“Heartfelt,
beautiful and sexy!"
- Lauren Blakely, #1 New York Times bestselling author
Only
Love, an all-new sexy standalone romance from USA Today bestselling author Melanie Harlow is available now!
A gorgeous former Marine
with a tortured soul.
The beautiful,
compassionate therapist living next door.
A meddlesome grandma
determined to get them together.
I was
expecting a proposal on my birthday, and I got dumped instead.
How could
I have been so clueless?
Grams
knew exactly how to distract me.
The “cute
boy next door” who’s been helping her with yard work clearly needs a little
therapy. Who better to call than her newly single therapist granddaughter?
She even
fakes dementia to get me to visit, and now that I’m here she’s doing everything
in her power to throw us together.
Not that
I’m complaining. Ryan is the sexiest man I’ve ever met--I mean the full
package, from the chiseled jaw to the massive shoulders to the rippling abs.
(And yes, his package is full, and he knows exactly how to deliver it.) He
makes me want to get out of my head and follow my heart. He makes me want to
take chances I never thought I’d take.
He also
makes me want to take my clothes off. A lot.
But he’s
moody and challenging--one minute he’s an open book, and the next he’s
completely closed off. He holds me like he’ll never let go, but insists he
wants to be alone.
Some
wounds are so deep, only love can heal them.
How can I
convince him to let me try?
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Excerpt:
“Ryan?”
Startled,
I turned around to find Stella standing a few feet away on the grass, wearing a
T-shirt and pajama pants, arms crossed over her chest. Her feet were bare, and
her hair was loose around her shoulders and a little messy, like she’d already
been asleep. Thinking about her in bed did things to my insides. “Hey. Did I
wake you?”
“I was
awake. My windows are open, and I heard something and thought I saw you through
the window. What are you doing?”
“Uh,
building you a swing. But it was supposed to be a surprise.” Now that she’d
caught me at it, I was kind of embarrassed. What if she thought this was
stupid?
“You
built me a swing?” She came a little closer, and I realized she might not be
able to see it in the dark. The moon was only a sliver tonight.
“Yeah.” I
grabbed one of the ropes. “Right here.”
She
stared at it. “Why?”
“I’m not
entirely sure.”
Her eyes
met mine, and my heart pumped harder.
“Want to
try it?” I asked.
“Like
right now?”
I moved
behind it and held both ropes steady. “Come sit.”
She
hesitated, and I thought maybe she was going to tell me to quit being weird and
go home before she called the cops, but after a few silent seconds, she came
toward me. Turned around. Lowered herself to the seat and closed her fingers
around the ropes.
“Well?” I
asked. “How does it feel? Like you’re a kid again?”
“This was
very kind of you, but not necessary.” Her tone was stiffer than her posture.
“Stella.”
She
didn’t answer.
“I’m
sorry.”
“About
what?”
“Last
night.”
“You’re
sorry about what we did?”
“I think
I’m more sorry about what we didn’t do.”
Her head
turned sharply, and she looked at me over one shoulder. “You sure know how to
confuse a girl.”
“One of
my many talents.”
She
looked straight ahead again. “Tell me about some other ones. And give me a
push.”
I smiled,
even though she couldn’t see it, and gave her a little nudge. “I’m fast.”
“Oh
really?”
“Yeah.” I
gave her a little harder push.
“Track
team in high school?”
“Tried.
Didn’t take.”
“Why
not?”
“They
expected me to show up for practice.”
“Ah.” She
straightened her legs and leaned back in the swing, her hair dangling behind
her. “Tell me another one.”
I gave
her another push. “I’m good with my hands.”
Her laugh
floated back to me. “I have observed this about you already. Give me another
one.”
I pushed
her again, just so I could feel her hair brush against my hands. “I’m not
afraid of anything.”
“No?
Nothing?”
“Nothing
I can think of.”
“Hmm.”
“Are you
analyzing me now?”
“Kind of.
I mean, you can’t say something like that to a therapist and expect her not to
reflect on it a little bit, right?”
“And?”
“And
what?”
“Do you
think I’m a liar or a fool?”
“Neither,”
she answered. “I think you mean what you say. I think you only lie when you
have to, and even then, you hate it. And if I dug a little deeper—which I
won’t, because my sisters have told me it’s annoying and intrusive—I think I
might discover that it’s because above all, you value your honor. Your word.”
For a
moment, I was too stunned to think or move or speak. Then I said, “I take it
back.”
“Take
what back?”
“What I
said. That I’m not afraid of anything.”
“Oh? And
what are you afraid of?”
She swung
back toward me and I caught her around the waist. Put my lips to her ear. “Your
ability to read my mind.”
Beneath
my arms I could feel her chest expand and contract faster. “I’m sorry, Ryan. I
know I shouldn’t say those—”
“Come
home with me,” I said, my voice raw with something like thirst. I pressed my
lips to her throat and breathed in her scent. I let one hand move toward her
breast. I waited for an elbow to the ribcage, a cry for help, a slap across the
face. Because if she could read my mind right now, she’d know exactly what I
wanted to do to her—and it was a long, detailed list.
“Yes,”
she whispered. “Yes.”
My Review:
While this is part of a series, it can be read as a stand-alone.
The third in the series focuses on Stella, the therapist that has decided that stability and comfort are more important than love and passion. Stella is a bit aloof and detached, and you get the backstory of her early encounters with men that have made her this way. When she's dumped on her birthday, she needs a quick escape - and in comes Gramma to the rescue!
As she's visiting her grandmother, and taking care of her through her "senility" she meets Ryan, the loner neighbor who helps out around the house. Ryan is a former military man, and has seen too much, been through too much, and has decided to shut down his emotions.
Gramma has plans to get these two together and knows exactly what she's doing.
Their story was heartfelt and genuine, and the two were a perfect fit for each other, accepting each other's flaws while finding the best parts inside.
“It’s hard to remain emotionally detached from someone when his body fits so perfectly inside yours."
Melanie did her homework, and really painted true portrait of what happens when a soldier returns home from war, and struggles with living a "normal" life. She also captured the struggles that those practicing therapy have, by sometimes asking too many questions to gain insight that others don't want you to have.
While Ryan and Stella were great together, honestly, Gramma is killer in this book!! Such hilarity and wisdom. I really enjoyed her chapters, especially the ending.
Read the entire series:
Melanie is the author of the AFTER WE FALL series, the HAPPY CRAZY LOVE series, the FRENCHED series, and the sexy historical SPEAK EASY duet, set in the 1920s. She lifts her glass to romance readers and writers from her home near Detroit, MI, where she lives with her husband, two daughters, and pet rabbit.
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