#ToxicLove
Excerpt #2
Published by the Penguin Group
Release date: July 7th, 2015
Phoebe St. Claire
“We’re a
good team you know.”
I lifted
my head in question.
“We fit
together well.”
Feeling
naughty, I threw him a saucy look.
As
expected, he smiled a rueful grin. “Not like that.”
My
heartbeat went sky high but I contained the effect he had on me and raised a
sensual brow.
“Well,
yes like that, but I mean in business. We work well together.”
Call it
hopeful expectation but I knew we would. Gratified, I relaxed back down against
his chest and murmured, “We do,” before hitting play on the remote. It meant a
lot to me that Jeremy valued my opinion when it came to business decisions.
He’d confided in me about his plans for Jet Set and we had even discussed the
best ways to grow membership as well as which cities would be ideal targets
when he was ready to expand. I pondered our business savvy as he drew shapes on
my back but when the movie started, I dedicated my attention to Breakfast at
Tiffany’s.
Sometime
during the movie, we must have fallen asleep because a pounding on my door woke
me up. “Stay here, it’s probably Mrs. Bardot wanting to see her dress on me.
I’ll just tell her I’ll come by before we leave.”
“Sounds
good,” he mumbled as he covered his head with the pillow. All the sex we’d been
having was probably wearing him out. I knew it was me.
I opened
my door to find Lily standing there.
“I kissed
a girl,” she announced.
I simply
blinked at her.
“And he
liked it.”
I stepped
aside for her to enter. “Preston?”
She
traipsed over to the couch and flopped herself down. “Yes, Preston.”
I pulled
a blanket off the back of the sofa and sat in the chair. “I thought you weren’t
having sex?”
“We
weren’t. That’s the point.”
“Lily,
I’m just waking up. Help me out a little.”
She
covered her face in her hands as she spoke. “After I got off the phone with
you, I went to go find Preston. It was late and he wasn’t in his room. When I
called him, he told me he was in the hotel bar. I went down there to find him
sitting with a French woman who didn’t even speak English.”
I was
confused. “What was he doing with her?”
“I asked
him the same thing. He told me it was nothing. That he was just sitting with her.
I asked why and he told me he had overheard my conversation with you and felt
bad that I was feeling sexually frustrated. Well hello, I told him, he could
fix it.”
I
grimaced.
“At least
I wasn’t sitting in the hotel bar staring at a dude like I might fuck him.”
“Is that
what he had planned?”
“No!
That’s when he told me he’d never cheat on me. She was for me, for us, not him.
And then he asked me to kiss her.”
“And you
did?”
“Yes, I
did, to prove a point to him. I wanted him to know I was sick of this no sex
thing and if he wanted me to show him just how sick of it I was, I would. So I
brought her to our room and we sat on the couch and I kissed her. Then I stood
up and looked at him and asked him if I’d proven to him how much I wanted him
now.”
I pulled
my legs up under my chin. “And he said what exactly?”
“That he
wanted me to kiss her again.”
The
situation wasn’t at all funny, but I had a hard time not laughing. It was just
so unbelievable. “So what did you do?”
“Packed
my stuff and left him there to stare at her as I caught the next flight back to
New York City.”
“Did you
ever think he might have a mechanical problem and was looking for a way to . .
. you know,” Jeremy was standing in my bedroom door looking yummy, all sleepy
and crumpled.
Lily’s
eyes shot to his. “To get it up?”
Jeremy
cleared his throat. “Yeah.”
She
looked at him deep in thought. “Why would he have a problem like that? He never
has before.”
Jeremy
shrugged. “Stress, medication, I’m really not sure. I’ve just heard it
happens.”
“We have
been under a lot of stress,” she admitted.
Jeremy
walked toward me and put his hands on my shoulders, massaging them.
I sighed
and leaned forward.
“St.
Claire, focus on me.”
I
laughed. I had really missed her. “You need to talk to him. Ask him about it.”
“What if
he says yes? Then what? I have sex with a girl to see if he can get off?”
“Men do
like girl on girl action.”
I cranked
my head around. “Jeremy!” I scolded.
“I’m just
being honest.”
I
narrowed my eyes at him. He raised his palms. “Not me of course.”
Lily
jumped up. “I have to run. I have to talk to Preston and find out what’s going
on. I’ll call you,” she yelled as she slammed my door.
“What if
that’s not the problem?” I asked Jeremy.
He
plopped on the couch. “At least it will get them talking.”
I had to
laugh.
That it would.
Will they
or won’t they? #ToxicLove
Pre-order
Toxic by Kim Karr
RELEASE DATE: July 7th, 2015
Phoebe
St. Claire has devoted herself to saving her family's hotel empire--but her
best efforts have not been good enough. With her whole world in turmoil, the
tenacious go-getter turns to the once love of her life. Far from innocent,
Jeremy McQueen was the guy from the wrong side of the tracks who her parents
would never have approved of. Their years apart have only made the sexy bad boy
more irresistible than ever--and their reunion is explosive.
When she asks Jeremy
to help her salvage her family business, he agrees immediately, with only one
condition--he wants her in his bed.
But soon surprising circumstances leave Phoebe reeling.
Was this fairy tale romance just too good to be true? Will Jeremy's secrets
pull them apart all over again?
About the Author:
I live in
Florida with my husband and four kids. I've always had a love for reading books
and writing. Being an English major in college, I wanted to teach at the
college level but that was not to be. I went on to receive an MBA and became a
project manager until quitting to raise my family. I currently work part-time
with my husband and full-time embracing one of my biggest passions—writing.
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