RELEASE DAY: MAY 28,
2015
Rules of the game:
1) Never underestimate your opponent
2) Avoid personal fouls
3) Score early and often
4) Play or get played
Coach Marcus Leon has always played by the rules…until he
meets Addaline Grace, the seventeen-year-old senior transfer on his Oak Crest
High water polo team. Addie changes all the rules, mostly because she doesn’t
play any games. But as off limits as she is, the more Marcus discovers about
Addie, the more he finds himself…and the more he questions whether Addie might
just be worth risking everything for.
For Addie, water polo is anger management. She’s driven and
focused because it keeps her mind off other things…like the fact she destroyed
her family. Her game plan is to keep her head down and graduate so she can
leave her father and the crappy town he dragged her to in her wake. But when
what starts as friendly completion with Marcus turns into more than a game,
Addie has to decide if she’s willing to face down her demons…and possibly ruin
the man she may or may not be falling in love with in the process.
What happens when the only thing you need is the one thing
you can’t have?
About the
Author
Mia Storm is a hopeless romantic who is always searching for
her happy ending. Sometimes she’s forced to make one up. When that happens,
she’s thrilled to be able to share those stories with her readers. She lives in
California and spends much of her time in the sun with a book in one hand and a
mug of black coffee in the other, or hiking the trails in Yosemite. Connect
with her online at MiaStormAuthor.blogspot.com , on Twitter at @MiaStormAuthor,
and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/MiaStormAuthor
GETTING DIRTY (Jail Bait #1)
Dirty
A
poem by Blaire Leon
If
sex is dirty, why would I do it with someone I love?
If
sex is dirty, then didn’t we all come from the dirt?
What
if I like the dirt?
What
if I want to get dirty?
What
if I want to roll in the mud until I’m so fucking filthy that I’ll never be
clean again?
When
twenty-five-year-old graduate assistant Caiden Brenner asked Blaire Leon how
old she was, she said she was a senior. He chose to believe she meant in college.
They connect over Lord Byron’s Don Juan and, as their
conversations become increasingly thicker with sexual innuendo, Caiden finds
himself obsessing over a totally off-limits undergrad who’s bold, beautiful,
brilliant, and one of the most passionate poets he’s ever met.
But
it turns out Blaire hasn't been totally honest. She's the seventeen-year-old
valedictorian of her high school class, taking courses at Sierra State while
awaiting her acceptance to Stanford.
Will
Caiden get too deeply into Blaire to back away before he finds out the truth?
Or will their connection be enough to seduce him into risking his entire future
on Jail Bait?
Goodreads
EXCERPT
She glances down the hill in the direction I came from. “So,
what’s going on down there, anyway? Someone’s birthday?”
My gaze follows hers. “My sister’s wedding reception.”
“In a public park?” she asks, her eyebrows raising in
surprise.
I nod. “Graffiti Park is special. We spent a lot of time
here as kids.”
“Graffiti Park? That’s really the name of this place?” she
asks, looking around.
“I have no clue what the real name is. That’s just what
we’ve always called it.” My thumb brushes over where Nate carved my name into
the back of bench we’re sitting on at least ten years ago.
She squints toward the shelter below and shades her eyes
from the last of the afternoon sun. “I don’t see a bride.”
I point to Blaire. “The one in the bright blue dress.”
“That sort of flies in the face of tradition, doesn’t it?”
she asks, still watching.
“That’s my sister. She’s never cared much about social
conventions. If you search YouTube for her valedictory graduation speech from
Oak Crest High four years ago, you’ll see what I mean.”
Her eyes snap to mine, wide and curious, and her gaze knocks
the wind out of me. “What did she say?”
“She basically told the whole world off. But that was
because her now husband,” I say with a jut of my chin at the gathering below,
“had just been arrested for statutory rape.”
Her eyes widen even more. “Oh my God!”
“She’s always insisted they were in love, and the age
difference shouldn’t matter. It was her giant ‘fuck you’ to society.”
Her head cocks to the side as she watches the party below.
“I like her already.” She turns back to me. “Won’t they miss you?”
I press myself against her shoulder. “I’m disturbing you?”
A sardonic smile ghosts over her features as she lifts the
book. “I was in the middle of reading the thoughts of a dying giant bug-person
and not thinking that was at all weird, so I’m obviously already very disturbed.”
I can’t stop staring, because she’s suddenly stunningly
beautiful. Her eyes flash, looking momentarily more black then gray, and
there’s a long, deep dimple in her right cheek, which is the only one I can see
because of the angle of her head. I’m dying to know if there’s a matching one
on the other side.
The smile fades under my scrutiny and when she drops her
gaze to the book between us, a cascade of strawberry corkscrews hide her face.
“Sorry. Stupid joke.”
“No!” Damn. A
little too eager there, tiger. I work to lower my voice. “I mean, it wasn’t
stupid. It was funny.”
I just forgot to laugh because your smile knocked me
senseless for a sec.
