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BEARD IN MIND

an all new standalone in the bestselling, romantic comedy

Winston Brothers Series

Penny Reid

is available NOW!

All is fair in love and auto maintenance.

Beau Winston is the nicest, most accommodating guy in the world. Usually.

Handsome as the devil and twice as charismatic, Beau lives a charmed life as everyone’s favorite Winston Brother. But since his twin decided to leave town, and his other brother hired a stunning human-porcupine hybrid as a replacement mechanic for their auto shop, Beau Winston’s charmed life has gone to hell in a handbasket.

Shelly Sullivan is not nice and is never accommodating. Ever.

She mumbles to herself, but won’t respond when asked a question. She glares at everyone, especially babies. She won’t shake hands with or touch another person, but has no problems cuddling with a dog. And her damn parrot speaks only in curse words.

Beau wants her gone. He wants her out of his auto shop, out of Tennessee, and out of his life.

The only problem is, learning why this porcupine wears her coat of spikes opens a Pandora’s box of complexity—exquisite, tempting, heartbreaking complexity—and Beau Winston soon discovers being nice and accommodating might mean losing what matters most.

She’d taken the sofa, in her own house, and given me the bed. That didn’t make a lick of sense.

I crouched next to her, threading my fingers into the silky hair at her temples. “Honey.”

“Mmm.”

I bent to whisper, “Shelly.”

“Hmm?”

“I’m going to carry you to your bed. I’ll take the sofa.”

“Mmm.”

I grinned at her soft noises, at the untroubled expression on her face, and how her brow—even in sleep—still looked regal and stern.

Sliding my arms under her legs and shoulder, I picked her up. And, unfortunately, that woke her up.

She jerked in my arms. “What are you doing?”

“I’m taking you to the bed.”

“Don’t do that.”

“I don’t mind, I’ll take the sofa.” Our mouths were just inches apart, and hers was distracting.

She squirmed. “Put me down.”

Sighing unhappily, I did. I set her on her feet next to the couch. The blanket pooled at her feet and I stepped back to give her some space. It was dark, but I could see her just fine, and that meant I had to force my eyes to remain above her neck. The woman was wearing two pathetic scraps of fabric as pajamas. A thin little tank top and shorts. That’s it.

I set my jaw and turned to the side, waiting for her to walk past.

“Where are you?”

I glanced at her and realized she couldn’t see at all. She didn’t have a hand out, but the way her eyes were moving about the room gave away her blindness.

“I’m here.” I didn’t touch her, because if I did, I wouldn’t want to stop.

Shelly turned her head in my direction and took a deep breath. Still she didn’t reach for me. I didn’t know the specifics of what to expect after her Friday session, but I recalled Dr. West saying something about Shelly doing self-guided ERP exercises over this week.

“Can you see?” She licked her lips, her voice sandpapery. “Because I can’t see at all. It’s so dark.”

“I can see.” Unbidden, my eyes dropped to her body, to the swell of her breasts, the panel of bare stomach, the curve of her hips. Pinpricks of heat raised over my skin and I curled my hands into fists.

She shuffled forward and I caught her before she bumped into me, setting my hands gently at her waist.

“Let me take you to your room.” My voice was rough, for obvious reasons.

Saying nothing, she brought her hand to my forearm, her body gently colliding with mine. And then her hand on my arm slid up my bicep to my shoulder.

“Shelly.” I was running out of breath.

“I like this.”

“What?”

“Touching you.”

Oh fuck.

I held still and endured her hands moving over my body, down the front of my shirt, stopping at the hem, then pushing it up.

“Take this off.”

I did. I pulled the T-shirt over my head and let it drop to the floor.

We stood there, facing each other in the dark, not touching. Despite the session on Friday and the progress that had been made, I realized she wasn’t quite there yet. Dr. West was right, Friday was just a step, the first step. Shelly wasn’t able to initiate contact. Not yet.

Her hands balled into fists and she swayed forward, her breath struggling little puffs.

If anything was going to happen tonight, I had to initiate it. I had to be the one to touch first.

God, how I wanted her. How I wanted her above me, beneath me, surrounding me. But how could I?

“I know why I hesitate,” her voice was breathless, “but why do you hesitate?”

“Lots of reasons.”

“Give me one.”

“I don’t want to you use you.”

“I wish you would.”

That pulled a laugh from me, just a small relief from the mounting tension. My eyes moved over her body, an undeniable impulse to devour the sight of her, her legs, stomach, chest, then up her neck to her lips.

