CLAIRE DAVON

Title: Sense of Adventure
Buy the Book: Amazon
Release Date: December 31, 2013
Pages: 228
Add on Goodreads

 Synopsis

“I felt like I was on an intense emotional journey while reading this book. Author Claire Davon has captured the essence of the characters in this heat sizzling drama.” —Stephanie Lasley, from The Kindle Book Review

What happens when a jaded man with nothing to believe in meets a woman who is afraid of living and who still sees life through rose-colored glasses?

Worlds collide when Hunter Dillon and Gina Taylor meet. A former BMX racer and current owner of an extreme sports company, Hunter had long ago given up on love and finds his solace in casual sex and living hard. Nothing and nobody has reached him since a tragedy in his young adulthood made him vow to never make himself vulnerable to love again. Gina has been taught by her mother to always take the safe route, do what’s expected, and never rock the boat.

Hunter and Gina are wildly attracted to each other at first sight, but neither is willing to risk their heart.

When circumstance forces Gina to accompany Hunter on a short local publicity tour, the sparks fly. With their attraction impossible to ignore, the question becomes whether two such different people can overcome their ingrained life lessons, and embrace new life, new love — and each other.

Life, family, and even the media conspire to break them up. In the end, they must decide whether their love is strong enough to withstand all these trials or if, at the end, they truly don’t have a sense of adventure.

Praise

“An intense emotional journey…Claire Davon has captured the essence of the characters in this heat sizzling drama.”
–Stephanie Lasley, from The Kindle Book Review

Excerpt

Hunter directed his gaze her way and it was everything she could do to meet his eyes. This was silly. Gorgeous men didn’t affect her usually. She was immune to the strutting and posturing of the male species for the most part, finding their antics vaguely absurd. Guys like this were nothing but trouble, even if they did happen to glance her way. Their attention didn’t stay on one woman for long and certainly never on her.

“I don’t remember seeing online banner ads in the last proposal,” he said mildly, a tone of approval in his voice.

His eyes were like murky country ponds, warm and yet too deep to wade into.

She resisted the urge to toss her head defiantly. She was sure the gesture wouldn’t come across as the graceful disdain she would like to pull off. Her hair settled back across her neck at the aborted movement, cascading across her skin until it came to rest.

“There’s more. I’d like to talk about your website, among others,” she admitted. She’d found Andy’s proposal dry and uninteresting, and after talking to her younger brother and her friends, added stuff that she thought teenagers and hardcore extreme sports guys would be interested in as well as updated it to be more web based and digitally oriented. Before she gave the proposal to Hunter she’d had Jason look at it one final time and the enthusiastic thumbs up and the smile that crossed his teenage face told her she’d done fine. Her brother had loved it when she told him she might be going on tour with Hunter Sports for the next two weeks. He was forbidden from doing extreme sports, but it consumed him.

His grin widened and she found herself mesmerized by the combination of white teeth against those incredibly red lips.

“How old are you?” he asked, suddenly scanning her face and body quickly before those ridiculously red lips turned up in a smile.

“Twenty-seven,” she said simply, refusing to ask the natural return question. He volunteered it.

“I’m thirty-three. Going on three hundred. So far, so good, Ms. Taylor. I like your changes. I want to see what else you’ve got. Consider yourself conditionally hired for the tour.”
“Gina,” she said before she could change her mind. “If we’re going to work together for two weeks, I think it’s going to get awful stiff calling each other ‘Mr. Dillon’ and ‘Ms. Taylor.’”

He chuckled, tilting his head forward. The movement made his shaggy, not-quite-too-long rakish haircut wave across his head.

“Agreed,” he said, holding out his hand. “Tell Dexter and Baxter I’m happy with the replacement they’ve chosen. I want to see what else you’ve got but I have another meeting. Let’s finalize things over lunch tomorrow.” He paused for a minute. “How about Miceli’s?” He moved back to his desk and typed in his IM box. “I’ll introduce you to Roberto, my right hand guy. He will be your liaison if I’m not around.”

Miceli’s was an Italian restaurant in the heart of Hollywood, near the Hollywood/Highland mall. It was touristy and trendy and loud and expensive. It wasn’t the sort of place she normally went to, but Gina was in no position to refuse. She’d been given her instructions. Keep Hunter Dillon and his healthy ad account happy.

She packed up her portfolio all the while conscious of him as she did so. She strove for casualness but knew that the line of her back was tense. Managing to gather up all her papers without dumping any of them on the floor wasn’t easy, but she did it.

“Gina,” he said casually when she was at the door. She turned, seeing him back behind his desk, nestled in his chair, arms and legs folded, his posture a study in ease. When she just looked at him, he grinned and gestured to her t-shirt. “Cute shirt.” He held her gaze for a minute, then turned away, releasing her from his spell.

She had no use for extravagantly good-looking men. They were nothing but trouble and bother. He was someone to steer far away from. Men that good looking were always egotistical bastards, having been told from birth by all the women in their lives how special they were just because they were good looking. No, she had no use for them. None.

Gina managed a smile, even while her internal alarms were blaring, meeting his eyes again and then sliding her gaze away. “Thanks. I like it.”