Excerpt One from No Ordinary Summer by Linda Barrett

"We got hoodwinked, Jess."

Daniel Stone pulled away from the Quinn Real Estate office and glanced at  the golden retriever sitting beside him in the front seat. "The old man  never said anything about a woman and two children sharing the house with  us."

The dog grunted in reply.

"Not concerned about an invasion of privacy, are you girl?" Daniel  scratched his loyal companion behind her ears as he turned onto Beach Road  and pulled into the driveway of the big corner house. "Never mind, girl.  We'll simply ignore our neighbors and go about our business. We may have  come east to start over, but that doesn't mean we want a lot of new people in our lives."

The truth was that Daniel wanted nothing more than a calm, uncomplicated  life. A summer at the beach should have provided him with such a life. Except Mr. Bart Quinn had ruined that possibility.

Why couldn't he have rented the downstairs apartment to a quiet, retired couple instead of to a couple of kids and a woman whose hair -- what exactly had Mr. Quinn said? Oh, yes, a woman whose hair had dancing red lights in it.

"Why would we care about that, Jess? You and I know no one can ever replace Nikki."

Excerpt Two from No Ordinary Summer by Linda Barrett

At high tide, a calm vast Atlantic murmured to her, almost as near a neighbor as the man upstairs. Small foam-topped breakers hit the shore in a steady rhythm. To the left and right, an expanse of clean sand surrounded her as far as she could see. In the quiet of the morning, she stood alone 
in the world, in that place, at that moment. In harmony with the dawn of time. And it was awesome.

And then, the picture changed. From the left, a man and a large dog entered her vision, jogging along the hard packed sand close to the water. He wore a gray sweatsuit and running shoes, and began to strip as he reached the vicinity of Sea View House.

Shelley didn't move. Her hands tightened on the waist high porch railing, and she barely blinked. His dark wavy hair, the wide shoulders, the ease of movement. Daniel Stone had carried her heavy bags last night as though they were featherweight. He didn't resemble any professor she'd ever had in college!

His eyes were focused on the ocean and the dog romping in front of him. She was focused on his broad back, now bare to the sun. Shelley watched him raise his arms over his head then out to the side, stretching and then shaking them. Triceps, lats, and smaller muscles stood out in relief with 
each movement. Her respiration rate increased; shallow, short breaths kept her going. When Daniel reached for his waistband, she stopped breathing completely. And didn't blink.

Speedo! He wore a Speedo underneath. A tight brief suit for some serious swimming. Shelley rocked on her feet, not knowing whether to feel disappointment or relief. And was surprised to discover disappointment won. 

Not so surprised when she realized how restless she felt inside. Aroused. 

And damp. Being a voyeur had turned her on! She shook her head in disgust. Was she so sex starved that the sight of a half naked stranger could have such an effect?

She paused in her thoughts. Could be the answer was ‘yes.' Her appetite in that important area of life was absolutely normal and hadn't been satisfied in almost two years. With all her other worries, she'd barely noticed, or pushed it aside when she had. Why, for heaven's sake, had her sexuality chosen to reawaken itself now?