"Eden Butler ripped me apart with this one, but it was glorious. If you’re not reading her work you are truly missing out on a magnificent, captivating, and addictive reading experience." Jessica Alcazar, Goodreads
Published: October 15th, 2019
Gia Jilani had rules.
They kept her safe and her head in the game.
As the NFL’s first female general manager, there were risks to be weighed and taken.
Like Kai Pukui, the linebacker helping her team dominate on the field.
The same quiet, beautiful man who stares too long at her and reminds her of how decadent, and risky living life can be.
But when Gia discovers why Kai seems so familiar and why she feels so drawn to him, things like risks and love become secondary to loss and pain.
Gia will have to decide what’s more important – a life worth risking or a love worth losing.
EXCERPT
Kai
held her leg still at his knee or how relaxed they were reclining against the
wicker loungers on his balcony, watching the rain crash against the city around
them. Damn that spark. It was back and seemed to have no intention of leaving.
It was black everywhere now, the electricity shutting off an hour before. Now
there was only Kai’s company and the crashing of thunder and the sound of the
rain against the metal balcony roof to break apart the quiet of the night.
“When
did you have oke?” he asked, pulling her attention from the darkness around
her.
“God.
I must have been…twenty-three? Couldn’t have been any older than that. I went
to O’ahu with my friend Claire. It was her present to herself for passing the
bar.”
Kai rubbed her bare leg as
she spoke, a lazy, absent-minded gesture
Gia wasn’t sure he knew he did. She felt serene, calm even if she wore loose
boxers rolled up and knotted at the waist and one of his black Steamers tees
that fell off her shoulder every time she moved her hand.
“And
what did you do in O’ahu?”
She
smiled not sure how honest she should be. But there had been nothing between
them save some mild flirtation. Besides, Gia had a past before him. She was
sure to have one after he’d stepped out of her life.
“A
fire dancer from Waipahu.”
The
stroking on her leg stopped, then the lounger next to her shook and Gia looked
at Kai, joining in his laughter. “And did the fire dancer do us proud?”
“Most
definitely.”
Kai
shook his head, and the rubbing continued. “There are always people who like to
give the tourists the whole Hawaiian
experience.”
“Did
you ever offer anyone the whole Hawaiian
experience?”
“Never
a tourist.” He looked at Gia then, pressing his lips together. “But I’m keeping
my options open.”
She
wasn’t drunk enough for this. Not for the glint in his eyes and what it told
her. Not for the smooth, slow stroke of his finger against her thigh and how it
made her feel. Not for the slowness of Kai’s movements when he set her leg on
the lounger, making sure that her ankle was out of the way before he came on
his side to face her.
“Gia,”
he said, taking the glass out of her hand. There was nothing he needed to say
to her. No convincing that would make her change her mind about anything
happening between them.
None of it was needed.
“My
God,” she started, her tone sounding awed even to her own ears, “how you look
at me.” She wanted the words back inside her mouth seconds after they left.
It
was too late.
Kai
was already moving.
His
palm to her face, fingertips moving her chin up and Kai held his mouth inches
from Gia’s, ready, waiting, breath warming her lips. “This is a profoundly bad
idea,” she said, just as she smoothed her fingers over his wide arm and up his
shoulders, running them along his neck to rest against his cheek.
“Then
tell me to stop.”
She
didn’t. Of course she didn’t.
“Can’t,”
Gia said, meeting Kai’s kiss when it came for her.
Then
Gia knew what every look Kai had given her meant. He was fierce with every
sweeping brush of his lips against hers, with the flat of his tongue inside her
mouth, tasting, touching like he couldn’t get enough of her. Every touch meant
something, and Gia felt each one with how deeply he kissed her, with how he
moved over her, shifting their bodies against the cushions at their backs.
This was nothing like she
remembered of him. There was no absinthe or bourbon to dull her senses. There
was only the rain and darkness and Kai pressed against her, showing her with
the shape of his mouth and the weight of his body how much he wanted her.
“Kai…”
She said the name like a wish, trying it out in a breathy whisper that was half
moan, half hopeful need and Gia wasn’t sure which she meant more. She only knew
that if he stopped touching her, stopped
the trail of his lips against her neck, his teeth against her skin and the
steely hold of his fingers in her hair, she might just die.
“Kai…”
she said again, surprised when he looked up at her, kissing her mouth,
adjusting them so that his hips moved against hers and she felt the full size
and shape of what he had for her.
“What
do you need, nani?” He moved against her and she dropped her head back,
fighting the ache that rose up between her legs. “Tell me what you need me to
give you and it’s yours.”
“I
want…”
Did
she know? Gia wasn’t sure. In the dark, the answers came easily. There was
nothing here but sensation and movement. There was quiet and the secrets only
they could keep. But the morning always came. There would be no stopping it.
That was the hardest truth Gia ever had to learn. You can never hide from the
sun. It will always rise to meet you.
“Tell
me,” he said, pulling on her leg to move them closer still together, groaning
when she instinctively reacted with the brush of her hips against him.
When
Kai moved his hand under the tee she wore, when he leaned back over her to move
in for the kiss, Gia almost let him touch her. She almost relinquished all her
control and let that lineman take whatever he wanted from her.
“Kai…I
don’t…”
“Gia…
please…” He grunted, pulling his hand from her bare skin but didn’t move away from
her completely. She could make out the frustration in the hard lines of his
features and the hard set of his mouth. When she touched his lips, smoothing
her fingers over that soft skin, some of the tension left him. “You’re killing
me.”
“I’m…sorry.
I’m just…” She didn’t know how to explain herself. She couldn’t when she didn’t
understand it herself. Gia only knew the path Kai wanted her on led to
heartache and she’d had enough of that to last a lifetime. She wanted him, but
not enough to risk what remained of the thing she’d once called a heart again.
Kai
opened his mouth, making to speak against her fingers, but stopped, glancing
into his apartment when the lights flickered on and a knock sounded at the
front door.
“The
super,” Gia supplied, moving her hand from his face.
“The
super,” he agreed, slipping from the lounger before he pulled Gia to her
unsteady feet. “I’ll help you to your apartment.”
“No,”
she said, finding her ankle felt less tender and she could manage with a bit
more weight on it than she’d been able to bear a few hours before. “I’ve got
it.”
She
was halfway to the door when Kai stopped her, calling her name over the sound
of a second knock.
“If
you…figure things out…”
She
nodded, managing a smile. “I know where you live, junior.”
“Good.
Then you won’t get lost on your way back here.”
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SAINTS AND SINNERS READING ORDER
Last Love of Luka Hale
Roughing the Kicker
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About the author:
Eden Butler is a writer of contemporary, fantasy and romantic suspense novels and the nine-times great-granddaughter of an honest-to-God English pirate. This could explain her affinity for rule breaking and rum.
When she's not writing or wondering about her possibly Jack Sparrowesque ancestor, Eden patiently waits for her Hogwarts letter, reads, and spends too much time in her garden perfecting her green thumb while waiting for the next New Orleans Saints Superbowl win.
She is currently living under teenage rule alongside her husband in southeast Louisiana.
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Nice cover
ReplyDeleteNice cover. Best wishes on your new release.
ReplyDelete