Goats solve their differences head-on. They don’t give the silent treatment or yell, they butt heads, and then it’s over.Cowboy Marvin has learned humans resolve issues differently especially those romantically involved. His curiosity sparked, he has invited authors to stop by on Fridays and share the first fight out of their latest book.
is here for ...
First Fight Friday
with a scene from
The Love List
Falling in love is just not on Nora King’s To Do List…
then she meets a modern day knight in shining armour.
But when disaster relief worker Ethan Love swoops in to save Nora's presentation, he's hoping to get on her good side.
He needs a major favour.
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Falling in love is just not on workaholic Nora King’s To Do List but every time she tangles with Ethan Love he finds another way in under her skin. And now, damn it, he’s making her think, he’s making her feel, and he’s making her want!
‘Stop thinking,’ Ethan whispered against her lips. ‘Let go a little. I’ll catch you.’
She wrenched her mouth from his. Her hand stopped plucking at the incredible solid ridges of his abs.
She stared up at him, breathing hard.
So he knew anyway.
Knew her dirty little secret—that she was fearful of all the emotion tied up in those knots inside her. That she was scared if she let go it would all tumble out uncontrollably and she’d look weak. As though she couldn’t cope with her grief. With KPC. With her life.
Hot tears burned at the back of her eyes as the emotion bubbled out regardless. ‘Seriously?’ she husked. ‘You’ll catch me? You can’t help yourself, can you— you want to save me? You want to rescue me?’
She watched as a dull flush formed across his cheekbones. Embarrassment thundered through her as it furiously set about tying back up all her ragged emotions with a pretty little bow.
‘It couldn’t be that I wanted to kiss you,’ he said, his voice low, his jaw tight.
‘Right,’ she snorted. ‘Kiss me better,’ she asserted.
Ethan stepped back. Shoved his hands into his coat pockets.
‘All that “I want to learn the secrets of your mouth…” Tell me you weren’t trying to fathom me out and make me all better —to make yourself feel better.’
Falling in love is just not on workaholic Nora King’s To Do List but every time she tangles with Ethan Love he finds another way in under her skin. And now, damn it, he’s making her think, he’s making her feel, and he’s making her want!
‘Stop thinking,’ Ethan whispered against her lips. ‘Let go a little. I’ll catch you.’
She wrenched her mouth from his. Her hand stopped plucking at the incredible solid ridges of his abs.
She stared up at him, breathing hard.
So he knew anyway.
Knew her dirty little secret—that she was fearful of all the emotion tied up in those knots inside her. That she was scared if she let go it would all tumble out uncontrollably and she’d look weak. As though she couldn’t cope with her grief. With KPC. With her life.
Hot tears burned at the back of her eyes as the emotion bubbled out regardless. ‘Seriously?’ she husked. ‘You’ll catch me? You can’t help yourself, can you— you want to save me? You want to rescue me?’
She watched as a dull flush formed across his cheekbones. Embarrassment thundered through her as it furiously set about tying back up all her ragged emotions with a pretty little bow.
‘It couldn’t be that I wanted to kiss you,’ he said, his voice low, his jaw tight.
‘Right,’ she snorted. ‘Kiss me better,’ she asserted.
Ethan stepped back. Shoved his hands into his coat pockets.
‘All that “I want to learn the secrets of your mouth…” Tell me you weren’t trying to fathom me out and make me all better —to make yourself feel better.’
If she wasn’t so scared of the fact that he could see so easily right into her and see that she might need fixing, she might have wondered why he needed to feel better himself. She might even have wanted to help him feel better. Because she was drawn to him like no man she’d ever met. And that irritated the hell out of her. She didn’t have the time. Couldn’t spare the emotional energy. And now he was looking at her with a mixture of sympathy and anger.
‘You know, I’m getting pretty tired of the way you keep judging me,’ he said.
Nora searched his face. ‘Because you don’t like the shoe on the other foot or because my judgement is correct?’
Ethan held his hands up as if in surrender. ‘Alright. Yes. I’ve seen what grief looks like when it’s eating at a person. And the mask you try and hide it all behind? I’ve seen people adopt those too. And no, those masks don’t quite conceal the fact that you don’t know how to move forward. But, Nora, there is no right or wrong way to move forward when you’re grieving.’
