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My only love sprung from my only hate…
Ruined Juliet, an all-new emotionally charged, sports romance from USA Today bestselling author Katana Collins is now available!
I should hate Holden Dorsey after what he did to me. I want to hate Holden Dorsey.
So why can’t I stop picturing him late at night when I’m alone in bed?
I’ve worked too hard to get into this prestigious theater department and land the lead role in Romeo and Juliet. I’m not going to let anyone stand in my way… especially not my rebellious Romeo.
I should have learned my lesson the first time. I should have stayed far away from Holden.
Amidst acting in one of Shakespeare’s most notorious tragedies, we’re living our own.
Holden vowed to pick up my shattered pieces and fix me, but it’s too late.
I’m already ruined.
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“As much as I’d love to stand here and chat with you, I’m late for class.”
I move to keep walking, but with a single step to the side, she blocks my path once more. “About that. As you know, Holden needs this class and the show credit to graduate on time. And it seems that he’s been a little distracted by you these last few weeks. Since you’re only a freshman, you have plenty of time to make this class up later in your college career.”
Folding my arms, I narrow my gaze at her. “Distracted how?”
She titters a laugh that’s faker than the cubic zirconia earrings my sister gave me last year for my birthday. “Oh, you know college boys.”
“I don’t really. As you said, I’m only a freshman.”
“We got a call from his football coach that his games have been slipping a little.”
“And you think that has to do with me? Not the fact that he’s stretched really thin by taking on a second extra-curricular activity that’s very demanding?”
She pauses and gives another quiet chuckle through her nose. Makeup has settled in the few creases around her mouth that I have no doubt if she knew were there, she’d have run straight to her cosmetologist to fuel up on some botox. “My son is used to a demanding schedule. So the only variable I can see… is you.
If you care about Holden at all, you’ll quit this class. And this show.” If there was ever a kick in the pants to fuel me to get my part back… This is it. No one strong arms me out of what I want to do. One way or another, I have to convince McCay to take me back.
“Wow,” I chuckle. “Does that actually work? Playing the whole ‘if you love my son, you’ll do this for him’ game?”
“We all make sacrifices for the people we love.”
“Good point. I wonder what sacrifices Holden will make for me.”
Holden and I aren’t in love. Not by a long shot. But I revel in the shock that takes hold of Mrs. Dorsey’s expression as she realizes what I’ve just implied. “And,” I add while I’ve got her speechless, “unfortunately, the add-drop time for our semester is already over. I can’t quit the class without taking an incomplete.”
To her credit, she recovers quickly. The polite exterior has given way as she rips a checkbook out of her Louis Vuitton purse. “Classes here are what? Four thousand a semester? So, what if I give you, say, six thousand … for your troubles.”
“I can’t be bought.” My cheeks flush red at my statement. Because that’s not exactly true, Kate, is it? Holden has bought me for a heck of a lot less than that. He bought my panties. He bought my dignity. He bought my innocence.
Ignoring the shame bubbling inside me, I hold my ground firmly as she sighs. “Fine. Ten thousand, then. But for that price, I expect you to steer clear of my son for the rest of the year.”
She scribbles a check and tears it from the book, holding it out to me.
“No, thank you,” I say, folding my arms.
“Take the check.”
“I don’t want your money,” I snap. “I don’t want another penny from your freaking family.” I yank my phone out of my bag. Even though I’m officially late for class today, there might still be time to plead my case to McCay. I type out a quick email to her.“In fact, I had quit the show with Holden this morning, but just because you thought you could buy me off? I’m emailing the professor right now to rescind my resignation.”
“You have to trust me, this is for your own good,” Mrs. Dorsey pleads. “This is one part. One class. All you need to do is stay away from my son—”
“Mom!” Holden’s voice comes out of nowhere and both Mrs. Dorsey and I jump at his rumbling baritone.
Good lord, the guy is even more delicious today than usual. His dark hair is still shower-damp and his amber eyes look golden in the morning sun.
I tear my gaze away from him and force my rapidly beating heart to slow, reminding myself that Holden Dorsey stands for everything I hate about privilege and high society.
“Holden!” Mrs. Dorsey clasps the collar of her silk button down shirt. “You scared me.”
“What the fuck are you doing here?” he asks stepping between us.
Her eyes dart between Holden and me. “I-I’m here to see you, of course!” she says in a sickly sweet voice, then holds out her arms to hug Holden. “I wanted you to see I was okay despite our little chat the other night.”
