Burning.x.Impossibly.x.Bright: #SizzlingSummerGiveaway & Excerpt of Jaycee DeLorenzo's The Truths About Dating and Mating! #Excerpt #Giveaway

The Truths about Dating and Mating

By Jaycee DeLorenzo

Spunky Italian coed Ivy Rossini likes to talk and push the boundaries. She gets to do both as she co-hosts Riordan College’s radio program, The Truths about Dating and Mating, alongside her lifelong best friend, Ian Hollister.

Being the only girl who cares to see beyond Ian’s bad boy reputation has its advantages, especially when he’s scaring off the jerks who just want to nail the campus sex-guru. It’s when he’s “protecting” her from the advances she welcomes that she wants to lob him over the head and tell him to butt out. But Ivy feels like she’s the one who’s taken a hit when Ian almost kisses her at a party. She knows she should feel relieved when he pulls away, so why is she disappointed instead?

What’s worse, Ivy’s now getting aroused by Ian’s slightest touch and can’t stop entertaining thoughts of a romantic future. But Ian doesn’t do relationships, and she’s not interested in anything casual. In the end, Ivy decides it’s best to keep her growing feelings a secret and hope they’ll pass. However, when Ian begins hinting at wanting to take things to the next level, she’s forced to decide if a chance at something more is worth risking everything they’ve built.

With their friendship and her heart hanging in the balance, can Ivy follow the advice she and Ian give their listeners - to communicate, be honest, and trust in themselves - or will insecurity, stubbornness, and pride ruin any chance of their relationship getting off the ground?

Excerpt:

I turned to look into my mirror again, but drew up short. “Wait a minute. What exactly are you doing here?”

Ian leaned to reach for something just outside the door, coming up with a black hamper stuffed to the brim with dirty clothes. “I need another load done. I’m running out of socks.” He gave me a beaming smile, then crossed to my bed, dropped the hamper on the floor and flopped down on my bed.

Who did he think he was kidding? “God forbid you didn’t bring them to me right now,” I said, drumming my fingertips on my inner hipbone.

“Like I said, I’m running low.”

“We both know you’re not here because of the laundry.”

Ian rolled onto his back and crossed his arms under his head. “Why am I here, then?”

“Oh, it couldn’t be the fact that my blind date will be arriving in about ten minutes, now, could it?”

His shit-eating grin said it all. “Oh, was that tonight?”

I stepped to the bed and grabbed one of my pillows, smacking him square in the face with it.

Ian wrenched the pillow from my grasp and slid it under his head with his eyebrows waggling. “Hey, thanks.”

Huffing, I threw up my hands and stalked to my dresser. Opening the wooden jewelry box on top, I rifled inside for some earrings.
“Hey, I know,” Ian said, as if the idea had just occurred to him, “you should blow that guy off and come out with me.”

Boy, did I want to, but I made my bed by pushing Chelsea to set the date up; now it was time to lie in it. “Sorry, but I’m not doing that.”

Ian thrust out his lower lip in a pout. “I see. You’d rather spend the night with a complete stranger than come out and play with me.”

I sighed. “You know that’s not true. But who I’d rather spend time with is irrelevant. It’s all set.”

From my peripheral vision, I saw him flail his arms and legs on the bed like he was three seconds away from throwing a tantrum. “Come on. Do you really think there’s a chance in hell that this is going to be a love match?”

“Never say never.” I looked up from my jewelry box to see him gazing at my legs with a deep frown. “What?”

“You forgot a couple of buttons.” His finger pointed to the slit at the front of my dress, which opened all the way up to my thighs.

“No, I didn’t. This is the way it’s supposed to be worn. Otherwise, I won’t be able to walk.”

“Oh.” With a disgruntled look, he reached over for my iPod from the nightstand and began scrolling through it.

“Don’t get too comfortable,” I warned. From the jewelry box, I pulled out two different earrings: a dangling gold earring with red beads and a gold cartouche with my name engraved in hieroglyphics. I held one up to each ear and studied myself in the mirror. I turned so Ian could see them. “What do you think?”

“They look great.”

“You didn’t even look. Come on, which ones?”

Sighing, Ian tore his eyes from my music player and looked at both earrings. He pointed to the cartouche. “That one.”

