reed,” slipped from her lips like the secret he’d once been.
His gut clenched with longing. He couldn’t help but study her—and that angered him as much as it eased the worries about his ability to feel that had plagued him for years. He hadn’t been all in with a woman since Grace, and he’d begun to think he’d exaggerated what he’d felt when they were together. But there was no misreading the heat thrumming through him. She looked incredible, and confused, and as her hand settled on her hip—the hand he remembered all too well digging into his back when they’d made love all those years ago—he realized she also looked angry. Definitely angry.
But still incredible.
In the space of a breath he was fighting the urge to figure out how to spend time with her and recapture the fire between them despite everything she’d put him through.
“Are you done gawking?” she snapped.
“I…Sorry. You caught me off guard. I was expecting to see your parents.” He held her gaze, forcing a smile even though he suddenly felt stuck somewhere between a teenager caught peering through a window, a jealous ex-boyfriend, and a lust-filled man.
She folded her arms over her chest, forcing a barrier between them, and smirked.
Ouch—
At least he hoped it was a smirk rather than a scowl. After the clues he’d missed with his ex-girlfriend, Alina, who had been sleeping with his now ex-business partner, he no longer trusted his instincts where women were concerned. And when it came to Grace Montgomery, he’d never been able to think past the emotions she stirred within him and the future he’d hoped they’d have. She was the tsunami that had obliterated everything else in his world, and as he struggled to find his voice, he fought the urge to tangle his hands in her thick, lustrous hair and remind her of what she’d walked away from.
“I hope you don’t look at my mother like that,” she snapped.
“What? No. C’mon, Grace.” In her eyes he was probably a quintessential jerk, checking her out without any thought to their past. In reality, he’d been taken just as off guard by his leering as she was. “I don’t usually—”
“Don’t usually let your eyes wander?” She scoffed. “Right.”
“Believe it or not, yes,” he said angrily. “Who do you think I’ve become? I didn’t expect you to walk out here at all, much less wearing nearly nothing and…” He tried to figure out what to say next, what to feel...
“Why are you here, Reed?”
He didn’t need this. Not when he had just begun rebuilding his life. After being screwed over by Alina, he’d vowed to stay away from anything that made his head spin, and Grace definitely made his head spin.
He studied her, while trying not to at the same time. The chip on her shoulder was bigger now, overshadowing the sexy smirk on her lips. She’d always exuded confidence, but somehow that, too, seemed more intense. His heart thumped harder with the memory of the first time he’d spotted her standing on the sidelines in her cute cheerleading uniform as he headed out to the football field. She’d challenged him with her glare, as if she were playing on the rival team rather than cheering for them. She’d hated that cheerleading outfit, but man, he’d loved it. And that challenge she’d emitted? He’d taken her up on that in a hot second.
But she’d kicked him to the curb once, he reminded himself. Why was he giving her any consideration at all? He had a job to do, and sure, he’d momentarily lost his footing and checked her out, but it wasn’t like that was a crime. She was hot, and they had history. That’s as far as it goes.
“I asked you why you’re here,” she repeated, her green eyes shooting spears he didn’t deserve.
He stepped closer, curious about how she’d react, and yeah, he just wanted to be near her. “I’m fixing your parents’ porch. Obviously.”
“Not here, Reed. Why are you back in Virginia?”
The woman cleared her throat, startling him from his reverie, and his gaze darted up to her face. His heart nearly stopped at the familiar mossy-green eyes staring back at him. His body turned cold with shock, and just as quickly his teeth ground together as his mind spiraled back to their senior year in high school, when Grace Montgomery had been his. Memories of sneaking out after dark, sharing secrets, holding hands, and loving each other fiercely rushed forth—followed by the hurt of her choosing New York over him.
His eyes narrowed despite the unexpected arousal simmering beneath his skin.
“Grace…” Even after a decade her name tasted sinfully good rolling off his tongue.
