Darker Water by Lauren Stewart
Some fairytales begin with a kiss…
After another painful breakup, Laney Temple finally understands love is a fairytale and sex rarely comes with a happy ending. She’s too busy for it right now anyway—she has a business to run, art to create, and candy to crush. Sure, eventually she’ll be ready to switch from her plastic-and-silicon lover to a flesh-and-blood one. But before that happens, she has to be sure she won’t feel any of those annoying emotions that make her heart do things it wasn’t meant to do…
Like break
Carson Bennett is completely upfront about what he wants, and it has nothing to do with Laney’s heart. Her lips? Hell yeah. Other parts of her body? You better f*cking believe it. But her heart? Nope, not even a little. Until it does…a lot. But having feelings for someone isn’t allowed. It’s the kind of thing you’re supposed to push down deep and cover up with one-night stands, sarcasm, and booze…
Like secrets
Two people want the same thing—a commitment to nothing more than great sex in a bunch of different positions. Simple. Enjoyable. A win-win. Problem is, those two people have families and fears and pain that spill into every moment of their lives, control what they do and who they are. And if either Carson or Laney can’t free themselves from the past, they’ll both be pulled under by it.
Find more from this author on:
Amazon
Barnes&Noble
Author Site
Facebook
TwitterAbout the author:
Lauren Stewart grew up reading Stephen King, Ray Bradbury, James Clavell, Piers Anthony, and Agatha Christie, which explains why she can't seem to stick to one genre at a time. She loves emoticons and hates when people speak in the third person, so…
I got to the more romantic stuff pretty late, but paranormal romance was what changed me from an obsessed reader into an obsessed reader AND writer. I think my writing style comes from a mash-up of all my early favorites and my new ones, women like JR Ward, Karen Marie Moning, Nalini Singh, Charlaine Harris, and Janet Evanovich. Wow, how much would you pay to be invited to that dinner party?
I want to make people think, cry, and giggle, not necessarily all at the same time (although it's great when it happens). In every one of my books, you'll find elements of other genres – fantasy, mystery, romance, paranormal, suspense, YA, women's literature, all with a touch of humor.
Because what doesn't kill us should make us laugh.
What inspired you to write your book?
This whole series began on a dare–that I wouldn't be able to write a standalone novel that ended in a happy ending (until then, I'd always written series where one couple takesa few novels to reach their happy ending).
What can I say? Definitely not that I can pass up a challenge because I can't. And so, I wrote Darker Water.
Darker Water is a twist on The Frog Prince, with the heroine believing she has the metaphorical power to turn good men–princes–into a**holes–frogs. Because all the men she's fallen for had seemed perfect right up until she found out they were total pricks. So what does she need to make her believe in love again? A frog, of course. An a**hole who, because of her love, finally shows us that he's been an amazing man all along.
The fairytale at the beginning of that book (and for the next five books) came to me as soon as I started typing. It just flowed and set up the entire framework for the story. The second part of Laney and Carson's fairytale, at the end, encapsulates what they've learned and where they're headed.
All the books in my Once and Forever series will take a theme from a different fairytale and then quickly go in another direction. And it ain't towards Disneyland, folks. Because without darkness, we can't see the light.
VIRTUALLY IMPOSSIBLE, a twist on sleeping beauty, and DEEPER WATER, Carson and Laney's after happily-ever-after, are available now!
Related products
-
Public Attraction: The Complete Trilogy by Sophia Moore
Emma Turrell is just a small town girl with a loser boyfriend.
That all changes when she meets one of the world’s biggest movie stars.
But their relationship isn’t easy. Paul Thatcher will challenge everything about the way she sees the world, love, and sex.
Desire can’t wait for privacy. Neither should you.
This book is intended for mature audiences only, due to intense sexual scenes and graphic descriptions. Themes are for adults only.
———–
Public Attraction is perfect for those who seek:
Books like Fifty Shades of Grey or 50 Shades of Grey
Books like Bared To You
Books like Beautiful Disaster
Books like Fifty Shades of Grey and Bared To You (yes, both!)
Books Like This Man
It’s a story of public sex, private love, and the place where the two meet.
If you love E.L. James, Sylvia Day, Sylvain Reynard, or any of today’s top contemporary romance authors, you’re ready to meet Sophia Moore.
It’s clear: Public Attraction is what to read after 50 Shades of Grey, what to read after Bared to You, and what to read when you’re ready for a steamy night in.
-
Holding Out For Skye by S.R. McKade
Things are finally starting to look up for Skye Fletcher. She’s got a new job with a great salary, she’s finally out of the rat-trap she used to live in and into a decent apartment. She couldn’t be happier. Except for the thorn in her side, a.k.a. Cian Hunter, her arrogant and too good-looking co-worker whom she has the misfortune of being stuck with.
In spite of himself, Cian Hunter fell hard for the surly, unfriendly woman who made no secret of her dislike for him. He knows he and Skye are meant to be. Convincing her of that fact seems like an impossible feat. However, he’s utterly confident he’s up to the task. His future and his happiness depend on it, after all.
When Skye’s one impulsive, uncharacteristic little act changes the status-quo between them, her life gets entangled with Cian’s way more than she’s comfortable with.
That’s when her life really turns upside down…
-
The Wrong Man by Delaney Diamond
They have nothing in common. So why can’t they stay away from each other?
Construction foreman Tomas Molina has no desire to settle down. He enjoys the single life too much, with all the choices of women available to him. But when ad executive Talia Jackson becomes single again, they start an affair that has him questioning his beliefs about relationships. And the next thing he knows, he’s the one demanding exclusivity.
