Where she’s been for the last two and half years is a
mystery, and so is the reason she left in the first place. Now, though, she’s
back in their hometown of Shelton Bay, South Carolina, at the same time
Conner’s band Dirty B is home on a tour break.
Sofie Callahan has spent the months since her father’s death
avoiding anything to do with her home town. But with her brother in
Afghanistan, she has no choice but to return and sort out her father’s house,
even if it means facing the boy she fell in love with and revealing the reason
she left.
Conner has questions, and when his broken heart and her
guilty one collide, Sofie has to start answering them. Their present is rocky,
their future unknown. Only one thing is certain:
Sofie’s daughter will change everything.
“Any reason you’re
faceplanting the wall?”
“Yup. I’m trying not to talk to you, so you should leave
before I get mad.”
“Mad at me?” Conner responds incredulously.
I stand up straight and face him. “Yes. So go, because I
don’t have the energy to be mad today.”
“What the fuck did I do?”
“Your asshole move at dinner!” The words snap out of me.
“Bringing up the pregnancy rumor. What, you think I don’t beat myself up enough
in private and I need to do it in public, too? That it?”
“You’re mad at me for something you did? Fuck, Sof!”
“No, I’m mad at you for bringing up somethin’ you didn’t
damn well need to!” I yell. “Now I’m not in a position to be talking about
feelings but, damn, Conner! How do you think that made me feel? I’m a bitch, I
know. I’m every-fucking-thing under the sun that’s bad, but at least save it
for private!”
“I was adding to the conversation!”
“In the most asshole way ever!” I push past him.
He grabs my arm and spins me round, his eyes blazing. “I’m
entitled to be an asshole, don’t you think, princess?”
“When we’re alone! You’re not entitled to be an ass when
your family is around!”
“I think I am! Especially when I want to hate you so badly!”
“Then hate me!”
“I can’t! You make it fucking impossible for me to hate
you.”
“I don’t do anything!”
“You’re here! That’s it!” His nostrils flare and he dives
his hand into my hair, cupping the side of my head. “You’re here, and it’s like
nothing fucking changed. You look at me the same, you talk to me the same, and
it pisses me off because I wish you weren’t still the girl I fell in love
with.”
“I’m not her,” I protest. My skin is tingling where he’s
holding me, and there are goosebumps all over, and oh hell, my lungs are
constricting. “I’m older and I’m wiser and I’m more resilient than she was. I’m
ten times the girl you fell in love with.”
“And there’s the biggest problem,” he breathes, his eyes
pained and angry and heated all at the same time. “You’re her but you’re not,
and it’s the same but it’s not, but I still can’t hate you.”
His lips, against mine. They’re hot, soft, smooth. Gliding
over my mouth, probing, pressing, pleading. Desperate, angry, sad, needing.
They’re everything, every sensation, every feeling, just everything.
Shivers cascade down my spine as he pulls me into him. I
slide my fingers up his chest and around into the messy hair at the nape of his
neck, winding its softness through my fingers, kissing him back, because I
can’t not.
I’m powerless in his arms.
It’s slow and it’s easy, but then it’s hard and it’s rough,
but it’s still everything, it’s still everywhere. Until he pulls away, and it’s
nothing but a swollen memory lingering on my lips.
“I do hate you,” he growls, releasing me fully. “I hate you
because you’re still fucking mine, and I don’t want you to be.”
And I’m cold, so cold, now that he’s not there. The warmth
that is his solid body is gone and I shiver, wrapping my arms around my middle,
desperate to alleviate it.
Because running back to him isn’t an option.
“Then don’t let me be,” I say, barely making a sound.
“You’re not mine, Con, not anymore.”
His chest heaves as he takes in an audible deep breath, and
I know I’ve hurt him again. But it’s the truth, he’s not mine because I won’t
let him be. I won’t tie him to me that way. I won’t open myself to the hope of
something only to end up with nothing.
