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Way Too Close – Prologue!

Coming September 4th! The second in the

A New Generation series

Available for PRE-ORDER NOW!

RELEASE DATE 9-4-21!!!

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NOT EVEN CLOSE!

 

Lex & Xochitl’s story 

FYI her name is actually spelled Xochitl but pronounced Socheel. Except since we are in Lex’s POV and this is his first time meeting his sister’s dormmate who he’s only heard of, he assumes her name is spelled how it sounds. It’s why you’ll see her name spelled that way in the prologue. But very first chapter of the book he’ll get schooled by her on how it’s actually spelled.

I expect to have this ready release by EARLY September. I’m just waiting on the ARC’s to be ready to go so I can choose an exact date. When that happens I will make an immediate announcement!!   

Bloggers and active reviewers who’d like to receive an ARC for in exchange for an honest review email me with your kindle address at EliReyesBooks@Yahoo.com – I expect ARC’s to be ready by this weekend!

 

Prologue

 

Dismissed

 

Frumpy, short, bad teeth or skin, maybe even glasses so thick you could see into the future. Not to generalize or to be a dick, but Lex had expected to see at least one of these elements when he finally met his sister’s dormmate, Socheel. While his sister Vannah had referred to her take-no-shit roommate as lovably cantankerous on more than one occasion, and his ever-cheery sister thought it hilarious, Lex knew better. His sisters were pretty, popular, and even on the coveted cheer squad all through high school. Both the jovial identical pair were so likeable even the misfits or grumpy people, who normally would be annoyed by anyone as chirpy as his sisters, were drawn to them. Their mother called it an anomaly effect. She said, just like in romantic pairings, opposites typically made better fits because they complemented each other’s differences. But Lex had another theory about these misfits. So, he’d braced himself for meeting this bitter-for-good-reason oddball.
When the door to his sister’s room finally opened and he laid eyes on her roommate, he smiled, surprised and relieved. But before he could introduce himself to the fresh-faced, so-different-than-he-expected girl at the door, she pointed at her earpiece and tapped her finger to her lips. She then pointed at what he assumed was his sister’s bedroom, as she rushed away to a table in the front room with an open laptop, leaving him standing there at the door to let himself in.
“Yes, I have a question,” she said, before even taking a seat.
“Taz!” Vannah said, smiling big as she walked out of the room Socheel had pointed to.
Socheel turned to her with a frown, and Vannah winced, immediately bringing her hands over her mouth. “Sorry,” she whispered then turned back to Lex, motioning for him to follow her back to her room.
She hugged him the moment she was close enough. Once in her bedroom, she explained Socheel was in the middle of one of her online classes. “I always forget,” she said, giggling as they walked into her bedroom. “Her online classmates and professor have even seen me in pajamas and with crazy bedhead on more than one occasion because I’ve walked out there forgetting her camera was on. She reminded me about her class earlier when I told her you’d be stopping by.”
Lex nodded. His trip to LA had been an unexpected, last-minute one, and he decided he’d stop by and pay his sister a surprise visit since he hadn’t seen her in months. But then he thought better of it since his friend Dave would be dropping him off and coming back for him later. Lex wanted to make sure she’d be there and he didn’t get stuck waiting outside her dorm for his ride.
Leaning against his sister’s desk, he was in the middle of explaining why he was in Los Angeles to begin with, when Socheel popped her head in the open bedroom door. “I’m done.”
She glanced at Lex, showing as much interest as she had when she first opened the door for him before starting to pull away from the doorway. “Wait,” Vannah said, standing up from her bed. “You haven’t been formally introduced to my brother.” Vannah turned to him, smiling big. “Taz, this is my dormmate, Socheel.” She turned to Socheel with the same big smile. “Socheel, meet my little brother, Taz.”
Lex refrained from rolling his eyes at his sister’s descriptor for him, since despite his being younger than she was, he’d towered over Vannah by almost a foot and outweighed her by at least forty pounds for years now. But to Vannah he’d always be her little brother who she’d refer to by his childhood nickname forever. He grinned at Socheel, who barely cracked a smile.
“Hey.” Socheel nodded politely. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”
