With: Rebecca Yarros
Congratulations to "Rachel B.", the winner in Rebecca's giveaway. Please contact JUST CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE to claim your prize!

Beckett,
If you’re reading this, well, you know the last-letter drill. You made it. I didn’t. Get off the guilt train, because I know if there was any chance you could have saved me, you would have.
I need one thing from you: get out of the army and get to Telluride.
My little sister Ella’s raising the twins alone. She’s too independent and won’t accept help easily, but she has lost our grandmother, our parents, and now me. It’s too much for anyone to endure. It’s not fair.
And here’s the kicker: there’s something else you don’t know that’s tearing her family apart. She’s going to need help.
So if I’m gone, that means I can’t be there for Ella. I can’t help them through this. But you can. So I’m begging you, as my best friend, go take care of my sister, my family.
Please don’t make her go through it alone.
Ryan
Excerpt:
“Ella.”
It was a plea to speak, to not speak. Hell, I didn’t know anymore.
“You
don’t see me like that. I totally get it.” She reached for the TV remote.
“How
exactly do I see you? Please, enlighten me.” I leaned forward, stealing the
remote. She’d opened this box and had better well dish it.
She huffed in annoyance. “You see me as a mom. As Colt and
Maisie’s mom. And of course you do, because that’s what I am. A mom with two
kids.”
“Well,
yeah,” I said. Her motherhood—that selfless devotion she had to her kids—was
one of her most attractive attributes.
She rolled her eyes with a little sigh, and the metaphorical light
bulb went off in my head.
“You
don’t think I want you.”
She shot me a look that confirmed my guess and blushed the same
crimson of her couch. “You know, you’re right. It’s late.” She faked a yawn.
“Suuuuuuper late.”
“I
want you.” Damn, it felt so good to say the words.
“Yeah,
okay.” She gave me a goofy look and a thumbs-up. “Please don’t make me feel any
more idiotic than I do right now.”
Yeah, enough of this
bullshit.
I pounced in one smooth motion, taking her back to the couch,
sliding over her as I gathered her wrists in one hand above her head and
settled between her open thighs.
Home.
“Holy
shit, you move fast.” There was no fear or rejection in her eyes, just
surprise.
“Not
in every arena,” I promised.
Her lips parted.
“Ella.
I want you.”
“Beckett…you
don’t have to.”
Yeah, that soft little sigh she did was going to be my undoing.
I let go of her wrists, letting my fingers trail down her arm
until I had one hand weaving my fingers into the hair at the base of her scalp
and the other at the curve in her waist.
“Feel
this?” Then I slid forward, letting my dick stroke along the seam in her pajama
pants hard enough for her to gasp at the contact. I couldn’t remember ever
wanting to shred a piece of fabric so much in my life. “I’ve never wanted a
woman as much as I want you.”
I moved again, and her eyes slid shut as she let loose the
sweetest moan.
My dick throbbed, knowing everything I’d fantasized about for the
better part of the last eight months was one decision away.
“Beckett.”
Her hands found my biceps, her nails digging in.
“Don’t
ever think that I don’t want you, because if things were different, I would
have already been inside you. I would know exactly how you feel, and what you
sound like, look like, when you come. I’ve thought about it at least a hundred
different ways, and believe me, I’ve got a great imagination.”
She rocked her hips against me, and I locked my jaw to keep from
giving her exactly what her body was asking for. “Ella, you have to stop.”
“Why?”
she asked, her lips dangerously close to mine. “What do you mean if things were
different?” Her eyes flew wide. “Is this because I have kids?”
“What?
No. Of course not. It’s because you’re Ryan’s little sister.” Before I could do
any more damage, I got the hell off her and sat back on my side of the couch.
“Because…I’m
Ryan’s little sister,” she repeated, scooting so she sat upright, facing me.
“And you think he’d, what? Haunt you?”
Three things: The letter.
The cancer. The lie.
I repeated those in my head until I was certain I could look at
her and not drag her back under me.
“Beckett?”
“When
I was growing up, if I wanted something, I took it. Immediately. I had sex at
fourteen with a girl in my foster home of the moment. I opened Christmas
presents early if I was lucky enough to get one, and it was usually from my
social worker or some charity.”
