R.L. Mathewson's Blog, page 7
January 27, 2020
Irresistible: A Neighbor from Hell
From bestselling author R.L. Mathewson comes the long-awaited Neighbor from Hell Novel…
Irresistible.
There weren’t many things that Aidan regretted, but that night he’d spent with the woman that he couldn’t stop thinking about was definitely one of them. He’d always been careful, always did the right thing, and now…
Now he had to figure out a way to fix this before it was too late.
Melanie still couldn’t figure out how one night could change the rest of her life. She should have done a lot of things differently that night, she should have turned him down, should have spent the rest of the night wallowing in self-pity, but that’s not what happened and now, she needed to figure out how she was going to survive this pregnancy with a Bradford doing everything in his power to make her fall in love with him.
Excerpt:
“I’m fine,” the woman that was slowly driving him to drink said from where she lay, curled up in a ball on the floor he’d installed last week, hugging a bath towel against her chest, and looking absolutely miserable.
“Yeah, you’re a rock,” Aidan said dryly as he sat there, trying to figure out how he kept fucking everything up.
One thing was clear, they couldn’t keep doing this.
“Aidan,” Melanie mumbled, averting her pale baby blue eyes as a pink blush crept up her neck and stained her alarmingly pale cheeks, “I-I can’t afford this apartment.”
“I’m not expecting anything,” Aidan said, biting back a sigh as he sat there, trying to figure out how he kept fucking this up.
He’d never had any problems talking to anyone even when he was a kid and could barely get a word out without mangling every single syllable in the process, but whenever he was around her…
She made him nervous and he had absolutely no idea why.
“I wouldn’t feel comfortable with that, Aidan,” Melanie said, clearing her throat awkwardly before adding, “I think it might be for the best if I stay with my parents for a while. At least until the baby comes,” and if she’d actually sounded like that’s what she wanted, he would have let her go and figured out another way to make this work.
But it was the way that she said it that had him closing his eyes and saying the one thing that he prayed would change her mind.
“I used to wet the bed.”
“Ummm…”
“When I was ten, my brothers paid me two dollars to wear my mother’s bra, took pictures, and then charged me twenty dollars not to show my friends.”
“Well, that’s-”
“You know those marshmallow peeps?” he asked with a heavy sigh.
“Um, yeah?”
“They freak me the fuck out,” he reluctantly said, admitting his secret shame.
“I see,” Melanie murmured thoughtfully before asking, “Is there a reason why you’re telling me all this?”
Nodding, he said, “It’s my five things.”
“You’ve only told me three things,” she pointed out, sounding amused.
“That’s because I’m pacing myself,” Aidan said even as he opened his eyes so that he could reach back into the tub and turn the water on.
“For…?”
“Well, I don’t want to rush things.”
“And telling me five completely random things about yourself at once would be rushing things?” Melanie asked, blinking up at him.
Sighing heavily, he said, “Yes, yes, it would.”
“Okay, should I take a moment to prepare myself for the two earthshattering revelations that are about to come?”
“That would probably be a good idea,” he said as he moved so that he could drop the stopper and fill the large bathtub.
“I’m not sure if my heart can handle all this excitement,” Melanie said, smiling as she carefully sat up with his help.
“Are you ready?” Aidan asked, helping her to her feet.
“Do I have a choice?” she asked as he adjusted the water.
“I’m afraid not,” he said with a helpless shrug before admitting, “Once, when my brother Garret refused to share his sandwich, I convinced him that he was invisible.”
“Wow,” Melanie said, shaking her head in wonder before asking, “And how long did that last?”
He shrugged. “A year, give or take a few months, but by then, Arik and Reese had convinced him that he was adopted.”
She chuckled. “You’re so mean.”
With a heartfelt sigh, Aidan said, “True, but that wasn’t the worst thing that we did to him.”
“I probably don’t want to know.”
“That might be for the best,” he admitted with a shrug.
“Okay, so what’s the fifth completely random bit of information that I absolutely must know about you?” Melanie asked with a teasing smile.
“That,” Aidan said, shooting her a wink as he shoved his jeans off, “I love baths.”