Talia Jackson has always done what’s right. Gone to the right schools, worn the right clothes, and married the right man. Seeking a boost when her marriage ends in divorce, she finds comfort in the arms of Tomas Molina, a man who makes her feel alive in a way she never has before. Then an unexpected result of their affair forces her to make a tough decision—stay in the world she’s known all her life, or make a future with the man she’s grown to love.
-
Redeeming The Amazon by L.V. Lewis
How does a former supermodel deal with body image when she’s lost an essential hallmark of her femininity?
Most come to The Beaudelaire Hotel a few times a year merely to indulge in sexual fantasy, but the stakes are higher for Karen Freeman and Paul Beaudelaire. Karen is nine years post-op from a double mastectomy, and her vain ex-husband hadn’t agreed with her decision to remove her remaining good breast or to eschew reconstruction. In the end, that decision cost her. She lost her marriage, but she’s certain the move prolonged her life.
Returning to a normal dating and sex life has been difficult. She hasn’t made love fully unclothed since the demise of her marriage, and her most significant relationship occurred right after her surgery. While recuperating, she had an affair of the heart with a Marine amputee who’d also been her Ph.D. classmate.
Paul Beaudelaire once had his pick of women in the upper echelons of New Orleans society. He’d been satisfied to continue in that vein, until his career in the Marine Corps was cut short by the loss of his left leg. Paul returned home with the best prosthesis Johns Hopkins could fit him with, but left his heart in Baltimore.
Can a marine amputee restore a beautiful model whose body has been ravaged by cancer? Will this fantasy weekend at his Uncle Henri’s hotel give him a second chance with his contemporary Amazon, or will her fear of rejection be a barrier to their reconnection?
-
Teaching Mia by M.C. Roman
Fed up with her disheartening life in New York City, Mia takes a gamble and embarks on an invigorating journey abroad to business school in Spain.
When Mia Fuentes moves to Spain for graduate school, desperately trying to leave her past behind, the last thing she ever imagined was getting involved with Leo Durant, the hottest and most sought after guy on campus.
Leo is sexy, confident, and has the ultimate bad boy reputation. Something about him keeps pulling her in, when she knows she should be staying far away in the secluded world she has built for herself. Will she be able to overcome her fears and inner struggles that have brought her here? Or will Leo be able to teach her something about love and that not everything in life happens the way we expect?
Contemporary, multicultural, and deeply moving, this is the story of a young woman’s trials and tribulations of leaving everything behind and trying to create a new life for herself in a foreign country. It is a relentless journey of self-exploration, healing, and maturity, with a lot of romance, wit and humor.
-
The Right Temptation by Diane Escalera
Kayla Martinez has recently landed an RN position at a prestigious hospital in her hometown. The new job is everything she’s hoped for, especially when one hot specimen shows up in the ER. She hasn’t seen her childhood crush in years, and considering how much hotter he’s gotten over time, she almost ends up needing resuscitation.
The last thing Nico LaCosta needs is a broken arm. Now his pal’s kid sister wants to soothe his pain, but he’d rather keep his distance so her big brother doesn’t break his other arm. Kayla’s no child anymore, though. She’s one hot-blooded woman, determined to remind him of a mind-blowing kiss back when they were teenagers. Leave it to Kayla to drop by his house unannounced and play Nurse Seductive. A guy has to follow the buddy code, or face the consequences. Still, sometimes giving in to temptation is worth it…
-
My Pace or Yours? by Maggie Maloney
What happens when an over-the-top, flat-out, chronically rushed career woman hires the world’s slowest carpenter to complete her late father’s half-built B&B before she loses it to the mob?
Type-A workaholic Beth Turner sure has her hands full: An eighty-hours-a-week real estate career … “The Yesteryear,” an unfinished inn left to her by her dad … a loan-shark waiting to snatch away the extremely valuable property if Beth misses the almost impossible completion deadline … and now: Sean Campbell.
Brilliant. Charming. A carpenter of legendary renown, Sean Campbell has no trouble convincing Beth that he’s the man for the job … except for the irritating fact that he is quite possibly the slowest-moving human on the face of the earth. Now add in some sultry summer heat, lust, and romance to mess things up and slow things down. Top it all off with a string of sabotage, courtesy of the murderous loan-shark, for which Beth blames Sean, and there goes the romance. And, barring miracles, there goes The Yesteryear.
But Sean is full of miraculous surprises, including his desperate transformation into a warp-speed building machine. But can even miracles overcome the loan-shark’s final piece of sabotage … one designed to put Beth out of his misery permanently?
“Hear this well, Beth Martin, “I don’t do rush jobs. Ever.”
Sean, in a construction-related argument with Beth.
“Hear this well, Beth Martin, “I don’t do rush jobs. Ever.”
Sean, in bed with Beth.
-
His Wicked Games by Ember Casey
Lily Frazer would do anything to save the Frazer Center for the Arts–even take on the infamous billionaire Calder Cunningham. When Lily breaks onto the Cunningham estate, she only wants to find and reason with Calder. (All right, all right, she wants to punch him in the face, too, but that's Plan B.) As it turns out, the arrogant billionaire is willing to give her the money he promised, but there's a catch: she must win it from him.
And the games he has in mind aren't exactly… innocent.
Lily isn't about to give up the money without a fight (or let some haughty bastard seduce her), but she quickly discovers that there might be more to the brooding Calder than she initially perceived. As their games of cat and mouse become increasingly intense, she suddenly finds herself confused by her own emotions. Can she deny her attraction long enough to win the money she needs?
A contemporary, steamy take on Beauty and the Beast, His Wicked Games is a tale of devilish deeds, wild passions, and wicked romance.
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.