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HER BEST SHOT, HER PERFECT GAME, HER WINNING FORMULA
Shannyn Schroeder
Releasing in Print December 15th
Exclusively at Books-a-Million
Her Best Shot
With college graduation looming, three childhood friends vow to make spring break their last blast of pure fun. But at least one of them didn’t count on such incredible heat…
Layla Sharpe is definitely more math ninja than bikini babe, and her future has been calculated with razor precision. Convinced to let loose over spring break, Layla is finally ready to party—until her car breaks down halfway to her destination, leaving her stranded in Georgia with a mouthwateringly hot pool shark. She knows more than enough about angles to learn the game, but this week she wants him to appreciate her curves…
Phin Marks has never met a girl like Layla. She’s more Star Wars geek than seductress, and when he offers her a place to stay while her car is in the shop, he’s counting on the attraction between them to set the nights ablaze, no strings attached. But every moment he spends with Layla makes it harder to let her go. Can he persuade her to gamble in the most dangerous way possible…on forever?
Her Perfect Game
Spring break is supposed to be a week of fun in the sun for three childhood friends about to graduate from college. But one of them is ready to get her game on somewhere else…
Charlie Castle is an expert archer and a fierce warrior—in her favorite video game, anyway. But college life was a program she couldn’t quite master. To land a cybertech job without a degree, she’s entering a “hackfest” over spring break—where she also hopes to meet the sweet gamer who’s been flirting with her online. Instead, she runs into the hot guy who walked away years ago, and can’t fight the desire that comes rushing back.
Jonah Best has never gotten over Charlie, whose kisses were always as deliciously creative as her coding. But now that they’re face to face again, he doesn’t know how to admit that her online admirer is really him—or how to convince her that he’s offering her a job for her incredible skills, not her sex appeal. Can Jonah cut through their communication glitches and persuade Charlie that the next level up for them should be forever?
Her Winning Formula
Spring break was supposed to be a last blast of fun for three friends before the reality of adulthood set in. But for the trio’s science whiz, it’s an education in instant attraction…
Chemistry major Felicity Stone can tell you everything about the way chemicals interact, but when it comes to social interaction, she needs schooling. Abandoned by her friends, Felicity is faced with spending spring break alone—unless she accepts a gorgeous stranger’s invitation to pose as his girlfriend at a family wedding. Not one to turn down a research opportunity, Felicity never expected it to produce such breathtaking results…
Teacher and baseball coach Lucas Tanner is fascinated by Felicity’s potent mix of spirit and scientist, not to mention her delicious curves. When Felicity asks him to return the favor by teaching her how to pick up guys, he can’t refuse—but he’s not at all happy with the idea of her using a formula for flirting on anyone but him. Can he convince her that together they have the perfect chemistry?
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Her Best Shot Excerpt
So
much for not knowing anxiety. Layla walked down the busy street in Atlanta
looking for the nearest bar. She needed a drink.
After a leisurely drive through the
mountains and taking time to enjoy the beauty of rural North Carolina, Layla
had been feeling better. Then she had pulled into Atlanta and everything went
to hell. Her car just stopped. She probably shouldn’t have ignored the clunking
while she was in the mountains. She sat at the side of the road waiting for a
tow truck for a couple of hours. Not that she didn’t have offers, from a
variety of good old boys, to take her wherever she wanted to go.
Because
it was Saturday afternoon, the mechanic had told her straight-out that nothing
would be done on her car until Monday, but he’d promised to call her with a
diagnosis before the end of the day. She had barely stopped herself from
telling him to just fix it no matter what. Although she didn’t like being
stranded in Georgia, she wasn’t going to pay an exorbitant amount of money for
her hand-me-down car out of desperation.
Pulling her
backpack higher on her shoulder, she stood still for a moment and allowed her
eyes to adjust to the dim interior of the first bar she found. It was a dive,
but there was a decent-sized crowd. Unfortunately, it wasn’t her kind of crowd.
They were mostly men and mostly grubby-looking. Even the younger ones had a
roughness about them.
Layla figured it was par for the
course. All she wanted to do was drown her sorrows in some beer and then pass
out until her car was fixed. Maybe she could salvage part of her break. She
shot a text to Felicity to let her know about the car.
After ordering a light beer at the
bar, Layla walked toward the back to drink alone. In the back, she found a few
men playing pool at the two tables. She grabbed a chair and sat with her back
to the wall so she could watch the players. No one seemed to take notice of her
presence.
