KALEIDOSCOPE by Kristen Ashley
Publication: February 4, 2014
Publisher:
Forever E-Book; $3.99
 When
old friends become new lovers...anything can happen.
Sexy,
gifted, and loyal, PI Jacob Decker is a tall, cool drink of perfection who
had Emmanuelle Holmes at "hello." His relationship with Emme's best
friend kept them apart for years, but things have changed. Now that a case
has brought him to Gnaw Bone, Colorado, the road is wide open for Emme and
Deck to explore something hotter and deeper than Emme dreamed possible. So
why is she sabotaging the best thing that's ever happened to her?
It
isn't easy to catch Deck off guard, but Emme does just that when she walks
back into his life after nine long years. The curvy brunette had her charms
back in the day, but now she's a bona fide knockout . . . and she wants to
rekindle their friendship. Deck, however, wants more. Emme's always been the
one; she excites Deck's body and mind like no other woman can. But a dark
chapter from Emme's past overshadows their future together. Now only Deck can
help her turn the page-if she'll let him . . .
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I love Kristen Ashley’s romance stories. As it turns out I am
very much a sucker for a happy ending, which thankfully Kristen Ashley always
gives in spades. When I heard about her latest book in the Colorado Mountain
series, I was beyond excited. (Though I cannot wait for Wood to get his story...fingers
crossed it will be soon). Kaleidoscope releases today in ebook so go and click
away. Just in case you need something to tide you over until you
buy it, check out the first chapter in the link provided and also the teaser posted
below. While you are at it be sure to enter in the giveaway as well! Happy
reading J
EXCERPT:
I looked out my
office window, down to the yard, my eyes to the bustling activity, and I did
this tapping my phone on my desk.
I should be working
but I wasn’t thinking about work.
I was thinking about
Jacob.
More precisely, I
was thinking about calling Jacob, had an overwhelming urge to do so.
I was also trying
not to do so because I had a boyfriend, even though he was a boyfriend I wasn’t
all that sure about. He was sweet, he was into me, but he was just… off.
Then again, I didn’t
have a lot of experience so what did I know?
Additionally, after
my dinner with Jacob last night, within an hour, I’d called him after ten at
night and now it was only eleven thirty the next day.
I didn’t want him to
think I was psycho, and calling him would imply psycho behavior. Further, when
I called him last night, I’d asked him to dinner, which was dinner two nights
in a row with a woman he hadn’t seen in nine years, a woman with a boyfriend,
and that was semi-psycho.
Okay, maybe it was
totally psycho.
I didn’t want Jacob
to think I was psycho.
Ever.
But I wanted to hear
his voice. I wanted to connect with him on the phone. I’d missed him and I
liked having him back. I liked it a great deal.
I also missed him a
great deal.
And I needed to ask
him something. Further, he was the only one I could ask.
I looked from the
yard to my phone. My mind telling my thumb not to do it, my thumb not
listening, I found Jacob’s contact and hit go.
I put it to my ear.
“I’m a psycho,” I
whispered and luckily finished whispering two seconds before Jacob’s voice
sounded.
“You okay?” he
answered.
He kept asking that
mostly, I figured, because I kept calling when I didn’t need to so he probably
thought something was wrong.
Or that I was a
psycho.
“I need to know if
you don’t eat anything,” I lied.
Actually, it wasn’t
a lie. Although I remembered a lot about Jacob (most everything, in all
honesty), I couldn’t recall if there was something specific he didn’t like to
eat.
I could recall how
beautiful he was, how tall he was, how strong he was. I could recall how smart
he was and how funny he was. I could recall how cool he was with me. I could
also recall how much I missed him. But I couldn’t recall if he didn’t like
chicken.
But that wasn’t the
only thing I needed to know. I needed to know something else too.
Much like last
night, when he didn’t make me feel like a psycho, in fact, the opposite and
sounded like he was happy to hear from me and would be willing to talk all
night, he again sounded like me psychotically calling him yet again in a precursor
to stalker way was no big deal.
“I don’t eat it,
I’ll pick it off.”
“You can’t pick it
off if I cook with it in it or if the mainstay of dinner on the whole is what
you don’t eat,” I informed him.
“You makin’ Indian
food?” he asked.
“No. Don’t you like
Indian food?” I asked back.
“Love it,” he
answered.
“Then why’d you ask
if I was making Indian food?”
“ ’Cause I hoped you
were.”
I burst out
laughing.
No, Jacob definitely
didn’t make me feel like I was being a psycho.
When I quit laughing, I told him, “Sorry, honey, I don’t know how
to make Indian food.”
“Shame,” he
muttered, a smile in his deep, attractive voice, and if I was on an infrared
scanner, specific parts of me would have shown up hotter.
You have a
boyfriend, Emme! I told myself.
For a while, I
answered myself.
Jacob is also your
ex–best friend’s ex-boyfriend, Emme! I reminded myself.
So? I asked myself.
I shoved those
thought aside, thoughts that, if anyone knew I was talking to myself in my head
might prove I was indeed a psycho, and pointed out to Jacob, “You haven’t
actually answered the question.”
“I’ll eat what you
cook, Emme. Cook what you like.”
He was such a nice
guy.
He always was.
Nice. Tall (very
tall). Handsome (unbelievably handsome). Smart (so damned smart). Funny.
Interesting. Gentlemanly. And a repeat of nice because it was worth a repeat
since he was just that nice.
I liked all that
about him. I liked that he wore his dark hair way too long. I liked that
sometimes a thick hank of it fell over his forehead and into his eye. I liked
that he was who he was and didn’t wear designer jeans or put gel in his hair. I
liked that, even considering he was extortionately intelligent, in fact, a
genius, he never made anyone feel less than him because they weren’t as smart.
I liked that he never acted superior or arrogant and with all that was him,
looks, body, brains, he was one person who could. And I liked that he liked to
do what he liked to do, he did what he liked to do and wouldn’t get pushed into
doing something he didn’t want.
Like Elsbeth tried
to do.
He’d lost her to
that and he’d accepted it. I knew it killed. He’d loved her to distraction. But
he refused to be the man she wanted him to be and instead was the man he was.
She should have seen
she had it all even if he didn’t make bucketloads of money and thus couldn’t
give her the life she was used to getting from her daddy. Country clubs, tennis
lessons, vacations in villas in Italy and beaches in Thailand, fabulous homes
kept by maids and fabulous meals cooked by cooks.
She didn’t see all
she had.
Stupid.
About the author:
Kristen Ashley grew up in Brownsburg, Indiana, and has lived in
Denver, Colorado, and the West Country of England. Thus she has been blessed to
have friends and family around the globe. Her posse is loopy (to say the least)
but loopy is good when you want to write.
Kristen was raised in a house with a large and multigenerational family. They
lived on a very small farm in a small town in the heartland, and Kristen grew
up listening to the strains of Glenn Miller, The Everly Brothers, REO
Speedwagon, and Whitesnake. Needless to say, growing up in a house full of
music and love was a good way to grow up. And as she keeps growing
up, it keeps getting better.
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