Just when I think he’s going to step back, he grabs me and
tugs me to him. His lips are on me once again, searing into me. His hands are
gripping me tightly, his fingertips burning my skin.
I hold the collar of his shirt, leaning up on tiptoes as he
kisses me roughly and harshly. His hands are under my shirt, tugging up, and
mine are doing the same to him, and we part. We come back together, bare skin
against bare skin, and I wind my fingers into his hair.
He pulls me back toward the door and grabs my thighs, lifting
me up. I wrap my legs around his waist and he carries me upstairs, his lips
travelling down my neck, his fingers digging in harder and harder, no time for
tenderness.
“I know he won’t ever forgive me or trust
me, so he won’t ever love me the way he did before. It’s that simple. Love—true,
pure love that shakes you to your bones and coils in your stomach in fluttery
twists, isn’t based on lack of trust.
It’s based on everything. Just everything.
And everything is something we can’t ever
have again.
So true love, pure love, the kind we had
before, will never be ours.”
Conner Burke is a freaking rockstar, okay? Do I
really need to say more about how hot he is? He’s the lead singer, and he
writes songs. OH, he’s also an a-hole. So more points to him there. Throw in
his alpha-ness (the brand that only a Hart man can have) and he owns you. He’s
so mad at Sofie for leaving and hiding Mia, but it’s totally obvious the whole
time that he still loves Sofie. And it’s not just because his dick says so. And
the way he immediately accepts that fact that Mia is his? Swoon. Yeah, he has
his moments. Like I said earlier, he’s a douche. But, that only makes him all
the more real and all the more human. Plus, he always makes up for it with his
mouth. And his songs.
“I know I should let her go…As it is, it’s
hard because this is what my heart wants. It wants me to keep her here against me
because it’s where she belongs.
Sofie Callahan belongs tucked in my arms,
where I can keep her safe and love her until the laughter of our forever shows
in lines around her eyes.”
Sofie is a really strong and relatable heroine. We
see her flaws from the very beginning. And I liked that a lot, because I
actually didn’t want to strangle her like I do with most heroines these days. I
liked that she was resilient, feisty, and fierce. Everything she did was about
Mia. Okay, well maybe not everything. But Mia is her number one priority. She
definitely has crazy secrets, but I understood each and every one of them.
“They’re all for her. Always. I wonder if
she even knows that every note I’ve written, every song I’ve sung, they’ve
always been hers. Every heartbroken word, every drawl that sets hearts pounding
across the country, every hidden plea, were hers. Are hers. Nothing will change
that.
You can’t write music unless you have
something to sing for.”
Sofie tries so hard to let go of Conner and vice
versa, but theirs is a love that cannot be broken. And I loved it. I loved
watching them fight it, I loved watching them give into it. It was a
rollercoaster of emotions. Every time you think they start figuring their shit
out, they go back to square one. It was a miracle that I didn’t tear my hair
out, but I think it was mostly because they felt like real people to me. They
make mistakes, they take time to fix their problems, and most of all, their
emotions really got to me. I seriously can’t wait for Tate’s book. He’s even
more of an a-hole than Conner. Which will make his fall all the more fun.
“I will never want anyone more than I want
you. No one will ever come close to you. Whatever it was you did that made me
fall in love with you years ago has ruined me. Completely, fucking ruined me.”
By day, New York Times and USA Today bestselling New Adult
author Emma Hart dons a cape and calls herself Super Mum to two beautiful
little monsters. By night, she drops the cape, pours a glass of whatever she
fancies - usually wine - and writes books.
Emma is working on Top Secret projects she will share with
her followers and fans at every available opportunity. Naturally, all Top
Secret projects involve a dashingly hot guy who likes to forget to wear a
shirt, a sprinkling (or several) of hold-onto-your-panties hot scenes, and a
whole lotta love.
She likes to be busy - unless busy involves doing the
dishes, but that seems to be when all the ideas come to life.
Like her on Facebook
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