Getting Played
Jail Bait Series – Book 2
By Mia Storm
Synopsis
Rules of the game:
1) Never underestimate your opponent
2) Avoid personal fouls
3) Score early and often
4) Play or get played
Coach Marcus Leon has always played by the rules…until he meets Addaline Grace, the seventeen-year-old senior transfer on his Oak Crest High water polo team. Addie changes all the rules, mostly because she doesn’t play any games. But as off limits as she is, the more Marcus discovers about Addie, the more he finds himself…and the more he questions whether Addie Grace might just be worth risking everything for.
For Addie, water polo is anger management. She’s driven and focused because it keeps her mind off other things…like the fact she destroyed her family. Her game plan is to keep her head down and graduate so she can leave her father and the crappy town he dragged her to in her wake. But when what starts as friendly completion with Marcus turns into more than a game, Addie has to decided if she’s willing to face down her demons…and possibly ruin the man she may or may not be falling in love with in the process.
What happens when the only thing you need is the one thing you can’t have?
Excerpt
“One more thing I can check off my bucket list,” he says with a grin, then shoves half the slice into his mouth.
“What else is on your list?” I ask.
He gives me a long look as he chews. “I don’t really have one, now that you mention it.”
“They’re stupid anyway,” I say with a shrug. “It’s a waste of time thinking about all the things you want to do before you die. You could die tomorrow and a bucket list isn’t going to mean squat.”
I only realize how bitter that sounded when his gaze locks on mine and sharpens, as if he’s lasering in on my thoughts.
I shake myself loose from those eyes that could compel me to spill my darkest secrets if I were to gaze into them too long and take a bite of pizza. “But whatever. If you want a bucket list, go for it.”
“You don’t have anything you want to do before you check out?” he asks with raised eyebrows.
“Haven’t thought about it.”
“Well you should,” he says, going for another slice. “I want a bucket list.”
“Then make one.”
He leans back and takes a bite. “So where should we start?”
“You already have,” I say with a wave of my slice toward his.
He holds his up. “And you’ve gotten me off to a fine one. So now we need something to top anchovies.”
“We?” I ask. “I told you I don’t want any part of this.”
“Tough, because what if your idea turns out the be the Best Thing Ever and I would have missed it because I never thought of it.” He tears off a hunk of pizza with his teeth. “Like anchovies.”
I look at him a long second as he chews and a hot tingle runs under my skin. “So we’d do stuff from the list together?”
He nods as he swallows. “That would be the general plan. Call it moral support, call it peer pressure, all I know is we’re more likely to check stuff off the list if we’re both doing it.”
My heart starts to pound as the possibilities scroll in my head. “How are we going to do this?”
“A collaboration. We’ll each throw ideas out until we have a list, then we can rank them together.”
“How do you know I won’t put something like ‘lose my virginity’ on the list?” Heat radiates from my face, but I force myself to hold his gaze.
There’s a second that he just stares at me, but then his eyes grows softer. “I’d expect you would.”
For several beats of my racing heart, we sit here staring at each other, then he clears his throat. “I want to try one new food a week. And I’m open to suggestions.” He says with a nod at the pizza box. “Your turn.”
“I have to come up with another one right here on the spot?” I say.
He cocks his head in a question, but then the light dawns in his eyes. “Ah…virginity. Right…” He pulls out his phone and starts typing it like it’s no big thing, then shifts and hooks an elbow over the back of the bench as he thinks. “Swim with dolphins.”
I nod. “That’s a good one. Put that on top.”
He raises his eyebrows as she shoots me a glance out from under those long, thick lashes. “Above virginity?”
All the muscles south of my waist contract. “I guess I’ll leave that up to you, since I’ve never done either.”
Michel’s Review
When I started reading Getting Played by Mia Storm, I was thinking uh uh…this is not a book I am going to like. The reason why I thought I would not like it is because of the heroine’s and hero’s ages. I have a daughter that is 17 years old. I don’t want to read about a young girl getting involved with an older experienced guy, that is her teacher and mentor. I put the book down and moved on to another book. But then I got to thinking about it. I thought about my daughter and her friends. I thought about their maturity levels. I thought about how the social media has made them much more savvy than I was at that age. I thought about their social network, the small community we live in, and the higher educational routes they are experiencing in high school. Girls this age have a more adult outlook on life. They are embracing adult responsibilities, a broader level of worldly knowledge, and a more knowledgable concept of one’s sexuality. They are more informed and open minded. Taking all of this into consideration, I began reading this book again with an open mind and unbiased opinion.
A random meeting on a park bench sets the stage for Getting Played. An intellectual conversation that is loaded with snarky wit and banter leaves Marcus Leon intrigued. He asks this captivating woman, Addie, out on a date. When Monday rolls around Marcus is in for a shock. Addie is one of the seniors on the high school water polo team he coaches. He knows first hand what the ramifications can be for fraternizing with someone under the legal age. He watched his sister and brother in law almost be destroyed by this. He is trying to find a full time teaching job in a profession that is overloaded with qualified professionals. Addie is strictly off limits.
