From award-winning author Erika Kelly comes the third standalone title in her smoking hot series about four elite athlete brothers raised in the Tetons by their eccentric, billionaire dad and uncle, The Bad Boyfriend Series! Don’t miss your chance to meet the swoony Gray Bowie in THE CARELESS BOYFRIEND! Grab your copy today!
Gray Bowie broke the bro code: he fell in love with his best friend’s girlfriend.
For years, he hid his feelings…until one terrible night, it all came to a head.
Since her life blew up in high school, Knox Holliday has spent her time honing her skills as a couture wedding dress designer. But, just weeks before her debut, a freak accident wipes out her collection. The culprit: her ex’s former best friend, Gray Bowie.
Gray does everything he can to get her career back on track. As they work together, they find forgiveness and start to stitch together something that looks a lot like love. But, at the very moment they realize they have a chance for something real, her ex comes back to town, bringing opportunities Gray can’t provide.
This time, Gray’s not going to step aside, so he can only hope Knox will hold onto his heart.
She’s his dream, but will he be hers?
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There are things about this story that I totally loved, and things I really didn't. The "thoughtless" boyfriend really isn't so thoughtless: he's the kind of guy you want to bring home to meet the family, he's the kind who recognizes and values feelings and emotions and is protective of those closest to his heart. I mean, he could have just left Knox on all her own even after destroying all of her hard work (unintentionally, but still it was all destroyed).
Side note: someone actually hit our house about 4 years ago, acted like she didn't care and we never heard boo from her after that incident; so in this instance, I would totally accept any help Gray was offering!
My issue is with Knox. Now, before I say what bothers me about her, I will say that I appreciate and respect the grit and determination; I get that she may not have recognized Gray's feelings about her when they were in school, but I wasn't too keen on where the blame was placed when it came to Gray and Knox not keeping in touch, especially given what she was dealing with when it came to her boyfriend and this issues he was dealing with, even after saying she couldn't deal with the boyfriend's behavior anymore. I was further baffled by her complete trust in said boyfriend's help organizing the show during fashion week, given that he had zero experience in that sort of event.
Even despite my less than warm feelings for Knox, I still enjoyed this book.
EXCERPT:
He went into freefall, like flying off the edge of a cliff and hoping like hell he landed on a patch of snow and not rock, but he forged ahead. He’d hidden the truth long enough. “I have loved you since I was six years old. Every second you spent holding Robert’s undeserving hand, every time you got into his truck and drove off with him, it felt like ripping my heart right out of my chest.”
“Gray.” It was the most vulnerable he’d ever seen her, and it touched him.
“But now I’ve had you to myself, I can promise you that whatever I felt back then doesn’t come close to how I feel about you today. Do you understand what I’m telling you?”
“I think so.” Her voice came out light as dust.
But she didn’t trust it. “Then let me make it clearer. It’s more than liking you, which I do. I like your passion for your work, your drive and ambition. I like the way you are with Zach, Amelia, Callie and Delilah, the way you really listen to them. It’s also more than being attracted to you, which I am.” Anxiety covered him like a fog. Exposing himself to a woman who didn’t feel the same way…it could not turn out well. But like hell if he wouldn’t take his shot. “It’s that my cells are formatted for you. My heart…” How did he explain it? “My heart beats in rhythm with yours. I loved you as a boy, but as a man who’s spent time with you, kissed you…this is a whole other level. You might’ve imprinted on me as a kid, but you’re in my blood now. Whether you want me as a man or a business partner or as nothing more than a friend, I’m committed to you. To us.”
Beneath the wariness, the thrill of his message shimmered in her eyes. “I don’t know what to say.”
Then he’d stop talking and show her. Tipping her chin, he lowered his mouth to hers. He kissed gently, wanting her to feel how much he cared about her. But the minute her lips softened, parted, and he got a hint of wet heat, he licked inside, and that damn pounding in his blood to own this woman, body and soul, overtook him.
Her scent filled his senses, hurling him back in time to dry summer days when they’d hiked the Bowie Pass, after school in her trailer, laying side-by-side on her bed, feet braced against the wall, as they’d held stupid and hilarious conversations through her Etch-a-Sketch.
To the kiss in the hotel room, when she’d lost control and clung to him with desperation.
To the other night on the trampoline, her hips twisting, fingers pulling his hair. The sounds she’d made from his touch.
With the clatter of rain on the roof, he lost himself in the intimacy of the moment, the privacy…the seclusion. He deepened the kiss, his tongue searching for acquiescence…surrender.
Want me, Knox. Want me as much as I want you.
Oh, dammit. He’d said it out loud, his voice, deep, growly, like a command.
Everything changed in that moment. She got up on her toes and threw her arms around his neck. “I do.” She pressed closer to him, her plump breasts on his chest, her hips shifting restlessly over his painful arousal. “God, Gray, of course I do.”
His body rejoicing in the invitation, he caressed down her slender back and over the rising slope of her bottom. When she gave a desperate moan, he lost it. Clutching those firm, round cheeks, he held her tightly to him, bending his knees slightly, and rocking up into the space between her legs.
With a wild look in her eyes, she wrenched her mouth away and said his name on a sigh. “I’ve never felt anything like this. It scares me, Gray. It scares me so much.”
“I got you. I swear…I got you.” Trust me.
And don’t miss the first two standalones titles in The Bad Boyfriends Series, THE WORLD’S WORST BOYFRIEND and THE HEARTLESS BOYFRIEND! Grab your copies today!
THE WORLD’S WORST BOYFRIEND
THE HEARTLESS BOYFRIEND
About Erika Kelly:
Award-winning author Erika Kelly has been spinning romantic tales all her life--she just didn't know it. Raised on the classics, she didn't discover romantic fiction until later in life. From that moment on, she's been devouring the genre and has found her true voice as an author. Over three decades she's written poems, screenplays, plays, short stories, and all kinds of women's fiction novels. Married to the love of her life and raising four children, she's lived in two countries and seven states, but give her pen and paper, a stack of good books, and a steaming mug of vanilla chai latte and she can make her home anywhere.
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