All for This (34 page)

Justin Timberlake—
Drink You Away

Rihanna—
Stay

Muse—
Madness

Ingrid Michaelson feat. A Great Big World—
Over You

A Great Big World—
Already Home

Sam Smith—
Stay with Me

Pink, Nate Reuss—
Just Give Me a Reason

Ani DiFranco—
Falling Is Like This

Norah Jones—
Come Away With Me

Train—
Marry Me

Oh Honey—
Be Okay

What Lexi’s Reading

I love reading almost as I love writing. Here are a couple books I’m looking forward to:
Sugar on the Edge
by Sawyer Bennett and
The Request Trilogy
by Marquita Valentine. Find the blurbs and a brief excerpt of each below.

Sugar on the Edge
by Sawyer Bennett

About the Book:

He’s utterly alone…

Tortured and existing in a dark spiral of despair, bestselling British author, Gavin Cooke, has come to the Outer Banks of North Carolina to escape the seedy lifestyle he had been living in London and in a desperate attempt to regain his writing focus. He’s twisted, bitter and angry at the world. He’s a loner… needing not a single thing other than his Scotch and a laptop upon which he can bang out his next erotic, dark thriller.

She’s running in place and getting nowhere…

Savannah Shepherd’s life is falling apart. Her dream of being a wildlife photographer seems a distant memory and she’s barely able to make ends meet. Driving herself forward with no clear goals apparent, she’s about ready to pack up her bags and head home with her tail between her legs.

Two unlikely lovers…

He’s raw, forceful and a dirty talker. She’s a flowers and romance type of girl. Yet within each other, they find a mutual craving that can only be satisfied by giving in to their desires for one another.

Lust turns into something more… something they were not looking for but tentatively accept. Will it be enough to push them past the obstacles of Gavin’s bitter past?

Excerpt:

Savannah lets out a soft sigh from the couch, and I watch her intently. The hand across her stomach moves up, and she stretches both of them over her head, arching her back off the couch in a sleepy stretch. It pulls her T-shirt up higher, exposing more of her stomach and thrusting her breasts out.

The two glasses of scotch I’ve had haven’t mellowed me enough that my dick doesn’t take notice of the unintentional, but sexy move. It thumps against the zipper of my jeans with interest.

I wonder if I could seduce her… right now? I wonder if I gave into this attraction… this lust that’s brewing for her, could the pounding of my cock between her legs drive her right out of my thoughts for good? Maybe that’s what I need… just to fuck her, with raw, primal energy… enough to scare her away for good. Maybe then, I could quit thinking about her. She’d run away crying, her dignity shredded, and I could hire a new cleaning service and be done with her.

Savannah takes a deep breath, lets it out, and then goes still. I can’t see if her eyes are open in the shadows where she lies, but by the measured movement of her chest, I think she’s gone back down under.

Setting my empty tumbler on the table beside me, I stand up and walk over to the couch. I stare down at her, her face so serene and peaceful. I wonder if she’s dreaming.

Without a second thought, I sit down on the edge of the couch, in a small area available to me by her left hip. Taking my finger, I stroke it over the skin of her stomach and say, “Sweet… it’s time to wake up?”

She gives a soft moan in her sleep and arches her back off the cushions again.

And fuck, that’s sexy.

And yeah, I definitely want to fuck her.

“Savannah,” I call out to her softly and bring my hand up to her face, grazing my fingers over her temple. “You need to wake up.”

Her eyes flutter open, immediately making contact with mine, and I let my hand drop away.

“She’s alive,” I murmur as she stares at me with dark eyes.

“What time is it?” she rasps out, turning her head to the left to look out the back glass door.

“Just after nine PM,” I tell her. “You slept like a rock. I could have had my way with you, and you would have never known.”

“Oh, yeah?” she asks skeptically, and with sleep still heavy in her voice. “Like what?”

Oh, little girl, the things I could have done to you.

I go for the shock factor to see what she does. Reaching my left arm behind me, I place my fingers on her calf. Her skin is warm and silky, and her breath hitches at the slight touch. “I could have skimmed my fingers up your leg, right past your knee… up your thigh,” I tell her, moving my fingers up that same path I’m describing. When I get to the edge of her shorts, I halt my progress. “I could have inched my way right under these short little shorts… found the edge of your damp panties just to prove that you were having a sexy little dream while you were sleeping.”

A tiny moan comes out of her mouth, and her eyes glitter back at me from the ambient light of the lamp reflecting in them. “You didn’t do that,” she says without any type of conviction at all… and is that a bit of longing I hear?

