After a late night fight between Alex Summers and her ex goes terribly wrong, her parents ship her off to spend a stress-free summer in Los Angeles. But the second she steps off the plane, Alex stumbles into California bad boy Elias King, a too-hot...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Alex
In the wild, whenever lions decide to stalk, pounce on, or murder one of the lesser creatures in the animal kingdom, the air around them shifts. Never mind the billions of other wildlife bustling around the savannah, once a lion has chosen a target, he attacks.
As for the prey, the semi-innocent, unsuspecting, New Jersey gazelles ignorantly grazing in the line of fire, their overall chance of survival comes down to two choices.
Choice A: Stand there helpless while the drunken king of the parking lot jungle throws himself at you like a beast or Choice B: Dodge him like a champion.
Decision made.
Elias stumbled toward me, arms outstretched, smile devious, eyes glistening with unreadable intent and I—avoided him like the plague.
I kicked my feet against the concrete and darted to the side like a cracked-out jack rabbit while he tripped over his shoes trying to keep up with a former gym class relay-race champion.
For someone with my athletic-ish skills, out-running a drunk person was about as difficult as playing a game of keep away from a teenage toddler. No matter how hard Elias tried to catch and/or trap me in whatever get-back-at-your-ex picture pose he had in mind, I managed to keep him at an amusing distance. Enough to low-key gloat about.
But that's the problem with getting cocky.
Eventually, it catches up with you.
"You can't run forever, Jersey. Especially if it's from something you want."
I didn't know what it was—the sound of his voice or the way my body reacted to it that slowed me down to a crushing halt. But it only took a second for everything to change.
I stopped dead in my tracks, turned around, and opened my mouth to rattle off the million and one reasons why I didn't and wouldn't ever want anything to do with Elias King.
And then he crashed into me. At full speed.
The side of my face slammed into his chest as we barreled toward the ground in a mess of chaos, beachy cologne, and confusion. I waited for my back to hit the concrete or him to squash me under the brunt of his weight—but then he caught me.
He actually caught me and within seconds the two of us were impossibly close. Close enough for me to feel the heat of his breath brushing against my lips. The warmth of his hands spread out across my back. The buzz of all the places our bodies were connecting. But before I could move, breathe, or gain my bearings, Elias leaned into the shrinking space between us until his lips were just inches away from my ear.
"Is this the kind of picture you were talking about? Just say the word and I'll have Mindy pull the trigger."
