Hawthorne's Calm
Ocean’s #3
By M.A. DeOlmos
Publisher: Lock & Key
Publications
Out December 1, 2014
Warning!
The
highly anticipated trio is back just in time for the holidays! Engross yourself
this holiday season with the gorgeous Hawthorne men. Go ahead. You deserve to
treat yourself to some holiday cheer & a new meaning of Fa-La-La-La-La!
Synopsis
For
some, life has a grand and beautifully wicked way of handing out life's
lessons. Ocean and Lawrence Hawthorne can attest to this until they've run
themselves to the ground. Yet somehow, within those lessons that leaves them
emotionally battered and scarred, comes the birth of new hope. New life.
Ocean
Hawthorne is a man of action and principal. His past drug addiction and healing
wounds of causing his twin sister's death has and still continues to shape him
into the fierce fighter he's become outside the MMA cages. Life has been cruel
to him, yet it still managed to give him the one person who gives his lungs the
sole reason to keep breathing…Livie Acosta.
Livie
has been through the worst of the worst. She lost her mother to suicide,
followed by her father, who was also her best friend, in an unexpected death;
which only led to her own suicide attempt. She has fought all her life. Lost a
lot of those battles, yet still manages to keep her head above the turbulent
rising waters with her feet planted on the ground. She is growing into her own
person while becoming a firm and steady anchor within the Hawthorne family. She
will soon learn what it is like to be completely selfless and will be driven
more than ever to rise above the demons who have haunted her all of her life.
There is one thing that she will have to face head on whether she is prepared
to or not. As a Hawthorne, she has no other option but to fight and conquer!
Lawrence
Hawthorne has been the glue within the razor edged pieces of hearts his family
is still trying to piece together. He's never met a challenge he couldn't
overcome, test he couldn’t surpass, or women he couldn't protect. Livie his
Sunshine was the first stranger to flip his world upside down in all the right
ways, and now he has the beautiful and witty Dulce on his arm to keep him on
his toes. He still has a lot to learn about his soul mate's past. Even though
he is a powerful force of determination and love, he finds himself in a bind
when his guilt over Dulce's past begins to tear away at his heart.
Together
this new family will have to conquer the worst. Ocean will have to grow wiser
in patience, Livie will have to come to terms with her mother's intuition,
Lawrence will have to let the past be exactly that...the past...as Dulce will
finally have to let someone in.
Will
these fierce souls find the strength within each other to find the calm after
the storm or will they continue to repeat their pasts, once again?
Links
to Buy
Also Available
#1 Oceans Collide
#2 Oceans Submerged
Excerpt
Livie
I find myself standing next to a
man that just seconds ago was the happiest I’ve seen since… well actually, I’ve
never seen him this happy. Moments ago, Ocean was showing me a side of him that
instantly made me fall in love with him all over again. However, right
now-within seconds-that same man has become a ticking time bomb—scratch that
he's more like a unhinged hand grenade with less than one second to cause
mayhem!
Immediately, Law arrives at the
door after my initial set of screams for him to hurry his ass up and help me.
Moving quickly and without hesitation, he takes a hold of Ocean’s arms and
locks them behind his back.
Looking at Law, I see the shock and
sprinkle of hate playing on his handsomely cool features and it further
confirms to me that the arrival of Ocean’s mother-pregnant mother at that-is
not a good omen for the days, weeks, or months to come.
The curious minds of our morning
guests start trickling in, hovering around us at the front door. Finally,
someone speaks. It’s Ocean, of course, more than ready to go 300Z Gerard Butler
style on his own mother.
“Who the hell told her to show
up!?” Ocean flings Law off him in one violent ripple of his shoulders. He spins
around to face the crowd behind him.
I look at the woman still standing
in the not so safe zone as she stares at the tight and rigid back of
her son. A son that is in so much pain he cannot stand to look at her.
“Dad!” He roars out as his father
comes forth.
“Yes son.” His father answers
calmly, knowing better than all of us in the crowded foyer that this is an
extremely dangerous situation.
The pain in his father’s eyes at
the sight of a woman he once loved-and honestly probably still loves-is
breaking my heart with each passing second.
“Did you tell her? How does she
know? HOW. THE. FUCK. IS. SHE. HERE?!”
A shaky voice responds and it’s
from no one standing on our side of the door.
“Ocean, son. No one invited me. I
looked you up. I wanted to—to--”
“To what Sabrina! You wanted to
show up on the happiest day of my fucking life and ruin it to hell? Is that
what you wanted to do? Mission-a-fucking-complished!”
