Now and Always

by C.J. Burright

Overview

FROM EXCITING ROMANCE AUTHOR C. J. BURRIGHT

Book one in the Hearts and Haunts series

Romance may not be all that awakens while two best friends renovate a mansion rumored to be haunted.

If you kiss your best friend…

Halloween-loving Ren needs a new job. The only problem? The sole accountant opening in her small town requires construction experience, which are skills she lacks. Luckily, her best friend Leo—sexy, grumpy and completely off limits—is a construction hotshot. Their relationship is perfect as is, and, despite the intense chemistry, Ren refuses to ruin it with romance. Leo agrees to teach her, with one condition—she must live on site with him…and somehow survive the temptation.

You’d better be sure…

Skeptic, sword-swinging Leo has loved Ren since she mistook him for a hardware employee in the plunger section two years ago. While he took his time winning her trust, she caged him in the friend zone. He’s done hiding his feelings, and living together—working, sleeping, playing—at the Gothic mansion he’s renovating will convince her that best friends make the best lovers.

It’s meant to be forever.

Ren resolves to resist Leo, even if he bends every rule. Discovering the mansion’s secrets—and lingering spirits, no matter what Leo claims—offers distraction enough. But with her defenses splintering, one kiss is all it takes to shatter every boundary, one night of passion to believe in happily ever after…and one crumbling letter of unrequited love to awaken ghosts forgotten. If Ren and Leo can’t piece together the past for two lost souls, they might lose more than their hearts.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781839436505
Publisher:	Totally Bound Publishing
Publication date:	01/10/2023
Series:	Hearts and Haunts , #1
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	389
Sales rank:	1,093,257
File size:	963 KB

About the Author

C.J Burright is a native Oregonian and refuses to leave. A member of Romance Writers of America and the Fantasy, Futuristic & Paranormal special interest chapter, while she has worked for years in a law office, she chooses to avoid writing legal thrillers (for now) and instead invades the world of paranormal romance, fantasy, and contemporary romance. C.J. also has her 4th Dan Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do and believes a story isn’t complete without at least one fight scene. Her meager spare time is spent working out, refueling with mochas, gardening, gorging on Assassin’s Creed, and rooting on the Seattle Mariners…always with music. She shares life with her husband, daughter, and a devoted cat herd.

Read an Excerpt

Copyright © C.J. Burright 2023. All Rights Reserved, Totally Entwined Group Limited, T/A Totally Bound Publishing.

“Isn’t Halloween the best?” Karen grinned at the wrinkled face peering from a warped mirror hanging in the long hallway. Empty eyes gazed back at her. Beside her, Leo pressed closer, his powerful body already invading her personal space—not that she’d ever complain.

The image in the mirror lunged as if to escape the glass. Leo jerked and pushed Karen behind him, almost knocking her over to put himself between her and danger.

“Boo!” With a leer, the face in the mirror vanished.

“I loathe Halloween,” Leo said, his voice strained. He steadied her with strong hands, but his face gleamed an unholy white in the gloom. “You know how much I hate it, and you still drag me to these things.”

“Hearing you squeal is too much fun to resist.”

“You’re sick, Ren.” He scowled but didn’t move away.

The lights flickered, giving the hallway a strobe effect. Leo’s black sweater and jeans turned an oily shade of jet. The red letters on her T-shirt reading Be Very, Very Afraid seemed to bleed. In a different section of the haunted house attraction, distant screams echoed like damaged sirens. Leo grabbed her hand in a death hold.

Her face hurting from a perpetual smile, she leaned into him and settled her free hand on his biceps for extra support. She wasn’t completely heartless, after all, and she’d always take advantage of any reasonable excuse to grope his spectacular body without being obvious. It never failed to amaze her that the biggest, strongest, sexiest man she knew—a man who also happened to be her best friend and was therefore off limits—lost his courage when it came to anything Halloween.

He towed her at a quicker pace down the hallway, as if he could escape if he moved fast enough.

Her smile stretched wider. There was no escape.

A motor roared behind them and filled the corridor with noise. In one nimble move, Leo jumped and spun to face the new threat. For such a big man, he was shockingly quick. As she turned, Leo made a noise somewhere between a shriek and a howl.

A clown bearing a roaring chainsaw barreled toward them, his mouth opened wide. Two rows of sharp teeth gleamed like knives in the strobing lights.

Karen shivered. Awesome.

The thought hadn’t even passed before Leo wrapped an arm around her waist, swept her off her feet and sprinted toward the exit sign at the end of the hall as if an army of hell hounds snapped at his heels. The walls closed in, the corridor narrowing with each of Leo’s pounding steps. Hands reached from the walls and clawed at their clothes as they passed. The clown with the chainsaw kept on coming with a chittering laugh.

The exit turned out to be a locked door. Leo skidded to a stop and pounded with his free hand. When that proved ineffective, he switched to kicking and cursing. Not once did he put her down.

Karen cackled with delight the entire way.

As the demented clown came within reach and lunged, the door opened on a groan. Leo leaped out and slammed the door behind him. A heavy thud followed, and the door shuddered beneath the impact of the clown’s failed pursuit. The chainsaw cut off, leaving them in silence and the crisp air of an early October night.

Leo didn’t set her on the ground until he’d jumped over the back porch stairs, onto the lawn and made it past the crooked fence surrounding the staged haunted house. He leaned against the trunk of an oak tree and closed his eyes, his breath ragged.

“I need a moment,” he gasped.

“Or two.”

He cracked an eye to glare. “Give me three.”

“So sad. A grown man scared of ghosties and goblins. The best way to overcome a fear is to face it full on.”

“Or go the mature route and avoid it.” He laid his head back and slumped. “That’s how I roll when it comes to demons and small children demanding candy.”

Laughing, Karen plopped onto the grass and stretched out her legs. She crossed her ankles and jiggled her boots, unable to contain the energy buzz still sliding through her. A bit of a fright—and watching Leo freak—had been exactly what she needed. “That was epic. Even better than the last two years. The clown at the end was a nice touch.”

“Horrifying. All of it.” Leo opened his eyes and inhaled. His broad chest expanded and stretched his black sweater taut in a delicious way that she pretended not to notice.

“You didn’t have to come with me.”

“You’ve had a crappy few weeks. If me being tortured cheers you up, I had to do it.”

The mention of the last few weeks of her life took her adrenaline-high down a notch. Most people believed the source of said crappiness was Ian O’Connor, the out-of-her-league lawyer at Hamilton&Associates where she worked her accounting magic. She’d crush-lusted on him longer than she should have, a physical-only appreciation and shameless flirting that had never reached her heart. Hell, she’d known she didn’t possess the necessary looks or charms to make more than a single blip on Ian’s radar, and his staunch commitment to noncommitment made any interest harmless. He’d been an easy distraction from—

She toyed with a loose thread on her sleeve. It didn’t matter. Now, Ian was engaged to her office friend Gia. And that was when the job situation had gone to Hades on a Harley.