Blurb
After Ryan's ultimate betrayal, I struggle to pick up the pieces of my life and move on. Brian is a wonderful boyfriend, but even he can't stop the nightmares or the anger I feel insideI feel myself slipping with no hopes of coming back the person I was before, the most unlikely of people steps in to save me...Ben Hurley. I love Brian, but Ben is persistent. He refuses to give up on me, or our love
~
Exract
Twenty minutes later, the limo was parked outside my apartment building. “Are you going to be okay?” I asked Kat. She nodded. Then I glanced at Ben, my eyes asking the same question.
“You should go now before I convince you to stay,” he replied, his hands clasped together.
I shivered at his words knowing just how easily he’d be able to keep me there if he wanted to. “You didn’t answer my question, though. Are you going to be okay?”
His jaw clenched as he looked at me with the wildest eyes I had ever seen. “Annie, if you don’t go right now, I will convince you to stay. And if you come with me, I will do unspeakably dirty things to you. I’ll do things to your body that I’m sure no man has. And when I’m done, there will be nothing virginal about you anymore. You’ll be in the confessional a month straight after I’m finished.”
I shivered violently, because I knew he meant every word of what he said. “Bye.” I said to Kat. “It was so nice meeting you.” She nodded, frowning. I glanced at Ben. “Goodbye. For good.” I was honest enough to know that I needed to run from Ben to keep myself from making a mistake. A strong hand grabbed my arm, furious eyes staring at me. I yanked my arm out of Ben’s grasp. “What do you want? I said, ‘Goodbye.’”
“I’m not leaving,” he replied.
Furious, I pointed to the car. “Get in and go.”
He shook his head, placing his hands on his hips. “Not until you tell me why him and why not me.”
“Hmm. Let’s see. He can commit to a relationship…not run away for three weeks after making love to someone!” I shouted.
Ben grabbed his hair, yanking it. “That wasn’t my fault! I had to stay away!” I rolled my eyes dramatically, making sure he saw before I turned. “Get back here!” he shouted. I glanced over my shoulder. “What else? That can’t be the only reason.”
“You need another reason? You and I together are a powder keg, one match away from exploding,” I said, “We’re either screaming at each other, punching each other, or trying to tear each other’s clothes off.”
“So. Fucking. What?” He shouted.
“And I don’t want that kind of chaos in my love life. Loving Brian is easy. It doesn’t wreck me like you do,” I admitted, “Those three weeks that you were gone…those were the three worst weeks of my life. Going into your apartment that night after George called me…I felt physically ill.”
“They were the worst three weeks for me, too. It’ll never happen again. I swear it,” he replied adamantly.
I shook my head. “I don’t want this craziness.” I turned to walk into the apartment.
“What if I need you to save me?” he asked. His words stopped me in my tracks. I glanced back, and my breath caught in my throat at the vulnerability in his expression. “Your love is changing me, princess. You give me purpose, something else other than fighting, and fucking, and just coasting through life. You make me work for it every Goddamn second. I need that.”
I was so turned on that I was in physical pain. “I think you’ll be fine without me.”
He clenched his jaw, furious eyes glaring at me. “Fine. You want him? You want to go back to the old, boring story just because you know how it’s going to end? Go on ahead. But, before you go, fix me.”
I blinked. “What are you talking about?”
He pointed at me. “You broke me! After I left the hospital that night, I tried to lose myself in someone. I wanted to forget all the memories and pain. You were with Brian. Nothing was going to happen between us.” He pointed at his crotch. “He wouldn’t get hard! I couldn’t do it! So, after I left embarrassed as shit, I tried again another night. Nothing. I saw you a week later, and it worked perfectly fine. Raging fuckin’ hard on all night long.” I had never been more turned on that I was at that moment. “So, undo whatever you did to me right now!”
“You want to be turned off by me?” I asked. He nodded as I walked towards him. Stopping right in front of him, I placed my hand over his heart, looking into his eyes. “I love you…madly, passionately, irrevocably. It’s becoming difficult for me to see a future that doesn’t include you. I want your heart, your touch, your fidelity. I want you to look at no other woman the way you look at me. I want your body to only respond that way for me. I want a ring on my finger, a huge wedding, and to be the mother of your children. I want to go to sleep with you inside me and wake up the same way in your bed. I want to fight with you when you’re being an insufferable asshole, which is at least once a day. And then I want you to show me how you’ll make it up to me. I will be jealous of any woman who licks her lips at you, which is about ten times a day, and I give no promises that I won’t go bat-shit crazy on them.”
