Promo Tour
Title: Into the Heat
Author: Tamara Lush
Release Date: January
20 2016
http://www.amazon.com/Into-Heat-Tamara-Lush-ebook/dp/B01ATP9B0A
Tatted, war-weary veteran Leo Villeneuve found and lost love
at eighteen, so his return to Palmira Island, Florida, is not only a quest to
make right his wrongs, but a chance to recover the one thing he's always truly
wanted: Jessica Clarke.
INTO THE HEAT...
After he was forced to leave Jessica behind, Leo's next
years became a hell of his own making, with a tour in Afghanistan with the
Marines and an ocean of regret. Things have only gotten worse. Scarred and on
the run, but trying desperately to make things right, there is only one place
he can go.
Palmira Island is Jessica's home. The beauty of Florida's
sand and surf are a perfect backdrop for her family-run bed-and-breakfast, a
business she's sworn to keep up after the death of her mother. And perhaps the
sun is rising after the dark night of the past year. Certainly it's getting
hotter. She spots a man on the beach and he's tatted, muscular...and the boy
who took her virginity so many years before. Why has he returned, and are his
scars anything like her own? Secrets abound, but in weather like this
everything must be revealed.
Together, bared and vulnerable, Leo and Jess might just get
to that hot, sweet place that reconciles the past with a fire that will burn
forever.
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Jessica moved lightly, never taking her eyes off the guy.
His skin was a warm bronze hue and his muscular thighs had sunk into the sand.
He wore only blue surf shorts, and while she had grown up on the beach, it was
rare that such a stunning specimen of manhood graced the sleepy Palmira shores.
If only she could remain invisible while sculpting her sand creation, free to
admire this guy’s beauty without having to make small talk, then life would be
perfect.
She stopped swinging her bucket, so the tools wouldn’t make
a sound.
A sketchbook sat in front of the guy on the sand, and he
held a pencil in one large, masculine hand, drawing with broad strokes. Jessica
took a few more steps toward her sand pile, which also conveniently allowed her
to get a better look at the guy’s profile. What she saw turned her grin into an
open-mouthed gape.
No. It can’t be.
Leo Villeneuve? Inhaling a long, thin breath, she narrowed
her eyes. Was it possible? Her first kiss.
Her first love.
Her first
heartbreak.
She took off her sunglasses. Was it really him? Yep, it was.
She could tell by the shape of his long, straight nose. And by the way his full
lips pushed out slightly as he concentrated on the sketchbook. Those lips had
kissed her, and the memory of all the places they’d touched— her neck, her
nipples, in between her legs—made her shiver in the hot sun as if a single ice
cube had been dropped down the back of her shirt.
“Jess, you’re my first. And I’m your first and I don’t want
there ever to be anyone else.”
It made her unsteady to recall his lazy New Orleans accent
and how he’d whispered honey- sweet promises and dirty declarations in her ear
all while he did wicked things to her body. Things that she’d allowed no one to
do in the five years since.
Leo and his father had vacationed on Palmira and stayed at
the hotel for two weeks. Her mom and his dad were old friends. Old good
friends, apparently, because the minute they arrived Jess’s mom had become less
strict. Jess and Leo had taken to each other quickly, talking about music and
video games and movies. He’d been surprised that she liked the Iron Man
franchise as much as he did.
They’d kissed on Christmas Eve, the second night they knew
each other, and spent the next several days doing everything but sex. She’d
been wary but so excited. Leo never once tried to push her to do more than she
wanted, and soon she was ready to try it all with him.
A week later, it happened. Leo slipped into her room after
the adults were asleep. They’d lost their virginity to each other—awkwardly.
She remembered how she hadn’t had an orgasm from sex like she had with his
hands and tongue, but it was pretty wonderful nonetheless.
They’d kept having sex over the rest of the vacation,
seemingly every moment they could steal away. Things had quickly stopped being
awkward. More like explosive.
“All of you, from your head to your toes and everything in
between, is mine. You’re mine, Jess. And I’m yours. Always will be, babe.
