Unashamed is out today! If you like steamy romance, this book is for you. MFM pairings? This is your story. Like to read exotic settings? (Hey, to some folk Toronto is exotic!)
Having just survived a total gut and redo of our kitchen last year, I wish we’d had a pair of handy hunks like Noah and Max to help out. 😉
Buy it now If you want the individual store links, go to Unashamed’s book page. Books2Read gives you all the sites and will direct you to the right geographical region. 
Here’s a peak at the first chapter for you….
Contractor Max Moretti knows that once he turns over the keys on his latest project, he and his business partner Noah McNaughton will have to say goodbye to sexy house flipper, Hayley O’Connell. Something neither he nor Noah are ready for. When Max overhears Hayley discussing a ménage fantasy, the two men plan to fulfill her fantasy.
Being sandwiched between the two sexy construction workers introduces Hayley to pleasure she’d never known before, but making love to both men quickly becomes an addiction. An addiction that both intrigues and overwhelms her.
One passion-filled night turns into two, and Max and Noah find themselves faced with a bigger challenge—convincing Hayley that forever is better with three.
Chapter 1
The flare of light on the driveway drew Max’s attention away from quartz countertop and undermount sink he was lowering onto the base cabinets. A thunk followed by his best friend and business partner’s cursed “for fuck’s sake, Moretti, you could have broken the damned slab,” could probably be heard out in the yard. The flash had been caused by Hayley O’Connell—the owner of the house he and Noah were renovating—opening the back door of her Honda. He completely forgot about the countertop when Hayley leaned inside, giving Max a perfect view of her camo work pants tightening over a beautifully formed ass.
Man, she was brains and beauty wrapped in one perfect package. Where he’d gone straight into the trades after high school, Hayley had graduated from U of T with a degree in business economics. While working for one of the big banks down on Bay Street, she’d discovered she had a knack for choosing the right house to renovate and flip. Three years ago she’d ditched her high heels and pencil skirts for steel toed boots and a tool belt. Okay, so she didn’t really wear a tool belt—that was entirely Max’s fantasy—but for all the jobs he’d worked on with her over the past two years, she’d been on-site and totally hands-on for all the renovations, not afraid to pick up a hammer along with the rest of the crew.
Every single house she’d renovated sold for a comfortable profit. Then again, between her eye for renovations and the Toronto housing market, Max would bet his half of M&M Construction any house she touched would sell at a profit.
“Stop mackin’ on my woman and hand me the damned number two Robertson, will ya?”
“Hey, I saw her first.” Max handed Noah the green-handled screwdriver but found himself drawn back to watching the woman of both their dreams. “If she’s anyone’s woman, she’s mine.”
As much as both he and Noah had fantasized about her in the two years they’d known her, she had been dating someone else the entire time, which put her in the “hands-off” column as far as they were concerned. Then, four months ago, her investment banker boyfriend had been caught with his tongue down the throat of some chick at a Blue Jays’ game—featured on the stadium’s huge-ass video screen. The moment Hayley’s Facebook status changed from In a relationship to Single, Max’s hopes of dating her doubled.
She’d straightened, tucking a white hard-hat beneath one arm, and a bag of what were probably paint swatches and fabric samples in the other. Her shoulder-length blonde hair shone almost white under the late August sun, and her skin gleamed as sweat beaded on it now she was out of the car’s A/C. The multiple layers of tank tops she wore clung to her curves. They would cling more once she came inside—the AC hadn’t been hooked up and the house was at least ten degrees warmer than it was outside even with all the windows open.
“Why do women wear three layers of shirts like that?” he wondered aloud. “Especially when it’s fuckin’ hot out? How come one shirt isn’t enough?”
“How am I supposed to know?” Noah cursed. “You gave me the wrong fuckin’ driver, dickhead. Give me the red one. You know, the one I was using before your brains migrated down to your nutsac?”
Max exchanged screwdrivers with him and resumed his gawking.
A Here comes the Bride ringtone from Hayley’s phone floated in through the open window. Max leaned on the counter, watching her answer it. She was a continual ball of energy even when she was just talking on the phone. There was always something moving—a hand brushing through her hair, her fingers drumming on the railing. Shifting from foot to foot. Her speech was rapid fire, clipped, especially when she was pissed off. As she was now.
Noah humphed. “Hey, doofus, we’re supposed to finish off this kitchen this week. It’s going to take both of us to do that. So get your thumb outta your ass, will ya?” Noah continued with a bunch of other “still got the…to do” blah blah blahing that Max tuned out.
