FALLING AWAY Teaser: When Chance and Robert Meet...

So I've (sorta) been working hard on Falling Away (Falling #2) - the sorta is because I'm a month away from moving between cities, I have a husband and a terrible two, and I've been dealing with all the work of running two blog tours within a month of one another. But don't worry! I still plan to have Falling Away ready for release next Valentine's Day. And I'm having so much fun writing it, I thought I'd share a teaser - something I've never actually done before.

 

Who here is a Chance/Evan fan? <raises hand - although I kinda love both, and I'm sorta like their mother, so my opinion is moot> Who here is wondering why I referred to him as Chance/Evan? (if you raised your hand on that, you need to catch up and read Falling In Between) :P Go here to see the official home page for the Falling novels (and check out my dream cast).

 

So who here wants to see why Evan and Robert meet? Well, you're in luck. Keep reading.

 

***Note: teaser is from rough draft version and could be altered before the final version. Also, in case you didn't know, Falling Away is New Adult and contains some language and sexual situations.***

 

Curse this freakin’ snow! My boots sloshed through the dingy white patches and skidded over the thinner areas, slipping on the frozen water beneath. I’d barely missed my bus and decided it wasn’t worth waiting in the cold for the next one. Boy was I wrong. I knew there was a reason I never walked more than four blocks in the wintertime. I’m lucky I hadn’t fallen on my ass yet or seriously pulled a thigh muscle every time my leg slipped out just a little too far. A fine mist of frost coated the air as the constant traffic whipped past, chilling my face, surely giving my cheeks a rosy glow.

      So long as my nose wasn’t as red as Rudolph’s.

      I stretched the tail of my scarf towards my face and smothered my nose and mouth, the heat of my exhalations warming my wind-nipped skin. But as miserable as the cold numbing me from head to toe was, it was the stuffiness crowding the inside of my head that was really crushing my jovial, post-Christmas mood.

      My phone jingled from within my purse, and I groaned as I removed my bulky glove to retrieve it. The familiar tune told me it was Robert, and surely he was wondering what was taking so long.

      “Hello?”

      “Hey babe. Where you at? The movie starts in twenty minutes.”

      “Yeah, I know. I’m almost home. I missed the bus and had to walk.”

      He huffed on the other end. “Jenna, I could’ve come and gotten you.”

      “Believe me, I wish you had. I’ll see you in a few.”

      We said our goodbyes and I sloshed through two more blocks, finally turning on the avenue that took me to our apartment complex. If only I hadn’t been stubborn and just called Robert to come pick me up. Then I never would have heard his gentle voice saying my name as he slipped up beside me. My body jerked, setting off a domino effect of fearful vibrations throughout my body.

      “Evan!” What was he doing here? How did he even know where to look? A million questions scattered my thoughts as my eyes took in the sight of my once dreamtime lover. But this wasn’t the face of the fun and humorous crush I came to love, but solemn, and quite frankly, way too serious to suit. His eyes seemed almost pained, his smile nonexistent. “Evan…” My words were there but barely audible. “Are you okay? What’s wrong?” He looked so much worse than he did in the hospital. It was the kind of look you typically saw on someone that lost their dearest friend, pale and just absolutely drained of life.

      He nodded slowly, his hazel eyes piercing mine, fixing me in a daze that refused release. He stepped before me, so close his breath tickled my cheeks. They were fast and heavy, and something told me it wasn’t cause he just rushed over to catch me. No, I had the feeling he’d been lying in wait for me to arrive tonight.

       My chest gasped as his hand caressed my cheek, either from the chill of his bare hand or the forbidden action itself – I’m really not sure. We hadn’t been close like this since the night before he awoke from his coma, when the fear of him forgetting me plagued my thoughts. Now, almost two years later, his sudden nearness had me on the verge of a massive anxiety attack.

      His thumb gently stroked the delicate skin under my eye. “I remember,” he said softly, and my chest suddenly became too heavy to breathe, my mind spinning madly with incoherent thoughts that might as well have been spoken in a foreign language for all they were worth. “I remember everything. You. Me. Us.”

      Mentally, I tried to say no as his face neared, but my body was too stunned to react. I didn’t even kiss him back when his lips first connected with mine, so his hovered, barely gracing the sweetest touch, waiting to lure me in as his hot breath slowly warmed my bottom lip. His lips were cold, like he’d been waiting too long in the chilly air. But they were also familiar, exactly like I remembered from the many nights I spent wrapped up within his loving arms. I caught the scent of musk and citrus and it warmed my insides, just like a shot of amaretto would, and my eyes closed as if suddenly too drunk and heavy to remain open.

      But I still hadn’t pulled away, and I couldn’t get my head to figure out why, like I’d been hypnotized into staying put, or a sudden surge of pheromones exuding off his skin were doping me into submission. And my voice…well, the vocal no longer preceded the word chord.

      Whatever the reason for my lack of fight, Evan took it as cooperation. My eyes reopened and immediately connected with his, and the longing hunger they screamed. Both hands covered my cheeks now, and he pulled me in the rest of the way, his lips more aggressive this time. They were still light and gentle, but needy, like he’d held it in so long he couldn’t stand it anymore, his moan signaling the release of pent up anguish within.

      A whimper escaped my own mouth. If the relay was working between my brain and lips, then they refused to accept the command to stop, that this uninvited, unprovoked, horribly offensive…wonderful, beautiful, seductive sensation caused by his luscious lips was wrong.

      I gasped as we were pushed violently apart, Robert’s screaming echoing in my stuffy ears, like an unforgiving game of ping pong between two champion competitors. “What the fuck?” But his attention was more on Evan, who he continued to shove backwards. Not wanting to engage – cause we all knew he was guilty as hell right now – Evan’s hands were thrust up in surrender, but Robert shoved until Evan’s back hit flat against the brick wall.
 

 

Uh-oh! So what's gonna happen next? Guess you'll have to wait until Valentine's Day to find out! <evil laugh>
 

POLL TIME!!!

Who Should Win Jenna's Heart in Falling Away?