Missed Connections by Tamara Mataya…EXCLUSIVE Excerpt and Spotlight

Missed Connections by Tamara Mataya

Series: Summer Love, Book 1

ISBN: 9781492621218

Release Date: June 7, 2016

Genre: Contemporary Romance

 

About the Book

Missed Connection: I saw you standing there, and I was struck by your eyes. Gorgeous, but not as gorgeous as your smile.

Thanks to her job at a crazy New Age spa, what should have been a sizzling NYC summer is being hijacked by demanding hippie bosses. To unwind, Sarah spends her nights cruising Missed Connections, dreaming of finding an uber-romantic entry all about her. Of course, the moment she finds that Missed Connection, real life comes crashing down around her in a night of unbridled passion with someone completely different: totally off-limits Jack.

Best. Hookup. Ever.

Gorgeous and wealthy, hot as sin, Jack can give Sarah everything she needs—except an emotional connection. That she gets from her Missed Connection, the romantic stranger who never fails to make her swoon. But there’s only so much of Sarah to go around. Torn between the bad boy she can’t keep and the sensitive stranger who bares his soul online, her heart and body are soon in two very different relationships…or are they?

 

Exclusive Excerpt from MISSED CONNECTIONS

“There they are.” Pete swoops in suddenly, offering a kiss on my cheek and a shoulder bump for Jack. “What’s with the music? I’ve heard more authentic dubstep in Great Aunt Ione’s car!”

I smack Pete’s arm. “Right? They chased me out of the room with Shaggy.” I focus only on Pete. I’ve got to ignore Jack. Off-limits Jack. I could throw a stick into any bar and hit three chicks he’s dated. And given the best orgasms of their lives.

Shut up, brain.

“How’d you find us?”

He grins at me. “I asked the girls downstairs. They knew exactly where Jack was.”

Why am I not surprised?

Pete grabs my arm. “We’ve got to get back in there. You’ve got to shake some serious ass to celebrate the new job, darling.”

I turn my back on him. “And I’ve got a serious ass to shake.” I give a shimmy for good measure, looking at the boys over my shoulder.

I swear Jack’s eyes turn black, but it’s hard to tell from peripheral vision. I risk a full-on glance. Yeah, he’s eye-fucking me hard, and my body reacts in all kinds of ways I have to trample down with unsexy thoughts.

“Jack!” A tall Indian woman strides up to us, leaning close to Jack like we’re not even here. “I need you. Now.”

Fortunately for me, Pete takes my hand and we head straight downstairs to the dance floor, leaving Jack on the patio with whoever this woman is.

Either the music gets better, or the second drink relaxes me enough that I don’t notice how bad it is, but soon, I don’t care about the heat, or the crowded floor, or Jack and stupid Maxine and stupid… I don’t even know her name, but her hair was annoyingly shiny.

Pete and I shake and shimmy together before he sees someone else he knows and disappears, leaving me alone again. Jack has come back down at some point, but he stays at the bar and entertains his revolving door of admirers. Again, as usual. He buys one a drink, and they chat for a while before they part ways.

Another drink and more dancing later, I watch a seventh chick hit on Jack. For some reason—maybe I’ve had too much to drink, or maybe it’s just the heat of so many bodies packed together on a sweltering summer night—I want to slap the foundation off her face when she looks him up and down like he’s a slab of meat. When this chick leaves, I head to where he’s standing by the wall with his arms crossed.

“You buy a lot of girls drinks, don’t you?”

He bites his lip. “I wouldn’t say a lot.” His eyes stay focused somewhere across the bar, and I can just imagine some girl blushing and looking coyly away.

Yeah, he doesn’t have to shell out money to strike up a conversation with anyone. Not with his looks and personality. He’s funny and charming, someone you want to be around. I wonder how many of those girls realize that. “You don’t need to do that to get a girl to talk to you. Why do you bother?”

Why am I making an issue out of this? I eyeball my empty glass and set it on the bar. When I drink, I can get a little…aggressive.

Jack doesn’t seem to notice. Or maybe he’s just willing to ignore how I’m acting because he’s seen me at my worst. He runs his hand through his hair. “I guess it’s a classic way to break the ice, but I’d rather everyone was just upfront about things. ‘Hi, I like you. I think you’re hot. Want to come home with me?’ That sort of thing.” He shrugs, then laughs. “I wish people were more like you, I guess. I always figured you’d take the direct approach.”

He always figured? “What would happen if I came up to you and flirted? ‘Hi, I like you’ and all that?” The words are out of my mouth before I can let myself think better of it.

That’s got his attention. Suddenly, the air between us feels thick. Tense. Like we’re both holding our breaths. He licks his lips and I bite mine. His eyes narrow slightly. “Are you asking if I want to take you home?” he finally murmurs. His voice is deliciously husky.

I can’t meet his eyes now. He knows I want to…just as much as he knows I won’t. The truth lies heavily between us. Then a Wayne Wonder song comes on, providing the perfect distraction, and I flap a hand. “I love this song,” I say, pulling back, both grateful for and disappointed by the distance between us. Another moment and I could have sworn he was going to ask—

“I know. You’ve only made me play it every week since it came out.”

“It’s a classic.” I shake off the heaviness between us, determined to just let it be, and dance my way to the floor. I don’t know what to make of our conversation, but I feel cute and have a nice buzz and am out with my bestie and his sexy twin. A goofy smile twists my lips, and I look back at Jack as I shimmy my hips.

The expression on his face nearly stills my feet.

There’s hunger in his gaze.

I turn away and keep dancing, though less happily than before, more aware of every movement I make, knowing his eyes are on me. Breathless. Despite not wanting to take our relationship to the next level, I have to admit that I want his eyes on me. Seeing other women talk to him, look at him, annoys me more than it should. He’s not mine, but they don’t deserve him. So I make my movements a little sexier and imagine what it would be like if I was going home with him tonight, hating the reasons that can never happen.

I’m so wrapped up in a fantasy of tumbling into Jack’s arms that it seems inevitable when his arms wrap around me from behind. He tugs me close to the curve of his body, and his heat is incredible—too incredible for the rational part of me to win. I smile and dance with him, allowing myself a moment of perfect snatched happiness.

“Girl, you’re making everyone on the dance floor jealous with those moves.” Pete’s voice in my ear shatters the fantasy, and my eyes open, gaze flying straight to Jack—who is still standing where I left him by the wall, an unreadable expression on his face as he watches me dance with his twin.

I wish it had been you, Jack.

But it’s better for both of us that it wasn’t.

 

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About the Author

 

Tamara Mataya is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, a librarian, and a musician with synesthesia. Armed with a name tag and a thin veneer of credibility, she takes great delight in recommending books and shushing people. She puts the ‘she’ in TWSS and the B in LGBTQIA+.

 

 

 

Connect with Tamara

Website: http://feakysnucker.blogspot.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TamaraMatayaAuthor/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/feakysnucker

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7277419.Tamara_Mataya