Excerpt Reveals 💞

🏒 𝐄𝐗𝐂𝐄𝐑𝐏𝐓 𝐑𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐀𝐋 🏒

Check out this sneak peek for 𝑻𝑶𝑻𝑨𝑳 𝑺𝑯𝑼𝑻𝑫𝑶𝑾𝑵 (𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑩𝒍𝒂𝒅𝒆 𝑲𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔 𝑩𝒐𝒐𝒌 2) by Ruth Stilling, releasing next week!

𝐏𝐑𝐄-𝐎𝐑𝐃𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐎𝐃𝐀𝐘/ 𝐀𝐃𝐃 𝐈𝐓 𝐓𝐎 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐀𝐌𝐀𝐙𝐎𝐍 𝐖𝐈𝐒𝐇𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓! https://geni.us/totalshutdown

What to expect:

🏒 Hockey Romance

👶🏻 Single Dad/Biker Girl

🐈‍⬛ Black Cat/Grumpy NHL Captain

🥰 Age Gap

❌No Third Act Break Up

💞Found Family

𝐄𝐗𝐂𝐄𝐑𝐏𝐓:

“Hand over a little of that control, Baby. You can trust me with it.”

Another inch closer, and I’ll be doing just that—kissing him.

“Aren’t you scared?” I ask. “You’ve lost people too. You could start falling for me, and then I could just up and leave.”

“Oh, Baby Girl.” He runs the callous pad of his thumb across my bottom lip, smiling knowingly at me.

“For a girl who thinks she has it all worked out, you just don’t get it, do you?”

Even if I wanted to reply, I couldn’t.

Sawyer closes the remaining distance between us, whispering against my lips, “I already am.”

Just like I knew I would, I let him kiss me. Every single bone melting until I can’t be sure I’m upright.

His hand slides further along the bench until it leaves the wooden frame and wraps around my shoulder, pulling me into him.

This kiss is sweet with no tongues, a dance and test of each other’s limitations. Or maybe just mine. But I know what I want, even if a part of me screams to ignore it.

A whimper races up my throat, the appreciative sound urging him on. His smooth tongue lightly traces the seam of my lips, and I part for him like a goddamn river breaking its banks.

Sawyer smiles into the kiss, satisfied with how easy it was to have his way with me.

I pull away from him, chest heaving, blood pumping, tingles everywhere—especially between my thighs. “You see, this is exactly what I mean. Kissing you is dangerous.”

A soft laugh bubbles from him, and he ducks his head, kissing the underside of my jaw. “I want to do a lot more than just kiss you.”

I feel my thong grow damp. “You know we can’t do that.”

He kisses my jaw again. “For the same reasons you told me we couldn’t kiss?”

I feel my defenses fly up. I need to shut down this conversation before it ventures into unsafe territory like discussing the feelings I know I’m rapidly developing for this man. “No. Because last time was only above average.” I blurt out in a panic.

He looks hurt, and I hate that.

“I was more than a six, and you know it.”

Shaking my head, I shuffle a centimeter away from him. “No, that was the truth. It was … vanilla?”

Sawyer narrows his eyes. “You’re being totally serious, aren’t you?”

I nod once, despising my response. My hesitancy to sleep with him again isn’t centered around his abilities in bed, and I know it. There’s only one way I’d let Sawyer take me back to bed, and that’s if feelings weren’t involved for him and Ezra wasn’t at risk of getting pulled into it. The worst-case scenario would be him seeing us in a compromising position and wondering if I was his dad’s girlfriend after all. I could never do that to him or Sawyer.

Regardless of my nod, Sawyer looks determined, reaching out and twisting a lock of my hair around his finger. “Hypothetically speaking, if we slept together again, what would you want me to do?”

Oh Jesus.

The ache in my core borders on unbearable, and I bite my lip, trying to center myself.

“I guess, first, I’d like you to not fall any further for me. Sex, combined with emotions, makes things complicated.”

He visibly deflates, and I feel shitty for it.

“So, you only want a no-strings type of arrangement?”

“Yes. I think you’re hot as fuck, and I can show you what I like in bed. But for everyone’s sake, this can only be about sex. If you don’t think you can do that, then I get it.”

Sawyer’s eyes search mine—pain, frustration, annoyance, and then acceptance passing through them like a carousel. “If it were only me, I would risk my feelings to be with you in any way you wanted. This isn’t just about me though, and I can’t only think of myself; I have to think of my son too. He’s perceptive—maybe more than I’ve previously given him credit for—and I don’t want to sneak around behind his back. If we were just fuck buddies, that’s what we’d have to do.” Sawyer tucks the piece of hair he was playing with behind my ear. He doesn’t look certain of his next words, an internal war taking place in his mind. “And I don’t think I can do that.”

I don’t reply because there isn’t anything else to say. He’s right. The cold facts are here, between us, swirling in the freezing Brooklyn night sky.

This is the right decision.

This is for the best. For me, for Sawyer, and especially for Ezra.

I’m not mom material; I can barely hold down a job, for Christ’s sake.

My time in New York was slowly coming to an end anyway, and this way, no one gets hurt.

So, why does it already feel like I am?

Blurb:

The plan was simple: just me, my boy and hockey.

I’m the unapproachable NHL captain with a reputation for chewing up reporters in interviews, forwards on the ice and shutting down anyone who tries to get close to me. And that’s how I like it—no feelings, no complications, and zero chance of reliving the grief I experienced when my wife passed away seven years ago.

But sometimes the best laid plans go up in flames, and that’s exactly what Collins Mackenzie does when strolls into a bar one post-game night and gives me a taste of the cold shoulder I’ve bestowed on all those around me.

The only person she doesn’t dismiss? My boy. In fact, she lights him up with her pink hair and perfectly winged eyeliner, leaving him fascinated and me infatuated.

There’s only one problem: she’s nine years younger, convinced I’m not her type and doesn’t do relationships. She doesn’t even hang around in the same city beyond a few months. Trouble is, I want her permanence right next to me—on the couch watching movies and in my bed on lazy mornings.

I’m ready to chase her, no matter where she goes or how quickly she hits the accelerator.  This girl is a ride I never want to get off.

ADD TO YOUR TBR:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/224120029-total-shutdown

More books by Ruth Stilling: https://amzn.to/48gcbjZ

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✨EXCERPT: TWICE AS FORBIDDEN by @authorjdhollyfield releasing May 1st! 

#PreOrderNow:

https://geni.us/TwiceasForbidden

I can’t hold back my smile as I dive into the pool. When I emerge, Jackson is inches from me. I run my hands through my hair, pushing my breasts out farther, practically asking for trouble.

“You know how this looks. If Noah walks out…”

“Like two people having an innocent swim?” I ask, sucking in my bottom lip.

He swims around me. “Is this innocent, Peach?”            

“I’m not sure.”

My heart rate spikes. He’s behind me now, the heat of his body radiating against my skin. Tension builds between my thighs. His warm breath brushes against my earlobe. “What exactly do you think is going to happen that makes this not innocent?”

He’s baiting me. He wants me to admit what I want. His hand loops around my belly, tugging me against him, and I gasp. He’s hard everywhere. His erection presses between my ass cheeks. My body feels like it’s on fire, a surge of lust coursing through me…

#jdhollyfield #theauthoragency @theauthor.agency