Book Info:
Title: Curve
Published Date / Expected Publishing Date:
25th October 2013
Genre :
New Adult Contemporary Romance – with a British sensibility
Appropriate for readers over 15 due to sensitive themes (sexual violence), language and sexual content.
Synopsis:
Cass is seventeen and never been kissed, let alone touched. On one humiliating night, that changes when two boys become interested in her. Flynn is the older brother of her best friend, yet Cass has never considered him as anything other than that. Rob is the school sports star and becomes obsessed with Cass when he loses a bet because of her.
As the relationship between Cass and Flynn develops, Rob's interest becomes increasingly malevolent. One terrible night changes Cass's life and threatens to destroy her relationship with Flynn, as well as her future.
Author Bio & Details:
Facebook Author Profile Link: https://www.facebook.com/nicolahudsonauthor
Goodreads Profile Link:
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7211253.Nicola_Hudson
Twitter Link:
https://twitter.com/NicHudsonAuthor
Author Bio:
I’ve always been an avid reader and occasional writer, but only ever for my own eyes! Then, last year, I read my first New Adult novel - and I was hooked. After consuming a vast e-pile of NA, the burning need to write my own was overwhelming. And so I started…
Fitting in writing around a demanding job and a wonderfully supportive husband has been, umm, interesting at times but the whole process has been a fantastic experience. I have been blown away by the friendliness and support shown by the readers, writers and bloggers who make up the NA and Indie communities; online with them is one of my favourite places to hang out!
I have already started the follow-up novel to Curve, Heart, which follows Neve as she starts at university.
Excerpt 1 (the opening of the novel):
Things like this don’t happen
to me.
As we swayed slightly awkwardly in time with the warblings of a ballad
being sung by one of those manufactured boybands, I tried to enjoy the moment
for what it was: me, Cass Jones, dancing with Rob Meadows at the Sixth Form
Christmas party.
Rob Meadows, star of the school rugby team.
Rob Meadows, blonde god of gorgeousness.
Me.
The evening was coming to an end
and, after the rowdy jump-dancing of earlier, the DJ was playing the compulsory
slow numbers that signalled the end of the party for some but just the start of
the evening for others. And there I was,
still dancing.
The Sixth Form Christmas party was a highlight of the school social
calendar, especially as it usually provided significant fodder for the
yearbook. All of Year 13 had started to
think about lives beyond school, our small town, even our friends, as part of
the university application process.
Consequently, there was a sense of desperation to our attempts to create
some happy memories to take with us.
There we were, on the cusp of legal adulthood, yet not really sure of
our place in the world.
Neve and I had debated whether or not to even bother going to the
party. As habitual residents of the
social periphery, we didn’t really belong to any of the usual cliques found in
most high schools. And we were OK with
that, enjoying the sense of irony in watching those cliques shift and re-shape,
occasionally even imploding.
I’m not trying to suggest that the evening was some sort of Ugly
Duckling transformation story. I am definitely not Cinderella.
But it was clear that others, as well as me, were surprised to see me
there, doing that. I was dressed in some
black lace concoction that Neve had assured me was ‘a little bit sexy, but
definitely not slutty’, opaque tights and a pair of ballet flats. It had been a nightmare trying to find
something to wear that looked dressy enough, covered enough and didn’t look
like it should be worn by my mum. Neve
had managed to cajole my hair into a side sweep of loose waves and hide the
couple of spots that had appeared, as if on cue, that morning. I knew I didn’t
look like most of the other girls, especially those with their fake tans, fake
hair and fake nails, but I was OK with that.
Usually I was happy with the office-wear rules that made up the dress
code for Sixth Form: black trousers, a plain tee shirt and a cardigan had
become my own unofficial uniform. So
maybe people were surprised to see me in a dress. Or maybe it was because Rob was dancing with
me.
That was more likely the cause.
About half an hour earlier, Rob Meadows had come over to our table,
drink in hand, sat down and started chatting like we were long-time
friends. He joked about some of the
teachers, and recalled some of the funny moments from when we had lessons
together in main school. As the
conversation continued, he had moved his chair closer to mine, as though he was
struggling to hear what I was saying. At
one point, when he touched my arm to point out the drunken antics of one of the
other rugby team players, I finally got the message.
Rob was flirting with me.
When he asked me to dance, I looked across at Neve, who was bravely
trying not to look like a fifth wheel. I
knew she was as surprised as me at what was happening; this had not even been
considered in the endless discussions we had had about the evening before tonight. She shrugged her shoulders and I got up to
follow Rob to the area where a few couples were in varying stages of becoming
physically acquainted with each other.
My heart was pounding. I had
never danced with anyone other than Neve, and never like this! I decided that I just had to follow his lead;
clearly this wasn’t going to be his first time.
As we moved together in time with the music, I felt the tautness of
Rob’s waist beneath my hands. I had
worried about what to do with my hands but he had gently taken them and placed
them on his hips before gathering his own around my neck, pulling me
close. His thumb was softly rubbing my
nape, the tiny movement sending shivers up and down my spine. My breath became shallower with each
tingle.