Max wasn’t normally a slacker, but when Hayley was near, it was like all his hormonal inner teenager genes made an appearance. He’d stumble over words, his palms got sweaty, and he was getting damned tired of having to position himself behind wallboard or counters to hide the boner that immediately stood at attention around her.
She was single. So was he. He should ask her out. What was he waiting for? Because she’d just gotten out of a relationship and he didn’t want to be the rebound date, that’s why.
That Dipwad might have made her skittish about getting into another relationship was a frickin’ chunk of rebar under his unmanicured fingernails. “Why do you think she stayed with Dipwad for so long?”
“If you love someone, you put up with a lot of shit.” Noah slid from beneath the cabinet and joined him by the window. “If I ever see that bastard again, he’s gonna need a nose job that requires a damned good plastic surgeon.”
If Max ever saw Dipwad again, he’d need not only a plastic surgeon but an orthopedist because he’d come away with a lot more bones broken than his nose. Years of playing hockey as his team’s enforcer had taught Max exactly how to inflict pain, not that he’d used that skill off the ice, but with Dipwad it was tempting.
Hayley stepped onto the porch which left her right in front of the kitchen window. Instead of continuing into the house, she dumped her packages on a pile of boxes and turned her back on the house, staring down the narrow road at the row of Victorian houses similar to hers. “Of course I’m going to be at the party on Friday night, Sophie.”
Party? Friday night? Max wondered if she had a date. He quickly ran through a variety of ways he could ask her out for Friday without being obvious. “Do you think she’d go out with me?”
“You won’t know unless you ask. Which I intend to do as soon as she gets off the phone.” Noah tugged at his belt, as if adjusting it to hide a woody.
Shit. He had competition. Of the worst sort. “I don’t stand a chance against you, do I?”
“Sure you do.” Noah frowned. “But why does this have to be a competition?”
“Because it’s Hayley O’Connell we’re talking about.” All he needed to add was the “duh.” Sweet, gentle, lovable Hayley. The type of girl you could feel confident bringing home to introduce to your mother, not share with your best friend.
“What makes you think she won’t choose you over me, doofus?” Noah cuffed the back of Max’s head. “I was razzing you back there. I’ve seen the way she looks at you.”
And Max had seen how Hayley eyed Noah. “Come on, I’m a first-generation Guido complete with big Catholic family who loves to interfere in every part of my life, not to mention my parents aren’t competing in the richer-than-Trump marathon like yours. Oh, and then there’s the whole man candy lottery you won. I mean, look at you” he waved toward Noah’s head, “you have this whole sun-kissed blond hair, blue-eyed thing going on that the chicks all dig. And that stupid single dimple they all go gaga over.”
“Geez, Moretti, women love dark-haired guys like you too. That’s where the ‘tall dark and dangerous’ saying comes from—they think you’re exotic.”
Hello, how the hell did Noah think he qualified under the ‘tall’ part – dark and dangerous, sure, but tall? Give him a frickin’ break.
Okay, yes, Max knew he wasn’t bad looking. Years of working construction had built up his arm muscles and abs, but he was also aware that he was just under six feet in a world where women had wanted that “extra inch.” And his family was definitely a dollar—make that a couple million—short when they compared bank accounts with Noah’s father. Not that Noah had access to the family money anymore, but most women figured they’d be able to weasel their way back into Noah’s father’s pockets and then empty them.
“In case you forgot, doofus, you’ve dated twice as much as I have in the past year, so don’t give me all this bullshit about women choosing me over you.”
Part of the reason why he’d had to date twice as much was because most of the women he’d gone out with were looking at their long term strategy, which didn’t include a guy with only a high school diploma and a job that relied upon a volatile real estate market. He’d figured out long ago that after meeting Noah and learning of his university diploma and family connections, most women shifted their focus and dumped his sorry ass, or used it to try to wheedle their way out of his bed and into Noah’s.
Max stared out the window, craving the woman on the other side, her phone pressed to her ear, her forehead wrinkled at whatever Sophie was saying to her. How he longed to smooth those worries away, to cook dinner for her, and take her to bed, to prove to her she was the only woman who mattered in his world.
Noah shifted his belt again, making Max grimace in the knowledge his best friend was probably picturing a similar scenario.
Feeling magnanimous, he offered, “Look, she’s gotta have a date for the party and one for the wedding reception next weekend, right? So how about I ask her to the party, and you take her to the wedding.”
