Reach You re-releases today!
Two men? Yes please.
Second Chances, book 5
Shelly has pretty much given up all hope. Hope that she’ll lose weight, that she’ll find any excitement in life, that there will ever be any man in her bed besides Barney, her cat. When her friend Zoey suggests she come up with a resolution for the New Year, Shelly latches onto the one everyone expects her to choose—the tried-and-true commitment to go on a diet and get into shape. Deep inside, however, Shelly knows she needs to change a lot more than just her physical appearance.
After a year licking his wounds over a broken romance, Christian is through. He’s been quietly lusting after Shelly at work, and he’s not wasting any more time. There’s something about her that makes him believe she’s the one. Unfortunately, Shelly’s kickboxing instructor, Lance—Christian’s best friend—has set his sights on the sweet blonde as well. However, instead of pistols at dawn, the two friends come up with a deliciously erotic answer to their shared dilemma—if the shy beauty will accept their racy proposal.
Previously published as Never Been Kissed.
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Excerpt:
“I’ve never been kissed before.”
His eyes widened with shock. “Ever?”
Just when Lance thought Shelly couldn’t blush any brighter, she found a deeper shade of red. She stood up rapidly. “I should probably go.”
Lance placed his hand on his office door, holding it closed when she reached for the knob. “Don’t. Don’t do that. Don’t run away.”
“Is this some sort of joke? I mean you and I hardly know each other. And it’s not like I’m such a raving beauty that men just can’t keep their hands off. I don’t understand—”
“You don’t think you’re gorgeous?”
From the look she gave him—something the equivalent of letting him know she thought he had two heads—he’d say not. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
He scowled. “I’m not.”
His response took some of the wind out of her sails. However, rather than reply, she changed the subject. “How can you just walk up to someone you barely know and…and…”
“Kiss them?”
She nodded.
“Haven’t you ever done anything on a whim, Shelly? Acted on impulse? Taken a chance?”
She shook her head. “Never.”
“Why not?”
“Because no one’s ever wanted me to kiss them before.”
“How do you know that?”
She reared back, true confusion written on her face. “I just know.”
“How?”
“You know how.”
“Say the words, Shelly. Tell me exactly why you think that.”
She bit her lower lip and fell silent. When he didn’t let her off the hook, she lifted her hands, glancing down at her body. “Look at me.”
He let his gaze drift over her, taking in everything he knew she saw as a flaw. “I am.”
“Then it should be obvious to you.”
His temper flared. He’d make her say the words before she left here. “It’s not. Explain it.”
Pure fury erupted and he was suddenly glad she hadn’t gotten very far in her kickboxing lessons. If she were less of a novice, he didn’t doubt for a minute she’d be able to take him down hard and fast…and painfully. “God, Lance. Are you blind? It’s because I’m fat! I’m fat. Fat!”
Yep. Powder keg.
Angry tears filled her pretty brown eyes, but he didn’t mistake them for anything other than what they were. She wasn’t sad. She was furious.
Unfortunately, her comment irritated him. Enraged him. He stormed over to his desk and picked up a picture. He thrust it into her hands.
Shelly took it, looking at the photograph of his mother. He knew what Shelly was seeing because apparently it was the only thing she managed to notice about herself when she looked in the mirror. Her weight.
“That’s my mom. And she’s the most beautiful woman I’ve ever known. Tell me she’s fat, Shelly. Tell me no man will ever want to kiss her because she’s not worthy of love or affection. Say that to me.”
For the first time, Shelly’s blush deserted her. She paled as she shook her head. “I would never say that.”
“Of course you would. Because it’s what you’re saying right now about yourself.”
Silence surrounded them, but Lance didn’t seek to fill it. He was afraid of what he’d say. As it was, Shelly looked horrified, devastated. Defeated.
He hadn’t intended to hurt her so, but it was obvious the woman needed a wake-up call. Needed someone to shake up her skewed, fucked-up vision of herself.
Christian had spent hours talking about Shelly. About the kitten she’d saved, the Angel tree she organized over the holidays, the homeless woman. About the times she’d spent her lunch break visiting with a work colleague who was dying of cancer.
“I’m sorry, Lance. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
Lance released the breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding. “It’s not me you’re hurting, Shelly. Listen, you’re right. You and I are pretty much strangers and I’ve crossed about a dozen lines, so I guess it doesn’t matter if I cross one more. I think you’re really pretty. And if my friend wasn’t so into you, I’d be on you so fast it would make your head spin.”
Shelly laughed quietly.
“But if you can’t love yourself, how can you ever expect someone else to?”