{"id":27011,"date":"2017-10-22T09:30:34","date_gmt":"2017-10-22T13:30:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/?p=27011"},"modified":"2017-10-22T08:35:15","modified_gmt":"2017-10-22T12:35:15","slug":"excerpt-reveal-defiant-attraction-by-v-k-torston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/?p=27011","title":{"rendered":"Excerpt Reveal: Defiant Attraction by V.K. Torston"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Defiant Attraction releases November 16th!<\/strong><\/h4>\n

A Contemporary, new adult, erotic romance<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Pre-order:\u00a0 <\/strong>Amazon<\/strong><\/a><\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

About the Book<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Dan might be the enemy of my enemy, but I\u2019m not sure that makes him my friend.\u00a0 He\u2019s definitely not my \u2018step brother\u2019, no matter what everyone at school says. Honestly, I don\u2019t know what he\u2019s supposed to be to me. Or what he\u2019s becoming\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

Fact: for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the yearbook, I\u2019ll be Sophia Ramos: Valedictorian. Years of honor roll certificates, AP classes, and lugging around an obnoxiously large cello case are about to finally pay off.\u00a0 If everything goes according to plan, I\u2019ll escape these decaying suburbs for a top university across the country.<\/p>\n

The problem? A few years ago, my mom met someone just as broke, just as drunk, and just as impulsive as she is. Approximately five seconds into their relationship, they decided it would be an excellent idea for him\u2014and his son, Dan\u2014to move in with us.\u00a0 (Spoiler alert: it wasn\u2019t).<\/p>\n

Now I share a house with none other than Daniel Cole. Even though Dan dropped out two years ago, he\u2019s still the tattooed, bad boy, heartthrob, legend of St. Anthony\u2019s Academy. He and I aren\u2019t supposed to have anything in common.<\/p>\n

Living together means war. First, Dan and I were at war with each other. Now, our rivalry is giving way to an unlikely alliance\u2014two opposing sides teaming up against a common enemy: our respective parents.<\/p>\n

Which is to say, we\u2019ve been hanging out.<\/p>\n

Question: What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the thing: My brain is a complex organ. One hundred billion neurons, each with an average of seven thousand synaptic connections to other neurons. My brain is my ticket out of here.<\/p>\n

My heart, by contrast, is a pump. It moves blood around.<\/p>\n

I know<\/em> Dan is off-limits. I know<\/em> I shouldn\u2019t do something I\u2019ll regret. And I know<\/em> how much is at stake (my family, my future).<\/p>\n

So why can\u2019t I stop thinking about him? Those inscrutable jade eyes. The smile that can say a thousand different things at once. That tattoo curving across his abs\u2026<\/p>\n

Even though I know<\/em> better, I feel<\/em> that pounding in my chest. And it\u2019s getting harder to ignore.<\/p>\n

