Title: Rival (Fall Away, #2)
Author: Penelope Douglas
Genre: NA | Contemporary Romance
Release Date: August 26, 2014
Tour Hosted by: As the Pages Turn
Synopsis
From the New Adult sensation and New York Times bestselling author of Until You
Madoc and Fallon. Two estranged teenagers playing games that push the boundaries between love and war…
She’s back.
For the three years she’s been away at boarding school, there was no word from her. Back when we lived in the same house, she used to cut me down during the day and then leave her door open for me at night.
I was stupid then, but now I’m ready to beat her at her own game…
I’m back.
Three years and I can tell he still wants me, even if he acts like he’s better than me.
But I won’t be scared away. Or pushed down. I’ll call his bluff and fight back. That’s what he wants, right? As long as I keep my guard up, he’ll never know how much he affects me….
~ Rival - Excerpt ~
Reaching around, he twisted my chin towards the mirror, and I sucked in a breath. “What do you see?!” he shouted.
“You and me!” I blurted out. “Madoc and Fallon!”
My heart was racing.
I looked at him through the mirror. I sat on one side of his lap, so he could see from the other side, and we stared at each other, my chest rising and falling more urgently.
“That’s not what I see,” he said in a low voice. “Those names mean nothing to me. They’re simple and empty. When I’m with you, I don’t see the daughter of a gold digging bitch and an Irish drug lord or the son of a crooked lawyer and a vegan Barbie.”
I almost wanted to laugh. Madoc had an ironic way of looking at the world.
But he wasn’t smiling. He was scowling. He was dead serious, and I knew from experience that his genuine moments were few and far between.
He reached up, threading one hand into my hair while the other hand rested on the chair.
“I see everything I want for as long as I can have it,” he continued. “I see a woman that wears the cutest little scowl like she’s two years old and was just told she couldn’t have candy. I see a guy that went and got an apadravya piercing, because he wanted to live in her world for even a little while.”
I closed my eyes. Don’t do this to me, Madoc. Please.
~~~~~~~~~~~~DELETED SCENE~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Deleted
Scene-Fallon and Her Mother
Walking
into the house, I traipsed through the foyer and down the hall next to the
stairs leading to the back of the house where I was sure to find Addie in the
kitchen. As I approached, though, I heard my mother’s voice, and I slow to a
standstill.
“Yes,
I’ll be there soon. Did you get into the hotel room okay?”
I
flatten my back against the wall around the corner from the kitchen and listen.
“Mmmm….that
sounds nice.” She giggles, and my stomach rolls. “You are always worth the
money.”
I
roll my eyes and let out an angry breath.
A
prostitute. That’s who she was talking to.
My
mother never wanted to be caught having affairs, so she hired expensive and
discreet male prostitutes to show her some fun. In digging around on
information from her, I actually found that it’s becoming quite a thing now.
More and more women are hiring men for sex when the profession has always been
dominated by women.
“Alright.
I’m leaving soon. See you at the hotel.” And she hung up.
I
exhaled a relieved breath.
At
least she wasn’t staying the night. I still was still planning on staying at
Tate’s, but now I knew she didn’t intend to throw shit at me for very long
today if she was on her way out.
Breezing
into the kitchen like I’d just walked in, I went straight for the refrigerator
and asked, “Hotel?”
My
mother twisted her head and arched an eyebrow at me. “Well, well, well…just
make yourself at home, Fallon,” she sneered, watching me grab a Snapple off the
top shelf.
Slamming
the door, I twisted the tin cap until the seal popped. “You don’t have any more
right to be here than I do.”
A
sly smile played in her lips, and she scrolled through her phone. “On the
contrary, this will be my house when all is said and done. If that man thinks
that he can shoo me under the rug with just cash, he’s mistaken.”
I
stopped my hand before the glass bottle even reached my lips.
“What?”
I pinched my eyebrows together. “You want this
house?”
I’d
asked—okay, blackmailed—Jason Caruthers to give her a house and cash, but I
didn’t intend for her to have this house. Never in my wildest dreams did I
suspect she’d want it, so secluded from the city as it was.
