Teasers are listed in descending order.
New Excerpt
RICH
“Can we change the song?” Braxton grumbled from the backseat. “No offense, but I get enough of you guys when we’re playing.”
“You mean us,” Houston corrected, darkness edging his tone. He even risked taking his attention off the road to pin Braxton with his gaze. “You’re Bound now, or should I find a more effective way to convince you?”
I think everyone held their breath as they waited for her response. When it came, she didn’t disappoint. She never did. Sarcasm and defiance were her weapons of her choice. It didn’t take us long to learn, but we were still figuring out how to know better.
“I don’t know,” Braxton mocked. She sounded deceptively pliable. “I think the hundred and fifteenth time is the charm. Why don’t you remind me again?”
Sinking lower in my seat, I turned my head towards the window to hide the smile playing on my lips. I just knew she was batting those big, brown eyes at Houston and daring him to do something about it. I was itching to turn in my seat and see for myself, but I didn’t want her to think that I was helping Houston back her against another wall. Not this time. Not when she made my knees this weak.
“Maybe Braxton should deejay,” Lo suggested to break the tension. Houston had already refocused on the road. Since he was strangling the steering wheel, I knew the conversation wasn’t over in his mind. He’d resume it the moment he got her alone. “We all know Morrow only likes the sound of his own voice.”
I couldn’t help myself this time, so I peered into the backseat and found Braxton cutting her gaze at Loren.
“Why me?” she asked him when no one objected.
I couldn’t tell if she was nervous about sharing her music choices or too smart to think that Loren was up to any good. Maybe it was a little of both? She didn’t want us figuring her out because of what we might do with that information. Someone should have told her that she couldn’t peer into our minds without baring a little of herself in return.
I see you.
Loren paused his brooding to focus on Brax. He licked his lips as he watched her as if he could already taste her tears. Or maybe he had something else in mind? “Why not? Afraid we’ll find out that you secretly love the Backstreet Boys? I suppose you think “I Want it that Way” was the greatest love song ever written.”
“No,” she returned, sounding confident even when Loren was forcing her to play defense. “But I do think “Goodbye Earl” is pretty killer.”
“Goodbye Earl,” I echoed from shotgun. “Isn’t that a song about a woman who killed her husband?”
Braxton shrugged, still staring at Loren.
I need you to notice me.
My thoughts punched and then twisted my guts, intensifying when Braxton finally shifted her gaze to me. Her attention felt like phantom fingers tiptoeing down my spine. Goosebumps appeared on my skin just as those full, red lips of hers moved. “I said it was killer.”
She smiled at me like I deserved the privilege.
My heart skipped a beat while warmth filled my belly. Braxton must have read it on my face because her smile disappeared, and then she was pulling out her phone. I watched her tap the screen a few times, and after helping her connect her phone to the car using bluetooth, Tool’s “Sober” spilled through the speakers.
Unable to forget her confession four days ago, the lyrics took hold with an icy grip. They did their job and left only a warning.
I’m no good for you.
PREVIOUS EXCERPT
LOREN
That ass, my God, that ass.
Previous Excerpt
HOUSTON
Time seemed to stand still when she walked through the door.
Wearing a burlap sack with red hair like raging fire, her brown eyes stretched further than humanly possible when she realized who occupied the room. I was surprised she recognized us since she looked like she’d come straight off the prairie. That hideous dress she wore covered her from neck to ankle. She looked weird as fuck with her too big eyes and lips, but somehow, stunning too.
I couldn’t look away from the beautiful paradox.
Maybe it was because she’d rudely interrupted me. I was just telling Carl and his flunkies exactly how I liked my dick sucked. Now I couldn’t think of anything other than what it would be like to come on her face. No way she wasn’t a virgin.
A solid sixty seconds passed, and she still hadn’t spoken. Her full lips parted, appearing red and swollen like she’d been kissed to within an inch of her life. I wondered if they were natural. My dick told me they were. My gut was too busy tying itself into an endless knot.
“Are you lost?” Loren inquired, always the first to be an asshole. “Or did you lose your voice in that ugly ass dress?”
A throat cleared. Carl, the dick who owned this shady label, quickly intervened before the fire rising in the girl's eyes turned Loren into ash. “Emily, can we help you?”
The intern looked ready to shit a brick when she realized her obvious mistake. “I’m sorry, sir. You told me to bring Ms. Fawn right away when she arrived.”
The room fell so quiet you could hear a pin drop ten blocks down.
No.
Hell. No.
This could not be Braxton Fawn. As if only now remembering that she was responsible for this mess, Oni Sridhar shot to her feet. When the pain-in-the-ass A&R rep didn’t immediately dismiss the intruder, I stood up straight, catching prairie girl’s reaction to my full height. Give me a break.
