Surprise Book Announcement: Lisa Renee Jones
Provocative (White Lies Book One) by
Lisa Renee Jones
Release Date: April 18th Genre: Contemporary
Romance
A Note from the author:
Hi everyone! I am BEYOND excited to
introduce my WHITE LIES DUET! This is a sexy, intense,
psychological thriller, that is provocative in every way, thus why I
named book one: PROVOCATIVE. And since this series takes me back to
my indie roots, the pricing is lower than my New York titles, and the
release dates are close together. Here are the details on the series:
- PROVOCATIVE, book one, will be out on April 18, 2017 and priced at $2.99 - includes the free novella REBECCA'S FORGOTTEN JOURNALS for those readers who purchase during release week or pre-order where pre-order is available.
- SHAMELESS, book two, will be out on July 11, 2017 and priced at $3.99
- BOTH books will be full-length!
- I'm also giving away prizes on my blog every day in April to celebrate! Entry is super easy. Just comment! The link to my blog is HERE so be sure to subscribe!
And now, without further ado, the
covers for the duet, blurb for book one, and CHAPTER ONE of
PROVOCATIVE! I can't wait for you to meet the dirty talking alpha,
Nick "Tiger" Rogers. I hope you enjoy him as much as I
enjoyed writing him!
Book one in the sexy and intense new
White Lies duet by Lisa Renee Jones!
There are those moments in life that
are provocative in their very existences, that embed in our minds
forever, and sometimes our very souls. They change us, mold us, maybe
even save save us. But some are darker, dangerous. If we allow them
to, they control us. Seduce us. Quite possibly even destroy us.
The moment I walked into Sonoma’s
Reid Winter Winery and Vineyard and made eye contact with Faith
Winter for the first time was one of those moments. Provocative
because I know at least one of her secrets, of which, I suspect she
has many. Provocative because she believes I was a stranger to her
when we met, but I am not. Provocative because I sought her out, with
no intention of touching her. But now I have. Now I want her. Now I
have to have her. But that changes nothing. It doesn’t change why I
came for her.
Pre-Order PROVOCATIVE Today!
Special $2.99 pre-order price - will
increase after release!
Amazon
alert: http://bit.ly/ProvocativeAmazonAlert
iBooks: http://bit.ly/ProvocativeiBooks
Read Chapter One Now:
pro·voc·a·tive adjective
- causing annoyance, anger, or another strong reaction, especially deliberately.
- arousing sexual desire or interest, especially deliberately.
Chapter One
There are those moments in life that
are provocative in their very existences, that embed in our minds
forever, and sometimes our very souls. They change us, mold us, maybe
even save us. But some are darker, dangerous. If we allow
them to, they control us. Seduce us. Quite possibly even destroy
us. The moment I stepped into the mansion that is the centerpiece of
the Reid Winter Vineyards and Winery wasn’t one of those moments.
Nor were any of the moments I spent weaving through a crowd of suits
and dresses cluttering the circle that is the grand foyer of the
1800’s mansion, fancy tiles etched with vines beneath my feet. Nor
the ones spent declining three different waiters offering me glasses
of various wines from one of the most established vineyards in
Sonoma, meant to entice me to buy their bottles and donate money to
the charity hosting the gathering. Not even the instant that I
spotted the stunning blonde in a snug black dress that hugged her
many lush curves proved to be one of those moments, but I would call
it a damn interesting one. The moment I decided the blonde silk of
her long hair belonged in my hands and on my stomach was also a damn
interesting one. And not because she’s fuckable. There are plenty
of fuckable women in my life, a number of whom understand that I
enjoy demands for pleasure, which I will definitely provide, and
nothing more. This woman is too prim and proper to ever agree to such
an arrangement, and yet, knowing this, as she and her heart-shaped
backside disappear into the congestion of bodies, I find myself
pursuing her, looking for more than an interesting moment. I want
that provocative one. I follow her path formed by huddles of two,
three, or more people, left and right, to clear a portion of the
crowd, scanning to find my beauty standing several feet away, her
back to me, with two men in blue suits in front of her. And while
they might appear to blend with the rest of the suits in the room,
they hold themselves like the parasites I meet too often in the
courtroom, those who most often call themselves my opposing counsel.
