Rough Rhythm
Made in Jersey, 1.5
Tessa Bailey
Evil Eye Concepts
March 8, 2016
SYNOPSIS:
God help the woman I take home tonight.
Band manager James Brandon never expected to find the elusive satisfaction he’d been chasing, let alone stumble upon it in some sleezy Hollywood meat market. Yet the girl’s quiet pride spoke to him from across the bar, louder than a shout. Troubled, hungry and homeless, she’d placed her trust in him. But after losing the grip on his dark desires that one fateful night, James has spent the last four years atoning for letting her down.
This time I’ll finally crack him.
Rock band drummer Lita Regina has had enough of James’s guilt. She wants the explosive man she met that night in Hollywood. The man who held nothing back and took no prisoners—save Lita. And she’ll stop at nothing to revive him. Even if it means throwing herself into peril at every turn, just to get a reaction from her stoic manager. But when Lita takes her quest one step too far, James disappears from her life, thinking his absence will keep her safe.
Now it’s up to Lita to bring James back…and ignite an inferno of passion in the process.
Reader Advisory: ROUGH RHYTHM contains fantasies of nonconsensual sex, acted upon by consenting characters. Readers with sensitivity to portrayals of nonconsensual sex should be advised.
EXCERPT:
Band manager James Brandon never expected to find the elusive satisfaction he’d been chasing, let alone stumble upon it in some sleezy Hollywood meat market. Yet the girl’s quiet pride spoke to him from across the bar, louder than a shout. Troubled, hungry and homeless, she’d placed her trust in him. But after losing the grip on his dark desires that one fateful night, James has spent the last four years atoning for letting her down.
This time I’ll finally crack him.
Rock band drummer Lita Regina has had enough of James’s guilt. She wants the explosive man she met that night in Hollywood. The man who held nothing back and took no prisoners—save Lita. And she’ll stop at nothing to revive him. Even if it means throwing herself into peril at every turn, just to get a reaction from her stoic manager. But when Lita takes her quest one step too far, James disappears from her life, thinking his absence will keep her safe.
Now it’s up to Lita to bring James back…and ignite an inferno of passion in the process.
Reader Advisory: ROUGH RHYTHM contains fantasies of nonconsensual sex, acted upon by consenting characters. Readers with sensitivity to portrayals of nonconsensual sex should be advised.
EXCERPT:
This time she would
finally crack him.
Ignoring stares from her cellmates, Lita
jogged in place, preparing for the confrontation with James, her band manager.
This was her ritual before shows, too. It loosened the limbs, shook out the
demons. She took her role as drummer for Old News seriously, same way she
considered riling up James a form of art. For four freaking years, they’d been
repeating this song and dance—and Lita was over it. Today was the day James
lost his cool. The way he’d lost it the night they met.
Remembering the state she’d been in when
James found her, Lita jogged a little faster. At twenty-three, she wasn’t that
scrawny, starving girl now. Not in most
ways, anyway. The memory of what took place that night still had the ability to
steal her breath, make her restless. But unlike the girl she’d been at
nineteen, Lita didn’t wait for fate to wave its magical hand. No. She grabbed
fate’s wrist and shook, shook, until
the pieces fell into an acceptable pattern. That modus operandi is what had
landed her inside a musky, Wilshire division holding cell of LA County’s jail
system.
Lita didn’t have a head for numbers, but
was pretty damn sure today would mark the twenty-first time James had bailed
her out of a jail-type situation. Looking after the interests of Old News’s
members was his job. Their relationship, however, fell outside the parameters
of a typical musician-manager arrangement. Not that he would ever admit it. No,
James simply continued to show up when Lita got into trouble, lecturing her
about proper behavior on the way to dropping her off. And leaving. He left every time, that distinguished jaw of
his firmly set, sunglasses hiding the guilt she knew lurked in his eyes four
years later.
Not this time. Last night, Lita
had gone above and beyond to ensure this morning wrought one of two outcomes:
James quitting, giving up on her like everyone else did eventually, or his control finally slipped. One way
or another, she wouldn’t be in limbo come tonight. She’d been there too long.
Lita stopped jogging when she heard the
jingling of the guard’s keys. James was right on time, as usual. Her cellmates
craned their necks, some coming to their feet in the hopes they were being
released. Lita stowed a pang of sympathy and whipped her hair into a quick
ponytail. The guard cast a tired-eyed glance in her direction and unlocked the
door. “Lita Regina, your bail has been posted.”
ABOUT TESSA BAILEY
Tessa Bailey is originally from
Carlsbad, California. The day after high school graduation, she packed her
yearbook, ripped jeans and laptop, driving cross-country to New York City in
under four days. Her most valuable life experiences were learned thereafter
while waitressing at K-Dees, a Manhattan pub owned by her uncle. Inside those
four walls, she met her husband, best friend and discovered the magic of
classic rock, managing to put herself through Kingsborough Community College
and the English program at Pace University at the same time. Several stunted
attempts to enter the work force as a journalist followed, but romance writing
continued to demand her attention. She now lives in Long Island, New York with
her husband of eight years and four-year-old daughter. Although she is severely
sleep-deprived, she is incredibly happy to be living her dream of writing about
people falling in love.
Publishing
Credits
Baiting the Maid of Honor,
Entangled Brazen, June 2014
Unfixable
(New Adult), Entangled Embrace, April 2014
Protecting What's Theirs
(novella), Entangled Brazen, March 2014
Staking His Claim,
Entangled Brazen, February 2014
Asking For Trouble,
Entangled Brazen, November 2013
Officer Off Limits,
Entangled Brazen, June 2013
His Risk to Take,
Entangled Brazen, May 2013
Protecting What's His,
Entangled Brazen, February 2013
Upcoming releases:
Owned by Fate,
Entangled Brazen, September 2014
Exposed by Fate,
Entangled Brazen, October 2014
Riskier Business,
Entangled Brazen, December 2014
Risking It All
(Crossing the Line 1), Entangled Select, January 2015
Driven by Fate,
Entangled Brazen, February 2015
Chase Me
(Broke & Beautiful 1), Avon Impulse, March 2015
Need Me
(Broke & Beautiful 2), Avon Impulse, April 2015
Off Base
(novella) self-published, May 2015
Up in Smoke (Crossing
the Line 2), Entangled Select, June 2015
Make Me
(Broke & Beautiful 3), Avon Impulse, August 2015
Crashed Out
(Made in Jersey 1), Entangled Brazen, December 2015
Boiling Point
(Crossing the Line 3), Entangled Select, January 2016
Rough Rhythm,
1001 Dark Nights Project, March 2016
Thrown Down
(Made in Jersey 2), Entangled Brazen, April 2016
Raw Redemption
(Crossing the Line 4), Entangled Select, June 2016
Worked Up
(Made in Jersey 3), Entangled Brazen, August 2016
Wound Tight
(Made in Jersey 4), Entangled Brazen, December 2016
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