Carry Your Heart
by K. Ryan
Carry Your Heart #1
Publication Date: July 14, 2015
Genres: Contemporary, New Adult, Romance
Amazon • B&N • Kobo • Smashwords • iBooks
Synopsis:
When Isabelle Martin steps onto Sawyer Auto Repair’s parking lot, she can’t believe it’s come to this. After dropping out of a school she never really wanted to go to in the first place and dumping a boyfriend she never really loved to begin with, she thought coming home to Claremont, North Carolina would solve all her problems. Instead, she’s still reeling from her mom’s death six months earlier and trying, but failing to help her dad, who’s sunken deep into a whiskey-fueled depression. Working in the local, motorcycle club-owned, auto shop’s office is a last resort, but it’s the only option she has...even if it means working with Caleb Sawyer, the bad-boy biker with swagger to spare who used to drive her up the wall in high school.
Caleb Sawyer is on the fast-track to a downward spiral. He used to think he had the world at his feet--all he has to do is be patient, earn his keep in the club and in the shop, and his legacy within the Iron Horsemen MC will be his for the taking when the time is right. But that just doesn’t mean anything without his old lady by his side, who wants to leave Claremont more than she wants to stay with him. When the bottom finally drops out, nothing prepares him for the impact and he deals with it the only way he knows how--with whiskey and women. Despite all that, being around Isabelle Martin, the girl whose feathers he ruffled so easily in high school, somehow brings him back to life. She doesn’t take any of his crap, but she calls him on it without judgment and without pity.
Despite some initial animosity, Caleb and Isabelle quickly realize that the perceptions they had of each other in high school couldn’t be further from the truth. The more time they spend together, the closer they become and the more they gravitate towards each other. Both are at a crossroads, but stuck in reverse. Isabelle needs help; she just doesn’t know how to ask for it. Caleb needs a life preserver; he just doesn’t know where to find one. And ultimately, on the path to rediscovery and identity, all roads lead them to exactly what they need--each other.
New adult/contemporary romance told in alternating points of view. Recommended for readers 18 and older.
Book #1 in the Carry Your Heart series that follows Caleb and Isabelle’s journey spanning the course of eight years.
Excerpt:
Isabelle
The door suddenly flew open to reveal Caleb, clad in only a
pair of striped boxers with a cigarette dangling from his lips.
“Hey, Iz,” he drawled, one hand curling around the doorframe
and those lips curving into that crooked grin.
Talk about sensory overload.
My eyes just didn’t know where to focus first...the smooth,
muscular planes of his chest, the rippled eight-pack that I had the sudden urge
to run my tongue down, the black ink tattooed all the way up both taut
forearms, the strong, broad set of shoulders...not to mention whatever was
tucked away inside those boxers. I think
my eyes might’ve rolled back into my head.
Luckily for me, Caleb was too busy eradicating both the
cigarette and the smoke from the room to notice the way my drool pooled into
his carpet and he scrambled around the room, frantically mashing his cigarette
into a nearby ashtray and waving his arms around to waft away the smoke.
“Sorry ‘bout that,” Caleb called from across the room as he
tossed a pile of clothes into a corner.
“Aren’t you supposed to be at the office right now?”
To my dismay, he pulled a pair of black Nike shorts on as he
spoke. Somewhere, an angel was
sobbing. Good thing he didn’t see the
need to pull on a T-shirt. That really
would’ve been a tragedy.
“Actually…” I trailed off, holding up the over-sized letters
for him to see.
His eyebrows rose as he realized what I was holding, his eyes
glimmering with excitement.
“So big envelopes are good, right?” he murmured.
“I hope so.”
After a moment’s pause, Caleb blew out a breath and ran a
nervous hand through his hair. “I take
it they just came in the mail?”
“Uh huh,” I nodded.
“Your mom let me take my break a little early so I could open them with
you.”
His crystal-clear blue eyes widened in surprise. “Really? You haven’t opened them yet?”
“I guess it didn’t feel right to open them up without you,” I
shrugged. “I mean, I don’t think I even
would’ve applied if you hadn’t talked me into it.”
Something clouded over Caleb's eyes that I couldn’t quite
place. If he stared at me like that any
longer...I didn’t know what I would do.
Probably something embarrassing and humiliating.
“Well, Jesus, Iz,” Caleb called out and tugged another anxious
hand through his messy hair. “Are you
gonna open those or what?”
I laughed nervously, tucking one of the envelopes underneath
my arm and clutched the other in between my shaking hands. God, I felt like I was going to puke. Panic had my throat in a chokehold and now, I
couldn’t do it. I think I really was going to puke.
Before I could stop myself, I shoved the letters into Caleb’s
chest. “I can’t...I don’t think I can do
it. You open them. Please?”