I put the dangly one back into the box and pulled out the matching cartouche, sliding one into each ear. Shaking out my loosely curled hair, I spritzed on some perfume, and then checked my gloss for smudges. “Okay, I’m ready, which means it’s time for you to go.” Ian continued to study my song-list as if I hadn’t even spoken.

“Ian, don’t pretend you didn’t hear me. It’s time to go bye-bye,” I said. “Scram. Adiós. Ciao!” I went to the bed and lifted my foot to the mattress, kicking it several times and making it impossible for him to read the iPod screen. “Vamoose!”

“Okay, okay.” He released an exaggerated sigh and swung his legs over the side of the bed, forcing himself into a standing position. “You’re still meeting us at O’Shea’s, right?”

“That’s the plan.” I picked up my purse from my dresser and hung the strap over my shoulder. “Now, come on.” Placing my hands on the small of his back, I pushed him toward the door. “Scoot.”

Ian leaned back against my palms, putting up a resistance. “What time will you be there?”

“I’ll get there when I get there,” I cried in exasperation. I finally managed to get him out of my room. “Now quit stalling. He’s going to be here any minute, and you won’t be.”

“Why are you so eager to get rid of me?”

“Because,” I panted as we neared the front door, “this date is going to be hard enough as it is. I’m not going to subject him to your overprotective brother routine.”

“First of all, I don’t have a routine.” Ian slid to the side, propelling me into the door.

“Hey!” I whirled around to catch him, but I needn’t have bothered. He wasn’t going anywhere. Instead, he stepped right before me, blocking my path away from the door. The sudden change in his expression made me go still. It was nothing overt, but there was something . . . a sharpness in his eyes, a pinch to his mouth, that made my heart stutter and quickened my breath. “Secondly,” he said, “I’m not your brother.”

Swallowing to moisten my suddenly dry throat, I nodded. "I know that."

He stepped closer and his hands slid over my hips. "Do you?"

Time slowed down and my heart sped up. My mouth opened and closed as I failed to come up with a reply.

“Because what I’m feeling around you lately is anything but brotherly.” His eyes dropped to my mouth, lingering for a long moment, before he looked back up again.
“And it’s frustrating as hell that you keep pretending things aren’t changing.”

I blinked, stunned by his admission. I’d seen things here and there to indicate he saw me differently than before, but to hear him admit it out loud was mind-blowing. I didn’t know if I wanted to do a happy dance or run away. I shivered, instead. His hands still cupped my hips, and his thumbs kept brushing the sides of my inner hip-bones, causing my nerve endings to spark and snap like firecrackers.

My shuddery exhale made Ian’s eyes sharpen. Their green hue darkened and he stared at me without falter, analyzing my reaction.

I felt like a deer in headlights and imagine I looked like one, too. I gulped, trying to command the individual muscles in my face to move, but they felt paralyzed. And he still wasn’t moving.

Do something, dammit!

Ian’s eyes traveled down my face again and stopped on my mouth. His lips pressed together, and it was clear he was debating whether or not to close the gap between us.

He was so close. All I would have to do was lift my head off the door and our mouths would touch. The only thing stopping me from doing just that was the small, niggling voice in my head reminding me of his words from the day before. “What about what you said at the panel?”

“What did I say?” he murmured, keeping his eyes on my lips.

“About mixing friendship and relationships?”

“Hmm.” He nodded and moved in a little closer. “What about what you said?”

“What did I say?”

“About taking risks?”

I had said that. I’d also said the girl had to decide if it was worth it. “Is this one worth it?”

His gaze darted back to my eyes. “You tell me.”

“I really don’t know.”

Ian closed his eyes with a heavy sigh. A moment later, he dropped his head on my shoulder. “Me, either,” he said. “This is so confusing.”

Tell me about it.

Jaycee DeLorenzo hails from Tucson, Arizona, on the outskirts of the Saguaro National Park – which she believes to be the most beautiful spread of desert in the world. By day, Jaycee is an English language teacher to elementary students. By night, she’s a wife, mother, writer, cover artist, website designer, and blogger. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, cooking, singing (very poorly), catching up on her favorite T.V. shows, and researching.

Visit me at my Blog, NA Alley, on Twitter or Facebook.