Welcome! FREE Look of Love (The Sullivans) chapter posts + Audiobook + Exclusive Commentary from Bella begin today ❤️

"This sexy contemporary romance has it all—raw passion, emotion, fun and family! A delight to read!" 5 stars

May 01, 2022

Hello and welcome to my brand new Substack newsletter! I’m thrilled that you’ve subscribed and can’t wait for you to read my #1 bestselling romance novels.

As a lifelong romance reader (who devours up to a book a day when my writing schedule permits!), my favorite romances have always been about families. I love following brothers and sisters and cousins from book to book, not only for the pleasure of watching them fall in love, but also to watch each of their love stories grow deeper and richer throughout the series.

I couldn't be more excited about introducing you to the six brothers, two sisters, and fabulous mother who make up my San Francisco Sullivans in The Look of Love! From a winery owner to a movie star and even a librarian, while the Sullivan family runs the gamut of careers and personalities, they all have one big thing in common: They are there for each other, no matter what. Especially when the road to Happy Ever After isn't exactly smooth...

In The Look of Love, when photographer Chase Sullivan finds Chloe and her totaled car in Napa Valley, she's so lovely, inside and out, he wants to love and protect her. Only, she has vowed never to trust a man again. But could Chase be the only exception?

I absolutely loved writing Chase & Chloe's sweet—and sinful—journey toward true love, and I hope you enjoy reading about my Sullivans as much as I've enjoyed writing about them! (Note: Scroll down to get reading Chapter 1 right away.)

Please Note: My books are sexy and emotional love stories. Which is to say there will be lots of scenes where the hero and heroine are smooching (and doing much, much more!) in nearly all of my posts. 😍

“The Look of Love” DESCRIPTION:

After Chloe Peterson's car skids off the road in the Napa Valley wine country, she's ready to throw in the towel on a horrendous day. But when a gorgeous guy rescues her, though she’s immediately drawn to him, she knows better than to let her walls down with any man ever again.

Chase Sullivan is a successful photographer whose charm and charisma—along with his large and close-knit family—make him San Francisco's most eligible bachelor. Intent on helping Chloe through this rough patch in her life, Chase soon realizes that she is not only lovely, inside and out, she’s also intelligent, talented, and extremely brave. He has never felt like this about anyone before, never knew love could be so powerful, or so true…until she came into his life.

Though Chloe tries to resist Chase, with every loving look he gives her—and every sinfully sweet caress—the attraction between them sparks and sizzles. But after everything she's been through, can Chase convince Chloe that he will always be there for her...and that their love will last forever?

There are more than 50,000 5 star reviews for my books. Here are a few things fans have said about THE LOOK OF LOVE:

~ "This series is incredible! If you haven't started the Sullivans yet, you are missing out.” 5 stars

~ "Not since Nora Roberts has anyone been able to write a big family romance series with every book as good as the last! Bella Andre never disappoints." 5 stars,

~ "I am in love with the Sullivans! If you are looking for something sweet and sexy, then this series is absolutely perfect for you. The books are all amazing!" 5 stars

THE LOOK OF LOVE (The Sullivans)

Note: You can also listen to THE LOOK OF LOVE for free!
AUDIOBOOK: Chapter 1, The Look of Love

Chapter One

Chase Sullivan was seven years old when he picked up his father’s Polaroid camera for the first time and started taking pictures. For his eighth birthday, his father gave him his very own camera, both of them knowing by then that Chase was meant to be a photographer.

Chase took endless pictures of his seven brothers and sisters, his mother and his father—until he’d passed away when Chase was ten. His siblings hadn’t always liked having a lens pointed at them, and more than once one of his brothers had threatened to knock the camera out of his hand if he didn’t put it down.

And yet, even after over a decade of working as a professional photographer taking pictures of everything from desert landscapes to Olympic athletes, Chase still thought that his earliest subjects—his family—were some of the most interesting he’d ever captured.

Which was why he was happy to take on the role of official photographer at big family events. Especially one as important as his mother’s seventieth birthday party.

His brother Ryan’s house overlooking the San Francisco Bay was the perfect spot for the party. Despite the vast size of Ryan’s living room and kitchen, the place was packed with well-wishers who had come to celebrate the beloved head of the Sullivan clan.

