Killing Me Softly(A Broken Souls Series)

The sad thing is, sitting here now, she still doesn’t get hot and bothered thinking about going to his place and being alone. She loves his kisses; she loves his touch too, but something is missing. Maybe tonight it’s finally time to locate the missing piece. Maybe the piece is sex? After almost two years together, maybe they need something new to bring them closer again.



- The From The Wreckage Series -

From The Wreckage - Available NOW everywhere

Out of Ruins – Available July 17, 2014

All That Remains – Available August 28, 2014

You can find Michele at http://www.michelegmillerbooks.com

Twitter: @chelemybelles



An excerpt from Holding On (Holding On #1)

by Rachael Brownell

website: authorrachaelbrownell.wordpress.com





She never looked up from the floor, and I never looked back as I left my room in a dead sprint. I grabbed my purse and keys off the entry table and ran to my car. I needed to focus on driving as far as I could, as fast as I could. No time for tears, I kept telling myself over and over again. No time for tears.

I pulled into the school parking lot and killed the engine. That’s when I broke. I could not even contain the loud sob that came. I opened the door and started to walk toward the courts. I should have grabbed shoes and a jacket. I ran back to the car and found my rain boots in the trunk and a blanket. I quickly swapped out my slippers for the boots and grabbed the blanket. I would have to make do with these.

The closer I got to the courts, the more I realized that with all the snow, I wouldn’t be able to open the gate, so I veered left and went into the baseball dugout. At least I was out of the wind. I plop down on the bench and curl up in the blanket the best I can. My body was numb, but not from the cold. It’s starting on the inside and working its way to my limbs. I was still crying, and I wanted to stop, but I just didn’t know how. My eyes were like a faucet that wouldn’t turn off.

I wasn’t prepared for this. My life was finally getting back on track. My shoulder was healed. The trainer had cleared me to practice today. I was going to be able to play with my team in the spring. My grades were good. I have finally been able to spend some quality time with my friends. I only have another year and a half until I go off to college. Why now? Why was she destroying everything now? Couldn’t she wait until I finished high school?

My phone began ringing in my pocket, but I didn’t even bother to look. I knew it was probably my mom wondering where I ran off to. She probably wanted to finish our very one sided conversation. She wasn’t asking us; there was no talking about this—she was telling us that we were moving. The ringing stopped and then started again right away. Really? Can’t she just let me be alone right now? Does she not understand how upset I am?

“No,” he said from about ten feet away. Had I just said all of that out loud? Probably. When I get emotional, that tends to be my MO. “You are not allowed to be alone right now.”

As I turned my head, I couldn’t help but smile. He was such a beautiful person, inside and out, and he was mine. He towered over me in height and could probably bench-press me as a workout. His body was always in great shape because he was always at the gym trying to strengthen his upper body for football. He was doing a great job. I could see how impressive his build was, even though the sweatshirt he was wearing.

We had been best friends since middle school, and I wouldn’t trade him for anything in the world. This was not the first time I had noticed how incredibly desirable he was. I had been pushing those thought from my brain for years now. It’s a dance I had been doing for a while and had perfected. I would start to lose control of the fact that we are friends, and the next time we see each other, he has a girl on his arm, usually a new girlfriend. It always helped to bring things back into perspective for me.

I was staring at him, taking in the “view,” as his long legs bring him the ten feet or so in about four steps.

“What are you doing here?” I asked him as he sat down next to me on the bench and wrapped his long, muscular arm around my shoulder. I put my head in the crook of his neck and exhaled the breath that I didn’t even know I was holding.

“Your mom called me when you left the house. I was running about five minutes late, so I took a detour and figured you would be here if you were upset. I saw your car, but I didn’t see you on the courts, so I called your phone and listened for the ring to find you.” He knew me too well sometimes. As he hugged me tighter, I began to shiver. He gave my strange appearance a quick onceover and started to laugh.

“What’s so funny?” I know I sounded defensive, but I really didn’t see the humor in anything at that moment. The only thing I was focused on was the pain in my stomach and the fact that my brain was refusing to process what was going on. I was starting to get a headache.

“Do you see what you’re wearing? You would be laughing too,” he replied while trying not to laugh too hard. He was successfully failing.

I looked down and started to laugh too. I had on my hot pink rain boots with my favorite purple sweat pants and a very deep red-and-black sweater. To top it off, my blanket was an ugly burnt-orange–school colors. I looked like a very ugly rainbow of colors. I had to laugh, and once I started, I couldn’t stop. Brad always knew how to make me laugh, and he always knew how to make me feel just a little bit better about any situation or at least make me forget about it for a moment. I actually felt the tension begin to melt from my body.

“So are you going to tell me why you ran out of the house before I got there, or are we going to the movies with you looking like that?”

Welcome back, tension.

“Calm down, birthday boy. First, I think we are missing the movie right now. You should probably call the GF and tell her you are going to be a bit late. Second, you know you’re jealous of how hot I look in all these fabulous colors,” I stopped to smirk at him for a minute because he knows I never refer to myself as hot. “Last, I want to tell you, but I don’t really want to ruin your birthday. Let’s get out of the cold, and we can talk about it tomorrow.”

He pulled out his phone, typed out a quick text, and shoved it back in his pocket. “I just told Claire that we won’t be making it to the movie. I told her that we would meet up with her and everyone else when the movie ends. So in the meantime, I think you need to tell me what’s wrong.” As if realizing that his phone was going to chime any minute with an unpleasant reply, he pulled it back out of his pocket and turned it off.

He talked about his girlfriend so dismissively that I forgot she was not a fan of our relationship. If she saw us right now, with his arm around me, she would flip out and start to throw a tantrum in front of whoever was willing to watch her. She was a very sweet girl, but very possessive and clingy. It struck me as odd that Brad would even date her, considering he was so incredibly laid back. They were complete opposites, and I had been trying to figure out their relationship since they started dating last spring.

Last week, we were celebrating my birthday. Today we were supposed to be celebrating his. Nothing about this situation constituted celebrating. We’ve always had a ritual for our birthdays since they are so close together, but my “situation” was messing everything up. We were supposed to be going to a movie and then to a party at Emma and Ella’s in celebration of his birthday. It was the same thing we did last Friday night on my birthday. It was the same thing we did last year for our birthdays. It was our tradition. This was not on the agenda for today.