His fingers curled around my hand, which was still pressed
into his chest, and he gently pulled it away from his skin as he slid the
letters from underneath my grip. Then,
his fingertips caught my hand before it fell away and he brought it up to his
mouth, brushing his lips across my knuckles.
As he let my fingers slip from his grasp, my heart thundered in my chest
now, but not because of the impending reveal.
Now, all I could think about was the heady feel of his lips on my skin.
“Alright, Iz,” he winked.
“Let’s see what’s in these damned things, huh?”
Taking the top letter in one hand and holding the other
envelope out for me to take, he held it up for me to see. “This one’s the UNC letter.”
“Okay, okay,” I swallowed and blew out a deep breath as he
tore it open.
My heart stopped as I watched his eyes skim over the words and
slam back up to me. His lips curled up
and I knew it before I heard it: “You
got in.”
I covered my mouth with a hand, a surge of frenzied disbelief
rushing through me. Caleb gestured for
the VCU letter in my hand with a wide smile and as I held it out to him, his
hand curled around my wrist to pull me closer to him like he didn’t want that
much distance between us.
A beat later, his index finger flicked underneath the envelope
flap to rip it open and his eyes scanned the contents before both his arms shot
up into the air in victory.
“You’re in, Iz!”
My mouth dropped open.
Everything froze and then, before I knew what I was doing, my hands
shoved Caleb right in the chest.
“Shut up!”
His broad shoulders shook with laughter as his arms crossed
over himself in self-defense when I just shoved him again.
“Watch it!” he laughed.
“Don’t shoot the messenger, Iz.
Come on.”
Both hands covered my mouth now and I just couldn’t believe
it. I couldn’t fucking believe it. I got into both schools.
Both schools wanted
me.
Both schools thought
I was good enough.
I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry just from the sheer
impact of that truth. It was almost too
much. Too many feels...all rushing and
twisting and rolling around me at once.
My knees buckled and would’ve sent me tumbling to the ground if not for
Caleb’s palms closing over my shoulders to steady me.
“Hey,” Caleb laughed.
He crouched down to get a better look at me and gave my shoulders a
little shake. “You alright, Iz?”
“Yeah,” I murmured. “I
just can’t believe I got in.”
He grinned. “I can.”
He pulled me into his chest and I leaned into his bare skin,
revelling in the way it felt underneath my cheek. Feeling his strong arms enveloping and surrounding
me just lifted me up and carried me away.
My chin tilted just enough as I stood up on my toes to brush my lips
against Caleb’s. It happened so fast my
mind could barely keep up and then I was on solid ground again, staring up at
him as he blinked back at me in surprise.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t--”
His touch stilled my words as both calloused hands closed
around my face and his thumb brushed my cheek and then he leaned forward to
press his lips into mine. It started out
soft and sweet as his mouth moved over me, tasting and exploring with his hands
in my hair, pulling me into him and I wrapped my arms around his neck to
somehow draw him in deeper. When my lips
parted, his tongue slipped through, sending me flying into outer space as stars
raced passed me.
Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion now. The taste of his lips, mint and
cigarettes--something I never thought I’d ever actually enjoy--I couldn’t get
enough. I just wanted more. And I took it, melding my body against his
firm chest, tangling my hands in his hair, and slipping down to feel his smooth
skin underneath my fingertips. I was
barely aware of the fact that he was slowly but surely shuffling us backwards
and right towards his bed.
When the backs of my legs hit the edge of his bed, one of his
arms wound around my waist as the other reached out to lower us down to the
mattress. He groaned into my mouth and
his hands were everywhere, drifting through my hair, down my back, sliding over
my waist. As his body settled over me,
just feeling him pressing against my thigh, so close to being where I really
wanted him, but still so far away, my eyes nearly rolled back into my
head.
That’s when I knew it was time to pump the brakes.
If we kept this up, I was never getting out of this room,
which might have been perfectly fine if I also didn’t have to go back to the
office at some point today.
“Caleb,” I murmured, pressing my palms gently into his chest.
He was leaving a trail of light kisses against my neck and the
longer he did that, the more light-headed I felt. It would be a miracle if I’d be able to get
up from this bed and not immediately fall back down from dizziness. Caleb had stolen my equilibrium right out
from under me.
About K. Ryan
K. Ryan is a former English teacher, who graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point in 2009. In between ‘real life’ duties, she’s been writing the Carry Your Heart series quietly on the side for the last two years. When not writing, she’s either binge-watching something on Netflix, running, reading, or cheering on the Packers. She lives in the Green Bay area with her crazy-supportive boyfriend and the best decision of her adult life, a not-so-stray cat named Oliver.
No comments:
Post a Comment