Anything More Than Now Synopsis:
Reagan Landry is months away
from college graduation, but instead of excitement, she’s frozen by the fear of
letting go — of her ex-boyfriend, of the comfortable life she created for
herself in Portland, of the years-long search for her older sister who abandoned
her as a homeless teen. When she’s finally forced to decide what’s next, Reagan
is met with another complication — her ex’s best friend, Noah Burke, who seems
determined that she embraces what could be instead of what has been.
Drunkenly hooking up with
his best friend’s ex, Reagan, is a mistake, but being secretly in love with her
is so much worse when things seem one-sided. A disenchanted frat boy about to
fail out of college, Noah has been living out someone else’s dream after a
horrible accident five years earlier. Just when he thinks he’s lost any chance
he has with Reagan, she surprises him by agreeing to spend the summer together
at his family’s ranch in Montana.
And suddenly what started
out as a complication between them becomes serious...until the past starts
ripping apart their future.
Buy Links:
Amazon:
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iBooks: https://goo.gl/R0Ejs8
Kobo: http://is.gd/7xDh06
EXCERPT
Reagan
I pore over my
senior thesis as I stand behind at the checkout counter at the library, taking
another big gulp of my Americano. I should lay off the caffeine but between
searching for work and pulling extra hours at Zola so I can pay Greg, sleep is
more a concept than a reality for me right now.
Another
bleary-eyed student waits, slowly sliding a book toward me, leaning on the
counter as if he might take a nap at any minute. I print the slip and close it
between the pages, already taking off for the jar of antibacterial gel at the
end of the counter when I notice the body barreling toward mine through the
busy lobby of the library.
The crowd cuts
away to Noah striding up to me. It’s only been two days since Beau moved out
but it seems like forever ago since I’ve laid eyes on Noah.
I steel myself, straightening my spine as his
eyes connect with mine. It feels as though I have a balloon expanding in my
chest, close to bursting. I purposely hold my breath, refusing to allow myself
to be such a girl. I shouldn’t be so happy to see him.
Noah doesn’t say
anything, only grabs my hand and hauls me behind him. I try to tug away,
dragging my feet.
“Stop being such a
caveman, jerk.” I speak to his back because he doesn’t stop, only leads us
farther back into the stacks away from the eyes of everyone else. “Use your
words,” I snap, feeling myself flush as someone points to us before we take a
sharp corner.
His T-shirt is
wrinkled, his jeans loose. I’m hit with the smell of him, of man…of Noah. I’m
so caught up in trying to put words to that that I miss we’ve stopped. Well, I
do until his hands grip my face and guide my lips to his in a hungry kiss.
It doesn’t stop,
this kiss, doesn’t pause. It’s one speed—more.
It’s deep in its desperation and that balloon in my chest suddenly bursts and I
deflate, melting back against the book stacks. I stop fighting and let my mouth
follow his.
The pressure from
his fingertips on my cheeks pops my eyes open. I watch him as he loses himself.
My neck is tilted back and I feel a bit broken, like I’m an ill-repaired doll,
my limbs bent this way and that. Maybe he senses that because he loosens his
grip and slows his lips, but it’s still consistently full of want.
I try to focus on
his shoulders beneath my hands, how steady they are. His body is a homestead to
me, a bonfire signaling me to return. I slip my hands around his neck, skimming
just below his collar to feel the burn of his skin against my cold hands. What
I feel, what’s happening is so confusing. It’s so good but I can’t…I feel as if
I’m being pitched up in the sky, the ground miles below.
Noah doesn’t stop
and he doesn’t let me catch up to wherever his head is at. His fingers reach
down and brush at the hem of my skirt, quietly moaning into my mouth as he
raises them higher, bunching the fabric high up on my thighs.
“I’ve been
thinking of this for the past twelve hours.” His lips leave my mouth, trail
down my neck and nip at my collarbone. His lips mirror that path, making me
ache for his mouth against on mine as he sears my skin with his mouth and
teeth. A simple path of kisses from left to right like eclipses.
I sigh, closing my
eyes. He curls his hands under my skirt, grabbing my ass and lifting me,
pulling my hips to meet his. Noah traps the unnatural sound I make in another
heated kiss.
“Someone is going
to hear you, screamer. Be quiet.”
I pull at the nape
of his hair, wanting to fight, but wanting to continue more. “We’re in Poetry,
no one’s going to come around.”
