Page 88 of The Small-Town Seduction Plan

3 months later…

“We’re going to be late…”

“So?” Duke licks his way down my collarbone. I sigh, arching against him even as I try to pull away. “People are late to parties all the time. It’s pretty much expected.”

“Not when we’re the ones hosting it!”

“Oh.” He lifts his head and gives me a lazy grin, eyes crinkling at the edges. “Maybe you’ve got a point.”

I laugh. “Plus gossip travels fast in Blackberry Cove, so you’re going to have to hold that thought.” I tell him, disentangling myself and straightening up my clothes, which look exactly like someone’s been making good work of taking them off.

“Wait,” Duke catches my waist. He gives me a long, slow head-to-toe look, raking over my still half-naked body.

“What are you doing now?” I mock-complain, even though that look in his eyes makes my knees weak, every time.

“Holding the thought.”

Duke finally releases me, and reaches for his T-shirt. I check my compact mirror, and manage to wipe away my smudges of lipstick, but nothing is hiding the flush in my cheeks, or sparkle in my eyes that says, yes, I just had a fantastic orgasm, thanks for asking.

Oh well.

“Come on,” Duke says, swinging the door to the trailer open. “Let’s get this shindig over with.”

I giggle. “Don’t try that grumpy routine with me, mister,” I tease him affectionately. “You’re the one who suggested we throw it in the first place!”

“Temporary insanity,” Duke says cheerfully. “We were in bed. I can’t be expected to make rational decisions when you’re naked.”

He helps me down from the portable construction cabin that’s parked on the edge of the beach estate. The project is just getting started, and running water and electricity is still a long way off, so Duke brought in the trailer to use a basecamp for operations– and, ahem, privacy when I swing by on his lunch breaks.

And coffee breaks.

And “hey, I missed you, it’s been two hours since you were inside me” breaks.

I mean, he did say it was important to pace yourself on a massive rebuilt like this.

But this evening, we’re hosting a party to celebrate the official groundbreaking on the project, so the clearing overlooking the beach has been transformed into a glimpse of what the future could hold. Tiny string lights swoop from posts around the future terrace, there’s folding trestle tables, flower vases perched on the broken-down walls, and electrical cables snaking over to the generator to run speakers and spotlights as the sun goes down.

It’s not fancy, but it looks great to me.

I check my phone again as we set up the last details. “Any news?” Duke asks. I shake my head. I finally signed with a new agent just last week, and she said she’d start sending any casting notices that looked interesting. Still, I know it’s going to be an uphill battle. After I walked out on Max and the role in Annihilation 3, he spread it around Hollywood that I was “difficult” and a total prima donna to work with. Added to my tabloid trash fire, it’s taken months to find a new agent who actually believes in what I want to do. But now I finally have someone on my team, I’m hoping this is the beginning of my comeback. Again.

But in the meantime… let’s just say that there are worse places to be than Blackberry Cove, with the man of my dreams.

“We’re here, and we brought pizza!” Brooke calls, arriving with Tessa and Jackson– and a towering stack of steaming boxes in their arms.

“Angels,” I beam, then eye the sheer volume food. “Although, you didn’t have to bring so much. It’s just going to be a small gathering.”

“Are you kidding?” Tessa laughs. “We stopped by to get ice at the grocery store, and Linette and Earl were there?—”

“Larry from the garage, Maggie, JJ and Fraser, JJ’s mom—” Jackson continues.

Brooke nods. “Everyone said they were going to swing by.”

“Everyone?” I echo, with a gulp of panic.

Duke gives my shoulders a squeeze. “Relax. If there’s one thing this town would never do, is show up empty-handed.”

He’s right. As the guests start arriving, and don’t stop, I see, I didn’t have to worry. The snack tables are soon full-to-overflowing with homemade goods and takeout boxes, bottles of wine and beer and huge buckets of ice. Someone takes over as DJ, and by the time the sun sets and some of the guys light a bonfire on the shore, everyone’s talking, and dancing, and having a great time.

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