I smirked, waiting for him to turn and run into the car. Those words would send any commitmentphobe running. His eyes still watched me like he wanted to rip my dress right off me and take me against the car door. “I thought you said you were trying to turn me off, not on.”
I blinked, thrown completely off guard. “What are you talking about?”
I felt his heart beneath my hand pick up in tempo. For the first time, I felt it beating wildly.
He glanced down at his chest. “Look at that,” he murmured, placing his hand over mine. “You have my heart in the palm of your hand.”
Anger coursed through my veins. “Say it. I want to hear you say those three little words.” This would make him run for sure.
He smirked. “I am hungry.”
I growled. “The other three words.”
His smirk remained. “I want you.”
If he was going to play games, so be it. “No, I want to hear you say that you love me.”
His eyes narrowed, his lips in a tight line. “Why? So you can break me? So, you can hear me tell you how I feel and then watch you walk back to him? Tell me you’ll get back in that car with me now, and I’ll say it.”
I knew it was a dirty trick, but it was all I had left. Besides, Ben never played fair anyways. I shrugged nonchalantly. “Just as I thought. You’re incapable of the words, because you don’t know what it is.”
Ben grabbed my arm and yanked me back to him so hard that I smacked into his chest. I stared up at him in shock, anger, and arousal. “You forget that I first watched, then listened to you fuck him inmy apartment, in my bed. I listened to your moans of pleasure, your ‘Oh, yes, Brian,’ for hours on end all the while knowing that it should have been me in bed with you. Yet, I didn’t stop you from doing what you wanted. I didn’t try to rip you away from him while you tortured me every time you cried out his name.” He grabbed my face roughly. “So, don’t you dare fucking tell me that I don’t know what love is. Love is pain. It’s no coincidence that they’re both four letter words. And so is Anne.”
A tear rolled down my eye, and his grip softened on my face. “I never meant to hurt you,” I whispered. “I don’t even remember that night. Everything after tossing the noodle onto your shirt is a complete blank to me.”
“You might not remember it, princess, but I sure as hell can’t forget it.”
I bristled at his words. “You want me to feel guilty for sleeping with Brian? How about the countless women over the last five years that you’ve slept with. Half of them you made out with in front of me! You’re upset that you’re the third man I slept with, but I’m your what? Five hundredth? Tell me how I should feel about that?!” I shouted.
He shrugged, his lips still pulled in a tight line. “You shouldn’t give a fuck.”
“Oh no? And why is that?” I asked while my blood temperature rose.
“Because I would trade it all- every memory, every other woman for just one more night with you. That’s why you shouldn’t give a fuck. Because they never held a candle to you,” Ben replied matter-of-factly. My knees shook for a second, and I did not think that I was capable of being more turned on at that moment. How the hell did he always do this? “So, like I said before, if you’re going to run back to him, you need to fix my cock first and make it work again.”
I smacked his chest hard. “No! I think I like it this way!”
His eyes seared with pain. “You want to torture me? If you’re with him, you won’t give me a chance at some peace, some solace? If you’re happy with him, why do I have to be alone forever?”
Tears streamed down my eyes as I felt my heart shutter at the unbearable weight pressed against it. “I will not cheat,” I whispered over and over, while I shook my head wildly.
His hand released my jaw, and it slid down my back, caressing me. It made me sob harder by just how incredible it felt. “I may not give you flowers all the time, or tell you that you’re beautiful a thousand times a day, or slow dance with you all the time like he does, but I know what I feel. And I know you feel it, too.”
I yanked my body away from him. “Bye, Ben.”
I didn’t wait for his response as I ran into the apartment building. Once in the elevator I pressed the button for my floor. I leaned back against the wall, barely able to breathe as tears streamed down my face. I hated saying goodbye to him, I hated that he kept chasing after me, I hated that I wanted him to, but most of all I hated how much of a bitch I felt saying goodbye to him. That feeling was becoming unbearable lately.
I glanced at the stainless steel paneled wall, seeing the reflection of my teary self. “You’re better than this. Figure yourself out.” I wiped away the tears before stepping off the elevator, trying to pull myself together.
Taking a deep breath, I opened the door to my apartment and found a tired Brian on the couch, flipping through TV channels. He glanced up at me, smiling. “You look breathtaking,” he greeted.
I smiled at him before jumping into his arms. Wrapping his arms around me tightly, he kissed my forehead. “Is everything alright?”
I nodded, hugging him tightly. “Now it is.”
“I missed you,” he whispered in my ear.
