A COVER REVEAL~ Thin Love by Eden Butler!
Title: Thin Love
Author: Eden Butler
Genre: New Adult/Contemporary Romance crossover
Release Date: Mid to Late July 2014
Cover Designed by: Steven Novak @ Novak Illustration
Synopsis
Love isn't supposed to be an addiction. It isn't supposed to leave you bleeding.
Kona pushed, Keira pulled, and in their wake, they left behind destruction.
She sacrificed everything for him.
It wasn't enough.
But the wounds of the past can never be completely forgotten and still the flame remains, slumbers between the pleasure of yesterday and the thought of what might have been.
Now, sixteen years later, Keira returns home to bury the mother who betrayed her, just as Kona tries to hold onto what remains of his NFL career with the New Orleans Steamers. Across the crowded bustle of a busy French Market, their paths collide, conjuring forgotten memories of a consuming touch, skin on skin, and the still smoldering fire that begs to be rekindled.
When Kona realizes the trifecta of betrayalāhis, Keira's and those lies told to keep them apartāhis life is irrevocably changed and he once again takes Keira down with him into the fire that threatens to ignite them both.
ā„Thin Love - Excerptā„
She doesnāt stop him when he kisses her. She lets herself take in the heat of his massive body, lets it work over her skin. She inhales himāhis scent, the hot rub of his tongue against hers, along her bottom lip. At first, she thinks she wonāt react; that sheāll push back the sensation, ignore how sweet he tastes, how hard he feels against her. But then he holds her arms, leans into her until her back rests against the brick wall behind her and Keira is lost.
Kona still makes low groans in his throat when he kisses her; still has the softest lips, the most demanding, wide tongue.
She canāt help herself. Heās an addiction, her favorite drug. She wants a hit. She wants a million hits of him.
Her hands work up his arms, his immense shoulders and his groaning deepens, becomes a growl of pleasure when she returns his attentions. Their mouths arenāt frantic, but they do match each other. He pushes, she pulls, like always, like habit, and it is a delicious drugging dance; one she didnāt know sheād missed.
She feels the swift lick of disappointment when Kona pulls back, but it disappears with his fingers holding her face and the tips smoothing just over her cheekbones.
āMy dirty little rascal,ā he says, but he doesnāt return her smile, seems struck by how close they are standing, how easy this has been, to fall back into old habits. It was returningā¦their reactions to one another were primal, instinctual. Un-fucking-avoidable.
The song ends, but Kona hasnāt stopped examining her face. His breath is still hot and panting over her cheeks. It would be easy, so fucking easy, to let him consume her. Every touch is a recall of all the dangerous, desperate emotions Kona sparked in her. Every look dulls her memory, makes her forget how he hurt her, how he broke the promises he swore heād always keep.
Kona leans in again, somehow moving closer, another hit that will edge her toward overdose and she stops him. The rational part of Keiraās mind pushes back the sensation of his touch and the embers are extinguished.
āWait.ā
He pauses, but doesnāt move away from her, doesnāt move his fingers from her skin.
āWildcat, come on.ā
āWhat are we doing?ā Keira knows that expression. It hasnāt changed in sixteen years. Konaās face is calm, but he frowns, forehead wrinkling in his agitation and Keira stops another attempt of his lips against her mouth. She pushes him back, palm flat against that tempting chest. āHowād this happen?ā
Konaās shoulders sag and finally, her skin is free of his touch.
āMemory lane,ā he says.
āThatās a dangerous place.ā
āIf you say so.ā
āI canāt do this with you.ā She takes a breath. āI canāt ever do this with you again.ā
His anger isnāt quick, not the instant snap of frustration sheād always known from him, but there is no humor on his face and despite her small rejection, he hasnāt moved his arms from the brick behind her. āWhy the hell not?ā
āI told you. We were not good together. I canātā¦ā Another slow breath and Keira tries to calm, to ignore the sweet scent of his skin. āI wonāt be like that again.ā
Too easy, she thinks, reminding herself how effortlessly Kona consumes her. Moth to flame, eager to die in the fire. She hated who she was with him, most days. She hated that she forgot good sense, any smidgeon of reason when he was around her. She didnāt like who sheād been at eighteen and it was that girl, that unbalanced, obsessed girl, that Keira had been running from all these years. She wouldnāt let that girl return, not now, not even for Kona.
