Unbreak Me (26 page)
THE END
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Unbreak Me Playlist
Ani DiFranco—
32 Flavors
Nine Inch Nails—
Perfect Drug
P!nk—
Slut Like You
Cold Play—
Fix You
The Fray—
How to Save a Life
P!nk, featuring Nate Ruess—
Just Give Me a Reason
Muse—
Madness
Nine Inch Nails—
Hurt
Ani DiFranco—
Gratitude
Labrinth featuring Emeli Sandé—
Beneath Your Beautiful
Rihanna featuring Mikki Ekko—
Stay
Ani DiFranco—
Amazing Grace
Josh Radin—
When You Find Me
Sneak Peek of
Escaping Reality
by Lisa Renee Jones and
Falling for the Good Guy
by Violet Duke
Dear Readers: One of the few activities I love as much as writing is reading. On the following pages, you will find the descriptions of and excerpts from two books I’m looking forward to. Though strikingly different in tone and subject matter, they both promise to be great, sexy reads: Lisa Renee Jones’
Escaping Reality
and Violet Duke’s
Falling for the Good Guy,
both coming summer 2013. Enjoy!
***
Escaping Reality
by Lisa Renee Jones
About the Book
He is rich, famous, and secretive and he will become her passion, her desire, her escape from a dark reality she so desperately craves…
At the young age of eighteen, tragedy and a dark secret force Lara to flee all she has known and loves to start a new life. Now years later, with a new identity as Amy, she’s finally dared to believe she is forgotten–even if she cannot forget. But just when she lets down her guard down, the ghost’s of her past are quick to punish her, forcing her back on the run.
On a plane, struggling to face the devastation of losing everything again and starting over, Amy meets Liam Stone, a darkly entrancing recluse billionaire, who is also a brilliant, and famous, prodigy architect. A man who knows what he wants and goes after it. And what he wants is Amy. Refusing to take “no” as an answer, he sweeps her into a passionate affair, pushing her to her erotic limits. He wants to possess her. He makes her want to be possessed. Liam demands everything from her, accepting nothing less. But what if she is too devastated by tragedy to know when he wants more than she should give? And what if there is more to Liam than meets the eyes?
Excerpt © Lisa Renee Jones
Chapter One
Amy…
My name is all that is written on the plain white envelope taped to the mirror.
I step out of the stall inside the bathroom of Manhattan’s Metropolitan Museum, and the laughter and joy of the evening’s charity event I’ve been enjoying fades away. Fear and dread slam into me, shooting adrenaline through my body. No. No. No. This cannot be happening and yet it is. It is, and I know what it means. Suddenly, the room begins to shift and everything goes gray. I fight the flashback I haven’t had in years, but I am already right there in it, in the middle of a nightmare. The scent of smoke burns my nose. The sound of blistering screams shreds my nerves. There is pain and heartache, and the loss of all I once had and will never know again. Fighting a certain meltdown, I swallow hard and shove away the gut-wrenching memories. I can’t let this happen. Not here, not in a public place. Not when I’m quite certain danger is knocking on my door.
On wobbly knees and four-inch black strappy heels that had made me feel sexy only minutes before and clumsy now, I step forward and press my palms to the counter. I can’t seem to make myself reach for the envelope and my gaze goes to my image in the mirror, to my long white-blond hair I’ve worn draped around my shoulders tonight rather than tied at my nape, and done so as a proud reflection of the heritage of my Swedish mother I’m tired of denying. Gone too are the dark-rimmed glasses I’ve often used to hide the pale blue eyes both of my parents had shared, making it too easy for me to see the empty shell of a person I’ve become. If this is what I am at twenty-four years old, what I will be like at thirty-four?
Voices sound outside the doorway and I yank the envelope from the mirror and rush into the stall, sealing myself inside. Still chatting, two females enter the bathroom, and I tune out their gossip about some man they’d admired at the party. I suddenly need to confirm my fate. Leaning against the wall, I open the sealed envelope to remove a plain white note card and a key drops to the floor that looks like it goes to a locker. Cursing my shaking hand, I bend down and scoop it up. For a moment, I can’t seem to stand up. I want to be strong. I have to be strong. I shove to my feet and blink away the burning sensation in my eyes to read the few short sentences typed on the card.
I’ve found you and so can they. Go to JFK Airport directly. Do not go home. Do not linger. Locker 111 will have everything you need.
My heart thunders in my chest as I take in the signature that is nothing more than a triangle with some writing inside of it. It’s the tattoo that had been worn on the arm of the stranger who I’d met only once before. He’d saved my life and helped me restart my life, and he’d made sure I knew that symbol meant that I am in danger and I have to run.
