Title: THE SINNER'S BARGAIN
Author: Claire Contreras
Age group: Adult
Genre: Dark Contemporary Romance
Synopsis:
Being pulled in different directions, Amara must choose what she wants to believe and whom she'll trust.
EXCERPT:
EXCERPT:
“Amara! Get in here!”
The sole of her
left foot hadn’t even left the elevator floor before she was greeted with an
order from Colin. She would have cringed, had she not known him; had she not
already been dealing with his turbulent bipolar-like attitude for the past week
and a half. Old Colin wasn’t this way. Old Colin, pre-Méchant Colin, was always calm, cool, collected and rather
calculating, but never hot and cold like new Colin. As Amara lowered her
purse-inspired briefcase to the floor beside her chair and walked over to his
office. His back was to her,
affording her a view of his well-dressed backside clothed in a navy pinstriped
suit and white dress shirt.
Although new Colin was a pain in the ass, he also made her a little
hotter, if that was even possible, than old Colin.
“Good morning,”
she said, stopping just inside the threshold of his office. Amara rested her hand on the doorway
and leaned into it as she waited for him to respond.
He scowled at her
as he turned around. “You didn’t cancel my appointment with Mr. Winters for two
o’clock.”
Her
eyes jumped on a couple of items in his office, as her mind replayed yesterday
before landing back on his angry gaze. “No. You had an appointment with Mr.
White at two, I canceled it like you asked, and Brandon replaced it with an
appointment with Mr. Winters.”
“Why would he do
that?” he growled.
She shrugged in
response.
“Okay, okay,” he
said, repeating a silent mantra as he pinched the bridge of his nose. “Okay.”
He looked up at her as if he found a solution. “I hope you’re hungry because
you’re going to a cake tasting today.”
She blinked at
him. “Excuse me?”
“I was supposed to
go try cakes at two o’clock. Molly’s going to hound me—my mom is going to hound
me—so you’ll be doing it for me.”
“Excuse me?” she
repeated raising her voice, not for lack of hearing.
“You heard me.”
“I did, and I’m
waiting for the punch line.”
He looked at her,
face completely still, unmoved. His body was tight, she could tell from the way
his jaw twitched and his hands were bunched up by his sides. Amara knew he
wasn’t kidding, but she was hoping he would take it back. How could he want to
purposely hurt her? He knew it would.
“Does it look like
I’m joking?”
She blinked to
fight the tears she felt coming. Amara knew he could be mean, but she didn’t expect
him to be this insensitive. He had to know it hurt her to come to terms with
the wedding, and a cake tasting was practically sealing the deal. Her gut was
telling her to speak out; her mind was telling her to accept it and move on;
and her heart was shredding apart.
Through her turmoil, Colin watched her through narrowed eyes.
“Colin, I can’t,”
she said, finally. Her voice was small. It matched the way she felt
perfectly.
“Why not?” he
asked, cocking his head to one side as he crossed his arms over his chest.
A million reasons
flickered between them, beginning as small speckles of light and building into
a bigger fire, a wild conflagration, with every moment their eyes searched the
other’s. Amara’s heart accelerated and lodged into her throat until she felt
like she was going to choke on the intensity of her feelings for him.
Light tears began
to fall, unable to stay behind the wall she’d built for them. “Because as much
as it kills me to joke about your impending wedding, as much as it hurts when
we discuss Molly and I pretend it doesn’t, seeing cakes, trying cakes, picking
out flavors… that would make it real, Colin. Don’t you see that? You know me
better than anybody else.” Can’t you see me breaking? She wanted
to scream, but held it back.
Barely.
For the first time
since she’d gotten back to New York, she saw something other than distaste in
his eyes. There was a shattering pain now that mirrored hers. Colin stood and
slowly rounded his desk. She forced herself not to reach out to him as he stopped
in front of her. Amara could smell him —could almost taste him from this
proximity—but she kept her hands at her sides, waiting. Colin reached out, his
fingers softly skimming down the sleeves of her white blouse, down her arm,
until he reached the bare skin of her wrist.
“It is real,
Amara,” he whispered.
Her eyes traveled
up his perfectly pressed white shirt, to the spot where his collar was open,
the knot on his tie already loosened, and finally his eyes, his intense,
chocolate eyes.
“I know, but you
don’t have to rub it in my face every chance you get,” she said, finally
gaining control of herself.
Colin dropped his
hand from hers and laughed, his shoulders shaking in dry disbelief as he looked away from her. “I feel like a
string puppet, being pulled in all different directions. I don’t have a choice.
What don’t you understand? I have to get married. I don’t have to like it, I
don’t even have to like her, but it’s
something I need to do. I wanted it to be you, and you threw it back in my
face. And you have the audacity to stand here crying?”
“Why? Why do you have to get married before your
birthday?” she asked, annoyance clear in her voice.
Colin turned away
from her to stand behind his desk again. Clutching the sides of the polished
mahogany, he leaned forward with narrowed eyes. “Because this company is riding
on that, Amara. Because Lotus is riding on it. Because three of four of the
companies my dad left behind in his will are dependent on whether or not I get
married. If I do, I remain the majority share holder in them.”
Amara licked her
lips and placed her hands on the other side of the desk, mimicking his stance.
“And if you don’t?”
Colin didn’t
answer right away, his eyes wandered from her full lips to her defined arms,
her red nails, and back up to her eyes. “If I don’t, my uncle takes my place.”
“Benjamin? Would
that be so bad?” Her voice was soft, belying the way her heart raced from the
way energy crackled between them.
“It would be for
Lotus, Mara. It would be for my mom, probably for my future,” he said, his
voice losing its pretense. And
just like that, they were only Colin and Amara again, as they were before life
got messy and smeared its shit all over them.
If you haven't read the beginning of Colin and Amara's story, grab The Devil's Contract now!
Title: THE DEVIL'S CONTRACT
Author: Claire Contreras
Age group: Adult
Genre: Dark Contemporary Romance
GIVEAWAY:
About the Author:
Claire Contreras graduated with her BA in Psychology from Florida International University. She was born in the Dominican Republic and raised in Miami, Fl, where she currently resides with her husband, two boys, and two American Bulldogs.
Life is short, and it’s more bitter than sweet, so she tries to smile as often as her face allows. She enjoys stories with happy endings, because life is full of way too many unhappy ones.
