Excerpt
“Dani-girl.” His voice, that rich rumble of masculine
excellence, washes over me and I shiver again before cursing under my
breath. The rumble of his low laughter
tells me that he definitely didn’t miss that little move.
Kill me
now.
“Hey,
Coh,” I say with a smile. “What brings
you in? Last minute, I might add.” I pat the chair before walking around and
holding the back while he sits down.
When his
scent hits my nose, I almost come on the spot.
Lord, he smells good. I wonder
what he would smell like while his body covered mine, all sweaty from hours of
good lovemaking. I run my fingers
through the longer lengths on the top and feel my cheeks heat slightly,
thinking about doing the same when his face is buried between my legs.
“…needed
a trim.”
Shit. I missed what he said because, naturally, I
was thinking about him naked. Naked and
thrusting into my body. Naked and
feasting between my spread thighs.
“You
feeling okay? I thought Nate said you
were better?”
“Uh, I’m
fine. Just—is it hot in here?” I fan my face and avoid his eyes.
He’s
silent, so I take that as a sign that it’s safe to bring my attention back to
him.
Big
mistake there. His knowing eyes are
boring right into mine. The chocolate
depths sparkling in a way that makes it clear he has a good idea about where my
mind was going.
“Did you
hear what I said, Dani-girl?”
“Of
course I did, Cohen. What, did you think
I was standing here daydreaming?” I joke.
“Well,
yeah, that’s exactly what I think.” His
eyes darken and he smirks a devilish grin.
“Did you know you talk in your sleep, Dani?” he asks, and I drop my
comb.
Oh,
God. Shut up, shut up, shut up. This is not happening. No way.
“No, I
don’t,” I childishly snap.
“Dani,
you do. So, yeah, I do think you were
standing there daydreaming. Want to know
why?” He uses his booted foot to move
his chair so that he’s facing me, and then he leans in so that his face is
dangerously close to mine. Even when
he’s seated, his head is almost level with my own. Curse my horizontally challenged self. “While you were zoning off into space with
your fingers running through my hair, you had this smile on your lips. The same smile you had the other day when you
were dreaming. About me, Dani. And don’t deny it, because you don’t moan my
name if you’re dreaming about another man.
Yes, Dani, you very much do talk in your sleep.” He smiles again before leaning back and
looking down to his phone. “Clean up my
neck please, cut the length off the top, and give me a buzz on the sides. Other than that, you’re clear to continue
with your thoughts.”
I must
have been standing there like an idiot because he looks up from his phone,
laughs to himself, and, with one tan hand, reaches out and pushes my mouth
closed.
“You’re
going to catch flies that way, Dani-girl.
One day, maybe you can clue me in on what those dreams are about.”
Drives me
insane, the control he has over me.
There isn’t a single person in the world, other than Cohen, who can turn
me into a ridiculously stupid, sputtering fool.
My normal confidence disappears.
And clearly, he isn’t as oblivious to my feelings as I originally
thought.
How in
the hell am I supposed to handle this?
Wait a
minute. Cohen or not, I’m not going to
let him pull my strings when I know he is just doing this to make me feel
uncomfortable.
So, time
to call his bluff.
“Why? You planning on doing something about it?”
He looks
up sharply, clearly not having expected me to actually say something in return
since he was going for shock value.
“Try me,”
he demands, his voice thick and even deeper than normal.
I throw
my head back and reach out to run my fingers thought his hair again, just
barely suppressing the shivers. Curling
my fingers slightly so that I can grab a good hold, I lean in and pull his head
back at the same time. With my nose just
a hair away from his and our breaths mingling together, I say, “Cohen, you
couldn’t handle the truth of my thoughts when it comes to you and we both know
it. So how about you let me know when
you’re ready for me to clue you in.” I give his hair a light tug and smile when he
swallows loudly and shifts in his seat.
“Ready for that trim?” I ask with a wink, and I’m rewarded with his
groan.
