High Risk by Siena Noble
Release Date: June 7th 2019
Series: Risky Business Duet #1
Genres: Romance, Contemporary
Caleb Martin. Lost prince of business royalty. The young airline mogul with a reputation for dominance in both the boardroom and the bedroom. But before he was worth billions, he was my first love, and my brother's best friend. We were supposed to grow old together... until a tragedy ripped us apart.
After six years I thought I'd finally moved on, but fate throws us together again. I try to tell myself he's just another client, futilely resisting the temptation to mix business with pleasure. But there's more than just our shared pain keeping us apart--lies and dark secrets that could destroy everything we've both build in the last six years. Giving in to temptation could ruin us... but is Caleb worth the risk?
After six years I thought I'd finally moved on, but fate throws us together again. I try to tell myself he's just another client, futilely resisting the temptation to mix business with pleasure. But there's more than just our shared pain keeping us apart--lies and dark secrets that could destroy everything we've both build in the last six years. Giving in to temptation could ruin us... but is Caleb worth the risk?
{EXCERPT}
“Promise me you’ll stay away from Kellan Wakeham,” he said bluntly, his voice low and surprisingly gruff.
A disbelieving laugh burst out of me. Was that all he had to say? “Well, it’s great to see you, too, Caleb. And thanks for the advice. Now if you’ll excuse me, I should—”
“Dammit, Kiera, I mean it.” Caleb’s coarse interruption startled me into silence. “Steer clear of him. He’s dangerous.”
I stared at him, gauging his seriousness, before chuckling humorlessly again. “Oh, is he? Let me guess, just like you are, right? Just another bad boy who’s bad news? Guess it’s nice to know that you do care after all, Mr. Martin.” I knew I was spoiling for a fight, even though I was already emotionally tapped out for the evening. But at that point, I would’ve done just about anything to provoke some kind of reaction out of him.
“Baffled” wasn’t exactly the reaction I was expecting. “Kiera, how could you think…?” He looked at the floor with a sigh, shoving one hand into his pants pocket and scratching the back of his neck with the other. There was a glimpse of the Caleb I knew, the tender and vulnerable side behind the mask of the cold businessman. I watched his throat work as he swallowed, feeling a lump forming in my own.
When he looked at me again his expression was wounded, and I felt it in my soul. “Jesus, Kiera, seeing you again after all this time, and seeing the way you just seemed so… unaffected…” He paused, then asked in a raw whisper, “Do you hate, me, Kiera?”
He thought I’d seemed unaffected by our meeting? He thought I hated him? Words failed me. A small, petty part of me was relieved to know I wasn’t the only one reeling from our unconventional reunion. But that small part was quickly drowned out by guilt. Maybe I really was turning into the ice queen that half my coworkers thought of me as. The idea that Caleb thought I might hate him made me sick. I’d been angry with him, yes, and hurt beyond belief that he’d pushed me away with both hands when we’d needed each other the most. I’d had over six years for that bitterness inside me to fester. But I’d also grown up enough in that time that I could admit to myself that when he’d lashed out in his grief, I’d lashed right back. It wasn’t all on him.
“I could never hate you, Caleb,” I said softly. “And I never meant for you to think that I did. I’m so sorry. But when I saw you on Tuesday… to me, you were the one acting cold. And I know it was a business meeting, and maybe neither one of us knew how to react…” I trailed off. My hostility was fading rapidly, but there was still so much I wanted to say to him that I couldn’t put into words, things I still felt he needed to answer for. What kind of bad blood did he have with his cousin? How did he just so happen to end up in the lounge while I was there? Why was he even here tonight?
But above all else, what did he expect from me, and where the hell did we go from here?
About Siena Noble:
When she’s not busy reading, writing, binge-watching Game of Thrones, or doing a million other important things, Siena enjoys traveling, archery, and getting lost in the woods (also known as “hiking”). She and her better half/writing buddy/sometimes Sir/sex muse live together in Pittsburgh. Their dream is to relocate to the middle of nowhere and build a castle capable of withstanding the impending zombie apocalypse.
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