“You’re just trying to get out of going to a wedding because you know women always cry at those things and you can’t handle women crying.”
“I grew up in a house with five women, shit-for-brains.” Max rolled his eyes. “I know exactly how to handle tears. Unlike someone I know.”
“I try not to make women cry in the first place.”
“Moretti women don’t need a reason to cry. They cry when they’re sad, they cry when they’re happy — Lucy,” his youngest sister, “can cry at a freaking telephone commercial. I don’t like weddings because every damned single woman starts eyeing you as they mentally plan their own wedding and realize they need a groom. I swear the wedding planners pump estrogen into the churches during the damned ceremony to drum up new business.”
Noah rubbed his fingers together in a world’s-smallest-violin gesture. “So ask Hayley out already, you big baby.”
“You sure you won’t get jealous if she says yes?”
Noah bawked like a chicken a couple of times.
Max flipped him off. Confident his plans were all set, Max picked up a rag and ran it over the counter to ensure they hadn’t left any grease on it, humming to himself.
Two minutes later, Hayley’s “Of course I’ve got a date” shattered Max’s plans.
Shit. He’d waited too long.
* * *
Hayley ended the call and frowned at the phone, though her frown was more for herself. Why did you lie to her? Which of course required the follow up, why haven’t you already asked someone to go with you? You’ve had four months to line someone up.
Because you’re out of touch with the dating scene, O’Connell. Time to get your act in gear.
Her phone rang again, the vibrations rousing her from her self-recrimination. Callie, Sophia’s other best friend and maid of honor, who started the call with “So listen, I was thinking about the party tomorrow night.”
Oh great. And so it began. Next Callie would say, “I’ve got the perfect guy in mind for you.”
If she showed up alone, all her friends would be convinced she was heartbroken, or needed help to get back into the dating world by vying to be the one to find her the perfect man. When she already had the perfect man in her life. She glanced over her shoulder and confirmed that Max and Noah were in the kitchen. Make that the perfect men. When she’d been searching for contractors to help her renovate her first house flip, M&M Construction—Max Moretti and Noah McNaughton—had been repeatedly recommended. Not only did they do great work, they proved themselves time and time again to be courteous and reliable. And they were a treat for the eyes—especially when the weather was hot and they stripped off their shirts.
“If you haven’t got a date already, I’ve got someone who would be perfect for you.”
Yup, there it was.
“I told you, I’ve got someone in mind.” Two someones actually. “Don’t worry about trying to hook me up with anyone.”
Max’s smile had first caught her attention. Well, it had been one of the first things. His butt had been the first thing she’d noticed, considering he’d been facing away from her originally. When he’d turned around, and his cheek-splitting grin had delved right into her heart and spread roots. Then she’d met Noah and been zapped with a lightning bolt. And not just because the knob and tube wiring in the ancient 1930s townhouse arced when she had turned on a switch.
She’d been surprised she hadn’t spontaneously combusted being in the same room as the two of them. It hadn’t been her plan to be so hands-on during the renovations until she’d come to work on reno day and seen them in action. Max had that whole swarthy swagger about him, a pure testosterone package, while Noah tried to play it cool. She’d found herself entranced by the smack talk between them, amused by how they thought in sync, worked in sync. And then there were all those gorgeous muscles rippling as they ripped down plaster and wrestled appliances out of their way. Years of physical labor had made them worthy of a sculptor’s chisel.
“But—”
“No, I want you to promise me—no blind dates, no sitting me beside a guy you think would be perfect for me, okay?”
“But Soph wants you to be as happy as she is. You know how she gets now she’s a bride.” Her tone turned wistful.
Not really. The ball-and-chain disguised by a white dress had never been her childhood dream like it had been Sophia’s or Callie’s. “I appreciate that you both worry about me, but I’m fine with the way things are.”
“We just hate to think of you being all alone…Oh, did I tell you what Aiden’s mother did this time? She asked Sophie what color balloons they wanted at the party. Balloons! Mrs. Demetrios just about had a shit fit and she was going on about how tacky it was. I swear she almost…”
Letting Callie ramble, Hayley studied the street, not seeing the ancient row houses she normally loved, not imagining the updates she’d do to number ninety eight if old Mrs. Morgan finally decided to sell. Instead she imagined herself in Max’s arms, kissing him, and wouldn’t you know it, Noah floated into her fantasy, his arms around her waist, nuzzling her neck, his erection hard against her behind.