My blonde beauty folds her arms in front of her chest, her spine
stiff, and if I read her right–and I read most people right–I am
certain that she’s found trouble. But lucky for her, trouble
doesn’t like me near as much as I like it. Closing the space
between me and them, I near their little triangle just in time to
hear her say, “Are we really doing this here and now?” “Yes,
Ms. Winter,” one of the men replies. “We are.” “Actually,”
I say, stepping to Ms. Winter’s side, her floral scent
almost as sweet as the challenge of conquering her opponents that are
now mine, “we are not doing this here or now.” All
attention shifts to me, Ms. Winter giving me a sharp stare that I
feel rather than see, my focus remaining on the men I want to leave,
not the woman I want to make come. “And you would be who?” the
suit directly in front of me demands. I size him up as barely out of
his twenty-something diapers, without experience, the glint in his
eye telling me he doesn’t realize that flaw, which makes him about
as smooth as a six-dollar glass of wine everyone in this place would
spit the fuck out. A point driven home by the fact that he’s
wearing a three hundred-dollar Italian silk tie, and a hundred-dollar
suit, no doubt hoping the tie makes the suit look expensive, and him
important. He’s wrong. “I said, who are you?” he repeats when I
apparently haven’t replied quickly enough, his impatience becoming
my virtue as my role as cat in this game of cat and mouse is too
easily established. Unwilling to waste words on a predictable,
expected question that I’d never ask, I simply reach into the
pocket of my three-thousand-dollar light gray suit, which I earned by
beating opponents with ten times his experience and negotiation
skills, and finger the unimportant prick my card. He snaps it from my
hand, gives it a look that confirms my name and the firm I started a
decade ago now, after daring to leave behind a certain partnership in
a high-powered firm. “Nick Rogers?” he asks. “Is there another
name on the card?” I ask, because, I’m also a fearless smartass
every chance I get. He stares at me for several beats, seeming to
calculate his words, before asking, “How many Mr. Rogers sweater
jokes do you get?” I arch a brow at the misguided joke that only
serves to poke the Tiger. Suit Number Two, who I age closer to my
thirty-six years, pales visibly, then snatches the card from the
other man’s hand, giving it a quick inspection before his gaze then
jerks to mine. “The Nick Rogers?” “I don’t remember my
mother putting the word ‘the’ in front of my name,” I reply
dryly, but then again, I think, she didn't ask my father, to change
my last name either. She just hated him that much. “Tiger,” he
says, and it’s not a question, but rather a statement of “oh
shit” fact. “That’s right,” I say, enjoying the fruits of my
labor that created the nickname, not one given to me by my friends.
“Who, or what, the fuck is Tiger all about?” Suit
Number One asks. “Shut up,” Suit Number Two grunts, refocusing on
me to ask, “You’re representing Ms. Winter?” “What I am,” I
say, “is standing right here by her side, telling you that it’s
in your best interests to leave.” “Since when do you handle
small-time foreclosures?” he demands, exposing the crux of Ms.
Winter’s situation. “I handle whatever the fuck I want
to handle,” I say, my tone even, my lips curving as I add,
“Including the process of having you both escorted off the property
by security.” “That,” Suit Number One dares to retort, “would
garner Ms. Winter unwanted attention in the middle of a busy event.
Not that Ms. Winter even has security to call.” “Fortunately, I
have a phone that dials 911 and the ability to call it without asking
her.” “If she’s your client,” Suit Number One says,
clearly inferring that she’s not, “you’re obligated to operate
with her best interests in mind.” “My decisions,” I reply,
without missing a beat, and without claiming Ms. Winter as a client,
“are always about winning. And I assure you that I can think of
many ways to spin your story to the press that ensures I win, while
also benefiting Ms. Winter.” “This isn’t my story,” Suit
Number One indicates. “It will be when I’m finished with the
press,” I assure him, amused at how easily I’ve led him down the
path I want him to travel. “This is a small community with little
to talk about but her,” he says. “She doesn’t want her
foreclosure to become the front page story.” My lips quirk. “If
you don’t know how easily I can get the wrong attention for you
here, and the right attention for Ms. Winter, you’ll find out.”
“We’ll leave,” Suite Number Two interjects quickly, and just
when I think that he’s smart enough to see the way trouble has
turned from Ms. Winter to them, he looks at her and says, “We’ll
be in touch,” with a not so subtle threat in his tone, before he
elbows Suit Number One. “Let’s go.” Suit Number One doesn’t
move, visibly fuming, his face red, that white ring thickening around
his lips. I arch a brow at Suit Number Two, who adds, “Now, Jordan.”