She
set her phone on the granite island, the morning sun shining on her plum
colored wrap dress. “Yes, just long enough to hurt them, I think.”
I
stepped forward, slamming the bottle on the counter with a dangerous clunk.
“But Madoc has lived here his whole life. This is Addie’s home.”
“Says
the girl that got him sent away and blackmailed his father. Suddenly you care?”
I glanced out the patio windows, seeing Addie
sweep around the pool. She wore jeans and a white T-shirt. Very sloppy and
unusual for someone like her.
I
shook my head and snarled at my mother. “You barely have any connections in
this town. Why would you want the house?”
“I
don’t really.” She shrugged, looking blissfully unaffected by a conscience.
“I’m going to strip it, sell off all of the furniture, art, and electronics,
and just let it sit.”
“Out
of spite,” I concluded.
Her
eyebrows wiggled with her smile. “Mmmm…yes.”
“You
won’t win.”
She
picked up her cup of coffee and sipped. “Jason’s good, but his mistake was in
assuming I was stupid.”
You
are stupid. And horrible. I wish I could say that there was a time when my
mother and I were close, but I’d be lying. As a child, I got along with her
better than I do now. But as a teen, I’d started to notice things. I started to
have an opinion, and she wasn’t game for that. She always had bigger priorities
on her agenda than me, and after such a long separation, the gap between us had
only increased.
I
tried to understand her. I knew she had a poor upbringing and learned early how
to lie and manipulate. Maybe she felt stronger on her own? It was safer than
letting herself be hurt, I guess.
But
I wasn’t the enemy. Or I hadn’t been until now.
“What
are you going to do to him?” My tone was somber as ideas coursed through my
head.
She
could plant drugs. Expose affairs. Have him arrested. Pin Madoc for a crime.
Harass Katherine. I couldn’t filter the ideas of what she was capable of fast
enough.
She
tipped her chin at me with a taunting smile. “You can’t be trusted, Fallon. Why
would I share anything with you?”
“Because
you can’t keep your mouth shut.” I struggled to unclench my teeth. “Isn’t that
why you summoned me here? To brag that you’re taking the only home Madoc has
ever known?”
“No.”
She put a hand to her heart. “Well, yes actually.”
Her
amusement made me want to shave her head in her sleep.
Picking
up her handbag and slinging it over her forearm, she raised her bored
expression to me. “You failed me, Fallon. You were never on my side, and I’m
going to walk away with the keys to this place. Like it or not.”
“I
failed you?” I scoffed. “You used me to prey on men. You knew a woman with a
daughter would appeal to someone like Jason Caruthers who had a child, too. You
never listened to me or guided—”
“I
have to go,” she cut off my rant, looking away. “I’m staying at a hotel in
Chicago, but I’ll be back in the next couple of days. I’m having people come by
to appraise the property and house as well as what’s inside.” Then she looked
at me. “Don’t be here,” she demanded.
And
I watched as she walked out of the kitchen, her flare skirt swaying at her
knees.
~ Buy books 1 & 2 of the Fall Away series ~
Bully (Fall Away, #1) - Buy Links:
Until You (Fall Away, #1.5) - Buy Links:
~ About Penelope ~
Penelope Douglas is a writer in Las Vegas. Born in Dubuque, Iowa, she is the oldest of five children. Penelope attended the University of Northern Iowa, earning a Bachelor's degree in Public Administration, because her father told her to "just get the degree!" She then earned a Masters of Science in Education at Loyola University in New Orleans, because she hated Public Administration. One night, she got tipsy and told the bouncer at the bar where she worked that his son was hot, and three years later they were married. To the son, not the bouncer. They have spawn, but just one. A daughter named Aydan. Penelope loves sweets, The Originals, and she shops at Target almost daily.
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Wow! So glad Fallon found a way out from under her mother. What a crazy woman.
ReplyDeleteThanks! Love Penelope's writing :-)
ReplyDeleteThank you for the sneak peek!
ReplyDeleteI love deleted scenes but I wish they came with an explanation of why the author decided not to use them!!
ReplyDelete