November 22, 2019
Tall, Dark & Furious: Pyte Sentinel Series
Coming December 26, 2019
Available Now
From bestselling author R.L. Mathewson comes the sixth installment of the Pyte/Sentinel Series…
For readers who enjoy paranormal romance with a twist.
For three centuries, Trace waited for this moment, imagined all the things that he would do to the Pack that tried to kill him, and now that he was free…
All he could think about was the woman that he’d claimed as his own. She was everything that he’d always wanted and once he had his revenge, he would make her his.
Sam had resigned herself to a lot of things over the years, being the town joke, blacking out at inopportune moments, and living with a dog that hated her, but what she hadn’t planned on was suddenly finding five large men destroying her basement, looking for a tomb that she never knew existed. In one moment, her life changed forever, leaving her to wonder how she was going to make it out of this alive.
Excerpt
The sound of glass shattering brought her fully awake with a pained gasp. Her heart pounded against her chest as memories from the night before came crashing down around her at the same time that she realized she was still gagged, her head was killing her, her neck was sore, and she was now sitting up against one of the support beams that ran through the middle of the dimly lit basement.
Sam looked around and when she spotted blood on the stone floor in front of her, she forced herself to ignore it and search for the source of the light. When she spotted the open bulk doors she nearly sighed with relief. As long as they stayed open, she knew that she had a chance. If she managed to get loose, she’d run for the woods and keep running until she found somewhere to hide. If they closed the doors, she’d be running blind again and her chances wouldn’t be as good. She just needed to figure out where everyone was, she realized with a frown.
Where the hell were they? she wondered as the sound of more glass shattering grabbed her attention in a big way. Swallowing nervously and forcing herself to remain calm and hopefully conscious, she slowly turned her head and felt all the blood rush from her face.
Near her Grandmother’s prune preserves and her old Ready Set Bake Oven stood what could only be described as a monster. He was tall and large, very large. From what she could tell, and she couldn’t tell that much, not with his long gray, almost white scraggly hair and beard hanging down to his waist and almost too white tattered clothing hanging off him, but she knew that he was larger than Nathan.
As he continued searching through their old things that not even the Salvation Army would take, Sam looked him over. She noted the blood splatter on his ghostly white legs and muddy bare feet. As it was, she was having a difficult time believing that large hand reaching for her grandmother’s old bedpan, and seriously whose idea was it to save that, was the same thin hand that she saw reach out of that hole.
He was definitely more filled out than he had been before, she noted. Even from this angle she could see that. Her eyes of their own accord moved back down to the drying blood splattered on the floor and a horrible, gag-inducing thought occurred to her.
Did he eat the bodies?
“Oh, god,” she mumbled against the tape as black spots once again danced along her vision. She would not pass out, she couldn’t allow herself to pass out. It was time to be strong and deal with this. She would not pass out where he could...where he could...oh, god, she didn’t want to be this thing’s dessert, she thought as darkness started to crowd her vision.
Her eyes began to flutter shut and she fought it with everything she had. When she managed to blink open her eyes, she found herself nose to nose with the hideous monster.
She screamed.
He growled.
She may have passed out.
October 9, 2019
Devastated is Available Now!
Dear Reader,
After seven very long years or trying to figure out how to make this series worthy of release, Devastated, the first Anger Management novel is coming October 25th.
It's up for pre-sale now at:
Bestselling author R.L. Mathewson takes on the impossible with the Anger Management series.
For readers who love to see someone who’s been to hell and back finally get their happy ending.
Sometimes you have to go through hell to get what you want…
Everyone has something in their past that they’d like to forget, but for Kylie Davis there’s no escaping her past. It followed her everywhere, determined to destroy her, and to make sure that she paid for the one thing that her family could never forgive her for.
Being born.
The last thing that Hunter O’Mallery needed was an assistant, but thanks to the deal that he never should have made, he has one. As long as she stayed out of way, he’d been more than happy to leave her alone, but now that she’s caught his attention, he couldn’t stop thinking about her. She intrigued him, drove him out of his mind, and he’d do anything to save her.
Excerpt from Devastated
“Oh, my God, please make it stop,” Kylie muttered with a tragic sigh as her cell phone continued to chime.
She wanted to cry.
