I've got the lovely Jewel Quinlan here today, with her fantastic book, Extreme Heat
New Release:
Extreme Heat by @JewelQuinlan from @EvernightPub
Part of
Evernight Publishing’s Romance on the Go line
Blurb: When
photographer Chloe Gaige gets assigned to cover the Pro Kiteboarding finals in
Morocco she never expects to run into her childhood crush. Back then, their age
difference is what caused her to pull away. Would he resent her for how she
treated him back then?
Fully grown, pro kiteboarder Kai
Shephard is a tough competitor used to going after what he wants…and getting
it. When he catches sight of Chloe in the crowd with her camera, nothing can
stop him from trying to be with her again. Except Chloe, that is. Would she see
him for the man he is now?
Where you
can buy Extreme Heat:
Evernight Publishing | Amazon | All Romance e-Books | Barnes
and Noble | BookStrand | Apple iBooks | Sony or add it to your shelf on
Goodreads
Excerpt:
“I’m glad you’re here, Chloe.”
“You are?”
He turned his head toward her and
looked into her eyes, his hands pressed into her back, drawing her closer. “Because
I’ve thought of that night hundreds of times.” His words were loaded with
meaning.
Chloe skimmed her eyes over his
handsome face. He was positively smoldering with emotion. She swallowed hard.
This was the moment, the one she would never forget. Her eyes locked on his and
her mind churned over the different signals and sensations her body was picking
up.
“Have you?” he whispered.
They were so close. His lips were right
there, and he could kiss her any second. His deep, dark eyes were drawing her
in.
She nodded.
He lay still, waiting, but she said
nothing more. “You have to give me more than that,” he said. “I still don’t
know what happened. I thought you liked it when I kissed you.”
Anxiety filled her. It was time to come
clean. What would he think of her reasons? How would he see her after she
admitted what a weak person she was? “I did,” she said blurted. “It was just….”
His clasp on her back remained firm and
he turned his body to face hers so their fronts were pressed together. “Just
what?”
Chloe could feel her face filling with
the heat of embarrassment. Did he really want to talk about it? “It was
just…school and my friends and….” She stopped and buried her face in his chest,
not wanting to say anything more. He smelled so good. The warm scent of athletic
male and ocean breeze.
He grasped her chin with his hand and
lifted her face. “What else?”
Looked like she wasn’t going to be able
to get out of explaining. He had that earnest look in his eyes again, the one
she remembered from long ago.
“I need to know,” he said.
She couldn’t deny him. “Our age
difference,” she said with a wince.
“Seriously?” His breath whooshed out
with his surprise. “I mean, I know you’ve made comments about it before, but that was the reason you wouldn’t talk to
me anymore?”
“Yes. No. Sort of,” she said in a rush.
“Couldn’t you see how strange it would have been?”
“No.”
She sighed. “Of course not. You are
such a male. If you were a teenage girl you would understand.”
“What is there to understand?”
She pulled away from him and lay on her
back once again. “All the pressure,” she said. “To fit in, to be cool, to be
part of the group.”
“And you and me would have been a
problem?” he asked, sounding hurt.
The tone in his voice caused her
long-held guilt to well up. “Not a problem, exactly. Just…not usual. I don’t
think the guys in the senior class we always hung out with would have accepted
you even if some of my friends had,” she explained. “Come on, Kai. I’m sure you
remember what it was like being a teenager.”
He ran a hand through his hair and
stared up at the stars. “I do but what I don’t remember is ever having problems
fitting in.” After a moment he gave a great exhale. “Okay, sure. I guess I can
understand. Not that I’ve ever lived my life caring about that stuff, but…I get
it. I don’t like it, but I get it.” Using the arm still cushioning her head and
shoulders, he turned her to face him again. “But you did like me then?” he
asked.
She nodded.
He smiled. “And what about now?”
She felt shy and squirmy under his gaze
but admitted with hesitation, “Yes.”
He beamed at her response. “And does
our age difference still bother you? I’m twenty-one and you’re twenty-three.
We’re always going to be a couple of years apart.”
She looked away from him feeling very
shy and hating it. He still liked her? Was it possible after she’d rejected
him? A small thrill shot through her stomach. “No. Why should it bother me?”
she said, with a small shrug. Chloe was sure she looked braver than she felt.
“Because I want to be with you, Chloe.
I want what was lost to us before.” He searched her face with his eyes and then
added in a low voice, “And because I’m going to kiss you.”
About
the Author:
From a young age, Jewel Quinlan had an
abundant imagination and strong desire to write novels. She particularly enjoys writing paranormal
and fantasy romance. An avid traveler, she has visited fifteen countries so far
(which she enjoys using as settings in her novels) and has plans to see more of
the world. She has a particular fondness for Bavaria and studies the German
language as one of her hobbies. During the day, she works as a pharmaceutical
sales representative and, at night, she writes romance. She currently lives in
Orange County, California with her two dogs; Shimmer and Penny.
For more information about books by
Jewel Quinlan visit her website
and blog
or you can follow her on Facebook
and Twitter
