Title: Falling Away (Fall Away, #3)
Author: Penelope
Douglas
Genre: NA |
Contemporary Romance
Release Date: January 6,
2015
Synopsis
Jaxon is the guy she’s supposed to
avoid. K.C. is the girl he won’t let get away....
K. C. Carter has always followed the
rules—until this year, when a mistake leaves her the talk of her college campus and her carefully arranged life comes crashing to a halt. Now she’s stuck in her small hometown for the summer to
complete her court-ordered community service, and to make matters worse, trouble is living right
next door.
Jaxon Trent is the worst kind of
temptation and exactly what K.C. was supposed to stay away from in high school. But he never
forgot her. She was the one girl who wouldn’t give him the time of day and the only one to ever say
no. Fate has brought K.C. back into his life—except what he thought was a great twist of luck turns
out to be too close for comfort. As the bond between them grows, he discovers that convincing K.C.
to get out from her mother’s shadow is hard, but revealing the darkest parts of his soul is nearly
impossible.…
“You’ve got some ego,” I bit out. “I mean,
yeah, all of a sudden you have money. Where you get it from is too scary to even think about,” I
spouted off when I really should just shut up. “And you seem to have the town’s police in the palm of your hand. You’re clearly running the Loop now. Congratulations, Jax.” I smiled a big-ass, fake
grin. “You’re the most powerful man in Shelburne Falls, Illinois!”
I planted my hands on my hips, pretty
damn pleased at how good I’d gotten at putting men in their place.
But then my smile dropped and my eyes
rounded. Jax’s eyes—full of challenge and amusement—narrowed on me, and he tossed his towel
down, heading right for me.
Shit. I knew I should’ve listened to my
mother. I talked too much.
He nodded, a grin playing at the corner of
his mouth. “There she is.”
I inched back to the wall as he advanced
into my space. “What are you talking about?”
“The snarky girl I met at Madoc’s house
years ago.”
Yeah, the one that was slightly drunk and
hella confident? My head bobbed off the wall, signaling I was at a damn dead end, and a trickle of
sweat skidded down my neck. I saw Jax’s eyes flash to it, and all of a sudden I was too dumb to even
remember my own name.
God, he was big. My chest vibrated with the
heat of him only an inch away. He hovered over me, engulfing and consuming the space around me,
making me feel as if I stood in the shadow of a tree.
Staring straight ahead, I made a conscious
effort to keep my face straight. But it was almost impossible, and it was pointless. Out of all the
reasons I could come up with for hating Jax—he always challenged and pushed me, and he always
did whatever the hell he wanted—I could never claim that he wasn’t smart. He knew I was affected.
He knew my body liked him close.
“I love it when you get mouthy,” he
whispered down on me. “It makes me want to shut you up.”
Son of a bitch. I clenched my thighs
together, feeling the moisture there.
I needed to get out of here. “I have to go.” I
pushed off the wall but hit his chest, closing me in again.
“How do you like your community service?”
he said low, trapping me by planting his hands on the wall on each side of my
head.
Huh?
His smell was raw heat. Summer. Sticky
cotton candy on a Ferris wheel and cool water on hot skin.
“What?” He’d asked me a question. What
the fuck did he just ask?
He leaned on his hands, dipping his head
close to mine. “Community service, K.C. How do you like it?”
I could hear the laughter in his
voice.
“I don’t,” I mumbled. “Teaching a bunch of
kids who slacked off during the school year, because they didn’t get the attitude adjustment they
needed, isn’t my idea of a good time.”
His arms lowered a bit, and I could hear
him inhaling through his nose, as if he was smelling me.
“Your idea of a good time got you here in
the first place.” His voice was calm but firm. “And those kids don’t need an attitude adjustment. You
do.”
I smirked. “Well, I’m getting one. Thanks to
the great state of Arizona.” Then I pinned him with hard eyes. “You don’t know me, Jax.” And I
pushed him away and turned for the door.
But he hooked my arm, pulling me
back.
“You’re right,” he said quickly. “I don’t
know you. So why don’t you enlighten me? What does
K.C. stand for? What did you do at college
that got you arrested?”
When I just stood there, not answering his
stupid questions, he backed me into the wall again. “Let’s try something easier, shall we? Your
favorite color. What is it?”
“Are you serious?”
“Are you stalling?”
I scowled. “Pink. It’s pink.”
“Is it?” he pressed. “How about music?
Who’s your favorite band? What about books? Your favorite genre? When was the last time you ate
chocolate or stayed in your pajamas past eleven in the morning?”
I didn’t know if the walls were closing in or
if it was just Jax crowding me. “What are you getting at, you little shit?” I
accused.
And he got in my face, smiling at the
challenge of my condescending name-calling. “How about a shower, K.C.?” The sound of his deep,
husky voice swirled in my stomach and shot downward.
I gulped, licking my sandpaper lips.
“Huh?”
He stared at my mouth, looking hungry.
“The little shit—who’s not so little anymore—needs a shower,” he whispered, still staring at my
mouth. “Take a shower with me. Right now.”
Penelope
Douglas is a writer in Las Vegas. Born in Dubuque, Iowa, she is the oldest of five
children. Penelope attended the University of Northern Iowa, earning a Bachelor's degree in Public
Administration, because her father told her to "just get the degree!" She then earned a Masters of
Science in Education at Loyola University in New Orleans, because she hated Public Administration.
One night, she got tipsy and told the bouncer at the bar where she worked that his son was hot, and
three years later they were married. To the son, not the bouncer. They have spawn, but just one. A
daughter named Aydan. Penelope loves sweets, The Originals, and she shops at Target almost
daily.
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