Title: Player
Author: Laura DeLuca
Genre: Young Adult Thriller
Tour Host: Lady Amber's Tours
Blurb
Joshua Hanover had it all. He was handsome, rich, athletic,
and had always been popular with the ladies. Yet, until he gets paired up with
his beautiful but shy lab partner, Rosa, he never allowed himself to fall in
love. As the chemistry between them grows, Josh realizes that his player days
have come to end. But it seems his change of heart has come too late. Not only
is Rosa leery of his bad boy reputation, he has four vindictive ex-girlfriends
who are on a rampage. At first he doesn’t take their threats seriously, but
then his tires are slashed, someone tries to poison him, and one of the girls
turns up dead. Josh doesn’t know who to trust, but one thing is certain. It
definitely isn’t worth the price he’s paying to be a player.
Book Links
Author Bio
Laura “Luna” DeLuca lives at the beautiful Jersey shore with
her husband and four children. She loves writing in the young adult genre
because it keeps her young at heart. In
addition to writing fiction, Laura is also the editor of a popular review blog
called New Age Mama. She is an active member of her local pagan community, and
has been studying Wicca for close to eight years. Her current works include Destiny, Destiny
Unveiled, Phantom, Morrigan, Player, and Demon.
Links
Excerpt
Josh was trying to
be enthusiastic, despite the fact that his stomach and his head were killing
him. In fact, he was so busy offering Rosa his congratulations on her expert
pinball skills that he didn’t see that an angry girl with wild strawberry curls
had just stormed into the arcade. Her hazel eyes were flashing underneath
layers of thick black eye makeup. Josh didn’t notice her long, leather-clad
legs carrying her across the crowded game room. He didn’t even notice when she
was standing directly behind him with her pierced lips set in a tight frown.
Josh didn’t realize she was there at all, until she roughly tapped him on the
shoulder. When he finally turned around, he found himself face to face with a
furious gothic beauty.
“Jazz!” Josh
exclaimed. “What are you doing here?”
With a cry of pure
animal rage, Jasmine lifted a hand covered in silver rings and slapped Josh
hard across the face. Black fingernails as sharp as talons scraped his skin,
leaving behind a small trail of blood. He wasn’t ready for the surprise attack,
and his neck snapped back painfully, sending fresh waves of agony through his
already pounding head.
“Pig!” Jasmine screamed so loudly that several
arcade patrons glanced over their shoulders to see what was happening.
“Surprised to see me? Not as I surprised as I was when I ran into my old friend
Elena a few days ago. We hadn’t seen each other for a few months, and we got to
talking about school, and life, and boyfriends. You can’t imagine how surprised
I was to find out that we both had the very same boyfriend!”
“Jazz, I. . . .” Josh was so surprised that he
could barely stutter a reply. At the same time, his aching stomach was making
it difficult for him to care. More than anything, he really just wished she
would go away, taking the gawking spectators with her.
“But I still had
an even bigger surprise in store for me!” Jasmine went on, crossing her arms
over her black tank top. “Last night, Elena called and told me that we weren’t
your only two victims. You had two more, four girls in all! Is this one of
them?” she asked, gesturing to Rosa whose mouth was hanging open. “Or is she a
fifth?”
“Jazz, listen to
me,” Josh started to protest. “I never. . . .”
“Don’t tell me you
never said we were exclusive, like you tried to pull with Elena!” Jasmine
interrupted. “That’s a load of crap and you know it. Don’t think I’m going to
let you dump me either. This time I’m the dumper and you’re the dumpee. It’s
over between us, Josh. And if I have my way, you won’t be getting laid again
until your college years. When I’m through with you, no girl in this county
will come within a hundred yards of you.” She turned to Rosa, her face still
flushed with fury. “Let me give you a little free advice, hon. Ditch this jerk
before he ditches you. He’s a dog, plain and simple.”
With that, Jasmine
turned on her heel and stormed away, her head raised high in victory. Josh
watched her go with a mixture of shock and horror. It had all happened so fast,
he thought maybe he had imagined the whole thing. But his cheek was still
stinging where Jasmine had scratched him, and if that wasn’t proof enough that
the encounter had been real, the look on Rosa’s face certainly was. Gone were
the sweet smile and the slight flirtatious blush to her cheeks, replaced by a
trembling lower lip and watery brown eyes. Her fingers were still gripping the
sides of the pinball machine though the balls had long since vanished.
“Rosa,” Josh said
desperately. “Please let me explain.”
“I can’t believe
what an idiot I’ve been!” Rosa said in a harsh whisper. The arcade patrons had
finally turned away, and she obviously had no interest in capturing their
attention a second time. “I can’t believe I ever trusted you! To think, for a little
while there, I actually fooled myself into believing you cared about me. I’m so
stupid.”
Josh hated himself
when he saw one tear sneak free. He wanted to reach out to comfort her, but he
was starting to feel dangerously shaky.
He knew that if he let go of the video game that was supporting his
weight, he would probably hit the ground. The room started to spin, and it
seemed a lot smaller and stuffier. It was getting harder to breath, and his
stomach was hurting so badly, he could barely stand up straight. He knew something was really wrong with him,
but he didn’t care. He only wanted to convince the girl he was in love with
that he wasn’t a player. Not anymore. He had changed. She had changed him.
“Rosa, I . . . I
do care about you,” Josh managed to stutter, even though it felt like his
throat was closing up.
“Oh yeah, I just
bet you do!” she replied sarcastically. “Just as much as you cared about all
those other girls you were messing around with? You need one of everything,
huh? The cheerleader. The goth. And now the nerd?”
Josh couldn’t even
speak to defend himself. The pain was making it hard for him to think clearly,
and Rosa wasn’t waiting anyway. She shook her head in disgust and moved to take
the same path out of the game room that Jasmine had taken. Josh forced his arm
to move. He tried to grab hold of her
hand, but she tore away so violently that he nearly stumbled backward into the
wall.
“Don’t touch me!”
She spat.
He was so dizzy
that he was seeing two of her at once, but somehow Josh managed to form a
coherent sentence. “Rosa, please! Give me a chance to . . . to explain.”
“I only promised
you one chance,” Rosa told him. “And you blew it!”
She headed toward
the exit again, and this time Josh didn’t have the strength to stop her. In
fact, he didn’t even have the strength to stand anymore. His legs started to
wobble underneath him just as the pain in his stomach reached an unbearable
crescendo. Even as his knees hit the dingy carpet of the game room, he clutched
desperately at his stomach. His throat was so constricted he couldn’t even cry
out for help. After only a few seconds, he vaguely noticed that concerned
people were starting to surround him. The faces were swimming and blurring into
one as waves of dizziness washed over him.
“Are you all
right, kid?”
“Someone call
911.”
Josh heard the
anxious voices around him, but he couldn’t answer. He could barely breathe. He
wheezed as he tried to force air into his rebellious lungs.
“Josh? What’s
wrong? Josh, answer me!”
Josh immediately
recognized Rosa’s voice. He was grateful when he felt her arms wrap around him.
She cradled his head against her chest, and he felt her delicate hands smooth
his hair out of his eyes. He wanted to say something. He wanted to thank her
for coming back, even if it was only out of pity. But speech was impossible,
and consciousness was slipping away as the pain became more and more
unbearable. Even through the agony, Josh noticed that there was another
familiar face watching him from the crowd of curious onlookers. She was
impossible to miss, draped in black and covered in silver. The last thing Josh
saw before he finally lost his battle with awareness were Jasmine’s black lips
curled into a wicked, satisfied smile.
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