The Boys Next Door by Rosalie Lario
Publication date: September 1st 2014
Genres: Contemporary, New Adult, Romance
Publication date: September 1st 2014
Genres: Contemporary, New Adult, Romance
Synopsis:
Life just got a bit more complicated…
After a heartbreaking betrayal, Lexi Ferrell is determined to get far away from her small hometown. So when she scores a scholarship to a prestigious law school in Miami, she jumps at the chance to live right on South Beach. Sun, sand, and an endless stream of beautiful people: who could resist? But her apartment complex provides far more than she asked for…in the form of two yummy new neighbors.
Matt Eisler and Ben Santos are best friends. Nothing could tear them apart...or so they thought. But when Lexi enters their life, neither one can resist wanting to make her his own.
Torn between the hot surfer boy and his exotic Latino roommate, Lexi vows to stay away from them both. But as she soon discovers, Matt and Ben are impossible to resist. And they’ll take her any way they can get her…even if it’s together. Could the three of them ever make it work? Because now that she’s experienced one night of unforgettable passion, the last thing she could ever do is choose between the boys next door.
After a heartbreaking betrayal, Lexi Ferrell is determined to get far away from her small hometown. So when she scores a scholarship to a prestigious law school in Miami, she jumps at the chance to live right on South Beach. Sun, sand, and an endless stream of beautiful people: who could resist? But her apartment complex provides far more than she asked for…in the form of two yummy new neighbors.
Matt Eisler and Ben Santos are best friends. Nothing could tear them apart...or so they thought. But when Lexi enters their life, neither one can resist wanting to make her his own.
Torn between the hot surfer boy and his exotic Latino roommate, Lexi vows to stay away from them both. But as she soon discovers, Matt and Ben are impossible to resist. And they’ll take her any way they can get her…even if it’s together. Could the three of them ever make it work? Because now that she’s experienced one night of unforgettable passion, the last thing she could ever do is choose between the boys next door.
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Excerpt
#1
Several hours later, after
calling my parents to let them know I arrived safely and unpacking all my
belongings, I get ready for the party. Cora and I share a bathroom, and it’s
not very big, but the water flow is decent, and it’s light and airy from the
jalousie window that faces a patch of overgrown bushes. The downside is the
warm stickiness seeping in through the louvers; my skin feels clammy even while
under the spray of the showerhead.
This climate is going to take some getting used to.
Giving up the fight against the humidity, I crank the
window open to allow the sunshine in, then shampoo my hair. Sudden pressure
builds up behind my eyes, surprising me. I’ve kept a tight rein on my emotions
these past few months, knowing I’d fall apart otherwise, but with this big move,
everything is starting to catch up with me. As beautiful and exotic as it is
down here, it feels so strange. I’ve never been more aware that I’m doing this
alone.
I miss Eric.
Maybe not him so much as the idea of him. I miss the
comfort of knowing I had someone by my side, someone I was going to marry and
grow old with, and someone who supported me.
Until I realized it was all a lie.
The tears spill over, slowly rolling down my cheeks,
and it pisses me off. I swore after the first two weeks I would never again cry
over that jerk. Though I can justifiably reason that I’m also crying because
I’ve left the safety of my parents’ home for the first time, I don’t want to
give in to these feelings building up inside.
Wiping my tears, I slather some conditioner into my
hair and stick my head under the thick spray. I don’t hear the voice until it’s
close by.
“That’s what I told her,” says the male voice. It’s
rich and deep, with the slightest hint of an accent that causes an automatic
tremor along my spine. Given where we are, I place it as a Latin accent. “I
don’t think she heard me.”
Frozen in place, I watch as the profile of a man
appears in front of my window, no more than ten feet from where I stand in the
shower. He’s ambling along the edge of the bushes, speaking into a sleek cell
phone. He doesn’t notice me.
Holy
mother of god.
He’s beautiful. Like Hollywood beautiful. No, Adonis
beautiful. His deliciously tan skin is highlighted by the fact that he’s wearing
nothing more than a pair of gray and white patterned board shorts, revealing gorgeous
muscles and rippling abs. His dark hair curls the slightest bit along the nape
of his neck, and his lips are firm and full.
My body reacts to the sight of him, the muscles in my
abdomen coiling with heat and tension. Do they make them all like this in South
Beach? If so, I should’ve moved here long ago.
Absently playing with the string of his board shorts,
he laughs into his phone. “I’m trying to get used to it.”
A hint of some exotic-scented flower drifts into the
shower. It smells wonderful, but lucky me, I’m allergic to about every type of
plant there is, so it’s no surprise when I let out a sharp sneeze.
