We're so excited about Sideswiped, the second installment in the Off The Map series by Lia Riley. And to help us celebrate we have a couple of excerpts, Lia's own Top 5 list and of course, a giveaway! Why wouldn't we? Enjoy!
~ Bel
SIDESWIPED by Lia Riley (October 7, 2014; Forever E-Book; $3.99)
Sometimes in order to find yourself, you need to venture off the map.
Talia and Bran broke all the rules and navigated dark and stormy emotional waters to be together and now that they finally seem to have found their way back to each other, the winds of change threaten to blow their love off course yet again…
Talia and Bran broke all the rules and navigated dark and stormy emotional waters to be together and now that they finally seem to have found their way back to each other, the winds of change threaten to blow their love off course yet again…
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About the author
Lia Riley writes offbeat New Adult Romance. After studying
at the University of Montana-Missoula, she scoured the
world armed only with a
backpack, overconfidence and a terrible sense of direction. She counts shooting
vodka with a Ukranian mechanic in Antarctica, sipping yerba mate with gauchos
in Chile and swilling fourex with stationhands in Outback Australia among her
accomplishments. A British literature fanatic at heart, Lia considers Mr. Darcy
and Edward Rochester as her fictional boyfriends. Her very patient husband
doesn't mind. Much. When not torturing heroes (because c'mon, who doesn't love
a good tortured hero?), Lia herds unruly chickens, camps, beach combs,
daydreams about as-of-yet unwritten books, wades through a mile-high TBR pile
and schemes yet another trip. She and her family live mostly in Northern
California.
If your top romance heroes were a dessert, what would they be?
1. Jamie Fraser (Outlander)—Scottish Bread Pudding with Whisky Sauce
2. Mr. Darcy (Pride & Prejudice)—glass of port with cheese and dried fruit
3. Mr. Knightley (Emma)—pot of hot cocoa
4. Mr. Rochester (Jane Eyre)—Amaretto coffee affogato
5. Bran—dark chocolate covered caramels dipped in sea salt
Excerpt
Talia passes out hard from the travel and epic reunion sex. I’m too
amped for sleep, so I lie in the dark and trace her spine. Can you love someone
too much? No point being afraid, might as well jump in it with both feet. I
press my mouth to her neck and she undulates, responsive even from her dreams.
If miracles were real, I’d swear we were designed to fit together.
I loop my arm around her waist and hold fast, until our breathing syncs.
I’m drifting off when she jerks—hard—once, twice. Her body recoils as she
unleashes a lung-tearing scream.
“Talia, wake up. Come on, sweetheart, talk to me.” I clamber over
her, hunching protectively. “Open your eyes. It’s Bran. I’ve got you. I’m not
letting go.” I keep talking while she flays my chest like she’s drowning under
ice, desperate to find a break in the surface.
“Can’t breathe. I can’t breathe. I…where am…oh God. Bran.”
“I’m right here.” I cradle her while she draws another unsteady
gasp. Her hair plasters her forehead in sweaty wisps.
“Give me a minute. I’ll be fine.” She pushes herself to a half-sit
and sways with disorientation. “This…this happens sometimes…panic attacks or
night terrors…whatever. They seem to come when I drop my guard. Or, I don’t
know, maybe it’s the meds. Those pills make me feel like a toxic waste dump.”
“Have you been bad this summer?” The muscles in my neck cord. It
shreds my guts to see her hurting. I’d do anything, any fucking thing, to carry
her pain. I don’t fully understand the inner workings of OCD but she’s
explained that for her, the condition comes in waves. Everything will be
rolling along fine, more or less, and then bang—a giant squid grips her brain.
She fights hard for recovery, a warrior even when she believes she’s nothing
but a coward.
“No, not really.” She grinds her eyes with the backs of her hands.
“I kinda danced around the edge of the rabbit hole a few times but never fell
inside.”
My muscles release some tension. “Try to go back to sleep. You need
the rest. Don’t worry, I’ll keep watch, okay?”
“I’m sorry to be such a psych job. It’s totally shaming.”
“Shhhhhh.”
Her chin tips down. “Can you talk to me for a little while? Get me
out of my fuckball head?”
“Hey now, I got mad love for that head, Captain.” I kiss her brow,
acting chill even though I’m scared. How can I get her to settle? Then it hits
me. “I want to take you surfing again.”
“Mmmm, that’d be nice.”
“Picture yourself out there, in the water, on a board, under the
shooting stars.”
“With sharks eyeballing me from the depths?”
“Nah, they’re all busy hunting sea lions or some bloody mischief.
This is you, the sea, and the sky. A set rolls in. You can’t make out the wave.
The board lifts and you feel the momentum building. There’s fear deep in your
belly, sensible, because you can’t see what’s coming or where you’re going. You
fight the self-protective instincts, give yourself over, and the next thing you
know—you’re having the ride of your life.”
“Thank you.” She flips in my arms so we’re belly to belly. “I mean
it. That was beautiful, really, really beautiful. I’m so excited to be
here, for right now—to live in the moment. But it’s like I have this…this weird
mental stutter. My thoughts keep skipping over the same annoying question like
a scratch on vinyl: What will we do?” Tears spill from the corners of her eyes,
course silently toward her chin. “My visa.”
Talia’s been granted a three-month student visa to complete her
senior thesis in history. In all its benevolent generosity, the Australian
government expanded her time in the country by an extra month.
Four months—the sum of our allotted time.
“They’ll make me leave.”
“Don’t believe everything you think.” I wipe her damp cheeks.
“Can you tattoo that on my forehead?”
Maybe it’s my imagination, but the brass alarm clock on the dresser
clicks louder.
Another second gone.
Another second gone.
“I’m not losing you to some shithouse immigration policy, Captain.
We will be all right in the end.” I’ve no idea how the hell I’m going to solve
this drama but I will figure it out. “We have to hope, otherwise we’re sunk.”
She jerks with surprised laughter.
“What?”
She hiccups and covers her mouth with her hand, shoulders shaking.
It takes me a second to realize she’s giggling.
“I’m funny to you right now?” This girl drives me every sort of
crazy.
“I’m not laughing at you.” She works her lips together
and unsuccessfully smothers the smile. “It’s—”
“Forget it.” I instinctively stiffen.
“Bran the Optimist.” She grabs my wrists, lifts my palms to her
face, and plants a kiss in the center of each one. “I like this side of you.”
“Never mind. I was being dumb.”
“You were awesome.” She pecks the tip of my nose. “And for the
record, I love your stupid face.”
I give her a begrudging kiss back. “I love yours too.”
Love isn’t enough of a word.
I wasted almost an entire year of my life implementing a scorched
earth policy, not caring who I left burned and broken in my path.
Talia was my oasis. My salvation.
“Don’t give the visa a second thought.” I nestle her against me, rubbing
her lower back in easy circles. “I’ll sort this out, I swear to you.”
Even if I don’t have the first fucking clue.
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