Laughter and conversation were in high gear when Marcus, Chase’s oldest brother and the owner of Sullivan Winery, put his arm around their mother’s shoulders and brought her over to the big birthday cake. The noise level dropped as if on cue, and Chase put down his beer and picked up his camera. He began by taking shots of Sophie, his younger sister, carefully lighting the birthday candles she had artfully arranged to spell out their mother’s name as well as the number seventy.

As he looked through the viewfinder, Chase was struck, not for the first time, by just how much Sophie and their mother looked alike. Mary Sullivan had been a model when she’d met their father and, many decades later, she was nothing less than radiant as she stood surrounded by her children and friends.

Their mother’s hair was gray now and cut to curl at the base of her neck, rather than long and dark and glossy as it had been during her years on magazine covers, but in both of his twin sisters, Sophie and Lori, Chase could clearly see the resemblance to their mother in her mid-twenties. Mary still had the same lightly tanned skin and long, elegant limbs, and he was often struck by the way that her expression was a perfect combination of Sophie’s innate calm and Lori’s irrepressible energy.

He’d overheard more than one party guest remarking that it was hard to believe Mary was seventy years old when she looked at least ten years younger. Especially, many of them had added with a grin or a grimace—depending on which of her children they were looking at—when one considered that she had raised eight kids virtually by herself after her husband had passed away unexpectedly at forty-eight.

Chase’s chest twisted, as it always did, whenever he thought of his father. He wished Jack Sullivan could be here with them all. Not only because he still missed his father every single day, but also because he knew how much his mother had loved her husband.

Forcefully shaking off the dark thoughts, Chase took a shot of the cake with all of the candles blazing, seventy plus one for luck. Marcus led them in a rousing chorus of “Happy Birthday,” and soon, everyone in the room was joining in.

While their mother beamed at them as if they weren’t butchering the simple song with their off-key singing, Chase moved to the outer edge of the crowd to capture as much of his family as he could through the viewfinder.

When the birthday song finally warbled its way to the end, Marcus squeezed Mary’s hand, saying, “Time for you to make your wish, Mom.”

She looked out at the crowd of people who loved her, her smile meant for each and every one of them. “So many of my wishes have already come true.” Her grin grew wider. “And still, I want more. At least seventy more.”

They laughed along with her, each of them knowing she had to be one of the least greedy people on the planet. Whatever wishes she’d made in her life had clearly been made for her children. She’d never remarried, never even dated as far as Chase knew. Instead, she’d focused on raising them, supporting them, guiding them. Now that they were all adults, she was still always there if they needed her…and even, sometimes, when they didn’t realize that they did.

So as Mary Sullivan closed her eyes to make her wish, and then opened them again to bend down and blow out the candles, Chase hoped she was making at least one for herself.

Everyone applauded, and he got a great shot of Marcus pressing a kiss to their mother’s cheek, while Sophie wrapped her arms around Mary from behind. One by one, Chase captured the images he knew their mother would love of his brothers and sisters celebrating with her on her birthday.

Soon, Chase had all the shots he needed to put together a great photo book to commemorate the special day. He could have put his camera down, but he knew better. In a family of eight siblings, each of them had to carve out his or her unique place. The photos Chase had taken over the past twenty-plus years gave clear evidence as to the way their personalities had only grown more distinct with time.

Even before their father had passed away, Marcus had taken his role as oldest Sullivan seriously. At fourteen, all of his training paid off when he was able to immediately step in to try to fill their father’s shoes. Chase knew they all owed Marcus for the childhood he’d given up for them, and was beyond glad that his brother had found his own calling in the vineyards and varietals of Sullivan Winery, which he’d founded ten years ago. Unfortunately, as Chase turned his camera to focus on his oldest brother, he found a frown on Marcus’s face as he spoke to his girlfriend, Jill. She was evidently upset about something, her mouth pinched, her eyes narrowed as she gestured at the rest of them. Seeing frustration so clearly stamped on his brother’s face, Chase lowered his camera. He didn’t feel right about capturing this moment between Marcus and his girlfriend, not when he was certain Marcus wouldn’t want any of them to know that all wasn’t right.

Lori, his twenty-four-year-old sister and Sophie’s twin, tugged on his elbow, and he gladly looked down into her grinning, mischievous face. “You look happy, Naughty. Have you and Nice made up yet?”

Long ago, he’d christened Lori Naughty and Sophie Nice. Were it not for the fact that they were physical carbon copies, Chase wouldn’t believe for a second that they were related to each other. Unfortunately, for the past few months, the twins hadn’t exactly been getting along. Not that either of them would tell their brothers a damn thing about why they were fighting, of course. Even when they were at odds, Chase mused, the twins always worked as a team.