I have no
idea how I do it, but I manage to get through his cut without coming
unglued. I can see Lyn trying to get my
attention from across the room. Stella
had to leave after she overheard my words to Cohen because her giggles were
getting the best of her. Cohen has
remained silent the whole time. His eyes
though… They’re speaking louder than his
words ever could.
They
haven’t left my reflection in the mirror since I started. I can feel them every time I shift. When I stopped to go grab another comb after
I dropped my fourth one, I felt his gaze follow me across the room to Stella’s
station. The few times I stopped cutting
to meet his eyes, the heated promise written all over his face almost did me
in. I almost just said ‘fuck it’ and
climbed on his lap to have a go regardless of the people watching our every
move.
I finish
the last buzz of my clippers around his right ear and move to brush all the
stray hair off. “All done,” I say softly
and unclip his cape.
He
stands, shoving his phone in the back pocket of his jeans, and walks over to
stand in front of me. I continue to
pretend I’m busy with the cape I just removed, brushing stray hairs off here
and there, when his hand comes up, his finger and thumb hitting my chin, and my
face is lifted until I have no choice but to look in his eyes.
“Do not
tease me, Dani. It’s not a game you want
to play if you don’t intend to follow through.”
“I-I
wasn’t… I wouldn’t,” I stammer.
“You did,
and I have no doubt you’ll have the brilliant idea to do it again. The next time you allude to those dirty
thoughts I know you have about me, don’t think for a second that I won’t drag
you to the closest bed to show you just how fucking dirty they’ll get.” He leans close, his scent hitting my
nostrils, and I involuntarily inhale deeply, earning me a rumbled chuckle. “What you don’t know, Dani—because contrary
to what you think, you don’t know me well enough to assume what having me would
really be like. But I promise you this:
every little thought that you have had that causes you to moan my name while
scissoring those perfect legs back and forth, praying for completion—it would
be so much hotter than you could ever imagine.”
He gives me a soft, sweet kiss against my temple that has fire racing
from that spot all over my body until it ends in the awareness that I’m pretty
sure I just came in my pants.
Unexpected Fate by Harper Sloan
Prologue
“Axel Reid, don’t you
dare!” my mom exclaims. Then she yelps
when my daddy charges through the front door.
“Don’t I dare what,
Princess? No way that boy is going near my girl.
Look at him! He looks like he
can’t wait to creep on my daughter!”
“Well, there is no need to
scare him to death!” she mocks.
My cheeks heat instantly
when I see Dane start backing away from the porch. My hopes of being able to actually go to my senior prom are starting to go
up in flames.
Poof.
Just like that.
Not that I should be
surprised about it. Mom did her best to
calm Daddy down, but we should have known better. He took one look at me and stormed over, only
to return ten minutes later looking like he does now.
So embarrassing.
“You need to stop this
nonsense right now, you big lug, or you’ll be sleeping on the couch,” Mom
fumes.
“Like hell I will, woman!”
Daddy roars at my mom.
I watch her face get
sharp. He stops long enough to sling one
of—that’s right, ONE of—the rifles he’s carrying over his shoulder, where it
lands next to the other one he already has over his other shoulder.
Only my mom would be brave
enough to deal with him when he’s in “Protect Dani from everything with a
penis” mode. He looks absolutely
ridiculous. He has two hunting rifles
now hanging by their leather straps over each shoulder. He has two handguns strapped to each thick
thigh, two on each side of his belt, and various knives along the way. His shirt, which he thinks is hilarious to
wear when I attempt to go out on a date, says I kill things…and eat them.
I know it’s a hunting shirt—for animals, not teenage boys—but Dane
doesn’t.
Mom moves in front of him,
standing in the front doorway and blocking his path, where Dane is still slowly
retreating. She’s been dealing with this
way before they even had me.
He’s…protective. I guess that’s
the nicest way to put it. Well, she
calls him protective. However, I call it
possessive, overbearing, controlling, demanding, and jerky.
