Sunday Smooch with Amy Andrews

Welcome to another LoveCats DownUnder Sunday Smooch!

Today we have a smooch from  Amy Andrews but first 


... the winner of last week's Sunday Smooch Giveaway is Devika Fernando....


Can you please contact mail (at) helenlacey (dot) com to receive your signed copy of Three Reasons to Wed


And now for today's Sunday Smooch from Some Girls Lie....

Local pub owner Jemima Jane Ericson is living a lie. She’s been in love with her best friend Ethan since forever. But he fell in love with another woman, married her, and despite their tempestuous relationship and decade old divorce, JJ knows Ethan’s heart is still down for the count. And friendship is better than nothing, right?

Single dad and Jumbuck Springs chief of police, Ethan Weston, hits the pub the night his ex-wife remarries and announces she wants custody of their daughter. When he wakes the next morning to find himself in JJ’s bed he’s mortified that they’d crossed a line they should never have crossed. Until JJ’s abusive ex, Shane, shows up at her door and Ethan claims he and JJ are engaged to protect her.

Both are stunned by the unravelling of their normally sane lives but suddenly it makes sense – JJ gets a deterrent and Ethan gets the respectability of a wife for any custody claims. But when JJ’s life is threatened, Ethan is forced to confront feelings that may just run much deeper than convenience…

Scene set-up

JJ has put her drunken best-friend and secret crush to bed in her apartment over the pub she runs to sleep it off. Later in the evening she goes up to check on him. Unfortunately for her, Ethan gets a little flirty after he's downed half a bottle of booze and he no longer sees his best friend through his whiskey goggles - just the desirable woman she really is.

“Ethan!” she hissed and gave his leg a good hard shove.

“Wha—?” He woke with a start, half raising himself up on his elbows as he peered at her like he was trying to ascertain what language she was speaking. When he realised it was English he smiled at her and fell back against the couch.

“JJ,” he muttered. “Has anybody ever told you, you’re a goddess?”

She rolled her eyes, ignoring the drunken compliment. “Drink,” she said holding the glass in front of his face. “Two glasses. And,” she held out her hand, “two tablets.”

His eyes fluttered closed. “I’m fine,” he murmured.

JJ gave him another sharp dig with her kneecap. “Drink.”

Ethan grumbled as he hauled himself into a semi-upright position, supporting his weight on his elbow, but he took the proffered glass and drank it down, swallowing the tablets also.

“I’m good,” he said as she pushed the second glass towards him.

JJ didn’t blink as she stubbornly held the glass where it was. “How many times have I heard you lecturing the kids at the high school before they go off for schoolies week about hydrating properly after a big night on the booze? How ‘bout practising what you preach?”

It was Ethan’s turn to roll his eyes. “I should have known that was going to come back to bite me on the ass,” he said as he reached for the glass and downed it in five long swallows. “Satisfied?” he griped as he pushed the empty glass against her belly.

JJ’s stomach muscles contracted at the brief contact and she suppressed the urge to say hell no, a little lower please.

“Thank you,” she said as she took it from his fingers. Ethan fell back against the couch, shutting his eyes. “I have to get back to the pub. You going to be alright here?”

His eyes fluttered open and JJ found herself falling into the dark abyss, wishing she could be the oil on his troubled waters. Their gazes locked and for a moment she fancied that some of the angst in his eyes dissipated.

He reached for her hand lying loosely by her side and she let him take it. Let him toy with her fingers for a bit, run his thumb back and forth over her ring finger, bare now of the wedding band that had only sat there for one lousy year a full decade ago. 

“Why didn’t I fall for someone like you?” he asked, his gaze shifting from her hand to her face and the seriousness there trapped her breath in her lungs.

JJ shrugged with as much nonchalance as she could muster. “Not blonde enough?”

He laughed and it reached out and wrapped around her in a cloud of pheromones and possibility. She sucked in a breath, feeling momentarily disorientated, only to have Ethan compound it more by tugging on her hand, bringing her sprawling on top of him.

The softness of her chest hit the hardness of his and she let out a guttural oomph as the trapped air escaped. Their noses bumped together. Her hands landed on the arm of the couch bracketing his head, her knee jammed up close and personal to his crotch. Her crotch balanced on the hard ridge of his thigh like she was riding the slippery log at a carnival.

“Ethan,” she protested, trying to push herself up and away from the temptation of whisky and liquorice that was dazzling her senses.

But his hands clamped down on her ass causing a delicious friction, as the seam of her jeans taunted the aching flesh between her legs. She closed her eyes, fighting the urge to rub herself against him shamelessly.

“Sorry,” he muttered, not looking one iota contrite. “I just love how you make me laugh,” he said and while she was wrapping her head around the L word he lifted his, smacking his mouth onto hers.

JJ felt the pull deep and low in a flash as her senses filled with overproof alcohol and oversexed Ethan. Even three sheets to the wind, Ethan kissed like no man she had ever known. Hard and hungry and sure and, for the briefest of moments, JJ allowed herself to lean into it, to savour his taste and the feel of his mouth and the rush of desire that tingled on her tongue.

And for two ticks she wished she were the kind of woman who could just throw caution to the wind. Who could conveniently forget that Ethan was under the influence—and his heart belonged to Delia—and just kiss him back.

Rock her parted thighs against his full hard one.

Reach down for his zipper.

Finally know what it felt like to have him sliding into her, hard and hot and ready.

But she wasn’t.

And she’d survived several of his drunken come-ons in the past—she would survive this one too.

“No … stop,” she muttered, dragging her mouth off his, pushing against him, scrambling to her feet, pulling in oxygen at a frantic pace, while her lungs screamed for more. 

“Hey,” he protested with another of his goofy grins. “I was enjoying that.”

JJ felt the casual remark hit her like a barb to the chest. He was enjoying himself. She was declaring herself.

The difference was striking.

“I’m sure you’ll live,” she said dryly, her pulse still skipping madly inside her ribcage. “I have to get back to the patrons.”

And she turned away instantly before her libido — getting antsier by the day during what was shaping up as the longest dry spell of her life — could talk her pride off the high ground.

Despite being determined to not look back she turned for one last glance as she opened the door. 

He was already fast asleep.

I hope you enjoyed this smooch! For a chance to win a digital copy (must have an Amazon account) leave me an answer to this question in the comments - ever done something you regretted under the influence of a little too much booze? I know I have! Please tell me I'm not the only one....

Come back next Sunday, when the winner of today's giveaway will be announced and a smooch from Louise Cusack will be posted!

Smooch Graphic by WebWeaver