Welcome to our Grand Finale celebrations for the amazing and super talented
In our final post, we will take a look at the Broken Pieces series, with excerpts, and conduct our Q&A with Riley. All the way at the bottom, there's also one more chance to win one of her fabulous books!
First up,
Broken Pieces
Blurb:
Can three broken pieces make a whole?
Josiah Evans is the orphan who lost both his parents. He’s sweet, shy, and all heart. He wants nothing more than to be loved.
Mateo Sanchez is the son of a gang leader. He’s seen it all, and never hesitates to do what needs to be done, no matter what it is.
Tristan Croft is the wealthy attorney who clawed his way up from the bottom to rule his own world. He’ll never depend on anyone but himself again.
Three men who couldn’t be more different…and yet, as their lives intersect they find an uncommon balance that calms the storms inside each of them, and ignites fires hotter than they ever thought imaginable.
Told uniquely in three parts and spanning over ten years, BROKEN PIECES is a journey of healing for three fragmented souls, finding love in the unlikeliest of places—with each other.
Excerpt:
On the outside, Josiah looked like the weakest of them all. Mateo had always known how strong he was, but looking at him right now, hearing him, it slammed into his chest just how much more strength he had. More than himself. More than Tristan, too. He was the rock, and not just because he drew them together. No, because he held them together. He was the glue that made all their broken pieces fit to make them whole.
“I want it,” hardly brushed passed Mateo’s lips when he heard the twist of the doorknob.
Josiah turned, and Mateo took one step forward when Tristan came into the house. He was pale, his eyes tired, his body looking even more exhausted. Josiah didn’t hesitate before rushing over and wrapping his arms around Tristan.
Mateo watched Tristan’s hand knot in Josiah’s shirt like someone would have to physically pry it free.
Mateo turned to walk away, but then Josiah’s words, his words from just a minute before, repeated over in his head. He was fighting.
Before he got the chance to turn back toward the men, Tristan said, “No. Don’t go. I need you, too.”
Mateo wasn’t even sure how he got there, but suddenly he stood next to them. Suddenly it was the three of them in an embrace, clutching and squeezing, daring anyone to try and pry their hands free.
“You’re still here. No matter how many times I’ve pushed you away.” Tristan touched Josiah’s cheek, and Mateo knew that part was mainly for him. “No matter how much I fought it, you never turned your back on me.” He turned to Mateo. “And you wouldn’t, either.”
Josiah led the way, taking Tristan’s mouth. Mateo watched their lips move together, their tongues give and take, and damned if he didn’t feel like he was a part of it, too. If it wasn’t them acting on not only how they felt, but how he felt. And when it was his turn, when his tongue wrestled with Tristan’s, he knew Jay was seeing the same thing.
“I’m tired. So damn tired of doing it alone. Tired of not living.” Tristan looked them both in the eyes as he spoke. “I want to give myself to you both, every part of me, but I don’t know how.” And then he looked down. “Show me how.”
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Second in the series,
Full Circle
Blurb:
Nothing in life is ever easy, and no one is more painfully aware of that than Josiah Evans, Mateo Sanchez, and Tristan Croft. They know what they want—each other—but with three people as broken as they are, all those pieces aren't so easily mended.
Josiah is their glue. All he wants is to give his men what they need.
Mateo wants to absolve himself of his sins. To be worthy of love and to protect it.
Tristan must let go of his past, must learn how to need, and what it really means to take care of someone.
To keep the balance intact, they all have their roles to play. But what happens if the balance shifts? What happens when someone doesn’t play the right part? If one of them falters, they all feel the strain.
The only way to complete their full circle is for all their pieces, despite the curves and rough edges, to fit together perfectly. To do that, Josiah, Mateo, and Tristan must learn to get over the pasts that have defined who they are. And when an old enemy returns and threatens the foundation of their new life, decisions will be made, and boundaries will be tested that could change their lives forever.
Excerpt:
“Tell me about it,” he found himself saying, as he sat at the table, a glass of wine in front of him. He wanted to know everything about them, when he’d never cared enough to need to know much of anything about anyone before. As horrible as it made him feel, even Ben. His friend had always been there for Tristan, though he had never returned the favor the way he should.
“About what?” Josiah asked over his shoulder, before turning back to peek into the oven.
