Bridge To Love is coming on June 5th!

I can't believe it's finally time for you to read Bridge To Love! This book was so much fun to write and I hope it's just as much fun to read. Check out the blurb and Chapter 1 below.

Hazel Landenberger believes there is a perfect person in the world for everyone. Only, hers is taking forever to show up. Until he does, she stays busy with her job as a county engineer and her two best friends. But then, an accident happens, injuring her badly with no one around to take care of her.

No one but Nash Hayes.

Nash is her friend Sloan’s brother and she’d never once had an impure thought about him.

He can’t say the same about her, though.

Years ago, Nash had secret feelings for his sister’s friend, but knowing nothing could ever come of them, pushed them deep down inside his heart, never to be seen again.

Or so he’d thought.

But seeing her in the ER, hurt and in pain, brought them barreling back to the surface. He wanted her. Badly. But would she feel the same way?

Could he convince her that he was her perfect man?

Keep reading for Chapter 1 of Bridge To Love.

Hazel

“Fuck my fucking life,” Hazel Landenberger spit out as she slammed the folder down on her desk.

She dropped her head on top of the folder and tried to control her breathing before she had a panic attack. It wasn’t something she had often, in fact, it had been more than a year since her last one, but when she had one, they were big.

Breathing in and out, she slowly started to feel her chest untighten.

As a county engineer, her job had its ups and downs. Today was definitely a down. A bridge that was being rebuilt and had been approved months ago, was now at a standstill thanks to an accident on site. The worker was okay, as the injury was minor, but that was the only good thing about the whole situation.

The project belonged to one of the other county engineers but due to the accident, he was now on leave. And because he was suspended, all his projects had to be spread out to the rest of her staff or suspended. Suspending was not an option in her world. If you suspended, it was a huge inconvenience to the public and most likely, the county would eventually decide to cancel the whole project.

No suspension.

Which meant she would be taking on several more projects and working long hours.

Working long hours didn’t bother her. She wasn’t immune to hard work and in fact, enjoyed it. But having an overload of projects didn’t sit well with her. She was a firm believer that too many projects caused mistakes.

Which was exactly what had already happened. They were one engineer down already before the accident and each of them had already taken on more work. She hadn’t yet looked into the accident but if she guessed, it was caused by a step being overlooked because it was forgotten.

Her phone buzzed on her desk and she lifted her head to see who it was.

Camilla.

One of her two best friends.

If anyone could stop a panic attack from coming on, it was Cam.

“Hey.” She put her friend on speakerphone.

“Hey, I’m just checking in since about two hours ago, one of your guys came in here with a broken arm and a gnarly gash on his head.”

“You’re there, at the hospital?” Camilla was an ER nurse at one of the local hospitals in Cincinnati where they lived.

“Yeah, I was in emergency surgery when they brought him in or I would have called earlier. What happened?”

“I have no fucking clue. I’m working on it now and the inspectors are there doing what they do to try and figure it out.”

“Was this one of yours?”

“No but it is now.” She refused to give the project to someone else. She would oversee it and make sure there would be no more accidents.

“Are you okay?” Cam’s voice was softer, calming. She knew about her panic attacks and probably assumed something like this would cause one.

“I am now. About three minutes before you called, I was on the verge of crying like a little bitch and curling into a ball on the floor of my office.”

“Always glad to be of service.” She paused. “I’m off at four, wanna grab dinner?”

“Only if by dinner, you mean lots and lots of alcohol.”

She laughed. “What else would I mean? I’ll check in with Sloan and see if she can join us.”

“See ya then.” She hung up and instead of continuing on with her pity party which would only bring on more panic, she sat up straight, took a deep breath and got to work.

Growing up in a town just outside of Cincinnati, she’d been fascinated as a kid by all the construction that went on around town. As a high school student, she’d found a love of math and designing things. Then one day, during a career fair, she was introduced to a county engineer. From that moment on, she never wanted to do anything else.

Somehow, she’d lucked out and gotten hired on in the city she loved and that made it even better.

Hamilton County was large and encompassed all of the city of Cincinnati and lots of surrounding suburbs including Hillrose, where she’d grown up and now lived again. Her two best friends, Camilla Rickman and Sloan Hayes had been shocked when several years ago, she’d made the decision to buy a house in Hillrose. To her, it was home and there was nowhere else she wanted to live.

She, Cam and Sloan were the three amigos. They’d met at age five when they were in kindergarten and had been inseparable ever since. At almost thirty, that was a long time. But they just got her. She’d made other friends through the years but none who understood her and could read her the way Cam and Sloan could.

They knew everything about each other.

Literally everything.

They had a language and a connection that was all theirs. At least until recently, that is. Sloan had gone and fallen in love, with Camilla’s brother, no less. Asher was gorgeous and smart and funny and as it turns out, perfect for Sloan. The two of them had recently purchased a home in Hillrose and Hazel was ecstatic to have her friend close by again.