“Uh-huh.” he lets her hug him, but I note the stiffness in his shoulders and the fact that he doesn’t hug her back. Instead, he yanks the check from her hand and holds it up. “And what’s this? What was all that talk the other night about your regrets? About how much you wished I would find someone special?”
I’m not sure what was said in their conversation the other night, but it’s clear it’s not my place to interject.
Mrs. Dorsey winces. “I did mean that. I do regret what we did to Megan and I want you to find someone.”
“Just not me,” I say, deadpan, then turn to look at Holden. It’s all too much. This freaking family has more money than they know what to do with and they think they can just buy people off. “Like mother, like son, huh?”
He does a double take at me, seeming confused. Of course he’s confused. When he last saw me, we were making out in a hot tub. I was about to call things off with my secret panty buyer to give it a real try with Holden.
And then, I discovered he’d been lying to me.
He is my secret panty buyer.
But he doesn’t know that I discovered his secret.
In his mind, we are still on the cusp of getting together.
Well, Holden, you have a rude awakening coming.
“One crazy thing at a time, please,” he says, then turns back to his mom. “Go home, Mom. Go back to Dad and to your martinis and your club and stay out of my love life. And feel free to pass that message onto Dad, too.”
Mrs. Dorsey looks briefly hurt. “Your father doesn’t know I’m here. But trust me, be happy I’m the one here and not him. He won’t be nearly as generous with his offer.”
He glares at her for a long moment before turning to me, holding up the check. “Do you want this?”
“No,” I hiss, not hesitating for a second to answer.
Not missing a beat, he tears up the check, tossing the pieces at his mother. “Well, there’s your answer. And next time you’re too drunk to function, call someone else to take care of you.”
“Holden—”
“I don’t want to hear it right now.”
Like a dejected child, she turns and walks back to her car, teetering on her kitten heels, leaving the two of us standing there outside my dorms.
I watch his mom get into her BMW, rev the engine and peel out of the parking spot.
A breeze catches the ends of my long blonde waves and whip them across my face. A strand gets stuck in my lip gloss and before I brush up into a ponytail, Holden reaches out, twisting his finger around the errant strand and tucking it behind my ear. Unable to stop my reaction, I shiver at the feel of his gentle touch as he asks, “Were you really going to quit the show?”
I blink, slowly, shaking off the fog that surrounds me whenever Holden's skin touches mine. “I was. Until your mom offered me money to quit. Stupid pride.” I pause and hold up my phone to show him the email I just sent to McCay. “I should have taken your mother’s ding dang money for something I was doing anyway.”
He smirks. “But you don’t like being told what to do.”
Heat blasts the apples of my cheeks. “No, I don’t.”
“Don’t quit,” he begs and I can’t help but wonder if he knows why I’ve distanced myself.
“Why shouldn’t I?” I challenge him back.
“Because you were born to play this role. Because you are Big-Juliet-Energy if I’ve ever seen it.”
Big Juliet Energy. I smile to myself and drop my gaze to the cement sidewalk. He’s one to talk. He’s got Big Romeo Energy.
Holden continues his groveling and I have to admit, it feels good. I want him on his knees begging, even if I don’t want to admit it. “Please, Katherine. If you quit, I’m going to be forced to act with Addison as my Julie.”
Wait a minute.
Wait a fluffing, forking minute.
“Why did you quit in the first place?” he asks as my gaze snaps up.
“What did you say?”
“I asked why you qui–”
“Not that. About Addison getting my part.”
He sighs. “Yeah, Addison is now officially your understudy. So if you quit, I have to do this whole show with her as my Juliet.”
No.
Addison has been trying to undermine me for weeks.
She can’t have my part.
She can’t have Holden.
I am Juliet. And Holden is my Romeo.
For more information about Katana Collins and her books, visit her website: https://katanacollins.com
Adriana Locke has revealed the gorgeous covers for Pulse!
Releasing: May 13, 2024
Cover Design: Kari March Designs
Photographer: Michelle Lancaster
USA Today bestselling author Adriana Locke delivers a spicy, age gap, grumpy sunshine, workplace romance in the first book in the brand new Landry Security series.