Shit.
He freezes, and his gaze moves to me. His eyes widen,
trailing downward as he turns to face me straight-on.
Mortification sets in when I realize what he has a view
of. The bottom of the window sits below my shoulders, but he’s tall and can undoubtedly
see several inches below that.
Oh, god. With a delayed response, my hands move up to
cover my breasts.
Hot Guy notices and, phone still to his ear, releases a
slow grin. “Things are definitely looking up, though.”
My skin grows hot, and I feel a blush burn my cheeks. I
stiffen my spine and shoot him a glare, then move my arm to cover my breasts so
I can use the other hand to crank the window shut. “Jerk.”
His rumbling chuckle
drifts in for a second before the frosted glass cuts off his view.
Excerpt #2
A startled burst of
laughter tumbles from my lips. I cover my mouth and turn to the small group
who’s stopped right in front of us. Two pretty girls with string bikinis, a
brunette and a bottle redhead, surround a guy with honey-toned skin and the
most spectacular abs I’ve ever seen. My eyes get stuck there for a moment,
memorizing the lines and angles of his ripped muscles. Then I notice his gray
and white patterned board shorts, and it hits me where I’ve seen them before.
My gaze shoots higher, and my heart gives a sickening lurch.
Dark hair, full lips, molten chocolate-brown eyes and a
too-beautiful-to-be-real face.
Shit.
It’s the guy from earlier, from outside my window.
His gaze on Cora, he says, “Cora,” in the same tone she
used. Then his eyes move to me, leisurely looking me up and down, and he gives
me a slow grin. “Shower Girl.”
Mortification sets in as I realize, not only is he
acknowledging that horrible, embarrassing situation, but also he’s seen my naked boobs. I stifle a groan.
Jeez,
kill me now.
Cora gives a baffled look from Ben to me, but I’m
frozen in place, eyes locked on him as if he’s cast a spell over me. Not even
the woefully obvious jealous glares of the two girls flanking him can tear my
gaze away. There’s something about him, something arrogant yet mesmerizing.
Finally, I recover enough to snap at him about his rude
address. “A nice guy wouldn’t mention something like that.”
One of his thick, straight brows lifts. “Good thing I’m
not a nice guy.”
He reaches his hand out for a shake and, like a
mindless idiot, I take it. The moment our hands clasp, a bolt of electricity
slides through my body, coalescing right between my thighs. I take a shallow,
uneven breath. My body doesn’t care that this man isn’t a nice guy. It doesn’t
care what he is.
Uh
oh.
I didn’t come here looking for trouble, but it looks
like it’s found me anyway.
Excerpt
#3
Matt and I stand and paddle some more, continuing to
take in the ocean life until my arms grow sore. When I roll my shoulders to ease
the ache, he notices. “Ready to go back?”
“I guess so.” Part of me would like to stay out here
forever. “It’s so peaceful here.”
“I know.” He grins. “Well, we can go out whenever the
water’s calm. My cousin owns a surf shop in town, so I just borrow the boards
from him.”
“I’d love to do this again soon,” I tell him. Honestly,
I can see myself becoming addicted to this hobby.
We paddle back to the shore, letting the gentle wave
guide us in the last twenty feet or so, and I hop off and drag the board on
land. Across the street, the night scene is picking up. Salsa music blares from
one of the restaurants, and the low, steady chatter of people talking and
celebrating drifts over on the wind.
Cora might try to drag me out tonight. If so, I’m going
to have to turn her down. The craziness of this past week has left me exhausted.
All I want to do is climb into bed and sleep for twelve hours.
Setting the oar on the board, I dig through my bag for
a towel. I wipe off the ocean spray and turn toward Matt. “Thank you so much
for inviting me—”
He closes the distance between us and grasps my face,
pressing his lips to mine before I can process what he’s doing.
I freeze at the unexpected contact. His lips are warm,
and when my mouth goes slack in surprise he takes that as a cue to briefly
flick his tongue inside. It’s a sexy move, and my body responds to it, leaning
into him. Before I realize it, my lips move against his, and suddenly we’re
kissing for real, our tongues tangling together. It’s soft and hot, and so different
from the only other boy I’ve ever kissed that it majorly turns me on.
A quiet sound escapes my throat, and I realize I’ve
dropped my towel on the sand. He realizes it too, because his hands slide from
my face and down my arms, and he pulls me in closer.
Excerpt
#4
Matt turns to me and says, “Lexi, I want to talk about
what happened between us a few weeks ago.”
My body stiffens and I suck in a breath as he turns to
face me.
