COWBOY SEAL HOMECOMING SPOTLIGHT

Title: Cowboy SEAL Homecoming

Author: Nicole Helm

Series: Navy SEAL Cowboys, #1

Pub Date: January 2, 2017

Three former Navy SEALs

Injured in the line of duty

Desperate for a new beginning…

Searching for a place to call their own.

Alex Maguire never thought he'd go home again. The perfect soldier, the perfect leader, he's spent his whole life running away from Blue Valley, Montana—but when a tragic accident bounces him and two of his men out of the SEALs, there's nowhere left to turn but the ranch he used to call his own…and the confusing, innocently beguiling woman who now lives there.

Becca Denton's like nothing he could have imagined. She's far too tempting for her own good, but when she offers to help turn the ranch into a haven for injured veterans, he can't exactly say no. He'll just need to keep his distance. But something in her big green eyes makes Alex want to set aside the mantle of the perfect soldier and discover the man he could have been…safe and whole within the shelter of her arms.

The Prodigal SEAL has come home.

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NICOLE HELM writes down-to-earth contemporary romance specializing in people who don’t live close enough to neighbors for them to be a problem. When she’s not writing, she spends her time dreaming about someday owning a barn. She lives with her husband and two young sons in O’Fallon, Missouri.

Find Nicole Online:

Website: http://www.nicolehelm.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorNicoleHelm

Twitter: @NicoleTHelm

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5832703.Nicole_Helm

EXCERPT:

Alex remained frozen in place and Becca didn’t know how to let go of him. How to step away. Even when he’d ordered her not to kiss him, she didn’t know how to walk away.

Because he hadn’t answered her question. Not fully. If he’d only tell her that…that all he cared about was her well-being and safety. That this had nothing to do with the attraction she felt, then she would give this up. She would go back inside and sit with Mac and know that nothing with Alex was ever going to happen.

But he had to tell her. She needed to hear it from his lips to really be able to give it up.

He lifted the hand that had been hanging at his side and curled his long, blunt fingers around her elbow. He removed her arm from around him, but as he pulled her arm off and released her elbow, his fingers trailed—probably accidentally—down her forearm.

It jittered through her, like nerves and electrical shocks. Something swirling low in her stomach, sparks rioting in her chest.

His breath hitched, but his gaze didn’t meet hers as he pulled her other arm from around him.

“I don’t know what you’re trying to get at. I don’t know what other reason there could be.”

But he didn’t look at her, which was so weird. Alex always looked her in the eye.

“You’re lying.” Which she hadn’t meant to say out loud, but it was such a surprise to see it. To read him so well and so easily. “You’re really bad at it.”

His gaze finally met hers, and that she couldn’t read, whatever war was going on in his dark depths.

“Maybe you think I’m lying because that’s what you want.”

Which was true, but there was too much lining up to her way of thinking. He’d brought up not sleeping together this morning. Jack’s words—as drunken as they might have been—the whole not looking her in the eye and shuddering when they touched.

“Okay, that is what I want.”

She could tell she’d surprised him. That he’d expected her denial or maybe her to stutter and scamper away, but she wasn’t going to do that. “I’m attracted to you. Yup. Not going to deny it. You’re hot. You’re a good person—such a good guy, even when you’re annoying the piss out of me. I feel comfortable around you in a way I don’t with a whole heck of a lot of people. So, yeah, I’m not going to stand here and try to deny it, because I am not a coward—but you are.”

The shock written all over his face sharpened. “Excuse me?” he said, dangerously calm.

Clearly the word coward got under his skin. But that’s what he was being. Hiding behind lies and whatever else. It was cowardly. She should know. She was always a coward when it came to people.

Well, not anymore.

“I said you’re a coward,” she replied, giving a shrug she wished felt a little more nonchalant. “You won’t admit you feel exactly the same way. Because you’re afraid. Or is that for my protection too?”

He took a deep breath, clearly trying to find some calm, but his eyes were furious and his jaw was so tight it was a wonder it didn’t crack in half. Everything about him vibrated with anger, and she felt powerful.

Her. Becca Denton. She felt in charge and right. Not a doubt or a second of uncertainty.

“A coward, huh?” he finally muttered through gritted teeth, one of his hands flexing into a fist and then open again.

“Yes. A big ole fraidy-cat over the fact that you’ve got some feelings for your much younger step—” But before she could get the remaining words out of her mouth, he used the front of her shirt to jerk her against the hard wall of his much larger body. She was too shocked to jump back or fend it off, and even though nerves slammed through her, well, she liked being this close. Not just hugging close, but pressing close.

Then his mouth crushed against hers, hard and unrelenting, and whatever powerful feeling she’d had evaporated on the spot. Incinerated completely. She didn’t even have time to think about how she didn’t know how to do this. His hands were in her hair, her hair, tangling and moving her head whichever darn way he pleased.

She grabbed for purchase, a little afraid her knees were wobbly, holding on for dear life. Letting his lips and tongue lead hers, guide hers.

It was fire and it was shock and it was good. It was good to be hollowed out and feel as though she was filled with liquid gold. Shimmering and lazy. To be pressed up against nothing but hard muscle and skilled mouth and know not a thing could touch her here.

Not a thing but him.

“Christ, we can’t do this,” he muttered, but it was against her mouth, his arms banded around her so that whether they could or not, they certainly were.

She wanted to keep doing it. Experiencing it. Participate instead of just letting it happen and soak it up—which was good, oh it was good, but she wanted more.

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COLLISION COURSE SPOTLIGHT & GIVEAWAY

He's always had a way with the ladies

She won't give him the time of day

Sparks fly when two hearts in motion collide.

