Until I'm Yours
The Bennett Series #4
by Kennedy Ryan
Release February 2, 2016
Blurb:
To Trevor Bishop, Sofie is a beautiful mystery he would gladly spend his life solving. He figures her tough demeanor is armor against a world that's hurt her too many times. Then Sofie's deepest wounds are reopened by the powerful, ruthless man who made them. When she musters the courage to take him down, her world shatters. Now Trevor is determined to help Sofie pick up the pieces so they can build a future together. The challenge will be convincing his ice princess that it's safe to melt in his arms .
Excerpt:
“And
this is his business partner, Trevor Bishop.”
Walsh steps
back, and I have my first close up of the fish I’m baiting tonight. Only I’m
the one hooked, immediately. I’m careful not to show it, but that stunned look
I’m used to seeing on other people’s faces? All over my inside face.
This force
of flesh and bone and muscle wrapped in heat looms over me. Trevor Bishop’s presence burns holes in my
composure. I could tell from across the room he was attractive and built like a
mountain lion, lean and strong and broad. It’s only now with proximity that his
absolute confidence meets mine head on. He tilts his head to the left, his
chocolate-colored eyes steadily considering me, and I swear he knows. Even
though I’m sure my face doesn’t give it away, I swear he knows that as I stand
in front of him, inhaling his clean scent and waiting for his first smile,
windmills turn in my belly.
“A pleasure
to meet you, Miss Baston.” His lips, wide and full, give me a smile punctuated
by dimples. And he has a southern drawl.
Fuck me
now.
That’s not
a figure of speech. I quite literally want him to toss me over that hulking
shoulder, find a dark corner somewhere and screw me so deeply into a wall we
leave a dent. Or in a bathroom stall. Hell, he could drag me over to the
elaborate buffet table and take me from behind right there by the ice
sculpture.
One dark
brown brow, a few shades darker than his hair, rises. Holy crap, I haven’t
responded yet.
“Um, nice
to meet you, too, Mr. Bishop.” I take my time so my tongue doesn’t betray the
muddled mess of haywire hormones I am right now.
His eyes
drift over my shoulder, forcing my mind and manners back to Rip.
“Oh, yes.
I’m sorry. How rude.” I turn to Rip, who immediately claims my elbow and draws
me into his side. All of a sudden he’s territorial. I can’t blame him. If my
girlfriend was within five feet of this man, I’d handcuff her to me for the
night. “This is Michael Ripley.”
“Great game
Sunday.” Trevor shakes the hand Rip isn’t manacling me with. “I’m a Falcons fan
myself, but I can appreciate a good toss no matter the team. That’s some arm
you got there.”
Rip’s hold
on me relaxes a bit. Clever Trevor, disarming him that way. Well played. Will I
be able to strip this fish of his defenses as easily?
Once
seated, Rip, Trevor, Harold and Walsh fall into a discussion of football I
don’t even try to follow. Apparently neither
does Kerris. She’s texting someone with a small frown on her face, and mumbles
something to Walsh about a sitter. I settle into my seat beside Trevor, taking
a few moments to compose myself and strategize how I can get that hook in his
mouth.
“So you
were in Dubai?”
The
question startles me a little, I was so lost in my musings. I turn slightly in
Trevor’s direction, creasing my lips politely.
“For a
shoot, yes.” I toy with the clamp on my clutch resting on the table. “And my
friend Ardis married a prince over there. I like to visit her every once in a
while.”
“A real
live prince, huh?” He teases me with a quirk of those full lips.
“Don’t be
too impressed.” I lean a few inches closer to him and lower my voice. “He’s a
prince in name only.”
“If he’s a
prince in name only, what does that make him in deed?”
I
can’t hold onto the humor when I recall the bruises shackling Ardis’ throat and
wrists, or the black and blue mark on her cheek like a brand. I refocus my eyes
and sober my mouth.
“A
frog.”
“I
thought you ladies kissed all the frogs to find the prince.”
“It
happens that way in fairy tales, not in Manhattan.” I sip my champagne. “Or in
Dubai, apparently.”
“So that
accounts for your tan.” His dark eyes make a slow, thorough inspection of my
features.
“Hmmm. What
accounts for yours?” I toss a skein of silvery blonde hair back so he gets an
eyeful of the bare line of my neck and shoulder. His eyes move down my neck,
warming the skin like a touch, before he looks back into my eyes.
“Haiti.” He
laughs a little, lounges back in his chair and links long fingers across a flat
stomach I imagine is corded with muscle. “Well, and my father is Lumbee, so
some of my tan’s natural.”
“Lum what?”
He laughs
again, his teeth white against his skin. I really like that it’s because of
something I said.
“Lumbee
Indian, a tribe found mostly in Lumberton, North Carolina.”
“So your
mother’s responsible for the red hair?”
“She is.”
He brushes a hand over his neat hair, disrupting it into a coppery spill on his
forehead. “I was spared the freckles, though.”
“I’m sure
there’s one or two.”
His eyes
are suddenly hot chocolate, heating up a little as they hold mine.
“You’re
welcome to try to find them.”
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Author Info:
I'm a wife, a mom, a writer, an advocate for families living with autism. That's me in a nutshell. Crack the nut, and you'll find a Southern girl gone Southern California who loves pizza and Diet Coke, and wishes she got to watch a lot more television. You can usually catch me up too late, on social media too much, or FINALLY putting a dent in my ever-growing To Be Read list!
Kennedy Ryan FB Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/681604768593989/
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