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CHAPTER REVEAL – Sliding Down the Sky by Amanda Dick
Release Date April 11th
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Callum Ferguson has grown up in the shadow of the sins of his father. The worst moment of his life came not at the age of sixteen, when he threw his father out of the house, but later in life, when he realised he was just like him. With a predilection for alcohol and violence, he sees his destiny every time he looks in the mirror.
Sass Hathaway, hell-raiser and successful musician, thrived in the limelight – until one night she lost it all. Drowning in an ocean of uncertainty, nursing a crippling case of self-loathing, her brother offers her a chance to find herself again.
His idea of salvation is a dilapidated bar. His proposal; she help him and his wife renovate and run it. However, when she and Callum cross paths, they both discover that salvation comes in many forms.
You can’t escape your past, you can only come to terms with it so that you can move on – but accepting your past is only the beginning. Then you must decide whether you’re strong enough to follow your heart.
(This can be read as a stand-alone, but reading ‘Absolution’ is recommended in order to get the most out of this story).
Prologue
“The sense of loss is such a tricky one, because we always feel like our worth is tied up into stuff that we have, not that our worth can grow with things we are willing to lose.” – Tori Amos
Callum
I spent a good part of my life hating my father. I hated the booze, I hated the way he treated my mother, and I hated the way he looked at me. I hated the man he was. I was as scared of him as I was ashamed of him. Then came that day, the day everything changed.
I remember that moment as if it were yesterday. Like all the moments in my life that shaped me into the man I am, they linger. They burn through my veins like neon, lighting me up from within. It doesn’t matter how deeply I try to bury them, I know they’re there. They carve scars deep into my heart and soul. Much like my tongue might caress the gap where a tooth used to be, my brain goes over and over these moments until they finally become part of my history. I don’t realise it at the time, but I will never be the same again.
Life can be stripped down to a few critical moments. We rarely recognise these moments as they’re happening. It’s not until much later, when the storm has passed, and with the benefit of hindsight, that we finally see them for what they are.
I was just like him.
The realisation itself was a dye, tainting everything. It leaked into my actions, my moods, the very essence of who I thought I was, until there was no point fighting it anymore. The situation I now found myself in was simply a culmination of all of that.
Jail cells had a particular smell, and this one was no different. A unique blend of vomit, urine and misery, overlaid with the not-so-delicate scent of bleach.
So far I’d managed to keep the booze down. I should’ve eaten, but that would’ve been counter-productive. My goal, if I’d been thinking clearly enough to have one, was to get rip-snorting, memory-erasing, coma-inducing drunk – drunk enough to forget about everything – but I couldn’t even manage to do that right. I should’ve been disappointed in myself, but I couldn’t even muster up the necessary disgust anymore.
The room seemed to tilt and I leaned forward to keep up with it, my head in my hands. I tried not to think. I didn’t want to think, but even when you don’t want to think, it happens anyway. Just like when your heart hurts so much, you convince yourself that this is it – it can’t get any worse. Then someone twists a knife and you find a new level of pain.
That’s what had happened to me tonight. I’d found a new level of pain, and it was cutting me to ribbons.
I swallowed back a combination of vomit and tears, my nostrils twitching as I fought against the impulse. I was not going to throw up or cry. I just wasn’t. I wished I had my phone. How many calls had I missed? What was going on out there?
I was in the cell with a couple of other guys, one much older, sleeping it off on the bench that ran across the opposite wall. The other guy was younger than me. I looked up at him out of the corner of my eye. He’d barely moved in the hour since I’d been thrown in here, and he hadn’t uttered a word. He was like me – the strong, stupid type. He just sat there, his back to the wall, watching everything. He didn’t look drunk, but then some of us hid it well. Instead, he looked like a simmering volcano. That look in his eye was all too familiar.
Like me.
Like Dad.
Only, my anger was waning. Teetering on the brink for so long, I could feel it burning away, taking with it the soul-destroying sense of betrayal and even the confusion. Now, I was just broken. Broken, and drunk, and too exhausted to search for a way out of this mess.