“All good I’m sure,” Lex teased as he took her in with a playful smirk now that he had a longer chance.
She was no runway model, but as far as he could, tell she was no oddball either. Her hazel eyes were bigger than most, and her lips were the kind he’d always had a hard time keeping his eyes off when talking to girls: perfectly plump and very kissable, despite how little he’d seen them smile so far. Even though he’d first deemed her just doable, she was what he’d always considered his kryptonite when it came to girls—voluptuous in all the right places.
His eyes were immediately on hers when he heard her clear her throat and realized he’d been caught ogling like an idiot. Those big but unamused eyes went from him to Vannah, and any sign of a smile was completely gone now. “I got that paper I told you I need to tweak,” she said, ignoring Lex’s comment altogether. “But feel free to watch the TV or use the kitchen if you need to. I’ll still be working out on the front table, but I’ll have my headphones on.”
“He gave you a chance to fix it?” Vannah asked, wide-eyed.
For the first time since he’d met Socheel, she indulged him with a breathtaking smile, so contradictory to what he’d seen earlier, given the stern first impression she’d made so far. “Yes, and you know this professor is known for being a hard ass. But I only have until three to turn it in, so I don’t wanna blow my second chance.”
“Okay, okay.” Vannah nodded, smiling big, clearly happy for her friend. “We’ll keep it down.”
“No, that’s fine.” Socheel shook her head. “Like I said, I’ll have my headphones on.”
Without even looking at him again, Socheel walked away. Before Vannah could follow her out, Lex touched his sister’s arm, confused and strangely intrigued. “Did I miss something?” He motioned toward the door. “What’d you tell her about me?”
“Oh.” Vannah shrugged. “I probably brag way too much about all my siblings.” She chuckled. “I told you her patience can run a little thin, and I seriously go overboard when gushing about you, Gordo, and Nena.”
Without further comment, they walked out into the kitchen where Vannah proceeded to chat cheerfully away about all things school related: the campus, the heavy homework load, and to his surprise, the new guy she’d started seeing. For the first time since their introduction, Socheel sort of acknowledged him in more than the obligatory way she’d done when Vannah introduced them. She’d pulled out one of the earbuds since they’d walked out there. Lex knew this because, the whole time Vannah had been chatting away, he hadn’t been able to keep his eyes from wandering onto her completely aloof roommate. Vannah mentioned something about a prank their sister was trying to talk her into playing on the guy she was seeing now, and Lex called it ballsy.
“Too ballsy if you ask me,” Socheel said, and while technically she was following up on Lex’s comment, she addressed Vannah, so it still felt like he was being dismissed as she’d done more than once already. “Any boyfriend would be mad, and understandably so, but as intense as Byron is, this can’t end well.”
Vannah argued that it was just a prank; though she did seem nervous about it. For a moment, Socheel seemed to be taking a break from her paper. She got up and walked over to the fridge, and while it was hard not to take in all her curves, Lex was mindful not to get caught ogling again. This wouldn’t be the first time ever that he hadn’t immediately won over a girl’s attention. He got that she was a college girl, and he was still a high school senior, not to mention her good friend’s brother. But this total lack of interest from any girl—a friend of his sister or not—was new to him. He was sure it was just the lack of experience when it came to this kind of reaction from girls that had his ego feeling a little bruised. But never one to pass up a challenge, he decided to take advantage of the moment to tackle it.
Even better, the phone rang in Vannah’s room, and she smiled brightly. “That’s probably Byron. I’ll be back.”
“Well, that was fast,” he said, leaning against the counter as Socheel pulled out the orange juice from the fridge, a glass from the cupboard, and poured herself some. “When Vannah left for school a few months ago, she was adamant about not getting caught up in any kind of romance, and now I hear you calling this guy her boyfriend?”
She turned to him with a shrug, and for once, he was treated to a genuine full smile. Not that piddly crack of a smile she’d offered when they’d been introduced. And boy was it something else. How could she go from being just doable to suddenly someone whose smile could involuntarily having him smiling like a goofball, in just over an hour? Though he only noticed because, oddly, her smile waned immediately when her eyes fell to his smiling lips.
