Wednesday Tease: Harbor (Renzo + Lucia, 2)

Hey, loves!

I have decided to change WIP Wednesday to a tease post of what is coming out next. Might I occasionally share from whatever I am currently working on? Yes, once in a while, but especially if I really want to share something. But for the most part, I am so far ahead on projects that I find people get a little annoyed when they realize they're going to have to wait almost a whole year to read whatever book I am teasing from.

So, today, you get a tease from Harbor, the second book in the Renzo + Lucia trilogy. If you missed it, Privilege, book one, went live on Monday.

Haven't grabbed your copy yet?
That's okay.

Get it at one of the following:

AMAZON | ITUNES | B & N

Next week, it will go into KU.
And book 2 and 3 will release on Feb 4th, and Mar 4th, respectively.

Okay, now onto this teaser:

*

Lucia slipped out the back, but found Renzo wasn’t anywhere to be found. He wasn’t sitting under the small enclave where the back door led to, but his pack of cigarettes and lighter rested on the table like he’d just walked away from it. Lucia’s heart picked up its pace a bit as she walked further out into the night, and glanced down the hotel rooms.

Still empty.

Still lonely.

It was a splash behind the tall fence surrounding the pool that drew her in that direction. The locked gate to the pool wasn’t really locked. It was simply a latch that was too high for most kids to open, Lucia found. She pushed it open to find a pile of familiar clothes sitting at the edge of the lit up pool.

Renzo’s clothes.

The smell of chlorine assaulted her senses as she edged closer to the side of the pool. That’s where she found him. Not swimming, no, but rather, resting at the bottom of what she could only assume was very cold water considering the temperature outside. His eyes were closed, and his arms were spread wide as he floated, suspended, at the very bottom of the deep end of the pool in nothing but boxer-briefs.

For a second, Lucia’s heart stopped.

Just the sight of him like that was enough to make her chest hurt, but she didn’t entirely know why. Maybe it was the idea that he wasn’t going to come back up. That he looked like deadweight down there. Maybe it was just that he was too far away from her.

“Ren!”

She highly doubted that he could hear her, but that didn’t stop her from calling out to him a second and third time. The racing of her heart didn’t slow until all at once, Renzo opened his eyes under the water, and righted his body before pushing up from the bottom of the pool. He broke the surface of the water with a deep breath, and one hand sluicing the droplets from his face.

“What are you doing?” she asked, trying not to let the edge in her voice show.

Renzo blinked for a second before his gaze landed on her. “Thinking.”

“At the bottom of a pool?”

He grinned, entirely unbothered and unknowing that she’d pretty much just had a panic attack. Fucking man. She hated that he looked entirely too good skimming the water as he came closer to the edge of the pool where she was waiting for him. His arms rested along the edge to hold him steady as he peered up at her.

“Why not?” he asked. “Looked like a pretty good place to think to me.”

Lucia bent down and pushed the palm of her hand against his forehead, causing him to float backward in the water with a laugh. “Nearly gave me a heart attack, Ren. Isn’t that water freezing?”

“A little. It’s not bad once you’re all in.”

“I’ll just take your word—”

“No, you won’t.” He swam fast to the edge, and before she could properly respond, he’d grabbed her wrist and yanked her into the pool with him. She was right—it was cold as fuck. But there wasn’t anything Lucia could do about it once her entire body was submerged in the water, and she was shivering all over. He stopped the chattering of her teeth with a kiss—a fierce, hungry kiss that lit her body on fire in an instant. Pulling away just enough to speak, though his lips still grazed hers all the while, he murmured, “See, not too bad.” 

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