posted on July 27, 2016 by Ashlee Mallory

The crazy things we do for love

By Ashlee Mallory

TPP_500Have you ever tried to be someone you’re not just to impress someone you liked? Maybe pretended you were a little more outgoing than you normally were, laughing a little harder or more frequently that if you were just with your friends? Maybe even possibly pretending that you enjoy something that you most definitely do not?

That’s the predicament that Dr. Benny Sorensen gets herself in when she tries to get the attention of the hot doctor at her work in The Playboy’s Proposal. In an effort to become the woman she thinks he wants, she might have given a few false impressions on her way to winning him over, particularly that she is something of a pro at golf.

Fortunately, she has playboy and ad man Henry Ellison willing to give her a few tips in both golf and appealing to the opposite sex—even if he is impossibly annoying.  In this excerpt, Henry is giving her a lesson on the driving range to some unexpected results. J

Man, she hated golf, but the artful way Henry swung that thing was…kind of hot.

“Try it,” he said, thankfully ignorant of her less-than chaste thoughts.

Pulling her tongue back into her mouth, she tried the same swing in what felt like exactly the same motion. By the tugging of Henry’s lips, she was going to assume she hadn’t quite duplicated the movement. Henry repeated his instruction and directed her to make some adjustments in the grip before he swung again.

She greedily eyed his form while he was preoccupied.

Marvelous.

When she realized he was waiting for her, she repeated his motion.

“Maybe we should practice with the ball.” He grabbed a couple and placed them on the tees in front of them before winding back again, the swooshing hypnotic, this time followed by the short cracking sound of the iron hitting the ball as it sailed up into the air and landed on the stretch of grass ahead of them.

At least, she was certain it had landed somewhere over there, since she was still watching Henry, his torso turned to the side and his arms flexed as he gripped the club, making it hard to miss the bulge of his biceps. His profile clean and striking, his lips parted as he watched the landing.

How did he get his hair to stay like that yet still look so touchably soft?

He turned toward her, and Benny tried to divert her eyes so he wouldn’t know she’d been slobbering over him. She reminded herself that Henry Ellison was a self-absorbed ladies’ man who was only helping her out to help himself—nothing more.

But when he smiled, telling her to give it a shot, that reminder went out the window.

She looked down at the end of her club as he continued to coach her. “Practice swinging, feeling the back-and-forth in your hips before you try and connect. The key is, when you’re about to hit the ball, keep your eye on the spot where you want it to go.”

Blah, blah, blah.

… Only nine swings later, other than hitting and tearing up the grassy area around the ball, she’d been unsuccessful. She shot him a frustrated look, blowing back a strand of hair that kept falling to her mouth. “I suck at this.”

“The problem is in your lineup. Here.” Henry walked behind her, and before she could even catch her breath, she felt his hands on her hips. She nearly shot out of her skin from his touch. “Easy,” he said somewhere near her ear before his arms went around her and his hands rested over hers on the golf club. “I’m just trying to show you the motion, the way you want your body to flow as you hit.”

Her body was flowing, all right. Her whole freaking body was buzzing from having him so near her, surrounding her. He smelled…good. Clean. Masculine. Goose bumps prickled along her arms.

Was this even appropriate in public? She looked up, her eyes wild, to see if everyone was staring at them in horror, but no one was even glancing their way.

Steady there, Benny. He’s just showing you a swing. Nothing more.

Do not turn around, though, whatever you do.

She exhaled slowly and worked to take in another breath. It was unnaturally quiet, and she realized that Henry was no longer talking or trying to move. Birds chirped from somewhere overhead, but she was paralyzed from moving or looking up.

Henry cleared his throat and shifted behind her, his arms dropping away from her. “Okay, let’s try again.”

She raised the club, her heart beating a trillion beats a second and brought it down, swinging through just as Henry taught her. Like before, she missed the ball and stumbled forward, trying to save herself on the follow through. Only this time, she did make contact with something.

From the oomph from behind her and the ball still perched on the tee at her feet, she knew it wasn’t the contact she’d wanted.

Thanks for checking out a little bit of The Playboy’s Proposal with me. Hope you enjoy the rest of your summer—preferably somewhere cool and shaded!

 

The Playboy’s Proposal
by Ashlee Mallory

Release Date: July 25, 2016

Doctor Benny Sorensen has had it up to here with her party-throwing playboy neighbor. She’s declaring war. She doesn’t care how gorgeous or charming he is, he’s going down. That is until he proposes something she’s not sure she can say no to…

Wealthy ad man Henry Ellison lives an uncomplicated life that revolves around work, women, and partying. In that order. Until Benny storms into his life. To placate his attractive but hotheaded neighbor, Henry offers to help her land a date with the man of her dreams. Only as Henry makes her over and coaches her on the fine art of flirting, he realizes that the idea of this woman in any other man’s arms but his own is unacceptable. But Benny’s a forever kind of girl and forever might just be the one commitment he can’t make.


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Ashlee Mallory

Ashlee Mallory

Ashlee Mallory is a USA Today Bestselling author of contemporary romance, romantic suspense, and thrillers. She currently resides in Utah with her husband and two kids. She aspires to one day include running, hiking and traveling to exotic destinations in her list of things she enjoys, but currently settles for enjoying a good book and a glass of wine from the comfort of her couch.

http://www.ashleemallory.com/

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