Her hand slid from the doorknob, hanging limply by her side. She opened her mouth to speak, but no words came. A long moment later, “Reed,” slipped from her lips like the secret he’d once been.
His gut clenched with longing. He couldn’t help but study her—and that angered him as much as it eased the worries about his ability to feel that had plagued him for years. He hadn’t been all in with a woman since Grace, and he’d begun to think he’d exaggerated what he’d felt when they were together. But there was no misreading the heat thrumming through him. She looked incredible, and confused, and as her hand settled on her hip—the hand he remembered all too well digging into his back when they’d made love all those years ago—he realized she also looked angry. Definitely angry.
But still incredible.
In the space of a breath he was fighting the urge to figure out how to spend time with her and recapture the fire between them despite everything she’d put him through.
“Are you done gawking?” she snapped.
“I…Sorry. You caught me off guard. I was expecting to see your parents.” He held her gaze, forcing a smile even though he suddenly felt stuck somewhere between a teenager caught peering through a window, a jealous ex-boyfriend, and a lust-filled man.
She folded her arms over her chest, forcing a barrier between them, and smirked.
Ouch—
At least he hoped it was a smirk rather than a scowl. After the clues he’d missed with his ex-girlfriend, Alina, who had been sleeping with his now ex-business partner, he no longer trusted his instincts where women were concerned. And when it came to Grace Montgomery, he’d never been able to think past the emotions she stirred within him and the future he’d hoped they’d have. She was the tsunami that had obliterated everything else in his world, and as he struggled to find his voice, he fought the urge to tangle his hands in her thick, lustrous hair and remind her of what she’d walked away from.
“I hope you don’t look at my mother like that,” she snapped.
“What? No. C’mon, Grace.” In her eyes he was probably a quintessential jerk, checking her out without any thought to their past. In reality, he’d been taken just as off guard by his leering as she was. “I don’t usually—”
“Don’t usually let your eyes wander?” She scoffed. “Right.”
“Believe it or not, yes,” he said angrily. “Who do you think I’ve become? I didn’t expect you to walk out here at all, much less wearing nearly nothing and…” He tried to figure out what to say next, what to feel...
“Why are you here, Reed?”
He didn’t need this. Not when he had just begun rebuilding his life. After being screwed over by Alina, he’d vowed to stay away from anything that made his head spin, and Grace definitely made his head spin.
He studied her, while trying not to at the same time. The chip on her shoulder was bigger now, overshadowing the sexy smirk on her lips. She’d always exuded confidence, but somehow that, too, seemed more intense. His heart thumped harder with the memory of the first time he’d spotted her standing on the sidelines in her cute cheerleading uniform as he headed out to the football field. She’d challenged him with her glare, as if she were playing on the rival team rather than cheering for them. She’d hated that cheerleading outfit, but man, he’d loved it. And that challenge she’d emitted? He’d taken her up on that in a hot second.
But she’d kicked him to the curb once, he reminded himself. Why was he giving her any consideration at all? He had a job to do, and sure, he’d momentarily lost his footing and checked her out, but it wasn’t like that was a crime. She was hot, and they had history. That’s as far as it goes.
“I asked you why you’re here,” she repeated, her green eyes shooting spears he didn’t deserve.
He stepped closer, curious about how she’d react, and yeah, he just wanted to be near her. “I’m fixing your parents’ porch. Obviously.”
“Not here, Reed. Why are you back in Virginia?”
Author Info
Addison Cole is the sweet-romance pen name of New York Times and USA Today bestselling and award-winning author Melissa Foster. She writes humorous and emotional sweet contemporary romance. Her books do not include explicit sex scenes or harsh language.
Addison spends her summers on Cape Cod, where she dreams up wonderful love stories in her house overlooking Cape Cod Bay.
Visit Addison on her website or chat with her on social media. Addison enjoys discussing her books with book clubs and reader groups and welcomes an invitation to your event.
Five Digital Copies of SWEET LOVE AT BAYSIDE
Presented by