“This is her senior prom,
Ax. You wouldn’t let her go last year.”
She pauses when he grunts. “And I’m sorry, but you won’t be stopping her this
year. She has a right to experience
this. And Dane is a nice boy. Right, Dane?” she yells over her shoulder.
“Uhh…” he stammers, causing
my daddy to grunt some more.
“The boy doesn’t even know
how to talk, Izzy. I bet he will be
nothing but handsy and think with his little pecker. Nope.
No way. Not near my baby girl.”
Oh. My.
God. I wish I could just fall
into a hole right now. I try to see over
my parents to find out if Dane heard that, but with Daddy basically being a
giant, that’s not happening.
“You did not just say
that!” I yell at his back.
Daddy turns around, his
movements awkward with how many weapons he has strapped to his body. His green eyes, so like my own, slant and
harden. He looks down at my dress for
the thousandth time since I came downstairs and doesn’t even bother hiding his
displeasure that it’s showing too much of my body. Even if it is about as tasteful as it gets.
My strapless, red dress has
a sweetheart neckline, and everything he calls my “girly bits” is covered. There isn’t really any cleavage. Well, okay, there is some, but surely with my
lack of being busty, you couldn’t even call what is showing “cleavage.” His
first problem was with how much of my legs was showing. Then I made the mistake of turning around
without my wrap on. That’s when he saw
that the dress was completely backless to my bra line. Well, what it would be if I had been wearing
one. Which is clearly when he lost his
mind.
“You look just like your
mother did that night twenty years ago when we finally came back to each
other. Right down to those strappy shoe
things. And I guarantee you, Danielle Reid, any teenage boy who doesn’t bat for
the other team will be thinking thoughts I’ll cut his dick off for. No.
You aren’t going with that boy, and that’s final.”
I harden my eyes, and his
narrow even further.
I put my hands on my hips,
and he squares his shoulders, his rifles clinking together.
I raise one brow, and he
mirrors the action.
“Daddy.”
“Dani.”
“I’ll cry.”
“No, you won’t. You have more balls than that.”
“Want to bet?” I attempt to muster up some tears, knowing
that he won’t be able to handle them, but before I can force the first one out,
my brother jumps into my line of sight and blocks our standoff.
“Yo, Dane! You just run along now. Dani is unfortunately feeling a little under
the weather. Ebola. Or the flu. I don’t
know. It’s really ugly and you probably
don’t want to be around this. The boils—they
could pop at any moment.”
“You did not just do that,”
I heatedly whisper, fuming at his nerve.
Nate turns and smirks at
me. “Oh I just did.”
“I can’t believe you
two!” I spin to look at the one person
who can help me. “Mom, seriously?”
Her expression softens, and
she just shakes her head. “I’m sorry,
Dani. I tried.”
“You two,” I start,
pointing between my older brother and father.
“You just can’t leave it alone?
I’ll be eighteen in a few months.
What are you jerks going to do then?”
“You’re not dating,
Danielle. Not ever.”
“Oh yeah, Daddy? And how realistic is that crap?”
“Watch your mouth, little
princess.”
“Mom?”
“I’m so sorry, Dani.” She walks over and wraps me in her small
arms.
I could probably really cry
now a lot easier than when I was trying to fake it, but I’ve never been one of
those girls who weep constantly. It
would be easier to just go upstairs, take off the dress mom and I spent hours
looking for, scrub off the light makeup she helped me apply, and pretend this
night didn’t happen.
***
An hour later, I’m sitting
in my bedroom, still wearing my perfect dress.
My makeup is still done and my hair is still flowing in long waves. And I’m no less mad at the men in my life
than I was earlier. I’ve considered
climbing out my window. I’ve considered
asking my best friends, Lyn and Lila, to come help me escape. But what would be the point? Rambo-Dad already scared away my date, the
only boy left in school who had been willing to ask me even though his friends
had warned him about my father.