A slow smile transforms his features, and he reaches a
hand out to cup my cheek. “You’re so difficult to read sometimes.”
“I am?” This comes as a shock to me. Here I’ve been
terrified I was too easy to read.
He nods. “Sometimes I think you like me, that you’re
interested in being more than friends. But other times, I don’t know.”
“I …” Blinking, I admit, “I don’t know what I want.”
“That’s okay. I know what you went through with your
ex. I know how that probably affected you.” His eyes softens, and his voice
drops to a whisper. “I want you to know that I’m interested in you. Definitely
as more than friends.”
“I know,” I whisper back, then he’s there in front of
me. His mouth lowers to mine. I consider drawing back, but before I can figure
it out, his lips are on mine, soft and pliant. They coax my mouth open, and his
tongue slips inside.
Waves of erotic pleasure glide through my body, meeting
right at my hardening nipples and between my thighs. He deepens the kiss, and I
barely notice the bottle dropping from my hand to the sand. Caught up in the
kiss, I return to reality when he drops his own bottle and closes his hands
around my thighs, lifting me to straddle his hips. The thickness of his arousal
grazes that sensitive spot between my thighs through our clothes, and suddenly
I’m all too aware of what’s happening.
“No.” I tear away from him, almost collapsing as I drop
to the ground and stumble backward.
“What?” His expression is tortured. “What is it, Lexi?
You’re not a virgin, are you?”
“Huh?” A shocked laugh tumbles from my mouth. “N-no.”
Sighing, he rakes a hand through his hair. “Then what?”
My chest is tight and my stomach rumbles like I’m about
to throw up. I can’t keep doing this anymore. I can’t. “I … something happened
with Ben.”
Matt stops cold, his eyes going wide in disbelief.
“Ben? My roommate Ben?”
“Yes.” Shame spirals through me as I scrub my hands
across my face. ”We didn’t mean for anything to happen. It just did. And now
I’m so confused.”
He’s silent for a long time, so long I finally get the
nerve to look him in the eye. His brows are scrunched together, and he looks bewildered.
“Did you two sleep together?” he finally asks.
“No!” I start toward him, but stop once I realize what
I’m doing. “No, we didn’t. We kissed.”
And other things, but I’m not about to go into
specifics with him, that’s for sure.
He shakes his head. “When?”
“I-Islamorada. That night you crashed early.” Suddenly
cold, I wrap my arms around my waist. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t want to keep it
from you, but I didn’t know what to do.”
He glances over the ocean, scrubbing his hand through his
hair, then turns back with a sigh. “I don’t know what to say.”
His perplexed tone makes me want to cry. I could have
avoided all this had I been honest. Better yet, had I honored my vow to stay
away from boys this year. Instead, I’ve screwed it all up, and I’ve hurt a genuine
and sweet guy.
I hope I haven’t ruined a friendship as well. I know
firsthand what it’s like to lose a friend to betrayal. It sucks. I still miss
talking with Amy and hanging out with her. If my friendship with Matt and Ben
ends because of my stupid indecision, it will devastate me.
Oh shit, Ben is going to kill me when he finds out.
Suddenly, I have to get away. I have to flee.
“I’m so sorry, Matt.”
Turning on my heels, I race through the sand.
Excerpt
#5
Ben
and Matt are nowhere to be found, but I do my best not to notice that as I
drink a glass of water. I’m sort of feeling like an idiot for what went down
with Matt earlier.
No, strike that. I’m definitely feeling stupid about it.
I all but told Matt I’d be interested
in doing both of them.
Jeez.
It’s a miracle he didn’t walk away from me right then and there.
Part of me wants to slink home in
shame, but the rest of me is determined to enjoy this party. School is getting
more brutal, so lord knows when I’ll go out again. Besides, once I see Matt,
I’m going to summon the courage to approach him and let him know I didn’t mean
what I said.
At least, that’s what I keep telling
myself.
It’s well past midnight, and I’m
starting to get tired, but the party shows no signs of winding down. To many of
these people, it’s probably still early. When the bars stay open until five in
the morning, bedtime on party nights like this tends not to arrive until after
the sun has already come up.
I was smart enough to switch to water
a few drinks back, so I’m out of the drunk zone and into the buzzed phase when
a pair of strong arms close lightly around my shoulders. I shoot around to see
Matt standing right in front of me and Ben directly beside him. They are both still
bare-chested, and they look too delicious for words. My pulse immediately
shoots through the roof, and my stomach erupts in a volley of nervous
fireworks.
“Hi,” I squeak.
