We are thrilled to be sharing the release of SUDDENLY MINE by New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Samantha Chase with you today! It's the perfect beach reach to keep you warm this winter - be sure to grab your copy of SUDDENLY MINE today!
SUDDENLY MINE
Author: Samantha Chase
Series: Montgomery Brothers #9
Release Date: January 29, 2019
About the Book
Love is a sanctuary
Christian Montgomery is burnt out—the family business might be his entire world, but his father's judgment means Christian never stops working. His only respite is gazing at the beach and the carefree surfers riding the waves...especially the curvy redhead who's caught his attention.
Sophia Bennington has just fled from her small Kansas town to California, where she's trying her best to embrace her new beginning. Soon Christian and Sophia find one another, and it feels like sanctuary. But when their difficult pasts catch up to them, will they run away from each other?
Get your copy of SUDDENLY MINE today!
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Read an excerpt from SUDDENLY MINE
“I hate jogging.”
Christian came to a halt on the
sand and turned to see Sophie bent at the waist, breathing hard. She waved him
on as she shook her head, her long ponytail swinging from side to side.
“Um…what?”
Angling her head, she glared at
him. “I hate this. The jogging. It’s totally not my thing.” Then she let out a
loud breath. “There. I said it.”
When he was beside her, he
crouched to get eye-level with her. “If you wanted to stop, you just had to say
so. I know I picked up the pace there, but you shouldn’t feel like you have to
keep up.”
She shoved him and he fell back
on his ass, and couldn’t help but laugh. When she went to straighten, he
grabbed her hand and tugged her on the sand beside him. “Christian!” she cried.
“Dammit, now there’s going to be sand everywhere.”
“It’s a beach. Of course
there’s sand everywhere.”
“Seriously?” she deadpanned. “I
meant on my clothes.”
“Ah. Gotcha,” he said. “So
what’s going on?”
She grimaced as she tried to
get comfortable. “I’m not a runner. I thought I could be, but I can’t.”
“Oh. Okay.” He paused. “Then
why did you keep agreeing to come with me?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. I
thought I wasn’t giving it a fair shot. My surfing isn’t improving, so I
thought maybe this would be something different to try. Turns out, I hate it.”
“Hate’s a bit of a strong
word,” he countered. “I mean maybe—”
“No. Trust me. I hate it.”
Message received. If her words
weren’t strong enough, the vehemence behind them and the scowl on her face
were.
“O-kay,” he responded slowly.
“So do you want to head back to the house?”
“Only if we can walk,” she
said, coming to her feet. Without looking at him, Sophie began walking away.
Christian quickly scrambled to his feet and went after her, grasping her
shoulder and forcing her to face him.
“Hey. What’s going on? Are you
mad at me?”
Her shoulders sagged and her
brows furrowed. “No. Why would you even ask that?”
“Soph, you got up and started
walking away, what was I supposed to think?”
“Maybe that I was heading back
to your house?”
As much as he wanted to take
her at her word, something was up. Her tone and her stance were both defensive,
and if there was one thing he was learning about Sophie, it was that she rarely
acted this way. She was always smiling and encouraging. When she went to move
out of his grasp, Christian held firm. When she tugged a second time, she
growled with frustration.
“What?” she cried. “What is
your problem?”
“My problem?” he parroted,
loudly. “Sweetheart, that’s a question for you. You can’t possibly be this
upset over jogging.”
“Who says I’m upset?” she
asked, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
Christian leaned in until they
were almost nose-to-nose. “You’re acting awful dodgy, Soph.”
“Dodgy? You’re calling me
dodgy?” she asked incredulously and then pulled back. “Wait. What’s dodgy?”
He laughed. “Sorry, love. Every
once in a while, some lingo I picked up while I lived in London slips out. I
have no idea why.”
“Are you insulting me?”
His eyes went wide. “You know
what, you are acting dodgy. Which—for the record—means you’re acting
suspiciously. Now, I don’t know about you, but I can stand out here all night
and wait you out. I’ve got nothing else to do, since we’re not jogging. So you
can either spill it and tell me what’s got you all twisted up or we can stand
here until the tide comes in. Your choice.”