I lie down on my bed and
stare up at the ceiling. Maybe I should
go away for college. I planned on living
at home while I attended Georgia Tech, but there is no way I can deal with this
stuff any longer. If my father had
things his way, I would be shipped off to become a nun. Or he would buy an island and make it an
all-girls cult.
“Uhggggg!” I yell to the
empty room.
“Seriously, Dani-girl,
things can’t be that bad.”
I jump up when I hear the
deep, gravelly, insanely sexy voice coming from my bedroom door. That voice.
My lord. The things it alone does
to me should be classified as illegal.
My hair slaps me in the
face, a good handful landing in my open mouth, and I hastily pull it out before
I turn to where he is standing.
My lord, he’s
beautiful. He’s always been. My heart speeds up when I take in his
smirking face and the mischief dancing in his brown eyes.
“Cat got your tongue?”
I shake my head.
“Speechless?”
I shake it again.
“Do you really have some
flesh-eating, boil-slash-Ebola-like sickness?” he laughs.
I narrow my eyes at him,
and his rich laughter booms through the room.
“I’m just kidding,
Dani-girl. Come on. Get yourself ready
and let’s go rock this prom.”
My jaw drops again. “What?”
For the first time, I
notice that he’s dressed in a perfectly tailored tux. My eyes travel down his tall form to his
shining, black dress shoes. On the way
back up, my eyes hit the corsage spinning around his finger before I look back
up into those gorgeous eyes.
“Let’s go, beautiful.”
“Does Daddy know you’re
here?” I ask, not moving from my spot.
He sighs, steps into my
room, and walks over. His cologne, Gucci
Black, wraps around me. He’s worn the
same scent for years. I perversely sniff
it every time I hit the mall with Lyn and Lila.
That scent—it’s my undoing.
He grabs one of my hands
and gives my knuckles a kiss before placing the corsage around my wrist. He gives my hand a squeeze before letting
go. Placing his strong hands on my shoulders,
he presses down until I’m seated on my bed.
Kneeling before me, he takes my feet one by one and fastens the straps
of my black heels before standing and grabbing my hands, again, to pull me to
my feet.
The whole time, I act like
a freak and just gape at him.
What in the hell is going
on?
“Ready?” he asks.
“Uhhh…”
“Right. You’re ready,” he
laughs, grabs my hand, and pulls me through the house, down the stairs, and
into the entryway of the house, where my parents are waiting.
Mom has her camera ready,
forcing us to take some pictures, for all of which I’m sure I’m just standing
there in a daze. I think I smiled in
them, but I was too busy trying to figure out what the hell is going on. Daddy smiles big and triumphantly the whole
time, like he’s won some battle here.
“Oh, good. You got here,” Nate mumbles through a
sandwich he’s stuffing down his throat.
I shake out of my stunned
stupor and look over at him. “You did
this?” I ask with disbelief.
“Well, duh. Can’t have my little sister miss her prom
because of some boils. Plus, I knew this
guy,” he says, pointing at our father, “wouldn’t mind him.” He takes another bite
before he looks over my shoulder. “And I
know he isn’t going to try to pet the
cat.”
“Nathaniel Gregory!” Mom
gasps.
“What? Why do you think Dad acts like he does? Just because I’m willing to say the words
doesn’t mean you have to freak out.”
I look over at my mom, who
has turned bright red.
Daddy laughs at her
embarrassment and pulls her into his arms.
“Are you sure we didn’t drop that one a few times as a baby?”
She slaps his hard stomach
and shakes her head. “You look beautiful, honey. Have fun, okay?”
I smile at her and move my
eyes to Daddy to judge his mood.
He just smiles at me. “I
trust him. He won’t let any of those pimple-faced,
prepubescent boys touch a beautiful hair on your head. Have fun, sweetheart.”
I walk over and give them
both a hug, standing up on my toes as far as a can to whisper my gratitude in
his ear. He’s annoying, overprotective,
and possessive of his girls, but I love him and I know he comes from a good
place.