“You can’t plan when, how, and who you fall in love with.” She turned back to the fridge to put the orange juice back in, but then seemed to catch herself and stopped to look back at him. “You want some?”
Not really, but at this point, he’d do anything to keep her from her laptop at least a little longer. “Sure, I’ll take some.”
She placed the juice jug on the counter and pointed at the cupboard. “Cups and glasses are in there. Have at it.”
Alright, so she wasn’t going to pour it for him. Why didn’t this surprise him? He reached for the cupboard door and pulled out a small glass but turned to her before she could head back to her laptop. “What about you?”
She peered at him over her glass, with those big eyes that got even prettier the more he got lost in them, as she took a sip of her juice. “What about me?”
He kept his eyes on her even as he poured his juice. “You looking to find love anytime soon?”
Without even attempting to hide the quick roll of her eyes, she shook her head. “I just told you I don’t believe you can plan that stuff.”
She did, didn’t she? Idiot.
Feeling stupid now, as he finished pouring the juice, he walked it over to the fridge, getting a whiff of whatever subtle but sweet fragrance she wore in the process. “I just meant are you open to it, should it present itself?”
Immediately, he was distracted when she finished taking another sip of her juice and she licked those full lips. “Any particular reason why you’re asking?”
Just like those eyes, that scent, and those curves, her licking those lips completely pulled him out of his train of thought, and he almost forgot what he’d asked.
“Huh?” He glanced up, only to be met with that same unamused expression she’d given him when she’d caught him ogling earlier.
He shook his head exasperated by what an ass he was making of himself. This never happened to him; though by the look on her face he was sure she’d never believe that. Clearing his throat, he attempted to do some damage control and brought out the big guns. He knew girls were suckers for his and his brother’s dimples.  So, he smiled big leaning back against the counter. “Maybe there is.”
For a second there, he thought it worked. She seemed stunned as their eyes locked for an instant. But it was fleeting. In the next second, she turned and started to her laptop. “Then no, I’m not.”
Vannah walked back into the kitchen, as usual smiling big. “What’d I miss?”
Lex’s phone buzzed in his pocket as Socheel took the seat in front of her laptop and once again openly rolled her eyes. “Your brother here is asking if I’m looking for love.”
Vannah immediately laughed, turning to Lex. “Oh, my God, Taz, you’ll never change.”
He glanced down at his text, frowning when he saw it was from his ride telling him he was outside waiting for him. “Not like how it sounds, though,” he said, trying to backpedal and still reeling from Socheel’s blatant and unapologetic rejection. “I was just asking because—”
“No, no need to apologize,” Vannah quipped, hooking her arm into his, and leaned against his shoulder. “I wouldn’t have it any other way. I love my charming little brothers just as they are. Haven’t met a girl yet who they couldn’t make swoon.”
Socheel raised her hand, staring straight at the screen, but said nothing, and it only made Vannah laugh even more. “Don’t be mean. You’re different and you know it.” His sister turned up to look at Lex. “Don’t mind her. She’s a hard one to crack,” she whispered. “But I’m sure if you really wanted to—”
“What was that?” Socheel turned to look at them now with a soured expression, and even that was sexy as shit. Damn it.
Vannah overdid the teasing grin. “I said how ’bout I make us lunch?”
“Can’t,” Lex said, shooting off the text letting Dave know he’d be right out. “My ride’s here. I gotta go.”
“Already?” Vannah whined. “You just got here.”
“Yeah, but he works tonight, so we gotta get going.”
“I’ll walk you out then,” she said with a pout. They started out as Vannah turned to Socheel. “Be nice and say bye to my little brother. You know you’re probably already secretly in love with him.”
The perpetual eyeroll wasn’t missed, and Lex forced a smirk, trying to be a good sport about how things went down here today. With him living two hours away, what were the odds of him having to be around his sister’s dormmate again anytime soon, anyway? You can’t win them all, and clearly this was full proof of that.
“Safe travels,” Socheel said as Vannah walked out before him.
Lex turned one last time to Socheel as she smiled that genuinely beautiful smile she’d only extended to him one other time that day. Their eyes locked in a solid breathtaking moment, before she put her headphones on again, turned back to her laptop, and just like that, dismissed his ass—again.
What the hell?

