NEW RELEASE from Lucy Felthouse – Curve Appeal, a standalone contemporary reverse harem/why choose romance! (@cw1985) #reverseharem #whychoose #rh #rhromance #eroticromance #bbw #curvyheroine #rubenesque
Blurb:
Anexciting opportunity could solve all Brianna's problems. But will it ultimatelycreate more?
BriannaDenton is a primary school teacher at the end of her tether. Budget cuts,changes in legislation and a pandemic have left her feeling like walking away fromthe only career she's ever wanted. The trouble is, if she did quit, what wouldshe do next? Living in London is expensive, and keeping on top of her rent andbills while retraining would be nigh-on impossible. An offer to move in withher best friend, Joel Harris, is appreciated, but feels way too much likecharity for her liking.
Butthen Joel throws her a curveball. On a complete whim, he's bought a fixer-uppercottage on a remote Scottish island. He wants to transform it into anuber-luxury holiday home and rent it out. To do that, however, he needs askilled, reliable workforce and a project manager to keep things runningsmoothly. A visit to the island in question provides as many questions asanswers, but one thing becomes clear - Brianna is the perfect woman for thejob. She's smart, organised, works well under duress, and if she can handle aclassroom full of young children, surely a bunch of skilled tradesmen won't bea problem. Working and living in such a stunning setting is a massive plus point,too.
Briannatakes a leap of faith, leaving her home and beloved career behind to help turnJoel's dream into a reality. It's a steep learning curve, but Brianna isdefinitely up for the challenge. But when working relationships develop intosomething more, will it bring the entire project crashing down around her ears,or is it simply the beginning of a whole new life?
Available from (will be in Kindle Unlimited for 90 days,then be released on all other retailers): https://books2read.com/curveappeal
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Excerpt:
Brianna smiled as she caught sight ofJoel, already waiting for her outside the pub. His job as a high-flying LondonCity banker meant he put in some insane hours at work, but he ensured he was alwaysavailable and on time for their last-Friday-of-the-month meet up at theirfavourite Thames-side establishment. Not only was it a lovely place, but thelocation was perfect for them both—it was just far away enough from Joel’s workit was unlikely he’d bump into any colleagues, and close enough to the primaryschool Brianna taught in that she could tie up any loose ends and scurry theshort distance to meet her friend in no time at all. Today she’d had quite afew loose ends, which always seemed to be the way lately, and was a few minuteslater than she’d planned, so was scurrying more quickly than usual, not wantingto keep him waiting any longer than necessary.
He hadn’t spotted her yet—he wasleaning against the wall, one expensively-shod foot propped up on the bricksbehind him, his head tilted up to the early spring sunshine, which even thislate in the day was surprisingly strong and picked up the few lighter strandsin his dark hair. He’d removed his tie—knowing him, the moment he set footoutside his office building—the end of which poked from the pocket of his blacktrousers, and rolled up the cuffs of his subtly-patterned shirt to expose mostof his forearms. The look was casual, relaxed. Handsome.
In a parallel universe, she and Joelmight be a couple, off travelling the world together, or perhaps married andgetting ready to settle down and have a couple of kids. Maybe they’d have startedearly and had the kids already. And a dog.
In this universe, however, theywere best friends—had been since their first day of senior school at the tenderage of eleven. And while Brianna thought Joel handsome, it was in an impartial,stating a fact way. She wasn’t attracted to him, and it wouldn’t have made adifference if she was, because in this universe, Joel was as gay as theycame—a fact she hadn’t realised she’d already known, until at eighteen he’d sather down, his expression serious, and said he had something to tell her.
Her heart had pounded, and a sickfeeling had taken over her stomach. Thoughts started racing through herhead—was one of his parents ill? Was he ill? Was he moving away? Unableto cope with the internal onslaught of negativity any longer, she’d said, “ForChrist’s sake, Joel, spill the beans, would you? You’re freaking me the fuckout.”
His seriousness had morphed briefly toannoyance, then resignation. He’d taken in and released a deep breath, then,“Bree, I wanted you to be the first to know… I’m gay.”
A sound somewhere between a squeak anda giggle had escaped her lips before she could stop it. She’d clapped her handover her mouth for a second, then removed it and burst out with “Oh, youidiot!” before landing a playful slap on his arm. “Is that all? I thought youwere going to say something bad. That something terrible was going on. Thank God.”
Joel had frowned. “So you… don’t mind?”He’d paused, narrowed his eyes. “You don’t seem surprised.”
She’d shaken her head. “Of course Idon’t mind. Why the hell would I mind? I’m not a homophobe. If blokesfloat your boat, so be it. As long as you’re happy, I couldn’t give a toss.And, for the record…” it had been her turn to pause, “I think I’ve known foryears.” She nodded as long-forgotten jigsaw pieces began slotting together inher head, then shrugged. “Yeah. I have. Years.”
