Title: AS YOU WERE
Author: Lee Piper
Genre: Contemporary Romance
About As You Were:
They say love is beautiful.
They lie.
Love is a dark, broken man with whiskey-colored eyes. Love is knowing he will never return my feelings. It is the final chord of a guitar riff as it bleeds into silence.
Love is Zeke Danton.
I convinced myself I needed him. I thought there was no one better to record my debut album with…
I was wrong.
Encased in layers of ice, he wears his pain like a protective shield.
Wanting what I can’t have might ruin me. But so help me, I crave his destruction.
Pre-Order Your Copy Today:
Exclusive Excerpt:
“You’re not a people person, are you?”
Silence.
“Zeke?”
Nothing.
Oh hell no.
Planting fists on my hips, I glare at his dark, close-cropped hair. If it wasn’t for my guitar swaying from the movement, I would look totally badass. “It’s rude to ignore people, you know. And it’s
really rude not to look them in the eye when they’re speaking.”
He stills.
Zeke turns. His movement is slow, deliberate. I swallow, resisting the urge to stumble back. His gaze purposely travels the length of my bare legs. They’re perfectly ordinary, with ankles and knees and everything in between. But under his scrutiny they become something more, something desirable. My calves never felt so smooth, my thighs never so lean. I shiver. His stare flits over my denim cutoffs, partially obscured by my Fender, and rests a moment too long on my exposed stomach. His eyes then take in the loose cropped T-shirt and caress the outline of my breasts. They’re made even more obvious by the guitar strap resting between them, and it takes everything I have not to arch my back.
Zeke’s jaw tightens.
My thighs clench.
Since my shirt hangs haphazardly off one shoulder, his stare zeros in on the dusting of freckles near my collarbone. Goose bumps break out on my skin. Taking his sweet-ass time, Zeke lets his gaze roam my neck, lips, cheeks, hair, and, finally, finally, his eyes meet mine.
Whoa.
Sun-kissed bronze. I’ve never seen anything like it. His eyes are golden caramel mixed with flecks of amber and tawny. Despite the color’s vibrancy, they’re flat, defensive, caged in so much suspicion that I’m desperate to know who or what put it there. Distrusting or not, they’re beautiful.
“See?” Breathless. Crap. “Knew you could do it.”
Then, with more grace than a six-foot-two mountain of a man has a right to, Zeke stands. My head tips back to take him all in. The man is close, so close I inhale his scent—pine needles after heavy rain. I take in a lungful, wanting to secrete away this part of him before he shatters the illusion of perfection by speaking.
Zeke’s eyes drop to my lips.
I swallow.
He swallows.
“Zeke, sugar?”
His head whips to the right. Standing in the doorway is a tall, curvaceous bombshell. From the glistening cobalt hair cascading over tan shoulders to her hourglass figure enhanced by a white wrap dress, she is everything I am not. Her flawless makeup is artfully applied, and, at a guess, she’s either in her late twenties or early thirties, older than me by at least five years. She wears it well. So well, it takes everything I have not to groan out loud. Is she lost? But then I remember the intimate way she greeted Zeke.
My insides constrict.
“Oh.” Red manicured nails clutch a voluptuous chest. “Am I interrupting?” With a smile that is two parts conniving and one part candid, the woman saunters toward me, her bejeweled hand outstretched. “I’m Selena. And you are…?”
Stunned.
Zeke’s voice is hard. “She’s no one.”
Ouch.
I glare at Zeke. Did he eye-fuck me despite having a girlfriend, or even worse, a wife? Asshole.
About the Author:
Lee Piper is a lover of books. She often juggles reading seven novels at a time for the sheer joy of it. When not writing, she is either reading, at the beach, or eating her body weight in chocolate.
Lee Piper's debut novel, Rock My World became a bestseller and was a Raven Award finalist for Favorite Contemporary Romance and Favorite Cover. Her second novel, Rock My Body, was voted Best Book by LASR Readers and was a finalist in the 2017 Readers' Choice Award. Lie to Me, Book #1 in the Rising Star series was reached number seventy-eight in the 2018 Goodreads Readers' Choice Award.
Lee Piper lives in South Australia, with her drummer husband, cheeky daughters, and neurotic dog.
Connect with Lee:
Hosted By:
