Kiss My Sass

By Mellanie Szereto

Meet Eleanor Lipswich (40) and Ford Wheeling (36)!

He's ready to settle down. She's not willing to settle.

Eleanor Lipswich happily volunteers to serve on the board of the local literacy foundation—until a certain outrageous flirt joins the team. His constant innuendo and heated looks bring out her snarky temper, adding fuel to the fiery attraction she wishes would disappear, especially since he's no prince in a frog suit.

Ford Wheeling can't resist provoking the redhead across the conference table, and a challenge for the kissing booth fundraiser is the perfect ruse to get her attention. He won't settle for a simple kiss when happily-ever-after is on the line.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Amatoria Press
• Release date: Apr 25, 2023
• ISBN: 9781942522430

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

I’ll do both if you do. Ford Wheeling aimed a cocky smile and a pointed look across the conference table at his favorite nemesis, the woman he loved to verbally spar with—the woman he’d set his sights on the moment he’d met her. The timing was finally right to pursue her with intent. How about we make a little wager? Whoever raises the most money gets to sit at the head of the table when Mitch steps down next month.

You’re on. Bracing her elbows on her notepad, Eleanor Lipswich leaned forward, giving him a bird’s eye view of her outstanding cleavage. She’d been doing that more often over the last several months, probably to distract him. It did to a certain extent, but that was beside the point. The green, black, and white floral wrap dress she wore today certainly provided ample opportunity to put her assets on display and draw attention to her mesmerizing emerald eyes.

Multitasking was usually one of his expert-level skills, but everything about her was a major distraction.

She smacked her right fist into her left palm and then raised both hands with spread fingers. They fluttered downward in a damn good imitation of the fireworks she inspired in the X-rated dreams he’d been having for months. You’re going to crash and burn, Off-Road.

The nickname she’d invented the first time they’d butted heads had stuck, but he had one for her too. I don’t think so, Ellie Mae.

Her cheeks flamed a feverish shade of pink, making him picture steam coming out of her sexy little ears.

Snickers came from four of the other five members of the foundation board, but Mitch—the soon-to-be ex-chair—shook his head and skimmed his index finger down the screen of his iPad. Can we get back to business? We’ve got a fundraiser to finalize tonight, and you two can flirt on your own damn time.

I wasn’t flirting. Eleanor spoke in perfect harmony with Ford’s firm rebuttal.

Yes, it was an outright lie, but he wasn’t quite ready to put his intentions out there for her to shoot down.

Mitch rolled his eyes. Sure, you weren’t. Do we have any other last-minute volunteers for the Two2Tango dance or the Lips4Literacy kissing booth? No? Eleanor. Ford. Thanks for volunteering since scrapping the kissing booth at this late date would’ve meant reworking the schedule. Okay, let’s move on to the silent auction.

Considering the rest of the board members were married, Ford wasn’t surprised by their lack of volunteerism for the dancing and kissing fundraiser portions of the evening’s festivities. They’d been more interested in soliciting and bidding on big-ticket items from local businesses. Fortunately, that was always the easiest task in the planning of The Annual Literacy Event for Schools—TALES, for short. The theme this year, Dance the Night Away, had garnered lots of media attention and this promised to be their most successful fundraiser yet. Eleanor’s media connections and expertise as a marketing guru had a lot to do with it.

An hour later, he set the