“You asked me on Saturday if sex was a big deal for me, or if it was you. The answer is both.”

She held very still, and I got the sense she was holding her breath, straining to listen.

“You are a big deal to me. I don’t want a fling. I don’t want a flirtation. I want promises.”

“What can I promise you?”

That you’ll love me. That I’ll be your priority.

She shifted her weight from foot to foot. A spike of anxiety that she might leave me like this had me acting without forethought. I lifted my hands to her waist again and immediately, her fingertips skimmed over skin of my lower stomach in response, making my muscles tense in hot anticipation. She grew more assertive as she caressed my sides, abdomen, ribs, chest, shoulders, and then back down.

Shelly stepped closer, a hint of thrilling contact between her breasts and my torso, and all the words and worries melted from my mind, died on my tongue, suffocated by the feel of her body, and the possibility of this moment.

Her finger hooked in the waistband of my jeans. “Take these off.” Her hand turned, her fingers and palm cupping me over my zipper.

Instinctively, I pressed myself into her touch even as I grabbed her wrist.

“Beau, I promise—”

She didn’t get to speak, because I kissed her, hard and wild, unbuttoning and unzipping my fly with one hand and bringing her palm inside my boxers with the other.

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Penny Reid is the USA Today Bestselling Author of the Winston Brothers and Knitting in the City series. When she’s not immersed in penning smart romances, Penny works in the biotech industry as a researcher. She’s also a full time mom to three diminutive adults, wife, daughter, knitter, crocheter, sewer, general crafter, and thought ninja.

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BEARD IN MIND

Winston Brothers #4

Penny Reid

✮✮✮ ALL THE STARS ✮✮✮

When it comes to Penny Reid's books I associate words like warm, smart, wonderful and one-of-a-kind. These are her stories. These are here characters. And with each book I'm becoming a bigger fan. I have no idea how she does it but her stories draw me in, grab me by my black heart and won't let go. With each story I learn something, something that makes a substantial difference in my life and that's how I love my stories.

In Beard in Mind we get Beau's story. You see, he reeeaally doesn't like Shelly, his new co-worker who was hired by Cletus while Beau was on a business trip. She's rude, stand-offish and tells him that his face is crooked. Now, the charming Winston brother DOES NOT like to hear that and he's fuming and contemplating a plan how to get rid of her...but somehow...this woman sneaks under his skin and he finds himself completely charmed by her quirks. When he learns about Shelly's condition he is nothing but supportive and helpful. He comes up with solutions that might help this amazing and strong woman deal with her lot in life.

“Do you feel sorry for her, Beau? Is that why you want to help?
“Hell, yes, I feel sorry for her.”
“That’s not a good basis for—”
“But mostly, I feel sorry for everyone else. Because from what I’ve seen, the glimpses of herself she’s shared with me, it’s a damn shame no one else gets to see it. It leads me to suspect that what we see of her on the outside has nothing on the beauty of the inside.”

But Beau also has some burden to carry. One of them being his twin brother leaving for a long journey - he really struggles with that. Plus, with almost everyone in his family having somebody to lean on he feels like he is being left behind.

Oh Shelly...Her isolation and loneliness caused by her condition is heartbreaking. She has learned to put an impenetrable facade in place that keeps her from getting hurt. Too much emotional pain comes from her disorder. She works so incredibly hard to learn to live with it, to improve her life's quality. And then Beau comes along and lifts her spirits and becomes a fixture in her life and gradually teaches her that the OCD doesn't define her as a person. He is somebody she can lean on and who lifts her burden. Who also learns in return that she is strong enough to be there for him when he needs it. Shelly was such an amazing heroine - she made it to one of my top favorites.

Shelly and Beau's love story is full of warm, tender moments but also some very steamy ones.

“Shelly.”
“Yes?”
“Look at me.”
“Why?”
“I love how it feels.”

I loved that they didn't want to change one another. Especially Beau was completely accepting of the woman he loved, he saw perfection in her disorder, her quirks. Talk about quirky, we get to see the whole bunch of Winston brothers and one of the funniest laugh-out-loud-scenes came from, who else could it be, the ingenious Cletus Winston.

I have so much love for this book. As always we get an unorthodox, singular story with a lot of cleverness and humor from Penny Reid. She is becoming one of my favorites fast and, God, can we have Billy's story soon? I will not so patiently wait for this author's next release and while I do I will go through major withdrawals because that Penny Reid? Totally got me hooked.