Ellie Reynold’s spent one hot night with the handsome new guy in town. Not her usual MO, she wants to keep this dirty little secret between the two of them while they decide if they want more… but she should know better. In a small town like Red Maple Falls nothing stays hidden for long.

O’Reilly wants a fresh start to try and put behind him years of working undercover. Ellie wasn’t supposed to be part of that plan. But he can’t get the beautiful woman out of his mind, and when she shows up on his doorstep asking for help to find her troubled brother, he can’t say no to her.

Convinced her brother is in trouble, Ellie and O’Reilly work together, forcing O’Reilly to immerse himself back into a world he was trying to escape. He quickly realizes, for Ellie, he’d do just about anything even if it means donning another identity and losing himself again.

Enamored with Ellie brings more heat and mystery in the newest installment of Red Maple Fal

Chapter 1

The snow fell lightly outside the window as Sam gazed down at his beautiful fiancée. He trailed his finger up and down Hadley’s arm while she slept soundly against his chest. Her shoulder-length blonde hair was sprawled out around her like a glowing crown fit for an angel.

He couldn’t believe in a few short weeks Hadley, the girl he had known most of his life, would be his wife.

Wife.

 If someone would have told him a year ago that he was planning on settling down, he would have laughed in their face. But then Hadley confessed that she had
been in love with him for years, opening his eyes to what had been in front of him all along.

Hadley wasn’t just any girl—she was his soulmate, the woman who understood him like no one else and whose kisses he would never get bored of. Asking her to marry him was the best decision he’d
ever made and when she said yes? Well hell, that was the best damn day of his life.

The corner of his lips tugged as he thought of Hadley walking toward him, draped in white, with a gorgeous smile on her face.

Her hand slid down his side, and she turned her head, pressing a kiss to his chest. “Morning,” she said, looking up at him with beautiful blue eyes, heavy with sleep.

“Morning, gorgeous.”

“Gorgeous?” she snorted, running a hand over her hair. “Nobody is gorgeous first thing in the morning.” Just then, Lady, Hadley’s beloved dog, poked her head up from the edge of the bed where she’d been sleeping.

Hadley sat up and leaned across to the senior golden cocker spaniel, scratching behind her ears. “Except for you, girl. You’re always gorgeous.” She rained loud kisses on the top of Lady’s
snout as Sam pushed up against the headboard.

“I see how it is.”

“Jealous?” Hadley asked, a wicked grin playing at the edge of her mouth.

Sam wrapped his arm around her waist and yanked her back to him. A loud laugh burst from her pretty lips as he hugged
her closely and pressed a kiss to her neck. Sam felt the weight of Lady leave the bed and heard her nails against the hardwood floors as she made her way down the hallway.

“You scared her away,” Hadley joked, but then Sam found the hard peek of Hadley’s nipple straining against her thin tank
top and rolled it between his thumb and pointer finger. “Oh,” Hadley moaned as she rested into his touch. He loved how responsive she was and how he knew exactly how to work her body.

“I can call her back,” Sam said against Hadley’s ear. Unable to resist, he dipped his head, nipping at the sensitive skin.

“She’s a big girl. She can let herself out.”

Sam had installed a doggie door over the summer for this very reason. He loved the old timer pooch, but he really hated
Hadley leaving his arms before he was ready to let her go. The door was his genius idea to fix that problem, but he didn’t expect Lady to take so long to get on board with it. It was almost as if she refused to let herself out to
spite him, but after many days and nights of pep talks and even attempting to climb through the door himself, the stubborn old girl finally caved.

Though, it took Hadley even longer to go along with it. Lady was her baby and there wasn’t much she would do without
Lady at her side, which was why the former foster dog turned forever pup was going to be a bridesmaid in their upcoming wedding. Sam hadn’t even blinked an eye when Hadley had suggested it.

Sam flipped Hadley beneath him and kissed his way down her neck. Her body moved against his, pressing in all the right
places, begging for his touch.

Hadley grabbed his head, halting his advances. “I really should get up. I have to meet Shay to discuss the cake.”

“Just tell her to make what she wants,” he said.  

“The cake is an important part of the wedding.”

Wedding planning was outside of his wheelhouse, and he had let Hadley take the reins. He didn’t care about the cake or the flowers, the suits or her dress. She could show up in a burlap sack, and he’d still feel like the luckiest damn guy alive. The only thing he cared about was making Hadley his wife; everything else didn’t matter to him, but it mattered to her and because of that, and that alone, he agreed to have a
ceremony with their family and friends instead of following in her sister Kate’s footsteps and eloping.

Sam kissed his way back up to Hadley’s mouth, capturing her bottom lip between his teeth. He nipped gently then swiped his tongue across the seam before pulling back. Hadley whimpered, and he smiled down at her. “It’s just a cake.”

“Don’t tell Shay that.”

“Never. I like my balls.”

He knew better than to downplay the importance of cake to his best friend’s wife. As the owner of Sweet Dreams Bakery, Shay took baked goods very seriously.

Hadley slipped out from under him, but just before she slid off the bed, he grabbed her and drew her back into his arms.

“Sam!” Hadley laughed. “I have to go.”

“Just five more minutes.”

“We both know it is never five minutes.”

He nuzzled her neck, brushing her hair behind her ear and loving the floral scent of her shampoo. “Aren’t you lucky.”

She shrugged with indifference. “I guess.”

“You guess?” he exclaimed, grabbing her by the sides and running his fingers along her most ticklish spots.

A string of giggles fell from her lips as she wiggled against him. Her back pressed into his chest, the curve of her ass pushing into his growing erection. A moan rumbled up his throat as her tank top lifted and his hand brushed against her soft skin.

“I give! I give!” Hadley cried out.

At her surrender his fingers slowed to a sensual stroke as he hooked his pointer into the hem of her tank top and inched
it up over her head.

“Five minutes,” she said with a smile as she turned in his arms. “Ten tops.”

Ten minutes wouldn’t be enough to do all the things he wanted to do to her, but if ten minutes was all he was going to get, then he was going to damn well make every second count.