Florist Joey Reeves is working overtime to stay away from Lou Cortez, the ace mechanic with a reputation for irresistible charm. She's a single mom with enough on her plate—the last thing she needs is entanglement with the hottest guy in town…

"Well, hello there."

Joey glanced up and froze. The man who'd been haunting her sleep looked even better in the hard light of day.

"H-hello." She coughed. The guys who worked at Webster's Garage all looked larger than life, covered in tattoos, muscles, and that indefinable sense of danger they wore like a second skin. But this guy, the tall, Latin lover with dark-brown eyes and lips made for kissing, had ensnared her.

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EXCERPT

The sight of Lou’s pleasure made Joey feel good for having caused it…and gave her dirty thoughts. Totally inappropriate, rated-R kind of thoughts, which had no place in a coffee shop, for God’s sake. She really needed to get back out in the dating world if a smile got her so hot and bothered. She glanced back down at her latte.

Lou sipped his own drink, then answered, “Today I got to sketch an amazing hood for a sweet Corvette this car collector brought in for a job.”

“Huh?”

“I work at Webster’s Garage fixing cars. On the mechanics of them. But I work at Heller’s Paint and Auto Body doing custom artwork. You know, like custom paint jobs?”

“Really?” She studied him, wondering about him. “So you’re an artist.”

“Yep.”

“So if my car gets a ding and needs paint to cover it…”

“You hit Maaco. Or you go to Heller’s, and his body shop dudes fix you up. You want a bitchin’ barbarian queen on your VW van, you call me.” He grinned. “Although somehow I don’t see you driving an old van.”

“More like a crappy little Toyota, but hey, it runs.”

“So does mine.”

She nodded, oddly at ease talking with the man. She watched his face, saw his genuine interest in the conversation, and warmed. “You did the work on your car. The snake along the side that disappears in the back. That’s your drawing.”

“Yeah.”

“It’s amazing. Were you always into art?”

Lou shrugged. “I was kind of forced into it.” He nudged her pastry. “You going to eat that or pull it apart?”

She took a bite, chewed, and asked, “What can you draw? Anything? Or just snakes and skeletons and half-naked barbarian queens?” As soon as she said it, she heard herself sounding so flirty she wanted to bury her head under the table.

Lou laughed. “That’s what my mother thinks I do. Draw naked people all day. I did it once when I was in high school, and she never let me forget it.”

Joey smiled. “Caught you, huh?”

“Yeah. But that was okay because if I was at home drawing late into the night, I wasn’t out robbing a liquor store or rolling some rich jerks for money.” At her look of shock, he sighed. “What can I say? I grew up under the influence of some not-so-nice people. A few smaller-scale gangs. I was a  rebellious kid living in a houseful of women, so you can see why I wanted some guys to hang out with. Fortunately, my mother doesn’t play.”

She stared, wide-eyed.

“A short stint in corrections when I was ten helped change my mind-set. Well, that and  my mother slapping me upside the head, sticking me on babysitting duty for my younger sisters, then having my aunts sit on me. I had nowhere to go but crazy. So when she offered to let me try art lessons to get away from all the women in the house, I went. Turned out I had a knack for drawing, and it stuck.”

“I’ll say.” His car was amazing.

“Enough about me. What about you? Have you always wanted to work with flowers? That’s a pretty creative profession.”

Surprisingly pleased to have something in common with the man, she nodded. “I always liked creating things, and I love the outdoors. Gardening especially. When I was younger, my parents kept pushing me to be a doctor, a lawyer, an engineer.” She sighed, aware she’d fallen way below the mark in their estimation. “But I ended up falling into the flower shop right out of high school. I needed a job, wasn’t ready for college.” Not with a baby in hand. She didn’t plan  to mention Brandon to Lou, mostly because she didn’t share her boy with strangers. Even good-looking ones. Her baby never got to know her dates, rare though they were. Not unless she planned to get serious, and it had been eight long years since she’d considered a real relationship with anyone other than her son.

“Well, you’re great at it, I have to say.” Lou nodded. “My sister’s eyes about fell out of her head. She forgot all about the asswipe who dumped her. Thanks for that.”

She blushed. “Sure. I love flowers. They’re bright and cheerful.”

“And dead. Sorry, but I had to point that out.”

She frowned. “Yeah, but even in death they bring joy.”

“Good point. Open your mouth.”

She parted her lips to ask why and got a bite of bear claw for her trouble. Her lips brushed his finger, and her heart seemed to stop. The sugar in her mouth broke her paralysis, and she chewed for all she was worth.

“Eat. It’s killing me you’re not enjoying this.” He broke a piece off and tried it, feeding himself with the same fingers that fed her. “Oh man. This is good.”

She swallowed before saying, “I know. Why do you think I get one whenever I come in here?”

“You come here a lot?”

“When I was helping Del with her wedding, I went to the garage a few times. This was a great place to get my morning coffee.”

“A caffeine addict, huh? Me too.” He nodded. “I typically stay away from the sweets though.” He eased out of his jacket, and she nearly choked on her drink.

She stared at his conditioned torso, seeing the volume of muscle. “I can tell.” Good God. The man was seriously ripped. He leaned to drape the jacket fully over the chairback, and she noted the hint of a tattoo on his left arm, just under the T-shirt.

“Eat up.” He held another bite out to her, but this time she took it from his fingers, not wanting them near her lips. The last time had nearly shot her into cardiac arrest, and it felt way too intimate for a first just-getting-to-know-you kind of date.

They chewed, watching each other. For the life of her, Joey didn’t understand why Lou had such an impact on her, a woman who’d sworn off men. A guy like him, so much bigger than life, handsome, and, yes, charming, was after her? A pretty but not spectacular woman who worked in a flower store?

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