Second Chance at Perfect

Second Chance at Perfect Contemporary Romance

SECOND CHANCE AT PERFECT
#2 in the Jersey Girls Contemporary Romance Series
October 2014

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Teaser
Excerpt

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Amazon: http://bit.ly/AMZSecond
Amazon Paperback: https://amzn.to/3wLMMvv
B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/2940046324587
Apple: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id935079095
Kobo: http://store.kobobooks.com/Search/Query?fcmedia=Book&query=9781502276681
Scribd: http://www.scribd.com/book/244882535

Reviews

Golden Leaf Co-Winner Best Contemporary Romance

Romantic Times: “A second chance at love can be just as delicious as the first.”

Thumbs up! Addicted2romancebooks.com: “The love between Alex and Maya is mucho HOT! There are scenes in the book that will burn your fingers while turning the pages and the way Maya comes to love Samantha will warm your heart. The secondary characters will give you giggles. . . It’s a great story with sensual love scenes and caring moments to tear ya up a bit.”

HUNTRESS BOOK REVIEWS: “A lovely and heartwarming story. Well detailed, flows smoothly, and very realistic! I am happy to be able to recommend this wonderful story to readers everywhere!”

Teaser

Jersey Girls Don’t Pump Gas and Know Not to Waste a Second Chance at Love

Seven years earlier, her engagement had ended in bitterness and pain . . .

Maya Alfonso was hopelessly in love with fellow pre-med student Alex Martinez, but their engagement came to an abrupt end filled with recriminations and heartache. Maya picks up the pieces of her life and vows never to make the same mistake again.

Seven years later, she finds herself with a second chance at the love she had lost . . .

Maya is a successful scientist and businesswoman set on establishing her biotech company as the best in its field. After a conference in Miami, Maya unexpectedly finds herself face to face with none other than Alex, her ex-fiance. Passion flares between them, but they are two very different people now.

He wants nothing to do with a career-minded woman, but can’t deny his attraction to his first love. . .

Alex’s ex-wife was a driven medical student who wasn’t about to let either her husband or their child get in the way of her career. After their divorce, Alex changes his plans and becomes a pediatrician so he can care for his young child. He is a protective single dad and wants to provide a stable family life for his daughter. When Maya comes back into his life, he realizes that his love for her is still strong and wants nothing more than to have her in his life, but is she willing to sacrifice her hard-won career, or will his heart and his daughter’s be broken once again?

Excerpt


Chapter 4

Maya wrapped her lips around the spoon and ate the small bit of tres leches. Sitting back, she met his gaze directly. “That’s enough sweets – both talk and dessert.”

He surprised her by laughing. “I remember when I first met you at Villanova. You had that same . . . prickliness. You intrigued me, you were so different.”

Just as he was different now, she realized. She wondered how he had changed and what he had done with his life in the past seven years. Up until now, they had spent all night talking about her and the night was almost over, she realized as Alex signaled for the check and the waiter brought it to the table.

Alex settled the bill, stood, and held his hand out to her. “Would you like to go for a walk around the mall?”

Maya rose and slipped her hand into his. “That would be nice. I’ve never been here before.”

He laced his fingers with hers and drew her close to him again as they walked out of the restaurant. They strolled leisurely down the path, stopping at a store window occasionally for a quick look. At the end of the row of stores, the space opened wide. To the extreme left was the bay and a dock where a number of boats were moored. Just before the dock, a bandstand had been set up and all around, people had gathered to listen as a DJ announced the tunes he was playing.

“They have live entertainment here a lot,” Alex said and stepped behind her to listen to the end of the dance tune.

“This reminds me of college. You were always playing those old disco tunes.”

“The records my older cousin Patty gave me. I loved them,” she remembered and smiled, thinking about how she and Alex had danced to that music in her off-campus apartment. How he had humored her, even though disco had long fallen out of favor.

The DJ’s smooth voice oozed out over the waning sounds of the song. “And now for all you old timers out there, a cover of three dance classics by Miami’s very own Gloria Estefan,” he announced, and the low strains of the song began, powering into the driving dance beat of the seventies.

Behind her, Alex’s body moved slightly to the rhythm. She turned, looked up at him, and he grinned, offered his hand.

Maya glanced around, noticed another couple or two who had succumbed to the beat and were dancing to the music.

Maya wondered whether everything was conspiring against her, urging her into something she was totally unsure was best. From meeting him again yesterday, to Daisy’s advice, to the music and her own heart, pounding to the beat, telling her, “Love him, love him, love him.”

She placed her hand in his, and as if no time at all had passed, he led her into the dance. As one their bodies glided together to the beat of the song, a pass from one side to another, back and forth, and a twirl that ended with her plastered against his body as the mix of songs came to an end.

He was thicker, stronger than he had been. All man, she realized, as his body hardened against hers. He held her, his hands at her waist, moving up and down against the silk of the shirt. Her breath hitched in her chest, wanting those hands to slip beneath, move upwards and . . .

Maya sucked in an unsteady breath and met his gaze. It was hot, searing her with its intensity. Daisy’s words played pinball in her head, ricocheting around from one memory to the next, reminding her, adding to the confusion in her brain.

“Alex,” she croaked, her voice just a notch above a whisper.

Alex barely controlled the tremble in his hand as he raised it to brush away a wisp of wind-blown auburn hair.

“Mima, do you feel it too?” he asked, surprised by the hesitant huskiness of his own voice.

