ABOUT THE BOOK
Title: TOO BEAUTIFUL TO BREAK
Author: Tessa Bailey
Series: Romancing The Clarksons, #4
On Sale: September 26, 2017
Publisher: Forever
Mass Market: $7.99 USD
eBook: $5.99 USD
A love of a lifetime . . .
Leaving Belmont Clarkson is the hardest thing
Sage Alexander has ever done. From the moment they met, she knew Belmont was
the one, and getting up close and personal with him on his family's epic road
trip has taken her desire to a new, even hotter level. But there's no way she
can go there---not without revealing secrets that could devastate them both.
Losing Sage is not an option. Belmont's heart is hers, has always been
hers. He knows she's hiding something from him, but nothing will stand in his
way of telling her just how much she means to him. Finding her is easy---saving
her from her past could cost him everything.
BUY THE BOOK HERE
THE ROMANCING THE CLARKSONS SERIES
TOO HOT TO HANDLE, #1
TOO WILD TO TAME, #2
TOO HARD TO FORGET, #3
TOO CLOSE TO CALL, #3.5
TOO BEAUTIFUL TO BREAK, #4
“You don’t have to leave right away,” Sage said when Belmont
turned, watching her from beneath his eyebrows. “Can you wait here while I take
a quick shower?”
Maybe that hadn’t been the right thing to say. His big back heaved
and the touch of his tongue in her mouth came crashing in like a behemoth wave.
They had crossed an unspoken boundary on the train platform. There was no going
back to before, to when they stopped at rough, crushing embraces. As if that
hadn’t been…more than sexual somehow.
“Yes, I’ll wait,” he said, his voice sounding like serrated metal.
“I can light the fire for you.”
I’ll say. God, why did everything sound like an
innuendo now? If her body weren’t flush and sweating beneath the jumpsuit, she
would have laughed about it. But there was nothing funny about having Belmont
looming mere yards away, looking like one word of encouragement would snap his
chain and send him barreling toward her. “That would be perfect. I’ll just be…a
few minutes.”
Sage all but dove into the itty-bitty bathroom, pressing her back
up against the door and willing her racing heart to calm down. Why had she
asked him to stay? Her resolve would weaken with every passing second. Biting
down on her lower lip, she began the excruciating task of lowering the zipper
of her jumpsuit, which kicked up a protest in her triceps and shoulder muscles.
When she finally got it down, she gripped the hem of her T-shirt and attempted
to lift it over her head.
Her arms wouldn’t cooperate. They flat out wouldn’t rise any higher
than her ribs, leaving the T-shirt suspended in midair. Her muscles burned like
someone had doused them in lighter fluid and held them above a flame. Sage’s
agony must have escaped in the form of a whimper, because Belmont’s boots
scraped just outside the door. And her stomach hollowed with awareness,
lightning racing all over her skin.
“Sage.” His voice was deep, urgent. “Do you need help?”
No. Say no. She’d only gotten finished reminding him
she didn’t
need him. But in this case, it would be a lie and she’d done so much of that
lately. With Belmont. The most truthful person she knew. “I can’t get my shirt
off.” Her nose started to ache, the tip probably turning red. “My arms hurt.”
His growl was short and broken. A beat passed before the door
opened and she felt Belmont filling the doorway behind her. She flicked a
glance up to the ancient mirror and confirmed what she’d seen in her mind’s
eyes. Belmont towering over her like an avenging angel, outlined by
candlelight. He’d taken off his coat, leaving him in a black long-sleeved
shirt, which he’d rolled up to the elbows. Every inch of visible skin was shot
through with strained cords of muscle, as if his frustration were written on
him like a road map.
Sage still had the shirt halfway lifted, so her lower back was
visible. Not a big deal to most people. But Belmont had never seen anything
below her neck. Or above her knees. With the jumpsuit peeled halfway down, the
band of her underwear might even be peeking out.
Breathing grew difficult as Belmont took one step closer and took
hold of the T-shirt, his knuckles grazing the small of her back. “You’re
wearing”—his breath ghosted down her neck—“my shirt.”
Sage only realized she’d closed her eyes when they popped open. Oh God.
In the shock of Belmont arriving, she’d forgotten. “I am?” Her mouth was
parched. “L-look at that.”
“I am looking.” She jumped when Belmont reached over her shoulder
with his left hand and turned on the shower, the sound of spray filling the
room. Then the roughness of his knuckles returned, sliding up her spine along
with the shirt. “I like knowing there was a layer of me standing between you
and the earth.”
Her legs took on the consistency of Jell-O. His touch was a drug,
making her languid, although it was different than the way he usually touched
her. There was sex this time. So much of it. And it was that major difference
that allowed Sage to accept the skimming of his fingers. Accept the part of
herself that lusted. They were in a dark room and time had surely suspended
anywhere outside this little plot of square footage. Words ached to leave her
mouth, words that wouldn’t be suitable in the sunlight. This man, so warm and
brave and large at her back, knew things about her no one else did. What was
one more secret? “I stole it out of your suitcase. I broke a commandment and
everything.”
“Why?” He breathed into her hair, sinking heat like an anchor in
her belly. The shirt came off, her arms dropped to her sides, and she was left
in nothing but a bra from the waist up. Inches from Belmont. “Why, sweetest
girl?”
A light steam had begun curling in the air like beckoning fingers. Maybe this is a
dream. It felt like one of the fevered fantasies she woke
from on occasion, sweat slicking her breasts and neck. “Because I like the way
you smell and it hadn’t been washed.”
His exhale was gravelly. “Sage.”
“Yes.”
She thought he might not respond, but finally he asked a question
that made her nipples turn to hard points. “Can you manage”—a long, windy
inhale—“the bra?”
Sage tried. She really, truly did. Her arms felt as though they
might break off and hit the floor, but she reached back until her muscles
locked up, refusing to move farther. But Belmont was already there, pushing
them back down, holding them at her hips.
“Jesus. Please,
stop. I can’t watch it.” His touch disappeared only for a second and then the
cotton material of the bra tightened over her breasts. She could feel him
working the back clasp with fingers she knew so well. They’d tunneled through
her hair so many times, twisted in her clothing, but had never, ever, touched
her with any kind of…intent. Intent to seduce. And that’s what he was doing,
intentional or not. The inhibitions she’d held close forever, circled the
drain, along with the shower water. “Your back is so beautiful.” A ghost of a
fingertip traced down her spine. “But I need to leave before I—”
“What?”
“Before I turn you around.” They weren’t touching, but she could
sense the shudder that ran through him. “Or look in that mirror.”
Right or wrong, the mine, their codependency aside, Sage knew if
she let him leave just then, she would regret it for all time. Her body had
been woken up. By one man. He’d kept her on the razor’s edge for thousands of
miles, surrounding her with his power and taking it away. Over and over. And
this fever wrapping around them in the tiny bathroom was completely different
from easing his anxiety. Finally, she felt like a woman standing in front of
him, instead of a calming device. This was mutual and alive and she couldn’t stand it to end. Tomorrow might
be a different story, but this moment was the culmination of a thousand dreams
and she could no more deny herself than she could forget his face.
“Belmont, do you think of the kiss?”
“I never stop,” he groaned into her hair. “Never.”
She took a deep breath for courage. “Will you shower with me?”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tessa Bailey is originally from Carlsbad,
California. The day after high school graduation, she packed her yearbook,
ripped jeans, and laptop, and drove 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 and daughter. Although she is severely sleep-deprived, she is
incredibly happy to be living her dream of writing about people falling in
love.
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