Forever. I love you.”
Jessica straightened. It had been five years, and she’d
heard nary a word. So, why the hell was her heart pounding like this? It was as
if she had sprinted from her car to the beach. This was not what she wanted.
How unfair. She hadn’t felt this kind of adrenaline rush
around any guy in years. Not with the couple of dudes she’d gone out with in
college, and not with Jacob, her douche bag of an ex-boyfriend. No, there was
only one man who’d ever made her feel this crazy, and he was the one who’d
disappeared after what felt like a soul mate connection. And now he was
kneeling on the beach in front of her, looking hotter than any man had a right
to.
Oh. My. God. Turn around and run. Fast.
She couldn’t move. The sight of him riveted her in place.
Instead of the cute, sinewy boy who’d stolen her teenage heart that winter five
years ago, this was a man kneeling before her. He looked like he’d been
sculpted from fire—and sin. What the heck was he doing here?
Her eyes scanned the beach. There was no one around except
for her and this newer, hotter version of her first love. He definitely hadn’t
had biceps like that five years ago. Or all those tattoos. His dark hair was short
and severe now, no longer curly. His skin looked lickable and smooth, with only
a slight sheen of sweat that made her want to glide her hands over his body and
linger on every ridge and valley. Like she used to. When she knew him before,
he had looked like a sweet lead singer in a boy band. Now those high cheekbones
made him look a little feline and a lot arrogant. Hard and sexy, like he was
used to taking what he wanted and to hell with everything else.
Or was she imagining all that?
She stepped back, poised to turn, but a curious voice inside
of her commanded her to stay. She hadn’t thought of Leo in a long while, mostly
because other, bigger tragedies had taken his place. And because what had been
the point?
Slipping her sunglasses over her eyes again, she felt an
uncomfortable awkwardness wash over her. What could she even say to this near
stranger? She suspected that after all these years they would have nothing in
common—if they ever had. They’d just been a couple of foolish kids...with an
insane amount of physical chemistry.
Tugging at the hem of her oversized T-shirt, she wished
she’d worn something other than it and this old pair of jean shorts. As always,
she wondered how she looked. Ugly? Fat? She was bigger than she’d been in high
school. More womanly. Well, there was nothing she could do now unless she
sprinted off the beach.
Her heart thumped hard. With a pulsing, annoying cadence,
her right eye twitched in time. Since everything had happened, her eye did that
when she was stressed or anxious. It was unnerving how one tiny muscle could
sense her emotions.
Leo. She had to say something to him, be polite and act like
a mature adult, not a brooding, heartbroken teenager—which was what she felt
like as she blinked several times as if to clear the sight of him out of her
eyes. Her sister was always telling her to put on her big girl panties and stop
being a baby. “Woman up,” Nicole always said. Well, this was the time for it.
She was overreacting, anyway. Right?
She’d been staring at him for several moments. He hadn’t
seen her and appeared to be deep in concentration, which was fine with her; it
allowed her more time to gawk at his hard body, which practically radiated
testosterone. She needed to get a handle on what she’d do before he finally acknowledged
her presence. She took a big breath, willing herself to stomp down the
excitement of seeing him in the flesh. It was only February, and she was
determined to have a better year than the last. But seeing Leo again almost
guaranteed that life was about to get very, very complicated. .
complicated. .
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During the day, Tamara Lush writes news as a journalist with
The Associated Press. At night, she writes fictional romance tales about
complicated, sexy men and the women who love them.
Her first novel, HOT SHADE, was published in September 2015
with Boroughs Publishing Group. INTO THE HEAT is her second novel.
When Tamara isn’t reporting, writing or reading, she’s doing
yoga, cooking for her Italian husband or chasing her dogs on a beach on
Florida's Gulf Coast. She loves connecting with people on social media.
Author Links:
WEBSITE/NEWSLETTER: www.tamaralush.com
Twitter: @tamaralush
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/tamlush/
Instagram: tamlush
Read Hot Shade by Tamara!
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