Social Butterfly PR is proud to team up with A.M. Hargrove & Terri E. Laine
to share their cover for A Mess of a Man
releasing March 21, 2016!
Title: A Mess Of A Man
Authors: A.M. Hargrove & Terri E. Laine
Release Date: March 21, 2016
Womanizer,
Man Whore, Player, Heartbreaker are all familiar names to Ben
Rhoades. He prefers Money Man or Sex God, but he doesn’t let other
people’s opinions rule him. And he’s only gotten worse without
his compass, his best friend, whose devastating death at a young age
has taught him a valuable lesson about not getting too close to
anyone … ever. Until one smart and stubborn woman with eye-catching
curves throws him for a loop and refuses to be tamed.
Samantha
Calhoun has her life on track even after the shattering break-up with
the guy she’d thought she’d wanted to marry. With her chin held
high, she focuses on her career, building her business and making a
success of it all. Only a chance meeting has her lost in a set of
alluring steel gray eyes that have her steps faltering and her heart
leaping out of her chest. Forewarned by not-so-flattering rumors plus
his no-holds-bar rules, she tries desperately to play his game while
guarding her heart.
Only
they have no idea of the journey they’re about to undertake when
their lives collide. Ultimately they’ll tackle the biggest test of
their lives because she is his game changer. The one, who through the
ensuing wreckage, can domesticate the mess of a man that he is.
There
is finality to the sound of the door closing behind her. A sort of
tormenting peace knowing the end has come. It’s not like I should
have expected things to go on this way for long. How could they?
I
stare holes in the walls as if I can still see her, the one woman I
let in.
Sweeter
than peach cobbler, she hardly has a bad thing to say about
anybody—until now. Her parting description of me, beginning
with ass and
ending with hole,
reverberates through my hollow heart, as I stand here rooted to my
spot. I’m not even shocked, as this isn’t the first time I’ve
been on the receiving end of that sentiment. I’m only surprised
because I don’t think I’ve ever heard her so much as mutter a
single curse word before. And the first time I do, it’s aimed
squarely at me.
My
hands tighten around a tumbler filled with amber liquid before I toss
back its contents hoping for oblivion or something close to it. This
road is so familiar. Only this time is different. I never cared like
I do now. She means more to me than a quick fuck. Hadn’t I been
about to tell her just that? How could things have gone wrong so
fast?
Don’t
be a dumbass. You can still fix this.
Instead,
I stubbornly stay embedded to my spot because nothing can change the
outcome. It’s a truth she and I know will haunt me until my last
breath. And it’s created a wall between us I’m unable to climb …
even if you gave me a damn ladder.
I’ve
never been much of a risk-taker when it comes to matters of the
heart. I can fill a bank account with a number having many zeros
behind it from my astute choices in the market. But I can’t be a
man a woman stays with. Hadn’t
I warned her about that too?
Unable
to see past my own shitty existence, I long for her to come back. I
want to believe it’s all been some kind of mistake and I can forget
what I know to be true. As the seconds continue to tick by, the
inevitability that things are really over sinks in. My window of
opportunity quickly closes as fast as her car door slams and the
engine fires to life.
She’s
so close, yet miles away. The longer I let the minutes expand between
us I know distance won’t make the heart grow fonder. But maybe it’s
for the best. Love, or whatever masquerades as it, just isn’t
enough for the dirty, fucked up truth. Right when things were better
than I ever expected, facts messed it up.
Groaning,
I launch the crystal glass worth a small fortune at the door I can’t
seem to force myself towards. A beautiful show of light plays off the
shards as they cascade down in an explosion of fireworks. Visually,
it’s what I feel inside as desolation constricts and then
obliterates my chest because the best thing I ever had is gone …
leaving me with only the certainty I’m meant to be with her.
I
love you,
I whisper for the first time and in place of goodbye. She left me and
will never hear it. I can only pray we both survive what’s to come.
A.M. HARGROVE
One
day, on her way home from work as a sales manager, A. M. Hargrove,
realized her life was on fast forward and if she didn’t do
something soon, it would quickly be too late to write that work of
fiction she had been dreaming of her whole life. So, she rolled
down the passenger window of her fabulous (not) company car and
tossed out her leather briefcase. Luckily, the pedestrian in the
direct line of fire was a dodge ball pro and had über quick reflexes
enabling him to avoid getting bashed in the head. Feeling a tad
guilty about the near miss, A. M. made a speedy turn down a
deserted side street before tossing her crummy, outdated
piece-of-you-know-what laptop out the window. She breathed a
liberating sigh of relief, picked up her cell phone, called her
boss, and quit her job. Grinning, she made another call to her hubs
and told him of her new adventure (after making sure his heart was
beating properly again).
So
began A. M. Hargrove’s career as a Naughty and Nice Romance
Author. Her books include the following: Edge of Disaster,
Shattered Edge and Kissing Fire (The Edge Series); The Guardians
of Vesturon Series (Survival, Resurrection, Determinant,
reEmergent, and Beginnings); Dark Waltz, Death Waltz, Tragically
Flawed (Tragic 1), Tragic Desires (Tragic 2), Exquisite Betrayal,
Dirty Nights; and lastly Freeing Her, Freeing Him, and
Kestrel—all part of the Hart Brothers Series.
Other
than being in love with writing about love, she loves chocolate,
ice cream, and coffee and is positive they should be added as part
of the USDA food groups.
TERRI E. LAINE
Terri E. Laine is an avid reader and the co-author of Cruel & Beautiful. When she isn’t writing romance with heart and heat, she is crazily managing a household with her husband and three kids.