“Look, I have to go. But don’t worry about me, okay? I have a date for Friday.” Or I will if I play my cards right.
She ended the call before Callie could wheedle the details out of her. Which would have been difficult considering she hadn’t figured out whether to ask Max or Noah. Ah hell, why not just put the question out there and see who responded first? She shoved her phone back in her purse, picked up the swatches she’d dumped on the porch and headed inside.
Even though she’d chosen everything from the ceiling to floor, she couldn’t stop her breath from catching seeing the finished product. Everything was perfect. And the kitchen? Totally worked. The black quartz countertop and black undercount sink accentuated the white cupboards. And she loved how the under-cabinet lights picked up the colors in the glass tiled backsplash.
She dumped her bags by the closet and walked to the kitchen, unable to stop herself from running a hand over the cool stone on the island. The kitchen was the last room to be finished. Which meant other than a few touch ups here and there, the renos were done and Max and Noah would have no reason to come back. Sure she had another house about to close, and an offer in on another, but it would be at least a month before she’d have a legitimate reason to see them again.
Max folded his arms and parked one hip against the counter he’d just installed. “You’re frowning. You don’t like it?”
“No, it’s perfect. It’s just how I envisioned it. This place is going to end up with a bidding war.”
“Then what’s wrong?”
How did she word this so it wasn’t an obvious “I want to jump your bones” plea. Not that any guy she knew would object to that invitation, but this was Max and Noah. She wanted whatever could happen between either one of them to be more than a one and done. “I know it’s short notice but are either of you free tomorrow night?”
“Why? What’s doin’?” Noah mirrored Max’s pose.
“I have to go to a friend’s Jack and Jill party and I hate the thought of showing up alone. So I was wondering if either of you’d like to come with me. Be my date.”
“Is Darrell going to be there?” Max practically growled, which sent tingles deep into her chest and down to parts that hadn’t tingled in too long.
“Yes.”
“So are you asking because you want to make that jerk jealous?” Max folded his arms across his chest, his full lips drawn into a scowl. “Or to give him a virtual middle finger?”
“Neither. I just want to stop all those inevitable blind dates my friends will try to set me up with if they think I’m alone.”
Of course when she showed up with any guy, she’d face the other inevitable question single girls faced. The “so when are you getting married, dear” questions, which she’d definitely be asked if she showed up with either Max or Noah. And if she said they weren’t serious, be they single or married, they’d totally view either man as fresh meat for some other unattached friend. “If you’re not available, it’s okay. I have a couple other guys I can ask.”
Now there was a lie. Hayley hadn’t been part of the dating scene for a while, and though she’d met a ton of guys through her renos, and had dozens of business cards as proof, most of them were married, or definitely weren’t her type.
She held her breath as Max and Noah shared a look. She’d teased them before about having some sort of telepathic communication between them, but the way they were staring at each other, she could swear that they were having a conversation without saying a word.
After a long pause, and another long look between him and Noah, Max nodded slowly. “All right, I’ll go with you to the party.”
“It’s sort of dressy. I mean, not tuxedo dressy, but not blue jeans either. Is that okay with you?”
“Don’t worry. I’ve got a suit I can wear. I’ll even shave.” That beautiful big grin delivered a promise she couldn’t wait to cash in.
What a pity. She loved that two day scruff he was currently sporting. “Thank you. It’s down in the Distillery District.” She loved wandering around the historical block with its reclaimed whisky distilleries that were now filled with boutiques and creative studios, not to mention its bars. “I can meet you there if you want.”
Max shook his head. “Nope. I’ll pick you up and we can go together.”
“Good. Thanks”
“Then I’ll be your date for the wedding.”
Hayley started at Noah’s statement, then saw the heat in his eyes.
“Don’t worry. I clean up nice.” Amusement crawled over his face, bringing out the single dimple in his right cheek that she had often wanted to kiss. “I own a couple suits too. Even own my own tuxedo.”
“Great. Then I’m all set.”
It was tough work, but Hayley was pleased that she managed to keep her satisfaction from her face. It took some effort, but she managed to walk out of the room as if things hadn’t gone even better than she’d hoped. Once she was in the hall, out of sight of the two guys, she danced a little jig. Hot damn, she had not one date but two. With two very hot guys.
Life was looking pretty damned good.
Buy it now If you want the individual store links, go to Unashamed’s book page. Books2Read gives you all the sites and will direct you to the right geographical region.