(Shell Grove, #2)
Publication date: October 4th 2022
Genres: Adult, Comedy, Contemporary, Romance

There’s a new sheriff in town…
And he’s her worst nightmare.

Reason #1: Ben Crawford is Olivia Knight’s long-time arch rival. They’ve been sworn enemies ever since she wore overalls to school one day, and he asked her in homeroom where she parked her cow. Now that he’s back, it doesn’t appear much has changed. He’s still arrogant. He’s still trouble. And this time, he’s got a badge and handcuffs. Which will make murdering him and disposing of his body much more challenging for her.

Reason #2: Sheriff Ben has done a lot of growing up during his time away from Shell Grove. He went and got himself some muscles and tattoos, and has the nerve to wear that sheriff’s uniform absurdly well. For some reason, that’s all she can seem to focus on whenever they cross paths. All the nice changes he’s made, instead of how vehemently she’s vowed to hate his guts for all eternity.

Reason #3: The complicated connection that has forever entwined their lives doesn’t have a pleasant backstory. As adults, they should be able to forget what happened when they were teenagers and move on. But in a small town where everyone has long memories, there are reminders everywhere of the nasty events that destroyed both of their families years ago. And she’s not sure their growing feelings for each other are enough to forgive the sins of the past and carve out a future…together.

Ben has a secret. A big one. The longer he’s in Shell Grove and surrounded by people who know his sordid history, the more likely that secret is going to come out. But if it does, Olivia will never speak to him again. Which will not do. Because he’s finally realized that Olivia is the reason why he came back to town in the first place. And if he doesn’t want to lose her forever, he needs to correct the mistakes he made a long time ago and prove he’s not the NEMESIS she’s always thought him to be.

Excerpt

Ben was barely listening to the conversation around him since a familiar tingling sensation had started crawling up the back of his neck. It was the anticipation of getting eyes on Olivia, needing eyes on her. Making sure that no one was heckling her, that she was having a good time.

Oh, who are you bullshitting? You don’t want her having a good time with another guy.

It made him a bastard, but yeah. He honestly didn’t know what he would do if he saw her flirting with another man. Probably break something. Maybe whip out his cuffs and threaten to arrest some motherfuckers. Which was completely insane. He needed to bottle that shit up immediately before the crazy started to show on his face.

Something over Finn’s shoulder caught his attention, and Ben saw red.

He took it all back. There was a motherfucker that definitely needed arresting.

The one currently chatting up his girl.

Your girl? Since when, Benny?

Some douchebag wearing a blue button-up shirt with whales all over it was smiling at Olivia from ear-to-ear as they stood next to the food truck-turned-mobile tiki bar, Freaky Tiki. He didn’t recognize the guy, but he was openly flirting with the wrong woman.

“Be right back,” he bit out to his friends and took off storming across the sand.

He’d tried to control it. It wasn’t like they had agreed to be exclusive. They weren’t even dating, for Christ’s sake. But Ben acting on his jealousy toward Olivia had become a compulsion in a remarkably short period of time. Any man that showed the slightest interest in her, he wanted to pummel into the fucking ground. He knew it was selfish and irrational and completely unfair of him. But controlling that impulse—the impulse to do something and mark his territory—was as impossible as telling his dick to chill the fuck out every time it was in her presence.

He was closing in on them before he took stock of himself.

And oh, he really should have.

The county sheriff was barreling down on The Freaky Tiki like he was about to put somebody on their ass. People on the beach got out of his way and watched him with wide eyes, probably hoping they were about to catch something on their phones they could post on their socials. But he wasn’t going to get physical with the guy. Probably not. He was just going to intimidate the hell out of him until he put at least a good twenty feet between his body and Olivia’s.

Olivia caught sight of him approaching over Moby Dick’s shoulder, her face betraying her shock.

“Evening, Liv.”

Her companion jolted because yeah, Ben had snuck up right behind him and the guy hadn’t even noticed. Military training strikes again. It wasn’t like Moby Dick was a shrimp by any means, but Ben still had inches and pounds on him. In the physical sense, Ben didn’t feel threatened at all. But when another male started sniffing around Olivia…he saw everything as a fucking threat. A simple nod, an innocent smile. Any behavior that was targeted at her for the express purpose of showing sexual or romantic interest risked the possibility of Olivia nodding back at someone else. Of her smiling back at someone that wasn’t him. And oftentimes, smiling was a gateway to so much more.

“Hello, Sheriff.”

As casual a greeting as that was, her voice was anything but. The husky quality to her words belied an intimacy between them. A personal history.

He fucking loved hearing that.

She cleared her throat and yanked her gaze away. “Um. Colin, this is Sheriff Crawford.”

Moby Dick shrewdly inspected him for a few seconds before rising to his full height that was still an inch or two shorter than Ben’s. “Nice to meet you.”

When he stuck out his hand, Ben didn’t move to shake it. In fact, he didn’t address Dick at all.

To Olivia, he gritted out, “Could I have a word?”

