In this edgy, sizzling romance for fans of Monica Murphy and Abbi Glines, a bad boy shows a straitlaced law student how to slow down and savor the good things.
Everly Parker is about to graduate from law school, always busy, and can’t stop rushing through life. Her late grandmother left her a bucket list of meaningful, can’t-miss experiences, but she hasn’t completed a single one. Then searing-hot Max Levin bursts into her world. As a casting director for a porn production company, Max is loaded, cocky, and all wrong for Everly. Still, she’s tempted enough to cross the first item off her list: Go out with someone you’d never give the time of day.
Inheriting a porn empire isn’t every guy’s dream (well, actually, it probably is), but Max isn’t complaining. It’s just that until he meets Everly, he has no idea what he’s been missing. As the pressure mounts to take over the family business, Max can’t help wondering what would happen if he chose Everly instead. So far, his life has been a wild ride, but only Everly promises the greatest rush of all: love.
“Some of us find it easier to live than others.” I made sure to use air quotes to get my point across. “You probably get everything you want, don’t you?” I picked up the pen that sat on the table next to my laptop and tapped it against the fake wood. “Expensive cars. Expensive drinks. Women.”
Offense burned in his gaze. I saw it there for a split second before a smirk curved at the side of his lips and he leaned back, settling his torso against the bench. “You think I’m just an asshole in a suit.”
In the first two minutes of our introduction, maybe. Now I wasn’t so sure, but I didn’t need to tell him that. I smiled and shrugged. “At least it’s an expensive suit.”
I expected him to laugh at my joke, but he didn’t. Instead he reached across the table. “What’s this?” He pulled the bucket list from between the pages of my textbook. “The color matches your eyes.”
“Give that back.” I swiped my hand at his, but he pulled the sheet of paper away too
quickly. Panic seized my brain and body.
“What is this?”
I breathed heavily. Being a lawyer was a search for the truth, for justice—I found it hard to lie. Under any circumstance. And I wasn’t going to start now. “It’s a bucket list.”
“A bucket list?” His eyes worked from side to side as he read the items. “Are you dying?” he asked.
“No!” The response was little louder than I’d anticipated, but it was an awful question.
His face scrunched up in confusion. “Then what are you doing with a bucket list?”
I swiped again and this time I connected. I grabbed the paper out of his grip. “It’s none of your business.”
There were a lot of personal things on that list. Things I didn’t want a total stranger
knowing I hadn’t done, like have a really good laugh.
“Have you completed any of the items?”
“If you haven’t noticed . . .” I pointed to the table with all my studying accessories. “I’m a little busy.”
Just then a smile spread across his face.
God, he needed to stop doing that.
“What if I offered to help you cross off one of those items tomorrow?”
I cocked my head. This should be good.
“Go out with me tomorrow night.” He lifted his hand and traced a check mark in the air as he said, “Item number one . . . check.”
“What?” My eyes scanned the list. Although I had it memorized, I needed to double
check.
Go out with someone you wouldn’t give the time of day.
“You’re . . . crazy.”
No he wasn’t. He was exactly right.
Loosen up, girlie. You only been given one life. Live it.
I tensed at the sound of Gram’s voice in my head.
Just then my favorite server came by to collect my empty cup. I was barely
acknowledged. She couldn’t tear her gaze away from my guest. I felt jealousy tighten in my stomach, a feeling I was not used to. Maybe she wasn’t my favorite waitress anymore. More important than the loss of my best barista, was his statement. Had I judged him wrong?
He didn’t acknowledge the server. Instead, his eyes stayed perfectly fixed on me. I swallowed hard. I wasn’t blind to his presence either—the masculine lines of his face, his totally kissable lips. Heat bloomed inside my body, in places I hadn’t properly acknowledged in a very long time. Was I wrong for wanting to feel the softness of his lips against mine, against my skin, against every inch of my body?
The sexual attraction to him was nothing I’d ever felt before—beginning as a slow ache between my thighs upon first sight and now an outright burn.
Down, girl.
I fisted my hands on my lap, under the table and out of sight. I couldn’t let him see just what kind of effect he had on me.
He reached over and grabbed the list again. “Go out with someone you wouldn’t give the time of day.” He grinned. “I believe that’s me.”
He seemed way to happy to be not my type. But I couldn’t go out with him. Could I?
He leaned across the table and my nipples hardened at his infiltration of my personal space. “I bet you do everything you’re supposed to.” He cocked his head to the left. “Don’t you?”
As a matter of fact, I did. But damn him for thinking he knew me.
He dipped his head as if making a point to shield his forthcoming words from others. I swallowed hard.
“You may not think I’m nice. You may not think I’m sexy. But as for completing your life . . .” His piercing gaze met mine and I knew that with only a little more coaxing, I could be another one of his anonymous panty donors. “How do you know if you don’t give it a try?”
I scoffed. “I’ve never tried bull testicles, but I know they can’t be good.”
The grin never left his face as he pulled away. “Then it’s settled.” He slapped his palm on the table. “I’ll pick you up tomorrow night at ten. I’ll get your address from Jade.” He pointed behind him. “It was nice meeting you, Everly Parker.”
He extracted himself from the booth.
“I can’t . . . wait . . .” I reached out as if to grab him, but my hand fisted around air. Like a ghost, he had waltzed in and out of my life, somehow managing to shake my focus.
I’ve had my head down and nose in a book for the last three years and nothing has distracted me—except Max Levin. The blinders I’ve had in place to keep out the rest of the world had somehow been knocked off and I had no idea what to do with myself.
I sucked in a large breath. I admired his retreating form, especially that tight backside, which I wanted to feel against my palms. The farther away he got, the harder my body ached to touch him.
I looked up to the ceiling. I wasn’t one for believing in the supernatural, or even fate. I believed you made your own fate.
But I couldn’t shake the feeling that Max Levin had been sent to help me with my bucket list problem.
About the Author:
When her dream of becoming a mafia princess didn’t pan out, Gina Gordon went after her second dream: becoming a writer. And she hasn’t looked back. A self-proclaimed happily-ever-after junkie and cupcake connoisseur, Gordon loves spinning contemporary tales of knee-bending first kisses, unconditional love, and super-hot sex. She lives in Milton, Ontario, with her husband and their lovable dog.
Jennifer’s Review of Rush
Review (4 Stars): Everly and Max were definitely two opposite personalities that fit well together. She had big dreams and big opportunities ahead of her and falling in love with Max wasn’t what she planned for her life at all. Max had everything a guy could want at his fingertips except love and Everly brought that to him if he would just take a chance. They were a great couple together with enough heat and sexual chemistry to light up the night, and their happy ever after was waiting for them if they just could reach out and grab it. Rush was a great romance about two people that found love when they least expected it and I’m looking forward to reading more from Ms. Gordon.
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