REVIEW: Hate F*@k:part one

March 24, 2015 Nic Excerpt, Reviews 4 ★★★★★

**Hate F*@k:part one**

Ainsley Booth

Published on 2/17/2015

Warning: This is just the start. This doesn't end well. And it's going to get much worse before it ever gets better.

Cole:
I push her buttons. I want to push them in the good way. Dirty, up-against-the-wall, my-hand-in-her-pants kind of way.
But that’s not possible, because I’m dark and she’s light, and we both know it.
So I push her buttons in the bad way, making her hate me.

Hailey:
If a genie granted me three wishes, I’d ask for Cole Parker to never look at me again, that I’d forget the dark promise in his eyes, and that just once, before he vanished from my life completely, that he’d push me up against a wall and make me scream.
Then I’d go wash my mouth out with soap.

Part one of a three book serial about a bad-ass alpha male and the curvy woman he can't give up.

Hate F*@k: part two is coming March 24, 2015
Hate F*@k: part three will finish the serial in April 2015

From the Inside Flap

—excerpt–

With a thunk, I drop my forehead to the desk. Fuck. My. Life.

I only wallow in self-pity for a minute. My boss is right. I can go home and knit, and at least if I’m there, my co-workers will be able to come and go as they please. It’s not like I’m being super productive or anything. I yank my bag out from under the desk, stick Ellen’s list of website fixes into the outside pocket, because those I can do from home, and slide on my oversized, extra-dark sunglasses. No way are those assholes getting a picture of my whole face.

I don’t bother to say goodbye. I just power down my computer and head for the back staircase. There’s a gated backyard that leads to an alleyway, and I can dash across it into the back of the import/export shop across the way. From there, I can get a cab.

It’s a great plan, but as soon as I swing the door open, I know it’s not going to happen.
For one thing, there are a couple of photographers sitting on motorcycles on the other side of the gate.
But even worse than that, Cole Parker is standing on this side of it, and he looks pissed.

Cole Parker. I think of him as the CFO of The Horus Group–CFO standing for Chief Fuck-You Officer. I don’t actually know his title. The Horus Group probably doesn’t do titles.

The four men came out of nowhere two years ago and buzz quickly swirled around them, branding them as the go-to crisis management team in the city. Probably got that reputation by getting bad people out of even worse situations. Hardly noble heroes, even if they look the part.

There are four of them, all various shades of bad-ass super soldiers who turned in their uniforms for suits and smooth lines. Cole and Jason, both ex-Navy SEALs, according to my brother. Tag, an ex-cop, local to the Metro DC area. And Wilson…he looks like a computer nerd on steroids. Clearly CIA hacker gone rogue.

And one of them is standing between me and freedom.

Part of me knew Cole would be waiting, because my father has them on speed dial. I just didn’t expect him to be mad at me, which he clearly is.

Angry Cole is still incredibly good-looking, so I’m tempted to stand there and just look at him vibrating for a minute, but the last thing I need is a picture taken of me anywhere near Washington’s favourite fixer. I grab the door before it even slaps shut behind me and as quickly as I stepped out into the damp January dreariness, I’m back inside.

But of course I’m not alone. That would be too easy.

Because this is the thing about Cole Parker. He’s a fucking pit bull, and sometimes that’s good, temporarily, when he’s on your side. When you’ve pissed him off, though, it’s downright scary. He’ll rip the heart out of anyone who crosses him, backed up by a carefully constructed non-disclosure agreement.
I should know. He made me sign one. It was the closest we’ve ever been, him leaning across the conference table pointing out the various places I needed to initial and sign. The delicate hairs on my arms had stood up as if they knew I wanted to say, Take Me, Mr. Parker. Totally inappropriate on a million levels, and the way he glowered at me, I knew he was thinking the same thing–never going to happen.
Six months, I’ve known Cole Parker. Well, known would be an exaggeration. My father hired The Horus Group to get him out of “a bind”, as my mother would call it. Bile rises in my throat at the willful blindness there. A bind. For fuck’s sake.