His soft chuckle
cuts across my jaw in a hot slice. I don’t know what he’s doing to me. I think
I’m falling apart. I think my brain has stopped working.
It’s only when he
teases, “Use your words, Landry,” that I realize I have lost the ability to put
one word in front of another. It has a lot to do with the book spines pressing
into my back, his hands roaming over my body, pushing my shirt to skirt over my
ribs.
Noah’s undressing me in the library.
The thought sort
of tumbles around me, pushing to make room in my head and my chest. I can’t
figure out the disconnect. Why I hated him until he stormed up to me and
dragged me here. Why I keep trying to build up this space between us when…
“I don’t like
you,” I say, breaking away.
Noah ducks his
head into my shoulder, his own moving up and down as he tries to catch his
breath. “I had to go. He’s my best friend.”
I bow my head to rest against his. Without
thinking, I kiss his temple.
And that’s what
unspins my lie. That brief, sweet touch of my lips. I know he knows now. For
two people so obsessed with using the right words, I can’t admit that I’m
lying. I can’t even admit that I missed him.
And I did. God, I
did.
Noah slowly lets
me down to the floor, slowly starts dressing me again, covering up my flesh
like the secret between us. He tries to put me back together, but it’s too late
for that. My lips are sore and swollen, my head too dizzy, and my heart is
hammering against my chest. And the feeling—the one I’d rather not call it what
it is—is full in my lower belly.
I would have
fucked him in the stacks without caring who saw. That’s what Noah does to me.
He makes me forget what it’s like to have my feet firmly on the ground. He’s
possibility.
He cups my chin,
pressing his thumb over my swollen lips, retracing the spot where he just
branded me as his. I’m not an idiot, I felt it too. I spun into the possibility
of letting Noah into my life with that kiss. I crashed into the reality that
I’m already his.
“Who are you
trying to fool, pretty girl?”
I dart my eyes to
the floor, afraid to admit that when he walks away, he’ll be taking something
with him today. Something new, like a sliver of my heart.
“I had to go. I
had to bring him home.” He clears his throat, his shoulders visibly tensing.
“But this isn’t about him, is it? Not really.”
I open my mouth
and sputter for a few seconds, so caught up in what I want to say and what
needs to be said. I still end up saying the obvious.
“He broke her
heart.” My throat actually starts to close up, at least it feels as if that’s
what’s happening. “He just left and she’s lost now.” I reach behind me, running
my hands over the spines of old poetry books, forgotten years ago. But at least
they’re comforting, at least there will always be stories in the world.
He’s quiet,
studying me. “I came back though.”
My eyes snap up to
his and my arms go slack. Hell, my whole body does. I’m suddenly a marionette
that’s lost its strings. I fall to pieces on the floor.
Noah backs away
and scratches the back of his neck. “I’ve had a long drive and I—”
“You haven’t been
back to the frat house?”
He snorts and a
tiny smile plays at his lips. “You never listen to me, do you?”
I look at him
blankly, confused.
“I drove straight
here. Couldn’t think of anything else but—” he leans in close, his mouth
teasing the air around my ear, so close yet so far away,“—kissing you.”
“So you did.” I
rub my hands over my lips as he heads down the aisle.
“So I did.” He
pauses at the end of the aisle. “Don’t be a stranger, Reagan.”
But that’s exactly
the problem. We’re not really strangers anymore. That lie has been shattered
too.
Catch up on the Sutton
College Series:
Amazon:
Barnes & Noble: http://is.gd/BIZC1E
iBooks: http://is.gd/mDoREx
Kobo: http://is.gd/Utz25P
Rebecca writes smart,
emotional New Adult and historical romances featuring flawed characters
struggling to find their place in the world, from Paris to Portland. She’s a
lover of rainy days, an unabashed anglophile, and a devote Earl Grey tea
drinker. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband and their very spoiled
cat, Bella. A wanderlust connoisseur, Rebecca can be caught daydreaming about
her next travel adventure when not writing.
She is the author of EVERLY
AFTER, BETWEEN EVERYTHING AND US, and the upcoming releases ETIQUETTE WITH THE
DEVIL, A PROPER SCANDAL, and ANYTHING MORE THAN NOW.
Rebecca loves hearing from
readers and writers. You can follow her on Twitter @beckapaula or find out more
about her and her books at www.rebeccapaula.com.
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