I hugged him tighter. “I missed you, too.”
Brian pulled my body away from his, tilting my head back. “Are you okay?” he asked, his voice filled with concern.
I nodded wearing a tight lipped smile. “I was just crying. It was a wedding and all.”
“It seems like something else is bothering you, though,” he commented.
My body was filled with aching raw need from Ben. I needed to suppress these feelings for him. Brian was my fiancé. If I just held on to Brian tighter, we’d be fine. That’s what I needed to do, hold on tighter to our love. The guilt I felt sat heavy on me. I should completely Brian’s; that’s what he deserved. But, I wasn’t.
I lifted the hem of my dress and straddled him. I ran my hand over his body and felt his physical reaction towards me. Wordlessly, I slipped down his shorts and boxers and he raised his hips to aid me. Slipping him out, I pulled my underwear to the side and stopped momentarily. “Should I go get a condom?”
His eyes burned brightly, filled with lust and love. “You’re going to be my wife. There’s no need.”
With my hand firmly gripping his erection, I slid him inside me, watching his eyes roll back in pleasure. Wrapping my arms around his neck, I kissed him deeply as I rolled my hips slowly. His fingers threaded through my hair, his other hand rested on my hip. We stay, deep, slow, connected as Brian’s love takes me to the height of ecstasy. We come undone together, and he holds me to his chest tightly. Tears spill down my cheeks at the bitter sweetness of the moment. There was no way out of this without hurting one of them and myself in the process. But, Brian’s love was gentle, calm, enduring. It was the type of love futures were made from.
When I lifted my head he kissed me deeply, and I sighed in contentment.
I pressed my forehead to his. “Help me out of this dress. I want to make you a nice, romantic dinner tonight.”
“Oh, yeah?” he asked before kissing me again.
I nodded. “You’ve been so wonderful lately. I just wanted to do something to show my appreciation.”
I stood up and walked into the bedroom. He wasn’t far behind. Adoring fingers trailed down my arm as his lips pressed against my neck.
“I have another idea.” He unzipped my dress. “Why don’t we order take out and spend the rest of the night in bed?” He slipped the straps of my gown down over my shoulders. The dress pooled at my feet. Brian kissed down my shoulder as his arm wrapped around my body, pulling me tightly against him. I could already feel his need against my lower back.
Letting out a shaky breath, I nodded. “That’s one hell of a plan.”
~
Ramblings...
I was super duper happy when i received a copy of the ARC to review and opportunity join the tour, following on from the first book Winning back Ryan. I completely loved WBR, i wished it never end and now i have the follow on in my hands!
As soon as you start reading it, all the characters came rushing back...oh how i miss them. Especially Ben, loved his charming cheeky character and i get a hell lot out of him in this book, which is a bonus. He's just character that you love and hate.
As you could of guess by the title it's about getting back Annie but who? The follow on is solely about Annie how she see everything differently moulding herself to suit others and losing herself along the way. finally being together with Brian, everything is going smooth like moose but something just seem to be missing. Brian is everything she wants and safe but does she dare walk the danger zone and step out of the box and find what she really desire.
"Just because something ends, doesn't mean you've failed. Sometimes things need to end, so that better things can begin"
To be honest after reading the book i got a little mixed feeling. Don't get be wrong i really enjoyed it but i was hoping for something I little bit more. More action, more fight and more build up Annie and Brian relationship, as its just fallen into place, i know they have been best friends since whenever but still its a little be different, he's got the title ' boyfriend' now. The chemistry between Ben and Annie was awesome but I didn't see any fight from Brian, especially he finally got what he long waited for. I was expecting a awesome love triangle, especially all three characters are so strong in their own sense. I mean there is a triangle but its more Annie battling her guiltiness and mental and physical mind after Ryan. Both guys are just waiting for Annie to make the decision but she just doesn't know and sometimes I just want to scream, come on its obvious who you want, stop hurting the other one.
"Annie, if you don't go right now, I will convince you to stay. And if you come with me, I will do unspeakably dirty things to you. I'll do things to you body that I'm sure no man has. And when I'm done, there will be nothing virginal about you anymore. You'll be in the confessional a month straight after I'm finished.
If you've read the first one or you're a big Ben (yep, I've heard its big ;) fan) Then you should definitely read this. It full of cheeky banter between and sweetness between Annie and Ben. Gentle and caring from Brian and best friends like Max and George on stand by. Its about feeling lost and just doing what other people please to fit back in but there is a knight at the end of the dark tunnel that is shining the light for her. Who will she finally release is right for her...
