Title: IT’S WITCH O’CLOCK SOMEWHERE (Romantic Hauntings book 3)
Author: Peggy Jaeger
Genre: PNR, later in life romance, small town romance, reunited first loves, witches,
Book Blurb:
Twenty years ago, Barstone bad-boy Declan Wolffe, rode out of town on his motorcycle leaving the town that looked down on his family, and the only girl he’d ever loved, in his rearview mirror.
But now he’s back. Rich, successful, and determined, he’s got plans for the town. And for the girl he left behind.
Gigi Gordon has made a successful life for herself in Barstone as a real estate agent. No one but those closest to her knows she’s a 10th-generation witch and she wants to keep it that way. Her life is disrupted, though, when the boy who stole her heart rides back into town with a plan to shake things up.
Declan may have plans, but Gigi has a few of her own. The biggest one? Protecting her heart.
Excerpt:
She stood, immobile as she watched the figure try to peer through the glass as he pressed the doorbell again.
“I can see you, you know,” Declan said through the door, a hint of humor in his deep voice.
Gigi rooted herself to the parquet floor. If pressed, she’d swear she wasn’t even breathing. Hopefully, he’d get sick of waiting and leave if she continued to stand still.
Apparently, he wasn’t going to accommodate her. “Come on, Genny. Open the door. I won’t bite. Not unless you want me to.”
“Don’t call me that,” she spat, then bit down on her bottom lip, pissed with herself she’d been provoked into speaking.
“I’ll call you whatever you want,” Dec said with a sigh. “But I’d like to do it in person and not through a wooden partition. Come on, babe. Open the door.”
She hated the endearment as much as being called Genny. Gigi was the most stubborn person she knew, a characteristic she admired in herself. Not so much in others.
Back in the day, Declan Wolffe had matched her obstinate personality measure for measure, persistent and unwavering in everything as equally as she’d been. And back then, when she’d thought him the end-all-be-all of her existence, she’d been challenged and charmed by his tenacity.
Time changes everything, she thought, with a heavy heart.
Shaking her head, she uprooted from the floor and threw open the door.
“Okay. Door’s open. Say what you want to say, then go.” She waved a hand in his face. “I’m about to eat dinner.”
His eyes widened a hair. “Good timing. I’m starving myself since I left my house before dawn to get to the meeting on time.”
Before she realized his intent, Declan shot passed her and into the house.
“Hey!” She slammed the door and trekked after him. “I didn’t invite you in.”
“You would have,” he said over his shoulder as he shrugged out of his jacket in the kitchen. “Good manners and hospitality were ground into you by your grandmother.”
While true, it didn’t negate his rudeness.
She watched as he tossed his jacket across the back of a kitchen chair and then opened the refrigerator as if he did it every day of his life.
Which, back when they were teens, he had done since there was never enough food in his own home.
“Got any soda?”
“I don’t drink soda.”
“Not even diet?”
She shook her head. “Sorry. If you want something to drink please feel free to leave, go get something, and then drink yourself silly wherever it is that you’re staying.”
He leaned back against the closed fridge door and crossed his arms over his chest.
Hating herself because of it, she couldn’t help but be impressed at how well he’d filled out in the past two decades. Always tall as a boy, he’d been lanky even though the muscles in his arms were developed from hard work and physical labor. Now, the man who stood before her had grown into his body – nicely, she was furious to admit – and had come to fruition in all the best ways. Broad shoulders tapered into long and still muscular arms. At least she surmised they were based on the way the shirt fit and outlined all that bulk. Trim waist and flat belly, his hips dropped down into those tall legs, the thighs bulky against the velvety-soft-looking jeans.
Memories of being held prisoner within those arms and settled betwixt those thighs flooded through her. Her knees softened, threatening to give out and drop her to the floor when she recalled the feel of his hands on her skin; the way she’d melted whenever his fingers touched her. With a silent plea for strength, she shoved the memories back down.
“I’ll settle for water, then. Bottled if you have it,” he said.
“You’ll settle for tap if you’re so thirsty because in this house we respect and honor the planet and don’t pollute it with frivolous and wasteful plastic.”
The left corner of his mouth twitched upward.
Her female organs shuddered with longing.
Stupid organs.
“Tap is fine,” he said.
She was about to tell him he knew where the glasses were kept when he turned around and stretched a hand into the cabinet housing them.
How unfair was it the back view of him was as gorgeous as the front? Reaching upward, the seat of his jeans tugged over an ass Gigi had vivid memories of fondling as his body stretched over hers and settled between her opened thighs.
Her nipples tightened and contracted under her shirt.
Stop! Just…stop.
It was times such as this she wished she practiced black magic instead of white so she could cast a spell over him and make him unattractive, unappealing, and any other un she could summon forth.
“You were making grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner?” he asked as he filled his glass and glanced over at the stove.
“Sandwich. As in singular,” she said, hoping he’d get her none-too-subtle hint. In case he didn’t she added, “For me. Alone.”
That damn lip curl. Why in Hecate’s name was it so deadly to all her well-honed barriers and defenses?
“I love grilled cheese sandwiches. Practically lived on them when I first left town.”
A reminder of him zooming away on his motorcycle had her blood boiling again.
Buy Links (including Goodreads and BookBub):
It’s a brand-new year, full of possibilities. Did you make any resolutions/goals for 2023? If so, please share one.
To write between 2,000 and 3,000 words at least 5 times a week. I have 10 book son he docket for 2023 and need to get them written.
Why is your featured book a must-read in 2023?
Reading a reunited first lovers romance seems like a great way to ring in the new year!!! What’s old is new again, and you’re starting off the year with a clean slate. At least, that’s how Declan Wolffe hopes Gigi will view their past relationship so he can have a future one with her.
Giveaway –
One lucky reader will win a $75 Amazon US or Canada gift card
Open internationally. You must have a valid Amazon US or Amazon CA account to win.
Runs January 1 – 31, 2023.
Drawing will be held on February 1, 2023.
Author Biography:
Peggy Jaeger writes contemporary romances and rom coms about strong women, the families who support them, and the men who can’t live without them.
Family and food play huge roles in Peggy’s stories because she believes there is nothing that holds a family structure together like sharing a meal…or two…or ten. Dotted with humor and characters that are as real as they are loving, Peggy brings all aspects of life into her stories: life, death, sibling rivalry, illness, and the desire for everyone to find their own happily ever after. Growing up the only child of divorced parents she longed for sisters, brothers and a family that vowed to stick together no matter what came their way. Through her books, she has created the families she wanted as that lonely child.
As a lifelong diarist, she caught the blogging bug early on, and you can visit her at peggyjaeger.com where she blogs daily about life, writing, and stuff that makes her go "What??!"
Social Media Links:
Website/Blog: http://peggyjaeger.com/
Twitter:https://twitter.com/peggy_jaeger
Amazon Author page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00T8E5LN0
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/peggyjaeger/