Out of Chances
Shona Husk
(Face the Music #4)
Publication date: November 22nd 2015
Genres: New Adult, Romance
Shona Husk’s sexy new adult series about emerging rock band Selling the Sun concludes this month with a story about a woman who doesn’t want to connect, a man who’s forgotten how and the friendships that save our lives.
Dan Clarke knows he doesn’t have a problem, regardless of whatever his band members, his friends, his family and everyone else thinks. Drinking isn’t keeping him from doing what needs to be done, and it helps keep the anger and pain of his ex-girlfriend’s betrayal at bay. If only she would stay away as well, but, since the band’s return to Fremantle, she’s everywhere-on the phone, in his apartment, at his parents’ house-begging for another chance, reminding him of how good they had been together, holding him hostage to the past. It’s no wonder he needs a beer now and again.
Indigo Matthews is all about control: she trains hard, she works hard and she plays hard. Men are for fun, not forever, and she will never end up like her mother, trapped and miserable. A huge Selling the Sun fan, Indigo knows when Dan wanders into her bar that he is a conquest that she has to make. But their connection is stronger than just sex, and regardless of her credo Indigo finds herself going back for more. Then truths about Dan’s life start to emerge, and Indigo finds herself in the one position she swore she’d never find herself.
A DUI, a drunk one night stand and an ultimatum from the band bring Dan’s life to a halt. Picking up the pieces is something he can’t do alone, and there’s only one person that he trusts to give a damn. The one person that he hurt the most. Indigo.
EXCERPT 1:
At the man’s table she stopped, hip cocked to the side. ‘My buddy over there says that you’re no one famous. I think you are.’
He smiled, but it was cautious. ‘Who do you think I am?’‘I have five bucks that says you’re the bass player from Selling the Sun.’ There was no money on the table, and the guy she was working with didn’t give a damn, but that didn’t stop nerves from pushing her heart harder or her hands from feeling a little slippery on the tray.
‘And if I am?’ He leaned back and his smile broadened.
‘A free beer?’ She put the one he’d ordered on the table.
He nodded. ‘I am.’
‘Prove it.’ Anyone could say that they were.
‘Drivers licence okay? Or do you require a full hundred points?’ He was still smiling as though this was a game. ‘But that will only work if you know my name. Do you?’
‘What kind of fan wouldn’t, Dan Clarke?’
He lifted one eyebrow as he reached into his jeans pocket and pulled out his wallet. He flipped it open, covered his address with his thumb and showed her his name. Daniel Sean Clarke. ‘Happy?’
She nodded, more than happy. Her happy was doing its own happy dance. Now for part two of her daring plan. She’d never slept with any one close to famous, and while she’d fancied Dan from the audience of the concerts, he was here now, right in front of her. She could reach out and touch him. She resisted. Just. ‘What are you doing later?’
‘How much later?’ His blue eyes took on a guarded look, as though he wasn’t sure where this was going.
She didn’t buy that for a moment. He’d broken up with his girlfriend and he must get hit on all the time. Indigo checked her watch. An hour and a half left of her shift. That was probably too long, yet there was no way she could have him out the back of the pub in the middle of the afternoon—no matter how appealing that seemed right now.
‘I finish in ninety minutes.’
‘And then?’ He drew a line in the condensation on his glass, his gaze firmly on her. He was waiting for her to make it clear. Maybe he wasn’t that interested. She could walk away, opportunity taken and declined. But he hadn’t said no.
So she gave a shrug as though the outcome didn’t matter. ‘We do whatever two consenting adults feel like.’
‘Are you hitting on me?’
‘Did I not make it clear enough for you?’ Did he not want to be hit on or was he not as smart as he appeared? She didn’t like either of those options.
Then he smiled and gave her a slow, lingering look that seemed to take in everything, from the top of her head down to her ass. ‘Just checking … I get that free beer while I wait?’
She nodded. She’d kind of promised him that anyway. Was he more interested in the beer than her? She drew in a breath, ready to blow him off at the first sign of rejection. Get in first before she got hurt was her motto.
Dan picked up the glass and took a sip, his gaze still on her. ‘Well, I guess the only question left is your place or mine.’
Excerpt 2:
Her hand snuck over his hip and into his back pocket.
‘Is there anything useful in your wallet or do we need to go to the bedroom?’
‘I’m good either way.’ He tugged her closer.
The length of him pressed against her. Her panties
offered no protection.
‘You want to leave the shoes on?’ He smiled against
her lips.
‘I can.’ She tugged his wallet, it felt like leather,
out of his pants and opened it up. He didn’t try to stop her. She felt around
while he distracted her. Eventually she found what she was looking for. Two of
… he was hopeful. She put his wallet on the kitchen counter. ‘So, should I turn
around like this?’
Indigo twisted in his arms so her butt rubbed against
him. He nipped at her neck as his hands moved lower to grab her hips. He ground
against her.
Her heart kicked over. She didn’t want to waste the
time it would take to walk to the bedroom. His fingers slid into her panties
and then lower. She bit her lip and closed her eyes as his fingers danced over
her sensitive flesh.
‘I’m fine with here,’ she murmured.
‘Me too.’ He pushed her panties down and she stepped
out of them. The heel of her shoe briefly catching.
In stockings and shoes she felt more exposed than she
did naked, but she wasn’t going to back down now. She rested her elbows on the
counter and wiggled her butt. His zipper ratcheted down. The tearing of the
packet was too loud. Her breath hitched and it felt like hours crawled by while
she waited. Then his hands were tracing down her spine and smoothing over her
buttocks.
Author Bio:
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SHONA HUSK is the author of the Shadowlands, Court of Annwyn and the Face the Music series. You can find out more information about Shona at www.shonahusk.com or follow her on Twitter @ShonaHusk, or Facebook www.facebook.com/shonahusk
Face the Music, a contemporary romance series, finishes in November 2015 with Out of Chances.
New SFR series coming soon with Desire to Fall.
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