Title: TOO HOT TO HANDLE
Author: Tessa Bailey
Series: Romancing The Clarksons, #1
On Sale: November 29, 2016
Publisher: Forever
Mass Market: $5.99 USD
eBook: $2.99 USD
Previously released as an eBook in May 2016, the first book in Tessa Bailey’s Romancing the Clarksons series is now available in print for the first time!
When rescue looks like a whole lot of trouble . . .
The road trip was definitely a bad idea. Having already flambéed her culinary career beyond recognition, Rita Clarkson is now stranded in God-Knows-Where, New Mexico, with a busted-ass car and her three temperamental siblings, who she hasn't seen in years. When rescue shows up—six-feet-plus of hot, charming sex on a motorcycle—Rita's pretty certain she's gone from the frying pan right into the fire . . .
Jasper Ellis has a bad boy reputation in this town, and he loathes it. The moment he sees Rita, though, Jasper knows he's about to be sorely tempted. There's something real between them. Something raw. And Jasper has only a few days to show Rita that he isn't just for tonight—he's forever.
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THE ROMANCING THE CLARKSONS SERIES
Too Hot To Handle, #1
Too Wild To Tame, #2
Too Hard To Forget, #3
EXCERPT
“So.”
He plunked his beer down on the bar. “Where were you four headed in that big,
rusty Suburban before Hurley reeled you in?”
She
looked pensive as her shit-stomping boots started to sway back and forth,
bumping the wooden rungs of the stool. “We need to be in Coney Island by New
Year’s Day. So we can jump into the Atlantic Ocean.”
“Why—what?”
He dropped onto the stool beside her, his drink forgotten on the bar. “That’s
pretty high on the list of things I didn’t expect.”
“Oh,
I know the feeling.” A beat passed. “It was our mother’s last wish.”
“I’m
sorry.”
She
nodded, brushing her hair back in a jerky motion, as if she were uncomfortable
having someone’s undivided attention. He’d never had cause to use the word preposterous
before, but that was the only way he could describe her lack of confidence.
Despite the inappropriate name, the Liquor Hole was his life’s work, and, at
the moment, it was nothing more than an unworthy backdrop for Rita. And, God,
he was staring at her hands like an aggressive palm reader. “Most mothers want
to avoid having their children turn into floating ice sculptures. What was her
reason?”
“Good
question.” A hint of sadness winked in her eyes, and Jasper wished he’d let the
subject drop. This was what happened when he avoided talking about sex. He
stumbled right into deceased parents. And yet he wasn’t sorry. Not even a
little bit. He wanted to know everything. “I think…she meant it as some sort of
symbolic bonding experiment. But I don’t know. We’re kind of unbondable.”
“Got
the feeling I interrupted a near-melee this afternoon.”
“Aaron
called my soufflé decent.” A strand of dark hair caught on her lips when she
shook her head. It took one hundred percent of his impulse control not to tug
it away, but she beat him to it, anyhow. “It sounds silly now.”
“Nah.”
Jasper couldn’t help leaning in to get a whiff of cooking spices. “He would
have had it coming just for dressing like a preacher on a weekday.”
Another
one of those quiet, smoky laughs. “I guess there’s a fine line between
politician and preacher.”
“Politician?”
Jasper shivered, then recalled the threat Rita’s brother had leveled at his
head back on the highway. “Still, I can’t help but like him for wanting you
safe from a stranger. He can’t be all that bad if he worries about you.”
“Worried
might be an exaggeration,” Rita said.
When
her golden-brown gaze lit on his mouth, Jasper realized he’d moved into her
personal space without any conscious thought. One of her knees brushed the
denim covering his hip and, God help him, if the bar were empty he would’ve
been between her split thighs before she could call for Jesus. For someone who
hadn’t felt more than a passing appreciation for the opposite sex in years, his
libido was sure trying to play catch-up tonight.
“What
are you thinking about?”
Lie. He had to lie. I want to strip
you down and fuck you on this seat, but I’m trying my hand at being a
gentleman, was not an acceptable line. It was too aggressive when she
seemed spooked merely from his close proximity. But she was leaving, leaving
his town tomorrow, and the slow-game option had been ambitious for Jasper when
he knew nothing about it. So he’d tell the truth while leaving out the
oh-so-dirty reality in his pants. “I was thinking it would have been a goddamn
shame if you’d broken down one town over.” His voice was gravel, so he cleared
it. “More than a shame. I’m kind of finding it hard to think about, if you want
to know the truth.”
For
long moments, he couldn’t hear a single sound in the loud bar. No music, no
crunching ice or raucous laughter. And, somehow, he knew she couldn’t hear the
noise, either. It was there in the perplexity of her expression. He expected
her to call bullshit or make a joke, but she didn’t. She shocked him instead.
“I’ll
think I’ll take that kiss now.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tessa Bailey is originally from Carlsbad, California. The day after high school graduation, she packed her yearbook, ripped jeans, and laptop, and drove cross-country to New York City in under four days. Her most valuable life experiences were learned thereafter while waitressing at K-Dees, a Manhattan pub owned by her uncle. Inside those four walls, she met her husband, best friend, and discovered the magic of classic rock, managing to put herself through Kingsborough Community College and the English program at Pace University at the same time. Several stunted attempts to enter the work force as a journalist followed, but romance writing continued to demand her attention.
She now lives in Long Island, New York with her husband and daughter. Although she is severely sleep-deprived, she is incredibly happy to be living her dream of writing about people falling in love.
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