She really did, but crying would require energy that she didn’t have right now. Besides, she was going to need all her energy to drag herself out of bed and see what the horrible man wanted.
Why did she have to sign those papers?
Damn Big Daddy and his love of…
Well, she wasn’t exactly sure what he’d been on when he’d burned the apartment building down, but whatever it was she cursed it for putting her in this situation. Even as she struggled to keep her eyes open long enough to sit up on the bare mattress that she’d passed out on a few hours ago, she knew that the fault was hers and hers alone. She’d made a deal with the devil, literally, and now she was paying for it.
Another chime, this one somehow more persistent than the last, had her whimpering pathetically as she reached for her phone. For a moment, she simply held the phone in her hand, praying that this nightmare would end, but the next chime destroyed her dreams and had her sitting up with a groan.
Office in twenty minutes.
Worrying her bottom lip, Kylie glanced from the text, demanding her presence back down to the bare mattress that she never wanted to leave. After a few seconds of indecision, she took a deep breath as she forced herself to climb off the bed and not look back as she made her way to the bathroom, terrified that if she caught even a glimpse of the pillow-top mattress that she would lose this battle.
But God, did she want to lose, Kylie thought with something close to a whimper as she managed to drag herself the rest of the way to the bathroom. Once she was inside the large room that was twice the size of her last apartment, she made quick work of using the bathroom, doubling up on tasks whenever possible so that by the time that she stepped inside the large shower stall her teeth had been brushed, her hair combed, her vitamins taken, her nails had been quickly filed down to a smooth, efficient length, her clothes were laid out for her alongside a fresh planner, pen, and notebook to help her stay organized. All that was left was for her do was to step beneath the ice-cold spray of water, choke back a scream or two as the brisk water gave her the shot of adrenaline that she so desperately needed.
Once she was wide awake and feeling energized, she finished her shower, fixed her hair, got dressed, placed her planner and aforementioned items in her messenger bag and headed for the door, ready to face the day with five minutes to spare. As Kylie hurried down the stairs, she contemplated making a quick trip to the kitchen and grabbing a yogurt and a breakfast bar to get her through this meeting, but something told her that he wouldn’t appreciate the delay.
Hoping that he wouldn’t make a habit of holding meetings before the sun came up, she paused by the double doors leading into the large office that she’d spent three hours cleaning yesterday, closed her eyes and took a deep breath before pasting a smile on her face, opening her eyes and-
“You’re late,” Mr. O’Mallery announced as he walked past her.
Kylie considered pointing out that she still had two minutes left, but then she remembered what happened the last time that she’d corrected one of her bosses and decided to let this one slide. As she followed him into the large room, she resigned herself to the fact that she was most likely going to have to get used to biting her tongue a lot.
At least, for the next year, Kylie thought as she sat down on the only available option to her, a metal folding chair that was placed directly in front of the only real piece of furniture in the room, a large desk. Hunter walked around the desk, glaring at her the entire way and sat down in a large leather chair that looked a great deal more comfortable than the one she was currently perched on.
When she realized that he wasn’t going to do anything more than sit there and glare at her, she gave him what she hoped was a pleasant smile, clicked open her pen, and looked at him expectantly as she waited for his orders. He continued to keep her waiting until, with a sigh that could only be described as bored, he leaned back in his chair, crossed his arms over his chest, and gestured with a nod towards the planner on her lap as he asked, “What the hell is that?”
Although Kylie didn’t think it was a good idea to take her eyes off him, mostly because of that whole anger management thing that he had going for him, she forced herself to follow his glare.
“My planner?” Kylie said, hoping that it was her beloved planner and not her presence responsible for that expression on his face because she really wasn’t sure that she could beat him to the door. The reminder that she was working for a large, muscular man with an anger problem had her second-guessing her decision to stay.
Anger. Management, Kylie reminded herself, trying for a bland, yet polite, expression as she waited to see how this was going to play out. When he didn’t jump over the desk and go for her throat, she took that as a win and waited for him to continue. When he just sat there, glaring at her, she tried for a small smile only to quickly bite it back when his eyes narrowed even further.
For several long minutes, Hunter didn’t say anything. He just sat there, watching her, and making her wonder if they’d accept a personal check for that ten thousand dollars or if she should plan on making a quick run to the bank and get that in cash when he finally spoke.