I sank my fists into my hair and pulled tight. It was pure distraction, like stomping on my foot to take my mind off a sore thumb. Maybe, if I ripped my hair out by the roots, it’d take my mind off the ache in my chest.
Self-preservation kicked in though, and I let go, choking back a sob that sounded more like a gasp. I wanted to sink into a deep ocean of self-pity, allowing the water to swallow me up without a trace, but I didn’t have that luxury.
I was wasting time. I had to get out of there. I had to get the hell out of there and see her, before it was too late.
I lurched to my feet, the floor leaning sideways as I hurled myself at the bars.
“Hey!” I shouted. “I need my phone call!”
Nothing.
“Can anyone hear me?”
“You’re wasting your time.”
I turned, still hanging on to the bars to keep my balance. The younger guy regarded me from across the cell, his eyes narrowing as if I was something he’d just scraped off his shoe.
“I need my phone call,” I said again.
“You have to wait, just like the rest of us. They’ll be back.”
He was right. I should’ve known that. This wasn’t my first rodeo. My heart sank and the despair was instant and absolute, wrapping cold arms around me and squeezing so tight, I had trouble breathing.
While I sat there, suffocating in self-pity, she could be dying.
She could be dying, and I wasn’t there.
Amanda Dick is a night-owl, coffee addict, movie buff and music lover. She loves to do DIY (if it’s not bolted down, she’ll probably paint it, re-cover it or otherwise decorate it) and has tried almost every craft known to man/womankind. She has two sewing machines and an over-locker she can’t remember how to thread. She crochets (but can’t follow a pattern), knits (badly) and refrains from both as a public service.
She believes in love at first sight, in women’s intuition and in following your heart. She is rather partial to dark chocolate and believes in the power of a good vanilla latte.
What lights her fire is writing stories about real people in trying situations. Her passion is finding characters who are forced to test their boundaries. She is insanely curious about how we, as human beings, react when pushed to the edge. Most of all, she enjoys writing about human behaviour – love, loss, joy, grief, friendship and the complexity of relationships in general.
After living in Scotland for five years, she has now settled back home in New Zealand, where she lives with her husband and two children.
Her debut novel, “Absolution”, was released on 29 October 2013 (with the second edition releasing on 6 January 2015). Her second novel, “Between Before and After”, was released in May 2014. Her third novel, “Into the Void”, is scheduled to release in July 2015.
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RELEASE DAY BLITZ ~ Curvy by Alexa Riley
The first time Flynn Long sees her, she’s lying on a bed in lingerie. The picture is soft, just like her curves, and instantly he’s obsessed.
Cali Carr is at the end of her full-figure modeling career when she’s hired for a new campaign. But when the owner of the company steps out of the shadows and starts calling the shots, a job is the last thing it feels like.
Love at first sight isn’t supposed to be real. One touch isn’t supposed to ignite so much. A single picture isn’t supposed to drive a man insane. But luckily for us it’s happening in Curvy!
Warning: Over the top isn’t strong enough for what this short story is. It’s velvety sweetness coated in insta-love cheese, and it’s waiting for you to take a bite.
Buy the book
Free on Kindle Unlimited
Win a 7” Kindle Fire
Giveaway Link
Alexa Riley is two sassy friends who got together and wrote some dirty books. They are both married moms of two who love football, donuts, and obsessed book heroes.
They specialize in insta-love, over-the-top, sweet, and cheesy love stories that don’t take all year to read. If you want something SAFE, short, and always with a happily ever after, then Alexa Riley is for you!
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COVER REVEAL ~ Curvy by Alexa Riley
Release Day is Tuesday March 1st, but you can add it to your goodreads shelf now.
The first time Flynn Long sees her, she’s lying on a bed in lingerie.
The picture is soft, just like her curves, and instantly he’s obsessed.
Cali Carr is at the end of her full-figure modeling career when she’s hired for a new campaign.
But when the owner of the company steps out of the shadows and starts calling the shots, a job is the last thing it feels like.
Love at first sight isn’t supposed to be real. One touch isn’t supposed to ignite so much.
A single picture isn’t supposed to drive a man insane.
