EXCERPT: AT FIRST PLAY by @renee_harless releasing January 14th!
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The storm rattles the windows. The lighthouse beam sweeps. Somewhere in town, a transformer pops, and the lights flicker once.
We don’t move.
“I’m scared,” she says suddenly, voice barely above a whisper.
I squeeze her hand. “Of what?”
She takes a shaky breath. “Of losing you again. Of… getting this wrong. Of giving you all my pages and finding out you only wanted the highlight reel.”
I swallow hard. “Bailey,” I say, my voice rough. “I’ve already seen the messy chapters. I was there for some of them, remember?”
Her laugh is watery. “You caused a couple.”
“Yeah.” The word tastes like regret and hope. “And I’ve spent a long time trying to figure out how to be worthy of a second read.”
She stares at me for a long moment, like she’s weighing something big and breakable in her hands.
Then she shifts closer, swinging a leg over my lap in one smooth, hesitant motion, settling down so she’s straddling me.
My hands fly to her hips on instinct, fingers flexing against the denim. My brain short-circuits.
“Bailey,” I rasp.
“I’m choosing,” she says, eyes steady on mine. “I get to do that, remember?”
“Yeah,” I manage. “You do.”
She cups my face again, thumbs brushing my cheekbones. “Then let me.”
Her mouth finds mine, slow and deliberate, and this time there’s no tentative edge. No testing. Just the quiet, fierce certainty of a decision made and remade.
I kiss her back, pouring all the words I don’t trust myself to say into the press of my lips, the angle of my jaw, the way my hands tighten on her waist like she’s the only solid thing in a world that keeps shifting.
Her fingers slide into my hair, tugging gently, and a sound escapes my chest I wouldn’t recognize on a replay. She swallows it with a soft, desperate noise of her own.
The storm rages outside. Up here, the world narrows to the couch, the heat of her thighs bracketing my hips, and the taste of chocolate and peppermint on her tongue.
She breaks the kiss first, breathing hard, forehead resting against mine. “Crew,” she whispers. “I want—”
#smalltownromance #reneeharless #spicyromance @theauthor.agency
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