“Uh, excuse me? Do I not get any little-sister love
here? I’m the one running this show, you
know?”
“You’re such a dork, Nate,”
I laugh and give him a hug before turning back to my date.
He’s standing by the door,
talking in low tones to my daddy. I
can’t hear him, but he’s still smiling, so I’m guessing there isn’t any talk
about dismemberment going on. He looks
over, his smile deepening and the lines around his eyes crinkling. Something moves behind his eyes that darkens
them slightly, but he looks back over at Daddy, finishing up their
conversation.
“Ready, Dani-girl?” he asks
a few minutes later, making my heart speed up again.
Holy. Crap.
“Yeah. I’m ready.” Or at least as ready as I’ll ever be.
**
That night, while dancing
to Brett Young’s “Kiss by Kiss,” I knew I would never be the same. I could feel the jealous waves coming off
every female in the room as he held
me in his arms. Of course, I had a man
and not a boy as my date. Five years
older than I am and very obviously not a teenager.
Being held in his arms was
a dream come true. His scent invaded my
lungs with every inhale. His eyes
twinkled as his smile held me hostage. I
knew I would never love a man as much as I love him.
Yeah. That was the night I confirmed what I had
always known. What I had always felt.
Cohen Cage owned my heart
and I never wanted it back.
Meet Cohen & Danielle in the newest
stand alone
in the Hope Town Series by Harper Sloan!
Unexpected Fate by Harper SloanMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Harper Sloan has nailed it with Unexpected Fate! What an amazing start to her new series. There are so many things I loved about this book. The author really knows how to write a storyline that will pull you in, I found myself glued to the pages! It is almost as if fate is against Dani and Cohen, there are a few obstacles that seem to keep them apart and need to be resolved before they can have their happy ending and from the beginning you are going to root for them to overcome them all. I kind of went on a little rollercoaster ride of emotions while reading this book. “When it comes to love, it’s always worth the sacrifice. Always.” I couldn’t agree more.
Cohen definitely lives up to his Corps Security predecessors, he is one naughty boy and sexy as hell alpha, there is no doubt he is Greg Cages boy! The sex is intense, passionate and hot, you won’t be left disappointed.
I loved that we got to see all of the Corps guys, especially Axel (he is my ultimate bbf). As much as this was a book about Dani and Cohen it was a book about their families too. The relationship between Axel and Dani is heartwarming and full of lol moments.
If you are a fan of Harper’s then there is no question about it, you must get this book. If you haven’t read any of her books before then this is a great place to start! A hot 5 start must read.
View all my reviews
Unexpected
Fate
(Stand alone)
Have you
ever felt like you were living your life for a future that was predetermined?
Like there was some bigger picture you just prayed you would someday see
clearly? That picture has been crystal clear to me since I was old enough to
recognize it for just what it was.
Or I
should say recognize him for who he was.
I’ve
loved Cohen Cage since I was a small child. He’s been my everything for the
last twenty-two years. I’ve loved him through every girlfriend he’s ever
brought home. Through his college years and then mine. I’ve loved him through
two deployments. And ever since the day I told him how I felt, he’s acted like
I’m a stranger.
My name
is Danielle Reid, and it’s time for me to get my man.
Our
future is an unexpected fate, and no matter what our parents, siblings, and
friends say…it’s going to be worth every second of the fight to make it happen.
About the
Author:
Harper lives in small town Georgia just
a short drive from her hometown of Peachtree City. She (and her 3 daughters)
enjoy ruling the house they dubbed 'Estrogen Ocean', much to her husband’s
chagrin. Harper has a borderline unhealthy obsession with books; you can almost
ALWAYS find her with her eReader attached. She enjoys bad reality TV and cheesy
romantic flicks. Her favorite kind of hero--the super alpha kind!
Harper started using writing as a way
to unwind when the house went to sleep at night; and with a house full of crazy
it was the perfect way to just relax. It didn't take long before a head full of
very demanding alphas would stop at nothing to have their story told.
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