Excerpt: Both of Me by Amber Kelly

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Both of Me by Amber Kelly
Series: Cross My Heart Duet #1
Published by Self Published on 2/28/19
Genres: Contemporary Romance
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Gabby Mastreoni has been in love with Christoff Scutari since she was four years old. Their fathers are in the same business, and nearly twenty years later, their families remain close. With four older brothers, Gabby leads a protected and sheltered life—until she and Christoff cross a line, and she discovers that love can hurt people.

Brie Masters left everything and everyone behind to begin again. Starting over in California, she’s found her new home. She soon learns though that she can run away from her past, but it will always be there. No matter how many miles she puts between herself and her former life, she is still running, reinventing herself—so much so that she’s not even sure who she is anymore.

And she has to ask herself, “Am I Brie, or am I still Gabby?”

Amber Kelly is a brand new author that’s caught my attention. The sound of her upcoming duet is more than intriguing. I love an angsty read and I’ve been told that the Cross My Heart Duet definitely promises to be that! YAY! Below you can read an excerpt and find pre-order info. I know this will be on my TBR list for March.

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Excerpt

“It’s your birthday?” he whispers.
“It’s after midnight, so technically, yesterday was my birthday.”
I hear a soft, “Damn it,” uttered under his breath, and he releases some of the force with which he had my arms pinned against my sides. “So, your brothers forgot your sixteenth birthday?”
I turn in his arms, and with a quivering bottom lip that, try as I might, I cannot get to stop betraying me, I reply, “Not just my brothers. Everybody. Mamma, Papa, my grandparents … you. Not a single person, except Adi, remembered at all. So, she arranged this last-minute makeshift party to celebrate.”
He just stands there, looking at me with pity on his face.
“Don’t look at me like that. I am fine. It’s just a stupid birthday. There will be another one next year. Maybe then I can swim with my friends in peace.”
That wipes the pity right off his face. The pissed-off is back.
“Did you even know those guys? They seemed older than you and way soberer than the two of you. Were you really gonna get naked for them? Do you know what that says to a horny guy? Do you? You could have been attacked by any of them or all of them. How could you have been so careless? I expect shit like this from Adriana but not from you.”
That does it. All the fight just flies right out of me. I start sobbing. Cross wasn’t expecting the tide shift and picks me up into his arms.
“I didn’t want to at first, but they all were doing it, and Adi seemed like she thought it was safe. All I wanted was to swim and maybe be kissed,” I confess as I bury my face into his shoulder.
He was walking us out of the clearing when he stops dead. “You wanted one of those boys to kiss you? While you were drunk and naked in the water?”
It sounds really bad when he repeats it back to me. My head is getting heavier and heavier, and I am finding it hard to form words.
“I think so. I have never been kissed, and I think I’d like it. Though I don’t think anyone wants to kiss me.”
I hear his sharp intake of breath.
“Now, why on earth would you think a thing like that?”
I am starting to fade into the blackness that is pulling me under as I hear him repeat himself, “Why would you think that, Tesoro?”
What were we talking about again? Oh, yeah, kissing.
“Because nobody has ever tried to kiss me. I am the only girl I know who hasn’t had her first kiss. It’s starting to get embarrassing.”
He is walking again.
“Please, don’t take me home,” I plead. “Papa and Mamma are fighting again, and I don’t want to be there. Can you take me home with you tonight?”
My eyelids are so heavy, and so is my head, too heavy for me to hold it up any longer. I feel him change directions.
“I’ll call Nicco. He is at Marianna’s apartment. Maybe you can go there tonight.”
I start softly crying again, and he stops once more.
“I don’t want to go to Marianna’s. I want to go home with you.”
“That’s not a good idea, Gabby.”
“Why not? I miss you.”
I do miss him. Since he decided to start avoiding me, I’ve felt like I am grieving a loss.
“Don’t you miss me?” I whisper into his neck.
I don’t hear his reply as I slip back into the darkness.