Shannon stopped breathing, moving, thinking â¦
His lips. Her lips. Together. Kissing. Oh.
Thinking would come later. Now was for goosebumps and heat. Sheâd wanted this so much ⦠it was definitely in the cards.
Nateâs breath on her lips and her chin, the sudden loss, made her open her eyes.
His right hand floated near her face before his fingertips brushed the path of her blush up her cheek to her temple. âYouâre so beautiful,â he said, then winced slightly. âMore than beautiful. How did that happen? When?â
âYou went away.â
âAnd you became a gorgeous woman.â
She doubted she could blush harder. âYou came back better, too.â
âOlder, at least.â His fingers moved into her hair, carefully, slowly. âHopefully wiser.â
âDefinitely better,â she said, momentarily panicked that wiser meant he knew they shouldnât be doing this.
âI donât want to stop.â
She stepped closer to him, letting more of her body press against his.
âNo oneâs asking you to â¦â
JO LEIGH is from Los Angeles and always thought sheâd end up living in Manhattan. So how did she end up in Utah, in a tiny town with a terrible internet connection, being bossed around by a house full of rescued cats and dogs? What the heck, she says, predictability is boring. Jo has written more than forty novels and can be contacted at [email protected].
Dear Reader,
Welcome to the final story in the ITâS TRADING MEN! trilogy. Writing these three books (Choose Me, Have Me and now Want Me) has been fun! Iâve fallen in love with Charlie, Jake and Nate, and want to be like Bree, Rebecca and Shannon.
Shannon came up with the brilliant notion of using trading cards to trade men. Youâd think she would have been the first to find her Mr Right. Wrong!
Fiery redhead Shannon Fitzgerald has more than the St Marks lunch exchange on her mind. Sheâs doing everything in her power to keep her familyâs business running, sheâs co-ordinating a huge Easter fundraiser, and sheâs giving up hope that sheâll ever find true love. When she runs into long-time family friend Nate Brenner at a wedding, she immediately sees his potential as a trading card hottie.
The last thing either Shannon or Nate imagines is for sparks to fly between them. Especially since Nate is sharing Shannonâs house ⦠in the bedroom next door! When sparks turn into a passionate flame, both of their lives are changed forever ⦠especially when the trading cards for trading men become a national scandal, with Nate and Shannon in the heart of the storm!
As always, I can be reached at [email protected], and hearing from readers is the best thing ever!
Love to you all,
Jo Leigh
As always, I owe so many thanks to Debbi and Birgit for being true partners in this crazy writing endeavor.
THE WEDDING WAS IN FULL swing, âThe Irish Roverâ was in heavy rotation by the band, beer was flowing and the hundred and fifty friends and family of Theresa OâBrian-Moran were halfway to hangovers.
Shannon Fitzgerald had found a relatively quiet corner. It had taken Shannon the better part of the evening to convince herself to approach her second cousin about joining the small and exclusive St. Marks lunch exchange. But Ariel was perfect, really. At twenty-four, she was three years younger than Shannon, lived in Nolita, worked in Midtown and was still single, as was Shannon. Arial was also very pretty and had attracted a group of red-faced, very happy young men wanting to dance.
Shannon had pulled in her share of slightly older young men, mostly in the twenty-eight-to-thirty-five range, although Angus was hovering and heâd just turned eighty-three. It was like being caught in a swarm of bees. Shannon and Ariel kept swatting them away, but they just circled over to the bar, then came back.
âTrading cards?â Ariel asked, leaning in so sheâd be heard above the fiddles and tin whistle of the band and the tipsy pleading of brokenhearted boys. âI thought it was a lunch exchange.â
Shannon nodded. âItâs both. If you want to do the food part, you bring in frozen lunches for fourteen, then you take home your own fourteen lunches. It saves a ton of money and gives you variety, but the important thing is the trading cards. All of us have friends or exes or coworkers who are eligible single men.â
She pushed her cousin Riley a full armâs length away without giving him a glance. His breath. God. âNice men,â Shannon continued. âMen weâd want our best friend to go out with.â
Ariel nodded slowly, fussing a little with the bodice of her pink dress, then her eyes lit up. âDavid Sainsbury at my office. Heâs off-limits to me, but heâs extremely nice and he just broke up with his girlfriend. Heâd be a real catch. Heâs always nice to the temps, and he gets coffee for his assistant every time he gets a cup for himself. Heâs funny, too.â
âThere you go,â Shannon said, tickled about the addition of David, who sounded like someone she might be interested in.