Fall into Forever by Beth Hyland ~ Excerpt & Giveaway

TITLE: Fall Into Forever
AUTHOR: Beth Hyland
AGE GROUP: NA
GENRE: Contemporary Romance
RELEASE DATE: March 10, 2014
HOSTED BY: Wordsmith Publicity


Some girls may find guys like Jon exciting and charming. Some are even naive enough to want to date them. But guys like him can harbor dark, dangerous secrets. Secrets you don’t want to know or be involved in. How do you think they got this way in the first place? It’s best to follow your head and stay as far away from them as possible. 

 Trust me when I say this: Guys like Jon Priestly are nothing but trouble.

Ivy McAllister had it all. Perfect boyfriend. Perfect life. Perfect future. Or so they tell her. Because one night, on a dark country road, a fiery crash changed everything…and Ivy can’t remember what happened.

Now, two years later, at a new college far from home, she tries to regain control of her life, but her plans don’t include a tattooed, motorcycle-riding, indie music-obsessed guy with his own sorority girl fan club.

Jon Priestly is the hottest guy at Pacific State University. Just ask his groupies. But with a dark past he must keep hidden, he shuts himself off emotionally and trusts no one. That is…until he meets a broken girl with haunting green eyes and secrets of her own.

Ivy shouldn’t be attracted to Jon. They’re wrong for each other in every possible way. Yet as they spend time together, something about him—everything about him—feels so right.

But when threats from her past make her question what little she does remember, Ivy must decide whether to run again or trust the one person she can’t live without.

Excerpt:

Ivy

Jon turns his attention back to me. “So, do I get to kiss the birthday girl?”

At the word kiss, my gaze drops to his mouth. Forget what I said about being able to hear my heart pounding against my eardrums. I’m pretty sure it stopped beating altogether just now. His bottom lip is fuller than his upper lip, and I wonder how it would feel moving against my own.

“I don’t know. Why don’t you ask her?” God, that sounds lame. I blame the Buttery Nipple.

He flattens his other palm on the wall next to my head, caging me in without touching me. His elbows are slightly bent. If I wanted to, I could slide down a few inches, dip under his arm, and be free. I don’t want to, but it’s nice having that option.

His breath is warm on my cheek, making a few loose strands of my hair stick to the lip balm I just applied. He reaches up and, with a feather-light touch of his thumb, gently strokes them away. My lips part. I shiver. Even though we’re in the back of a crowded college dive bar, it feels as if it’s just the two of us.

“Say yes, Ivy.”

Are you kidding me? I want him to kiss me. And it’s not just the alcohol talking. A completely sober me would want the same thing.

I nod.

He’s looking at my mouth, his nostrils slightly flared. “I want you to say it, though.”

I think the butterflies in my lower belly just guzzled a whole case of Red Bull.

“Yes, Jon, I want you to kiss me,” I say breathlessly, aware that I’ve given him more than the one-word answer he was probably expecting.

He groans. Sucks in a breath. Then he bends his elbows until his mouth is less than an inch from mine. I’m breathing in his air and he’s breathing in mine.

“Happy twenty-first birthday, Ivy.” Then he closes the space between us.

Jon’s a good kisser.

A really good kisser.

Did I say he’s a good kisser?

At first he’s a total gentleman, his lips soft, just as I’d imagined they’d be. My mouth automatically matches the rhythm of his. And that’s when I feel his tongue. It delves inside, sliding past my teeth, exploring, seeking out everything about me as if I am his to discover.

Forget what I said about him being a gentleman. Gentlemen don’t kiss the way Jon Priestly does.

It makes me want more. Much more. I arch into him. He presses into me.

Oh. Yeah.

It’s obvious he wants more, too.

He continues this relentless assault on me with just his mouth, kissing my jaw, my earlobes, my neck. Goosebumps and friends of goosebumps spring up along my skin.

I lift my arms to slide them around his neck, but he stops me. Instead, he takes my hands, threads his fingers into mine, and pins me against the wall like a crime scene outline figure.

Something sounds in the back of my head. An alarm?

I stiffen. He keeps kissing me.

I’m suddenly underwater, kicking my arms and legs, but going nowhere. I need to breathe, but I can’t. I’m in over my head. Stuck. Trapped.

My fingers tighten their grip on his. Pinned to the wall like this, my wrists suddenly start to ache. My nails turn clawlike as they dig into the backs of his hands.

Jon lifts his head. “Are you okay, Ivy?”

I don’t answer, because I’m not sure.

“Cuz if you’re not, we can stop. It’s no big deal.”

The butterflies in my stomach are now piranhas, and I feel as though I might get sick. I breathe. In. Out. In. Out.

He releases my hands. I rub my wrists, even though that’s not where he’s been touching me.

“Ivy?”

My lips feel swollen as I blink his face into focus. He’s frowning and his eyes are boring into mine, but he doesn’t make a move to grab me again. I test him and push on his chest. He backs up a step, putting more than a foot of space between us, and shoves his hands in his pockets.

“I’m sorry if I… Do you want to go back out there?”

I’m standing here, my hands still on his chest, but he’s not touching me. He’s letting me go. I can leave if I want to.

I look at him again. I mean, really look at him.

Like I said before, Jon isn’t the kind of guy I’m normally attracted to. Gauges in his earlobes. Unruly dark hair hanging over one eye. His face hasn’t seen a razor in days, and he’s probably got more tattoos and piercings elsewhere on his body that I can’t see. However, and this is a big however, anyone with a vagina, and some with penises, would agree that he’s totally hot.

So you see, it’s okay that he’s not really my type. I’m not looking to fall in love or start anything long-term. I just want a temporary bandage. Someone to help shrink the mess inside me until I can figure out how to do it on my own.

Besides, it’s my birthday, I’m buzzed, and I deserve a little fun. I’m trying to forget all that heavy shit anyway. It doesn’t exist in the new world I’m trying to create for myself.

I take a step toward him, then another and another. Until he’s the one pressed against the wall and I’m the one caging him in. Which makes me the one in control.

At first he looks a little surprised. Not pissed-off surprised, but the kind of surprised you feel when you open a present that’s not what you expect but is still really cool. He grins and there’s a mischievous gleam in his eye. He seems totally fine with the power reversal.

I relax and let my body take over.

I’m not sure how long we kiss back there, but somehow we end up on the dance floor. His hands are on my hips and my arms are above my head. I’m laughing. He’s laughing. Then he’s turning me around. Back at his table, he pulls me onto his lap and I smear frosting on his lips from one of my birthday cupcakes. Then I kiss it off.

I want him to come home with me, and I tell him so. I’m not ready for this night to be over.

He cups my jaw and whispers in my ear. “I want you, Ivy. So fucking bad. But you need to be completely sober, because afterward, when you’re lying there in the dark, I want you to know it was your choice. Your decision. No one else’s.”

I literally melt into him when he kisses me again.

“Plus,” he says against my lips. “I want you to remember everything.”

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About the author

Beth Hyland is the author of FALL INTO FOREVER, a contemporary New Adult romance coming out March 10.

A friendly Seattle girl who loves books, believes in happily ever after, and has a closet addiction to YouTube makeup tutorial videos, she married her college sweetheart and has two awesome kids.

She used to work in the tech field but prefers writing books. She also used to sell wedding dresses and cigarettes, despite the fact that she wore her mother’s dress when she got married and she’s never smoked.
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