After the Kiss: A Sex, Love & Stiletto Novel

Lauren Layne

Aug 2013 · Sex, Love, & Stiletto Book 1 · Sold by Loveswept

About this ebook

Lauren Layne kicks off her Sex, Love & Stiletto series with a delightful short novel! In After the Kiss, the star columnist of Stiletto magazine will do anything for a story. Anything . . . except fall in love.

Julie Greene loves flings. Loves steamy first dates, sizzling first kisses, and every now and then, that first sexy romp between the sheets. Comfy pants, sleepy Sundays, movie nights on the couch? Shudder. But when Julie gets assigned the hardest story of her career—a first-person account of that magical shift between dating and “I do”—she’ll need a man brave enough to give a total commitment-phobe a chance at more.

Normally, Mitchell Forbes would be exactly that man. A devastatingly hot workaholic who tends to stay in relationships for far too long, he should be the perfect subject for Julie’s “research.” But what Julie doesn’t know is that Mitchell is looking to cut loose for once in his life. And the leggy journalist notorious for avoiding love is exactly the type of no-strings fling he’s looking for. In other words, Mitchell is the polar opposite of what Julie needs right now. And, at the same time, he’s exactly what she wants.

Praise for After the Kiss

“Packed with loads of sizzle and Snickerlicious fun, Lauren Layne’s After the Kiss is a knock-your-stilettos-off, total page-turning treat that had me fan-girling up within the first chapter. I absolutely loved this read!”—USA Today bestselling author Mira Lyn Kelly

“Funny, intelligent, and touching, Lauren Layne’s After the Kiss is a delightful debut.”—Ruthie Knox, USA Today bestselling author of Flirting with Disaster

Lauren Layne’s New York Times bestselling Oxford Novel series can be read in any order:
IRRESISTIBLY YOURS
I WISH YOU WERE MINE
SOMEONE LIKE YOU
I KNEW YOU WERE TROUBLE
I THINK I LOVE YOU

Don’t miss any of Lauren Layne’s hot reads:

The Love Unexpectedly series: BLURRED LINES | GOOD GIRL | LOVE STORY | WALK OF SHAME | AN EX FOR CHRISTMAS

The Sex, Love & Stiletto series: AFTER THE KISS | LOVE THE ONE YOU’RE WITH | JUST ONE NIGHT | THE TROUBLE WITH LOVE

The Redemption series: ISN’T SHE LOVELY  | BROKEN | CRUSHED

The I Do, I Don’t series: READY TO RUN | RUNAWAY GROOM

Includes an excerpt from another Loveswept title.

Ratings and reviews

After the kiss is a thoroughly entertaining love story that captures the reader’s attention from the beginning and holds it to the very last page. A delightful tale filled with humor, sexual chemistry, and romance. Julie Greene is a journalist for a woman’s magazine who is known for writing about no-strings-attached dates and flings. When her editor confronts her with a new assignment of writing about the transitional area between first date and “I do”, an area she has never experienced, she finds herself floundering. Mitchell Forbes is a Wall Street executive who usually engages in a relationship far too long. When he’s drawn into a bet that he can enter into a no-strings-attached fling with a woman and not get involved, he jumps at the chance to prove his best friend wrong. This book completely held my attention and had me turning the pages long into the night.The characters are engaging and the writing flows smoothly. It is a thoroughly enjoyable love story that is filled with humor, sensuality, romance that will touch your heart, and enough underlying angst to to hold your interest. It’s a delightful story that I highly recommend.

Julie works at Stilello, The Magazine for women and is part of the "IT" girls, the trio who write the infamous articles and her newest assignment is NOT something she is familiar with and doesn't have the first clue where to turn and she is spinning out of control. When met with an ultimatum from the boss, either write the article or lose her spot to her nemesis, she bends to a bet to have a fling for the sake of a relationship so she can write the article. This puts Mitchell in her sights. Mitchell works on Wall Street and he is recently single. He is a serious dater who when he dates it is for real and long term. This leads his friend to bet him he cannot actually have a fling and "love 'em and leave 'em" and puts up Yankee tickets as an incentive. This puts Julie in his sights. Oh, what a tangled web this is, especially when things start to get serious and hearts become involved. When the bets are made public knowledge, tempers flare and words are exchanged and hearts are broken. Oh my, how will they ever find their happy ending because these always have a happy ending. This was so good and listening to it in audio was a hoot. I found myself laughing out loud! I highly recommend it and off to get the next one in the series now!

**I received this book from Random House through NetGalley for an honest review.** Julie writes for Stiletto, a very popular woman's magazine. She is part of the famous trio that writes about Dating, Love and Sex. Julie's specialty is the first date, the sizzling first kiss. She's assigned a topic she knows next to nothing about, "How to Take Relationships to the Next Level?". After a lot of freaking out Julie and her best friends come up with a plan. Mitchell is a Wall Street guy. He's the type that stays in a relationship too long with the expectations of putting a ring on the woman he's with finger. At first glance Mitchell looks like the perfect guy for Julie but he has plans of his own. I really enjoyed After the Kiss. Julie and Mitchell had me laughing a lot with their back and forth digs. They both had great personalities which made them even more likeable. Mitchell was a lot more confident than one would expect and it worked for him. Julie was good at what she does. Her breakdown of the seven kinds of first kisses was classic. Julie's inner monologue was pretty funny as well. To me it read like RomCom I'd normally watch. Opposite enough to fit perfectly. When it was over it left me wanting more which is a good thing. Great novella that has me looking forward to more from Lauren.

About the author

Lauren Layne is a New York Times bestselling author of contemporary romance novels. Prior to becoming a writer, she worked in e-commerce and Web marketing. In 2011 Lauren and her husband moved from Seattle to New York City, where she decided to pursue a full-time writing career. It took six months to get her first book deal (despite Lauren’s ardent assurances to her husband that it would take only three). Since then, she’s gone on to publish ten books, including those in the bestselling Sex, Love & Stiletto series, with more stories always in the works. Lauren currently lives in Chicago with her husband and their spoiled Pomeranian. When she’s not writing, you’ll find her at happy hour, running at a doggedly slow pace, or trying to straighten her naturally curly hair.