Nora blanched. ‘You’re wrong,’ she spat out as his words had the panic escaping once more. There absolutely was a right way. And that way involved protecting everyone from having to witness it at all. Why shouldn’t grief stay private? ‘I have a responsibility to KPC. To keep the company running smoothly. Just because I refuse to curl up into a ball and—’
‘But seeing all that in you is not why I kissed you, damn it,’ Ethan said over her. ‘I kissed you because I wanted to know if your lips would feel like I’ve been imagining they would, under mine. I kissed you because I wanted to explore the attraction between us. And I wanted you to open up, so that you’d be right there with me. In the experience. Not thinking. Not worrying. Not pushing your reaction to me back down inside to lie neglected, with everything else.’
Nora couldn’t think straight. He couldn’t just be content with this attraction between them. No, not Mr. Knight-In-Shining-Armour, Ethan Love. He wanted more from her. He wanted to storm her defences and rip up her plan to keep out-running and out-distancing the wave of grief inside her.
But if work didn’t see her through… If she took all her attention off KPC and gave any of it to Ethan, what would happen then?
‘You know, I’m getting pretty tired of the way you keep judging me,’ he said.
Nora searched his face. ‘Because you don’t like the shoe on the other foot or because my judgement is correct?’
Ethan held his hands up as if in surrender. ‘Alright. Yes. I’ve seen what grief looks like when it’s eating at a person. And the mask you try and hide it all behind? I’ve seen people adopt those too. And no, those masks don’t quite conceal the fact that you don’t know how to move forward. But, Nora, there is no right or wrong way to move forward when you’re grieving.’
Nora blanched. ‘You’re wrong,’ she spat out as his words had the panic escaping once more. There absolutely was a right way. And that way involved protecting everyone from having to witness it at all. Why shouldn’t grief stay private? ‘I have a responsibility to KPC. To keep the company running smoothly. Just because I refuse to curl up into a ball and—’
‘But seeing all that in you is not why I kissed you, damn it,’ Ethan said over her. ‘I kissed you because I wanted to know if your lips would feel like I’ve been imagining they would, under mine. I kissed you because I wanted to explore the attraction between us. And I wanted you to open up, so that you’d be right there with me. In the experience. Not thinking. Not worrying. Not pushing your reaction to me back down inside to lie neglected, with everything else.’
Nora couldn’t think straight. He couldn’t just be content with this attraction between them. No, not Mr. Knight-In-Shining-Armour, Ethan Love. He wanted more from her. He wanted to storm her defences and rip up her plan to keep out-running and out-distancing the wave of grief inside her.
But if work didn’t see her through… If she took all her attention off KPC and gave any of it to Ethan, what would happen then?
Copyright © Eve Devon
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The Love List by Eve Devon
Falling in love is just not on Nora King’s To Do List…
Neither is accidentally super-gluing her shoe to her hand right before the biggest presentation of her life! With all the hard work she’d put into securing the family business after her father’s death, Nora has no choice but to accept help from a knight in shining armour.
Disaster relief worker Ethan Love is still haunted by his last deployment, and desperate for distraction. He’s in town to ask Nora for a major favour, and swooping in to save her presentation is a sure way to get her on side.
As Ethan sticks around and helps Nora through her grief, her barriers tumble down… but will she dare to swap her To Do lists for a How to Fall in Love list?
The Love List
is available on
If you loved reading about Nora King and her sexy, laid-back Ethan Love, why not check out the book that started it all off…
Her Best Laid Plans sees Nora’s big brother, ex-bad-boy turned businessman Jared King getting his feathers well and truly ruffled by his sassy go-with-the-flow plan-phobic PA Amanda Gray.
Her Best Laid Plans
Love is what happens to you when you’re busy making other plans…
And check out
Eve's previous First Fight Friday: The Waiting Game
And check out
Eve's previous First Fight Friday: The Waiting Game
My name’s Eve Devon and I write sexy heroes, sassy heroines and happy ever afters…
I kind of secretly believe it’s not too late for me to train as a professional dancer, MMA expert, or get asked to be Angelina Jolie’s body-double. I know. This is why writing fiction is for me!
Growing up in locations like Botswana and Venezuela gave me quite the taste for adventure and my love for romances began when my mother shoved one into my hands in a desperate attempt to keep me quiet during TV coverage of the Wimbledon tennis finals.
When I wasn’t consuming books by the bucket load, I could be found pretending to be a damsel in distress or running around solving mysteries and writing down my adventures. As a teenager, I wrote countless episodes of TV detective dramas so the hero and heroine would end up together every week. As an adult, I worked in a library to conveniently continue consuming books by the bucket load, until realising I was destined to write contemporary romance and romantic suspense myself. I live in leafy Surrey in the UK, a book-devouring, slightly melodramatic, romance-writing sassy heroine with my very own sexy hero husband!
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