First Touch
by
Laurelin Paige
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Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Publication Date: December 29, 2015
~Synopsis ~
When Emily Wayborn
goes home to visit her mom while on hiatus from her hit TV show, she receives a
voicemail from her former best friend, Amber. Though the two were once
notorious party girls, they haven't spoken in years. Although the message might
sound benign to anyone else, Amber uses a safe word that Emily recognizes, a
word they always used to get out of sticky situations during their wild days.
And what's more chilling than the voicemail: it turns out that Amber has gone
missing.
Determined to track down her friend, Emily follows a chain of clues that lead
her to the enigmatic billionaire Reeve Sallis, a hotelier known for his shady
dealings and play boy reputation. Now, in order to find Amber, Emily must
seduce Reeve to learn his secrets and discover the whereabouts of her friend.
But as she finds herself more entangled with him, she finds she's drawn to
Reeve for more than just his connection to Amber, despite her growing fear that
he may be the enemy. When she's forced to choose where her loyalty lies, how
will she decide between saving Amber and saving her heart?
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~Excerpt ~
The room began to close in around me,
blanketing me with acute heaviness. I drained my champagne in one swallow then
set it on a waiter’s tray as I pushed through the crowd and out to the overflow
area that had been set up in the parking lot. Once the chill night breeze hit
me, I gasped in a deep breath, swallowing the air in long gulps, as though I’d
been underwater and had finally reached the surface.
With Amber, I’d been a glorified hooker. In
Hollywood, wasn’t I pretty much the same thing? I’d simply left one bed to move
to another. I chuckled at the paradox. It deserved a laugh, at least.
Footsteps sounded behind me, and I stifled the
last bit of humor threatening to escape. Without looking over my shoulder, I
felt the air change. The hair at the back of my neck bristled and the sting of
electricity huddled around me.
I turned, somehow knowing what I’d find—who I’d find.
He leaned against the concrete doorframe
watching me with eyes that pinned me in my place. He was captivating and
magnificent, his tux fitting him better than clothing had the right to fit a
person, better than any one of the pretty men that filled the room beyond him.
Those men, my peers, they were a sea of beautiful—calm and serene. Reeve was
the ocean, dark and commanding and turbulent. They moved in gentle waves. Reeve
stood still and set the world crashing around him.
That
easily, the breath I’d just managed to get under control was knocked from my
lungs.
He spoke before I could regain my composure.
“What a coincidence that you’d be at the same event that I’m at.”
The boldness of his accusation shocked me into
response. “I’m not following you, if that’s what you’re insinuating.” My pulse
fluttered in fear, in excitement. In irritation. I didn’t like the way he
agitated me. Maybe I’d deserved it at his resort, but this? This was my turf.
With a surprising display of fierceness, I
locked my eyes to his. “I’m the one who belongs at this event. Not you.”
He laughed and the sound of it fueled my
indignation. It also sent heat rushing up my thighs, heat that turned my rage
inward as well as out.
Hands in his pockets, Reeve stepped toward me.
“Calm down, Emily. I was only teasing. Of course you aren’t here because of me.
Perhaps, I’m here because of you.” He paused long enough for panic to
jolt through me with reminders of the ominous words he’d delivered to me the
last time we’d seen each other. “Perhaps, this time I’m the one who’s
examining.”
My anger stepped up another notch,
overwhelming my unease. “Examining me? Like, why—to scare me? To see if I’m as
fun to mess with when you’re outside the home field? How dare you? Come here,
into my world and prod at me just because you feel like it. Proceed to make it
your playground. How dare you?”
His lip curved into a chiding smile. “Now you
know how I felt.”
I refused to acknowledge my humiliation,
though the flush that swept down my neck more than likely gave it away. “Thank
you for the lesson, Mr. Sallis,” I said, my voice surprisingly steady. “I
assure you that I have more than gotten the point. You won’t be having to give
me any further demonstrations.” I started toward the venue doors, praying I
could manage the walk. High heels and weak knees did not make for a good
combination.
I circled widely around him, wanting to keep
as much distance between us as possible. But I could still feel the warmth
pulsating off him like the driving beat of a dance club. It trembled through
me, coming up from the ground, shaking me, gripping me. I fought through it,
forced myself past him.
“Emily.” His address caught me mid-stride.
Five more feet and I’d be back in the Expo. Just a few more steps…
I couldn’t help myself—I stayed. I didn’t turn
toward him, though. That was my single act of restraint.
“What I did to you at the spa—”His voice was
silk and stubble all at once. The texture of the sound, as much as the mention
of the spa, was bait on a hook. I practically leaned into his next words. “It
wasn’t very nice.”
I spun toward him. “You think?”
“I like my privacy. I was mad.” It wasn’t an
explanation so much as it was a reminder. You
provoked me, he was saying. You
deserved it.
“So you made me think you wanted to kill me?”
Admittedly, I had earned his admonishment. I hadn’t earned a death threat.
“Eh. I never said I wanted—”
I cut him off with a point of my finger. “You
did. In every way you could without the specific words.”
He opened his mouth as if to defend himself
further. Then his expression changed, his features darkened, his eyes gleamed.
“Did it scare you?”
“What do you think?” A shiver ran down my
spine. He knew he’d scared me. It had been his intent to rile me up, make me
afraid. What I hadn’t realized was how much he liked that he had.
~ Links to Pre-Order ~
~ About the Author ~
Laurelin Paige is
the NY Times and USA Today Bestselling Author of the Fixed Trilogy. She's a
sucker for a good romance and gets giddy anytime there's kissing, much to the
embarrassment of her three daughters. Her husband doesn't seem to complain,
however. When she isn't reading or writing sexy stories, she's probably
singing, watching Mad Men and the Walking Dead, or dreaming of Adam Levine.
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