“Yes,” Oni confirmed as she strutted with too much confidence for my liking toward the door where her intern and the imposter stood. “This is the promising up-and-comer I was telling you about. I think Braxton is just what Bound needs to take it to the next level.”
“The next level?” Rich spat as he straightened from his position near the windows. It took a lot to anger him since he was a softie at heart. It was safe to say that he was pissed and rightly so. We’d given the world everything, and it still wasn’t enough. It never was. “Who’s your mom’s favorite band? Pink Floyd? I bet if Nick Mason gave her a million to suck his dick, she’d still suck mine for free.”
Fists balled, Oni whirled on her fuck-me pumps. I should have done exactly that when I had the chance. Now she couldn’t stand me or any of us for that matter, and I hated whenever we breathed the same air. “I’m sure she would if my mom were still alive and Nick wasn’t over seventy years old. Are you done?”
I saw the regret in Rich’s eyes, but he didn’t offer an apology. Oni had already turned away. Before Oni could continue with her ludicrous pitch, Loren took his turn exploding.
“Please tell me you’re joking. That's her? She's our new guitarist?" My bassist didn’t move from his slouched position in the chair, but the vicious sneer he shot Braxton did the trick. “This chick looks like she just came from choir practice.”
Slowly, little Miss Fawn’s head turned. None of us was prepared for the force of her full attention as her doe eyes sharpened and cut us down before she spoke. “Actually, it was bible study.”
Loren jerked as if someone had run an electric bolt through his heart before remembering he had the upper hand. “I don’t give a fuck if it was bible camp. Get lost.”
Oni cut in before Braxton could retort. Disappointment ripped through my chest. I had no intention of letting some blushing virgin join Bound, so I was more than eager to have my fun with her while I could. Loren would eat her insolent ass alive, and I’d savor every second of it. “You had your chance to find a replacement and knew what would happen if you didn’t. The tour starts in three months. You barely have any time left to rehearse.”
“We know the material,” Rich reminded her dryly. “We wrote it.”
“Braxton,” Oni said, emphasizing her name, “doesn’t.”
“Hello? Is anyone at home in there?” Loren inquired, tapping his own skull. “Or are you secretly blonde?”
So the pot calls the kettle.”
He ignored that. “If she doesn’t know our music, what makes you think she’s a good fit for our band?”
“You can teach her.”
Loren’s nostrils flared. Rich rolled his eyes. “Not interested.”
“They don’t have to teach me,” Braxton announced. She’d found her damn tongue. A moment later, we all learned a precious lesson.
It was sharper than we thought.
“I know the material.” Her gaze found Loren’s, and I was pretty sure he stopped breathing. He sat so very still. “Probably better than you since I caught your last performance. You missed three notes and were two seconds behind your drummer the entire show.” She tipped her head in Rich’s direction, her red mane shimmering under the natural light. The very sun seemed to serve as her personal spotlight.
For a moment, I allowed myself the vision of pulling on her hair while I punished her pussy from behind. I was willing to bet that she couldn’t take dick and definitely not mine. Swallowing my sound of disgust, I shoved the pointless fantasy away.
Loren, miraculously, had nothing to say since I’d already ripped into him for those very mistakes. I didn’t miss his surprise and fury at being called out by an amateur, but my focus was now on Carl stroking his weak chin thoughtfully. I knew then that it was time to end this.
The label had every reason to ruin us, and Braxton Fawn would undoubtedly deliver.
Moving away from the table, I took slow steps forward, not to put the girls at ease but the opposite. I wanted to rattle the troublemakers, give them time to regret their grave mistake. Oni squared her shoulders, standing tall beside her pet project. She probably thought she could stop me if I decided to choke the life out of Bambi.
Closer now, I could see the freckles peppering Braxton’s nose and cheeks. It almost worked in concealing her blush at my close proximity. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a single thing I wasn’t noticing about this girl. She smelled rich and sinful like forbidden fruit and wore no bra underneath that sheer, pink dress. Her dusty nipples were hard and tempting points, her pale skin beaded with sweat. She was also young, her eyes appearing even bigger up close. I guessed her age around nineteen or twenty and swore.
I was nearly a decade older.
“Though I can’t say the same for you, my time is valuable, so let’s drop the dramatics,” I told her. The fact that these would always be my first words to her tore at something inside of me. Something I had every intention of avoiding. “I’m sure you think you play well to your sound-proof ears, but Bound isn’t looking for a reunion with amateur hour. Run back to your mom’s garage or whatever hole-in-the-wall club Sridhar found you. We’re not interested.”
Previous Excerpt
BRAXTON
My gaze remained glued to my phone as it had been for the last ten minutes. I ignored the crowded club around me, my roommates drowning themselves in shots, and the amateur band playing on the small stage mere feet away. Like the rest of the world, I was hoping for a glimpse of them—Houston Morrow, Loren James, and Jericho Noble.
The remaining members of Bound.