A
Perfect Ten
Forbidden Men # 5
Forbidden Men # 5
By: Linda Kage
Releasing March 30th, 2015
Self-Published
Let your hair down,
Caroline, they said. It'll be fun, they said.
I know I've closed
myself off in a major way in the past year, ever since “the incident” where I
messed up my life completely. It's past time I try to live again or just give
up completely. But this is quite possibly the craziest thing I've ever done. In
a last ditch effort to invigorate myself, I'm standing outside Oren Tenning's
bedroom, I just peeled off the sexiest pair of underwear I own, and my hand is
already raised to knock. My brother would disown me for doing anything with his
best friend, and he'd probably kill Oren. But if I play my cards right, no one
will ever know about this. Not even Ten.
Maybe after tonight,
I’ll finally get over this stupid, irrational crush I hate having on the
biggest jerk I’ve ever met. Or maybe I’ll just end up falling for him even
harder. Maybe I’ll discover there’s so much more to my crude, carefree hunk
than meets the eye.
Link to Follow Tour: http://www.tastybooktours.com/2015/01/a-perfect-ten-forbidden-men-5-by-linda.html
Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23523867-a-perfect-ten
Goodreads Series Link: https://www.goodreads.com/series/120350-forbidden-men
The Origin of Caroline Gamble (Heroine in A Perfect Ten)
Caroline surprised me almost as much as Ten did. When she was created in To Professor with Love, I didn't think much of her; didn't really know her personality, her likes, dislikes, anything.
After I decided she was going to get her own story, I still didn't know who she was on the inside. My ideas were more plot driven at that point. But then I had to actually start WRITING her and yeah, she needed to become someone, like, soon! So, I kind of just dove in, thinking, "Meh, I'll come up with something...I hope," and I started to type. And wow, I did not expect her to have the personality she did!
At first, I kind of felt a Reese vibe from her, you know, that girl who finds humor in everything. But then she did something I knew Reese would never do. After she gave a bald-faced lie to a group of women to keep them away from Ten, I slapped the label, "DEVIOUS" on her too. And it seemed to fit with her background and family. But even better, it was just the kind of match to give Ten a run for his money!
From there on out, Caroline's personality just exploded.
Here is a bit of the scene that helped me decide what kind of person she was going to be:
I rolled my eyes, deciding I’d had enough.
“I’m sorry.” I lifted my hand to get their attention. “But are you guys talking about...Oren Tenning?”
Four faces turned my way. I’m sure they found me lacking in my comfy blue jeans and V-neck T-shirt. I never dolled myself up. In fact, I purposely dressed down to avoid attention from the opposite sex. I hadn’t really fixed myself up since the school dance last year where Sander had invited me to be his date, way back when he’d still been kind and sweet.
But it turns out, he hadn’t ever planned on taking me to that stupid dance. I’d spent all the money I’d scrimped together and saved over the years to buy the perfect dress so I could look nice at his side, and after two hours of beautifying myself for him, he’d taken me out to the infamous make out spot alone to get lucky in the backseat of his dodge challenger. Not since then had I used clothes, makeup, or perfume to impress anyone.
“We sure are, honey. Do you know Ten?” Perfume girl sniffed and tipped up her face in a haughty kind of way as if she couldn’t believe I was good enough to even associate with him.
“Oh...” I gave her a brief, tight smile. “Barely.” I bet I knew him a hell of a lot better than she did.
I doubt she had any idea that his favorite food was chocolate mints, or that he preferred a bottle of Sunny Delight over coffee every morning to drink with his breakfast. Or that he hated spiders and loved cats. I bet she had no clue that every extra dollar he made at the nightclub where he worked went into a savings account where he someday wanted to build his own dream home...that he’d already designed himself. I bet she would never know what an extremely talented artist he was or what lengths he went to just to help his friends.
The bitch probably didn’t know anything about him at all...except how he felt inside her, which okay, was more than I knew. Damn it.
"But one of my friends...” I went on, lifting my eyebrows so they’d think my friend had all the carnal knowledge of him that I did not. “Is still taking treatments to get over...whatever he gave her.”
The four women gave a collective gasp. "No,” one said, her eyes wide.
“Oh my God. I was with him only two weeks ago.”
“Oh, sweetie,” I said with all the fake sympathy I could muster as I reached out as if to pat her arm. “You really need to go get yourself checked.” And she probably needed to anyway, so I didn’t feel bad about suggesting that at all.
Linda grew up on a
dairy farm in the Midwest as the youngest of eight children. Now she lives in
Kansas with her husband, daughter, and nine cuckoo clocks. Her life's been
blessed with lots of people to learn from and love. Writing's always been a
major part of her world, and she is so happy to finally share some of her
stories with other romance lovers.
Website: http://lindakage.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorlindakage
Twitter: https://twitter.com/lindakage
EXCERPT
“Yo, Ham. I’m
heading out.” He appeared out of nowhere beside me to tap our table and get his
roommate’s attention.
I yelped
because I hadn’t even noticed him moving toward our table. With a low growl, I
scowled at him for startling me...or maybe for leaving now, because that meant
he was still planning on meeting Kelly. The ass.
He met my
gaze and paused. Reading something—though I’m not sure what—from my face, he
leaned close to talk into my ear. “What? You’re not still mad at me for chasing
off that little boy, are you?”
I sniffed and
lifted my chin. “You’re never going let me date anyone without any kind of
interference, are you?”
He watched me
a moment longer, his intent expression harboring all his thoughts. Then he
leaned in again. “How about this? If you ever find anyone good enough for you,
I will step back and let you at him without even a single fuck-off glare in his
direction.” Then he leaned even closer. “Problem is, I don’t think anyone will
ever be good enough for the likes of you, baby doll.”
When he
reached out slowly and caught a tendril of my hair, the achiest look entered
his eyes. He studied the piece of hair he was methodically winding around his
finger, and the way he watched it was just...I knew that look and recognized it
intimately. Every time I saw him, I felt it rising from my own core, wanting,
yet helpless to take.
A shudder
wracked me. Once upon a time I’d told Zoey that if I knew for certain Oren
really, truly liked me—liked me the way I liked him—I wouldn’t let Noel keep us
apart. And I’d meant it.
I still meant
it.
“Even you?” I
asked him.
Rafflecopter Giveaway ($25 Amazon Gift card, 1 Print copy of A PERFECT TEN, or 5 digital copies of A PERFECT TEN)
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Thank you for hosting A PERFECT TEN!
ReplyDelete