PLAYING WITH HER HEART Synopsis:
Excerpt from Playing With Her Heart:
She leans her head back, closes
her eyes, and lets me run my fingers through her hair. I gather her hair at the
top of her head, the thick strands laying across my palms like silk waterfalls.
I begin weaving one strand into another, then gathering another layer,
recreating the French braid I saw her wearing the other day. The one that made
me think of a moment of intimacy, when Paolo and Ava come closer together
through touch before they kiss in the next scene. A tender moment, where he
wants to take care of her, get her painted hair out of her face. I reach the
point in the braid where I’m at her neck, and now I’m simply looping one strand
over the other. There are no more lines in this scene until hers at the end,
and as I finish I stare at her neck, at the way a vein seems to be beating
harder, and then I listen, and her breaths sound like tiny little sighs.
I stop
moving for a second, trying to collect myself. I am fighting everything in me
that’s dying to touch her. I somehow find the strength to return to character,
pulling a rubberband from my pocket, and fastening her braid. She turns around,
and looks at me.
That’s
not in the blocking. That’s not how she did it this afternoon with Patrick. She
didn’t look at him. She uttered the last lines while gazing out at the
audience, her body language saying how she felt, as she leaned into him,
showing that she trusted him.
But
now, she’s leaning back against my chest, and turning to look up at me. A tiny
whimper escapes her throat, before she says, “It feels so good.”
I have
no idea if she’s acting. If she’s Ava, or Jill, or both. If she’s acting, she’s
so fucking convincing because her face says she’s never been more aroused in
her life.
My
hands are still on her back, my thumbs tracing the tiny strands at the end of
her braid. She doesn’t break her gaze, nor do I. I don’t know what’s going on.
I don’t what’s happening. But for the first time I don’t feel like I’m in
control anymore.
She is.
I stay
completely still.
She
counters me by shifting closer. “What is happening here?” Her voice is unsteady
as she says a line that’s not in the script.
“You
tell me,” I say, and I’m not even sure where my own voice is coming from.
She
turns around, uncrosses her legs, and mirrors me, kneeling. “You wrote that
scene for me, didn’t you?”
I nod.
My throat is dry. I can barely speak.
“That
day you saw me with Shelby outside the theater, right?”
“Yes.”
I swallow. I’m a fucking open book now.
“Did
you write it because it makes the show better? Or did you write it for me?”
I close
my eyes briefly. I’ve never had an actress question me like this. Then I look
at her. “I put the scene in the show because the show needed it,” I answer with
as much confidence as I can muster, grabbing the reins from her.
“But you’re
also kind of into my hair, aren’t you?”
Now
she’s in control in again. My chest rises and falls, and she is looking at me
with such a challenging stare, and so much want in her blue eyes. Her breath is
staccato like mine. She raises her hands behind her head, pulling out the
rubberband, shaking out her hair, and letting it fall around her face.
I am
undone by her.
My
hands are twitching to touch her. I am aching to taste her lips.
“Do
it,” she breathes out in a voice so low it’s barely audible, but it’s all I
need.
I place
my hands on her face, and cup her cheeks, and she closes her eyes and sighs.
Then my hands thread through her hair, and I pull her to me, pressing my lips
to hers again. I am unable to stay away from her.
Her
lips are soft and full and greedy. But I like to lead, so I kiss her deeply,
possessively, twining my hands through her glorious hair, as I trace the soft
underside of her lips with the tip of my tongue, eliciting the sexiest moan
from her that I kiss away. I nibble on her bottom lip, and she gasps. “Davis.”
My name
alone sends me into another realm, and before I know it I am tugging on her
hair, exposing her neck, and roaming my mouth down the gorgeous column of her
neck, and right before I reach her shoulder blade, I press my teeth to her
skin, lightly, but enough to make the smallest of marks.
“Ouch,”
she says, but the word tapers off, and the next thing she says is more, in a
breathy whisper that turns into a groan of pleasure as I give her what she
wants.
My thoughts:
I am just going to warn you now, I am STILL a bit (actually a LOT) gushy about this book. I sat down last night to go over my review, touch it up, and make sure I didn't leave any thoughts out it, but what I wound up doing was rereading the book again for the 3rd or 4th time. Yup, after driving for 10 hours to get home from Vegas, I stayed up until 3:30 in the morning reacquainting myself with Davis and Jill.
I always enjoy Lauren's style of writing, I love her fun and feisty female characters, her scorching hot sex scenes, and I always love her endings, because she has some of the best happily-ever-after's out there! BUT ,*pause for dramatic effect*, Playing With Her Heart is not like her other work. It's not the light hearted, fun, and flirty I'm used to. It's. So. Much. More. Don't get me wrong, it still has hot as hell sex scenes. Even the almost sex scenes turn up the heat in the room. I saw a piano in a hotel while I was in Vegas, and I seriously think I blushed! But there is a depth to it that isn't in her other books. Jill is in a self-imposed emotional exile, she has an ideal to get the one thing, from the one person, that will fix her. A "love that doesn't hurt". When she was going through an emotional hell, she found something/someone that she could focus on to get her through, to give her hope, but now she comes across a man who makes her "want things that she isn't supposed to have", things she doesn't think she deserves. Davis pursues her despite a broken heart. He loses all his rules because he wants her. He teaches Jill that "It's okay to be scared. It's okay to feel", and what I love about him the most is that he doesn't give up on her when she pushes him away. I know there have been times that I have pushed someone away, but what I really want is them to push right back, show they care. Davis understands that she's not the one who did the hurting, she's the one who got hurt and was made to believe it was her fault, so he puts aside his own insecurities about love, and they both embrace the fact that you have to take a risk and feel, both the good and bad, in order to obtain your happily-ever-after.
I'm not sure how to rate Playing With Her Heart. While it's definitely a 5 star read, there are a handful of books that I connect with on an emotional level that put them in a special category. The ones where you can picture exactly where you were curled up reading when that connection hit you, where you remember every emotion you had while reading them. For me, this is definitely one of those. If you have read any of Lauren's other books, you are going to want to read this one! If you haven't, you are still going to want to read it. Her books link characters, but can be read as stand alones without any confusion. Davis and Jill's story is one everyone should read!! (And a little side note: I LOVE the duel POVs!!)
A couple of my favorite lines:
"If only my eReader could vibrate."
"Because my body's going one way, but the rest of me is my usual messed-up, mixed-up, fucked-up self, and I have no idea what to do with these veiled questions that feel a lot like foreplay."
PLAYING WITH HER
HEART Trailer:
Lauren Blakely Bio:
Lauren Blakely is an unabashed fan of clever jokes, toast,
and good guys in novels. Like the heroine in CAUGHT UP IN US, she thinks life
should be filled with movie kisses and coffee drinks. Lauren lives in
California with her husband and children, and spends her days writing both true
stories and make-believe ones.
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Buy Links:
Apple iBookstore: http://bit.ly/1cBltYO
Links:
Website: http://www.laurenblakely.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LaurenBlakely3
PLAYING WITH HER HEART Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17452343-playing-with-her-heart
