A PERFECT DILEMMA by Zoe Dawson Release Day {Excerpt/Giveaway}

A Perfect Secret Series, #3

New Adult Contemporary Romance and Mystery

Released September 22, 2014

The one secret she can't stand to keep is the one she can't afford to tell.

The perfect little rich girl, River Pearl Sutton has always done what her family expected of her. She’d become the perfect little beauty queen, the perfect child model and now her global success locks her into a life she never really chose.

Coming home for the summer to prepare for the Founder’s Day Festival, a celebration of her lauded ancestor, she is tasked by her father to write a speech to be delivered at the end of the party.

Returning to Hope Parish brings her back into close proximity with sweet-talking, skirt-chasing Braxton Outlaw, the boy who always seemed immune to her charms in high school. But now he looks at her with those challenging blue eyes, both intimidating and seductive at the same time. Using research of her family lineage and his as way to get close to this bad boy, they fall into a hot, torrid affair.

She stumbles across a terrible secret that could bring to ruin not only her reputation, but the reputation and standing of her family. But when her infatuation with Brax grows into something that she can’t live without, she must decide what to do. Keep the secret and lose Brax or destroy her family and lose them. 

It’s an awful, heartrending perfect dilemma.

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His power reached out and grabbed me by the throat.

He was magnificent.

His broad back flexed and rippled with every powerful swing, his stance all male, his feet planted, his thighs and calves bulging with his precise, balanced moves. He twisted often from his lean waist, and I wondered—thanks to the tales I’d heard about Boone and Booker’s jockstraps—what kind of jockstrap he wore under those shorts. A thrill sizzled through me.

His dark hair was wet against the back of his neck, and sweat trickled and ran over thick muscles I wanted to touch. Braxton was a sensual ache I had been struggling with for a long time. Even while I was away from Suttontowne, Brax was the measuring stick. Others fell far short. He wasn’t the one who got away. He was the one I could never seem to get. And, all ego aside, I’d never had trouble getting any other man I wanted.

He continued his lightning-quick moves, dancing and weaving before raining more powerful blows on the bag in an almost desperate way. It was like seeing someone expel demons, and it hurt my chest to watch him.

He looked tough, intense, and dangerous.

Another thrill surged through me.

I could see why he’d so easily sidestepped my brother. He could have done some damage to Jake if he’d wanted to. Brax was a honed, lean, mean fighting machine.

That clinched what I’d always known. In high school they were badass because they had to be. To keep the bullying at bay, they fought only to make sure everyone understood they were not worth the bother. They wouldn’t be victims or targets.

I’d admired them for it in high school. I also admired what Brax and his two brothers had done with their lives so far. Outlaws, Braxton’s restaurant and bar, was making a name for itself, and Boone’s landscape business was doing extremely well. And Booker had recently hit the New York Times best seller list with his latest book.

I wished I could be as proud of my achievements as they should be of theirs.

He stopped and leaned his head against the bag, his broad chest heaving, his taped hands splayed, looking like a tortured hero struggling with a deep, personal, internal conflict. And Aubree’s words penetrated. He had pushed my buttons. He had worked hard to make me angry, so I would be the one to walk away.

That barbeque kiss had turned the tables. Because, like I said before. I knew he wanted me.

“Braxton?” my voice rasped out, breathy and tentative. So not like me. But he moved me with his tortured magnificence. He moved me beyond self-preservation.

I knew he was a heartbreaker. I knew he didn’t know the meaning of the word commitment. I knew he had a lot of women. And, I also knew instinctually it was mostly sex with them.

I didn’t know how I knew these things. I didn’t know what made me think I could be the woman to tame the untamable, emotionally unavailable Outlaw, but I knew I wanted to try. Even knowing every other woman in his life probably believed the same thing.

For a moment he let the bag support him, his shoulders stiffening. Very slowly he turned his head to look at me. My breath caught, then my heart started to pound. Like a rabbit meeting the hungry, feral eyes of a wolf, I had the uncharacteristic and totally prey-like urge to flee.

The author is giving away (1) $25 Gift Card! To enter, visit her Facebook page HERE.

Zoe Dawson is the alter ego of Karen Anders, award winning, multi-published author. Her writing journey started with poetry and branched out into fiction. With a couple of college English courses under her belt, she penned a historical, then moved onto contemporary romance fiction. Today, she is happy producing romantic suspense, romantic mystery, urban fantasy and paranormal novels. The words feed her soul and the happily ever afters feed her heart.

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