But if I follow my heart, I can never go back.<\/p>\n

Answer: There is no such thing as an immovable object.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Excerpt<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Twisting the tray from side to side breaks the ice with a satisfying crack. I’ve almost
\ngone so far as to pour water into my glass before I stop. Memories from last night
\nsurface and I recall sitting up in bed picking popcorn out of my bra.
\nDan is wearing elastic-waist pajamas. I can see the edge of his boxer-briefs peeking
\nout of the top but their waistline is much the same scenario. Everything has been so
\nrelaxed today. He’s perfectly content\u2014humming to himself!\u2014while he finishes
\nscrubbing the sink. He would never see it coming.
\nI pad softly across the linoleum, careful not to make a sound. The glass of ice waits
\npoised in my hand. Dan finishes rinsing the sponge. In one fell swoop I wrench back a
\nhandful of pajama-and- boxer and let loose a frozen torrent.
\nDan jumps, surprised, but he\u2019s still reacting more to the grabbing than anything. While
\nhe knows something has happened, he doesn’t yet know what.
\nI can’t contain my devious grin while he searches my face. Then\u2014there it is. A yelp, a
\njump, a shake. Cube after freezing cube tumbles from his pant legs. More yet are
\ntrapped inside his underwear. He hops from foot to foot and tries to push them out.
\nThen he changes strategy.
\n\u201cYou little\u2014\u201d
\n\u201cNo!\u201d I squeal, giggling wildly, and tear out of the kitchen.
\nI circle the table and he pauses just across its diameter. I try to feint left. He jerks then
\ncorrects his course and lunges. I backtrack.
\nWe’re stuck in a dead heat. A draw. One of us will have to make a break for it.
\nThrowing caution into the wind, I take off away from the table and leap over the
\ncouch. He struggles to follow my maneuver. Probably something to do with the
\nglassful of ice melting in his underwear. I can’t stop shrieking like a child and waving
\nmy hands like an idiot. If I don’t make it to my room, he’s going to tickle the fuck out of
\nme.
\nMy heart leaps as I crash through my door and tug it closed behind me. It stops short
\nof snapping shut. One tattooed arm pries it open.
\nI jump back and seize a pillow from my bed like a shield. \u201cNo!\u201d
\nThen the tickle-fingers. Just the sight of them breaks something inside me and I start
\nlaughing so hard I can\u2019t breathe. Once, twice, three times I whack him with my pillow.
\nHe yanks it away and I trip backward onto my bed.
\nWe land hard and he quickly takes both the figurative and literal upper hand. One
\nknee wedges between my legs to keep me from kicking. His hands snatch my wrists in
\nturn, pinning them above my head.
\nDead heat. Stalemate. My armpits are terribly exposed but he can’t tickle me as long as
\nhe’s holding me down. My chest rises and falls as fast as my heartbeat. Desperate
\nlaughs push through my tight-pressed lips.
\nThis close, his face a spare few inches from mine, I notice a field of freckles for the
\nvery first time. Light, almost invisible, they dust his nose and cheeks. Freckles don&#39;t
\nseem like something Dan should have.
\nThe lunatic laughter dies in my throat but my chest still rises and falls. A muscle in his
\njaw works. Green eyes dart rapidly between mine, thinking. About what, I\u2019m not sure.
\nWhen we landed, his chest pressed down against mine. Now I feel his thin, worn
\nsleeping t-shirt against my thin, worn sleeping t-shirt. No bra in between. On either
\nside, only skin.
\nHis hands, coiled around my wrists. My breasts, curving against his chest. Our lips,
\ninches apart. This is starting to look like\u2026something.
\nOur eyes stay locked. The longer we remain like this, the more the next movement
\nmatters. The stakes are shooting up. Maybe, if I could move, I could just tickle him
\nback…
\nHis knee shifts a fraction, hardly anything at all. Or maybe I imagined it. A rush of heat
\nflows between my legs\u2014so strong and so sudden I’m sure he could feel it. The fabric is
\nso thin it might as well be bare skin. Goosebumps erupt down my arms. My nipples
\npull to points against him. He must feel them too.
\nI’ve been staring into his eyes so long\u2026however long this has been\u2014an infinity\u2014 and I
\nmark their swift change. Something has happened there. Some choice, some
\ndetermination…
\nSome noise rises from my throat. I’m not even sure if it was a sound or just a feeling,
\nbut I sense how it changed me. The space between us starts to close.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

About the Author<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\"\"V.K. Torston is a millennial and \u2018cool aunt\u2019 to a brood of nieces and nephews. She was born and raised in San Francisco, attended university in New York City, and aspires to one day live in London. A veteran of the independent music scene, she began writing nonfiction in her late teens. Then she realized that making up stories was way more fun than coming up with endless synonyms for \u2018frenetic\u2019 and \u2018danceable.\u2019 Her hobbies include drinking too much coffee, making up stupid songs, and ranting about current events. Defiant Attraction is her first novel.<\/p>\n

Twitter: @vktorston<\/strong>
\nWebsite: www.vktorston.com<\/a><\/strong>
\nGoodreads Author Page<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Defiant Attraction releases November 16th! A Contemporary, new adult, erotic romance Pre-order:\u00a0 Amazon   About the Book Dan might be the enemy of my enemy, but I\u2019m not sure that makes him my friend.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25910,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[290],"tags":[432,717],"class_list":["post-27011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-news","tag-excerpt-reveal","tag-v-k-torston"],"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":false,"span_bottom":false},"number_of_votes":0,"sum_votes":0},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Defiant-Attraction.jpg?fit=150%2C225&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7gaNL-71F","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}