*~*Love Notes: Bennett to Elyssia – Bennett by Sybil Bartel*~*
Being the drummer for the hottest new rock band should’ve been a dream come true. Sold out shows, women, more money than I deserved…
But I didn’t want any of it.
The fame sucked, the money was a burden and I’d given away my only chance at ever having her — my best friend’s sister.
I wasn’t supposed to touch her. My best friend made me swear I wouldn’t. Then he was deployed, and he told me to look out for her. Except being around her while still keeping my distance was slowly killing me. Touring with the band should’ve been the perfect escape… Until I fucked up.
I fucked up so bad, she was half-conscious in my arms, fighting for her life.
*BENNETT is the fourth standalone book in the Uncompromising series.
Check out the other books in The Uncompromising Series!
Talon
I surf.
I fuck.
I pretend to smile.Two years ago my life was perfect, until it wasn’t. I scattered my wife’s ashes then walked away from the Marines. I didn’t think I had anything left to lose.
I was wrong.
The blonde showed up on my doorstep beaten and stabbed. I did what I was trained to do — I stitched her up. I didn’t have a clue who she was and I told myself I didn’t care. Until they came looking for her.
I swore I’d take my last breath before I let anyone else hurt her, except I didn’t know she was keeping a deadly secret. Now I had two choices, her life or mine.
Marriage and combat taught me the same thing — I was no one’s hero. And I was about to prove it.
Warning: This book contains offensive language, violence and sexual situations. Mature audiences only.
Ex-Danish Military Special Forces, built like a legend, and uncompromising in every way — Neil Christensen didn’t walk into my life. The Viking-sized warrior crashed it like a hurricane.
The moment he showed up at my strip club, my life fell apart. South Florida’s most ruthless motorcycle gang, the cops, the Feds — they all want something I don’t have, something the Viking took from me.
I thought I could run, but the motorcycle gang caught me. Now the only thing standing between me and an unmarked grave is a warrior I don’t trust.
I’m not afraid to die, but I am terrified of weathering the storm. Because when a Viking decides to unleash his fury, no one is going to come out unscathed.
Warning: This book contains alpha heroes, offensive language, violence and sexual situations. Mature audiences only. NEIL is a full-length, standalone novel with an HEA.
André
The Marines trained me to set my sights and wait for the shot. For eight years, I guarded my brothers and defended my country. Now I protect my clients. My personal security firm is the best in the business because I leave nothing to chance… until a dark-haired, hazel-eyed spitfire crosses my path.
She and her sexy as hell strip tease were supposed to be a one-night distraction. But too late I noticed the branding on her back and my blood ran cold. This woman wasn’t a distraction — she was a death sentence.
Knowing who she was left me no choice. I took her on as my client. But running from her past wasn’t an option.
The Marines didn’t train me to retreat. They taught me to engage.
One shot. One kill.
I LOOOOVE Bennett’s Note! 🙂
Keep reading to see the full Love Note!
Elyssia,
I remember a lot of firsts. The first time I picked up drum sticks. The first time I jammed with Myles. The first time I was recognized in public. The first million the band made. A lot of damn firsts, firsts I never dreamed were possible. But only one was life changing—the first time you smiled at me.
My life began that day.
Orphaned, bullied, and fucking hungry, (goddamn I was always hungry in that shit foster home), I hated life. By seventeen I was convinced this was the best it got. Getting my ass handed to me by the school bully, never making it home in time to beat my foster siblings to the one box of cereal that was the daily rations for five throwaway kids. I’d stopped caring about anything. Then your brother walked by one day after school while I was getting my face pummeled and took pity on me. When he stepped in and leveled that prick bully with one punch, I thought I’d finally caught a break. But when he ordered me to come home with him, saying his mom cooked, I’d thought I’d won the damn lottery.
Little did I know.
When I walked into your house, I was salivating at the prospect of a hot meal. Literally salivating. (Probably too much fucking information, but you told me once I never open up, I never share. This is why. My life wasn’t pretty or even palatable before I walked into your house that day.) I thought your brother was my ticket to a decent dinner. I knew by the next day I’d be the forgotten foster kid again, but I was so desperate for a hot meal, I didn’t care. So I followed Marcus into your house.
And there you were.
Shy, petite, happy, beautiful, so damn beautiful—Jesus, you took my breath. Then you smiled at me. Me—the invisible, malnourished, orphaned foster kid. But you didn’t just smile. Color hit your cheeks, you dropped your face and you smiled at me through those gorgeous long eyelashes like a girl smiles at a boy. You didn’t see my dirty clothes, or disheveled mop that was two years past a decent haircut. You didn’t stare at the new and old bruising on my face, or dried blood on my hand-me-down clothes. You didn’t even turn away with a look of pity.
You just fucking smiled at me.
I fell in love with you that day. A fifteen year old girl I never should’ve been thinking about, but Goddamn, Elyssia, you were so beautiful. And shit you were sweet. Pure and innocent and so damn kind, you made me want to be a better person. You made me want to try. Try giving a shit, try fighting back, try to make something of myself. Hell, I wanted to be better at everything just so I could deserve you.
That’s how my life began that day. And fuck did I try, but I also screwed up. I screwed up so much I lost years between us. You’ll never know how much I regret that. You’ll never know how much I wish I hadn’t wasted time or made shit mistakes. You’re the greatest gift life has ever given me. I thank the fucking universe every day that you waited for me, that you chose me.
My drums, my heart, they beat for you. They have since that first day I saw you. I love you, Elyssia.
Thank you, so damn much, for being mine.
Bennett
Sybil grew up in Northern California with her head in a book and her feet in the sand. She used to dream of becoming a painter but the heady scent of libraries with their shelves full of books about wistful summer days and first loves drew her into the world of storytelling. Her true literary love is the New Adult genre but really, any story about a love so desperately wrong and impossibly beautiful, makes her swoon.
Sybil now resides in Southern Florida and while she doesn’t get to read as much as she likes, she still buries her toes in the sand. If she’s not writing or fighting to contain the banana plantation in her backyard, you can find her spending time with her handsomely tattooed husband, her brilliantly practical son and a mischievous miniature boxer who stole her heart.
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