“I
don’t understand.” She wrapped her arms around her knees again.
“I
took it immediately because I knew if I didn’t, chances were I wouldn’t get it.
It was a now-or-never kind of thing—there weren’t second chances.”
“Okay.”
“I
can’t touch you, can’t talk about it, because I’m afraid I’ll act on it.”
“And
why does that matter if I want you to?”

That O popped right back onto her face, and I closed
my eyes to keep from lunging across the distance and kissing her. Knowing she’d
let me—that she wanted it—sent my need from a bullet to a nuclear missile.
“And
when I’d screw it up, because it would happen, trust me, it would hurt Colt and
Maisie, too. You’d be on your own again, because there’s no chance you’d let me
hang around and help you out like Ryan asked.”
“And
there it is.”
“There
it is. You’re Ryan’s little sister.”
“There
were only five years between us. Not so little, you know.” She reached for the
remote.
“I’m
well aware.”
“So
if Ryan were still alive…” She shot one last look at me.
I let everything slip for a millisecond, letting her see it all in
my eyes, how badly I wanted her, and not just for her body. “Everything would
be different.”
“Everything?”
“Everything
but the way I feel about you, which he probably would have killed me for. Where
does that leave us?”
“You
mean besides me being a dried-up spinster and you being honor-bound to a
ghost?”
“Something
like that.”
She rolled her head along the back of the couch, muttering
something that sounded like a curse word under her breath. Then she sat up
straight and powered on the TV with a click of her thumb. “That leaves us
choosing a movie on demand. Because I’m not letting you walk out that door
right now.”
“You’re
not?”
“Nope.
You walk out now, you might get all weird about this and not come back. Honor
is a fabulous thing, but sometimes pride can be a lot stronger, especially when
you convince yourself it’s for the good of the other person.”
Damn, the woman knew me.
“So
movie it is,” I agreed. “Just…stay on your side of the couch.”
“I
wasn’t the one who crossed the center line,” she teased with a smile that got
me hard all over again.
Movie chosen, we sat and watched, both of us stealing sideways
glances. There was that saying…the horse out of the barn. Yeah, the horse was
out of the barn, and it wasn’t going back in. Not no way. Not no how.
That horse was running amok and screwing with my carefully
constructed control.
But I didn’t complain when she moved over. Or when she pressed
against my side. Nope. I lifted my arm and savored the feel of her curves, her
trust. Still didn’t complain when she lay down in my arms. Hell no, I held on
and memorized every second.
Giveaway:
Rebecca is giving away a $10 Amazon gift card to one lucky person leaving a comment or email.
Giveaway ends 11:59pm EST March 3rd. Due to GDPR regulations you no longer need to submit your email address in the comments. If you have been selected as a winner your name will be posted at the top of the post. You may then contact maureen@JustContemporaryRomance.com to claim your prize. Your email address will be shared with the author/publicist providing the giveaway.
Love the cover. Very clean yet memorable.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing excerpt from the book! This sounds like a profound and emotional story.
ReplyDelete"Honor-bound to a ghost...."
ReplyDeleteI find that younger people would do this; however, older people realize that we are all on this planet once, that that person is no longer with us (in this form/body), and our lives must go on without them.
We had a neighbour married for 49 years. Her husband died from diabetes complications. She had been talking with a school crossing guard (with her husband) for years (as she babysat young children in her home), so afterwards they went out for coffee. Next thing we knew, they married less than a year after her first husband's passing. Now THAT is wonderful to me. It means that they both felt enough love for their first spouses that they wanted to be married again, this time to each other. They just celebrated their 11th wedding anniversary. Wonderful....
This sounds amazing and heartbreaking all at the same time.
ReplyDeleteThe Last Letter is on my TBR list. Thanks for sharing an excerpt. You are a new author to me, and I look forward to reading your books.
ReplyDeleteMy heart actually hurts after reading that letter. I want to read that book even though I'm sure it's a tear-jerker.
ReplyDeleteinteresting excerpt
ReplyDeleteIm so excited for this one!
ReplyDeleteOn my TBR list.
ReplyDelete