Within moments, one player easily
stood out as the man to beat. He was tall, over six feet, with long dark hair
pulled back into a ponytail. He wore a T-shirt that looked intentionally too
tight, showing off defined muscles, as if to say, “Don’t fuck with me.” He
didn’t chat with the other player. The only sounds he made were to call his
shots. He was smooth and efficient, and fun to watch as he cleared the table.
Especially when he bent over in
front of her. Maybe being stuck in Atlanta for the night wouldn’t be so bad if
all the guys were this nice to look at. With the eight ball sunk, the man stood
and collected the money sitting on the edge of the table. The loser walked
away, and another guy took his place, putting his twenty on the edge.
This second player was better than
the first, but Mr. Nice Ass stayed ahead. After a while, Layla began to wonder
if he was just toying with his competition, like a cat playing with its prey.
He let the other man sink a few balls and then returned to clear the table.
Again, he sank the eight ball and swiped the cash.
The man was a pool hustler.
After the second loser left, the man
looked around, his gaze landing on her. His eyes, a gray-green, weren’t pretty,
but were mesmerizing. Something about the contrast against his olive skin.
He pointed his pool cue at her. “Are you going to sit there staring all
night, or are you going to play?”
“Me? I’m not stupid enough to play
pool with a hustler. My day’s been crappy enough. I don’t need to lose anything
else.”
He stalked closer to her. “I’m not a
hustler. Hustlers pretend to be bad and then show their true ability to win
big. Make no mistake. I’m always good.”
“Thanks for the vocabulary lesson. I
still have better things to do with twenty bucks than lose it to you,
especially since I’ve only played pool a handful of times.”
He took another step closer. Close
enough that she could touch him if she wanted, but he kept enough distance so
she wasn’t crowded. “How about you buy me a beer, and I’ll give you a lesson?”
She had nothing else going on, and a
game of pool with a sexy stranger might be fun. “You’re on. What’ll you have?”
He tilted his head toward her bottle.
“Whatever you’re having is fine.”
She grabbed her backpack and went
back to the bar to buy a couple more beers. When she returned, he had the balls
racked and ready to go. She placed her backpack on her chair and grabbed a cue
stick. Layla handed him a bottle and said, “I’m Layla.”
He took the bottle from her,
allowing his thumb to brush over her fingers. “Thanks, Layla. I’m Phin.”
The simple touch sent a jolt of
pleasure up her arm and down her center. He took a swig of beer, and she
watched his throat work as he swallowed. She licked her lips, and when he
reached past her to put his bottle on the table, her mouth went dry. This man
was like a walking orgasm. He didn’t have to say anything, and she wanted to go
for a test run.
Her Perfect Game Excerpt
They sat side
by side as friends during the lecture. They laughed at the same jokes and
listened to the criticisms of current games. Jonah listened to know what
players wanted so he could improve their gaming experience. He didn’t know why
Charlie wanted in on this panel. Was this where she wanted to take her career?
As they wrapped up questions from
the floor, Charlie nudged him. “I’m going to head out to grab some food before
the next session. See you later?”
Although he wanted to hear the
remaining answers, he found himself asking, “Can I join you?”
“Sure.”
When they were back in the main
hall, he reached for her hand to fight against the crowd. She didn’t shy away
from his touch, so even when the throng of people passed, he continued to hold
on, running his thumb along her knuckles.
“Are you flirting with me?”
He stopped and yanked her over near
the wall. Doing so made her body collide with his. “Of course I’m flirting with
you. I want to kiss you again.”
She tilted her head up. “What’s
stopping you, Best?
He lowered himself a little. “Why do
you call me that?”
Her eyebrows furrowed. “It’s your
name?”
“My name is Jonah, but the only time
you ever called me Jonah was in the bedroom.”
She snorted. “It’s a little
presumptuous for you to think I should call you Best in the bedroom.”
As much as he wanted a real answer,
he couldn’t stop the laugh. He loved her snarky humor, and although he’d heard
it while playing Resskaar, nothing beat it in person.
When his laugh slowed, she leaned in
and flicked her tongue on his earlobe. “I call you Best because you taught me a
lot. Out here, with the games and the computers and the code, you are the
best.” Her breath whispered across his skin, making his pulse quicken. “But in
the bedroom, it was just you and me. Everything else stripped away.”
Damn, that was a good reason. Her
pale blue eyes shone with honesty.
“How hungry are you?” His voice was
strangled and it was her turn to laugh.
“Are you offering something better?”
“When’s the next session you want to
see?”
“A little over an hour.”
“Let’s go to my room.”
Her smile broadened. “Mine’s
closer.”
He yanked her again, plowing through
the crowds and lines, shooting straight for the elevator. When the elevator
doors closed, they were crammed in with about eight other people. Charlie
pressed against his body.