But luckily for us it’s happening in Curvy!
Warning: Over the top isn’t strong enough for what this short story is.
It’s velvety sweetness coated in insta-love cheese, and it’s waiting for you to take a bite.
Chapter 1
*Flynn*
“You told me you had this under control. That was the only reason I agreed to invest in a women’s lingerie line.”
I look down at the sales charts of Curved Intimates, a company we invested in over six months ago. It’s bleeding money, and I’m close to just scrapping the whole project and be done with the headache. I have enough on my plate as it is.
When you invest in as many things as Breakstone Corp does, you can’t be surprised when not all of them work out. But I had agreed with Mark when he brought this proposal to me. It was supposed to be the next Victoria’s Secret. The pitch was good and the women’s market wasn’t one we had worked our way into yet. Mark said it was something he really wanted to take on, so we went for it.
I know shit about fashion. I pay someone to shop for me and pick out my clothes. I know even less about women’s undergarments. Fuck, I can’t even remember the last time I saw a real woman in her underwear.
I run my hands over my face, trying to relieve some of the tension headache that’s starting to build. It’s already six o’clock and it looks like I’m going to be here another four hours at least.
“Lynn from marketing is waiting outside. She seems to think she’s come up with something.” Mark shifts uncomfortably, probably scared I’m going to fire him. But this is the first time he’s ever missed the mark like this before. He’s eager and good at his job, but if I had a wife and three kids, I’d probably worry if I fucked up, too. You can’t win them all, and I can’t fault him for wanting to try to branch us out to something new. It showed enthusiasm, and it’s the very reason I’d hired him
I flip through the last marketing ads in the folder again. They look standard, but there’s nothing special about the pictures, nothing that draws attention. They look like every other ad for women’s underwear you’ve ever seen. There’s no clear branding and nothing that stands out about this line.
“I hope it’s better than this shit.” I toss the folder back across the desk at him.
“I’ve been working with marketing. They have a few ideas I really like and—”
I cut him off. I want to get this show on the road. “Mark, calm down. I’m not going to fire you over this. We’ll hear marketing’s ideas, and we either do them or we drop the whole fucking thing.”
Mark nods before heading over towards the door, letting Lynn into my office. She shuffles over to my desk clutching a pile of binders so high I can’t even see her face. The stack almost looks bigger than her. I’m not sure how she’s made it all the way up here with them.
“Sir, can I get you or anyone else a drink?” Sally, my assistant, asks as she stands in the doorway to my office. I know the only reason she’s offering is because other people are in here. She stopped getting me my coffee years ago, telling me she didn’t have a degree in business so she could waste it on fetching coffee. She’s an expensive pain in the ass I couldn’t live without. Luckily for me, her kids are off in college and her husband doesn’t seem to mind the long hours I often need her to work. I have a feeling she’s made me dependent on her on purpose. There’s no way I could fire her or her smart mouth.
“I’m good, Sally.” I look to Lynn and Mark, who both say, “No, thanks,” before Lynn goes back to trying to get her binders in the order she likes. One falls off the top, landing open, making my whole body go still at the image.
The woman in the photo is lying on a bed, her legs in the air and crossed at the ankles. She has on fishnet stockings that lead up her legs to her thick thighs. She’s wearing high-waisted black underwear that shows off her wide hips, giving her an old-school pinup feel, and a sexy bra that barely contains her full breasts, the material just covering the essentials. Every part of her is thick and luscious. All the blood in my body flows to my dick. I’ve never had a reaction like this to a woman. I’m too old to get a fucking hard-on from seeing a woman in a picture. She’s not even naked. Just the sight of her in her underwear has me nearly bursting in my slacks.
I see Mark out of the corner of my eye as he takes a step towards my desk to see what’s caught my attention. I slam the binder closed, not wanting him to see her. Possessiveness flows through me, and I look at Lynn, who’s still going through the binders. When I look at Mark, he has his eyebrows raised in question.
I pick the binder up and open it to show Lynn. When Mark takes another step to see what I’m showing her, I can’t hold back.