Out of all of his siblings, Lori had always been his most willing subject. A fantastic choreographer, Lori had always loved to dance and from the age of two on she’d happily performed for him while he took frame after frame of her little body in motion as she twirled, leaped and shimmied. And yet, he believed his most striking shots of his little sister had always been taken after all the motion had stopped, and she had forgotten that she was being photographed. She channeled her love, her energy, her passion, into dancing, and when she was still, all of those emotions remained on her very pretty face.

In silent answer to his question about her twin, Lori looked in Sophie’s direction and frowned. “Don’t get me started on her,” she said, before giving a quick shake of her head and turning back to Chase to confirm, “Oh, yes, I’m definitely happy.” She directed his attention to where their brothers Zach and Gabe looked to be having a rather intense discussion, clenched fists and all. “Have you met Zach’s date for the evening yet?”

“I have,” Chase said as he shot the bottle-blonde in the sky-high heels a quick glance. The woman was pretty, just like all the rest of the women Zach went out with, but not particularly memorable. As he looked back and forth between his brothers, it didn’t take long for Chase to guess what had Lori grinning from ear to ear.

“Gabe used to date her, didn’t he?”

Lori laughed as she nodded. “He sure did.”

Throw six brothers between the ages of twenty-seven and thirty-six together, and things were bound to get messy. All eight siblings together under one roof meant lots of laughs, plenty of ribbing…and likely at least one major argument. But since it was obvious that neither of his brothers was serious about the girl, Chase figured there was a zero percent chance that they were going to come to blows over her other than as an excuse to blow off some steam with their fists.

Since high school, Chase had heard more than one woman exclaim over Zach’s looks, and, boy, did his brother work his genetic luck-of-the-draw. Given that Zach loved two things—fast cars and even faster women—Chase supposed it all had worked out just fine so far. Grinning as he took a few pictures of Zach working to lay claim to his own date, Chase decided he would torture a couple of friends who ran a successful modeling agency with these pictures of Zach next week. Because if Zach would ever agree to put down his wrenches and give up his race cars to pose in the latest designer clothes, even for one week, the modeling agent could charge pretty much anything he wanted for Zach’s time.

Then again, Chase thought as he moved his lens to focus on Gabe, any agent worth his salt would try to get Gabe to sign onto his roster, as well. Even though Gabe was the youngest of his brothers, he also happened to be one of the biggest and strongest Sullivans. He had the most dangerous job of any of them, working as a firefighter in San Francisco. More than once, he’d had to leave parties like this one over the years when a call had come in. And every time he had, every last one of the normally loud group of Sullivans had taken a quiet moment to pray for his safety. Tonight, Chase hoped the rain coming down outside meant Gabe would get to stay with them at least until the party ended.

He’d just lowered his camera when Lori said, “I don’t know why Zach and Gabe are even bothering to argue over the girl when she can’t take her eyes off of Smith.” With a shrug over their movie-star brother’s infinite allure to every female on the planet, Lori told him, “I’m going to get some cake before it’s all gone. I’ll be sure to get you a middle piece.”

Chase lifted his camera back up as his sister flirted her way back into the center of the party. No question about it, his high-maintenance, stunning sister was going to make some poor guy crazy one day. And the guy would be lucky as hell to win Lori’s big heart.

Of course, she knew the camera was on her, because she turned and winked at him and mouthed, “I told you so,” as she gestured with her thumb to where Smith had just been cornered by Zach’s date.

Chase almost felt bad turning his camera to his brother Smith. For the past fifteen years, Smith’s love of acting—and his immense talent—had put him at the mercy of thousands of cameras and the worldwide media. Chase always laughed at the way people lost it around his movie-star brother. Smith was just as normal as the rest of them.

Although, he had to admit, chartering a one-hundred-and-fifty-foot yacht in Italy and filling it with celebrities wasn’t exactly normal.

Even now, as the woman stood just a little too close while asking Smith for an autograph, Chase was struck by how well his older brother dealt with his fame. Still, while he never complained to them, Chase knew the pressure to always be “on” and play the role of “Smith Sullivan” for the entire world had to grate sometimes. It was why when they were together with just the family, Chase and his siblings made sure to treat Smith like he was no different than any of them.