Escaping Reality…Available for preorder now. Available everywhere July 22nd.
***
Falling for the Good Guy
by Violet Duke
About the Book
From the evil author who left you hanging off a cliff in RESISTING THE BAD BOY comes the second book in the NICE GIRL TO LOVE series: Abby & Brian’s story…
Abby Bartlett is well aware that everyone thinks she’s in love with her best friend Brian. He is, after all, the type of man a nice girl should be with—the polar opposite of the bad boy—the kind of guy who didn’t let his wife’s decade-long illness stop him from showering her with a lifetime of love every second until her dying day. Yes, Brian has been the yardstick against which Abby has measured all other men. But everyone’s wrong; she couldn’t possibly be in love with him.
Because she’s never once allowed herself that option.
It’s taken a while but Brian Sullivan has finally come to terms with being a widower at the age of thirty, surviving the woman he spent half his life loving, a third of it losing. Truth is though, he wouldn’t have ‘survived’ any of it really had it not been for Abby—sweet, incredible Abby—the woman he’s never once had to picture his life without, never realized he couldn’t truly live without. Until now. Now that he’s finally able to love her the way she deserves, the way he knows she wants to be loved…by his brother.
Who’s giving him exactly one chance to speak now or forever hold his peace.
Excerpt © Violet Duke
“You know you can still keep waiting on him, right?” Brian gazed into her eyes softly. “No one would fault you for it if you did. What you and my brother had was pretty intense.”
That was an understatement.
Still, she didn’t even hesitate. “No. No more waiting. It’s time.”
“Yeah?”
She gave him the most determined look she could scrounge up. “Yep.”
He studied her for a beat and then leaned in closer. Until she could see every fleck of green in his teal blue eyes. “Your turn.”
Confused, she drew back to a more thinking-friendly distance. “What?”
“Your turn to talk. You were going to say something earlier.”
“Oh, right.” She shook her head to clear it. Geez, maybe she was drunk. “I was just going to say something similar, actually. That no one would fault you for missing your wife during the holidays. You don’t always have to be so strong. Not around me, at least.”
“And now it’s my turn to reply in a similar fashion. It’s time.”
She tilted her head. “What do you mean?”
“Are you serious about wanting to get over Connor?”
Was it
that
hard to believe? “I’ve told you, a deadline is a deadline.”
“So this is now officially one of your wishes that you want to make into your reality?”
Heartbreakingly, it was. “Yes.”
“Then let me help.”
The corner of her mouth lifted up. The man was forever trying to right the world for everyone he cared about. “And you’re going to help how exactly?”
“By any means necessary.” He stole back the precious brain-clearing space she’d gained. “Are you going to make my task easy and let me kiss you at midnight, Abby-Bee?”
Abby-Bee. He hadn’t called her that since college. She smiled wistfully at the memories the nickname brought back…for about a second before the rest of what he’d just said registered.
She almost spewed out a mouthful of beer in his face.
After two quick blinks she swore she could hardly recognize the man sitting beside her. Where was her warm, cuddly bear of a best friend? How did this hunk of a man with the scalding hot gaze get in her house?
And what on earth was she going to do with him?
“Brian—”
“Before you try to laugh this off and convince yourself I’m kidding, let me be clear.” He slid his hands through her hair and gently tipped her face up to his. “I want to kiss you at midnight, Abby.” He touched his forehead to hers. “All you have to do is let me.”
It took a while for her brain to register all that he was saying, even longer for her body to make heads and tails of what he was doing. She’d basically just entered a world where red was green and warm was suddenly un-freakin’-believably hot.
She pulled back.
But her eyes couldn’t seem to stop staring at his lips. “You can’t kiss me, Brian. At least not how you’re suggesting.”
Because I’m still hopelessly in love with your brother
. “We’re friends.”
“Best friends,” he agreed.
“Exactly.” Somehow, she didn’t think she was winning this debate.
“Why can’t I kiss my best friend?” he argued back at barely a whisper. “Because she’s an incredible woman I respect, admire, love, and know better than anyone else in the world—the same way she knows me? Or because she’s the woman I’d just as soon cut my own heart out for before ever seeing hurt in any way?” He slid a thumb along her lower lip. “Or is it because she’s the woman who’s scared she might actually want to kiss me as much as I want to kiss her?”
Holy swizzle sticks. She was
definitely
losing this debate.
Falling for the Good Guy…Coming Summer 2013
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