Author: Lexi Ryan
Series: Mended Hearts #2
Release Date: January 19, 2016
My Rating: 5 Stars!
HOLD YOUR FRIENDS CLOSE...AND YOUR ENEMIES CLOSER.
She's everything he detests about Hollywood.
After spending my entire acting career being cast as the airhead, I finally have the serious role I've been dying for, and I screw it all up during a four martini dinner with my ex. Now, thanks to the morality clause in my contract, I might lose the role of a lifetime. My only hope is to convince the media (and my eccentrically conservative director) that I've entered a committed relationship. But when I use my brother's costume party to launch Operation Fake Fiancé, I end up in front of the camera with the wrong guy, leaving my reputation—and the fate of my career—at his mercy. Any other guy I could sweet talk into playing the supporting role I need, but not Officer Cade Watts. Not the man who hates everything about me. Not the man who would most revel in seeing me fail.
He's everything she needs. I don't care how good it felt to have her in my arms. I don't care that I can't close my eyes without remembering the way she tastes or the sound of her moan. I want nothing to do with Janelle Crane. Her scheme to fake an engagement to save her own career is exactly the kind of manipulative Hollywood crap I left LA to escape. But when her fan mail turns threatening and
the tragedies befalling her former costars seem to be anything but coincidence, everything changes. Now I don't just want to play the part of Janelle's fake fiancé, I demand it. I won't let my jaded heart cost me another case. I may not trust Janelle but I do care, and the only way I know she's safe is if I'm holding her close.
HOLDING HER CLOSE, 2016 © by Lexi Ryan
“Why are you so angry with me?” I link my hands behind his neck. “You’re always so angry with me.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?”
Rising onto my toes, I position my mouth by his ear. “No one’s going to believe you’re my boyfriend if you hold me like you’re afraid you might catch something.”
One second we’re standing there, barely moving on the dance floor. The next, he’s spinning me around, and I’m trapped between his body and the wall. He has one hand at my neck, the other at my waist, one thick thigh between my legs.
“You wanna know why I’m angry?” He presses closer. My already short skirt hikes higher up my hips, and I’m treated to the delicious pressure of his thigh pressing into the lace of my panties.
“Maybe because you’re reckless. Selfish. Immature. Maybe because for the last three hours you’ve been boozing it up with your buddies while I was picturing you bound and helpless to some obsessive maniac.”
Before I can reply, his mouth is on mine. This isn’t like the seductive kisses we shared on our first night together, and it lacks the tenderness of the kiss he gave me at the station. This kiss matches his mood. It’s hot and angry. Demanding and possessive. This is the kiss of a man who very well could throw his woman over his shoulder and drag her home. The kiss of a man whose woman would relish such treatment.
I shouldn’t be that woman. I shouldn’t even pretend to be her. But should has nothing to do with the way I open my mouth and slip my tongue inside to taste him. Should has nothing to do with me shifting my stance, lifting one knee to give his thigh better access to my aching center. When Cade touches me, should goes out the window and is replaced by must. I must pull him closer. I must learn how his neck tastes. I must dissolve into his kiss until the world disappears. Then even must falls away and I am nothing but this ache where need becomes pleasure and pleasure becomes need. He called me reckless, and right now I am. With him, that’s what I become.
When he tears his mouth from mine, I gasp at the loss.
“Is that better?” he asks, rubbing his face against my neck and marking me with his stubble. “If I hold you like this.” The hand at my waist slides down until he’s cupping my ass. “Touch you like this.” The hand on my neck dips to skim the tops of my breasts. “Would that be enough?” He opens his mouth against my neck and sucks. Hard. “What’s it going to take to get you to listen to me?”
I knew I was going to love this book within the first 15 pages. Not that that is much of a shock considering I count Lexi Ryan in my top favorite authors, but this book had some special about it. That something special would be named Cade. This man. Sigh. If there is a man like this out there in the real world, I need to find him stat. The perfect blend of sexy and sweet, alpha and partner. He was a joy to read. As for Janelle, his lady love, she is one bad**s chick. She pulls every ounce of strength she has, and goes after what she wants.
It's something to behold the way that Lexi Ryan writes her characters, and her books in general. They're sinful and engaging. Utterly delightful and thrilling. This book has a different kind of twist. It's one that I saw coming once it was about to be written on the page, but until then I thrown down the rabbit hole along with everyone else guessing, and wondering the who, what and why of it all. Janelle and Cade are thrown together and fit perfectly. They understand the drive they both live off of, yet they're both gun-shy. So gun-shy that they fight this relationship until the bitter end. but of course, it wouldn't be a Lexi Ryan book without massive amounts of steaming up windows, and this couple delivers in the bedroom. But beyond their physical attraction is an innate "click" between the two that was wonderful to read.
Cade and Janelle have become yet another couple in a long line of New Hope characters that I've fallen for. They're just so pleasant to read. Almost like choclate covered almonds (my favorite snack). They're sweet and earthy. So very relatable, yet I live vicariously through their fabulous lives when I'm in their world. Holding Her Close is a wickedly fantastic read and can be read as a standalone, but I urge (and demand) that everyone read the previous books in the series as well!
Happy Reading!
*ARC provided by the author in exchange for an honest review*
Author: Lexi Ryan
Series: Mended Hearts #1
Release Date:
Dr. Phoenix Reid isn't who she seems...
Everyone knows a phoenix rises from the ashes. What they don't talk about are the people she drags with her into the fire.
I thought one hot night with Max Hallowell was harmless. I never expected it would force me to face my past or bring back the man who swore he'd never let me go. Now Max wants to help me. Wants to save me. But if I let him, he'll be destroyed. I can already smell the flames.
A woman with a secret past. A man determined to protect her. A dangerous passion that could cost them both everything.
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Playing with Fire is the first in a new series of standalone novels featuring the New Hope characters Lexi Ryan fans have come to love. While you wait for Nix and Max's story, explore Love Unbound, the collection of books set in Lexi's New Hope world.
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