It was weird thinking of Sloan settled and happy. Not that she didn’t want her friend happy, she did. It was just odd knowing that now Sloan had Asher and it would no longer be just the three of them anymore.

Hazel couldn’t wait to find her own true love.

Her friends gave her shit about believing there was one person out there in the world who was perfect for her, but she ignored them. For the most part. Sloan now believed it was true since falling in love with Asher, but Cam was still skeptical. She didn’t understand how Hazel just knew that Mister Right was out there.

To be honest, she didn’t know how she knew; she just did.

When she met him, her heartbeat would quicken and her palms would get sweaty. She’d need to be near him and most importantly, she’d want to have sex with him.

She wasn’t sure that she’d ever wanted to have sex since the first time. She liked guys, flirted with them and got them to buy her drinks, and even sometimes went out with them. But when it came to sex, she was just...blah. She wanted that spark, the need that went so deep it wouldn’t matter where they were, they wouldn’t be able to keep their hands off each other.

She’d never, not once, felt that.

She ached for it.

Camilla thought she was nuts and continued to try and set her up with every eligible guy she knew. Which was a lot of guys. Cam knew everyone.

When she could no longer focus on the work in front of her, Hazel glanced at the clock, noticing it was almost four. Packing up her files and computer, she slid everything into her bag, grabbed her keys, and walked out of the office. She was meeting her friends at a place in Hillrose that they loved and ate at regularly.

Her office wasn’t far from Hillrose, maybe a fifteen-minute drive that was mostly back roads and traffic free. When she pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant, she saw Sloan’s car but not Camilla’s.

She found Sloan already inside at a booth in the back.

“I thought you were out of town?” Hazel said as she slid into the booth across from her friend.

“I got back this morning, took a nap and here I am.” She spread her arms out wide.

“How’s Asher?”

“Driving me up a wall.” Her words might have been annoyed but the smile on her face showed love. “He hates every idea I have for the house. I swear I’m going to stab him with a paint brush if he doesn’t let me have my way.”

“Do you really care what the house looks like, though, or do you argue so that you can have make-up sex?”

She frowned. “I hate how well you know me sometimes.”

“No, you don’t.” A waitress stopped by to take their drink order and since they knew Camilla would be there soon, they ordered her a drink, too.

“I heard about the bridge accident,” Sloan said. “It’s a miracle no one else was hurt.”

“Don’t I know it. I’m so pissed off at Jeremy for letting it happen. When I was going through the reports, from what I can tell, he cut a ton of corners and that was the cause of the accident. He knows better.” She shook her head, getting frustrated all over again.

“I can’t help you with that, but I can be here if you need to vent. Or drink.”

“Aren’t you leaving soon for London?” When Sloan and Asher first met, Asher lived in London. For the last six months, they’d been splitting their time between there and Cincinnati, but they were finally leaving London for good and living full-time in their home in Hillrose.

“In just over a week. I love being there, especially with Asher, but I’ll be happy to be here for good. I miss having my whole wardrobe in one place.”

“If that’s your biggest issue, I think you’ll survive.”

“I might not. It’s been hell.”

Camilla came barreling in and slid into the booth beside Hazel. “Sorry, I’m late. Some idiot decided it would be fun to stick his finger in a meat grinder.” She rolled her eyes. “I swear to God, men are fucking idiots.”

“Remember how we talked about you not telling us disgusting things,” Hazel said, “well, that’s at the top of the list.”

“So you don’t want to see the pics?”

“Jesus, no,” Sloan said. “Why would you ever think we would want to see those?”

“You bitches are no fun.”

“Asher would beg to differ.”

“Can you not use my brother’s name and the word beg in the same sentence? I don’t want to know about your kinky sexcapades.”

“That’s a first,” Hazel said. “Normally, she always wants to hear about kinky sexcapades.”

“What if I don’t call him by his name and instead use a code name?”

“What kind of code name?” Camilla seemed intrigued.

“Oh I don’t know, maybe Big Daddy.” She tried hard not to laugh. “Not two hours ago, Big Daddy fucked me senseless against the half-painted wall in our new kitchen.”

“First, I am never leaning against a wall in your house ever again, and second, fuck you.”

“What else did Big Daddy do to you?” Hazel asked with a straight face. “Unlike Cam over here, I need to live vicariously through you.”

“Maybe instead of waiting for Mister Right, you should just go get laid,” Camilla suggested.

“Don’t listen to her,” Sloan replied. “He’s out there. I can feel it.”

She sighed. “I do miss sex.” It just wasn’t the same with a vibrator.

“I will never understand you. Every guy you meet hits on you and wants to fuck you senseless against a half-painted wall, a la` Sloan and,” she cringed, “Asher. And yet here you are, celibate because you think that there’s one perfect person out in the world for you.”

