There are some tropes that I absolutely love: Second Chance at Love, Friends to lovers, and Brother’s Best Friend. Since I love to read those, I also love to write those and in Just One Night, a story about a young military hero on his last night before a deployment, I managed to work in the Friends to Lovers and Brother’s Best Friend. Did I mention that the heroine is older as well? Not cougar old, but definitely falling for a younger man, another of my fav things! So today I’m sharing a free read from Just One Night which is a sexy, humorous, emotional, and uplifting story about taking a chance on finding love. Even better, it’s specially priced at 99 cents for a limited time!
Teaser
He has just one night to prove to her that anything is possible…
Jason Hart, Jase to his friends, has just graduated college and earned his commission as a Second Lieutenant in the Marine Corps. It’s the night of the graduation party and she’ll be there. His best friend’s slightly older sister, Nickie. Nickie is the only woman he’s really wanted for a long time. He has just one night to make it happen.
She has just one night before the man of her dreams leaves, maybe forever, but can she find the courage to take a chance…
Nicole de Salvo has been in love –and lust –for her little brother’s best friend for years. For years she’s watched from afar and done nothing about her attraction for Jason Hart only now their time together is almost at an end. On their last night together will she find the courage to do something about her feelings, or will she live with regret for the rest of her life?
Excerpt
Chapter 1
Nicole de Salvo stared out the train window as every passing mile brought her closer to home . . . and to him.
It had been a hectic day with a dash down to the Philadelphia area for her brother’s and Jase’s graduation and then a rushed trip back to New York City for an interview for a position she wanted for her summer break from medical school. An interview that couldn’t be rescheduled no matter what.
The nearly two hour train ride down to her family’s home on the Jersey Shore was long, but at least it would give her a moment to catch her breath and prepare for seeing him again.
For seeing Jase, possibly for the last time.
He had looked amazing that morning in his dress uniform, sword at his side and his second lieutenant’s bars gleaming in the morning sun. The deep blue of the uniform had made his green eyes seem aqua, like the ocean bathed with brilliant light. Tall and imposing, he had looked every inch an officer and a warrior until he had fixed his gaze on her and offered up the wicked little boy grin that did all kinds of things to her insides.
She pressed a hand to her stomach to quiet the nervous flutters as she thought about seeing him again once she arrived at home, where her younger brother Tommy’s graduation party would be in full swing. It had been tough enough seeing Jase that morning, knowing that with every minute that passed their time together was fading away.
This night at the party and knowing it would be the last one they’d share was going to be one of the hardest things she ever did.
Driving that thought from her mind, she glanced out the train windows and caught glimpses of the shoreline and ocean visible from the North Jersey Coast line.
They’d all spent so much time in those waters, her, Tommy, and his best friend Jason. Jase to his friends.
She was a friend, kind of. After all, they’d grown up together and had spent many a lazy summer along the shore. But as they’d gotten older, something had changed.
The typical teasing between kids, between her and Jase, had become more flirty. Definitely full of subtle sexiness. Or at least, it had gotten that way on his part.
She hadn’t known how to handle it when an eighteen year old Jase had settled that green-eyed gaze on her, flashed her a not-so-innocent dimpled grin, and heat had ignited inside her. Four years later, she still didn’t know how to handle him.
He was like a little brother to her, although the annoying voice in her head shouted a big, “Hell to the no” and reminded her that they were only two years apart in age.
Reluctantly she admitted to herself that Jase was definitely not like a little brother. Not since she’d come to understand that the weird little tingle she got whenever she saw him or talked to him meant that there was way more to her feelings for him.
More that she had yet to explore, only time was running out for them.
As the train chugged along on her way home, she dragged up the memory of what he’d looked like as he’d sauntered up to her this morning after graduation, looking every inch the hero. His swimmer’s shoulders looking even broader in his uniform. His green eyes bright and warming as they settled on her. His smile had been inviting as he’d leaned in and kissed her. Chastely, but she’d wanted to linger and have it be more. She had wanted to savor those amazing lips before she had reined herself in. She reminded herself that she never would give in to that desire because she was too sensible and responsible and downright boring.
She closed her eyes to hold in the memories. Allowed herself to imagine what it might be like to be with Jase. To let go and explore the temptation.
In her mind’s eye, she pulled his white dress hat off his head and tossed it to the side. Skimmed her fingers through the buzz cut sandy-colored hair at the sides of his head and the longer strands up top before cradling his head and drawing him near for a not so simple kiss.
She covered his mouth with hers and pulled at his bottom lip with her teeth, urging him to open for her. When he did, she dipped her tongue in and tasted him. Trailed her tongue all around and nipped at the fullness of his lips with her teeth.
His strong hands were at her waist, holding her close. Possessively hard and yet gentle as he dragged her closer, but she shifted away because she wanted more than just his kiss.
She trailed her hands down to his shoulders and then lower to his lean waist and the shiny brass buckle with the Marine insignia. As she undid the buckle and loosened his white belt, he snared his sword as the belt started to drop, and gently laid them both on the ground.
“Are you sure about this?” her dream Jase asked as he rose to stand before her again.
“Oh, yeah, I’m sure,” her imaginary self answered because her real self lacked the courage to take a chance with Jase.
He helped her open the brass buttons down the front of his dress blues, and in her fantasy, his chest was bare beneath the wool fabric.
His skin was a luscious honey gold thanks to his end-of-summer tan. He got that smooth golden color from being a lifeguard on the beach to earn money for college and other necessities.
How many times had she snuck a peek at him up in the stand as she’d sat under her umbrella, reading her latest romance novel?
Not that you needed a sexy fictional alpha hero when you had your own just feet away if only you’d do something about it, the little voice in her head had screamed more than once during those long lazy summers.
She forced away the annoying voice and resumed her fantasy, running her hands down across the chiseled muscles of that tanned chest. His skin was sun-kissed warm and slightly damp. She needed a taste and leaned forward, licked from the center of his chest to the hard masculine nipple that she sucked, earning a soft moan from him. He tasted salty like the ocean.
She smiled and moved her hands down toward his waistband, and he helped her by undoing his pants and letting them drop.
He had gone commando (this was her fantasy after all) and his cock was rock hard. Long, thick, and smooth beneath her hand as she encircled him.
He groaned and his eyes fluttered close as he said, “I like that, Nickie.”
