Too Much of a Good Thing? Read online

  Be careful what you wish for!

  It’s time for Lu Sheppard to get back in the game—fact. After ten years of playing mom to her younger brothers the boys have left home and she’s determined to make up for lost time! Item number one on her list? A man to have some fun with!

  Rugby coach Will Scott is just what Lu needs to ease herself back into the dating game. Only in town temporarily, king of the fling…he’s perfect. But his kisses are so electric that remembering they have an expiry date is getting harder. Suddenly Lu starts wondering…maybe it is possible to have too much of a good thing!

  SNEAK PEEK EXCERPT FROM

  Too Much of a Good Thing?

  “I’m not looking for anything more than a couple of laughs, some fun.”

  Lu continued, “I’m not a complete idiot. I know that you’re only going to be around for three months and that was just a little bit of getting carried away by the moment. And, frankly, I’ve just come out of a decade-long relationship with two boys and I gave them every last bit of energy I had. I just want to have some company. I thought maybe you could do with the same.”

  Company? What was she offering? Company company or sex company? “Does the company involve getting naked?” he asked in his most prosaic voice.

  Judging by the shock that jumped into her eyes, she hadn’t reached the bedroom. But then her eyes smoked over and he knew that she wasn’t far behind him. Unfortunately along with seeing I-want-to-get-you-naked there was a healthy dose of I-don’t-know-what-I’m-doing, as well.

  And, anyway, what was he thinking? Hadn’t he just decided to try something different while he was here in Durban? Yet here he was, sliding right back into old patterns and habit reactions.

  “Ah…um…well…” Lu stuttered. Good God. “Actually, I had thought about it….”

  Dear Reader,

  I am so enjoying the Harlequin® KISS™ series, and I wait in eager anticipation (as I’m sure you do, too) to download the new releases every month.

  Rugby is a big deal in my part of the world, and we are passionate about our teams—from schoolboy rugby to our national team, the Springboks. I was watching a post-match interview by one of the coaches and I thought, Mmm-hmm…he’s pretty cute. I love being a romance novelist, so admiring handsome men can be classified as research! What if he were superhot and a former bad boy of rugby made good…? And the story started to take shape in my head.

  Will comes to Durban on a three-month contract to be the caretaker coach of the city’s superstar Stingrays rugby team. Lu, with the twin brothers she raised now at university, is at a loss about what to do now. She wants to revive her flagging career, and by meeting Will she manages to land a job as the Stingrays’ press photographer.

  They both think that they can ignore the fact that their hair almost catches on fire from the sexual heat they generate…ha-ha-ha!

  As per usual, I had the best fun writing this book, and nothing makes me happier than to guide two sexy, headstrong people to their happy-ever-after. Enjoy!

  With my very warmest wishes,

  Joss xxx

  P.S. Come and say hi via Facebook: Joss Wood, Twitter: @josswoodbooks or at Josswoodbooks.wordpress.com

  TOO MUCH OF

  A GOOD THING?

  Joss Wood

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Joss Wood wrote her first book at the age of eight and has never really stopped. Her passion for putting letters on a blank screen is matched only by her love of books and travelling—especially to the wild places of Southern Africa—and possibly by her hatred of ironing and making school lunches.

  Fueled by coffee, when she’s not writing or being a hands-on mum, Joss, with her background in business and marketing, works for a nonprofit organization to promote the local economic development and collective business interests of the area where she resides. Happily and chaotically surrounded by books, family and friends, she lives in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, with her husband, children and their many pets.

  Other Harlequin® KISS™ titles by Joss Wood:

  If You Can’t Stand the Heat…

  It Was Only a Kiss

  This and other titles by Joss Wood are available in ebook format from www.Harlequin.com.

  A little over a year ago, on the same day

  that I found out that my dream of becoming published was about to come true, my sister was involved in the most horrendous car accident.

  Because she is the bravest, strongest, most

  incredible person I know, this book is dedicated to her.

  Love you, Di.

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Epilogue

  Excerpt

  ONE

  ‘Laptop and mobile chargers packed? Did you check the oil in the car?’

  Lu Sheppard stood in the east coast early-morning sunshine and, because she knew that throwing her arms around the hairy knees closest to her and hanging on tightly wouldn’t be appreciated, jammed her clenched fists into the pockets of her faded denim shorts. Turning her head away, she swallowed furiously before digging deep and yanking out her patented, much practised I’m-OK-you’re-OK smile.

  ‘Lu, you did,’ answered Daniel, the younger of her twin brothers. ‘Twice.’

  That was right. She had. And she’d ticked it off on the list she’d made for them. Not that either of them had looked at it. Lord, how was she going to do this? These boys had been her life and her focus for the past decade. How was she supposed to just let them get into their car and drive across the country to university and, to all intents and purposes, out of her life? She’d yelled at them, cried with them and cried over them. She’d provided meals and lifts, helped with homework and bugged them to talk to her. She’d been father, mother, sister and friend.