Jordan, formerly known as Suit Number One, clenches his teeth and
turns away, while Suit Two follows. Ms. Winter faces me, and holy
fuck, when her pale green eyes meet mine, any questions I have about
this woman and the many I suspect she now has of me, are muted by an
unexpected, potentially problematic, palpable electric charge between
us. “Thank you,” she says, her voice soft, feminine, a rasp in
its depths that hints at emotion not effortlessly contained. “Please
enjoy anything you like tonight on the house,” she adds, the rasp
gone now, her control returned. Until I take it, I think,
but no sooner than I’ve had the thought, she is turning and walking
away, the absence of further interaction coloring me both stunned and
intrigued, two things that, for me, are ranked with about as much
frequency as snow in Sonoma, which would be next to never. Ms. Winter
maneuvers into the crowd, out of my line of sight, and while I am not
certain I’d label her a mouse at this point, or ever for that
matter, considering what I know of her, I am most definitely on the
prowl. I stride purposely forward, weaving through the crowd, seeking
that next provocative moment, scanning for her left, right, in the
clusters of mingling guests, until I clear the crowd. Now standing in
front of a wide, wooden stairwell, my gaze follows its path upward to
a second level, but I still find no sign of Ms. Winter. A cool breeze
whips through the air, and I turn to find the source is a high arched
doorway, the recently opened glass doors to what I know to be the
“Winter Gardens,” a focal point of the property, and a tourist
draw for decades, settling back into place. Certain this represents
her escape, I walk that direction, and press open the doors, stepping
onto a patio that has a stone floor and concrete benches framed by
rose bushes. No less than four winding paths greet me as destination
choices, the hunt for this woman now a provocation of its own.
I’ve just decided to wait where I am for Ms. Winter’s return when
the wind lifts, the floral scent of many varieties of flowers for
which the garden is famous touching my nostrils, with one extra scent
decidedly of the female variety. Lips curving with the certainty that
my prey will soon to be my prize, I follow the clue that guides my
feet to the path on my right, a narrow, winding, lighted walkway,
framed by neatly cut yellow flower bushes, which continues past a
white wooden gazebo I have no intention of passing. Not when Ms.
Winter stands inside it, her back to me, elbows resting on the wooden
rail, her gaze casting across the silhouette of what would reveal
itself to be a rolling mountainside in daybreak. The way I intend for
her to reveal herself. I close the distance between us, and the
moment before I’m upon her, she faces me, hands on the railing
behind her, her breasts thrust forward, every one of her lush curves
tempting my eyes, my hands. My mouth. “Did those men know
you?” she demands, clearly ready and waiting for this interaction.
“Did you know them?” “No and no.” “And yet they knew the
nickname Tiger.” “My reputation precedes me.” “I’ll take
the bait,” she says. “What reputation?” “They say I’ll rip
my opponent’s throat out if given the chance.” “Will you?”
she asks, without so much as a blanch or blink. “Yes,” I reply, a
simple answer, for a simple question. “Without any concern for who
you hurt,” she states. I arch a brow. “Is that a question?”
“Should it be?” “Yes.” “It’s not,” she says. “You
didn’t get that nickname by being nice.” “Nice guys don’t
win.” “Then I’m warned,” she says. “You aren’t a nice
guy.” “Is nice a quality you’re looking for in a man? Because
as your evening counsel, Ms. Winter, I’ll advise you that nice is
overrated.” She stares at me for several beats before turning away
to face the mountains again, elbows on the railing, in what I could
see as a silent invitation to leave. I choose to see it as an
invitation to join her. I claim the spot next to her, close, but not
nearly as close as I will be soon. “You didn’t answer the
question,” I point out. “You wrongly assume I am looking for a
man, which I’m not,” she says, glancing over at me. “But if I
was, then no. Nice would be on my list but it would not top my list,
however, nowhere on that list would be the ability, and willingness,
to rip out someone’s throat.” “I can assure you, Ms. Winter,
that a man with a bite is as underrated as a nice guy is overrated.
And I not only know how, and when, to use mine, but if I so choose to
biteyou, and I might, it’ll be all about pleasure, not pain.”
Her cheeks flush and she turns away. “My name is Faith.” She
glances over at me again. “Should I call you Nick, Tiger, or just
plain arrogant?” “Anything but Mr. Rogers,” I say, enjoying our
banter far more than I would have expected when I came here tonight
looking for her. She laughs now too, and it’s a delicate, sweet
sound, but it’s awkward, as if it’s not only unexpected, but
unwelcome, and an instant later she’s withdrawing, pushing off the
railing, arms folding protectively in front of her body, before we’re
rotating to face each other. “I need to go check on the visitors.”
