Candace Shaw’s MY KIND OF GIRL

I’m so pleased to have bestselling author and fellow Georgia peach Candace Shaw on the blog today! She has a sale going on and a fabulous excerpt to share with us! Take it away, Candace and thank you for being on deck! 🙂

 

Book Spotlight from Candace Shaw

Thank you so much for letting me stop by to share an excerpt from my latest release, My Kind of Girl. It’s the 5th book in my contemporary romance series, the Arrrington Family. Enjoy!

Blurb

Dr. Sean Arrington loves his family, patients, and the ladies. With no interest in settling down with one woman, he dates women—who like him—just want to have fun with no commitment and no strings attached—unless they like being tied up. Literally. However, when he lands his eyes on the cute-dimpled, quirky botanist Traci Reed, something tugs at his heart and he figures rules can be broken.

Traci has been infatuated with the rivetingly handsome bad boy since his mother showed her Sean’s picture a few years ago. When he asks her to design the gardens in his backyard, Traci can’t refuse. After they share a heated first kiss, she can’t believe Sean actually has feelings for her. She’s drawn to his smooth charisma and intellect; however, she’s cautious for she knows he prefers his bachelor lifestyle. Can Sean prove to Traci she’s his kind of girl after all?

 

EXCERPT

Following the directions of his car’s navigation system, Sean made it to the Memphis Nursery on time. He shook off his tie—tossing it in the passenger seat—and unfastened the top two buttons of his dress shirt. He’d noticed the day before that Traci drove a lime green Volkswagen Bug. Odd car in his opinion, but then again it sort of went with her quirky personality. He glanced in the rearview mirror and spotted a flash of lime green pull into the lot and park next to his Porsche. She waved and fiddled around with her cell phone while he hurried out of the car and made his way to her driver’s door. After opening it, she glanced up at him with a weak smile and back to her cell phone screen which had a series of text messages he couldn’t make out. She shut it off and grabbed her purse from the passenger’s seat.

“Hi,” she said softly, placing her tennis shoe clad feet on the pavement.

Taking her hand, he helped her out and closed the car door. She was dressed casually in jeans and a yellow T-shirt that pulled against her cleavage. He was suddenly aroused, but remembered she wasn’t happy about something.

“Hey. Everything all right?”

“Yeah … just some family stuff. Ready to go flower shopping?” she asked in a more upbeat tone.

“Lead the way.”

For the next thirty minutes, they browsed a variety of flowers and plants for his tranquility hummingbird garden she was creating in the right corner of the yard. Traci informed him that a landscape company would arrive the next day to pull up the grass. The day after, another company would lay the pavers for the walking trails, along with a patio for the pergola and fire pit area.

“So if all goes well this week, I’ll be able to begin planting the hummingbird garden on Friday around two o’clock,” she said, glancing over the work order for the flowers that were scheduled for pick up on Friday.

“All these plants can’t fit in your little beetle.”

She stooped down to look at the leaves of a ground cover plant he’d noticed was also in his mother’s garden but couldn’t remember the name.

“I have a truck with a trailer. I do it all the time.” She stood and they continued walking along the trail of plants.

“Cool, and I’ll be home by that time to help you unload and plant. I only do half days on Fridays unless it’s an emergency.”

“Thank you. It shouldn’t take too long. I’m sure we’ll be done in time so you can hit the streets on Friday night.

“I don’t have any plans for this weekend.”

“Mmm … I’m sure someone will pop up.” Traci winked and sat on a bench in the middle of a slew of potted crepe myrtles.

Sitting next to her, he stretched out his long legs. “I hope not. What you saw yesterday was actually out of the norm. My pet peeve is people showing up unannounced. That’s one of the reasons I told her to leave.” And the other is since I’ve met you, I’ve only wanted you. Wait. What? Did I say that out loud? Realizing he hadn’t, he exhaled in his head.

Traci giggled. “Well, Ms. Thang was heated strutting down your sidewalk quite fiercely to her Range Rover.”

“She’ll be fine. She’s in New York and then off to Paris and Milan for the next four to six months. She’s not thinking about me nor am I thinking of her. Not that kind of relationship.”

“Of course. I’m sure you have other women to take her place while she’s gone.”

“Contrary to what you may think, I don’t have a bunch of women lined up waiting. I go through dry spells like every other single person.”

“You just prefer to stay single.”

“Yes. And you? How’s your dating life?”

She pondered for a minute. “I guess you could say a dry spell at the moment. It’s the beginning of April, and I haven’t had an actual date since January.”

“What happened?”

“Nothing. No sparks. Nice guy, but not my type.”

Her cell phone vibrated in her purse. Letting out a frustrated sigh, she checked the caller ID and smacked her lips as she tossed the phone back into her purse as it continued to vibrate.

“Family issues again?”

She stood and motioned for him to join her as she looked at the potted crepe myrtles.

“Yep.”

“Care to discuss? I’m a really good listener … or so I’ve been told.”

“I’m sure you are for a couple of hundred bucks or more an hour, but there’s nothing to discuss.” She turned toward him, sliding her hands into the back pockets of her jeans. “I’ll deal with it like I always do.”

“How? By working all day at the gardens even on your off days, and then moonlighting by designing gardens for residential homes?”

“If that’s what you want to believe, go ahead. Now what color trees would you like? Crepes come in purple, pink, white or red.”

“I like the deep purple ones, and if you want to avoid the question, I understand,” he said sincerely, placing his hand on her cheek. “I just hated the crumbled look on your face when you arrived and again when your phone rang. I love seeing your dimples.”

Traci trembled when he placed his hand on her face, and her chest rose and fell a few times as she breathed out. He found himself in her personal space and the urge to taste her pouty lips ran rampant through him. He’d never wanted to mix business with pleasure, but she was so close and the homemade rose oil she wore engulfed his senses. The puzzlement in her eyes as she stared up at him needed to be answered, so he had no choice but to lower his lips and pray she didn’t push him away.

Buy Links

Amazon: http://amzn.to/1xycO0V

Barnes and Noble: http://bit.ly/1K1xsgr

iBooks/iTunes: http://tinyurl.com/kmr67nt

Kobo: http://bit.ly/1C04h7W

Smashwords: http://bit.ly/14ciQux

About Candace

Candace Shaw was born and raised under the sunny skies of northwest Florida and knew she wanted to become a writer after reading Little Women in fourth grade. After graduating from the University of West Florida with a degree in elementary education, Candace began teaching and put her dream of becoming a writer on hold until one summer vacation she started writing again and hasn’t stopped.

When Candace is not writing or researching for a book, she’s reading, shopping, learning how to cook a new dish or spending time with her loving husband and their loyal, overprotective Weimaraner, Ali. Candace is currently working on her next fun, flirty and sexy romance novel.

You can contact Candace by emailing her at Candace.Shaw@aol.com or chat with her on Facebook or Twitter.

 

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