Troy Castelli acts like it’s my fault that we’re cooped up together in a room with one bed overlooking the ocean. I didn’t ask for a stalker to break into my house and then send me a threatening email detailing my demise. And I sure as heck didn’t request that my boss send Troy and his uber elite bodyguard skills to accompany me out of town—although I’m not mad about it.
A paid tropical vacation with a grumpy, gray-eyed bad boy in a suit isn’t exactly a burden.
But it is a giant test of my willpower.
Troy’s alpha protector tendencies drive me wild. His arrogant smirk gets under my skin. But it’s his not-so-innocent touches, heated looks and touch-her-and-die vibes that are the final strike that ignite our explosive chemistry.
The longer we’re together, the more his broody exterior slips, and I get a glimpse of the real man beneath the sculpted muscles. I’m determined not only to unearth his mysterious past but also to make him realize what we have is more than just a fling in paradise.
That is, unless my stalker gets me first.
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Meet Adriana
USA Today and Amazon Charts Bestselling author, Adriana Locke, writes contemporary romances about the two things she knows best—big families and small towns. Her stories are about ordinary people finding extraordinary love with the perfect combination of heart, heat, and humor.
She loves connecting with readers, fall weather, football, reading alpha heroes, everything pumpkin, and pretending to garden.
Hailing from a tiny town in the Midwest, Adriana spends her free time with her high school sweetheart (who she married over twenty years ago) and their four sons (who truly are her best work). Her kitchen may be a perpetual disaster, and if all else fails, there is always pizza.
Connect with Adriana
Website: www.adrianalocke.com
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An enchanting tale of secrets, betrayal, and magic…
Penniless and stranded in France after a bid to escape her cruel uncle goes awry, Cornelia Shaw is far from the Parisian life of leisure she imagined. Desperate and lacking options, she allows herself to be recruited to Napoleon’s Grande ArmĂ©e. As a naturalist, her near-magical ability to heal any wound with herbal mixtures invites awe amongst the soldiers…and suspicion. For behind Cornelia’s vast knowledge of the natural world is a secret she keeps hidden—the flowers speak to her through a mysterious connection she has felt since childhood. One that her mother taught her to heed, before she disappeared.
Then, as Napoleon’s army descends on Waterloo, the flowers sing to her of a startling revelation: a girl who bears a striking resemblance to Cornelia. A girl she almost remembers—her sister, lost long ago, who seems to share the same gifts. Determined to reunite with Lijsbeth despite being on opposite sides of the war, Cornelia is drawn into a whirlwind of betrayal, secrets, and lies. Brought together by fate and magic at the peak of the war, the sisters try to uncover the key to the source of the power that connects them as accusations of witchcraft swirl and threaten to destroy the very lives they’ve fought for.
“The Book of Thorns is a gentle, magical tale of hope and healing in the midst of war. Fox does not hide from the fact that for all the romance surrounding Bonaparte’s exploits, nobody who fought at Waterloo came out unscathed, whether they were breathing by battle’s end or not. But Fox also reminds us that, even in fields tilled by cavalry charges and fertilized with gunpowder, flowers can grow.” –BOOKPAGE
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BEGONIA: a favor repaid, a warning foretold, a promise delivered in darkness.
Sussex, England, February 1815
I
can feel Betsy watching me from the doorway.
She hovers like a bee, rehearsing some small speech in whispers. I pretend not to notice her fidgeting and instead focus on the vase of narcissi before me, the weight of my pencil in my hand. Betsy clears her throat, twice, but I am already arcing out the path of the dainty stems and unfurling petals. There is something calming about reducing the flowers to splashes of grays and blacks, finding beauty in the absence of light.
Betsy lets out a throaty cough. “You might as well come in and be done with it,” I tell her without looking up.
“Yes, miss.” She drops a curtsy, her gray ringlets bouncing under her cap. “It’s just that there’s a man in the drawing room with your uncle, miss, and your uncle asks that you join them.”
I continue sketching, watching the frilly petals take shape on my paper. “Please make my excuses,” I tell her. Uncle likes to bring me out when he has business meetings, the same way he sets out the good claret and crystal goblets with the old family crest. With no wife and no children of his own, I make a pretty addition and bring a touch of softness to his otherwise hard demeanor. “There’s a cake in the kitchen and cold ham as well that you might bring them,” I add as an afterthought.
But Betsy doesn’t leave. She wrings her hands and tuts about like a fussing hen. “No, miss. He’s for you.”