“Come hang out with us,” Matt murmurs,
his voice low and hypnotic.
When my gaze darts to Ben, he gives me
a hint of a smile and reaches out, grabbing my hand in his.
What
is going on?
The fact that they’ve both approached
me at once is beyond unnerving.
Swallowing hard, I search out Cora in
the crowd of people. She’s totally engrossed in Robby, which makes me relax by
a margin.
“Really?” I ask, my shaky voice
betraying my nerves.
When Ben turns with his hand firmly in
mine, I have no choice but to follow as he guides me through the courtyard and
down the path leading to his unit. Matt falls in place beside us, waiting until
we slip out of view of the pool to take my other hand in his.
Okay … what is happening?
My confusion is eclipsed only by my
nervousness. My whole body shivers with anxiety and anticipation. This whole
interplay is new, and I don’t know what to make of it.
We reach the door to their apartment,
and Ben turns the knob, leading me inside before releasing my hand. Matt’s body
is like a wall of heat at my back, and I’m hyperaware of Ben’s every movement
right in front of me. He moves to the living room and, helpless to resist, I
follow along.
It’s a mirror to the living room in
mine and Cora’s apartment, except the décor, which is a study in masculine
effortlessness. Though the room is dark, there’s enough moonlight streaming
through the window for me to make out the black leather couch, the steel-and-glass
coffee table, and a wide flat screen mounted on one of the otherwise bare
walls. My attention isn’t on the furniture, not when Ben and Matt are sucking
up all the air in the room, leaving me lightheaded.
Ben turns to face me, and the look of
feral intensity on his face makes me draw up short.
I laugh nervously. “Um, you guys are
sort of scaring me—”
He sweeps me into his arms before I
can finish and lowers his lips to mine, swallowing my startled gasp. His tongue
flicks out against mine, but I’m too shocked to respond, or even move.
Finally, breaking out of my daze, I
pull back slightly to look into his eyes. They’re dark and deep and filled with
erotic promise, but I’m also all too sensitive to Matt’s presence. When I turn
my head to gaze questioningly at Matt, he slides up behind me and sets his
hands on my hips, lending me warmth as he bends to whisper in my ear, “Sorry.
We didn’t mean to scare you.”
“I don’t understand,” I whisper back,
trailing my gaze back and forth between them.
I mean, I do understand, but I can’t believe it. Am I dreaming?
Ben’s hand cups my cheek, turning my
head so our eyes meet. “You want me, don’t you?”
His direct question shocks the hell
out of me. Powerless to resist, I give a wooden nod.
“And you want Matt,” he says
straightforwardly, his chocolate gaze boring into me.
Oh,
god. Mortification winds through me. “I …”
Ben’s lips move down to graze lightly
along mine. “So we’re giving you what you want.”
Holy crap. My mind is blown. I can’t
think straight. Fumbling for words, I manage a weak, “But— ”
Matt’s arms close around my waist, and
his chest touches my back. When his lips press against the side of my neck, my
legs turn to jelly. If not for the support of his arms, I’d fall right to the
ground.
“Don’t over think this,” Matt whispers
to me. “Just feel. What do you want?”
His words take me back to my thoughts
earlier in the night. I came down here to have new experiences, to live a
little. What better than this, something I’ve secretly been dreaming of for
months?
That slightly rational part of me
screaming, “Bad idea,” can shut up.
“I want this.”
Ben’s eyes grow hooded, and he lowers
his mouth back to mine. His lips are like liquid fire, burning me from the
inside out, and when Matt’s hands travel up my body, closing around my breasts,
my last bit of fight melts away.
Rosalie Lario is the award-winning, paranormal romance author of the Demons of Infernum and the Fallen Warriors series. Rosalie double majored in Anthropology and Classics as an undergraduate student, and briefly considered becoming an archaeologist before realizing they don’t actually live the life of Indiana Jones. So what was a classical geek armed with a lot of useless knowledge to do? Become a lawyer, of course!
After attending law school in Florida, she practiced real estate law for several years before finally admitting to herself that negotiating contracts wasn’t nearly as fun as dreaming up stories. She never imagined all the mythology she studied would one day make the perfect fodder for the paranormal romance stories she now dreams up!
When not writing, she enjoys spending time with her family in their home state of Florida
After attending law school in Florida, she practiced real estate law for several years before finally admitting to herself that negotiating contracts wasn’t nearly as fun as dreaming up stories. She never imagined all the mythology she studied would one day make the perfect fodder for the paranormal romance stories she now dreams up!
When not writing, she enjoys spending time with her family in their home state of Florida
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