Book Title: Loyalty and Lies (Chastity Falls #1)
Author: LA Cotton
Genre: New Adult Contemporary
Romance
Release Date: January 2015
Hosted by: Book Enthusiast Promotions
Eighteen-year-old Savanah Parry just moved three
thousand miles across state to escape. The memories…the whispers…the
pain.
Chastity Falls Academy is supposed to be her fresh
start; her salvation. And when Ana meets mysterious Jackson, she begins to
think it is. She hasn’t smiled in almost sixteen months; not since the night
her life changed forever, and despite her guilt…her loyalty, Ana can’t deny
that Jackson is breathing life back into her. With Jackson by her side, Ana
wants to believe she can heal and move on. But she isn’t the only one living a
lie, and the small private Academy has secrets of its own. All is not what it
seems, and Ana is about to find herself in a tangled web of lies; fighting for
survival, again.
Loyalties will be tested, lies will be told. Welcome to
Chastity Falls.
Gardner's class was nothing compared to the torture of
sitting so close to Jackson in Shakespeare. After his warning to stay away from
him, I thought he might pick an alternative seat, but that didn't happen.
Instead, hebrushed straight passed me, dropped into his usual chair and acted
as if nothing had happened. I had to fight back the urge to ask him why he had
told me to stay away from me. I mean, it wasn't like we hung out. There had
been coffee at the shifty sea front hut…once, and then the embarrassing
sprained-ankle-in-the-storm incident.
“Today, class, I want us to look at the character Iago…”
Professor Shacks’ voice echoed around the small room. “Iago is the voice
whispering in Othello’s ear, playing to Othello’s own paranoia and insecurities
around his relationship with Desdemona. Of course, Othello trusts Iago
implicitly, why wouldn’t he trust his long serving friend and lieutenant? A
fact that Iago uses to his own advantage…”
Jackson shuffled next to me, and then quickly dropped a
white note onto my desk. What now? I sighed, feeling
frustrated at his mixed signals.
How’s the ankle?
Okay thanks
I balled up the note and tossed it onto his desk, watching
him through the corner of my eye. A slight smirk played on his lips, and it was
obvious he was aware I was pissed at him. He started scribbling a reply, which
landed in front of me seconds later.
I’ve heard coffee (or a banana shake) can work
wonders for a sprained ankle… healing properties or something.
I scowled at his slightly scruffy handwriting wondering what
game he was trying to play with me.
Thanks. I’ll make sure I have a banana shake
before bed
Feeling pleased with myself, I held out the note for him and
he plucked it out of my hand, silently laughing when his eyes scanned the
words.
How about a shake before bed… with me?
My eyes blinked. And blinked again, feeling the heat of
embarrassment wash over my face. Was he flirting with me? I felt thirteen all
over again. Mikey Crand used to send me love notes in Biology and me and my
friend Lacey would giggle over them. Feeling brave, I handed him my reply.
Are you inviting me for a shake? Or to
bed?
Jackson’s eyes widened and he shuffled slightly in his seat.
Take that mister confusing, I thought, pleased with
myself.
Are you saying yes?
I inwardly groaned. Jackson: one, Ana: zero.
I couldn’t keep this up without drifting into territory that terrified me.
Jackson was the first guy—the only guy—that made me smile…
made my stomach flutter… made me feel anything since
Danny. It wasn’t the plan, not what I ran to CFA to find, but somehow I had
found it. Found something—someone—that made me feel again. Was that enough to
try and get to the bottom of whatever was going on with Jackson? Of why he had
warned me to stay away?
To the shake… maybe
Meet me round back five minutes after
class
I was heading for a one-way trip into purgatory, because as
I discreetly watched Jackson out the corner of my eye I knew. Knew there would
be no way I could walk away. Right or wrong, sensible or stupid, he had awoken
a part of me that I thought I would never find again…and I couldn’t just give
that up. Not for all the warnings in the world.
~
Ninety-minutes later, I was sitting in Black’s suffering
some kind of post-Jackson whiplash.
“I’m surprised you asked me for coffee
again.” I slurped up the thick banana shake.
Jackson watched me, his eyes were more the color of the
bluey-green ocean today, than their usual shade. “Actually, I invited you for a
shake.” He quipped back.
I tried broaching the subject during the ride to Black’s,
but he just shrugged me off, talking about the weather. The freaking weather. I
was done with his evasion techniques. “After you warned me to stay away from
you the other night?”
He placed his mug back on its plate and sighed. I watched,
captivated, as he ran his hand through his messy dark hair, the longer strands
falling back into place, a five ‘o’clock shadow cloaking his jaw. “About that…
I may have been a little hasty.”
“Hasty?”
“See the thing is…” His eyes held mine, smoldering at me,
pleading with me. “I’m not sure I can stay away from you.”
My lips moved to say something but nothing came out. Jackson
watched me intently and I gulped. It felt like he was willing me to agree, to
accept that there was a reason we should stay away from each other, but to
ignore it. And I got the feeling it was a no questions asked kind of
arrangement.
“It’d be better for you… for us, if you stay away from me,
Ana. But I don’t want you to. I’m too selfish to walk away.”
“But-”
Jackson cut me off. “No questions. That’s the deal. We spend
time together, get to know each other, but you can’t ask any of the questions I
know you have swimming round in that pretty little head of yours.”
“Okay, but-”
His hand found mine across the booth, and his fingers grazed
my knuckles. “No questions. That’s just the way it has to be for now.”
I nodded. Unsure what I was agreeing to.
“You won’t regret it Ana Parry, I promise.”
;
Author of NA Contemporary Romance, L. A. Cotton loves
writing about those first looks, first kisses, and happily ever afters.
A wearer-of-many-hats, L.A juggles being a full-time mum to
two little people with two part-time jobs and college. In her spare time (and
when she’s not camped out in front of the laptop) you’ll most likely find her
immersed in a book, escaping the chaos that is life. LA has two books currently
self-published: Fate's Love and Love's Spark. Loyalty and Lies, is book one in
her NA college series: Chastity Falls.
You can connect with her at:
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