Although Marcus knows that Addie is off limits, he can’t help but be drawn to her. She is different from the other girls on his team. She is clearly a dedicated athlete and leader. She has a sense of maturity most women don’t have at the age of thirty. When he finds out what her home life situation is it makes staying away even harder. He knows what it’s like to have a drunken father. He knows what it’s like to be responsible for more than the usual demands made on teenagers. He genuinely wants to help Addie out. He wants her to be able to remain on the water polo team without having her home life drag her down. He wants her to have the opportunity to receive scholarships so that she can have a better opportunity in life. He wants to be her friend. He wants her to have someone she can trust and turn to when she needs help.
Addie’s family has been torn to shreds. After her mother died in a car accident when she was fifteen, their life spiraled out of control. Her father got lost in his grief and became an alcoholic. They lost their home and life they once had. They were forced to move in with her aunt in a small community hours away from the only home she knew. Her aunt travels quite a bit with her job but has opened her home to them until her father can get back on his feet. It is an uphill battle. Both are lost in their grief, their guilt, and their new place in life. Addie is forced to become an adult. When she meets Marcus she realizes that she has met someone that can understand her life situation. Their friendship is her life line.
Marcus and Addie fight their attraction for one another. Even though there is only five years difference in their ages they both clearly have a lot in common. Even though Addie will be eighteen within a few months she is still underage. Those few months will make a huge difference on how their relationship plays out. Marcus will be under the microscope by the community, his water polo team, and Addie’s father. Addie will be forced to face her guilt and grief. Addie’s father will have to own up to his failures and mistakes. It will take a miracle for all of them to come out as whole people in the months leading up to Addie’s eighteenth birthday.
Mia Storm did an eloquent job creating a story of forbidden love in a very taboo situation. She handled the socially unacceptable dilemma in a heart felt responsible way. The reader does not walk away with a feeling like they were reading about a pedophile. Both Addie and Marcus were young people that met at the wrong time in their lives. How they handled the situation was remarkable. The love they found in each other was beautiful.
The Jail Bait Series
Getting Dirty – Book 1
Dirty
A poem by Blaire Leon
If sex is dirty, why would I do it with someone I love?
If sex is dirty, then didn’t we all come from the dirt?
What if I like the dirt?
What if I want to get dirty?
What if I want to roll in the mud until I’m so fucking filthy that I’ll never be clean again?
When twenty-five-year-old graduate assistant Caiden Brenner asked Blaire Leon how old she was, she said she was a senior. He chose to believe she meant in college. They connect over Lord Byron’s Don Juan and, as their conversations become increasingly thicker with sexual innuendo, Caiden finds himself obsessing over a totally off-limits undergrad who’s bold, beautiful, brilliant, and one of the most passionate poets he’s ever met.
But it turns out Blaire hasn’t been totally honest. She’s the seventeen-year-old valedictorian of her high school class, taking courses at Sierra State while awaiting her acceptance to Stanford.
Will Caiden get too deeply into Blaire to back away before he finds out the truth? Or will their connection be enough to seduce him into risking his entire future on Jail Bait?
“A thousand and one feels….Getting Dirty is a thrilling, tantalizing forbidden romance you do not want to miss! I not only devoured this book, it devoured me right back!”–Katy Evans, New York Times Bestselling author of REAL.
Getting Played – Book 2
Rules of the game:
1) Never underestimate your opponent
2) Avoid personal fouls
3) Score early and often
4) Play or get played
Coach Marcus Leon has always played by the rules…until he meets Addaline Grace, the seventeen-year-old senior transfer on his Oak Crest High water polo team. Addie changes all the rules, mostly because she doesn’t play any games. But as off limits as she is, the more Marcus discovers about Addie, the more he finds himself…and the more he questions whether Addie Grace might just be worth risking everything for.
For Addie, water polo is anger management. She’s driven and focused because it keeps her mind off other things…like the fact she destroyed her family. Her game plan is to keep her head down and graduate so she can leave her father and the crappy town he dragged her to in her wake. But when what starts as friendly completion with Marcus turns into more than a game, Addie has to decided if she’s willing to face down her demons…and possibly ruin the man she may or may not be falling in love with in the process.
What happens when the only thing you need is the one thing you can’t have?
________________________
Author Bio:
Mia Storm is a hopeless romantic who is always searching for her happy ending. Sometimes she’s forced to make one up. When that happens, she’s thrilled to be able to share those stories with her readers. She lives in California and spends much of her time in the sun with a book in one hand and a mug of black coffee in the other, or hiking the trails in Yosemite. Connect with her online at MiaStormAuthor.blogspot.com , on Twitter at @MiaStormAuthor, and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/MiaStormAuthor
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