“I have thousands of employees, clients, vendors, and contacts that you will be responsible for. That means that you need to have their phone numbers, addresses, email addresses as well as access to their files. So, tell me something, Miss Jenkins, how exactly do you plan on doing all that with a ten-dollar planner from Wal-Mart?”
“Carefully?” Kylie said before she could stop herself and she really wished that she’d been able to stop herself.
©Rerum Carta Industries, Inc. 2019. All Rights Reserved.
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March 31, 2019
The Plan: Part III
The Plan III
An R.L. Mathewson Chronicle
“We’re here.”
“Hmm?” Zoe mumbled sleepily, refusing to open her eyes as she snuggled beneath his jacket.
Smiling, he leaned over and gently ran his fingertips teasingly down her neck, loving the way she shivered at his touch, but smart enough to duck out of the way when she violently slapped at the air with a vicious little growl. Chuckling, he leaned back out of the way and did it again. With an adorable pout, she groaned as she slapped at the air again and tried to curl into her seat.
She was just so fucking adorable, he thought as she released another cute little growl.
“Sweetheart? It’s time to wake up,” Trevor said, keeping a safe distance away from the woman that didn’t like having her sleep disturbed.
“Go away,” Zoe groaned pathetically as she curled up into a ball against the door. Sighing heavily, he turned off his truck and opened his door, making sure that the path was clear before he made his move.
“Wakey, wakey!” he said in the upbeat tone that he knew would inspire a viciously growl as he reached over and tickled her.
Before she had a chance to go for his throat, he was jumping out the truck and chuckling. By the time he came around the truck to open the door for her, she was sitting up and glaring at him. She didn’t say anything as he opened the door for her. Knowing that the first two minutes after she woke up was dangerous, he didn’t say anything as he walked with her towards the small cottage that he’d rented to make this weekend absolutely perfect.
“Why did you have to wake me up?” Zoe grumbled as he wrapped his arm around her shoulders.
“Because the last time I tried to carry you when you were sleeping you started slapping my face until I lost my balance and we ended up spending the night in the emergency room,” he reminded her as he pulled out the key that the realtor had given him.
“If you loved me, you’d risk it,” Zoe said with a sniff as she walked inside the small cottage, leaving him chuckling as he followed after her.
“You’re in a good mood,” Zoe noted with a beautiful smile as she turned around and wrapped her arms around his shoulders.
Smiling, he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her. “I’m in a great mood,” he said, chuckling as he kissed his wife.
“I can’t believe we have the whole weekend to ourselves,” Zoe said with a dreamy sigh that had him grinning.
“Actually,” Trevor said, running his hands down her back and over her generous bottom, “it’s more like a four-day weekend.”
“Even better,” Zoe said as she nibbled on his lips, making him glad that the kids weren’t around.
Tightening his hand on her ass, and god, he fucking loved her ass, he pulled her tightly against him, making sure that she knew just how happy he was to have her all to himself. He didn’t have to share her with the kids or worry about some asshole checking out his wife in that bikini that he couldn’t wait to see her in again and thank god he wouldn’t have to wait much longer. In fact, he planned on putting the hot tub that made him rent this place for an exuberant amount of money at the last minute to good use.
March 17, 2019
The Plan: Part II
The content in this Chronicle and on this website is intended for adults, 18 years and older.
The Plan
Part II
An R.L. Mathewson Chronicle
“What is wrong with you people?” Trevor heard his wife demand when he reached their closed bedroom door.
“Many things,” Eric said from the other side of the door with a sigh that matched his as Trevor rubbed his hands roughly down his face, not sure that he wanted to know what was going on in there.
Not after the last time.
“No, please, I don’t want to do this!”
“Stop wiggling!”
“I would if you’d stop touching my ass!”
“Trevor’s going to kill you,” Eric said, sounding bored as Trevor stood there debating leaving, but he knew that his wife would never forgive him if he didn’t go in there and save her from whatever they’re were putting her through.
Sighing, he moved to open the door and-
“Have fun!” Sarah said with a huge smile as the door was ripped open and his wife was suddenly shoved into his arms.
