A deviously crooked smile curls up the corner of my lips.
Yeah. I have an idea alright. And I think I can get Amelia to go for it. It’s only for a few hours anyway. What could go wrong?
Ready to get lost in Oliver and Amelia’s story? Get your copy of Doctor Scandalous, coming October 2021! This is a brand new Kindle-melting romance about one of Boston's most notorious billionaire bachelors and the woman who flips his entire world upside down.
Also by J. Saman
Wild Love Series:
Reckless to Love You
Love to Hate Her
Crazy to Love You
Love to Tempt You
Promise to Love You
The Edge Series:
The Edge of Temptation
The Edge of Forever
The Edge of Reason
The Edge of Chaos
Boston’s Billionaire Bachelors:
Doctor Scandalous
Start Again Series:
Start Again
Start Over
Start With Me
Las Vegas Sin Series:
Touching Sin
Catching Sin
Darkest Sin
Standalones:
Just One Kiss
Love Rewritten
Beautiful Potential
Forward - FREE
End of Book Note
For those of you who have read me before, this is the part where I break down the book for you. First, thank you! Thank you so much for taking the time to read Brecken and Rina’s story. I had always known I wanted to pair these two up, but other stories got in their way before I could bring them to the page.
If you haven’t read Margot and Drew yet, then I apologize for any spoilers this book contained. You’ll still love them. Trust me, I didn’t give away all the good stuff!
I hope you enjoyed Rina and Brecken. I really liked the idea of making Brecken this misunderstood hero. We’ve all experienced judgement and sometimes our past transgressions unfortunately stick to us, defining who we are in the present even if that’s no longer us. That was Brecken. All he needed was the right woman and that woman was Rina.
Rina’s story was a hard one to write. I had contemplated doing a flashback to that night, but decided it really wasn’t necessary for her arc. She was stuck in her head, in her past, and needed someone to see beyond all that. To reigniight her faith in love and trust and men.
I am sorry this series is ending, but so excited for the spin-off one to come with all of Rina’s brothers. They are a seriously HOT bunch of men and I’m having the best time writing them and their leading ladies.
I want to thank Patricia and Danielle for helping me make Brecken and Rina everything that they turned out to be. I would be lost without these two.
I also want to thank my husband and three incredible girls for their endless love and support. They get me. They get my need to get lost in my head, in other worlds. They are the light of my life and center of my soul.
Keep reading for an excerpt of Doctor Scandalous as well as The Edge of Temptation if this is your first book in this series, but you’re curious about the side characters’ stories.
Thank you!!!
XO
J. Saman
The Edge of Temptation
Halle
“No,” I reply emphatically, hoping my tone is stronger than my disposition. “I’m not doing it. Absolutely not. Just no.” I point my finger for emphasis, but I don’t think the gesture is getting me anywhere.
Rina just stares at me, the tip of her finger gliding along the lip of her martini glass, her expression saying she’s got me right where she wants me. “You’re smiling. If you don’t want to do this, then why are you smiling?”
I sigh. She’s right. I am smiling.
But only because it’s so ridiculous.
In all the years she’s known me, I’ve never hit on a total stranger. I don’t think I’d have any idea how to even do that. And honestly, I’m just not in the right frame of mind to put in the effort.
“It’s funny, that’s all.” I shrug indifferently, playing it off. It’s really not funny. The word terrifying comes closer. “But my answer is still no.”
“It’s been, what?” Margot chimes in, her gaze flicking between Rina, Aria, and me like she’s actually trying to figure out the mathematics behind it. She’s not. I know where she’s going with this and it’s fucking rhetorical. “A month?”
See? I told you.
“You broke up with Matt a month ago,” she continues. “And you can’t play it off like you’re all upset over it, because we know you’re not.”
“Who says I’m not upset?” I furrow my eyebrows, feigning incredulous, but I can’t quite meet their eyes. “I was with him for two years.”
But she’s right.
I’m not upset about Matt.
I just don’t have the desire to hit on some random dude at some random bar in the South End of Boston.
“Two useless years,” Rina persists with a roll of her green eyes before taking a sip of her appletini. She sets her glass down, leaning her small frame back in her chair as she crosses her arms over her chest and purses her lips like she’s pissed off on my behalf. “The guy was a freaking asshole.”
“And a criminal,” Aria adds, tipping back her fancy glass and polishing off the last of her dirty martini, complete with olive. She chews on it slowly, quirking a pointed eyebrow at me. “The cocksucker repeatedly ignored you so he could defraud people.”
“All true,” I agree. “Matt was the absolute worst sort of human.”
I can’t even deny it. My ex was a black-hat hacker. And while that might sound all hot and sexy in a mysterious, dangerous way, it isn’t. The piece of shit stole credit card numbers, and not only used them for himself but sold them on the dark web. He was also one of those hacktivists who got his rocks off by working with other degenerate assholes to try and bring down various companies and websites.
In my defense, I didn’t know what he was up to until the FBI came into my place of work, hauled me downtown, and interviewed me for hours. I was so embarrassed, I could hardly show my face at work again. Not only that, but everyone was talking about me. Either with pity or suspicion in their eyes, like I was a criminal right along with him.
Matt had a regular job as a red-team specialist—legit hackers who are paid by companies to go in and try to penetrate their systems. I assumed all that time he spent on his computer at night was him working hard to get ahead.
At least that was his perpetual excuse when challenged.
Nothing makes you feel more naïve than discovering the man you had been engaged to is actually a criminal who was stealing from people. And committing said thefts while living with you.
I looked up one of the people the FBI had mentioned in relation to Matt’s criminal activities. The woman had a weird name that stuck out to me for some reason, and when I found her, I learned she was a widow with three grandchildren, a son in the military, and was a recently retired nurse. It made me sick to my stomach. Still does when I think about it.
I told the FBI everything I knew, which was nothing. I explained that I had ended things with Matt three days prior to them arresting him. Pure coincidence. I was fed up with the monotony of our relationship. Of being engaged and never discussing or planning our wedding. Of living with someone I never saw because he was always locked away in his office, too preoccupied with his computer to pay me even an ounce of attention.