Secret aspiring comedian Autumn Reynolds is a girl gone...not wild exactly. More like lazy. Since her boyfriend abandoned her in New York City for a bunch of improv groupies she’s had two priorities; sucking the nitrous out of whipped cream cans and making sex comics about her mysterious landlord.
Blake hates people—and sunlight—with good reason. Imagine his surprise when he finds himself lusting after his upstairs tenant, a sunny, Australian people pleaser down on her luck. Turns out his ability to terrify with a single scowl comes with an advantage. Autumn seems to like it. A lot. As evidenced by the prisoner-captive comic Blake was never meant to see.
As they embark on a three-date arrangement the rules are clear; filthy, ground breaking sex, no feelings or commitment required. When chemistry is this strong, though, attachment follows. As Blake and Autumn attempt to negotiate their New York romance, their prior histories and secret dreams come to the foreground. How long can these polar opposites remain Captivated, when all signs point to disaster?
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Excerpt:
“Ms. Reynolds, you were telling me why you chose to draw me into your sex-picture.”
Several beats passed as her gaze dipped to his bare chest and traveled the length of him, top to bottom, side to side. “I really hope you won’t be offended, but you’re rather large and spectacularly intimidating and I’ve always had a-a…wish.” Her chest rose and plummeted, her words puffing out like little gusts. “A fantasy, really. To be jailed. Kept prisoner. Your likeness is sort of reminiscent of someone who could—not would, just could—do that to me.”
The blood running through his body rose a thousand degrees in temperature. “It turns you on. The idea of me holding you captive.”
She crossed her arms over her chest, but not before he caught sight of her stiff nipples poking through her t-shirt. “I guess you could say that. But—”
“Do we fuck, Ms. Reynolds? In that little head of yours?”
A squeak left Autumn and he watched as her thighs pressed together. “Um, maybe? I mean yes. Regularly, I’m afraid.”
Unbelievable. They’d barely exchanged a word since she moved in, yet they’d been mentally screwing each other’s brains out from two floors away. “Do you still want to know the face I made when I saw the drawing?”
“No. I mean yes. I mean…it was a good face, right?”
Blake advanced on her, cataloguing everything. The way she backed up, then steeled her spine and attempted to hold her ground. The way she shivered and glanced at the door. Her very real apprehension forced him to make a decision. “Go home.”
Her expression was the physical embodiment of a record scratch. “Wait. What?”
“Go home, Fun-Size.” He took the drawing out of his pocket and offered it to her. “I don’t hold scared little girls prisoner, even if I look like I do.”
Several beats passed as her gaze dipped to his bare chest and traveled the length of him, top to bottom, side to side. “I really hope you won’t be offended, but you’re rather large and spectacularly intimidating and I’ve always had a-a…wish.” Her chest rose and plummeted, her words puffing out like little gusts. “A fantasy, really. To be jailed. Kept prisoner. Your likeness is sort of reminiscent of someone who could—not would, just could—do that to me.”
The blood running through his body rose a thousand degrees in temperature. “It turns you on. The idea of me holding you captive.”
She crossed her arms over her chest, but not before he caught sight of her stiff nipples poking through her t-shirt. “I guess you could say that. But—”
“Do we fuck, Ms. Reynolds? In that little head of yours?”
A squeak left Autumn and he watched as her thighs pressed together. “Um, maybe? I mean yes. Regularly, I’m afraid.”
Unbelievable. They’d barely exchanged a word since she moved in, yet they’d been mentally screwing each other’s brains out from two floors away. “Do you still want to know the face I made when I saw the drawing?”
“No. I mean yes. I mean…it was a good face, right?”
Blake advanced on her, cataloguing everything. The way she backed up, then steeled her spine and attempted to hold her ground. The way she shivered and glanced at the door. Her very real apprehension forced him to make a decision. “Go home.”
Her expression was the physical embodiment of a record scratch. “Wait. What?”
“Go home, Fun-Size.” He took the drawing out of his pocket and offered it to her. “I don’t hold scared little girls prisoner, even if I look like I do.”
About Tessa Bailey:
Thank you for your interest in my books! I'm Tessa and I live in the crazy, loud, overcrowded borough of Brooklyn, New York. I love it here. This city is a constant source of inspiration, which is why I've decided to set my most recent books in the Line of Duty Series here.
I moved to New York when I was eighteen, the day after I graduated high school. Threw my suitcase in the back of a Chevrolet Cavalier and drove across the country to find my adventure. I'm still finding it, little by little.
Thank you for being a part of it.
About Eve Dangerfield:
Eve Dangerfield has loved romance novels since she first started swiping her grandmother’s paperbacks. Now she writes her own sexy tales about complex women and gorgeous-but-slightly-tortured men. Her work has been described as ‘the defibrillator contemporary romance needs right now,’ and not by herself, or even her mum, but OTHER PEOPLE.
Eve currently lives in Melbourne with her boy, a bunch of semi-dead plants and a rabbit named Billy. When she's not writing she can be found making a mess.
Eve currently lives in Melbourne with her boy, a bunch of semi-dead plants and a rabbit named Billy. When she's not writing she can be found making a mess.
Yvette's Review:
I’ve read and loved all of Tessa Bailey’s books and have recently become a fan of Eve Dangerfield (after Tessa Bailey posted a recommendation for her books). Individually, the two authors have written romances that are off-the-charts steamy, rife with dirty-talking Alpha heroes and increasingly inventive and unapologetically filthy love scenes. Learning they’d be collaborating on a book made my mind explode with the possibilities. And I must say that these two authors delivered a scorching hot, emotionally compelling story with Captivated.
When we first meet Autumn Reynolds and Blake Munroe, Autumn is fresh from a breakup with her longtime boyfriend and Blake is collecting his tenant’s overdue rent. To say the meeting between the pint-sized, talkative Aussie and the gruff, broody landlord doesn’t go smoothly would be an understatement. Their awkward interaction is as entertaining as it is informative, revealing a certain sexual kink of Autumn’s that calls to a secret, darker side of Blake. What results is an arrangement to satisfy Autumn’s curiosity, with Blake effortlessly assuming the role of ruthless captor to her helpless prisoner. The two share this raw, primal attraction that only intensifies with every moment they spend together, unraveling their every inhibition and breaking down each other’s physical and emotional barriers.
What makes Captivated such a riveting read isn’t just the taboo, relentlessly erotic love scenes, but the fascinatingly contradictory personalities of Autumn and Blake. Who would’ve thought the hilariously unfiltered, often inappropriate veterinarian/aspiring comedian would be an apropos pairing with a surly shut-in who stomps around his apartment, studiously avoiding small-talk with his tenants and restoring old books to their former glory (one word: swoon)? She can’t seem to stop talking while he is, as Autumn puts it, “one concise mother-bleeper” (except in the bedroom…So. Much. Dirty. Talk). Their interactions either made me laugh aloud (mostly because of Autumn’s nonsensical ramblings), made me blush (thanks to their insane chemistry and the increasingly scandalous fantasies in which they wholeheartedly indulge), and made my heart ache and gut churn (from an overdose of the feels).
Captivated should come with a disclaimer: Jaws will drop. Panties will melt. Ovaries will explode. Heartstrings will be tugged. Readers are going to LOVE Autumn and Blake’s story, which is packed with heat, humor, and heart. I loved every single sentence of Captivated and I sincerely hope there’s more to come from this author duo.
*complimentary copy provided by author for an honest review
Rating: 5 Stars
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