Cover Reveal and Excerpt:
Place Your Trust in Me by Elizabeth Kelly
Judge Sierra Walters has one goal—to prove her ex-husband wrong.
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After years of making her ex’s dreams her priority, Sierra’s determined to focus on her needs for the first time. Which includes restoring the fixer-upper she’s living in, no matter how many DIY videos she must watch or how many weekends she has to give up.
Except drywalling is her downfall.
She’s forced to hire contractor Everett Caine to get the job done. She isn’t expecting Everett to be so funny or have a delightfully hard body she aches to explore… with her tongue.
Soured toward commitment, at fifty-six, Everett Caine is happy and single. Perfect for concentrating on his business.
He knows better than to get involved with a client. It’s messy. It’s complicated. And never ends well. Yet, it only takes one glance, and he suddenly can’t stop imagining Sierra draped across his bed. The woman pokes and prods every one of his buttons, whether it’s using her beautiful mouth to tell him off or turn him on.
But as the intense attraction grows between them, will Sierra and Everett realize that achieving their dreams is easier done together? Or will they let past hurts, and old wounds split them apart?
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Content notes: Prior divorce, bitter ex-partners, sexually explicit scenes
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This novel is the third in a series but can be read as a standalone.
Everett paused the show and studied Sierra. An hour ago, she had curled up in a small ball at her end of the couch to ‘get more comfortable’ and promptly fallen asleep. He’d covered her with the afghan draped across the back of the couch and finished watching the documentary.
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He slid closer and rubbed her hip through the blanket. “Sierra, wake up.”
She didn’t move, and he shook her lightly. “Wake up, Sierra.”
Still nothing, and panic bit at his insides. Shit. He pulled the afghan back and sat next to her on the couch. He shook her arm and squeezed it lightly. “Sierra, can you hear me?”
Her eyes rolled behind her lids, and he cupped her face. “Sierra, open your eyes.”
Panic made his voice too loud, but it woke her up. She squinted at him, and he slid his arm around her waist and urged her into a sitting position.
“What’s wrong?” she mumbled.
“Do you feel okay?” He cupped her face and studied her eyes. They looked normal, and he stroked her silky cheek. “Do you feel dizzy?”
“No,” she said, her gaze soft as she studied him. “No dizziness, no headache.”
Relief swept through him, and he squeezed her hip. “Thank God. When you wouldn’t wake up, I thought…”
She smiled sleepily at him. “I’m a deep sleeper.”
“You are,” he said, the relief evident in his voice.
He was still cupping her face, and he dropped his hand before he did something inappropriate like kiss her. She immediately leaned forward and pressed her mouth against his.
He shouldn’t have returned her kiss, but he groaned at the touch of her soft lips and pulled her into his lap. She gripped the front of his t-shirt and kissed him again with soft and delicate brushes of her mouth against his.
He was already hard as a fucking stone, which was all kinds of embarrassing, but Sierra’s warm body against his and how she traced his bottom lip with the tip of her tongue made him lose control.
He cupped the back of her neck and angled his mouth over hers, sliding his tongue into her mouth to taste and explore. She moaned softly, her hands pulling him closer as they kissed.
He slid his hand into her thick dark hair, registering his mistake a split second too late when his fingers pressed against the sutures in her scalp.
Sierra made a sharp cry of pain against his mouth, and he cursed inwardly before easing his hand out of her hair and leaning back.
“Fuck, I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine.” She smiled at him, but he could see the pain lurking in it. “The numbing has worn off, so let’s avoid touching my head.”
She leaned forward to kiss him, and he shook his head. “Sierra, stop. We can’t do this. You’re injured.”
“I’m okay,” she said. “People with head injuries make out all the time.”