Out of Bounds
Eden Rayna
(Driven by Fire, #2)
Publication date: October 1st 2019
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Luca
When I wanted her, I couldn’t have her. Now I want to get rid of her and I can’t do that either.
Bobby was the love of my life and I thought she felt the same way. When she left me nearly ten years ago and burned all traces of herself, I learned how she really felt. I finally gave up looking, moved, made some new friends. Now she’s moved to my town and I want to spend time with her like I want to hang out on a ship with plague-infested rats. But I’ll be damned if I let her leave again without telling me why she left me in the first place.
Bobby
I wish I could look at him and see that things are different. That he isn’t the same person anymore. I wish I could introduce myself to him and start from the beginning; pretend like we don’t have a shared history.
Of all the places in the world, my first steady job in over a year has to be in the same town as Luca. I spent the last eight years lonely and living in the most remote locations, spinning tales about my past to put distance between us only to land right in his lap again. He’s going to want the truth from me and I can’t give it to him. Honesty will only hurt him more than I already have.
Out of Bounds is the second full-length steamy contemporary romance novel in the Driven by Fire series. It contains sexual content and is intended for mature readers.
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EXCERPT:
Please tell me I’m having one of those lucid dreams I swear are real. The kind that has me waking in a sweat. The kind where I only remember the vague details around the edges of the plot. Any second now the air over his shoulder will shimmer indicating this flashback is ending.
Any second now.
Any. Second. Now.
The silence stretches out while Luca and I embrace. The air is still. There is no shimmering. No wavering. There is no movement at all.
This isn’t a dream, is it?
The smell of his clean sweat invades my nostrils and it hurls me back into another life when his scent was a part of my every day. I shiver at the sensation of a bygone era filling the space between my arms again. I stand on my tippy toes, looking over his shoulder though focussing on nothing. My arms curl around his neck while his wrap around my back. While it would be far more comfortable to encircle his waist and press my cheek into his chest given our height difference, that would be way too intimate for strangers of our ilk.
“Do you really live here now?” His tone has the same friendly vibe as if he was asking me why I put the empty milk carton back in the fridge. Even so, the shift in the air as his words pass over my ear makes my body react. Like a bolt of lightning, they streak down my spine and ground themselves out the soles of my feet making my legs wobble again.
“Good to see you, too, Luca.”
“Is it?” I expected a less confrontational response along the lines of Nice to see you too, Bobby, if only for public perception’s sake. Apparently, we aren’t looking to impress anyone here today.
While I would have preferred to be in control of our first encounter, I don’t think it’s terrible to see him. It’s simply unexpected like I dumped an entire packet of Pop Rocks into my mouth all at once. Painful and exhilarating all at once.
“You okay?” His hot voice whispers in my ear when I don’t answer his question.
“Not by a long shot.”
“Good. That makes two of us.” His throat bobs with a hard, angry swallow. I deserve his anger even if I’m surprised at the speed at which it makes its way into our conversation. “Did you plan this?”
“Yes.” I bite back. “I waited this long to insert myself back into your life while on very public display. Surprise!” I call out sarcastically. There is another long pause where I wait for him to say something snarky to me but he leaves it up to me to fill the dead air. “You go by Luke now?”
“Did the name change make me hard to find?” I set myself up for that one. With each word that either of us says, another brick is laid in the wall between us, as if it wasn’t already bigger than the Great Wall of China. Brick, mortar, brick, mortar. At this pace, we won’t have to worry about the awkward hug because, soon enough, I won’t be able to see him over the top of the wall.
Author Bio:
Eden Rayna was born in Calgary, Alberta. After several attempts to leave through travels and school in far off places, she realized there was no place better to call home than the sprawling city at the foot of the Rocky Mountains. A lover of her family, Chinook winds and romance novels, Eden is excited to announce that the third book in the Driven by Fire series, Out of Bounds, will be available Fall 2019!
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