She lifts a knee to her chest, hooking the heel of her
sneaker on the edge of the bench. Her knee pokes through the long crosswise
tear in her jeans. “It’s okay, my sense of humor’s pretty dry. Not too many
people get me.”
“Your sense of humor is refreshing,” I say. “And as for
people getting you, most people don’t pay enough attention to anyone but
themselves to ‘get’ much of anything.”
“Marcus!”
I look down the hill at Deanna’s voice. She’s at the shelter
waving her hands over her head to get my attention. There’s a sudden cramp in
my stomach at the thought of her coming up here.
“Looks like you have to go.” I’d swear a catch a hint of
disappointment in her tone.
“Looks like.” I stand and shove my hands into my pockets.
“My name is Marcus, by the way.”
She smiles and something roguish flashes in her eyes. “I
know.”
Fuck. I do know
her. Everything felt so relaxed and comfortable between us. I hate that I might
have just fucked that up. Before it gets totally awkward, I blurt, “I’d be up
for maybe getting a burger at Sam Hill sometime, if you’re into that.”
She nods, but that wary glint is back in her eyes.
“Yeah…sure.”
I fish my phone from my pocket. “Can I get your number?”
She reels it off and I type it in. “Girl who stole my
bench,” I say with a cocky grin as I type it into contacts. I turn my amusement
on her. “Or is there something else I should call you?”
He gives me a questioning tip of her head. “Addie.”
I know that name. Someone I went to high school with, maybe?
My brain chugs harder trying to put the pieces together as I type it in. “Got
it,” I say, holding up my phone. “I’ll give you a call.”
She squints at me. “Okay.”
I start backing down the path. “Enjoy my bench,” I say with
a wink.
She lifts the book in a wave. “See you Monday, Coach.”
Suddenly I see her face under a navy blue swim cap with the
Oak Crest Cougar on the side. The jolt of electric panic almost knocks my legs
out from under me and I stumble, just catching myself before I go down.
Because she’s on my fucking team.
I ran tryouts Wednesday and Thursday. Practices just started
yesterday. I’m still trying to get the new girls’ names. She said Addie, but my
roster says Addaline, I think. All I can remember for sure is she’s a senior
transfer and mostly keeps to herself.
“Fuck me,” I mutter, then hear myself. I hold up a hand. “I
mean…” I trail off in a cringe. “Sorry for the language.” Because I’m not
supposed to swear in front of a fucking
student.
But fuck. My mind
reels, replaying everything I said and did and trying to figure out how to
backpedal out of this. “So, we’ll talk about a…team dinner…for bonding and
whatever…at practice on Monday.”
Just shoot me now.
She tips her head and bites her lips, fighting a smile.
“Sounds good, Coach.”
After what feels like a small eternity, I shake myself loose
from her gaze and start down the hill without saying anything else. I can only
dig myself deeper at this point. But the whole way, all I can think about is
that, as shitty as my life is at the moment, it might have just gotten
shittier.
GIVEAWAY
4 Stars
Getting Played starts us off with an 'oh shit!' moment, when Coach Marcus Leon puts his foot in his mouth when he attempts to attract a young lady. Not knowing said young lady, Addaline Grace, is a member of his Water Polo team, in high school, and is underage.
We given a student/teacher forbidden love story, that's funny, sexy and seductive, in it's naivety. The story romanticizes around the forbidden love and, it's really so sweet and endearing.
Addie has recently moved to the small town, Oak Crest, to start her senior year. Becoming a part of the Water Polo team is a form of escapism for Addie. She is haunted by her past, and lives in a self imposed prison. Constantly fighting a losing battle with her alcoholic father, Addie has to remain focused and needs to stay strong for her father, as much as herself. Remaining invisible in a new town, means, no one will ask questions and, no one will take notice of the destructive family, trying to ride under the radar. But, this proves difficult, when her alcoholic father, ends up being the town drunk.
Meeting Coach Leon, in an environment completely non-academic or sport related, gives Addie a little insight into a sexy, easy going gentleman. Someone she feels comfortable around. Now transferring this in a high school environment proves difficult. Marcus and Addie, start up a friendship, which soon turns into attraction, and their friendly conversations are filled with sexual tension. All the while, Marcus tries his hardest to remember the strict lines of professionalism he can not cross.
As much as Marcus and Addie are student and teacher, along with the age different. Addie is mature beyond her years. Their compatibility is astounding, and envious.
Soon circumstances arise with a jealous student and teacher, that becomes a catalyst for their relationship. While in the mix, Addie also learns some devastating secrets about her family. She learns to forgive and to move forward.
I loved that each character has so much depth and are constantly developing while the story progresses. Mia Storm makes them lovable and relatable. Marcus tried his best to keep himself at bay. Even when attempting to help Addie out in her personal life. However, sometimes, crossing that unmentionable line, becomes worth the risk.
*ARC provided by InkSlinger PR on behalf of the author for an honest review* Thanks!!
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