It’s In His Kiss
Lucky Harbor #10
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Becca Thorpe has uprooted her life and escaped to the beach. Now’s her chance to get away from city living, throw caution to the ocean winds, and live in the moment. Especially if the moment includes the deliciously sexy surfer she meets shortly after arriving in Lucky Harbor. Something about the dark intensity of Sam’s eyes and the thrill she gets at his touch convinces her to stay awhile.
Boatbuilder and investment genius Sam Brody is a self-made man who knows how dangerous it can be to mix business and pleasure. But he can’t resist offering Becca a job just to hear her laugh and have her near. Yet when her brother comes to town asking for help, will he tempt her back to her glamorous life in the city? Or do Sam and little Lucky Harbor have a chance to win Becca’s heart?
Excerpt – IT’S IN HIS KISS by Jill Shalvis
“I see you sometimes in the mornings,” she said. “And you do. You always run that hard.”
He smiled. “Peeper to the bone.”
“Can’t seem to help myself,” she admitted.
He dropped to the sand beside her and didn’t miss the fact that she stiffened up at his quick motion. To give her a minute, he stretched out his tired legs. “I worked at sea for seven years. I missed running. I promised myself when I got off the rig, I’d get back to it.”
She took her gaze off his body to look into his eyes. “What was the job?
“I worked for a consulting firm monitoring the deep drilling rigs. We’d go out for months at a time, no land in sight.”
“We?”
“I had a crew,” he said.
“You were out at sea with a bunch of guys for months at a time?”
“There were a few women too,” he said. Three, to be exact, one of whom had neatly sliced Cole’s heart in two.
“What was your job out there?” Becca asked.
“OIM. Offshore installation manager.” He shrugged again. “Basically just a fancy title for babysitting the operation.”
“All of it?”
“I handled the business side of things,” he said, “the shifts, the tasks, everything.”
“Sam knows everything,” she said softly. “That’s what people keep telling me.”
He didn’t know everything. He didn’t know, for example, why he was so drawn to her. Or what made her so wary.
“Must have been a tough job,” she said.
“The job was hard as hell,” he agreed. He had few good memories of those years, working his way up from grunt worker to manager. After they’d lost Gil, he and Tanner had come back to Lucky Harbor with Cole, who’d wanted to be here to take care of his mom and three sisters. Tanner had needed recovery time. And it’d been as good a place as any to start their charter company.
“So you retired from the rigs and now you run, surf, take people out on charters, and handcraft boats,” she said.
He slid her a look.
“Peeper, remember?” she said. She bit her lip but a sweet, low laugh escaped. “Plus, I looked you up.”
Now it was his turn to narrow his eyes. “Why?”
She squirmed a little, which he found fascinating. Actually he found her fascinating. “I’ve spent the past three mornings at the diner for the free WiFi,” she said. “I’ve been…researching.”
“Me?”
“Not just you. But I was curious,” she admitted.
“Yeah? You didn’t get enough information from watching me out the window?”
“Hey,” she said on another laugh. “I can’t help it that you’re pretty to look at.”
At this, he went brows-up. “You said attractive. You didn’t say pretty.”
“Pretty,” she repeated, still smiling.
He loved her smile. “I’m not pretty.” But he was smiling now, too.
“Okay,” she said. “You’re right. Pretty is far too girlie a word for what you are.”
They looked at each other. The air seemed to get all used up then, and his heart beat in tune to the pulsing waves. “What else did you learn about me, in your…research?” he asked softly.
Her gaze dropped to his mouth. “That you guys take people deep-sea fishing, scuba diving, that sort of thing. Also, your charter company’s got four and a half stars on Yelp—although I’m pretty sure some of those reviews were written by women who want to date you because there’s lots of mentions of the three hot guys who run the company.”
He winced, making her laugh again.
“Might as well own it,” she said. “Also, did you know that the town of Lucky Harbor has a Pinterest account? The woman who updates it has a board there for her favorite things.”
“Lucille,” he muttered.
“And one of her favorite things,” Becca said, “is you.”
He grimaced. “Lucille’s a nut.”
“She seems very sincere.”
“Okay, so she’s a nice nut,” he said. “A nut’s a nut.”
“People around here seem to look to you as a leader, as someone to turn to,” she said. “If there’s a question, people say Sam’ll know, but I’ve noticed something.” She waited until he met her gaze. “No one seems to really know you except for maybe Cole and Tanner.”
That was just close enough to the dead truth to make him uncomfortable.
“I think it’s because you come off as a lone wolf,” she said, head cocked as she studied him. “And then there’s your approach-at-your-own-risk vibe.”
Hard to deny the truth, so he didn’t bother.
“I mean you’re really good on the fly,” she said quietly, as if talking to herself, trying to figure him out. “And you’re good at helping people, but you’re not readily available to get to know.”
It was a shockingly accurate insight, but he went with humor. “Not seeing the problem,” he said.
“Well, it’s interesting, is all.”
“Interesting?”
“Yeah.” Again she looked at his mouth. “Because your distance is perversely making me curious to know more. And I haven’t been…curious in a long time.”
A little about Jill Shalvis:
New York Times bestselling author Jill Shalvis lives in a small town in the Sierras full of quirky characters. Any resemblance to the quirky characters in her books is, um, mostly coincidental. Look for Jill’s bestselling, award-winning books wherever romances are sold and visit her website for a complete book list and daily blog detailing her city-girl-living-in-the-
Learn more about Jill and her books here: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads
. So please make Marie’s visit wonderful.
