“Tell me more,” she cooed, her lips brushing against his ear and sending a familiar jolt of electricity through him. “You know how much I love it when you get all romantic on me.”

So he told her. From start to finish, using up the entire vocabulary he’d spend his wayward adolescence accumulating, he let the words fall gently over her head.

She was as tough as a dragon and soft as a puppy. As tempting as a devil and sweet as an angel. She was everything and anything she wanted to be.

She was finally his, and that was enough for them both.

Order Lucy Gilmore’s next book
in the Forever Home series

Puppy Christmas

On sale September 2019!

About the Author

Lucy Gilmore is a contemporary romance author with a love of puppies, rainbows, and happily ever afters. She began her reading (and writing) career as an English literature major and ended as a die-hard fan of romance in all forms. When she’s not rolling around with her two Akitas, she can be found hiking, biking, or with her nose buried in a book. Visit her online at lucygilmore.com.

Excerpt from Puppy Christmas

Don’t miss the next book in Lucy Gilmore’s Service Puppies series, coming September 2019

Chapter 1

Lila was going to kill her sisters for this.

“Lila! Lila Vasquez!” A voice hailed her from across the crowded ballroom floor. It was followed by the bustling of a woman in a tasteful two-piece dress suit. A pang of envy flooded through Lila for that neat, pearly-gray fabric, but it was a short-lived sentiment.

Mostly because it was immediately replaced by embarrassment. And despair. And the overwhelming urge to throw herself out the nearest window.

She changed her mind. Death was too good for her sisters. Nothing less than lifelong torment would do.

“Aren’t you so brave,” the woman cooed as she came to a halt. Her sweeping gaze took in the full glory of Lila’s billowing bubble-gum-pink ball gown. If the color wasn’t bad enough, the fact that she was followed by a trail of sparkles everywhere she went was. She’d left the ladies’ restroom looking like a glitter bomb had gone off in one of the stalls. “I wish I could wear something like that, but at our age, you know…”

Yes, Lila did know. No one over the age of twenty-one should ever leave the house in this shade of pink. Unfortunately, Sophie and Dawn had interpreted the Once Upon a Time theme literally. Instead of the costume party she’d been assured awaited her inside these doors, Lila had found herself inside a nonprofit event as upscale as it was elegant. She stuck out like a sore thumb.

A giant, pink, puffy thumb.