That was followed by Eric dropping several bags by his feet, Kasey throwing him a wink as she walked past him, and Sarah mumbling with a satisfied sigh, “Our work is done here.”
“I hate you,” Zoe said with a sad little sniffle and a glare as the trio walked away, leaving him standing there, wondering what the hell was going on.
“Have fun!”
“I really hate them,” Zoe mumbled sadly as Trevor looked down at the small woman in his arms and-
“What’s going on?” Trevor murmured absently as he guided her back into their room, closing their bedroom door behind them as he took in every delectable inch of his wife’s body in that skimpy black bikini.
“They’ve lost their minds again,” Zoe said with a heavy sigh as she began searching their room for something that he really didn’t fucking care about while he threw the lock.
“I can see that,” he murmured, taking in the way the black bikini top hugged her large breasts, putting them on display before he ran his eyes down, taking in her generous curves, the way the skimpy black bottom pulled tightly across her ass as she leaned over to look under their bed.
“They decided to take it upon themselves to plan a romantic weekend away for us, which is sweet, but they went a little overboard,” she said, chuckling as she pulled back the covers and continued her search only to drop them with a sigh as he sent a thoughtful glance over his shoulder at their closed bedroom door.
“Where are the kids?”
“Sebastian is staying across the street with Mikey. Uncle Jared has Jonathan and Uncle Ethan offered to take Mathew and Jessica camping for the week,” she explained as she checked beneath their bed again.
“I see,” he said as he pulled off his shirt and tossed it on the floor, deciding that it was time to make a few plans on his own.
To be continued...
©Rerum Carta Industries. 2019. All Rights Reserved.
March 10, 2019
The Plan: Part I
The content in this Chronicle is intended for adults, 18 years and older.
The Plan: Part I
An R.L. Mathewson Chronicle
“I can’t do this,” Zoe mumbled hollowly as her grip tightened on the towel that she’d managed to wrestle free from the evil woman shaking her head sadly with another, “Why does she have to make everything so difficult?”
Which of course, was followed up with, “I don’t know, sweetie,” Kasey said, sighing heavily, “I don’t know.”
“I hate you both,” Zoe felt compelled to point out as she licked her lips and inched her way towards the safety of the bathroom door where she’d left her clothes and apparently, her sanity.
“She’s trying to make a run for it, again,” Eric said, sounding bored from where he lounged on her bed between the two evil women that were tormenting her for their own entertainment.>/p>
“I-I just had to use the bathroom,” Zoe said, moving to take another step when Kasey asked, “Why don’t you trust us?”
“Because you’re evil?” she couldn’t help but point out even as she struggled to pull the towel that wasn’t big enough to cover everything that she really didn’t want the world to see more tightly around her.
“There is that,” Sarah murmured, sounding thoughtful while Zoe stood there, wondering why this kept happening to her.
She should know better.
She really should.
She really needed to start telling them no, but every time she went to do that, she remembered what happened the last time that she’d listened to them and found herself saying yes. If it wasn’t for the incredible sex that always followed…
She would definitely say no the next time, she decided when Sarah got off the bed with a sigh, and before Zoe could make a run for it, the crazed woman somehow managed to steal the last ounce of self-respect that she had left as she tore her towel away.
Glaring at the tall woman that she would one day make pay for this, she wrapped her arms around herself and tried to race to the bathroom before anyone could see her only to find herself dragged back and shoved in front of Kasey for approval.
“Well?” Sarah asked while Zoe stood there, trying to pretend that she was anywhere but here.
“Trevor’s going to kill you,” Eric said as he ran his eyes over her.
“He really will,” Zoe said, nodding solemnly, more than happy to agree to anything that got her out of this black bikini and back into her baggy sweatpants and oversized sweatshirt.
“When are you going to learn to trust us?” Kasey asked with a sad shake of her head even as she gestured for Zoe to turn around so that she could get a better look.
“Never,” Zoe said, already deciding that there was no way in hell that she was going to wear this again.
“You have curves, Zoe,” Kasey said, reaching over and-
“Ow!”
“Own them,” Kasey said with a satisfied sigh as Zoe stood there, rubbing the sore spot on her ass as she glared down at the pregnant woman that clearly enjoyed making her life a living hell.
