RAFE (Inked Brotherhood, #5)
New Adult contemporary (erotic) romance
by Jo Raven
Cover by Jo Raven
Model: Matt Sallis
Photographer: Gilles Crofta
RELEASE DATE: End March/Beginning April 2015
Synopsis
His name is Rafaele Vestri, Rafe to his friends.
He’s tall, strong, handsome. Distant. He often comes to the
café where I work, but we don’t talk much. He looks at me, though. Stares at
me, his gaze heated, and I can’t help but stare back. I want him, I won’t deny
it. I’ve never seen anyone that beautiful, anyone that powerful, in my life.
But he’s growing more withdrawn by the day. Something’s up,
and he won’t tell. I know about his past – the murder of his family when he was
fifteen. I can imagine how much it must have cost him. So much violence
contained in that strong body, waiting to be unleashed. What is he seeking? What
is he training so hard for? Why is looking at me like he’s dying to touch me,
but won’t dare?
Even as I try to stop thinking about him, get interested in
other boys, I realize I can’t. I’m caught, body and soul, just like that. And I
tell myself, Megan, girl… What have you gotten yourself into this time?
This is book 5 in the Inked Brotherhood series which started
with Asher. It is a stand-alone work. No cliffhanger.
The expected publication date is end March/beginning April
2015, on all of your favorite e-book websites.
Excerpt
I’m staring at Rafe’s hand. Big, strong, callused. A scar
runs from his thumb to the index finger.
He’s looking at me, waiting. What does he want?
I lift my hand, place it in his. It fits on his palm,
smaller, darker, thinner. He seems as entranced by the contrast as I am. His
fingers slowly curl, closing around mine. His lips part, but no sound comes
from his mouth, and his gaze remains fixed on our entwined hands, pale lashes
hiding the gold of his eyes.
Now I’m the one caught, transfixed. His mouth looks soft,
vulnerable, at odds with his strong, angular features and the broad set of his
shoulders. The need to touch his face is overwhelming, and I step closer, so
close I can sense his scent. Not a cologne, but the deep scent of his skin,
like musk and warm metal. I can see the rise and fall of his chest underneath
the black Deathmoth T-shirt he’s wearing under his open jacket, see the outline
of his strong pecs.
We’re standing so close our breaths mingle, and our bodies
touch in places as we shift, feathery brushes that send fire across my skin,
into my belly, making me ache. He places his hands on my waist and I grip his
thick, sinewy forearms. My stomach drops as if I’m standing at the edge of a
precipice, on the edge of a moment that can change everything.
What’s happening? It’s as if in the hollow darkness, the
barrier between us is crumbling, the wall he’s set between himself and the
world is falling.
His hands tighten on my hipbones and his lashes lift, his
gaze moving to my mouth. His breathing is ragged. He tugs me against him, his
fingertips digging painfully into my flesh, his arms flexing with barely
controlled strength.
His arousal presses into my stomach, hot and thick, caught
sideways in his jeans.
My mind fills up with static. Rafe wants me. There’s the
solid proof of his desire. The heated gaze I’ve felt so often on me is
translated into a physical reaction, and it makes me feel so hot I might burst
into flames. He’s so handsome, I can’t help myself. I want to stroke his square
jaw, drag my fingertips over the golden stubble on his cheeks, kiss those
damnable dimples.
I whimper, the sound coming from deep inside me, and he
freezes, goes so still I’m not even sure he’s breathing.
Then he jerks back, releases me so fast I’m left reeling.
“Fuck,” he hisses. He buries his fingers in his short blond
hair, pulls, his mouth now hard like the rest of him, pressed into a flat line.
“This is a mistake.”
A knot is gathering in my throat, in my chest, cutting off
air.
I want to be mad at him, but his hands are trembling, and
his amber eyes so full of pain I forget my anger before it even forms. He’s
like mist, here and suddenly gone, lost into thin air. I have to touch him,
touch his bare skin, prove he’s real.
“Wait.” I lift my
hand to his face, fingertips skimming over the smooth skin of his cheekbone.
Warm. Satin soft.
A pang goes through my chest, an ache that feels too much
like sorrow, and I’m not sure if it’s mine or his.
He jerks away, his eyes wide on his pale face. He reaches
up, his hand hovering over the spot I touched. Then he turns and rushes off
into the crowd.
My hand is still hovering in midair. I don’t know for how
long I stand there, staring at my splayed fingers, trying to figure out what happened.
Or maybe trying to find another explanation for his reaction, desperate for him
to be different to any other handsome, arrogant guy. Maybe I imagined the pain
in his gaze – or maybe that pain is real but doesn’t make a difference.
Traumatic past or not, he’s sorry he touched me, sorry he desired me. Big
surprise. Why would he desire me, of all girls? There are so many vying for his
attention. Girls who have witty, sexy things to say, and who don’t go stiff
like cardboard when he touches them.
The thought of him touching other girls shouldn’t hurt quite
as much as it does. And this is a bad sign. Very bad sign, Megan, I tell myself
and lower my hand that touched him. I feel as if my fingertips are numb, burnt
by the feel of his skin.
About the Author
Jo Raven writes New Adult erotic contemporary romance. She
loves sexy bad boys and strong-willed heroines, and divides her time between
writing and reading. When not cooking up plots, she putters in her cluttered
kitchen and dreams of traveling to India and Japan.
No comments:
Post a Comment