I finger the edge of her shorts. “I’ve done all kinds of dark and dirty things that your limited imagination could never fully appreciate. It would have been nothing for me to do that to you.”

“Maybe so,” she breathes out in a rush, “but you wouldn’t have done that without my consent.”

“Hmmm,” I say thoughtfully, releasing the denim material and placing my fingers on her hot skin, feeling her muscles jump underneath my touch. “I’m wondering… would you give me your consent right now? Would you let me tunnel my fingers inside just a bit, let me see if your panties are damp because what I’m saying to you now is turning you on?”

The Request Trilogy
by Marquita Valentine,
Book One

About the Book

*** Roman Smith ~ Shopkeeper by day. Assassin by night. ***

The undercover Russian contract killer has never turned down an assignment that rids the world of scum… until his latest job targets an innocent man.

Refusing is not an option.

Everly Andrews, the sexy southern belle who saved him from dying and is completely unaware of his double life, has been marked as next on the kill list should he fail. There’s nothing Roman won’t do to keep Everly safe, even if it means losing her in the process.

Excerpt:

Everly rewards me with a tremulous smile. I allow my thumb to pass over a knuckle, and her breath hitches. She leans forward slightly, mahogany waves falling. Our eyes meet, and I’m helpless in this moment. The last time she was this close to me, I’d been shot.

Now, I’m perfectly healthy and perfectly willing to take her to my bed. Because of her, I haven’t been with anyone in months. 
Months
. The thought of using another as a replacement for her leaves my mouth as dry as ashes in a dead hearth.

“Your friend,” she says, her lips inches from mine. Plump and pink.

Lickable. I want to devour her, starting at that mouth.

“He’s browsing.”

She covers my hand with hers, but not to pull it away. Instead, she squeezes, and my dick gets hard. I close my eyes. This is no way to react to her fear, but my body knows who’s touching it.

“Have lunch with me on Friday.”

My eyes pop open. “Pardon?”

“Lunch. You and me, we’ll eat and talk about books and non-shooting things. We won’t mention bullets or hospitals or nightmares of seeing a friend covered in blood,” she says, her smile quivering at the corners.

“You had nightmares?”

She nods. “I didn’t think I could ever come back here again.”

“Why did you?”

A little shrug and she looks away. I turn her face back to mine with my free hand. Heat arcs between us, my thumb dusts her lower lip, and her mouth parts. I dip my finger in slightly, and her tongue touches the tip before she pulls away.

A groan escapes before I can stop it. My sweet 
solnyshko. 
“Love, tell me why you came back.”

First I have to thank my husband, Brian, and our kids, Jack and Mary. You make me remember what matters.

A huge thank-you to my friends and family for being amazing cheerleaders. From my siblings to my grad school buddies, to my ninety-six-year-old neighbor who has her visiting nurse hooked now, I couldn’t ask for better book pimps.

To everyone who provided me feedback on this crazy twisty-turny plot—especially Heather Carver, Rhonda Helms, Adrienne Hogan, and Samantha Leighton. A special shout-out to Annie Swanberg, who threatened to write Here and Now fan fiction if I didn’t have the guts to end this book the way it needed to end. You were right, of course.

Thank you to the team that helped me package this book and promote it. Sarah Hansen at Okay Creations designed my beautiful cover, and if I have my way she will do many, many more for me. To my editing team, Rhonda Helms, Mickey Reed, and Arran McNicol, you make my books better. To Chris, my assistant, who keeps me organized against all odds. Thank you to Christine at iHeartBigBooks for designing my gorgeous promo materials, and a massive shout-out to Julie with AToMR for organizing my promotional events. To all of the bloggers and reviewers who help spread the word about my books—you’re amazing. Every one of you.

To my agent Dan Mandel and my foreign rights agent Stefanie Diaz for getting my books into the hands of readers all over the world—you’re making my dreams come true.

To all my writer friends on Twitter, Facebook, and my various writer loops, thank you for your support and inspiration. Special thanks to the NWB—Sawyer Bennett, Lauren Blakely, Violet Duke, Jessie Evans, Melody Grace, Monica Murphy, and Kendall Ryan—you ladies make me smile on a daily basis!

And last but certainly not least, thank you to my fans all over the world. To those who read
Unbreak Me
and
Wish I May
and wrote begging for another New Hope story. To those who read
Lost in Me
and
Fall to You
and begged for early copies of
All for This.
You’re the best fans an author could ask for. I couldn’t do this without you and wouldn’t want to. Thank you for buying my books and telling your friends about them. Thank you for being gracious and kind in your letters. And thank you for being the reason I have to pinch myself. You’re the best, and you’re the reason I get to live this dream.

~Lexi