Publication Date: July 7, 2014
Synopsis:
Ethan was Ashley’s secret crush, until he became an asshole.
Asshole is too good a word for him. It’s bad enough that he stopped talking to her brother, who was his best friend since preschool. It’s even worse that he went wild and got involved with criminal types. But the worst thing of all is the way he trapped her on this ridiculous road trip.
That’s what it is. Ridiculous. It just isn’t normal for a girl to get dragged from Virginia to South Dakota in a stolen car with just $1000 in cash. With Ethan Moore, who is way too hot and way too infuriating to be tolerated. But she’s stuck with him on a trip that is taking way longer than it should, sharing cheap hotel rooms, destroying cars, and eluding bad guys.
Yep. There are bad guys chasing them. Even worse guys than Ethan, and that’s saying a lot.
Plus, she’s having trouble keeping her hands off Ethan. In fact, she’s falling for him hard—when she isn’t wanting to wring his neck.
So, for two crazy weeks, her pride, her heart, and her life are all threatened. Ashley isn’t sure which she’ll lose first.
Excerpt:
When he disconnected, Ashley had managed to catch her breath, the whole thing so surreal it didn’t seem to even be happening. “Well, you can just leave me at the next exit. Thank you for the excitement, and I wish you well in escaping your pursuers.”
“You have to stay with me for now,” Ethan said. Before Ashley could do anything more than drop her jaw, he continued. “At least until I figure out what’s going on. If you weren’t in danger, I would have just left you at the gas station. But they’ve seen you with me, so they might use you to get to me.”
“But this is Miss Horner’s truck." She gulped, imagining possible scenarios. The last thing she wanted was to get poor Miss Horner in trouble. “What if they track her down, thinking she’s me? I can’t believe you got me into this mess.”
“It sure wasn’t by choice,” he muttered, glancing over at her in obvious frustration. “Do you think I want to be dragging you around with me?” Taking advantage of the fact that she was too furious to respond, he went on, “Miss Horner will be fine. One look at her, and they’ll know she wasn’t involved. I hate it as much as you do, but you’re safest with me.”
Ashley was about to let loose a long, impassioned tirade, but the scene in front of her distracted her attention. Ethan had gotten trapped behind a tour bus. The bus was in the passing lane trying to get by a semi-truck. Neither was moving very fast, and so the pickup was effectively caught with no way to pass either vehicle. The sedan was pulling up beside them. They were trapped.
Or should have been.
Ethan stepped on the gas and edged between the bus and semi-truck—right in between them—where there was clearly no lane in which to drive.
Ashley almost screamed, but bit her lip to stifle it. She squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for the inevitable crunch as the pickup was squished in between the two much larger vehicles.
It never came. The truck swerved over onto the shoulder. Both drivers were laying on their horns. But Ethan had pulled past them and now had a clear road in front of him.
The sedan didn’t have time to do a similar maneuver, so, after the truck moved back into its lane, the bad guys were still stuck behind the bus.
Even though she was supposed to be a good girl and not take pleasure in dare-devil stunts, Ashley clapped her hands in excitement. Ethan met her eyes, and they grinned at each other warmly before she remembered that she hated him.
She scowled when she recalled everything he’d done, and Ethan turned back to the road, accelerating until he was going well over the speed limit.
She was surprised Miss Horner’s truck could even reach that speed.
“So why are they chasing us again?" Ashley asked after several minutes of silence.
“They’re chasing me. You were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. And now you’re stuck.” Ethan took the first exit they approached. The sedan still wasn’t in sight, but Ethan was clearly nervous. He checked the rearview mirror every thirty seconds or so.
Ashley sighed. “They aren’t behind us now. Can’t you just drop me off at a gas station or something?”
“Too risky,” Ethan said, shaking his head. “Your purse flew off the hood when we drove away, so they’d be able to find your license, even if they don’t see you get out of the truck. If these guys are who I think they might be, they’re dangerous. I’m not going to leave you to their mercy. This is my fault.”
“That’s for sure,” Ashley mumbled, not quite under her breath. “It’s like a damned Jason Statham movie.”
“Just stick with me for a little while until I can figure this out. Do you despise me so much it’s worth risking your life for?”
About the Author:
Noelle handwrote her first romance novel in a spiral-bound notebook when she was twelve, and she hasn’t stopped writing since. She has lived in eight different states and currently resides in Virginia, where she teaches English, reads any book she can get her hands on, and offers tribute to a very spoiled cocker spaniel.
She loves travel, art, history, and ice cream. After spending far too many years of her life in graduate school, she has decided to reorient her priorities and focus on writing contemporary romances.
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