Blog Tour, Excerpt, My Review, & Giveaway for The Pairing by Katie Ashley
Title: THE PAIRING
Author: KATIE ASHLEY
Published: Feb. 18, 2014
A Companion Novel to The Proposition and The Proposal
After her former boyfriend left her pregnant and alone, Megan McKenzie swore off men. She spent the last eighteen months focused solely on her son, Mason, along with finishing nursing school at the top of her class. Although she’s not ready to complicate her life with a long-term relationship, a nice no-strings attached hook-up is just what she needs. At her godson, Noah’s, baptism, she finds the perfect candidate in the soft-spoken godfather, Pesh Nadeen. After all, the widower could use a good time too. But after drinking too much, the night doesn’t end the way she thought it would. Forced to leave Pesh’s house through a walk of shame, Megan hopes to never, ever see him again.
For Pesh Nadeen, the very sight of Megan sends him into an emotional tailspin. Since she reminds him too much of what he has lost, he wants to be out of her sight…at first. But the more he gets to know her, there's something about the diminutive blonde that causes his protective side to go into overdrive, and he finds himself wanting more. When Megan is assigned to work in his ER to complete her nursing clinicals, he sees it as fate, but she’s having no part of it. She only wants a physical relationship while he wants far more.
What happens next is a sexy game of cat and mouse to see who will break first or if both of them will eventually get more than they ever bargained for.
EXCERPT:
After swiping his key card, he entered the room. When he
closed the door behind him, Megan turned around, gazing expectantly at him. Now
that he was in front of her, he didn’t know exactly what to say. He had been on
an emotional overload on the roof, and things had escalated far too quickly.
“Look, I just want to say how very sorry I am about kissing you.”
“Well I’m not,” she replied matter-of-factly.
Pesh’s neck snapped back in shock. Her response wasn’t what
he was expecting at all. He had imagined she might be relieved or even
embarrassed, but he hadn’t imagined that she would be unregretful. He cleared
his throat. “Regardless, I shouldn’t have done it. I was in an emotionally
vulnerable position, and you were merely trying to comfort me. Nothing more.”
His words were more for his own good than hers.
She shook her head. “Just because I was comforting you,
doesn’t mean I didn’t want you to kiss me. That I still don’t want to kiss you
again.”
His brows furrowed in confusion. “But you—”
“Pesh, I’ve wanted you since the night of Noah’s baptism.
But you shot me down then, and you still do.”
Although his heart wanted to soar at her admission of
wanting him, the reality of her words caused his chest to clench instead.
“Sexually. You only want me sexually.”
“Yes.”
He should have been flattered that a young, sexy woman like
Megan desired him. But he wasn’t. Half of the women in the hospital would be
willing for him to drag them to an empty patient’s room for a quick and dirty
screw. But that’s not who he was. He had never been that way with women, and he
didn’t see how it could be possible to change. All he wanted was for her to
really see him and how good he could be for her. How good they would be for
each other. He thought that was what she was feeling in the moments before and
after he kissed her. But now it seemed it was once again only lust.
Although it was probably pointless, he couldn’t help putting
everything out there once again. “But when we were up on the roof, there wasn’t
a moment where you wanted more from me than just sex?” He licked his lips and
took a step toward her. “Just a second where you could imagine your life with
me in it?”
Megan stared at him, her expression contemplative. For a
brief moment, Pesh thought by her hesitation that she had changed her mind
about him. But then she shook her head. “How many times are you going to make
me hurt you with this? You’re too good for me, Pesh. We both know that. I’ll
remind you again of some of the reasons I’m not the one for you. I’m
twenty-five, and you’re thirty-seven. You want a wife, and I’m not ready to be
married.”
Her words cut into his chest the same as if she had taken a
sharp blade to him. She may have had to repeat herself this time, but he
realized the finality of her words. And then an idea hit him so hard that he
shuddered—a true light bulb moment and epiphany. There was only one way he was
going to get to have his sweet Megan, and that was if he gave in to her. He
would have to become someone else for her, even if it was just for a little
while. He could distract her with sex that she both desired and demanded, but
at the same time, he would make her fall in love with him. It could work. It
had to.
Cocking his head at her, he questioned, “So let me get this
straight once and for all. You would let me…”
He paused, fighting
the conflict within himself to say what he needed to. He drew in a ragged
breath. “You would let me fuck you but not love you?”
Her eyes widened at his word choice. “What’s gotten into
you?”
He shrugged nonchalantly, feeling slightly empowered in the
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde moment. “I merely asked a simple question.”
She snorted exasperatedly. “Yeah, about…” She swallowed
hard. “Fucking, of all things.”
“Yes.”
Megan shook her head wildly back and forth. “I can barely
acknowledge hearing you say the word, least of all you doing that.”
“You can’t imagine me—”
She held up her hand. “You’re not the type of man to fuck,”
she countered.
Crossing his arms over his chest, he countered, “Oh really?
I’m too nice of a guy?”
“Something like that.”
“I am a man, Megan. We all have needs. Isn’t fucking one of
them?”
Her body trembled slightly at his words. She licked her lips
before replying, “S-Stop saying that word—it isn’t you.”
“So, fucking isn’t me? Don’t tell me you think I’m totally
asexual—that you can’t imagine me fucking a woman…fucking you.” He eased in
closer to her. “We both know for a fact that you wanted nothing more than to
fuck me the night of Noah’s baptism. Given the chance right now, you’d let me
strip off your scrubs and fuck you up against the medicine cabinet.”
As her chest heaved up and down, she took a step back from
him, bumping against the counter. “But you don’t say things like that. You’re
refined. You’re a gentleman,” she whispered.
“It may have been a while, but even a gentleman like me
enjoys fucking.” He closed the gap between them.
“What are you doing?” she whispered.
“I’m giving you what you want.”
“You’re giving in?”
I was so happy when I found
out that Katie was going to be giving Megan and Pesh both their HEA !!!!
Megan after two failed relationships
has sworn off relationships and is only interested in sexually connecting with
another man. When she meets Pesh, she does not deny that he is sexy, sweet, and
a true gentleman, but she is not interested in having a relationship with him.
Pesh Nadeen…. Otherwise known
as Dr. McDreamy Bollywood. He has totally redeemed himself with me. He is
such a gentleman and truly knows how to treat a woman. When he sets his eyes on
Megan he is determined that he will have her and she will be his.
It was so fun to read the buildup of this relationship. I
love how Megan did not give in right away with Pesh. I love how Pesh continued
to fight for what he wanted.
Pesh with Mason was absolutely amazing. He was so great with
him right from the start.
I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED having more Aidan and Emma as well.
I won’t give any more than that away . I always believe that
a person needs to read and enjoy a book free of spoilers and exciting scenes.
So I will leave you with this. If you have been waiting for this book, your
wait is going to be well worth it. Katie did an amazing job bringing us Pesh
and Megan and I believe you all will love it as much as I did.
BUY LINKS
Amazon UK
Amazon CA
Amazon AU
Katie Ashley is the New York Times, USA Today, and Amazon Best-Selling author of The Proposition. She lives outside of Atlanta, Georgia with her two very spoiled dogs and one outnumbered cat. She has a slight obsession with Pinterest, The Golden Girls, Harry Potter, Shakespeare, Supernatural, Designing Women, and Scooby-Doo.
She spent 11 1/2 years educating the Youth of America aka teaching MS and HS English until she left to write full time in December 2012.
She also writes Young Adult fiction under the name Krista Ashe.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment