Love and Hope
Stanford Creek, #2
by RJ Scott, w/a Rozenn Scott
Date of
Publication: September 1st 2016
Publisher: All
Romance eBooks
Cover Artist: Erin
Dameron Hill
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Falling
in love can be easy if you want it badly enough.
From The Book Junkie Reads . . .
Love and Hope (Stanford Creek, #) . . .
Tell the choice you would make. Money
or family. This young rock star (former) has chosen to honor thy family. Danny
has more going for him than the good decisions he makes. He was a stand up kind
of guy. He did what was right for his daughter. He works to make things work
for them both and in the process meets a strong, independent, no nonsense woman
that makes him give life a slight pause.
Rachel had depth. Rachel has
secrets. Rachel had more to her than first appeared on the surface. With these
thing said. Book two of the series brings on more edge. There was a serious
undertone of darkness surrounding Rachel’s secret. There were things that she just
wasn’t able to face or share, but that had all come crumbling down. All of it was
revealed.
I did not find that you had to read
book one to connect to book two. I found little to make them essential to each
other. This was a great standalone that gave you just that a standalone of
Danny and Rachel (and Hope).
**This eBook was provided via Bewitching Book Tours in
exchange for an honest review.**
Stanford Creek
series:
Notes and Roses – Stanford Creek, #1 SEE REVIEW
Love and Hope – Stanford Creek, #2
BLURB
Danny Hudson has finally found a place to
stop. With his daughter Hope in his arms, and his place in the music group
Hudson Hart gone, he has a future to plan and a family to raise. Staying at his
friend Cody’s house is hard enough, but finding a home of his own is
impossible. A place to stay over the coffee shop in town is a godsend, but it
comes with one proviso—he must work the cost of the room off in redecorating
and rebuilding.
Rachel has secrets that she doesn’t even want
to admit to herself, let alone her close-knit family. Dating the wrong guys is
one way to protect her heart, but meeting Danny could change all that.
Can Rachel ever get past the reasons why she
thinks real love isn’t possible and realize that love is the only thing that
actually matters?
Buy Link: ARe
For a few seconds he stood absolutely
still, resting his head back on the wall, looking up at the squares in the
ceiling. The door to the bathrooms opened and he immediately straightened, no
way was he letting anyone catch him looking like he’d just got bad news. His
eyebrows raised when he realized it was Rachel coming out from the ladies, her
heels in one hand, an empty bottle of wine in the other, and she looked
disheveled. He’d never seen her go in, so she’d probably been doing whatever
girls did in bathrooms for such a long time, talking, or whatever. But no one
else came out after her. And yeah, she looked wild-eyed and messed up. He
couldn’t think of another word for it, her dress creased and rucked up on one
side, her eyes bright, and a wide grin on her face.
“Hey sexy-Danny,” she slurred and
gestured with the bottle which missed his arm by an inch. “You waitin’ for me?”
Danny pocketed his phone and relieved
her of the bottle, placing it carefully on the floor before she beaned him with
it. Then he took her arm when she wobbled dangerously.
“You’re drunk,” he announced.
She blinked up at him like this was a
new thing to her, then giggled. Yep, full on giggled, before leaning on him and
grasping his shirt in a fist. “I know.”
He held her so she wouldn’t fall,
which necessitated one hand on her left arm, the other on her right hip. She
was just the right size for the hold, fit into his arms just perfectly, despite
the fact she was swaying. Then she moved, and ended up with her cheek on his
chest, her heels dropping to the floor.
“Your chest,” she murmured against
him.
“My chest what?” he asked, although he
knew he wasn’t going to get an answer. He looked around in the vain hope
someone was here to help her.
She pulled back, and he supported her
again, and she looked up at him, her jade eyes swimming with tears. Then, in a
messy uncoordinated movement, she went up on tiptoes and placed a wet kiss on
his lips. Her aim was a little off, it was more half lip half face, but there
was tongue, and Danny had never had such a sexy, unsexy, kiss before in his
life. Didn’t matter that she was gorgeous and Danny really wouldn’t have minded
a kiss. Nope, she was drunk, and needed her family, not some exhausted dad with
brittle walls of protection.
He pressed her away gently, even as
she chased for the kiss, and held her at arm’s length. She frowned at him.
“What’s wrong? Everyone wants to kiss
me,” she announced.
This was clearly some kind of post
trauma thing going on here. That confrontation with the guy in the garden had
probably caused it. “I’ll get your mom.”
“No.”
“Megan?”
“Hell, no.”
“Kyle then.”
She yanked herself away, stumbling
back and righting herself by leaning against the wall on the opposite side of
the corridor. “Him? No,” she said.
She closed her eyes momentarily then
opened them as she sighed. “Why don’t you want to kiss me?” she said.
“Because you’re drunk.”
Rachel pulled herself straight, and
took the two steps to get back into his space, shoving him a little, and he was
in the small alcove by the emergency door, his back to the glass.
“No. I’m. Not,” she said, very
deliberately. Then she wrapped her hands around his neck. “I just need a kiss,”
she murmured. “A nice one from a nice man.” The last she said really quietly
and he had to strain to hear the words. And then he couldn’t think anymore. She
pressed her lips to his, but not sloppy drunk and off target. No, this was
calm, gentle, her tongue tasting the seam of his lips, and pressing for
entrance. He could fight it, he could extricate himself if he wanted to, but
his head spun with the bad news he’d gotten from Sam, and Rachel was as sexy to
taste as she was to touch.
His lips parted and he deepened the
kiss; he tasted wine and Rachel, and it was every bit as good as he’d imagined
it would be. Call it the emotional intensity of that phone call or call it
proximity, whatever it was, he was hard so damn fast. Hard and needy, and all
he wanted was more of whatever Rachel was offering.
She pressed closer, his hand caught
between them, he only had to move it a little, and he was caressing her belly.
A little lower and she pushed at his hand so he cupped her mound, and she moved
against him sinuously, a moan low in her throat.
And it was that moan that had him
crashing back to reality. What the hell was he doing kissing a woman who was
obviously drunk, and pressing against her like that?
Gently but firmly he disentangled
himself and eased her away. She chased for the kiss, her eyes closed, but he
couldn’t let this go on. She opened her eyes on a small sigh, and he could see
the moment when reality crashed into her thoughts. Her eyes widened and she
stepped back, a hand covering her mouth.
Then she slid her way down the wall,
smoothly, until she was on the carpet. He crouched down in front of her.
“I’ll get some water.”
“No, don’t go, I don’t do this, not
since college,” she said, so quietly he had to strain to hear.
“Getting drunk, you mean?” he asked.
“Yeah. It’s scared.”
It’s scared? “What’s scared.”
“Me.”
Buy Link: ARe
Author Info
RJ Scott is the bestselling author of over
ninety romance novels and novellas. From cowboys to millionaires, SEALS to cops,
her stories are passionate, sexy, and always come with a guaranteed happy ever
after. RJ also writes as Rozenn Scott for her new line of strong men and women
who find that it’s always worth overcoming obstacles to find a forever love.
RJ lives just outside of London, and has
never met a bottle of wine she can’t defeat. For more information on other
books by RJ/Rozenn, visit her website:
Author Links:
Hosted by
Presented by
No comments:
Post a Comment