Book 1 of Music, Love and Other Miseries
Publisher: Totally Bound Publishing
Introverted teacher versus unstoppable violinist. She wants to be alone. He wants her heart. Let the games begin…
After the unexpected death of her musician brother, third-grade teacher Adara buries her grief, avoids all music and vows to exist without attachments. Social solitude works perfectly…until she’s forced to share her classroom with the new music mentor, a man who rattles her carefully constructed cage and sparks emotions she prefers to keep chained.
Always up for a challenge, violinist Garret is a master of patience and persistence, and the minute he meets Adara, he knows what he wants. Her sharp humor and haunted eyes inspire him in a way he’s never felt before. He makes it his mission to chip through her shields and breathe her back to life—no matter how hard she resists.
Even as Adara struggles to keep Garret at a distance with each clash of wills, each smile he coaxes, each kiss he steals, her resistance crumbles. But when the past catches up with them both, they will discover that some promises are meant to be broken…and others are worth risking everything for.
Garret’s full, generous mouth was too close to hers, making her traitorous lips tingle. The stubble on his lean jaw called to her fingers, and she fisted her hands to keep them under control. She’d never wanted to touch something so badly. Not something—him. Garret. But giving in would unlace the cocoon she’d kept so carefully constructed since Joey.
Without warning, he tucked her hair behind her ear. His callused fingertips trailed her jaw and her mouth went dry. Gently, he cupped her chin. “You feel nothing now?”
“Nothing.” Her voice surrendered to him first, nothing more than a breathless whisper. He had to feel her thundering heart vibrate through his fingers.
His eyes flashed, dark and daring. She should duck under his arm and run like snarling hell hounds were chasing her, but her willpower snuffed out. As if sensing her incapacity, he pressed his lips beneath her ear. Her uncooperative eyelids fluttered, the next defense to fail. His stubble scraped her cheek, and that simple hint of rough on smooth shot flames into every cold spot. His breath brushed her ear. “Now?”
His low voice nibbled along every nerve. She couldn’t answer. She wanted to slide her fingers over his jaw then tangle them in his too-long hair, to press against him and fit her body into his until all her broken pieces were forged in his heat and remade. She wanted his arms around her, his mouth on hers and nothing between them but skin.
He eased back and held her gaze. “Nothing?”
The overload of sensations, the longing and hiding and defending all blended into an Adara bomb. If she didn’t do something, she’d erupt. With trembling fingers, she caressed his jaw. The sensation was everything she’d hoped for, bristly and rough, unexpectedly intimate.
Garret sucked in a breath and closed his eyes. When his lashes lifted, his eyes gleamed like obsidian fire. Then his mouth was on hers. He pressed his hard, strong body into hers, trapping her fully against the wall.
About the Author
C.J Burright is a native Oregonian and refuses to leave. A member of Romance Writers of America and the Fantasy, Futuristic & Paranormal special interest chapter, while she has worked for years in a law office, she chooses to avoid writing legal thrillers (for now) and instead invades the world of paranormal romance, fantasy, and contemporary romance. C.J. also has her 4th Dan Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do and believes a story isn’t complete without at least one fight scene. Her meager spare time is spent working out, refueling with mochas, gardening, gorging on Assassin’s Creed, and rooting on the Seattle Mariners…always with music. She shares life with her husband, daughter, and a devoted cat herd.
