Author: Lyla Payne
Publisher: 338 Pages (March 12th, 2013)
Add to: Goodreads
Order online: Amazon, Barnes and Noble
NOTE: This is a "New Adult" novel. Due to mature content this title is recommended for ages 17+
Synopsis: When a knee injury ends twenty-year-old Quinn Rowland’s pro tennis career, he’s not only dumped by his hot Russian girlfriend but ordered to attend college by his disinterested billionaire father. A rich kid who’s not used to being disappointed by life, Quinn and his sociopathic half-brother Sebastian create a frat house game intended to treat girls how they see them—as simple game pieces to be manipulated for their pleasure.
College sophomore Emilie Swanson knows Quinn’s reputation—after all, he did send one of her sorority sisters into therapy earlier in the semester—but the game and his charm bring them closer together and soon she starts to believe there’s more to Quinn than people think.
But what if the more is something darker than a game of toying with emotions and breaking hearts?
Quinn and Emilie might be falling for each other, but there are secrets he’s not ready to tell—and lifestyle changes he’s reluctant to make. She willingly stepped on the court, but if Emilie finds out she started out as nothing as a pawn in Quinn and Sebastian’s twisted game, she might never forgive him.
To his surprise, Quinn finds that he might finally care about someone more than he cares about himself…even if that means letting Emilie walk away for good.
NOTE: This is a "New Adult" novel. Due to mature content this title is recommended for ages 17+
***Spoilers ahead! This guest post also has some mature content to please be aware of this before reading any further.
Guest Post - Emilie and Quinn:
“Hello?”
“What are you wearing?”
I grinned in spite of his ridiculousness. “I’m in your bathroom. I know you just heard the shower turn off, horn dog.”
“I know. I want to hear you say it.”
Despite the months together, the slight growl in his voice spread gooseflesh across my bare skin. “Nothing. I am wearing nothing.”
“I’m coming in there.”
“No you don’t, Quinn. We have dinner with my parents and it’s not clothing optional.”
“I wouldn’t mind if it was just you and your mom…”
“I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that.”
“How about you come out here right now and let me lick you dry.”
Hot desire pooled in my center and spread downward. After months of having Quinn whenever I wanted, he could still turn me on with a few words. My breathing gave me away and I could hear him smile on the other end of the phone. “It wouldn’t stop there and you know it. We’d end up rolling around in bed until tomorrow.
It had happened enough times. We’d both been making it to class and managing to feed ourselves, but that was pretty much it.
“Fine.” He heaved a sigh. “I hate Parents Weekend.”
My heart squeezed at his tone. Quinn’s father wasn’t coming down—no surprise—and even though my parents were not exactly going to be winning any awards any time soon, they were spending the weekend and Whitman. It couldn’t be easy to watch everyone’s families arrive while his father refused to even pretend interest.
Quinn’s company was really starting to take off. It wouldn’t be long until his father came around, business-wise, but I was starting to have my suspicions about any potential for affection even if the two of them ended up working together. Teddy Rowland and I had run into one another a few times now, and the man didn’t seem capable of emotion, period.
“I promise if you behave yourself at dinner I’ll wear that little outfit you like tonight.”
“The glasses, too?” The immediate intrigue in his voice said he’d forgotten his sadness over Teddy, and my lips stretched into a smile.
“Mmmhmm. And if you’re bad…”
“Good Lord, beautiful girl, I am coming in there if you don’t stop.”
“You’re not coming anywhere until you play the dutiful boyfriend for a few hours.”
“Oh, I’m not playing at that. I am your dutiful boyfriend, and someday I’ll be your dutiful fiancé and your dutiful husband, and the dutiful guy who wipes your drool and changes your diapers.”
“That’s hot.” I giggled to hide the way my heart pounded and my mouth went dry at the casual way he always spoke of his future with me in it, as though it was the most natural thing in the world.
“I know. I’m a real catch.”
It was true. No one would have believed it a year ago, least of all Quinn. “You’re totally going downhill before me, dirty boy. I’ll be changing your diapers.”
“As long as it means you still play with my penis, I’m down with that.”
“No more sexy talk…what is that noise?” Music played in the background and I set my phone on the sink to pull on a silky pair of pink underwear and a matching, see-through bra I’d bought the other day—Quinn hadn’t seen it yet.
“You know we’ve been talking about how we need a song because you’re all superstitious that couples who don’t have a good song aren’t going to last?”
“Yeah…” I pulled on my dress next, a clingy black number with spaghetti straps that showed off a good portion of my back and a little more cleavage than I’d normally go for with the parents, but imagining the look on Quinn’s face made it irresistible.
“And you suggested that sappy eighties crap?”
“Hey! I suggested it because it was the song playing that night at the theme party, when we danced and you whispered deliciously naughty things in my ear, and—”
“Then you melted in my hands and practically begged me to do you in an elevator?” He teased.
My face heated, but not at embarrassment. Memories of that night made me want to renege on our dinner plans. “Yes, exactly that. And Firehouse is not crap! Love of a Lifetime is a classic power ballad.”
“I went with something nineties, and totally more us. Listen.”
I needed to dry my hair, but went for my makeup next instead so I could hear. A moment later, a song that I’d never heard outside of several movies flowed both from my phone and under the closed bathroom door. It made me grin so hard, made my heart swell in my chest, and I flung open the door to find Quinn standing in the middle of the room, looking drop dead gorgeous in a tuxedo.
“I’ll Make Love to You? Really?”
He held out a hand and I stepped into his arms. Quinn pulled me tight against him and took the lead, a strong hand at my waist and the other wrapped around one of mine, spinning me around the room while Boyz II Men crooned from the speakers.
“I thought a song about our favorite pastime might be good,” he breathed into my ear.
I stood on my tiptoes to kiss him as the final bars faded, sliding my tongue along his bottom lip to taste his particular salty sweetness, like whiskey and seawater, that I loved so much. “Nice try, lover boy. I’m going to go dry my hair, and we’re going to find a song not about sex. And maybe from this decade.”
He slapped my ass before I could escape, making me squeal and lock myself in his ginormous bathroom to finish getting ready. It was hard to finish my makeup with the huge smile on my lips that I was starting to think might be as permanent as Quinn and me.
Gosh, I love these two! Lyla, Emilie and Quinn, thanks for the guest post!
Author Bio:
I've long had a love of stories. A few years ago decided to put them down on the page, and even though I have a degree in film and television, novels were the creative outlet where I found a home. I've published Young Adult under a different name, but when I got the idea for Broken at Love (my first New Adult title), I couldn't wait to try something new – and I’m hooked. In my spare time I watch a ton of tennis (no surprise, there), play a ton of tennis, and dedicate a good portion of brain power to dreaming up the next fictitious bad boy we’d all love to meet in real life.
Find Lyla Online:
Website/Blog | Twitter | Facebook | Tumblr | Goodreads
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I enjoy this new adult category with people in such an exciting time of their life.
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