“Don’t over exaggerate, Cam,” Sloan said. “Not every guy wants to fuck her senseless against a wall. Some would be fine with a bed. Or maybe a couch. Even a bathroom stall by the looks they give her.”

She wasn’t sure what it was but for some reason, guys were always attracted to her. She could walk into a bar and within minutes, have three guys standing next to her, vying for her attention. She’d always chalked it up to the fact that she was nice. But sometimes she didn’t have to say a word and guys would come on to her, not knowing if she was nice or not.. She’d been told all her life that she was pretty but when she looked in the mirror she just saw herself. A hardworking, always in a good mood, had decent hair and good boobs, woman.

Nothing special.

“If it was Mister Right, I’d let him fuck me in a bathroom stall.” She raised her eyebrows to her friends.

“Like a single-stall bathroom or a bathroom with multiple stalls?” Sloan wanted to know. “Because I’ve done it in one of those single stall ones and while not the best place I’ve had sex, it was pretty hot.”

“What was the best place?” Camilla asked. “Wait, let me guess. The beach or maybe that time in the car at the park?”

“What about his office?” Hazel joined in. “You guys have had a lot of sex in the last six months. Have you ever thought about a bed?”

“It was none and those and for your information, the best place was a bed. Just not ours.”

“Whose bed?” Hazel was intrigued and she had not heard this story.

Sloan bit her bottom lip. “Asher’s friend and the CTO of Maze?”

“Holy shit!” Camilla shouted. “Why are we just hearing about this?”

“Because you,” she pointed to Cam, “never want to hear about my sex life.”

“I’m officially retracting the ‘no sex talk’ rule when it comes to having sex in places like other people’s homes or bathrooms. Feel free to tell me all those stories, just leave out Asher’s name.”

“You have too many rules,” Hazel said. “What if we told you we didn’t want to hear about your sex life? How would you take that?”

“Since my current sex life consists of me and my vibrator,” she shrugged, “I’d be fine with it.”

“What happened to the new sex buddy?” Sloan asked. “Max, right? I thought he was working out.”

Camilla sighed as she leaned back in the booth. “Max was fine but he didn’t really give me anything I couldn’t give myself if you know what I mean. For God’s sake, the man refused to eat pussy even though I suck his cock with gusto. How is that fair?”

Hazel laughed at her friend’s misery. Cam was nothing if not consistent in her need for oral sex. Hazel had never really been a fan, though, and her friends knew it. Although they both agreed it was because she’d never had good oral sex and they were probably right. The first guy who’d gone down on her was in college and he’d been a fumbling mess. While he’d told her he loved to eat pussy, the way he went about it—almost gagging—led her to believe he was lying. The next guy used so much teeth, that she’d been positive he’d broken skin down there. For days, she’d been in pain.

She gave it one more try, figuring that a sample size of three would be a good indicator of what was out there. Unfortunately, that guy was also a dud. He couldn’t have found her clitoris if it had hit him on the head.

After that, whenever a guy wanted to go down on her, she turned the tables on them and got right to the main course. None had complained and she supposed that just meant guys preferred intercourse to giving oral sex.

“Any new info for your wedding yet, Sloan?” Hazel asked, switching the subject. She hated feeling like a reject when it came to sex.

“We are thinking about doing one of those destination weddings. Neither of us wants anything big. We just want our closest friends and family to be there, which is about twenty people at the most. And since we kinda started this in Hawaii, we thought that would be a great place to seal the deal, so to speak. So what would you guys say to Hawaii in July again?”

Cam looked at Hazel and they both smiled. “I’d say that sounds about perfect,” Camilla said.

“What a great idea.”

“We are still working out the details. We each have a couple of things we want. I told him I have to have a dress and I don’t want to be on sand but I would like an ocean view. He wants everyone to be at the same place and not have other people around. So we’ve found a few beachfront homes for rent that would give us both what we wanted. I’ll send you guys the links and you can help weigh in on the decision.”

“This is going to be so much fun!” Hazel squealed. Thinking about her best friend’s wedding was taking her mind off of the day from hell and the weeks from hell she had in her future.

“Which reminds me, we need to set a date to go look at dresses. Both for me and for you. What would you guys think about a weekend trip to Chicago?”

“Can that weekend trip include a spa where a hot, half-naked guy gives me a massage?” Cam asked.

“The spa and massage I think we can arrange. The half-naked guy part, you’re on your own.”

“My schedule is going to be crazy the next few weeks what with this accident and all, but count me in. I’ll need a break and a stress relief.”

“I’m not sure how much of a break helping me find a wedding dress will be, but I can promise a lot of laughter.”

Hazel knew that would be true. When the three of them were together, there was always laughter. She couldn’t wait.