“Don’t,” I bite out, making him pause, the confusion on his face growing. “Who is this?” I demand, needing more information on her. Anything.
“Oh. Just an idea I was thinking about. Going a little old school with some of the looks and appealing to all body types.”
“Her name?” I push, and she reaches for the binder. I pull it back, not wanting it taken from me. Almost like a toddler with his favorite toy.
“If you flip a few pages, it should be in the front. Before her pictures start,” she says, seeing that I’m not going to give her back the binder.
I turn the book around to me and hurriedly flip through the pages until I get to the front.
Cali Carr.
Measurements: 40”/32”/48” (Bust/Waist/Hips)
Dress size: 14 Shoe Size: 8
I turn the page, hoping there’s another picture of her. The one on the bed made it hard to see her face. I flip to the next page, and I literally have to sit down in my chair. She’s smirking in the picture. Her full lips are just as lush as the rest of her. Her skin is flawless, a creamy white making the little freckles that sprinkle her upturned button nose even more noticeable.
But what really got me are her stunning eyes. They’re a deep green like nothing I’ve never seen before. In contrast with her red hair, they are unmissable.
“Sir,” I hear Lynn say, and I look up at her. I have no idea how long I’ve been staring at the picture.
“I want her.”
“Okay. I’ll put her on the list. I have a few more for you to look at.”
She tries to hand me another binder, but I have no desire to look at pictures of other women. What would be the point? They’d all pale in comparison. I’ve just seen perfection and I know nothing could beat it.
“No. I’ll leave it to you and Mark to handpick the rest of the girls for the shoot.” I stand up from my chair.
“Or course, sir. We’ll get it all worked out.”
“The shoot will be next week,” I tell them. I want to see her as soon as possible.
“I don’t think—”
“It will be next weekend. If the model’s photographer or something can’t make it, book someone else. But she,” I hold up the binder with her picture in it, “better be there. I don’t care what it costs.”
Standing up, I hold the binder in front of my crotch to hide my erection. I click the intercom.
“Sally, can you call my driver? I’m going down,” I inform her.
“Leaving already?” I can hear the shock in her voice.
“Yes.” I release the button. “Feel free to use my office until you’re done. I’ll see you tomorrow, Mark.” I head for the door with the binder still in front of me, hiding my very prominent arousal. I stop before I exit. “Send me any and all information you have on her, Lynn.”
“You’ll have it this evening,” she says, looking at me with big eyes.
I nod before exiting my office. I had better things to do tonight than spend it in my office. I have a binder half-full of pictures of my Cali.
Alexa Riley is two sassy friends who got together and wrote some dirty books. They are both married moms of two who love football, donuts, and obsessed book heroes.
They specialize in insta-love, over-the-top, sweet, and cheesy love stories that don’t take all year to read. If you want something SAFE, short, and always with a happily ever after, then Alexa Riley is for you!
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COVER REVEAL ~ Guarding His Obsession by Alexa Riley
Release Day is Thursday 18h February,
but you can add it to your goodreads shelf now.
When Drake Hart’s security team is hired to find a stalker, he has no idea what’s in store for him. However, the day Zoey Lewis’ picture lands in his lap, there’s nothing he won’t do to save her. He’s always been quiet and shy, but seeing her changes everything.
Zoey is missing a filter when it comes to interacting with people. She’s used to being lost in her computer and being taken care of by her sister. She’s an oddball, and people find it hard to deal with. But when Drake Hulk-smashes his way into her world, she doesn’t feel so out of place.
When Zoey is threatened and needs protection, will Drake save the day? With a body like his, all signs point to yes!
Warning: He owns a security firm. She’s a little nerdy. It’s a classic trope and a recipe for sugary-sweet erotica!
Alexa Riley is two sassy friends who got together and wrote some dirty books. They are both married moms of two who love football, donuts, and obsessed book heroes.
They specialize in insta-love, over-the-top, sweet, and cheesy love stories that don’t take all year to read. If you want something SAFE, short, and always with a happily ever after, then Alexa Riley is for you!
Author Links
Twitter Facebook Website Goodreads
Amazon Page Instagram
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