She attempts to move away. I gently catch her arm, her gaze rocketing
to mine, and in the process her hair flutters in a sudden breeze, a
strand of blonde silk catching on the whiskers of my one-day stubble.
She sucks in a breath, and when she would reach up to remedy the
situation, I’m already there, catching the soft silk and stroking
it behind her ear. “Why are you touching me?” she asks, but she
doesn’t pull away, that charge between us minutes ago now ten times
more provocative with me touching her, thinking about all the places
I might touch next. “It’s considerably better than not touching
you,” I say. “My bad luck might bleed into you.” “Bleed,” I
repeat, that word reminding me once again of why I’m here, why I
really want to fuck this woman. “That’s an extreme, and rather
interesting choice of words.” “Most bad luck is extreme, though
not interesting to anyone but the Tigers of the world, creating it.
You’re still touching me.” “Everyone needs a Tiger in their
corner. Maybe my good luck will bleed into you.” “Does good luck
bleed?” she asks. “Many people will do anything for good luck,
even bleed.” “Yes,” she says, lowering her lashes, but not
before I’ve seen the shadows in her eyes. “I suppose they would.”
“What would you do for good luck?” Her lashes lift, her stare
meeting mine again. “What have you done for good luck?” “I came
here tonight,” I say. She narrows her eyes on me, as if some part
of her senses, the far-reaching implications of my reply that she
can’t possibly understand, and yet still, the inescapable heat
between us radiates and burns. “You’re still touching me,” she
points out, and this time there’s a hint of reprimand. “Holding
onto that luck,” I say. “It feels like you’re holding onto
mine.” With that observation that hits too close to the truth, I
have no interest in revealing just yet, I drag my hand slowly down
hers, allowing my fingers to find hers before they fall away. Her
lips, lush, tempting, impossibly perfect for someone I know to be
imperfect, part with the loss of my touch, and yet there is a hint of
relief in her eyes that tells me she both wants me and fears me. A
most provocative moment, indeed. “Have a drink with me,” I say.
“No,” she replies, her tone absolute, and while I don’t like
this decision, I appreciate a person who’s decisive. “Why?”
“Good luck and bad luck don’t mix.” “They might just create
good luck.” “Or bad,” she says. “I’m not in a place where I
can take the risk for more bad luck.” She inclines her chin. “Enjoy
the rest of your visit.” She pauses and adds, “Tiger.” I don’t
react, but for just a moment, I consider the way she used my nickname
as an indicator that she knows who I am, and why I’m here. I
quickly dismiss that idea. I’d have seen it in those pale green
eyes, and I did not. But as she turns and walks away, and I watch her
depart, tracking her steps as she disappears down the path, I wonder
at her quick departure, and the fear I’d seen in her eyes. Was the
root of that fear her guilt? That idea should be enough to ice the
fire in me that this woman has stirred, but it stokes it instead.
Everything male in me wants to pursue her again, and not because I’m
here for a reason that existed before I ever met her, when it should
be that and nothing more. It is more. I’m aroused and I’m
intrigued by this woman. She got to me when no one gets to me. Not a
good place to be, considering I came here to prove she killed my
father, and maybe even her own mother.
Book two: SHAMELESS will be out on July
11th!
Pre-Order
notification: http://bit.ly/2nocwgZ
New York Times and USA Today
bestselling author Lisa Renee Jones is the author of the highly
acclaimed INSIDE OUT series. Suzanne Todd (producer of Alice in
Wonderland) on the INSIDE OUT series: Lisa has created a beautiful,
complicated, and sensual world that is filled with intrigue and
suspense. Sara’s character is strong, flawed, complex, and sexy - a
modern girl we all can identify with. In addition to the success of
Lisa's INSIDE OUT series, Lisa has published many successful titles.
The TALL, DARK AND DEADLY series and THE SECRET LIFE OF AMY BENSEN
series, both spent several months on a combination of the New York
Times and USA Today bestselling lists. Lisa is presently working on a
dark, edgy new series, Dirty Money, for St. Martin's Press. Prior to
publishing Lisa owned multi-state staffing agency that was recognized
many times by The Austin Business Journal and also praised by the
Dallas Women's Magazine. In 1998 Lisa was listed as the #7 growing
women owned business in Entrepreneur Magazine. Lisa loves to hear
from her readers. You can reach her at www.lisareneejones.com and
she is active on Twitter and Facebook daily.
Amazon: http://amzn.to/2kWFra1
Twitter: @LisaReneeJones
Stay in touch with Lisa by joining her mailing list:
Website: http://lisareneejones.com
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