Just to Smith’s right, their brother Ryan lifted a heavy chest out of the way so that people could have room to dance as the swing band started up. As a professional athlete, Ryan was tall and muscular and made the movement look effortless, but through the camera eye Chase caught the slight clench of his jaw as Ryan’s right shoulder gave just a little too far under the weight. As a kid, his brother’s number one goal had been to pitch for the San Francisco Hawks. They’d had one heck of a celebration the day Ryan had been chosen as the Hawks’ top draft pick out of college. For the past ten years, Ryan had made those strikeouts look easy. But Chase knew just how focused his brother could be when he wanted something, just as focused as he’d always been on being the best damned pitcher in the National Baseball League.

As soon as Ryan cleared the dance floor, Lori put down her piece of cake, took his hand and pulled him onto it. Chase continued to photograph them as Ryan tried to draw Sophie in to dance with them, too, but Sophie simply shook her head and moved deeper into the shadows.

Sophie was Lori’s direct opposite, Nice to Lori’s Naughty. He couldn’t imagine her being anything other than a librarian and knew she absolutely loved her job at the main branch in San Francisco. Even when they were kids, whenever she saw him with his camera, she’d simply lift the book she was holding higher over her face until he gave up on her and went to find another victim. He knew she was steering a purposefully wide berth around him and his camera tonight. Chase had always thought that it was just as much of a gift to know how to blend into the background as it was to know how to shine in front of a camera. From the time she was a little girl, Sophie had been mastering the art of observing. Watching. Taking it all in. He’d learned a lot from her over the years and often thought of her as he stepped behind his camera.

A moment later, Chase felt a slender but strong arm move around his waist. He put down his camera to press a kiss to the top of his mother’s head.

“Happy birthday, Mom. I hope you’re having a good time.”

She smiled up at him before saying the same thing she did every year when they all gathered together to celebrate her. “I’m having the best birthday ever, honey. Simply the best.”

Together, with their arms around each other, and as they watched his brothers and sisters dance and laugh, talk and argue, Chase agreed. It really was the best birthday party ever.

A few minutes later, Sophie was more than happy to take some pictures of Chase with their mother. “Whatever you do, don’t smile,” Sophie told them both, a favorite family joke their father had come up with long ago when trying—and failing—to get eight unruly kids to all smile for the camera at once. He’d finally told them all not to smile, or else! Of course, being forbidden to smile for a picture had made them all giggle so hard that the family photo had come out perfectly.

Rain had started falling in earnest, and Chase could see from the darkening sky outside the window that the weather was about to turn downright nasty. With an early-morning photo shoot scheduled at Marcus’s winery in Napa Valley, Chase had already planned to leave the party a little early. In the dark and the rain, the drive to Napa from the city would take even longer than usual so it would be best to leave sooner rather than later.

With a promise to send his mother the photos as soon as he could, Chase slipped his camera back into his bag, gave her one last hug and then headed out.

* * *

Over an hour later, as Chase’s BMW rounded a curve in the narrowing road that led to Sullivan Winery, his windshield wipers were barely making a dent in the rain, and the view of the roads through Napa Valley was continually obscured.

For the next four days, Chase was doing a photo shoot at Marcus’s winery for Jeanne & Annie, a growing fashion house that combined haute couture with homegrown style. The models and crew would be staying at a hotel in town, but Chase was going to be staying in his brother’s guesthouse in the middle of the vineyard. The winery was the perfect location for the shoot, especially in the spring with the grape vines budding with bright green leaves and the mustard flowers blooming between every row.

A bolt of lightning suddenly lit up the sky, and if there had been enough of a shoulder on the narrow country road, Chase would have pulled over to take some shots of the storm. He loved the rain. Big weather changed the way things looked and could transform an ordinary field into a marsh full of a thousand birds making an impromptu pit stop. Conditions that sent most photographers into a tizzy—especially if they depended on the perfect sunset to nail their pictures—were exactly what got him going.

It was in those moments, when everyone was cold and nothing was going “right,” that magic would happen. The models would finally drop their guard and let him see past their hair and makeup to who they really were. Chase believed there needed to be a true emotional connection with the camera for real human beauty—along with the beauty of the clothes or jewelry or shoes that they were wearing—to really shine through.

Of course, early on in his career, being around all that physical beauty had made Chase just as big a player as every other guy in the business. At first that had been one of the bonuses of his job, but when he’d hit his late twenties and realized that his flavor of the night hadn’t lasted a full eight hours but his photographs were forever, he’d slowed down some.

