REAL KIND OF LOVE comes out June 5. Here’s an excerpt:

“Strawberry jelly, cruller or bagel?” She held up the brown bag, pulling him from his thoughts.

“Whatever you don’t want.”

“Nope. You have to choose. We’re going to have to get to know each other a little better for this whole thing to work, and I believe your Dunkin Donuts choice is like a window to your soul.”

“Cruller.”

“Your loss.”

“So what does my choice say about me?”

“That you don’t like happiness.” He raised an eyebrow and she let out a husky laugh. “I’m kidding. Mostly. But I’m guessing it means you prefer things neat and orderly. Straightforward. There’s no clean way to eat a jelly donut.”

Huh. He’d known her for three years and never heard her make a joke before. “Can’t argue with any of that.” The assessment of his personality or the sheer messiness of jelly donuts.

“Nothing wrong with crullers. But for the record, if you’d chosen the bagel, I would have forced you to turn the car around and never speak to me again. People who don’t like donuts can’t be trusted.” She handed him his cruller, covering the bottom half with the small, square napkin, then took a bite of the other powder-covered pastry. The sound that escaped her lips as she swallowed the sugary concoction could only be described as a cross between a purr and a throaty sigh. She stretched out her legs, rubbing her thighs together in a way that almost made him run the car right off the road. “There’s something about road trips that make junk food taste even better, don’t you think?”

He tightened his left hand around the wheel. “Yep.”

There was also something about the deep, husky tone of her voice that made everything she said sound like a euphemism for sex. He tried to keep his eyes on the road, but he was helpless to stop them from wandering toward her when she made that purring sound again.

She had a dab of powdered sugar on her nose.

Christ, he should just run them into a ditch now to get it over with because there was no way he was going to survive another three hours on the road if she kept that up.