Living in Shadow(70)
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Look for these titles by Jackie Ashenden
Now Available:
Falling For Finn
Black Knight, White Queen
Lies We Tell
Taking Him
Having Her
Living In…
Living in Shadow
Coming Soon:
Living in Sin
Living in Secret
Behind every heroine is the pain that binds her.
Having Her
© 2014 Jackie Ashenden
Lies We Tell, Book 2
Manga café owner Kara Sinclair has one burden she’s been carrying around so long it’s bordering on pathetic. Her virginity. Getting rid of it, though, means doing the one thing that scares her the most—letting down her guard with a relative stranger. Which makes her best friend’s older brother Vin Fox’s offer too tempting to refuse.
Vin barely has room in his schedule to turn around, much less worry about Kara and her crazy quest. When she insists on going ahead with a plan that he considers unsafe, though, enough is enough. If she wants to lose it, she can lose it with him. Bonus: he gets to play out his darkest fantasies, slave collar and all.
Kara thought dealing with a known entity like sexy-as-sin, controlling-as-hell Vin would smooth the way. But when it comes right down to doing the deed, not even the safety of a costume can fool her demons.
By then the game has gone too far…and the consequences could bind them together forever. Or tear them apart at the seams.
Warning: Contains a sexy, brooding “fix you” hero and a heroine who isn’t afraid of anything…except “normal.” More kinky cosplay losts-and-founds than you can shake a riding crop at. WTF Infirmary is booked up; please make an appointment before you read.
Enjoy the following excerpt for Having Her:
Kara dodged the crowds as she left the convention center’s bar, feeling bad about leaving Ellie alone. She felt bad about leaving full stop, but knowing Hunter was coming to get her friend helped.
Hiding the fact she was going to meet Vin didn’t.
Then again explaining to Ellie that she’d been sending the pictures Ellie had been taking of her, including the ones containing various potential suitors, to Vin all night, for reasons she couldn’t have explained even to herself, would also have been a little difficult. Ellie probably wouldn’t have cared but Kara felt awkward about it all the same.
Plenty of time to tell her friend later though. When whatever was going to happen with Vin had happened.
A small burst of excitement went through her as she went down the main set of stairs and out through the entrance into the brightly lit city beyond. An excitement she couldn’t pretend she didn’t feel.
I’ll tell you who…
God, did he truly have someone in mind for her or was he teasing her in return for the whole day she’d spent teasing him? Perhaps she’d get to the bar to find no one there.
Kara pulled the long duster-style black coat she wore tighter around her as she stepped out onto the pavement, concealing her costume.
No, that wasn’t Vin’s style. He was a straight-up kind of guy not a game-player. He was probably meeting her so he could give her another lecture, then he’d take her home. Like a child.
Kara began walking in the direction of the pool bar. Man, if all he was going to do was give her a talking to then she’d be forced to take more serious action. Like drop the coat and do a sexy dance in the middle of the bar. Not that she knew any sexy dances, but she was sure she could improvise. That would probably embarrass the crap out of him.
The pool bar itself was dimly lit, a bit shabby and full of the usual Saturday late-night crowds, an odd cross-section of people ranging from students and business types to a group of old guys and what looked like a hen party.
As Kara scanned around the pool tables looking for Vin, she soon discovered why the hen party was making rather a lot of noise. There was a tall guy playing the table next to theirs, causing them do a lot of whispering, pointing and giggling.
No wonder. It was Vin. And his tall, lean figure in low-slung jeans and a black T-shirt was enough to make anyone stare.
Kara wound her way slowly through the tables, unable to take her eyes off him as he lined up a shot, one muscled, tanned arm out, his cue held firmly between long fingers. The severe beauty of his features was shadowed by the overhead lighting as he focused on the ball, but the light picked up the sheen of copper in his dark hair, the only other similarity he had with Ellie.
The sheer physical magnetism he possessed held her and the entire hen party at the next table absolutely hypnotized as he drew back his arm to take the shot. The white hit a green ball which then bounced off the side of the table and hit a red with unerring accuracy. The red shot straight into one of the pockets.