“Which is why we threw away your clothes and repacked your bags,” Sarah said with a smile as she pulled her hand back and-
“Stop slapping my ass!” Zoe said with a glare only to frown up at the beautiful woman that had no idea what it was like to jiggle with every move. “You threw away my clothes?”
“They didn’t work for us,” Kasey said, gesturing to her bags sitting by the door waiting for her. “These are better.”
“Because they actually fit,” Sarah said with a pitying shake of her head.
“He’s going to kill you,” Eric repeated with a nod as he ran his eyes down-
Sarah.
-devouring every inch of the beautiful woman that lived to torment him.
Hoping to distract them so that she could pack her sweats, she opened her mouth only to stumble back with a grunt when Sarah shoved clothes in her arms, turned her around, and with another slap on her ass, pushed her towards the bathroom.
“He’ll be here in ten minutes. Move your ass, Bradford,” Kasey said, making her wonder what they were up to, and they were definitely up to something.
©Rerum Carta Industries, Inc. 2019. All Rights Reserved.
March 4, 2019
Thank you for being awesome!
Yeah, I know, I know, it's been a crazy day, but I wanted to come on here and thank everyone for their kindness and help today, Everyone was amazing. I asked readers, with a giveaway incentive, if they had some time if they could leave an honest review and vote for the review that they felt was the most helpful whether it was a one star or a five star. Their votes pushed the most helpful reviews up and I devoured them.
I also got to stalk reviewers and bug the heck out of them with questions :)Thanks to readers giving up some time today and helping me out, I was able to get some really great feedback and find out how to make The Promise even better.
I had an awesome time chatting with one star, two star, three star, etc. reviewers and got some answers that I was looking for. They were really patient and answered my nagging questions that I had about their reviews, what didn't work, how did I miss the mark, etc. I got a lot of great answers that I am using.
Not many of you know this, but The Promise played out in my head for the past two years. I saw everything, the beginning, the middle, how they fall in love, the moment they realized that they were in love, everything and that included the ending. The ending was going to be insane, it was going to be heartbreaking, make the reader cry, and just thinking about it actually brought tears to my eyes, but there was just one problem.
It didn't fit.
In order for it to happen, I would have to force it to work and have Reed do something that he would never do. I was going to have him break Joey's heart. I just couldn't do it and I couldn't make it fit. I wrote the entire ending and when I added it, it was just wrong. It was like two different books being squeezed together. So, I let Joey and Reed write their own ending. It was easy because they had a very easy, sweet romance that didn't need any drama. It just ended. I wanted more, but I had to accept that it was done.
But, I still wanted more for them.
Thanks to the negative reviews and the positive reviews that let me know where I slipped up, I think I have this figured out. So, thank you so much for leaving reviews, bad, good, and in between. They helped so much and I am so damn thankful that you left as much feedback as you did.I am currently playing with The Promise, having a little more fun with this story, and I am adding several more chapters, filling in the blanks that many readers needed, and when it is done, the book will be free for an automatic (I think it's automatic?) update.
Either way, I will let you know :)
For those of you who have enjoyed The Promise as is, I hope this makes the story better :)
Thank you, everyone, that took the time today to help out!
March 3, 2019
Dear Reader
Dear Reader,
Tonight I was planning on continuing with the next part of the Chronicle that I started last week, but a reader's message left me deciding that perhaps post would be put to better use by explaining a few things. I haven't seen it, because I stay away from readers conversations about my books because I want them to feel comfortable enough to say whatever they want and have an open conversation without worry. I've seen a few posts from bloggers getting upset that readers are complaining and lashing out against authors because of the long waits between books.
For some reason, I didn't think they were talking about me.I figured that I'd been getting books out as quickly as possible and that it was understood that sometimes life gets in the way, a book takes longer than possible, or that sometimes a story just won't come and needs some time to develop. From what I'm being told there are some very angry readers that are upset over the wait times of a few of my books.
I get that.
It's been seven years since Black Heart came out, longer still since we had a Hollywood Heart or an EMS book, and the Pyte/Sentinel readers have been waiting for three years for their next book. The NFH books have come out steadily because they are the easiest to write and are the best escapes for me when I need it.