Six months, I’ve lived with the twin reactions of disgust and something…quite different than disgust. I don’t want to name it, the way my skin prickles when he’s nearby. The way his dark gaze gets under my skin and takes up residence, leaving an itchy awareness that Cole Parker is not like other men. Not in general, and not for me.

So I should keep walking, up the stairs, through the office and out the front door, cameras be damned.
Instead, I stand there like a chump, waiting for him to lay into me. It doesn’t take long.
“You’re not answering your phone,” he growls, and I jam my sunglasses on top of my head so he can see me roll my eyes and know that I’m not impressed. “You’re out of your fucking mind if you think I’m letting you be chased down an alley by thugs on bikes.”

“I was just going across the alley, and if my safety is at jeopardy, you could have called the police.” I take a step towards the stairs and he moves with me, closing the gap, so I stop. The last thing I want to do is get any closer to the coiled snake that is my father’s personal crisis management expert.

“Ms. Reid, this is not a time to be principled.”

I’m sure that where Cole Parker is concerned, there’s never a time to worry about such things as principles and morals and laws. “It’s okay. I’ll go out the front.”

He narrows his eyes–still hazel flecked with gold, just like my stupid memory recorded them from our previous encounters–and backs me up against the wall. “I’ve got men out front. We’re taking you home, one way or another.”
“That’s not my home.”

I’m pretty sure I can hear teeth grinding as he glowers down at me. “Fine, then to your apartment.”
I’m the second of four children born back to back to back. Staring contests? Ha. Fuck Cole Parker. I’ve got this in the bag. I tilt my head to the side as if to say, bring it, pretty boy.
He really is. Pretty, I mean, in a masculine, made of steel kind of way. Dark brown hair, thick dark lashes around those tiger eyes of his. A chronic case of sexy stubble that a really good razor could probably fix, but wouldn’t that be a shame.

If he was anyone else, I’d take this staring contest as an opportunity to eye fuck him. Run my fingertips along his jaw and–

“Stop it.” He jams his hand on the wall next to my head and leans in close, his harsh words reverberating between us. Close enough that I get my first whiff of his spicy sweet cologne. It brings with it the dawning realization that I did exactly what I really meant not to do–I let him get close.

Fuck me. I swallow hard and pretend I don’t care. “You blinked.”

“This is not a game, Ms. Reid. You might not like the drama that your family members face from time to time, but my job is to make sure you’re safely escorted home.”

“I thought your job was to–”

“Uh uh uh.” He shakes his head as presses his index finger against my lips. A shiver wracks through my body at the touch, and I fight to keep my eyes their normal size. Controlling my pulse is a lost cause, it’s hammering away like a Habitat for Humanity crew on speed. “You keep your feisty little comments about what I do to yourself. I do the job that needs to be done, regardless of whether or not I like it. And I don’t blink. Let’s go.

REVIEW

OMG! this book is seriously hot! Cole is a seriously hot ex-SEAL and part of The Horus Group. They’re hired to secretly fix messes created by their high-profile clients.

Hailey is a part of a high-profile family that keeps screwing up but she tries to lead a normal life. She met Cole several months ago when he was fixing a mess created by her father. Now he’s back fixing a mess one of her sister’s made. The chemistry between them is off the charts! When they’re together, the banter between them is fantastic and it builds this crazy sexual tension.

The book goes back and forth between the two of them so you can see their POV every step of the way and its great! They both know they shouldn’t want the other but they do. I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough and was sad when I reached the end of the book.

What an ending it was! I totally didn’t see it coming and I seriously can’t wait for the next book in this series! You should definitely give this book a try if you like a steamy romantic suspense.

I loved every minute of it!

Nic

About Ainsley Booth

Mom by day and filthy romance writer by night, Ainsley is super grateful for caffeine, banana and blueberry muffins, and yoga pants.

Blog • Twitter • Facebook • Goodreads

Kristi

March 24th, 2015

Great first post Nic!

Red Iza

March 25th, 2015

I’ve got book #1 but I’m waiting until the whole series is released before I start reading it ^^
Red Iza recently posted…Review / Chloe Neill : Dark debt