Summary-
When rescue looks like a whole lot of trouble . . .
The road trip was definitely a bad idea. Having already flambéed her culinary career beyond recognition, Rita Clarkson is now stranded in God-Knows-Where, New Mexico, with a busted-ass car and her three temperamental siblings, who she hasn't seen in years. When rescue shows up---six-feet-plus of hot, charming sex on a motorcycle---Rita's pretty certain she's gone from the frying pan right into the fire . . .
Jasper Ellis has a bad boy reputation in this town, and he loathes it. The moment he sees Rita, though, Jasper knows he's about to be sorely tempted. There's something real between them. Something raw. And Jasper has only a few days to show Rita that he isn't just for tonight---he's forever.
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TOO HOT TO HANDLE Release Day Excerpt
Rita
and Belmont were sitting silently on the sidewalk, staring at the decimated
restaurant, when a sleek, white Mercedes with the license plate VOTE4AC pulled
up along the curb, eliciting a sigh from them both. Rita shoved a hand through
her dyed black hair and straightened her weary spine. Preparing. Bolstering.
While Belmont’s modus operandi was to hang back, take a situation’s measure and
then approach with caution, her younger brother Aaron liked to make a damn entrance,
right down to the way he exited the driver’s side. Like a Broadway actor
entering from stage left into a dramatic scene, aware that eyes would swing his
direction. His gray suit boasted not a single wrinkle, black shoes polished to
a shine. His golden boy smile had made him amedia sensation, but for once, it
was nowhere to be seen as he approached Rita and Belmont.
Aaron
shoved his hands into his pants pockets. “Fuck. Right?”
“Yep,”
Rita said, swallowing hard.
Her
politician brother did a scan of the dire scene, brain working overtime behind
golden brown eyes inherited by all the Clarksons. Except Belmont, whose eyes
were a deep blue, on account of him having a different father. A fact that Rita
forgot most of the time, since Belmont had been there—an unmovable
presence—since the day she was born. Aaron had come later. The second coming.
“Are
you all right?” Aaron asked her abruptly, a suspicious twinkle in his gaze.
“You must have been in there a while with the smoke. The soot around your
eyes—”
“Hilarious,
dickhead.” Her heavy, black eye makeup and general fuck off appearance were a constant source of amusement for her
clean-cut younger brother. “You have a funny way of showing concern.”
“Thank
you. What do I need to handle?” Aaron adjusted the starched, white collar of
his shirt. “Did you make a statement yet or anything?”
Rita
allowed the steel to leach from her spine. “I’ve been kind of busy just sitting
here.”
“Right.”
Aaron feigned surprise at finding Belmont on the sidewalk with them. “Jesus. I
thought you were a statue.”
“Ha.”
“You
smell like the ocean.”
“You
smell like the blood of tax payers,” Belmont returned.
“Well.”
Rita finally found enough presence of mind to yank the smoky apron over her
head, chucking it into the street. “I think I just remembered why we haven’t
hung out since Mom died.”
Truthfully,
even before that rainy afternoon, the time they’d spent together as a family
had felt mandatory. Organized by their mother and fled from in almost comical
haste.
“Oh.
My. God.”
At
the sound of their youngest sibling, Peggy’s, voice, all three of them cursed
beneath their breath. Let the family
reunion officially begin. It wasn’t that they didn’t love their baby
sister. And in many ways, Peggy, a personal shopper to San Diego’s elite, was still
a baby at twenty-five. Her big coke-bottle curls and cheerleader appearance
guaranteed she got away with just about everything. Including neglecting to pay
her cab driver, if the irritated-looking man following her with a receipt
clutched in his fist was any indication.
“How
did this happen?” Peggy hiccupped, playing with the string of engagement rings
dangling from her neck, as Belmont wordlessly paid the cab driver. “I just had
dinner here two weeks ago. Everything seemed fine.”
Rita
battled the compulsion to lay down on the sidewalk in the fetal position. Oh God. Her mother had bequeathed her an
award-winning restaurant and she’d burned it down. On Rita’s first day back.
Aaron
was busy scrolling through his phone, the screen’s glow illuminating his
perfectly tousled dark blond hair. “Look at the bright side, Rita. Now you can
pursue your dream of being a Hot Topic register girl.”
Rita
barely had the strength to flip him the bird. “Jump up my ass.”
When
Peggy approached, Rita couldn’t look her in the eye, so she focused on her
younger sister’s toes, peeking out of strappy silver sandals. “Hey. I’m glad
you’re okay.”
Rita’s
throat went tight. “Thanks, Peggy.”
“I’m
sorry about the restaurant, too. I know how much you loved it. How much Mom
loved it.” Her youngest sibling nodded and cast a discreet glance over her
shoulder, turning back with a charming half smile. A smile responsible for four
marriage proposals over the past three years. “Mom probably would have wanted
me to talk to those firefighters, though. Am I right?”
Rita
groaned up at the sky.
Meet the fucking Clarksons.
About the Author-
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.