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About the Author

Melanie grew up in the Midwest, but she loves living in the Southeast (where the beaches are!) now with her husband and daughter.
Melanie's other passion is traveling and seeing the world. With anthropology degrees under their belts, she and her husband have made it their goal in life to see as many archaeological sites around the world as possible.
She has a horrible food addiction to pasta and candy (not together...ew). And she gets sad when her wine rack is empty.
At the end of the day, she is a true romantic at heart. She loves writing the cheesy and corny of romantic comedies, and the sassy and sexy of suspense. She aims to make her readers swoon, laugh out loud, maybe sweat a little, and above all, fall in love.
Go visit Melanie's website and sign up for her newsletter to stay updated on release dates, teasers, and other details for all of her projects!

Connect:
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(Shell Grove, #2)
Publication date: October 4th 2022
Genres: Adult, Comedy, Contemporary, Romance

There’s a new sheriff in town…
And he’s her worst nightmare.

Excerpt

“Well, if it isn’t Livvie Knight. Long time, no see.”

You would think his head had just rotated around 360 degrees before he projectile vomited all over the place for how fast she scurried to the other side of the room.

“Not long enough, in my opinion,” she hissed. “And don’t call me Livvie.”

He clutched his chest dramatically. “You wound me. What, you don’t have a smile for your old pal?”

“Oh, there are many things I have for my old pal,” she said through gritted teeth. “And all of them would require you to wear some sort of protective gear.” She snorted. “Or not.”

Damn.

Even as she spewed venom like a viper, her eyes murdering him on the spot, she was still one of the most gorgeous women he’d ever seen. Even more gorgeous than she’d been in high school.

And that had always been the crux of his contradicting feelings when it came to Liv. His unwanted attraction toward her. It had slowly and unwittingly developed in high school and evolved with every encounter they’d had. He’d been disgusted with himself, causing him to lash out at her even more viciously. As if the way she had stirred his dick to life every time he saw her was her fault. He supposed it was, in a way, but it wasn’t like she’d been doing it on purpose.

Fortunately, he’d been able to focus on other aspects of her personality that he’d convinced himself drove him crazy. Like the fact that she’d been a goodie two shoes, straight-A student who won everything and never broke the rules. Never got reprimanded by the adults around her. Everyone she came into contact with swooned over her within two seconds of meeting her. Ultimately, the perfect child. Basically, she was everything Ben wasn’t.

As his eyes raked over her, his mind mentally replaced all the teenage images of Liv he had stored in his brain with the adult version. A hell of a lot of appreciation accompanied those images too. Her toffee brown hair fell past her shoulders now, with blunt bangs that framed her oval-shaped face and complemented her features well. Her breasts had gone from a small A to a full C—clearly a late bloomer—and her shorts hugged her flared hips like a dream. There definitely hadn’t been that much shape to her figure at sixteen years old.

She was no girl now.

Beauty aside, how did he really feel about seeing her? Honestly, he had no fucking idea. It wasn’t completely enjoyable, but it wasn’t wholly unpleasant either. He had years of negative impressions of her swirling around in his head, but he couldn’t discern whether those still held water or not. Or if they rationally ever had in the first place.

The sound of her snapping fingers had his eyes darting back up to hers.

“You getting a good look?” she asked acerbically.

Propping himself up on his hands, he lazily stretched out across her table, putting his entire torso on display. She had dropped the sheet in shock when she’d realized who she’d been massaging and was now trapped in a room with. The sheet was splayed across one of his legs and part of his other thigh, barely covering his package. He had no inclination to move it.

He had changed a lot since high school too.

And part of him wanted her to see that.

“Figured I’d return the favor,” he drawled. “You know, since you’ve been getting a good look for the past half hour.”

Her nostrils flared. “Believe me,” she seethed, “if I’d known it was you, I never would have taken the appointment.”

“Funny. It sounded like you were enjoying yourself a minute ago.”

She raised an eyebrow. “I don’t think it was me asking you out for a drink.”

“Well, I thought I was asking out a funny, intelligent, kind woman.” He waved down at her. “Amazing how anonymity can warp the mind.”

She crossed her arms over her chest, plumping up her full breasts. Her low-cut tank top revealed just enough cleavage to have him discreetly adjusting the sheet to conceal more of his rising issue.

Stay down, you dumb bastard. This one’s not for us.

“Great attitude, Sheriff Crawford. I’m sure you’ll be very popular among all the other smug jackasses in town.”

Wrapping the sheet around his waist, he rose to his feet and moved toward her. He couldn’t prevent his grin from forming when she refused to back up. Classic Olivia, always giving back as good as she got, never afraid to stand up for herself. While she might have been a goodie two shoes in high school, she’d never been a pushover. At least, not with him.

“Careful, Livvie,” he warned in a low voice. “You don’t want to get on a law officer’s bad side.”

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About the Author

She has a horrible food addiction to pasta and candy (not together...ew). And she gets sad when her wine rack is empty.

At the end of the day, she is a true romantic at heart. She loves writing the cheesy and corny of romantic comedies, and the sassy and sexy of suspense. She aims to make her readers swoon, laugh out loud, maybe sweat a little, and above all, fall in love.

Go visit Melanie's website and sign up for her newsletter to stay updated on release dates, teasers, and other details for all of her projects!

a Rafflecopter giveaway