  She was twenty-nine years old and not only was she unable to stare empty nest syndrome in the eye, it was also kicking her non-sexy butt. But, like so many other emotions she’d experienced over the past ten years, the boys didn’t have to know that...

  Daniel leaned back against the door of his jointly owned car and cleared his throat. Lu saw the look he gave Nate and felt rather than saw the nod Nate gave in reply. Nate moved to stand next to his non-identical twin, equally tall, equally good-looking.

  Daniel cleared his throat again. ‘Lu, we are grateful that you stepped up to be our guardian when Mom and Dad died. If it wasn’t for you we would’ve ended up with some crusty relative who probably would’ve shipped us off to boarding school and holiday camps.’

  Since their parents had both been only children, Daniel’s comment wasn’t far off the truth. All their relatives were old, crusty, and generally waiting for the light in the tunnel.

  ‘But it’s time for a new start...for us and also for you.’

  Huh? ‘What do you mean?’

  Daniel rubbed his jaw. ‘We think it’s time for you to do all the things you couldn’t do because you were raising us.’

  Lu frowned. ‘Where is this coming from, guys? We talked about this—about you two leaving.’

  ‘Sure—about what uni was like, how we felt about leaving, what we were getting into. But we never spoke about you.’ Nate chipped in.

  Lu’s expression was pure confusion. ‘Why did we need to? My life isn’t changing.’

  ‘It should,’ Nate retorted.

  ‘But why?’

  ‘Because nothing about your life is normal for a single woman of your age! When did you last have a date?’ Nate demanded.

  Lu couldn’t remember. It had been a while—six, eight months? She could barely remember the man, just that he hadn’t been able to wait to get rid of her after she’d told him that her twin brothers lived with her and she was their guardian. She couldn’t blame him; his had been the standard reaction from the very few men she’d dated over the years: shock followed by an immediate desire to find the closest exit.

  Add a large house, two dogs, an enormous saltwater fish tank, three corn snakes—no, they’d been moved to a reptile centre when she’d refused to look after them after the boys left—and cats to the pile of her baggage, and it was no wonder her dates belted away.

  ‘We need to talk to you about...you,’ Nate said.

  ‘Me?’ Lu yelped as she pulled a band from her shorts and finger-combed her straight, mouse-brown hair into a stubby pony.

  Uh, no. She looked after them—physically, mentally—they didn’t look after her. That was the way their little family worked.

  ‘Look, Lu, we’re not only leaving, we’re leaving you. You know our plans: degrees, then we want to travel. We have no idea where we’ll end up but there’s a good chance it won’t be here,’ Nate continued. ‘That being said, it would be a lot easier for us if we knew that you were happy and busy and had a full life of your own. Take this house, for instance; we don’t want you hanging on to this mansion in the hope that one of us will want i
t one day. And right now it’s a huge house for you to live in by yourself.’

  Dan jumped in. ‘We’re not asking you to sell the house, or anything like that... We just want you to know that we are cool with whatever you want to do with it: sell it, rent it out, start up a commune...’

  Lu sat down on the steps leading to the front door and rested her forearms on her thighs. Nate sat down next to her and draped a muscular arm around her shoulder. ‘Just please don’t become a crazy lady who rattles around here talking to herself and rescuing cats. That was the first thing we wanted to mention...’

  There was more? Really? Good grief!

  Daniel dropped to his haunches in front of her and pinned her with a look that went far beyond his eighteen years. ‘Lu, you are going to be on your own for the first time since you were roughly our age.’

  Well, yeah. That was why empty nest syndrome was wiping the floor with her face.

  ‘We want you to have some fun—to live your life.’ Daniel raked an agitated hand through his hair, which desperately needed a cut. ‘You need to stop being so responsible, to take a breath. To do the things you should’ve been doing while you were raising us.’

  Lu cocked her head. ‘Like...?’

  ‘Like clubbing and—’ Daniel looked at a point beyond her shoulder and blushed ‘—hooking up.’

  Hooking up? Heavens, if she couldn’t remember when last she’d had a date, she’d had absolutely no idea when she last had sex. She suspected she might need a high-pressure cleaner to remove the cobwebs.

  ‘So, here’s your “to do” list. We want you to try new things like...skydiving or learning to surf. Pottery classes or dance lessons,’ Nate suggested.

  Daniel, her brand and fashion-conscious brother, winced at her faded purple T-shirt and battered jeans. ‘Some decent clothes would also be a good idea.’

  ‘I have decent clothes!’ Lu objected.

  ‘Then wear them!’ Daniel shot back. ‘And your hair needs a cut and you could do with a facial. You need a lifestyle makeover.’

  Since their words plucked a chord somewhere deep inside her, she suspected that they might be right. But she certainly didn’t have to like it.

  Lu growled. ‘I hate you.’ She glared at Daniel. ‘And you.’

  ‘No, you don’t. You love us.’

  Nate grinned and her heart flipped over. God, she did. So much. How was she supposed to let them go?

  ‘You should go clubbing. Somewhere hip and fun. You’ll have to dress up and make an effort.’ Nate said. ‘Makhosi will take you, Lu.’