I carefully set aside my pencil. This is what I was afraid of. Closing my eyes, I rub my temples, wishing that it was anything else besides this. My time is not even my own, and I hate being pulled out of my work just to oblige Uncle.
“Very well.” I dismiss Betsy and take a moment in front of the mirror in the hall. Uncle’s friends and associates are mostly stodgy old men, but there is always the possibility that it could be someone young, someone exciting. I pinch roses into my cheeks and tease out a few of my yellow curls. If have control of nothing else in this house, I at least can take pride in my appearance.
I take a deep breath and let myself into the drawing room. “Betsy said you wanted me, sir?”
Uncle stands and tugs at his waistcoat. “Cornelia, come in.”
Though not more than fifty years in age, his poor temper and taste for rich food and drink has left my uncle with a ruddy complexion and portly figure. He is not a healthy man, and his jowls are loose, his complexion jaundiced. What he lacks in polished comportment, though, he makes up in his wardrobe, opting for elaborate cravats and showy brocaded waistcoats that never quite fit him but speak of money and an account in good standing at the tailor. Uncle waves me over, impatient. “Come meet Mr. Reeves.”
Obedient, I come and position myself near the window where I know the soft gray light is especially flattering to my fair complexion. The man unfolds himself from his chair. He is tall and spare, his black frockcoat well-cut and his boots shined. He looks familiar, perhaps from church or one of Uncle’s interminable business dinners. I suppose some might consider him handsome, but there is an intensity in his dark eyes that is more predatory than charming. “Miss Cornelia,” he says, taking my hand and bowing over it, “a pleasure.”
“Mr. Reeves.” I withdraw my hand. “I hope my uncle is not boring you with land yields and livestock accounts.”
He shares a confidential look with my uncle. “On the contrary. Our conversation has been on the most enjoyable of topics.”
“He’s here to see you,” Uncle says, plowing straight into the heart of the matter as he always does. “Mr. Reeves comes as a suitor.”
Uncle makes the outcome of this meeting perfectly clear in the sharp downturn of his lips. His patience with the matter of my marital status is wearing thin.
Well, that makes two of us.
I don’t fancy marriage, but I certainly don’t fancy spending one more day than I have to under my uncle’s roof, either. My dreams of publishing a book remain foggy and out of reach, and the money from my illustrations published in a French newspaper under a nom de plume pays only a pittance. It is not enough to live on, and certainly not enough for a young woman who enjoys fine things and an easy life. A husband would solve at least two of my problems, but it would create a host more.
“I’ll leave you two alone to talk,” Uncle says, cutting me with a look that says there will be hell to pay if I emerge from this room without securing an engagement.
The air usually lightens, the room sighing a breath of relief, when Uncle leaves, but Mr. Reeves’s presence prickles me under my stays, makes me fidgety.
Betsy is posted outside the door, her needles softly clacking as she knits some horrid bonnet or muffler. Outside, a fine mist has rolled over the gentle Sussex hills. A smile spreads over Mr. Reeves’s sharp features. “Your uncle says you’re a spirited filly. That you need a strong hand to break you.”
Ah, so it is to go like that, then. I pour a cup of tea, ignoring my guest’s outstretched hand, instead lifting the cup to my lips. “That does sound like the sort of nonsense my uncle would say.”
Mr. Reeves regards me, his dark eyes calculating. “Your uncle was right, but I think he also underestimated you. I can see you possess some wits, so I’ll not mince words.” He crosses his long legs. “I am looking for a wife, and your uncle is looking to expand his landholdings to the south of the county.”
If the man who has sat down across from me was meek, pliable, then perhaps I would have more patience in hearing his suit; I don’t need someone who will get underfoot or try to handle me. Even some doddering old lord who might die quickly and leave me a widow would be acceptable. But Mr. Reeves is irritatingly young and looks to be in good health.
“My uncle was mistaken. I am not in need of a husband.” I offer him a cold smile, my mind already back on my flowers, my fingers itching to hold my pencil. The light has shifted with the gathering clouds, and I will have to rework my shading.
He pours himself a cup of tea. “Come, wouldn’t you like to have a fine house? Be mistress of a whole host of servants? I can see that you enjoy some degree of freedom, and I can give you that. You will have a mare and a generous allowance.”
“I should think it would be terribly lowering to have to lure a wife into one’s home with promises of horses and gowns. Shouldn’t you rather wish her to come of her own volition because she holds you in some esteem?”