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The first in the A New Generation Series, Not Even Close is currently discounted through the release date of Way Too Close! If you haven’t already read it grab it now. Both stories are stand alone titles and can be read without the need to read the other but if you read it now you get to meet Xochitl and fall in LOVE with her! Just click on the cover above for all the links!   

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This had been such a bad idea. Joseph rushed alongside Vannah and she was actually grateful for his clinginess now. She could use a second pair of eyes.

“How far could she have gone?” Swinging the door open to one of the many bedrooms in the house, Vannah gasped when she saw the half-naked couple on the bed. “Sorry.”

As awkward as the moment was, Vannah still glanced around in case Xochitl was passed out anywhere in the room. The girl hadn’t been kidding when she said she was a lightweight. Not that Vannah wasn’t also. She’d only ever been buzzed once before in her life. But somehow her friend went from mildly buzzed like Vannah to falling down drunk in a matter of a couple of hours. Vannah had left her for two minutes to go find a bottled water and she’d disappeared. Clarissa hadn’t been able to make it tonight and Silvia’s sister got them the booze, but after hooking up with her ex, Silvia had taken off with him and they’d been on their own for the rest of the night.

Closing the door, Vannah trudged ahead on a mission. With her heart at her throat, her parents’ warnings loomed in the air, about how dangerous it was to get drunk at these college parties. She was only grateful now that she hadn’t drank nearly as fast as her nervous friend. Whatever buzz Vannah had begun to get, was long gone now that she was growing more and more panicked with every passing minute that she couldn’t find her friend.

“Xochitl!” She called out as she neared the stairwell in case she was downstairs somewhere searching for Vannah as well.

“Is that the wasted girl you were with earlier?”

Vannah’s eyes zoomed in on the girl who was doing the asking downstairs. “Yes! Have you seen her?”

“She just left with some guy.”

Remembering the pushy guy who’d been trying to throw the moves on Xochitl earlier, Vannah turned to Joseph wide eyed. “Oh my God.” Turning back to the girl downstairs who’d gone back to dancing, Vannah rushed down the stairs “Excuse me!” She pushed her way through the crowd. “Excuse me.” The girl turned to her again barely slowing the hip swaying. “What guy? Which way did she go?”

“Some horndog who was all over her,” the girl said loudly over the blaring music. “He took her that way.” She pointed at the front door. “It was so obvious he wanted in her pants bad. But if you hurry you might catch them.”

Without even thanking her, Vannah rushed toward the door even more glad that Joseph was still sticking with her. Earlier she’d been annoyed by his overly eagerness. Now she might need him if this horndog Xochitl left with got confrontational.

Blasting through the front door, Vannah jerked her neck in every direction of the crowded front yard and sidewalks. “Hey!” She yelled when she saw them. The guy was helping her very wobbly friend into a car and Vannah practically sprinted toward them, glad she was so used to wearing such high heels. “Hey, you! Where do you think you’re taking my—”

Nearly choking when the guy turned to her and she saw who it was, she was rendered speechless.

“Vannah I’ve been looking all over for you.”

Her drunk friend’s slurred words pulled Vannah out of her stupor as she turned to respond to her. “I’ve been looking all over for you.”

Refusing to look at Byron because the girl’s comments about the horndog all over Xochitl were suddenly not just maddening anymore. The very thought was doing something else to her now. A part of her felt incredibly disgusted and disappointed, but another part felt unbelievably jealous. Only she’d die before she’d let this jerk, she’d obsessed so much over and clearly had been way off about, notice. Instead, she kept her eyes on Xochitl. “Where are you going?”

Hiccupping loudly, Xochitl giggled. “We were- hiccup! – going to go park – hiccup! – and – hiccup!” Covering her mouth with one hand, even as Byron held her by her elbow, Xochitl pinched her nose with the other and inhaled deeply holding her breath.

“We were just gonna—”

“I don’t need to know what else you were planning on doing.” The harshness of her words toward Byron surprised Vannah, but she knew it wasn’t just because he’d been planning on taking advantage of her drunk friend. “Whatever it was, it’s not happening now.” Vannah hurried to help Xochitl out of the car again, refusing to even look at him.

“Wait I wasn’t planning on—”

“Can’t you see she’s completely wasted?”

“Yeah, that’s why—”

“Oh, I bet that’s why,” she retorted finally turning to look up at him but then quickly turned to Joseph because she could hardly stand to look in those hardened, yet infuriatingly sexy eyes for even another second.

 

Read the entire EXPLOSIVE prologue by clicking on the banner below!

 

 

Giveaway!

Share and show me where you’ve shared to enter to win an ARC and start reading this as soon as tomorrow, but I’ll keep this open until Friday. So if you don’t win tomorrow keep sharing! I’ll giveaway an ARC a day until then! Then Friday I’ll choose the winner  of the paperback! 

 

Winners of Sunday’s Giveaway!

Winners of ARC’s are:
 
Jennifer Lynn
Rosi Ayala
Amy Sommer
Becky Navarro
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Please send your kindle email to EliReyesBooks(at)yahoo(dot)com and make sure you add that email address to your approved email list.
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#FollowFriday Teaser!