Was this what all the fuss
was about? If so, I finally got it.
One sway brought us closer together and I was sure that I could feel him pressing into my hip. I’d never been that close to a boy before,
well, not in that way, and I didn’t have the foggiest about what to do. I was sure that most of the girls would be
able to laugh it off with some innuendo-laden joke, some might even have moved
in closer. But I wasn’t one of those
girls and the last thing I wanted was to mess up what could be the best night of
my life by handling it wrong. What if he ended up laughing at me?
Within seconds though his one hand ran down my spine, leaving a line of
warmth that went straight to my very core.
Of course I’d been turned on before but never like this; never from the
real-life touch of a real-life boy. The
tingling feeling spread through me, taking my disbelief hostage along the
way. Rob’s hand lingered at the curve of
my bum and pulled me closer to him.
There was no way I could pretend not to know what it was pressed against
me.
“Can I cut in?” What?
I was convinced it must be a joke; Neve’s brother Flynn was trying to
ruin my perfect moment? I gave him a withering look and held on tight to
Rob. “Can I have this dance?” Flynn persisted, like he was a character out
of a bloody Jane Austen novel.
“Uh, sure mate. I’ll go get us
another drink, Cass.” Rob gave me a long
look, full of meaning I couldn’t decipher, and walked to the end of the room
where his friends were rowdily clustered around the bar. Meanwhile I was stood like a statue in the
middle of the dancing couples. When
Flynn tried to take hold of me, in a bizarre repeat of Rob’s earlier move, I
squirmed away.
“What the hell are you doing?” I demanded, unsure whether I was angry,
frustrated or both. Flynn’s shoulder
shrug added to my fury. “Can’t you see
that the last thing I want at this precise moment is what has just
happened?” Flynn smirked and put his
arms on my shoulders. “I mean it,
Flynn!” I didn’t want to make even more of a spectacle of myself but I couldn’t
remember feeling that angry before.
“Just hold me and pretend that you’re having the best time of your
life,” he whispered into my ear, so close I felt him inhale.
~Deleted Scene~
Deleted because it was too sexy and close to
another similar scene!
The groan he emitted as I took him in my hand made me
bold and, even though I didn’t really know what to do, I gripped him and
mimicked the way he had touched himself that night downstairs. He stopped moving. He stopped kissing. I’m sure he even stopped breathing for a
while.
“Cass, I want to stop for a minute,” he said in a
tortured voice. What? I stilled my hand but
didn’t let go. Flynn’s breathing slowed
and he looked down at me. “That is too
nice, Cass,” he groaned, “I won’t last if you carry on.”
“That’s OK.
It’s your turn,” I replied, meaning it.
“Thanks babe, but there’s no hurry. What else do you want to try? It’s your birthday, after all.” It was one of those ice cream shop moments:
when there are so many flavours to try, you’re baffled by the choice. I was aware of the weight of him in my hand
whilst I considered my options. And I
knew what I wanted.
“Swap places,” I instructed. As soon as he had complied, I pulled at the
waist of his boxers and removed them, marvelling at how gorgeous he looked,
lying there naked. I straddled his hips,
resting on my knees, and leant forward to kiss him. He cradled my head in his hands as he matched
the movements of my tongue, not yet willing to hand over the control.
Ending the kiss, I straightened up and arched my
back.
“I like this view.” Flynn smiled and put a hand on
each breast, cupping them and stroking each nipple with his thumb. He had no idea what was coming.
Literally.
I wiggled my hips slightly so that his hard-on was
rubbing directly against me.
“Shit,” was
Flynn’s muttered response. I smiled. I
rocked my hips backwards and forwards, so that we were as close as we could be
without breaking Flynn’s rule. I looked
him in the eye, challenging him to tell me to stop, but all I got in return was
his intense gaze, occasionally broken by the bat of his lashes.
He put a hand on each of my hips, holding me firmly to
him, as I increased the pace and pressure.
I felt my own orgasm start to burn deep inside and, just as I tipped
over the edge with a loud moan, Flynn moved my hips back to the top of his
legs. Somewhere on the perimeter of my
own release, I heard him call my name.
As my breathing returned to normal, I moved so that I
was lay alongside him, amazed that I felt so comfortable being naked around
him. I was about to put my arm across
his stomach when he caught hold of my hand.
“Hang on, Cass.”
He leant away and picked up the box of tissues that was on the floor
next to the bed. “Let me clean up
first,” he said with an endearingly embarrassed smile, as he wiped up the congealed
evidence of his own orgasm. Tossing the
tissues to one side, he pulled me to him and kissed me on the top of my head.
“You are amazing.”
Playlist
Tom
Odell - Can’t Pretend
Of
Monsters and Men - Little Talks
Christina
Perri – Arms
Snow
Patrol – Open Your Eyes
Two
Door Cinema Club – Next Year
Biffy
Clyro – Mountains
Lana
Del Ray – Dark Paradise
Bastille
- Flaws
Alanis
Morrissette – Simple Together
Muse
– Undisclosed Desires
Imagine
Dragons – Hear Me
Adele
– Lovesong
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