Expiry Dating by Isobel Reed
Sparks start more than a fire… They start an explosion.
Alice is not happy. Her ex screwed her over, literally. One day her mother is dreaming of a white wedding, the next, Alice is hurling hardbacks at a naked boyfriend caught in bed with her best friend. So she did the only logical thing she could think of. She got the hell out of there. In fact, she left the country.
It’s not long before she discovers the perks of small-town living, and she even finds herself a job. There is just one thing stopping this all from being perfect though. One infuriating person she just can’t seem to shake. Brady Mitchell. It figures that the hottest man she’s ever seen also just so happens to be the most annoying one on the planet.
Brady is back home and trying to come to terms with life outside the military. Adjusting to a new job and new limitations from his injury, he expected to settle into a slower pace of life, maybe even a quiet one. That was until Alice Hart came bulldozing into his world. The woman was anything but quiet. Loud, angry and sexy as hell, yes. But definitely not quiet.
Alice and Brady ignite inside and outside the bedroom. But will they survive the burn?
Alice stared down at her phone in horror.
“No, no, no. This cannot be happening. Goddamn lying, cheating, son of a b***h.”
Her phone was never going to survive this. A loud thud echoed around the room after it went flying through the air and crashed against the dark wood walls of her cabin. Truthfully, as soon as she clicked on the picture, her cell phone never had a chance.
It had been three months since she’d caught her ex-boyfriend in bed with her best friend, two months since she had quit her job, and one month since she’d begged her sister, Lily, to let her come stay with her on her ranch in Bluestone County. Alice had enough self-awareness to admit she was running away from her problems, but being in London right now wasn’t an option. And after just seeing her ex-best friend’s latest social media post, it was a good thing Alice was in another country, otherwise there was a strong possibility she would’ve been locked up for grievous bodily harm by now.
“Oh my God, Ali, what the hell did you do to your phone? The screen is all cracked!” Lily gasped.
Alice hadn’t even heard Lily come in. She was checking on her again; she’d been doing that a lot.
“Um … yeah, it fell. Don’t worry, I’m sure I can get it fixed in town.”
Lily’s jade eyes narrowed. “Oh, really? And where exactly did it fall from, Ali? The sky? ’Cos from where I’m standing, it looks like it either magically fell from the ceiling, or you threw it across the room in a fit of rage?”
This is the problem with being so close to your sister. She knows me too damn well.
Letting out a sigh, Alice slumped further down into the leather armchair that had been cocooning her for the past hour.
“F**king Becky.” She grumbled. “Apparently, she’s pregnant. I’ll give you three guesses as to who the father is.”
And there it was, pity, all over her big sister’s face.
“Oh, Ali. I’m so sorry. How did you find out?”
“My friend forwarded me a post Becky made.”
Lily closed the distance between them and took a hold of Alice’s hand, quickly pulling her up from the chair. “Come on. Let’s go up to the main house. We can drink some wine, eat a f**kload of chocolate, and plot revenge.”
Alice reluctantly followed. Wine and chocolate were probably the only things that could possibly salvage today.
They were just a two-minute walk from the main house where Lily and her husband, Jake, lived. Jake’s sister, Sam, used to live there too but had recently moved in with her boyfriend, Duke.
Lily had initially wanted Alice to stay in the house with them, but she wanted the newlyweds to have some privacy. After all, it had only been two weeks since they’d gotten hitched in Vegas. Not to mention, Alice needed her own space. Luckily, the ranch had guest cabins, so she was able to take up residence in one of them until she figured out her next move.
As they walked into the house and made their way into the spotless stainless-steel kitchen, a familiar voice pricked up the hair on the back of her neck.
No. Please don’t be here right now. Please, not today of all days.
Damnit. There he was—Brady—all six foot two of him. The new bane of her existence. He was wearing a fitted, tan, cop uniform so sexy it should be illegal. If she didn’t already know he was the devil, she could easily be fooled by his dark, brooding good looks. Even his damn caramel-coloured eyes were mesmerizing.
Mesmerizing eyes? Get a frigging grip, Alice. He’s the devil, remember?
It had been two weeks since they’d met in Vegas at Lily and Jake’s impromptu wedding, and despite trying to avoid Brady like the plague since then, he just kept showing up. Yes, Bluestone was small, and Alice was staying at his best friend’s ranch, but it was actually getting ridiculous. He was everywhere. Whenever she ventured out, whether it was to get coffee or go shopping, he was there, waiting in the shadows, ready to make her life miserable.
“Looking good, sweetness.” Brady smirked as he purposely knocked her on the way over to the fridge, where he swiftly removed a beer bottle.
Alice shot him a glare over her shoulder. “Wish I could say the same to you, Brady, but it appears as if the rumours really are true and beer does go straight to a man’s gut.”
She was lying, of course. There was no beer belly in sight. The man was a wall of solid muscle, but something about him drove her absolutely insane. It apparently also meant she couldn’t control her mouth whenever he was in the vicinity. He’d somehow managed to crawl under her skin in a matter of minutes of them meeting, and insults had been hurled between them ever since.
Brady’s silky laughter bellowed behind her. “You offering to help me work it off, sweetness?”
Isobel was born and raised in London. She still lives along the River Thames with her husband and her substantial book collection. Ever the hopeless romantic, she fell in love with the genre from a young age and was inspired to write her own stories. When she's not feasting on romantic comedies or binge reading her hoard of contemporary romance novels, Isobel is writing.Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Instagram / Bookbub / Amazon
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