Introverted teacher versus unstoppable violinist. She wants to be alone. He wants her heart. Let the games begin…
After the unexpected death of her musician brother, third-grade teacher Adara buries her grief, avoids all music and vows to exist without attachments. Social solitude works perfectly…until she’s forced to share her classroom with the new music mentor, a man who rattles her carefully constructed cage and sparks emotions she prefers to keep chained.
Always up for a challenge, violinist Garret is a master of patience and persistence, and the minute he meets Adara, he knows what he wants. Her sharp humor and haunted eyes inspire him in a way he’s never felt before. He makes it his mission to chip through her shields and breathe her back to life—no matter how hard she resists.
Even as Adara struggles to keep Garret at a distance with each clash of wills, each smile he coaxes, each kiss he steals, her resistance crumbles. But when the past catches up with them both, they will discover that some promises are meant to be broken…and others are worth risking everything for.
General Release Date: 31st December 2019
Adara never should’ve made any deathbed promises to her brother. Pebbles cracked like bones beneath her heels as she trudged between the boxwood hedging the country club’s parking lot. If she hadn’t made a sacred vow to accept all social invites from Gia, her brother’s wildly still-alive girlfriend, she wouldn’t be facing the torture of another Hamilton & Associates Belated Yule Celebration…in February. Apparently with prestige and power came the ability to reschedule Christmas.
She slipped between two cars too expensive to breathe on, the glowing mansion lights guiding her. While only a few miles out of town, the country club felt another universe away, especially tonight. Over a year had screamed by in a blur, and it felt like no time had passed since she’d walked this same path—same shoes, same black dress.
Different Adara.
She bit her lip. Nope, not going there. Especially not tonight when she had to cope in public.
The rolling pebbles gave way to smooth courtyard pavestones. Gia waited beside the gurgling center fountain with one hip cocked, cute as always in an eye-burning red sequin-and-chiffon number.
“Halloween was two months ago.” Gia arched one perfectly shaped blonde eyebrow. “What happened to classic winter white?”
Adara slogged the last few steps between them. No slinking away now. Gia would send out the SWAT team to track her and was more than willing to take her down at gunpoint. “Black is appropriate for every occasion. Besides, it encompasses all colors.”
“So does a black hole.” Gia batted her spiked lashes, not at all innocent.
“You’re right.” Adara spun back toward her car. “I’ll go home and change.”
“Not even.” Gia lunged and latched onto her arm, bringing a breeze of spicy perfume. “I anticipated your usual wardrobe tragedy and came prepared.” With her free hand, she dug in her clutch and whipped out a strip of shiny material. “Hold still or I’ll smack you.”
Adara reluctantly obeyed while Gia wrapped a festive green and red plaid sash around her waist and cinched it tight, Christmas resurrected two months too late. She resisted cringing when Gia’s scrutiny lifted from the ribbon to her zero-makeup face.
That blonde eyebrow went up again. Faster than any sharp-shooter, Gia popped open a tube of scarlet lipstick and held it to Adara’s mouth like a weapon. “Resistance is futile. Clown or glam, Dar. Your choice.”
Resistance was tempting. A circus look might keep people back. Then again, looking deranged would give people even more reason to talk. Some secrets didn’t need to be shared. She glared as a matter of principle.
“I knew you could be rational.” The makeup session was over in three seconds. Gia smiled, triumphant. “There. You’re perfect.”
“Perfect for what?” Adara didn’t bother hiding the snarl in her voice.
“To be out in the world of the living.” The words were teasing but Gia’s tone was gentle, understanding.
A single pang pierced her heart, sharp as any arrow, so fierce it threatened to steal her breath. It was an improvement, though. A year ago, the pain had been nonstop, debilitating. She managed a hoarse whisper. “I never should’ve made that promise to him.”
“As if you had a choice.” Gia snorted, thankfully ignoring her emotional slip. “Joey could’ve persuaded a nun to strip—and she’d be the one paying him. He knew you’d stay in your one-person bubble forever unless he coerced your immortal oath to truly live after he”—her throat worked and her smile wobbled for a second—“after he left.”
Adara focused on the mansion’s pillared entrance. She wanted to think about her brother’s death almost as much as she wanted to be at this party. She cleared her throat and the shadow of sorrow with it. “Truly living equals soirées with stuffed suits using liquid cheer as an excuse for lewd behavior? Dance moves my mind can’t possibly unsee? Dodging covertly placed mistletoe and any awaiting tongues?”
“Tonight it does.” Gia looped her arm through Adara’s and tugged her up the brick stairs. “Show me you still know how to smile.”
She bared her teeth.
Gia shuddered. “Forget it. Just look pretty and focus on your goal.”
“I have a goal?” She thought merely showing up was a victory.
“Yep. Be nice.”
“I’m nice.”
“To plants and children, not so much to adult humans.”
Plants and children were easy. They didn’t expect deep conversation or emotional displays. Adara dragged her feet, the mansion close enough to spill hints of the party happening inside. Red and green lights blinked through the windows onto the stone sidewalk, and buzzing chatter filtered free with the occasional laugh. No music yet. Once the band started, she might fake an excuse to leave. Not even General Gia was heartless enough to make her stay and suffer if particular music started playing.
“Cheer up, Dar.” Gia squeezed her arm as she opened the great iron door, freeing a wave of warm air. “Ian will be here.”
Adara almost growled. Ian, the lawyer with the supersonic smile who’d taken advantage of Gia’s grief at last year’s party… Scum-sucking dirtbag shark. “Perfect. I can castrate him for Christmas. It’s never too late for gifts.”
Gia paused in the foyer and stared at her. “Honestly, don’t smile. I like my job. If you give Mr. Hamilton a heart attack, I’ll have to be your teacher’s aide, and you know I’m allergic to chalk and children.”
Closing the door behind them, Adara drew a long breath laced with pine and cinnamon. “Let the fun begin.”
C.J Burright is a native Oregonian and refuses to leave. A member of Romance Writers of America and the Fantasy, Futuristic & Paranormal special interest chapter, while she has worked for years in a law office, she chooses to avoid writing legal thrillers (for now) and instead invades the world of paranormal romance, fantasy, and contemporary romance. C.J. also has her 4th Dan Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do and believes a story isn’t complete without at least one fight scene. Her meager spare time is spent working out, refueling with mochas, gardening, gorging on Assassin’s Creed, and rooting on the Seattle Mariners…always with music. She shares life with her husband, daughter, and a devoted cat herd.
You can find C.J. at her website here and follow her on Pinterest.
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