Then again, between his recent trips in and out of Asia and the fact that there hadn’t been anyone who’d gotten his motor going, he’d abstained from one-night stands for the past month. He was planning on breaking his dry spell tonight with Ellen, one of Marcus’s head winery managers whom he’d met while planning the shoot. A few e-mails was all it had taken to set things up. A strings-free night of naked fun was just what the doctor ordered, even if Chase suspected Marcus wasn’t going to be particularly happy about his brother having a fling with one of his employees. Well, he figured, they were all adults.…

The rain was heavy enough that Chase almost missed the flickering light off on the right side of the two-lane country road. In the past thirty minutes, he hadn’t passed one car, because on a night like this, most sane Californians stayed home.

He slowed down and turned on his brights to get a better view through the pouring rain. Not only was there a car stuck in the ditch, but there was a person walking along the edge of the road about a hundred yards up ahead. Obviously hearing his car approach, she turned to face him, and he could see her long wet hair whipping around her shoulders in his headlights.

Wondering why she wasn’t just sitting in her car, dry and warm, calling Triple-A and waiting for them to come save her, he pulled over to the edge of the road and got out of his car. The woman was shivering as she watched him approach.

“Are you hurt?”

She covered her cheek with one hand but shook her head. “No.”

He had to move closer to hear her over the sound of the rain hitting the pavement. The temperature had dropped, and the rain was rapidly becoming hailstones. Even though he still had his headlights on, it was dark enough that it took his eyes a few minutes to adjust to the darkness. Finally, he was able to get a better look at her face.

That was when something inside of Chase’s chest clenched tight.

Despite the long, dark hair plastered to her head and chest, regardless of the fact that “looking like a drowned rat”wasn’t too far off the descriptive mark, her beauty stunned him.

In an instant, his photographer’s eye cataloged her features. Her mouth was a little too big, her eyes a little too wide-set on her face. She wasn’t even close to model thin, but given the way her T-shirt and jeans stuck to her skin, he could see that she wore her lush curves well. In the dark he couldn’t judge the exact color of her hair, but it looked like silk, perfectly smooth and straight where it lay over her breasts.

It wasn’t until Chase heard her say, “My car is definitely hurt, though,” that he realized he had completely lost the thread of what he’d come out here to do.

Knowing he’d been drinking her in like he was dying of thirst, he worked to recover his balance. He could already see he’d been right about her car. It didn’t take a mechanic like his brother Zach to see that her hatchback was borderline totaled. Even if the front bumper hadn’t been half-smashed to pieces by the white farm fence she’d slid into, her bald tires weren’t going to get any traction on the mud. Not tonight, anyway.

If her car had been in a less precarious situation, he probably would have sent her to go back to sit inside her car while he took care of getting it unstuck. But he didn’t like the way one of her back tires was hanging over the edge of the ditch.

Chase jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “Get in my car. We can wait there for a tow truck.” He was vaguely aware of his words coming out like an order, but the hail was starting to sting, damn it. Both of them needed to get out of the rain before they froze.

But the woman didn’t move. Instead, she gave him a look that said he was a complete and utter nut-job.

“I’m not getting into your car.”

Realizing just how frightening it must be for a woman to end up stuck and alone at the side of a dark road, Chase took a step back from her before saying, “I’m not going to attack you. I swear I won’t do anything to hurt you.”

She all but flinched at the word attack, and Chase’s radar started buzzing. He’d never been a magnet for troubled women and wasn’t the kind of guy who thrived on fixing wounded birds. But living with two sisters for so long meant he could always tell when something was up.

And something was definitely up with this woman, beyond the fact that her car was half-stuck in a muddy ditch.

Wanting to make her feel safe, he held his hands up. “I swear on my father’s grave, I’m not going to hurt you. It’s okay to get into my car.” When she didn’t immediately say no again, he pressed his advantage with, “I just want to help you.” And he did. Much more than it made sense to want to help a total stranger. “Please,” he said. “Let me help you.”

She stared at him for a long moment, hail hammering between them, around them, onto them. Chase found himself holding his breath, waiting for her decision. It shouldn’t matter to him what she decided.

But, for some strange reason, it did.

* * *

Chloe Peterson had never felt so wet, so miserable…or so desperate. She’d been beating the speed limit for the past couple of hours, before the storm had kicked into overdrive. She’d slowed down considerably on the superslick pavement, but her tires were old and bald, and before she knew it her car was skidding off the road.

