He hadn’t lost his knack – #SecondChanceRomance #HolidayRomance #MFRWHooks

Merry Christmas to you all!

You’re probably not surfing the web today, looking for holiday romance, but just in case, I’ve got a snippet from my second chance holiday romance Once Upon a Blizzard to make you smile.

Blurb

No electricity. No water. Plenty of heat.

Suzanne and Gino have a history going back to high school, but for more than a decade the workaholic CEO has been thousands of miles from her New England home town.
A mistletoe kiss at a Christmas party rekindles the old spark and Suzanne finds some things do indeed get better with age. When Gino rescues her from a blizzard, though, she discovers that she's not the only love in his life. Gino shares his bed and his colonial-era farm house with taciturn painter Harris Steele.
Snowed in with two lusty men who truly seem to care, she wonders why she’s so determined to return to her lonely West Coast life. Is there really a chance for a holiday happy ending?

The Hook

“So, how are you?” she queried. “You look fantastic.” He did, too. Back in school, Giovanni Torelli had been baby-faced and a bit plump. The years had been kind. His face was longer and leaner than before, his cheekbones more prominent. A few lines on his forehead and around his ripe lips provided an air of maturity. He had let his hair grow—in high school he’d had a crew cut—and it flowed over his well-shaped skull in lustrous black waves. His long sideburns were a throwback to the eighties, but they suited him. He reminded her of some Italian crooner.

He still had those huge, lustrous eyes under elegant brows. They had been his best feature back then. Mostly they’d been full of laughter. Now Suzanne saw their depth.

As for his body, the baby fat was long gone. He looked to be solid muscle. Now that his weight was in proportion to his height, he looked taller than he used to—probably five eight or five nine. His height fit well with Suzanne’s petite frame—as she recalled only too well from their recent embrace.

Gino was dressed far more casually than Suzanne, in a holly-green V-necked sweater, jeans that looked painted onto his corded thighs, and scuffed cowboy boots. Suzanne, in contrast, wore red velvet, pearls and heels. She felt her cheeks burn as his eyes roamed over her body. The dress wasn’t particularly tight, but it clung to the sleek, curvy form she managed to maintain through arduous hours at the gym. Rationally, she knew she was attractive, especially for a woman on the far side of forty, but somehow she felt as insecure as she had as a teen.

“You look pretty fantastic yourself,” Gino replied. “But then, I always thought you were a knockout.”

“Oh, come on!” She waved her hand to dismiss the compliment. She didn’t want to think about the past. “Anyway, what have you been up to? Last I heard from Helena, you were in New York at some top firm. You must be a partner by now.”

“Nope. I moved back to the Pioneer Valley three years ago.”

“What?”

“The job was killing me. I was making tons of money, but I was too busy to spend it. I wasn’t enjoying myself. And as you may remember,” he said with a gleam in his eye, “I like to have a good time.”

She had a sudden, vivid recollection of eighth grade science class. He and Jerry sat on either side of her at the long lab table, teasing her about her snug, pink angora sweater, stirring up her hormones and making her miserable. The two of them had driven her crazy. She’d scribbled page after page about them in her diary, fantasies as lurid as her thirteen-year-old mind could concoct.

She dragged herself away from her memories. “So what are you doing now?”

“I work for Franklin County Legal Aid. And I do a bit of farming.”

“Farming?” Suzanne laughed, incredulous. She couldn’t imagine Gino driving a tractor or shovelling manure.

“Yeah. We’ve got twenty acres in New Salem and a dozen milk cows. We sell homemade cheese and organic veggies.”

Suzanne couldn’t help noticing the plural pronouns. “Are you married then?”

Gino took her hand, grinning. He brushed his thumb along the inside of her wrist, sending sweet chills up her spine. “Not at the moment. I’m totally available.”

He hadn’t lost his knack. After two decades, he could still make her flustered and confused.

 

Grab your copy of this sexy, sentimental romance at your favorite bookstore:

https://www.lisabetsarai.com/onceuponablizzardbook.html

And be sure to visit the other intrepid authors participating in today’s event.

May your days be merry and bright!