The waits have never been intentional and if I could plug the computer into my brain and pull the stories out for you, I would do it in a heartbeat. It is going to take some time, but I will get all the stories out.I should probably explain why there has been such a long gap between books. I started writing books in 2007 to escape a horrible marriage. It was a nightmare that I would never wish on anyone. I began writing to get away from that and other cruel people in my life who were taking great joy in my misery. It was a struggle to get up every morning and every day I became more terrified than the last that there was never going to be an escape for us. I became desperate and began borrowing books from the library trying to learn a skill, any skill, that I could teach myself so that I could save enough money to break free and take care of my two children. I tried website design, soap making, computer repair, etc. you name it, I taught myself it.
Nothing worked.
I finally hit that moment, the moment where you realize that you have absolutely nothing to lose. I decided to try my hand at writing. The first book was godawful, lol, but the next two books I enjoyed a great deal. For the next four years, I wrote. I just wrote. Every minute that I wasn't taken care of my children, I was writing. It was actually what saved us when I found out just how horrible the marriage really was. We were left with nothing, no money, no car, no job, nothing. Absolutely nothing.
From that horrible situation, we were thrown into another horrible situation, one that I'd hoped never to have to put my children in, but we weren't left with a choice. Now, this is why the timeline for the books have been messed up and why there has been a long wait for books.From 2011 to now we have been struggling to reclaim our lives, to make the children feel safe, and to try use what happened to us to make us stronger. Escaping abuse is great, but people do not talk about what it does to you. It's sometimes worse than the actual abuse. It's not a fun time and we struggle working through it daily.
While readers were waiting for the next Cursed Heart novel or the Pyte novel, I was fighting to keep my children safe in court. We had to deal with a criminal trial where the DA dropped the ball even though there was physical evidence, witnesses, and two confessions. Thankfully that person decided to brag online about getting away with it and shared a great deal of information to let everyone know just how disturbing and dangerous he really was. For four years, I worked with a private investigator following him online and gathered as much information as we could to save my children. It was more than enough and we managed to get our freedom. It took a lot out of us, but we got our freedom and once we got it...
We honestly had no idea what we were supposed to do with ourselves. We went from the fight of our lives to suddenly being free and never having to worry about the people that had made our lives a living hell ever coming near us again and it was overwhelming. That was December 2015, It took us a few months, but we finally decided to follow the advice that the children's therapist and DCF gave us and move out of state and get a fresh start. That was late 2016. We moved two thousand miles away, moved into a beautiful state and have been working on getting our lives together. For the past two years, we have been working on trying to rebuild our lives, get a proper diagnosis for my son, which we finally did and that took a great deal of pressure off everyone to finally have answers, and work therapy to help get through everything.
The past two years, that's what I've been doing. Trying to help my children, homeschooling them when needed, taking them to therapy, working with them, and doing whatever it took to make them feel safe.I have not been ignoring readers, or purposely teasing anyone, or focusing on certain books for money. I've been writing what will help me get through this.
I have been writing the stories that have been playing out in my head. I love the other series and I'm very excited to have a chance to get back to the Pyte books, Cursed heart hopefully later this year, the EMS series, and others, and yes, I am working on Aidan's book during carline and while I wait for my children to finish therapy every week.
So, if you are waiting for a certain book, I am sorry for that wait. It has never been my intention to make you wait. When I say that life gets in the way sometimes, I really mean that. I would have preferred writing all the stories that were waiting than to go through that hell any day of the week.
This year is the year that I am doing my best to catch up. My children have great therapists, attend an awesome school, and while we all still have issues to work on, we are at the point where we can really start moving on. Thank you for your kindness and your support for the past seven years. We honestly could never thank you enough for everything that you've done for us and I hope that this letter helps to clear up a few things.
R.L.
February 3, 2019
The Promise: A Neighbor From Hell
The Promise is now available for pre-order!
Coming February 26, 2019
“Reed?” she said, licking her lips nervously as the man that was making it difficult to think glared at her.
“Do you know what I did for the past twelve years, Joey?” he asked, which she normally would have taken as a good sign, but since he’d asked that question through clenched teeth and followed that up by placing his hands on the counter on either side of her hips so that he could lean down until they were eye-to-eye and she was left regretting so many things.