Straight into a muddy ditch.

It might have been easier—smarter, too—to sit in her car and wait out the storm. But she’d been too keyed up to stay still. She’d needed to keep moving; otherwise the thoughts knocking around in her head were going to catch up with her. So she’d slung her backpack over her shoulders and stepped out into the rain, just as it started to turn into out-and-out hail.

The hard little pellets hurt her skin, but she’d been glad for the cold, for the sting. Because it gave her something else to focus on, something besides what had happened just hours ago. She still could hardly believe that—

No. She couldn’t let herself think too closely about what had happened. Tonight her focus had to be on getting out of the rain and finding somewhere safe and dry to rest until morning. Tomorrow would be soon enough to try to piece together how everything had gone so terribly wrong so quickly.

Chloe hadn’t been exactly sure of her location, but she’d hoped she was walking in the direction of town.

All night long, the roads through the wine country, roads she’d driven before in what felt like someone else’s life now, had been strangely empty, but she’d barely starting walking away from her car when she’d realized headlights were coming up behind her.

Fear had knocked into her again as an expensive car pulled over to the side, and she’d had to stop to brace herself to withstand it. She was all alone on a dark, wet, country road. She didn’t have her cell phone, and even if she had, she doubted there was enough reception out here in the storm for it to get a signal. The fact that the car was expensive didn’t settle her nerves. If anything, knowing that whoever was in the car had money only made her more nervous. Because if there was one thing she’d learned all too clearly over the past six months, it was that money meant power. Power over women like her.

And then the man—the very large man—had gotten out of his car and started walking toward her, telling her to get into his car.

No way.

He’d tried to convince her that she was safe with him. He’d said all the right things, but she’d had too much experience with people who easily said one thing, then did another.

“I don’t know you,” she told him. He could be an ax murderer. She’d just have to walk to find a place to dry off later.

She could see the frustration on his face, knew he was about to try to reason with her again, when suddenly the sound of skidding tires came at them.

Before she knew what was happening, he was pulling her into his arms. She didn’t have time to think of fighting him, didn’t even consider it when she realized a fast-moving motorcycle was practically on top of them.

She closed her eyes, bracing for impact, when the man effortlessly lifted her and jumped into the ditch, holding her tightly against him.

She opened her eyes just in time to watch the motorcycle’s back tires skid and then finally catch hold just in the place she’d been standing. Her heart, which had all but stopped, started racing again as she watched the motorcycle speed away.

She realized she was panting as oxygen raced back into her lungs. She was shaking, too, both from the cold and from the scare.

“Are you okay?”

Chloe looked up at the man who had shielded her from harm with his own body, and for the first time since he’d stepped out of his car, something other than fear ran through her as she was hit hard with the realization of just how attractive he was.

No, she silently admitted to herself. Attractive was a paltry word for a man like this. Even in the dark, she could see that he put other men to shame. Even in the cold rain with his hair and clothes plastered to his skin and several streaks of mud across his cheekbones, he was utterly gorgeous.

And her body was reacting to him with surprising heat.

Or maybe, she suddenly realized, that heat was coming from the fact that he was still cradling her in his strong arms.

That steady strength, along with the way he’d moved her out of the way of the too-close motorcycle without giving even one thought to his own safety, had her teetering on the edge of trusting him. And on any other night, perhaps it would have been enough. But was it?

Now that they were safe again, Chloe struggled to stand up in the slippery dirt as she tried to right her thoughts so that she could come to some sort of rational decision. She was also splattered with mud from where he’d landed in the ditch with her in his arms, and her attempt to climb out of the ditch only made the mess worse.

“Wait a minute,” the man said in a low but soothing voice. “Let me get us out of here.”

A few moments later, after moving with surprising effortlessness through the mud and the rain, he put her down on the side of the road.

Her eyes had adjusted enough in the dark by then for her to clearly see into his eyes as he told her, “It really isn’t safe to be out here. Not for either of us.” He looked so sincere, and not at all like he planned on hurting her.

Common sense told her that this man, this stranger, was right, and yet, she was still wary. Incredibly so.

But at this very moment, out in the rain and the dark in a town where she knew absolutely no one, what other choice did she have?

In her mind she replayed the way he’d protected her from harm by not only pulling her from the path of the motorcycle, but also using his own body to brace their fall into the ditch.

“Okay. I’ll go with you,” Chloe finally said.

She sincerely hoped she didn’t end up regretting her choice.