by Natasha Moore 

A Men of Lakeside Novel 

Publication Date: July 20, 2020 

Genres: Adult, Entangled: August, Contemporary, Romance

Rachel Bradford is finally living her dream as the star of her own interior design show. But ratings are slipping, and if she wants to save the show, she has to set an episode in the hometown she fled. Worst of all, she’s going to have to work with the cocky bad boy who humiliated her.

Single dad, Beckett Colburn plans to turn an old fire station into a neighborhood bar. He’s blindsided when he discovers his family made a deal to turn his dream into a reality TV project. He’d rather run into a burning builing than work with his childhood nemesis–on camera.

But it’s not easy with a TV crew in town stirring up trouble, spreading rumors, creating buzz. Not to mention the inconvenient sudden attraction that sparks every time Rachel and Beckett fight.

She turned toward the open staircase and there it was. The pole. The pole the firemen used to slide down to get to the trucks quickly. She stepped up to it and ran her hand down the smooth metal. It seemed thicker, taller, than in her memories. She glanced up at the hole through the upstairs floor. Had she actually slid down from there?

That hadn’t been part of the dare.

There’d been a rumor that Valerie Green had forgotten her locket upstairs when she went up there to fool around with Brad Washington. And because Rachel had been sure if she’d chosen Truth her friends would have wanted the latest scoop on her crush on…Brad Washington, she’d chosen Dare. 

She climbed the stairs now, remembering the way she’d dashed up them that night. In and out, then back to Lucy’s house, had been the plan. The walls of the empty space were painted white now, but the floor was still the old scuffed vinyl. The big sofa that used to be along the back wall was gone.

She’d found the locket that night underneath the sofa and slid it over her head before she took the plunge down the pole. What had she been thinking? She couldn’t even remember, except it had felt like a little burst of freedom.

Rachel sauntered over to the pole now. She leaned forward and grabbed onto it with both hands. Leaning over, she could see the floor below. The notes of “The Stripper” bounced through her brain as it had that night. She’d never done anything like it before, had never rebelled. But it had given her the first taste. Could she still slide down that pole without killing herself?

What the hell.

She’d already taken the leap and wrapped her legs around the pole when she heard the sound of the back door slamming. Gravity took over. She shot down to the first floor and lost all the grace she might have had. When she landed, her knees buckled and her smooth-soled sandals slipped out from under her. She ended up spread-eagled on the floor, her skirt up around her hips, at the feet of the one man she’d never wanted to see again.

She looked up at him and swallowed. “You.” As he stared at her, she realized she should have thought about what she was wearing before she decided to slide down the pole in the first place.

Rachel closed her mouth before the “Whoa” leaked out. Beckett Colburn’s thick brown hair no longer skimmed his collar, and the trimmed beard and broad shoulders screamed man loud and clear. His body had filled out nicely since his lanky youth. He’d obviously come from a jobsite because his jeans were dusty, as was the black Colburn and Sons Salvage T-shirt that hugged his toned upper body. His tanned biceps bulged impressively. And holy shit. Tattoo sleeves, hot and sexy, covered both arms. A colorful dragon coiled sinuously around one muscular arm from his wrist until it disappeared under his shirtsleeve. The ink on the other arm appeared to be mostly tribal or Celtic, with some words, maybe a name, and a picture or two as well. She’d need a closer look. She wanted to stretch out her fingers and trace the designs on his skin, discover what they felt like.

No, she didn’t.

But right now she was sprawled in front of him, her hands still clutching the pole. Before she could begin to scramble to her feet, Beckett crossed his arms over his broad chest and looked down at her with a self-satisfied expression. “Well, look who came crawling back to Lakeside.” 

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