New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author Jay Crownover returns with the second title in her romantic suspense series, The Breaking Point, DIGNITY. Check out the excerpt below and grab your copy today!
About DIGNITY
Looks can be deceiving.
I knew that most people took one look at the ink and the impossibly big and strong body it covered and decided I was a brawler…a bruiser…a beast. However, I was hardwired to be a thinker, not a fighter.
I should have chosen to use my brain and talents to be one of the good guys, a hero, a man with dignity and worth.
I turned my back on dignity and sold my soul to the highest bidder, deciding to dance with the devil, instead.
I couldn’t figure out how to help myself, so there was zero chance I knew how to save someone else.
That someone else was Noe Lee. She was the unkempt, unruly thief who was just as smart as I was and twice as street savvy. She was annoyingly adorable beneath the dirt and grime, and she was in trouble. In way over her head, I told myself it wasn’t my job to keep her from drowning. In the Point, it was sink or swim, and I wasn’t the designated lifeguard on duty.
I shut the door in her face, but now she’s gone…vanished…disappeared without a trace. It took less than a second for me to realize that I wanted her back.
When a woman comes along that melts all the frozen, hard things you’re made of; you’ll do anything you have to, to bring her home.
What you see is not always what you get…and with a man like me, what you get is more than anyone ever bargained for.
DIGNITY is now available! Grab your copy today!
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iBooks | Kobo
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iBooks | Kobo
EXCERPT
I
was dragging ass when I took the stairs up to Booker’s unit. Typically, I could
run up the three flights and not even get winded, but I was running on fumes
and the last traces of adrenaline. My brain was fuzzy, and my normally sharp
thoughts felt scattered and unruly. The past and the present were at war in my
mind, and the battle for which one made me feel worse was raging.
I
made my way through the quiet loft listening for any sound that would indicate
Noe was up and moving around. When I got closer to the bedroom, I heard the
shower running and swear words chasing the steam out of the open door. It was
going to be painful for a while when the water sluiced over her wounds. The
thought had me squeezing my eyes closed and clenching my hands into fists. Just
because tough things didn’t break didn’t mean they couldn’t be damaged, dented,
and scratched. The fact Noe was currently suffering so much wear and tear
because of me scraped across my skin and dug into my belly like sharp knives.
I
was turning to walk out of the room so she could finish in peace when the
running water went silent and her swearing ramped up a notch. I heard her
banging around in the bathroom and then she yelled, “Booker, I need a towel!
I’m dripping all over your floor.”
I
opened my mouth to tell her Booker was gone and that I would go find her one. I
didn’t need her poking through his stuff and running across a submachine gun or
a rocket launcher. My brain was ping-ponging between annoyance that she’d
called for Booker instead of me and the unrelenting image of her, naked, wet,
and dripping onto the tile. I wasn’t a guy prone to fantasy, but damn if I
didn’t get all kinds of caught up in the thought of her pretty olive skin
glistening with moisture from head to toe. I needed to get away from her. I
needed space so I could find a way to wrap armor back around all the soft parts
of me she exposed.
I
was shaking my head to marshal my thoughts back in order when I heard her swear
again. Suddenly, like I conjured her out of a dream, Noe was standing in the
pocket doorway of the bathroom wearing nothing more than a scowl of irritation
and shimmery, shiny water droplets. Her midnight-colored eyebrows shot up
to her hairline, and a bright pink flush stained the top of her chest and
crawled up her neck into her face. She didn’t lift her hands to cover herself.
She stood as still as I was, not moving at all under my furious and hungry
gaze.
I
wanted to be polite and look away. I told myself it was rude to stare and that
the last thing she needed was some guy she barely knew gawking at her like she
was a priceless work of art on a museum wall. I berated myself for this
invasion of privacy but none of the lecturing or preaching did any good. The
only way I could have torn my eyes off that petite frame, with it’s perfectly
perky breasts and slightly rounded hips, was if someone slapped them out of my
head. I couldn’t blink. I was scared to breathe. I felt like if I moved at all
she would bolt like a startled deer, and I needed another second, another minute,
another hour, to memorize every single part of her.
She
was small, but all the parts added up to perfection. Seeing her like this,
stripped bare with nothing to hide behind, I couldn’t believe I’d ever been
stupid enough think she was a boy. Everything about her was delicate, feminine,
and soft. The hollow of her neck, the elegant curve of her shoulders, the flare
of her hips and the fullness of her ass. Her legs weren’t long, but they were
toned and shapely. She was the very definition of good things coming in small
packages and all I wanted to do was wrap her up and put her on a shelf that was
too high and too hard to reach for anyone but me.
Choking
on possession and a surge of lust unlike anything I’d ever felt, I belatedly
turned my back on her and muttered thickly, “I used all the towels in there
last night when I cleaned you up. I’ll go find where Booker keeps the extras.”
She
moved. I felt it. The current that ran between us pulsed and throbbed with
something hot. I heard her bare feet on the carpet and it took every ounce of
willpower I possessed to keep my feet planted and my back turned. She was naked
in a room with a very big bed and I was a man who never had such a visceral
reaction to anyone…ever. If I had a switch, Noe Lee was the only person who had
ever come along and flipped it. I was the actual definition of turned on when I
had been off for most of my life.
And
don’t miss the first standalone title in The Breaking Point series, HONOR! Grab your copy
today!
Barnes & Noble | iBooks | Kobo
About Jay Crownover
Jay Crownover is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Marked Men, The Point, and the Saints of Denver series. Like her characters, she is a big fan of tattoos. She loves music and wishes she could be a rock star, but since she has no aptitude for singing or instrument playing, she'll settle for writing stories with interesting characters that make the reader feel something. She lives in Colorado with her three dogs.
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