#TGIF!!!!

 

He should’ve known he was in trouble the moment he heard that sweet laugh. Normally, something that sweet would’ve annoyed his bitter ass. Instead, he was drawn to it—to her—like he hadn’t been drawn to anything in too long.

He should’ve run the moment he found out she was just eighteen. Normally, he steered clear of girls that young and their drama. Instead, he succumbed to the unrelenting draw.

He should’ve been relieved when she admitted she was in no way ready for anything exclusive and serious. Normally, he’d be all for that. Instead, the thought of her not being exclusively his infuriated him.

Except nothing was normal about how alarmingly fast she’d brought him to his knees. In all his twenty-five years, not a single girl had ever done that.

Not Even Close.

But she’s still just eighteen and she still isn’t exclusively his. With his past making him so cynical it’s not a matter of if he’ll eventually blow but how badly.

NOT EVEN CLOSE is a New Generation series featuring the offspring of couples from my previous series. Release date to be announced SOON

 

Today’s EXPLOSIVE teaser. Well, right as it’s about to ignite! Share and tell me what you think on any of my social media posts and automatically enter to win these signed paperbacks, 

 

AND an ARC of Not Even Close! If you already have either of them choose any one of my others! 

Rolling the kink he’d been feeling in his neck ever since seeing her at the restaurant yesterday, Byron walked into the gym with a purpose. As much as his head kept telling him to move the fuck on and stop dwelling on this shit, a part of him was holding out and it was making him crazy. So, she clearly hadn’t felt as besotted with him as he’d been to her. But the fact remained she still hadn’t responded to his last text. If this really was her thing to be dating multiple people at once then wouldn’t her MO have been to respond with at least an, okay, maybe another day? They’d been glued to their phones going back and forth all day every day for the past week. Now he makes one comment about spending time with another female and she disappears? Something wasn’t adding up. Not that he was hoping she’d reach out. He still didn’t trust himself not to snap and he didn’t want to give her the satisfaction of confirming just how much more she’d already begun to mean to him than he did to her.

Nine did a double take when he saw him and started toward him. “Hey man, you talked to your brother today?”

“No, not today.” Byron glanced down at his phone just in case he’d missed a call or text from him. “Why? What’s going on?”

“Nothing I just tried calling him earlier to ask about the part for that Cadillac. He said he knew a guy last week, but it’s been one thing after another and I’m having a hell of a time trying to land just the right piece. I had to come down to talk to Abel about a job I’m working on for him so I was hoping I might run into Beast.”

They stood there in the middle of the gym discussing the car Nine was talking about. They’d been at it for a few minutes when he heard it. That unmistakable giggle, then an all-out laugh. It’d only been a day since he’d been witness to the nauseating sight of her kissing another guy, and already his reaction to hearing the laughter had changed. It didn’t do what it normally did to him. Instead, it almost infuriated him. Turning around to the direction it was coming from, his eyes zoomed onto her as she latched both arms around the guy she was walking with and continued to laugh.

“I am not!” she laughed leaning into him.

This guy was a new one. Not the meathead he’d seen her here with before. Though he hadn’t actually gotten a good look at the one she’d been kissing yesterday, he wouldn’t be surprised if that was a different guy too. He watched as the dude she was with now rolled his eyes but laughed shaking his head.

Byron’s feet were already moving before he could even think on it. With every heavy step he took, Byron reminded himself to keep his cool. He just needed to get what’d been on his mind all fucking day yesterday and today off his chest, but it’d be done without cussing or making a scene. He could do this.

Within seconds, he was in front of them blocking them from continuing to walk. Her reaction to his blocking her from walking was as expected, a bit startled. But also, and infuriatingly somewhat confused. As if she hadn’t a clue why he might be standing there looking ready to spit. “I know you said you had friends but just how many of them? I was last week, there was King Taco dude yesterday, and now this?”

Byron glared at the guy whose brows had begun to furrow in question now too. He looked as young as her—maybe younger. But of course, given her stature he towered over her at nearly Byron’s height. As if sensing how ugly this was about to get, she placed her hand on the guy’s shoulder. Instead of diffusing the situation, it only heightened the tension because the dude looked ready to get in Byron’s face now. Clenching his fists, Byron stared him down with even more conviction, silently imploring the stupid fuck to make a move.

 

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