Excerpt from On the Surface by Kate Willoughby

I’m so glad to be here today sharing an excerpt from On the Surface. The book comes out on April 14 and I swear the anticipation has been killing me. It’s been fun to see early reviews, like Danielle’s, come out. People have been overwhelmingly complimentary so far, which only adds to my excitement.

 

In order to set the scene for the excerpt I need to ask you a question. How would you feel if you woke up to find you’d cuddled up to a man you barely knew? Weird? Uncomfortable?

 

What if he was a sexy, professional hockey player who had, only the day before, leapt to your defense when a bully pushed you to the ground? You might feel a little different, right? 

 

Well, this is what happens to Erin Collier, the heroine in On the Surface. Earlier in the day, she’s in line to get Tim’s autograph and a man assaults her. Tim, not being the type of guy who sits on the sidelines, takes the guy down. What with everyone being so ready to snap pictures and shoot video, Tim quickly gets into some hot water, PR-wise, and Erin participates in a joint press conference to explain what really happened.

 

Unfortunately, right after the press conference, Tim gets a horrible case of food poisoning and Erin helps him through a rough night. We find the two of them in Tim’s hotel room, where he’s been living until he can find a more permanent place to live in San Diego. The worst of the food poisoning is over…

 

When Erin woke for the second time, the sun hadn’t been up for long. No one had pulled the blackout curtains. Her back was cold. She normally found hotel rooms to be nippy, but bad enough she was sharing Tim’s bed—she wasn’t about to get under the covers. So, she’d resigned herself to being cold.

 

Oddly, her front was warm.

 

Mainly because she’d spooned up against Tim Hollander’s back.

 

Oh my God.

 

She froze, mortified. Luckily, her sleep self hadn’t gone so far as to wrap an arm around him, but that was definitely his mighty fine ass against her groin area.

 

He had remained on top of the covers too. Meager daylight allowed her to see that after his shower, he’d dressed in a white T-shirt. What he had on the bottom, she couldn’t see. Her field of vision was limited to his broad shoulders and back. She could detect his man smell beneath the showery soap now, and that sort of went to her head like an aphrodisiac. Ever so slowly she raised her head.

 

He had sweatpants on.

 

Thank God.

She let out a careful sigh of relief. Now all she had to do was extricate herself from her predicament. If Lady Luck smiled on her, she’d get free and he’d never know she’d stealth cuddled him.

 

Millimeter by millimeter, she eased her upper body away. She figured if she moved slowly enough, the temperature change wouldn’t wake him up. Her chest and tummy were pretty toasty.

She didn’t get far. He reached back and clapped a hand on her behind.

 

“Stop moving, damn it. You’re messing up my dream,” he muttered.

 

She froze again. He sounded annoyed, but if they stayed spooned, what the heck was he going to think? That she’d snuggled up to him on purpose? Plus, she was…well, getting turned on. He had big hands. Strong hands. One of them was now caressing her butt cheek, and man, it felt good. Wow. Wow. Wow. Desire like she hadn’t ever felt before started to spread over the entire bottom half of her body. She hadn’t had sex in forever, but that didn’t really explain the intensity of the feelings. She was actually tempted to reach around and find out if he was as turned on as she was. But she didn’t. She couldn’t. She barely knew him. She didn’t do things like succumb to wild monkey sex with guys she’d met a little over twelve hours before.

 

“Er, Tim. It’s me, Erin,” she whispered, nudging his arm with stiff fingers. “Nurse Erin?” she clarified.

 

This time, he froze. His body tensed. He groaned and his shoulders hunched. He uttered a soft but fervent F-bomb.

 

Poor Tim. Kind of awkward for him. Erin too, actually.

 

If you want to find out what happens next, click on one of the links below. And if you are into sports romance as a genre, check out the other five books included in Carina Press’s first ever Sports Week. There’s something for everyone!

 

Find On the Surface at Amazon * Amazon UK * B&N * iTunes * Google Play * Goodreads

Find Kate on her blog * Twitter * Instagram * Pinterest