DIDN'T I WARN YOU
Bad for You #1
Amber Bardan
Releasing
April 18th, 2016 (Digital), May 24th (Print)
Carina Press
April 18th, 2016 (Digital), May 1st 2016 (Print)
Harlequin Australia
Not everything dangerous is bad.
From the moment Angelina laid eyes on him, she fell into a fantasy. Mysterious, foreign, gorgeous, Haithem offered her what she needed most—a chance to feel again.
But Haithem is much more than he appears to be. He lives in a world of danger where everything comes at a price.
For Angelina, that price is her future.
He's made sure the life she's left behind is in tatters. Made her family believe she's dead. Still, he talks about protecting her, about keeping her safe, but she can't distinguish his truth from his lies. She can't separate her pleasure from his betrayal.
Haithem warned her. He told her he'd make her heart race, her body come alive and her most primal needs rush to the surface. His for the taking.
He didn't say she'd come to love the devil who's destroying her, even as he keeps her prisoner.
From the moment Angelina laid eyes on him, she fell into a fantasy. Mysterious, foreign, gorgeous, Haithem offered her what she needed most—a chance to feel again.
But Haithem is much more than he appears to be. He lives in a world of danger where everything comes at a price.
For Angelina, that price is her future.
He's made sure the life she's left behind is in tatters. Made her family believe she's dead. Still, he talks about protecting her, about keeping her safe, but she can't distinguish his truth from his lies. She can't separate her pleasure from his betrayal.
Haithem warned her. He told her he'd make her heart race, her body come alive and her most primal needs rush to the surface. His for the taking.
He didn't say she'd come to love the devil who's destroying her, even as he keeps her prisoner.
“I
swear—you never existed. I never met you at all.”
His
gaze flicked to my touch, and stuck there as though the touching of him was not something that was usually
done. His expression shivered and whatever I thought I saw vanished. He rose to
his feet. “I’m afraid a promise made under duress is no promise at all.”
“What
do you mean, duress?” I leaped off the bed.
He
strode for the door. Apparently, he thought our conversation was over. Pity—I
wasn’t done. I followed him onto the deck.
Salty
air swept hair across my face.
“It’s
not as if you’ve threatened me, so I’m not under duress.”
He
paused, pushed the notepad into his pocket and turned. “You think someone has
to hold a gun to your head for you to be helpless?” His movements changed, went
sharp yet somehow also slinky. He walked—not to me but around me. “I have all
the power, all the say. And you—” he pointed his finger directly at me “—you,
Angel, are a scared girl who wants to go home.”
His
words whipped me like lashings from the wind. Painful, cutting lashes that made
me want to cry. He stalked me, closing his circle just as surely as a shark. My
veins spurted adrenaline, instinct compelling me to run.
But
I didn’t run. That would break the dubious politeness he’d affected, and this
small glimpse at what lay underneath was enough to shake the skin around me.
There
was nowhere to run. He’d catch me, and—god help me—I might even enjoy it.
I
might enjoy something so real and so raw as being caught, even if it hurt. No
polite control. Nothing proper or respectable. Just real.
He
walked and walked, round and around. My neck strained to keep up with him. I
couldn’t drop my gaze, couldn’t let him out of my peripheral vision.
“You
owe me nothing. I expect nothing from you. I trust no promises from you.” His
voice softened, whispered around me from what felt like all directions. He
stopped directly behind me, his hands coming down on my shoulders so I couldn’t
turn. “But this doesn’t have to be a nightmare. It doesn’t have to be a trap or
a prison.” He pulled me back against him, and suddenly his arms were around me
and the beast was gone, replaced instead by a comforting protector.
My
pulse jumped. How quickly he could change.
“This
isn’t fair. For that, I owe you, and I always honor my
debts.”
I’d
slipped into hyperawareness—of the arm around my waist, the body at my back,
the voice in my ear. I could almost see myself in his arms, standing like a
waxwork, so still and glassy-eyed. Mesmerized.
“I
saw your face when you told me you’re smothered so tightly you can’t breathe,”
he whispered. “You could be free…” He brushed his cheek against my temple. “No
one around. You could be yourself.”
He
rocked me, so softly I almost missed the shift of my weight from one side to
the other. I no longer knew if I was holding myself up.
“I
can give you sunsets on the ocean. I can show you space so endless you’ll lose
yourself.”
My
hair caught on his bristles.
“Have
you ever run down a deserted beach, Angel?” His hand moved on my belly. “Have
you ever swum naked in salt water?” His voice penetrated my head, my blood,
sinking down somewhere even deeper.
“Imagine
three weeks where anything you ask will be indulged. All your demands met. Ask
me for something—ask me for anything.”
My
eyes closed.
“Do
you need someone to hear you?” His word curled into my ear so gently, I felt
the heat of his body in his breath. “I’ll listen to you talk for days.”
He
touched my chest, pressed his palm flat against me.
I
twitched.
“You
can tell me what it is you keep buried in here. What you’re holding on to so
tightly that you can’t let go. You can give it all to me, Angel. Just hand it
all over to me…”
Air
flooded my lungs, and I lunged out of his grasp. My heart beat so fast, I could
imagine coronary damage taking place. I turned and faced him, backing out of
reach.
Had
I let him read me so thoroughly? Had I laid out my weakness so well that he
could drive himself into my head and fuck me there?
Because
that’s what he was doing—he was fucking my mind. I knew it. He knew it.
It
was working
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She lives with her husband and children in semi-rural Australia, where if she peers outside at the right moment she might just see a kangaroo bounce by.
Amber is an award winning writer, Amazon Bestselling Author, and member of Romance Writers of Australia, Melbourne Romance Writers Guild, and Writers Victoria.
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3 comments:
Thank you for hosting DIDN'T I WARN YOU today!
Crystal, Tasty Book Tours
Neat giveaway :-) Sounds like a good book :-) Thank you for the chance :-)
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