When she slips out of the cage of his impossibly large arms, Kona reacts, old habits flirting to the surface. He grabs her arm and for a quick second, Keira feels her teenage self return. His fingers are hot on her bicep, licking heat, anger, passion, through her limbs and Keira fears the sensation, hates that she loves it so much, that sheād missed it more than she wants to admit.
Just like that, sheās ready to react, to fight and it takes all Keiraās strength to repress that inclination. āDonātā¦āAnd at her small warning, Kona jerks back, hands up as though she burned him. āYou see what I mean? Three weeks and itās starting already.ā
āIām sorry.ā Keira thinks that he might be telling the truth. He fans his fingers through his hair, eyes rounded as though he canāt believe how heād reacted. āPlease,ā Kona says, taking a tentative step forward, voice easy, calm. āDonāt leave.ā
She doesnāt want to see that expression on his face; the one that tells her heās different, that his overwhelming presence is no longer dangerous. Heād fooled her once. He wonāt get a second chance. A quick shake of her head and Keira turns away from him, tries to focuses on a plane above shooting away from the city, wishing she was on it. Konaās breath warms her neck and Keira cringes at how much sheād missed thisāhim, her, the heat, the passion and it is like refusing the best high sheās ever had. She wants it so desperately, wants to forget all his sins just for a moment, just for one small taste of how good he made her body feel. āIf I donāt walk away right now, Iām going to kiss you again.ā
Konaās low voice is heady, firm and Keira has to tighten her eyes closed when his fingertip slides down her spine. āI want you to.ā
āI canāt. Weā¦no, we canāt.ā
āYouāre scared,ā he says, mouth hot against her neck.
āIām petrified.ā Despite herself, Keira leans back, lets Kona wrap his hands around her waist.
āI would never hurt you. You know Iād never touch you, not like that.ā
No, he never had. Not once. Sheād slapped him and punched him because she was angry, because they were twisted, because they both got off on it. But Kona had never returned the favor. His wounds cut deeeper.
āYouāre no good for me. You were never good for me.ā Keira turns, takes a step back so she can look at his face, so she can see how determined he is to change her mind. āI was a crazy person with you. Obsessed. I canāt relive the past.ā
āIām not the same person.ā Kona pulls her forward, gripping her waist in his too large hands until their bodies are flush, until Keira can feel the hard, delicious planes of his chest and the corded muscles of his thighs. She knows he wonāt hurt her. She knows he wonāt let her go. Kona takes her face again, moving her chin so sheās forced to look at him. āYouāre not the same, Wildcat and that was a long time ago.ā
And then Keira lets that girl sneak to the surface. She lets her take Konaās mouth, pull his shirt so that her tongue licks against a wide expanse of tempting, copper skin. She lets that girl enjoy Konaās mouth, his hands, the way he feels hard, demanding against her, until the night darkens, deepens and her rejection, though halfhearted, comes again.
Kona stops pushing, stops demanding and before he leaves Keira out on that balcony, he reminds her why sheād loved him in the first place. He reminds her why she should love him again.
āI only know one thingāno one sets my skin on fire like you do. No one. Not one person has ever made me feel like Iām alive like you. That hasnāt changed, not in sixteen years. Donāt try to pretend it isnāt the same for you.ā
Ā©Copyright Eden Butler 2014
ā„About Edenā„
Eden Butler is an editor and writer of New Adult Romance and SciFi and Fantasy novels and the nine-times great-granddaughter of an honest-to-God English pirate. This could explain her affinity for rule breaking and rum. Her debut novel, a New Adult, Contemporary (no cliffie) Romance, āChasing Serenityā launched in October 2013 and quickly became an Amazon bestseller.
When sheās not writing or wondering about her possibly Jack Sparrowesque ancestor, Eden edits, reads and spends way too much time watching rugby, Doctor Who and New Orleans Saints football.
She is currently living under teenage rule alongside her husband in southeast Louisiana.
Please send help.
ā„Giveawayā„
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