IF YOU HAVE NOT READ DOWN TO YOU (Book #1) – PLEASE DO NOT READ THIS YET!
Author: M. Leighton
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Genre: Adult Contemporary Romance (NOT appropriate for younger readers)
From New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author M. Leighton comes the highly anticipated sequel to Down to You.Happily ever after doesn’t come easy. But for love, it’s always worth the fight.Olivia finds bliss unlike any she’s ever known in Cash’s arms. He sets her skin on fire and melts her heart right inside her chest. Unfortunately, their happily ever after is short-lived when a shadow from Cash’s past threatens to turn their world upside down.Dangerous people from his father’s world have discovered that Cash holds information that could put them away for a very long time. And they’re willing to do anything—and hurt anybody—to get it back. Giving it up means Cash must choose between the life of his father and the life of Olivia.Having nearly overcome her wariness of bad boys, Olivia’s trust is shaken when this new threat arises. Now she finds that Cash is not only a danger to her heart, but his family has associations that are a danger to her life as well. She soon discovers that there are some situations in life where trust is a girl’s only option. And this is one of them. If she’s to live, she must trust Cash with her life. But to Olivia, that’s much, much easier than letting go and trusting him with her heart.
Excerpts from “Up to Me”
EXCERPT 1: He squeezes me and presses his lips to my shoulder. I can barely feel them through the lapel of my robe.“Can I take this off you?” he breathes. “I want to feel your skin against mine.”A pang of desire zings through me at the thought of him holding my naked body against his. It was only a few hours ago that we had sex for the fifth time today, but it feels like an eternity ago. So much has happened since then, so many emotions have come and gone, that it feels…different.“Yes,” I whisper in response, answering him before my mind can talk me out of it.I start to sit up, but Cash stops me. He leans up on one elbow and pulls my hair away from my face and neck, bending to press his lips against the soft skin beneath my ear.“Let me.” EXCERPT 2: I walk over, stopping at the bar across from her. I watch as she wraps the last bottle and puts it back on the shelf. She looks around, making sure everything is done and the bar is clear before she turns to me. “Have I ever told you how beautiful you are?”Shyly, she looks away for a heartbeat before she brings her eyes back to mine. She’s still not quite comfortable with compliments, which shocks me. How someone who looks like she does could ever feel less than drop-dead gorgeous is beyond me. Yet she does. In a backward way, that makes her even more appealing.“You might’ve mentioned it once or twice before,” she says coyly, biting her lip in that way I love. It makes me want to carry her into the back room again. But it would have to be quick. And a quickie isn’t what I want with this girl. Unless it can be followed up with something much more…thorough.Watching me from the corner of her eye, she turns and starts walking slowly toward the cut-out. With the bar between us, I walk with her.“That’s right. I did mention it before. I remember telling you how amazing you are. I think we were in front of a mirror.” My dick twitches behind my zipper just thinking about sliding into Olivia from behind and coming inside her in the ladies’ bathroom at Tad’s. “Does that sound familiar?”As she walks, she glances up at me from the corner of her eye. I see the flash of hot desire. I know she remembers it just as perfectly as I do.She clears her throat. “Um, yeah. That seems vaguely familiar.” Her grin is playful.God, what a tease!“Vaguely? Maybe I didn’t pound it into you hard enough.”“Oh, I think you pounded it in plenty hard.”“Maybe I should’ve taken the time to give you a good tongue-lashing, too, then.”“Oh, I think the form of communication you used was very effective.”“So it’s all coming back to you now?”“Yes, it’s all coming back to me.”“If you’re lying, I could sweat it out of you, you know.”“I’m not lying. It’s etched into my memory. Permanently.”“Maybe we should revisit it, just so you’re clear on everything we discussed. I want to make sure it’s in there. Nice and deep. So you never forget it.”Finally her grin turns into a giggle just as we’re nearing the cut-out at the end of the bar. When she rounds the corner, I’m there blocking her way with my body.“I doubt there’s anything you could do to get it in there any deeper.”“Oh, I can think of one or two things. The only way we’ll know for sure, though, is to try. And I don’t know about you, but I’m committed to this. Invested. And I’m nothing if not thorough.”
EXCERPT THREE
Cash’s back is to me. I see him run his fingers through his hair and I hear him sigh again. “I’m asking you to trust me, Olivia.” He turns to face me. “Trust in what you know about me. Because I know, if you stop listening to your fear, you know who I am. Deep down. You know me, Olivia. You know me.”
His voice is sincere. His expression is urgent. I close my eyes against his face, his handsome face, the face that haunts both my waking and my sleeping world. I open them again when I feel warm hands cup my cheeks. Cash is a breath away, his eyes oceans of midnight, drawing me out into the deep.
“It’s me,” he says softly. “Stop listening to everything else. Remember the way you feel when I’m kissing you and touching you. Don’t think with your head. You know me. And when my lips are on yours, you trust me.” As if to make his point, he dips his head and brushes his mouth over mine. Sparks fly between us. As always. “You trust me, when my hands are on your skin.” He runs his palms down my arms and then over to my waist where he pushes them up under the edge of my shirt. Chills break out down my back. “You trust me when you turn your mind off, when you just feel.”
EXCERPT 4: I dig around in my purse for my key as I approach the front door. I’m distracted as I slip it in and unlock the knob, turning to wave to Cash. But he’s not on his bike at the curb. It’s resting on the kickstand, motor idling. He’s charging up the sidewalk toward me. Before I can even blink, my back is pressed to the cool metal of the door, Cash’s lips are on mine and his hands are in my hair.I melt into him. Relief that he was feeling the same way battles for dominance with the desire to drag him into my bedroom, shut the door and pretend nothing and no one exists outside it.But before I can give in to that urge, Cash is pulling back, giving me room to breathe and giving rational thought the tiny crack it needs to wiggle back into my mind. His eyes, darker than the night around us, search mine as his hands move from my hair to my shoulders and down my arms to grip mine. “Do me a favor,” he whispers, curling my fingers over the back of his and bringing them to his mouth.“What?”His eyes never leave mine as he brushes his lips over my knuckles. “Dream of me tonight,” he says softly. He watches me, waiting for a response. I have no words, so I simply nod. He doesn’t need to know that no one else occupies my dreams. No one.“Dream of my lips, teasing you.” Straightening one of my fingers, he kisses the tip. His voice is like velvet and his words are like an aphrodisiac. “Dream of my tongue, tasting you.” His tongue sneaks out to flick the end of my finger. A surge of desire rocks my core. “And I’ll dream of you. Of what it feels like to be inside your warm, wet body.” As if to show me what he feels, Cash sucks my finger into his mouth and pulls it in and out of his mouth, back and forth over his tongue. I can barely breathe. He pulls it out, but before he lets it go, he gives it a gentle bite. I feel a burn in the pit of my stomach, a drop of lava in a boiling volcano.“Good night, Olivia,” he says quietly. And then he turns and walks away.
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