When she nodded, he wasted no time in walking her back down the row of stores and to the car. Afraid to squander even a second for fear the moment would pass, he didn’t put the top down as they pulled out of the lot and drove back onto the highway. It was all he could do to stay within the speed limit, eager as he was to get her back to her hotel . . . and her room.

They made it to South Beach in record time, and despite it being a Friday night, found a spot as he pulled down the block next to the hotel.

“I guess it’s our lucky night,” he said, and looked over at her, worried she might think differently, but she merely smiled at him shyly.

His heart tripped a beat and a shiver of desire worked its way down his back, and yet, he had never been one ruled by his passions. Except one. . . Maya. But he still wanted to give her an out. He gripped the steering wheel tightly and asked, “Are you sure?”

His words vibrated through her, strumming chords long silent. No, she wasn’t sure, but this was one experiment she needed to undertake. One answer she needed to know to a question that had been rattling around in her head and her heart for too long.

“It is our lucky night, Alex.”

His body visibly relaxed and he looked at her, took her hand in his and brought it up to his lips. With a gentle whisper of a kiss across her knuckles, he said, “I’m glad, Mima.”

She smiled, eased her hand away, and stepped out of the car. She waited for him at the curb, and when he came up to her, he slipped his arm around her waist, drew her close and together they walked to the hotel and up to her room.

Her hand shook as she slipped the key card into the slot and waited impatiently for the signal that the door was unlocked.

The green light came on.

“It’s a go,” she said heartily, chuckling, until he came up from behind her, pinned her to the back of the door as it closed.

“This,” he began, his lips nibbling hers, eating away the last of her resolve. “Has been making me crazy for so long,” he admitted, his body pressed against hers, revealing so much.

His heart beat thickly, the rhythm unsteady and quick. His hands shook as he drove them into her hair, kept her head steady as he deepened their kiss, stealing her breath away. When he broke the kiss and moved away slightly, she inched her hands up to his shoulders and drew a shuddery breath.

“Me too,” she admitted, her gaze uncertain as she met his.

He smiled, a gentle, reassuring kind of smile. One she had not seen before. She traced the shape of it with her index finger, moved upwards to run her hand through his hair, urge his head back down until she could her bring her lips to his, rubbing them back and forth. Not a kiss, but a sampling of the textures of his lips. The hard line of their edges, the softer, more delicate inner edge as he parted his lips and breathed in her scent.

At that slight movement, she opened her mouth, tasted his lips with her tongue and at his groan, pressed inward, her tongue dancing with his. His taste overwhelmed her, as did the press of his body as he drove her further up against the door, and for a moment, she considered allowing him to take her there, without preamble, without any gentleness.

But he wouldn’t, she realized and he moved away from the door, carried her into the room and over to the bed. He laid her on the bedspread, followed her down, his body cradled between her legs, his desire evident.

“Mima,” he husked, and bent his head, dancing his lips across the line of her collarbone, trailing kisses there.

Alex was afraid that even a moment’s hesitation would bring both of them back to their senses. He didn’t want that, no matter the niggling thought in the back of his brain that said there was still a lot they had to tell each another before they made love again. He didn’t want reality to intrude, or logic, or anything else.

He only wanted the sensation of her beneath him, her body soft and pliable, responding to his hands. He only wanted the soft little murmurs he remembered so well. The little hitch in her breath as he cupped her breast with his hand, rubbed his thumb across the distended nipple. He wanted her . . . with nothing in the way.

Maya moaned lowly as he flicked his thumb across her nipple, hardening it further, making her breasts swell in response. She’d always loved his touch there, the way it would cause heat to spiral through her, make her moist for him, as it was starting to now. After so long, it was as if a dam had burst since the heat and wet was almost enough to overwhelm her, make her forget so much was still unsaid between them.

Let it stay there, her illogical side screamed as Alex bent his head, bit her nipple gently through the layer of silk and she nearly bolted up off the bed, wanting everything he could do to her.

Daisy had been right when she said to make love until neither of them could move. Let the rest wait until later, Maya thought, and cradled his head. She ran her fingers through the silk of his hair. It was soft and slippery between her fingers. She moved her hand to cup the sides of his face and the rasp of his evening beard beneath the palms of her hands tickled. The muscles of his cheeks contracted as he suckled her breast, causing desire to harden her nipples into tight, aching buds.

“Alex,” she moaned. “Please, Alex,” she nearly pleaded, wanting his mouth on her without the barrier of cloth.

Alex rose above her, met her gaze. His dark eyes were wide, hot with desire. She realized his breath was shaky, as uneven as hers, and it sent a little thrill through her that he was as moved by this as she.

“I never thought I could want someone as much as I want you right now,” he said and cupped her face, running his thumb along the lower line of her lip.

“I want you too, Alex,” she replied, ignoring that want and love were two very different things. She didn’t love Alex again. It was too soon for that. But want was a whole other creature.

Maya reached up, began unbuttoning his shirt until she exposed his chest, with its lean sculpted muscles. His skin was a warm, golden color, unmarred by any hair. She’d always loved that smooth expanse, where she could touch him, measure the beat of his heart beneath her hand as she did now, its syncopated rhythm telling her of his need. Telling her what he had often been unable to admit with words. As she laid her hand there now, the music of his heart spoke to her, pressed her to go on.

“I want to make love with you, Alex. Now, please, touch me more,” she said and slanted a look up at him.

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