Lead Me Knot

She slept with her best friend's brother, and she is clear that the first night was an accident. What came after was not. He is the boy next door from her past, now grown into a man she can't stop noticing, and the attraction between them is physical and immediate. He is also off limits.

They keep it quiet. Neither wants the gossip of a small town in Texas Hill Country, and neither wants to hurt his sister, her closest friend. One night has left them wanting more, and hiding it takes effort.

Then a new landlord, a domineering man, puts her family's business at risk. She needs a way out, and he offers one: a marriage of convenience, which she can call a favor between friends if she prefers. The diamond ring on her finger solves the immediate problem. It also forces both of them to look at what they actually feel.

This is a ranch romance in a coming-home mode, narrated in the first person by the heroine and set in the small town of Peachtree Pass. The tone is light and flirtatious, with quick banter, a friends-to-lovers pull and a fake-marriage setup. Its heat is openly sensual. The question running through it is whether a deal made out of need has turned into something real.