He looked down to the V on her
chest. “How far down does the paint go?”
She ground her hips against his.
“You’ll have to explore if you want to know.”
Several pairs of eyes looked their
way, as if other riders had hoped Jonah would peel away her clothes. Instead,
he ran a finger across her waist where her vest met her pants. A simple strip
of flesh, smooth against the pad of his finger. “I’m thinking not this far.”
She bumped her hips again, and the
bell dinged for her floor. They quietly excused themselves to get through the
people and out the door. Their walk to her room was slower than the walk to the
elevator had been mostly because Charlie walked backward in front of him,
kissing his neck and tripping both of them as they made their way down the
hall.
Charlie slid her key card in the
slot and they tumbled through the door. The curtains were drawn, and only a
sliver of light eked through at the edges. Charlie pulled him deeper into the
room. She backed away, and he heard the popping sound of snaps being
unfastened.
“Wait,” he said and slid his hand
along the wall searching for a light switch. With a quick flick, the bedside
lamp glowed, and he saw that Charlie had her vest open.
Her Winning Formula Excerpt
The movie was
filled with killing and explosions, but couldn’t hold his concentration. The
mousy girl in the bed beside him kept grabbing his attention. And she wasn’t
doing anything but reading silently. She didn’t even move her lips when she
read, but her facial expressions changed. Her eyes would narrow or her forehead
crinkled. Sometimes a sly smile snuck up on her. He didn’t know how he knew,
but it was like it surprised her when it happened.
He couldn’t
remember the last time he read anything for school that had him feeling any
kind of emotion, much less what she was experiencing. He paused the movie.
“What are you reading?”
She didn’t
look up from the book, but answered, “Research.”
He tossed the
remote on his bed and jumped onto her bed, jostling her in the process. “Come
on. Research isn’t that fascinating. What are you really reading?”
Annoyance
crossed her face with his intrusion. “It is research. I enjoy research.”
“Let me see.”
He held out his hand for the reader.
“No.” She
hugged it tight to her chest.
Now he had to
know what it was. No one guarded research material. He crawled over to her, and
she scooted farther back until she hit the headboard. “Let me see.”
“No. Now go
away and watch your movie.”
“This is more
interesting than the movie.” He eyed the way she held it to figure out the best
way to snatch the device.
She turned to
get out of bed, presumably to get away from him, giving him his opening to grab
the reader. He moved fast, and she stood looking in disbelief. Her mouth hung
open and fear entered her eyes, but she covered it quickly with anger as she
crossed her arms.
He hadn’t yet
looked down at the screen. “I’m just playing. If you really don’t want me to
see this, I’ll stop.”
“Whatever. Do
what you want.” She knelt on the bed and then sat, pulling her knees up to her
chest. She bit her thumbnail.
He glanced
down at the screen and began reading. He smiled. Felicity was reading a naughty
book. “You’re reading porn?”
“It’s not
porn. It’s erotica or erotic romance.”
“Chick porn.”
“You’re such
a guy.” She grabbed her reader back and turned away from him.
“Why did you
call it research? Why not say you’re reading a novel?”
“I am doing
research.”
“Sex
research?”
She looked
over her shoulder and rolled her eyes.
“You don’t
know…I mean….”
“Shut up,
Lucas. I know how sex works. I’ve even had sex.”
“Then why
research?”
She huffed
and put the reader down on the bed. “These books aren’t just about the sex.
They’re about human interaction, relationships. How people relate to each other
and learn to understand each other.”
“That’s just
part of life.”
“For people
like you it is, not for me.”
“For people
like me?”
“I’ve known
you for less than a day, but I can tell that everyone likes you. You’re open
and friendly, and you understand what people mean and what they need. I don’t.
I don’t get any of that. I read these books because I get a picture of what
normal people think when they see someone, how they interpret someone’s words
or actions.”
He stared at
her. He didn’t know what to say. During the course of speaking, she opened up.
Her body language relaxed, and she was in the moment, not worrying about
anything. She was honest and vulnerable. It was pretty fucking sexy. He lay
down and rested on his elbow. “Does it turn you on?”
She rolled
her eyes again. “Such a guy.”
She turned
over on her stomach and went back to reading. He mimicked her pose and bumped
his shoulder into hers. “You didn’t answer the question.”
“Sometimes,”
she whispered.
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Shannyn
Schroeder is the author of the O’Leary series, contemporary romances centered
around a large Irish-American family in Chicago and the new Hot & Nerdy
series about 3 nerdy friends and their last spring break. When she’s not
wrangling her three kids or writing, she watches a ton of TV and loves to bake
cookies.
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