And for a minute, he thought
she was going to opt to wait for the tide to come in. Thankfully, she started
to speak.
“Fine. I—” She stopped and
sighed. “I hated having to confess about jogging.”
Seriously? That was it?
“Back home, I never would have
said anything. I would have just kept doing it and hating every second of it.
Since I moved, I made the decision not to do that anymore. After all, there’s
no reason for me to do things I don’t like, right?”
“Well, no but—”
“I believe in honesty,” she
went on, as if Christian hadn’t said a word. “And I expect it in return.”
“O-kay.”
When she looked up at him, her
green eyes were wide and sad. “Why are you here, Christian?”
Not sure where this was going,
he replied, “Because we said we were going jogging.”
Shaking her head, Sophie
reworded her question. “I mean, why are you here with me?”
Now he was confused. “Same
answer. I don’t understand where—”
“Gah!” she cried and pulled out
of his grasp. She paced a few feet away and returned. “You’re out here jogging
because your doctor encouraged you to get out and get some exercise, right?”
He nodded.
“And you’re out here because
you left work at a reasonable hour and this was a way to pass the time, right?”
He nodded again.
If anything, her expression
grew even sadder. “You don’t need me to jog with you, Christian. I’m sure you
have other friends you could have called to do this with you if you really
didn’t want to run alone.”
His mouth opened and closed,
because he didn’t have a clue how to respond to it. He did have friends—not a
lot, but there were certainly guys he could call to go for a run with him. But
if truth be told, he didn’t want to run with them. He enjoyed the time he and
Sophie spent together, and he’d been hoping that the more time they spent
around each other, the more she’d see that they could be more than friends.
So far, that hadn’t happened.
Now it sounded as if she wasn’t
even interested in being his friend.
So he had to speak up, and hopefully
wipe that sad look off her face.
“Look, I could call a buddy or
two to jog with me, but I’ve enjoyed spending time with you. I thought you felt
the same way. But if I read something that wasn’t there—if you were only being
nice because of the whole anxiety attack thing—then…you should know that you’re
not obligated to be here. And there’s certainly no pressure for us to be
friends.”
“Christian…”
“I’m sorry if I’m monopolizing
your time,” he said quietly. “I’m sorry if I made you feel like turning down my
offer of friendship wasn’t an option. That was never my intention.”
“Now I’m confused,” she said.
Sinking both of his hands into
his hair and tugging with frustration, he went on. “I don’t want to be a
charity case, Sophie. Clearly, it’s been far too long since I’ve tried to be
friends with a woman and I suck at it. I thought it was what you wanted and—”
“It is!”
He shook his head. “No. It’s
really not. The look on your face says otherwise.” With a weary sigh, Christian
turned and started toward his house. “I should’ve just kept my damn distance.
This is why I work so much—because dealing with relationships on any level is
awkward as hell.”
Sophie fell in step beside
him—almost jogging to keep up with his much longer stride. “Okay, I think we’re
having two different conversations, because I never said I didn’t want to be
friends. I just don’t want to jog.”
Snorting with disbelief, he
kept walking.
“For the love of it,” she
snapped, grabbing his arm. “Will you slow down? I already told you I hate
jogging and you’re making me jog to keep up!”
When he stopped abruptly, they
collided. Christian reached out to steady her before she fell over and then
instantly released her. Touching Sophie was so not what he needed right now. He
looked at her expectantly, although the last thing he wanted was to hear her
make excuses for why he’d misread the situation.
Don't miss the other books in the Montgomery series!
About the Author
Samantha Chase is a New York Times and USA Today bestseller of contemporary romance. She released her debut novel in 2011 and currently has more than forty titles under her belt! When she’s not working on a new story, she spends her time reading romances, playing way too many games of Scrabble or Solitaire on Facebook, wearing a tiara while playing with her sassy pug Maylene…oh, and spending time with her husband of 25 years and their two sons in North Carolina.
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