And now, twenty years later, theirfriendship had endured—flourished, even. Weathered storms, and basked insunlight—much as Joel continued to do as she grew closer. Her smile widened,and she was glad she had on flat shoes—not only did it make both her job andthe short walk from the school easier, it also meant she had a good chanceof creeping up on Joel, maybe scaring the shit out of him as he sunned himself.They might be approaching forty, but when they were together, they often actedas immature and idiotic as they had when they’d first met. Yes, they weregetting older, but they sure as shit weren’t growing up.
Respective partners had come and gone,most of them never able to comprehend, much less tolerate, hers and Joel’sunique friendship, but as their jobs, and other friends and family kept thembusy and fulfilled, singledom had never particularly concerned either of them.As far as she was concerned, at least, what would be, would be.
She enjoyed the sunshine on her skin asshe closed the gap between them, then held her breath as she came within acouple of metres of Joel before flinging herself forward and grabbing onto hisnearest finely-muscled arm. “Gotcha!”
He yelped, jumped, snatched his armaway and opened his eyes in a hilarious sequence, then clutched his chest andgave her a good-natured glare, his blue eyes glinting. “Fuck’s sake, Bree!You’re lucky I didn’t swing for you, then. I thought someone was trying to robme.”
“That’ll teach you to wear ludicrouslyexpensive watches,” she replied with a snicker.
He glanced wryly at his Patek Philippe,then looked back at her with a grin. “Touché. Come on,” he turned around,slipped his arm through hers and led her into the relative gloom of the pub,“for that twattishness, first drink’s on you.”
She couldn’t argue with that reasoning.It was still worth it, though, to see the look of pure panic cross his face.She stifled further giggles, not wanting to inspire her friend to order themost expensive drink he could think of, purely to get his own back. While topof the range watches were easily within his budget, she’d had to save up for amid-range Fitbit.
A few minutes later, with drinks inhand, they sat down at a table on the terrace overlooking the river and tooksimultaneous sips of their chosen beverages. Brianna swallowed the mouthful ofchilled white wine, then, without meaning to, let out a long, contented sigh.
Joel raised an eyebrow as he swiggedhis beer, then said, “Sounds as though you needed that. Tough week?”
“Hmm. You could say that.” She fidgetedin her seat, getting the uncomfortable inkling she’d opened a can of wormsshe’d have preferred was left undisturbed.
“Oh?” His other eyebrow jumped up tojoin the first. “Do tell.”
She stared out over the river, screwedup her nose and wafted a hand in his vague direction. “No, no, it’s work stuff.Boring, really. Not worth talking about.”
“Bree.” He grabbed her hand, drawingher attention to his face. His expression was earnest, his gaze intense. “Maybeit is boring, but it’s clearly bothering you, so I want to know aboutit. I’m your best friend, remember? If you can’t tell me, who can youtell?”
She squeezed his hand, then pulled hersaway, picked up her glass and took a gulp. Swallowed, then groaned. There wasno putting the lid back on the can—she might as well come out with it. “Oh, allright. It’s just… I don’t know… I think I’m getting a bit fed up of teaching.”
Joel spluttered into his pint, drawingquerying glances from a few of the people at tables adjacent to theirs.Ignoring them, Joel put his drink down, wiped his mouth with the back of hishand and gaped at her as though she’d grown a second head. “What? But you… you loveteaching!”
Nodding sadly, she replied, “I do. Theteaching part. The kids. But the rest; the planning, the admin, the assessing,the being assessed, being micromanaged, dealing with parents, the endlessfucking meetings, the meetings about meetings, the meetings that couldhave been an email… it’s getting on top of me. It wasn’t too bad before—the joyof being in the classroom far outweighed the rest, but since the pandemic, theshambles that is bloody Brexit and the subsequent government fuckery, thingshave become steadily worse. Rules being changed, goalposts moving, budgetsbeing squeezed, funding getting cut, costs going up. We’re expected to workmore and more hours for the same amount of pay, with fewer support staff, yetstill uphold the same insanely high standards and have enough energy andspark to engage and teach a class of primary school kids! It’s becomingcompletely untenable. And the strike action hasn’t exactly been stress free.”
Joel gave her a sympathetic smile. “Oh,honey, I’m so sorry. I wish there was something I could say to make you feelbetter. Why haven’t you mentioned this before now?”
She shrugged. “No point. All thedecisions are way above my pay grade, so there’s nothing I can do. I’ve justbeen soldiering on, hoping things will improve. But right now, I honestly can’tsee an end in sight. We’re human beings, not robots, and we’re being treatedlike shit. We’ve come a long way from being lauded as keyworkers, that’s forbloody certain.” She rolled her lips inward, bit down on them, wonderingwhether she should let the words on the tip of her tongue come out. She’dbarely admitted it to herself, much less anyone else. But this was Joel. He’dhave her back no matter what she said.
She took a deep breath, huffed it outagain, then looked him in the eye. “I’m thinking of jacking it in at the end ofterm.”
Author Bio:
http://lucyfelthouse.co.uk/linktree
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