“You are naive if you think that marriage is anything other than a business transaction. You are a young woman of beauty and some small means but a drain on your guardian. I am an enterprising man, with successful business dealings and a good bloodline looking for a wife who will elevate his status and ornament his home. I hold a commission in the army and anticipate traveling to the Continent shortly. It is a good deal for you, and you would be hard-pressed to find a better one, especially with your lack of polish and manners.”
“It’s a little late to be going over to the Continent, isn’t it? I believe we quite vanquished Napoleon.”
Irritation animates his dark eyes before he glances away, taking what I suspect is an intentionally long sip of his tea.
I study him over the rim of my cup, imagining the way I would draw the sharp angle of his chin, the aquiline nose, before finally placing where I’ve seen him. “You were married before, were you not?”
There is an almost imperceptible stiffening of his body. “Yes, I make no secret of the fact that I am a widower,” he says shortly.
“And how, exactly, did your first wife die?” The roses in the vase on the table beside me are vibrating, warning me. I pretend not to notice, pretend that I am a normal young woman who does not receive messages from flowers.
His lips thin. “An unfortunate fall.”
“Mm. She did not bear you any children, did she?”
“Barren.” He tugs at his cravat, irritated. “You would do well not to let your ear wander to every housemaid that has a piece of gossip to peddle,” he says coldly.
“In any case, I am not interested.” I move to put my cup down, but a hand closes around my wrist, hard. I look up to find that he has leaned in close, his breath hot on my neck.
“Perhaps you’ve also heard that I have certain…proclivities.”
The roses in the vase strain toward me, singing, setting my teeth on edge. My fingers begin to tremble, but I do not let him see it. “Why would you tell me that?”
“Because I think, dear girl, that you are under the impression that I would use you poorly.” He leans back, but only slightly, the air around him still charged and menacing. “I can be a very hard man when I’m tested, but I can take my pleasures elsewhere, so long as my wife is obedient.”
His gaze is sharp, his grip painful, and I realize that here is a dangerous man, one who is not just a brute but also clever. He cannot be fobbed off with witty barbs or batting eyelashes.
“This conversation bores me,” I tell him, standing. “I will not be your wife. I’m sorry that you wasted your time in coming here.”
But he makes no move to stand, his cool gaze sliding over me in a way that leaves me feeling horribly exposed. “I’ve seen you often, Cornelia. In church, sitting so demurely with your hands folded in your lap. You may think to have everyone else fooled, but I see the spirit in your eyes. A woman like you can never be satisfied with the life of a spinster, put on a shelf here in Sussex. I can offer you fine things, take you to exciting places abroad with me.”
And I’ve seen you, I think. I’ve seen how cruelly you used your first wife, the bruises on her pretty face. The way she faded little by little every week in church, until she was just a ghost in a dress, her final service that of her funeral. That will not be me.
“Surely there are other young ladies that would be flattered by your attentions,” I tell him.
“None so beautiful, none that I would take so much pleasure in breaking. The more you deny me, the more determined I am. Ask your uncle. I am a man who gets what he wants, one way or another.”
All the promise of gold or Continental trips would not be enough to tempt any marriage-minded mama to let her daughter enter into an arrangement with a man like Mr. Reeves. But of course, I have no mama to arrange such matters for me, to keep me safe.
“Then, perhaps it was time you lose for a change. Do you not find it dull to always get what you expect?”
He stands, drawing close and jabbing a finger into my bodice. It takes some great force of will to stand my ground and not let him see my fear. “You may think yourself clever, but this visit was just a courtesy. Your uncle and I have all but drawn up the contract already.”
He storms out, and the room grows quiet in the wake of the front door slamming. Betsy startles from her seat where she had fallen to dozing. I close my eyes, take a breath, wait until my heartbeat grows even again. Then I return to my waiting drawing in the parlor.
If I work quickly, I can still finish it and have it ready for tomorrow’s post. But for now, there is no waiting publisher, no silly French pseudonym; it is just the light and the shadows and me, a silent dance as I commit them to paper. Mr. Reeves and his odious proposal quickly fade away from my mind.
But then a raised voice shatters the silence, breaking my concentration, and there is the thundering velocity of Uncle coming down the hall.
Excerpted from THE BOOK OF THORNS by Hester Fox. Copyright © 2024 by Hester Fox. Published by Graydon House, an imprint of HarperCollins.