Mateo walked with the same stiff yet practiced movements to him that he always had. It was as though he was always prepared to defend himself, yet smooth and quiet, like he knew how to keep to the shadows at the same time. Due to his life in the gang, no doubt. Tristan held his glass out to Mateo when he joined Tristan at the table. Mateo shook his head, denying the drink the way Tristan knew he would. He’d get him to come around one day.
“Tris?” Josiah asked again, and he remembered he’d asked them a question.
“About the thing with your hair.” When Tristan and Josiah first started sleeping together, he would flinch if Tristan touched his hair. He didn’t anymore, but it wasn’t as though Tristan did it much anyway. It was their thing, and they deserved that. They all had bits and pieces that belonged to different combinations of two of them, and then those pieces that were a part of their whole—the three of them.
“It drove me fuckin’ nuts when we first met. Always in his face.” Mateo turned toward Josiah, history and memories being shared between them.
One would think jealousy would take root in him, but it didn’t. Their bond…their connection is what started all of this. It’s what made Tristan feel, even if he couldn’t always show it the way he should, because as much as he loved them, as much as he knew they loved him, the thought of needing someone the way he did them still made his finger seek the pulse in his wrist. As weak as it made him feel, needing still scared him to death. One night couldn’t change that.
“It was a way for me to hide, I think.” Josiah pulled a dish from the oven. “I’m not sure I planned it that way, but it was. Here,” Josiah set the pan on the middle of their set table, then grabbed the rice and moved it over as well before joining Mateo and Tristan.
“One of the first times we really spoke, it started because of my hair. Mateo hadn’t been with us long.” Josiah dished food onto a plate and handed it to Tristan. “We were sitting in our room, twin beds separated by a desk. I was doing my homework and hoping he would talk to me, scared he would at the same time. What would a guy like him have to say to someone like me? Teo was like, strength in human form to me. I was in awe of him.”
Tristan watched Josiah hand Mateo his plate next.
“I wasn’t shit,” Mateo said, and Josiah rolled his eyes.
“And then?” Tristan prompted, needing to hear more of their story. Needing to know more of where they came from.
Josiah chuckled. “And then he looked at me like there was absolutely no hope for me and said, ‘Doesn’t that bother you? The way your hair’s always gettin’ in your eyes?’ And all I could think was that he’d noticed me… This guy who people were afraid of, yet who had protected me, noticed me…I was shocked he would even pay attention to something like that.”
Tristan’s eyes found Mateo. He was bent toward the table, as though leaning over to take a bite of his chicken but then got caught in Josiah instead. His stare was dark—dark eyes, and a dark, hungry look.
“I always noticed you. Even when I didn’t want to. I couldn’t believe someone like you’d give a shit.”
Jesus, they were beautiful. They inspired Tristan to want more for himself. To want them.
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And last, so far,
Losing Control
Blurb:
On the surface, Ben seems to have it all: money, influence, good looks. He smiles and jokes in all the right places, but it’s all a façade. Inside he’s a wreck, and it’s only getting worse. With his Congressman father using Ben’s recent kidnapping for his own political agenda, and Ben still struggling to get over the only guy he’s ever loved, he feels like he’s losing his grip on reality and he’s quickly spiraling out of control.
Then he meets Dante, an enigma of a man with as much self-hatred as Ben has. In Dante, Ben finds what he didn’t know he needed: Dante’s control, his power, is the only thing that clears the fog in Ben’s brain. For the first time in his life, Ben has a lover who just might need Ben as much as Ben needs him. When they’re together, the demons from their pasts don’t lurk so heavily on their shoulders.
But Dante can’t fix him. Not when a memory from Ben’s past is haunting him in ways he doesn’t understand, waiting for him to put together the missing pieces in his head…and what he discovers just might have the power to break him for good.
Warning: light BDSM themes and mentions of abuse.
Excerpt:
Dante’s dark hair was wet as though he’d just gotten out of the shower. He wore faded jeans and a tight, long-sleeved shirt. He was muscular but not overly so. There was a bead of water on his forehead, where his hair hung. He was so fucking beautiful. Ben wanted to go down to his knees. Wanted Dante to lead him, control him, fuck him, because even though he tried to turn off the switch in his brain, he couldn’t. Not unless he was under Dante’s command.
“You like art, right?” Dante stepped out of the apartment and closed the door.
“I do. There’s something…freeing about it.”
Dante gave Ben a small grin and then said, “Close your eyes.”
Blurb:
