Release Day: Ready or Not by J.L. Berg

Born into wealth and privilege, free-spirited Liv Quinn left it all behind when she realized there was more to life than living off of trust funds and barely skating by.  Since then, she’s worked and fought for everything she’s earned and never looked back at the world or the family she left behind. 

Jackson Reid is starting over with a new job in a brand new city.  A single father to his son Noah, he hopes the change will help strengthen the bond that has seemed to suffer since puberty reared its ugly head.  What he hadn’t planned on was Liv—his exotic next-door neighbor who drives him insane with her wild, new age lifestyle, but still manages to leave him aching for more. 

As challenges arise and feelings intensify, will these neighbors be able to look past their differences and find a middle ground?  When love comes knocking, will they be ready, or not? 

 

When I finally stepped out of my car, a gasp escaped my lungs as my eyes lowered to the flower beds separating our two houses.

“Who would do such a thing?” I whispered, looking down at the decapitated and ravaged flowers.

The once beautiful display of multicolored perennials was now a churned-up disaster of footprints and soil.

My heated gaze settled on the lights glowing within the house. A shadow passed by an open window upstairs in what used to be Mrs. Reid’s master bedroom.

I took one step forward, ready to march over, meet my new neighbors, and give them a piece of my mind.

A strong gust of wind sent the curtain into a tailspin and suddenly the shadow solidified, and I saw the finest bare back I’d seen in years. It was tanned, broad, and so muscular that the defined muscles could be seen from two floors down. Hard, lean arms reached out toward a box and grabbed a T-shirt as I begged him to turn around—until my eyes found his ass.

Dear Lord.

My new neighbor was hot—or at least the back of him was.

Turn around, turn around, I silently begged.

The weather took that moment to remind me of its mighty power and sent a strong gust of wind whipping through the two houses.  The curtain settled back in place, and I was once again left with shadows.

As the first raindrop fell, signaling the impending storm, I looked down at the once perfect garden that I had painstakingly kept alive as a tribute to my longtime friend and neighbor. It had been trampled on and was now ruined, and I felt the rage boiling back up to the surface.

Hot or not, my new neighbor was a plant-trampling jerk, and when I got home from work tomorrow, I’d make sure he knew it.

I’d also take a moment to see if that face of his matched his perfect back and ass.

Shut up, Liv.

J.L. Berg is the USA Today bestselling author of the Ready Series. She is a California native living in the beautiful state of historic Virginia. Married to her high school sweetheart, they have two beautiful girls that drive them batty on a daily basis. When she's not writing, you will find her with her nose stuck in a romance novel, in a yoga studio or devouring anything chocolate. J.L. Berg is represented by Jill Marsal of Marsal Lyon Literary Agency, LLC.

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