Crushed by Deborah Coonts

Author:Deborah Coonts [Coonts, Deborah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780996571289
Publisher: Chestnut Street Press

Nico had organized the men, leaving Billy to stand guard at the back while he took a position in the front room, in Sophia’s reading chair by the bay window, her shotgun across his knees. Specter had surprised him with his end-run around not only the unwritten rules of business but the legalities as well. Underestimating his opponent was a great way to be left out in the cold without any clothes. Nico had done that once before. He wouldn’t make that mistake twice.

Curiously, even with amazing grapes and brilliant wine, all he could think about was Sophia asleep upstairs. It had taken all of his powers of persuasion and self-control to convince her to get some rest and then to watch her climb the stairs and turn to wave wearily from the landing.

He leaned his head back and closed his eyes. He swore, years ago, no more women other than the occasional gratuitous, no-strings-attached kind. He’d stuck to his deal, but now, with just a couple of times in her presence, he was ready to throw caution out the window and his heart into the fray.

Women. They always wanted something, and he could never figure out what it was. Except Sophia. Guileless, upfront, she seemed capable, yet unsure … perhaps even a little afraid. He wasn’t quite sure of what. She’d been hurt badly by the loss of her husband; that part was easy to figure out. But the wine part, the grape part, less so. She had that dream in the palm of her hand, right there, ready for the picking … literally. Why couldn’t she see it?

The combination of maturity and the calm that comes with it, tempered with a need to hang onto dreams, her kindness, defined by her ability to draw a line and not let anyone step over… and then be so surprised at her ability to enforce those boundaries—the curious combination that was Sophia Stone had him turned in circles.

And, he liked it. She made him feel alive in a way he thought had died years ago.

But the grapes and the wine presented complications, complications he had no idea how to navigate. He’d lost at precisely that game before. Caught in the vise of work and reputation, responsibility and confidence, life tugged him in conflicting directions. Sophia’s grapes, their wine could solve a lot of his problems and give him what he so desperately needed. And there was Sophia. No matter what he did, how hard he tried, the mere sight of her cracked the shell around his heart and reminded him what feeling and connection really did for one’s soul.

No doubt about it, he had some difficult choices to make.

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