I’m a sucker for short stories this time of year, mainly because I’m usually busy until after the holidays are over. And reading short stories allow me to take 10 minutes here and there to read a romance. My short story called Safe Haven, is set during Thanksgiving weekend and follows the story of two people who reunite at their hometown bar only to learn they each nursed a crush on the other during high school. Even though decades have passed, the two are still just as drawn to each other as they were as teenagers. This short story is 10,000 words, so it’s a quick read, and it’s only .99 cents. Read on for a snippet and the blurb!

Blurb

When Roxanna Chase finds herself alone in her tiny hometown of Haven, Indiana on Thanksgiving eve, she decides to do the one thing she always swore she’d never do: attend Chatterfest, an unofficial high school reunion held every year the night before Thanksgiving at Haven’s busiest bar, The Watering Hole.

After a couple of cocktails and reminiscing with a classmate, Roxanna is overwhelmed, and a little turned on, when her old high school crush Nicholas Birch approaches her at the bar. He’s still as tall, broad-shouldered and sexy as he was thirty years ago. Since he’d dated her best friend in high school, Roxanna had always placed Nicholas in a box marked ‘hands off.’

When Nicholas admits he had feelings for Roxanna in high school, the two decide to leave the bar together and see what happens next. They quickly find that when old flames are rekindled, they can ignite into an inferno that refuses to burn out.

Snippet

“I’ve wanted to do this since senior year,” Nicholas said before he placed a searing kiss on her lips.

Roxanna let out an involuntary moan when he gently parted her lips with his tongue. She wrapped her arms around his waist while their tongues mated and stroked. Placing her hands on his broad back, Roxanna tried to pull his muscular body toward her own. It felt like she couldn’t get close enough to him, as though she couldn’t get enough of him. As though sensing her urgency, Nicholas broke his mouth free from hers.

“It’s these clothes, they’re in the way,” he told her with a seductive wink.

He pushed her cardigan off her shoulders and down her arms, allowing her to pull the garment’s sleeves off her wrists. Her camisole came next. Nicholas eased it slowly over her head. When she was standing before him in only a bra, skirt and stockings, he reached down to caress the material of her brassiere between his thumb and index finger.

“This is almost too pretty to take off. Almost.”

Get Safe Haven for just .99 at digital book retailers.