She opened her mouth to venture a guess only to quickly rethink that decision and settle for a simple shake of her head, which seemed to appease the large angry man. Nodding in approval, he reached up and gently pushed a strand of her hair back as he leaned in closer so that his mouth was next to her ear.
“For the past twelve years, Joey, I haven’t thought about you,” he whispered seductively, making her swallow nervously.
“I haven’t wondered about you, asked about you, or thought about you, and do you know why?” he asked as she felt his hand close over her hip.
She shook her head only to close her eyes on a shaky breath when she felt his lips brush against her ear.
“Because for the first twelve years you made my life a living hell. I worried about you every single fucking day and it only got worse when you left. But when you decided to let me know just how much you hated me, I stopped worrying. I stopped caring. But now…” he said softly, letting his words trail off so that he could brush his lips down the side of her neck, leaving a trail of goosebumps in their wake and making her breath catch.
“Do you know what I think about now?” he asked in a seductive whisper that made it difficult to think as he kissed her chin.
“N-no,” she managed to get out only to groan when she felt his hand slide over her hip and settled over her bottom.
“You,” he said, brushing his lips softly against hers. “I think about you, Joey.”
January 27, 2019
The Promise
How far would you go to keep a promise?
Reed Bradford never should have made that promise.
He’d barely survived the first time around, but now she was back, his best friend’s little sister, his one-time neighbor, and the woman that he never should have promised to protect. He never should have done a lot of things, like cross that line, but once he did…
There was no turning back.
Joey Lawson always had a plan, but unfortunately, mostly for her, sometimes those plans backfired. On her. This time would be no different. After the unfortunate incident that she felt was better not to think about, she found herself doing the one thing that she’d never survive.
Falling in love with a Bradford.
Excerpt from The Promise
“I said I was sorry!” the little brat who had made his life a living hell yelled while he stood there, glaring at the locked pantry door as his hands twitched with the need to finally give her the spanking that she should have gotten a long time ago.
“No, you didn’t,” he bit out evenly through clenched teeth as the memory of everything the little brat put him through nearly knocked him on his ass.
“Well,” she said, pausing to clear her throat, “it was implied.”
“No, it wasn’t,” he said, narrowing his eyes on the door.
“I tried, but Brian felt that it was for the best if I gave you some space until you were able to get your homicidal urges under control.”
“Then you came back too soon,” he bit out, looking around the kitchen for something to take that damn door down with.
“Oh, come on! You can’t still be mad!”
“Think again,” he said as he considered grabbing that baseball bat so he could bash the door in and spank her ass raw.
“If it makes you feel any better, I sent the frat house that posted that video a strongly worded email,” she said, sounding hopeful.
“It doesn’t,” he said as he rubbed his hands roughly down his face as he stared at the door, debating his next move and wondering if getting revenge after twelve years was worth losing his job, going to prison and having to worry about dropping the soap for the rest of his life. Totally worth the risk, he decided as he grabbed hold of the doorknob and slammed his shoulder against the door.
“Wait. What are you doing?” came the hesitant question.
Slam!
“Maybe we should talk about this?
Slam!
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! Oh, my god, I’m sorry!” the little demon screamed when the door finally gave way with a satisfying crack.
Shoving the broken door aside, he stepped inside the pantry and took in the small muddy mess plastering herself against the shelves, noting the scrawny little brat that had been nothing more than knobby knees, pointy elbows, and ink-stained fingers was gone and in her place was this small frumpy woman, who barely came up to his shoulder, an overabundance of curves that put her on the plump side, messy, mud-caked hair, crystal blue eyes, and plump pink lips that were working soundlessly as she struggled to come up with some bullshit excuse to get her out of the spanking that she deserved. Deciding that he’d waited long enough, he grabbed the little brat and dragged her out of the pantry and headed for the old kitchen table where he’d learned how to read and write, pulled out a chair, sat down and-
“Wait! We can talk about this!”
-yanked the little brat down across his lap, raised his hand and-
“You promised!” she shouted somewhat hysterically as she tried to wiggle her way free as her words slammed into him and when they did, he shoved her off his lap with a curse.