  Of course he would. Clubbing was her oldest and best friend’s favourite way to blow off steam.

  ‘But she has to have a makeover first. I wouldn’t be seen with her with that hair!’ Daniel added.

  ‘Hey!’ Lu protested.

  ‘Haircut, highlights and a makeover,’ Daniel stated, and Lu glared at him. ‘As Mak has said, more than once, that hair of yours is a disgrace: much better suited to a prissy librarian who doesn’t curse, drink wine and who has never had a Big O in her life.’

  Well, that sounded like her. Not the wine and the cursing part, but the Big O was definitely true. Could she be so damn emotional because she was sexually frustrated? It would be easy to shift the blame, but the truth was that sex had been scarce—OK, practically non-existent—for most of this past decade, so she couldn’t blame her weeping on that.

  Empty Nest Syndrome: two. Lu: nil.

  And when had her brothers become old enough to mention her orgasms—or lack of them—anyway?

  Nate leaned back and put his ankle on his knee. ‘But, Lu, more important than anything else...you should get a job.’

  Dan shook his head. ‘Not that she uses any of it, but there is enough money coming in from the trust. She doesn’t have to work if she doesn’t want to.’

  No, she didn’t... If she could bring herself to use the money for anything other than the essentials that kept body and soul together. She had never felt comfortable using her parents’ money for anything other than food, shelter and transport.

  His brother sent him a you’re-a-moron look. ‘Not for the money, dude. Because it’s something to...to get her teeth into.’

  ‘Oh, right. Good point.’

  Lu lifted her fingers and started to tick their demands off. ‘So, you two think that if I find a job, go clubbing, have a makeover, learn how to surf—’

  ‘And skydive,’ Nate interjected.

  ‘Dream on.’ Lu glared at him and continued. ‘Go to pottery and dance lessons then I won’t have time to mope?’

  Two blond heads nodded to some internal twin beat.

  Lu stared past their car down the driveway. The thing was they could be right. The distraction of getting out and about might keep her from going off her head worrying about them. It wasn’t a bad idea.

  Lu nodded slowly. ‘I’ll think about it.’

  ‘Promise you’ll do it.’ Nate insisted.

  ‘I promise to think about it.’

  ‘If you do it, we promise to come home in three months’ time,’ Nate said slyly.

  ‘You’re blackmailing me with a promise to come home?’ Lu’s mouth dropped open. ‘You little snot!’

  Nate just grinned and looked at his watch. ‘We need to get going, Lu.’

  She couldn’t bear it. She really couldn’t. She struggled to find the words and when she did they were muffled with emotion. ‘Call me when you get there. Drive carefully.’

  Nate pulled her up, cuddled her, and easily lifted her off her feet before placing a kiss on her cheek. ‘Love ya, sis.’

  When Nate released her, Daniel held her close. ‘Take care of yourself. Have fun. Please, please have some fun,’ he told her. Daniel let her go and hopped into the passenger seat. ‘We’ll call you when we get there.’

  Lu nodded, touched Daniel’s arm resting on the windowsill of the car and blew Nate a kiss.

  Her boys...driving off to start their new life...

  Lu watched their car turn into the road and sat down on the stairs, holding her face in her hands as she watched her two chicks fly from her very large and now very empty nest.

  They would be fine, she assured herself. As for herself...she wasn’t quite sure.

  * * *

  Two weeks later, in the VIP area of Go! on a very busy Friday night, Will Scott placed his elbows on the railing and looked down at the gyrating masses below him. It was nearly midnight and he’d been thinking about leaving the club for the past half-hour. He could walk down the block to the boutique hotel he’d booked into two days ago and in fifteen minutes could be face-down on the monstrous double bed.

  That sounded like heaven.

  Will felt someone lean on the railing next to him and looked into the battered face of his best friend Kelby, CEO of the Stingrays rugby franchise, who was also his boss for the next three months. Panic swirled in his gut at the thought.

  ‘How is Carter?’ Will asked.

  The iconic and surly head coach of the Rays had suffered a heart attack a month back, and as the rugby season was fast approaching the team had been left rudderless without a coach.

  ‘Still in hospital. Still doing tests. They’re talking about a bypass,’ Kelby replied. ‘He said to tell you not to mess it up.’

  If it was anyone other than Kelby Will would never utter the words he was about to say.

  ‘The chances are good that I will.’ Will rubbed the back of his neck. ‘I really don’t know if I’m doing the right thing, Kels. This isn’t some little local team I’ll be caretaker coach of. It’s one of the top teams in the premier rugby playing world.’

  ‘It is,’ Kelby agreed easily. ‘So?’

  ‘So I’m thirty-four years old, not old enough to be a coach, and I have no experience at all! I only retired from international rugby last season and I don’t want to muck it up!’ Will retorted, shoving his hand into his dark brown hair.

  Kelby placed his bottle of beer on a high table and sent him a penetrating look. ‘It’s strange to see you even marginally unhinged. You are probably the calmest, most confident person I know.’