Taking You Down, the fourth and (for now) final book in the Juniper Cove series, comes out in a little over a week. It starts Rose and Landon, and will finally answer the questions I’ve been getting about what exactly went down between the two of them to make them hate each other so much—and will feature plenty of swoon-worthy scenes as they’re forced to work together.

Of course, in the process of working together there’s a little (or, more accurately, a lot) of banter. You might say there’s some unresolved tension…

Landon Kent stood there, the moonlight bathing him in a soft light.

But there was nothing soft about him. Not the angle of his jaw, not the glint in his eye. His body, which was covered by the suit, seemed to take up all the space despite the fact we’d left the crowd behind.

He continued to walk towards me. “Bored with your date?”

I blinked. Of all the things I’d expected him to say, that was the last of them.

“Do you ever wear anything other than suits?” I demanded, ignoring his question. My love life was none of his business.

“Occasionally, I wear much less.” His voice was low, an almost sultry note to it I didn’t know Landon could make.

“I guess the fires of hell must burn off your clothing.”

He continued to move towards me, his lip quirking up. “‘Fires of hell?’” He almost sounded amused.

“Since you wanted me to make a deal with the devil, I figured you must go back to the home office on occasion.”

And then he was right in front of me. I tried to back up, but my back just met the hard wooden planks.

“Does your date know about this side of you?”

“What side is that? My pissed off one?”

“Prickly, perhaps.” Landon was right in front of me. I could breathe in that expensive cologne, could pick it out from all the other scents the bar had left on us.

I took a sip of beer to buy myself a moment. “Would you leave me alone?”

“Like your date did?” He shook his head. “What kind of shit date did you pick, Rose? He just let you walk out without a look back.”

“Because I asked for space, asshole. Some guys actually respect that.”

Instead of looking insulted by my insinuation, Landon actually had the nerve to look pleased. “Bored of him already?”

“Will you shut up about my dating life already?” I snapped. I didn’t exactly have a defense to that. Besides, Landon was the one who was prone to getting bored of people, as I’d learned the hard way.

“What are you doing here anyway, trolling for someone with low enough standards to sleep with you?”

“You volunteering?” he asked immediately. But the tone said he wasn’t serious. Obviously.

When I didn’t answer, he took that as an invitation to continue polluting the night with his voice. His new, sultry, teasing voice. “Do you like thinking about me having sex, Rose?”

The images that flew through my mind when Landon said the word sex were involuntary. They were not my fault.

And they were very explicit.

“Just leave me alone,” I growled, lifting my hand on reflex to shove him away.

He blocked the movement in one fluid motion, grabbing my wrist and pinning it back by my side.

“Can’t have you ruining my other suit.”

He was even closer, our bodies flush. I twisted, trying to get away. My pinned hand did have the beer I’d been sipping. It hadn’t occurred to me to throw my drink at him again, but I should have.

“Still mad about that?”

“Did you know this stupid town doesn’t have a dry cleaner?” he said, indignant.

Stupid town. A stark reminder of what he thought of us. And I did know, because I lived here, the same way I knew we had had a dry cleaner until Maisey Donalds retired three years ago to move out to the Midwest to be near her grandkids.

“Poor baby,” I said. “Where would you be without your fancy clothes?”

“Thinking about me naked again?”

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Lots of Love,

Vesper Young