Getting Played: RELEASE DAY: MAY 28, 2015
Rules
of the game:
1)
Never underestimate your opponent
2)
Avoid personal fouls
3)
Score early and often
4)
Play or get played
Coach
Marcus Leon has always played by the rules…until he meets Addaline Grace, the
seventeen-year-old senior transfer on his Oak Crest High water polo team. Addie
changes all the rules, mostly because she doesn’t play any games. But as off
limits as she is, the more Marcus discovers about Addie, the more he finds
himself…and the more he questions whether Addie might just be worth risking
everything for.
For
Addie, water polo is anger management. She’s driven and focused because it
keeps her mind off other things…like the fact she destroyed her family. Her
game plan is to keep her head down and graduate so she can leave her father and
the crappy town he dragged her to in her wake. But when what starts as friendly
completion with Marcus turns into more than a game, Addie has to decide if
she’s willing to face down her demons…and possibly ruin the man she may or may
not be falling in love with in the process.
What
happens when the only thing you need is the one thing you can’t have?
Excerpt
“One
more thing I can check off my bucket list,” he says with a grin, then shoves
half the slice into his mouth.
“What
else is on your list?” I ask.
He
gives me a long look as he chews. “I don’t really have one, now that you
mention it.”
“They’re
stupid anyway,” I say with a shrug. “It’s a waste of time thinking about all
the things you want to do before you die. You could die tomorrow and a bucket
list isn’t going to mean squat.”
I
only realize how bitter that sounded when his gaze locks on mine and sharpens,
as if he’s lasering in on my thoughts.
I
shake myself loose from those eyes that could compel me to spill my darkest
secrets if I were to gaze into them too long and take a bite of pizza. “But
whatever. If you want a bucket list, go for it.”
“You
don’t have anything you want to do before you check out?” he asks with raised
eyebrows.
“Haven’t
thought about it.”
“Well
you should,” he says, going for another slice. “I want a bucket list.”
“Then
make one.”
He
leans back and takes a bite. “So where should we start?”
“You
already have,” I say with a wave of my slice toward his.
He
holds his up. “And you’ve gotten me off to a fine one. So now we need something
to top anchovies.”
“We?”
I ask. “I told you I don’t want any part of this.”
“Tough, because what if your idea turns out
the be the Best Thing Ever and I would have missed it because I never thought
of it.” He tears off a hunk of pizza with his teeth. “Like anchovies.”
I
look at him a long second as he chews and a hot tingle runs under my skin. “So
we’d do stuff from the list together?”
He
nods as he swallows. “That would be the general plan. Call it moral support,
call it peer pressure, all I know is we’re more likely to check stuff off the
list if we’re both doing it.”
My
heart starts to pound as the possibilities scroll in my head. “How are we going
to do this?”
“A
collaboration. We’ll each throw ideas out until we have a list, then we can
rank them together.”
“How
do you know I won’t put something like ‘lose my virginity’ on the list?” Heat
radiates from my face, but I force myself to hold his gaze.
There’s
a second that he just stares at me, but then his eyes grows softer. “I’d expect
you would.”
For
several beats of my racing heart, we sit here staring at each other, then he
clears his throat. “I want to try one new food a week. And I’m open to
suggestions.” He says with a nod at the pizza box. “Your turn.”
“I
have to come up with another one right here on the spot?” I say.
He
cocks his head in a question, but then the light dawns in his eyes.
“Ah…virginity. Right…” He pulls out his phone and starts typing it like it’s no
big thing, then shifts and hooks an elbow over the back of the bench as he
thinks. “Swim with dolphins.”
I
nod. “That’s a good one. Put that on top.”
He
raises his eyebrows as she shoots me a glance out from under those long, thick
lashes. “Above virginity?”
All
the muscles south of my waist contract. “I guess I’ll leave that up to you,
since I’ve never done either.”
Getting Dirty
Dirty
A poem
by Blaire Leon
If sex
is dirty, why would I do it with someone I love?
If sex
is dirty, then didn’t we all come from the dirt?
What if
I like the dirt?
What if
I want to get dirty?
What if
I want to roll in the mud until I’m so fucking filthy that I’ll never be clean
again?
When twenty-five-year-old
graduate assistant Caiden Brenner asked Blaire Leon how old she was, she said
she was a senior. He chose to believe she meant in college. They
connect over Lord Byron’s Don Juan and, as their conversations
become increasingly thicker with sexual innuendo, Caiden finds himself
obsessing over a totally off-limits undergrad who’s bold, beautiful, brilliant,
and one of the most passionate poets he’s ever met.
But it
turns out Blaire hasn't been totally honest. She's the seventeen-year-old
valedictorian of her high school class, taking courses at Sierra State while
awaiting her acceptance to Stanford.
Will
Caiden get too deeply into Blaire to back away before he finds out the truth?
Or will their connection be enough to seduce him into risking his entire future
on Jail Bait?
About the Author
Mia
Storm is a hopeless romantic who is always searching for her happy ending.
Sometimes she’s forced to make one up. When that happens, she’s thrilled to be
able to share those stories with her readers. She lives in California and
spends much of her time in the sun with a book in one hand and a mug of black
coffee in the other, or hiking the trails in Yosemite. Connect with her online
at MiaStormAuthor.blogspot.com , on Twitter at @MiaStormAuthor, and on Facebook
at www.facebook.com/MiaStormAuthor
Giveaway!
