Officer Jude Strand has a high-risk, high-stress job, and while she loves Elliot, she knows that they live
in two different worlds. When she learns of a possible infidelity, she assumes that she’s lost him for
good. Then he shows up at her apartment, with a packed bag on the back of his motorcycle, and she can’t
resist one final weekend with him.
In the beautiful wine country of the Napa Valley, Elliot and Jude seek out the connection that they both
fear is lost, and in the process, find something much stronger than either expected.
EXCERPT
...A rich leather sofa dominated the room, but that didn’t distract from the huge flat-screen television
against the wall, painted a discreet robin's-egg blue. The rest of his walls were covered in bookshelves,
and she didn’t see a single title that could be described as light reading. His kitchen was modest, except
for the large fridge with the sheer glass doors. It only took a glance to see that he knew how to eat
right--even if he did occasionally indulge in Chinese take-out.
“Make yourself comfortable,” Elliot said, setting his bag down on the coffee table, “while I get the
chopsticks out of my secret stash.”
As he left her alone in the room, Jude slipped out of her jacket, then tossed it distractedly over the arm
of the couch as she walked along the edges of the room. Her head tilted to the side as she skimmed the book
spines, but nothing she found shed any further light on her host. The guy was either a serious reader or
had a complex where he needed people to think he was so well-read. She was going to bet on the former. Not
because he looked the type, but because he definitely didn’t seem to be lacking in the self-confidence
department.
She turned when he came back bearing plates and eating utensils. “You mean you don’t eat it straight out
of the box?” she teased. “Who taught you how to eat Chinese?”
“I used to date a woman from Hong Kong. She’d be horrified if she saw me eating this stuff.” He set
everything on the table. “But I love it anyway. Would you like something to drink?”
“Water’s good. Thanks. It’s a little warm in here.”
Elliot obediently fetched two bottles of water from the fridge. “If you’re interested in anything stronger
later, I have a decent bar.” Their fingers brushed as he handed her the water. “It does get warm up here.
My neighbor downstairs is always cold, even in August, God bless her.”
Jude smiled at him, trying to quell the sudden charge that had gone through her veins. “I’ll remember
that. The bar offer, I mean. Not the tidbit about your neighbor.”
Elliot grimaced. “No, you probably don’t need to remember that bit about Grace. That’s her name. Which is
another tidbit you probably don’t need.” He sat down and patted the cushion beside him. “I suppose you
didn’t need to know about my ex-girlfriend either.”
After a day of being on her feet, curling up on an overstuffed cushion on the floor sounded like heaven.
“That depends,” Jude said as she sat down. She leaned back against the couch, tucking her legs beneath her.
“Am I going to have worry about her being a psycho and boiling my pet rabbit because I deigned to borrow
your chopsticks?”
Elliot narrowed his eyes thoughtfully. “She did shout ‘I won’t be ignored’ at me one time. I don’t
remember why, though, I wasn’t really paying attention.”
“Which would explain why she’s an ex and not a current girlfriend,” she teased.
He nodded sagely. “I think you might be on to something there.”
If she thought it had been warm before, sitting so near to Elliot only worsened the effect. Jude reached
for her water, unscrewing the cap before tipping it to her lips, and drained several long swallows before
setting it back down on the table. “So what you’re telling me...” She picked up the nearest carton,
uncaring of what was inside. Having her hands busy seemed crucial at that moment. “...is that the trick to
spending time with you is to make sure you never get bored.”
Elliot dumped noodles on his plate and followed that with beef and broccoli. She noticed, though, that he
didn’t seem terribly interested in his food. “That is the trick,” he agreed, “though nobody has
managed it yet.”
Jude pulled out a spring roll and took a hefty bite, though it wasn’t until after she was chewing that she
realized she hadn’t actually ordered them. Her chewing slowed, and she looked up at him, holding out the
half-gone roll. “Oops,” she said, her mouth still full. “I think this is yours.”
Elliot made a show of looking through his bag. “So it is. And I was really looking forward to that spring
roll, too. May I?” Without waiting for an answer, he leaned over and closed his lips around the roll,
pulling it from her fingers.
It took every effort to swallow what was in her mouth. Her throat had gone dry at the flash she got of his
tongue, right before his lips skimmed across her fingertips. “Well, I’m definitely not bored yet,”
she murmured.