As he spoke to her with his back
turned she winced at his hateful words, but I couldn’t blame him for it. I
don’t think anyone could right now. Ocean was hurt and broken beyond repair
when it came to his mother.
He forever blamed himself for what
happened to his sister. He has the guilt of having killed her in that terrible
bike accident engrained into his soul. He loved Stormie-his beautiful twin
sister-with his whole heart. When he needed his mother the most after her
death, she just up and walked away.
I would be beyond pissed too if she
showed up today like this...which she just did. I push away the resurfacing
thoughts of my mother’s demise before I allowed my own emotions of guilt and
abandonment to resurface and cause me to react out of my own emotional
torments. When I look away from Sabrina, my eyes too easily found the wet shiny
pieces of glass on the tile floor in front of me.
Immediately, they held my eyes
captive. The demons inside of me start rearing their ugly heads trying to find
a broken link in my still-wounded and slowly healing armor. I was stupid for
thinking they had left me, that I had won.
Apparently they’d only taken a
fucking vacation! The bastards were just giving me a break. Layla and Dulce
found their way to me taking each one of my hands in theirs. Damn… did my face
look that twisted they recognized my rising fear too?
“Ocean. I know you’re mad at me and
hate me, but I am still you’re mother.”
Uh-oh! Wrong thing to say Sabrina.
Ocean spins around this time to
face his mother.
She did not shrink under his
hateful glare, stupid woman. “Ocean. I am still your mother. I came here to
find you so you could meet your sister when she’s born.”
Time stops as well as Ocean’s
breathing and probably his heart. He sways on his feet and I release my hands
from Layla and Dulce to support him. He grabs onto me desperately as his body
and mind fight against each other to steady himself.
I feel like slapping the shit out
of this woman. How dare she say some shit like that? I look up at his face needing
to see what's there. His eyes are locked on his mother’s stomach. She looked
about ready to pop any moment now.
“I’m having her here in Dunlap,
Ocean. Her name is going to be Stormie.”
All hell breaks loose inside of
Ocean. He pushes me back towards Law, lunging forward toward the woman
screaming at the top of his lungs.
Thank god Santi, Trevor, and Joseph
were close enough because if not, they wouldn’t have been able to stop him in
time from strangling his own mother.
As tempting as it is to let him have
at her, it just isn't right. Pffft, almost isn't right.
“YOU CAN’T REPLACE STORMIE! SHE’S
DEAD! STORMIE’S DEAD! I FUCKING KILLED HER, YOU STUPID BITCH!” Ocean repeats
this chant over and over as it takes three huge men and all of their
muscles-and I mean all of their muscles-to hold him down.
I personally had enough of this
show for today. Our happiness was now tainted by this selfish bitch standing in
front of all of us in all her fucked up, pregnant and shameful glory.
Ocean is dragged away from me like
a two year old having the temper tantrum of the millennium back into the living
room.
I step forward grabbing the door
facing off with Ocean's mother. “Listen, your bright idea to show up after
being ghost for so long… not such a bright idea. I don’t suggest you ever try
doing this again. Ocean is a great man, cousin, friend, soon to be husband, and
a great son…but he is not your son anymore. Please don’t come back here because
next time it’ll be me gunning for your throat for the pain you’ve caused him,
not Ocean.”
I close the door lightly in her
face even though I want nothing more than to slam it shut. The only thing that
keeps me from doing just that is her extremely pregnant belly.
Subconsciously, I was seeing my mom
standing there with AJ in her belly in the once upon a time good memory bank my
brain was still desperately holding onto.
Layla touches my arm, bringing me
back to my reality. “Thank you for doing that. I was afraid of hitting her
myself, pregnant or not.” She laughs lightly at her comment as if she was
joking to lighten up the tension but I know the threat was real.
I understood though, I too wanted
to cause that woman as much pain physically as she was causing her beautiful
son, my Ocean, emotionally.
I smile at her, feeling the pain I know
she feels as well. Walking back into the living room together where moments
ago, everyone was shedding tears of joy.
Ocean was on the floor pounding his
fists into the tile as if the porcelain tiles were the cause of all his life’s
pain.
“No!” I rush over to him, shoving
my way through Law who briefly tries to block me. Dulce tugs at his arm just in
time helping me move his solid ass out of my way. My body crashes onto the
floor in front of Ocean before I know it.
Ignoring the sharp stabs of pain my
knees are tingling with, I grab both of his hands to stop him from breaking all
of his knuckles or worse. I pull his hands up to my lips kissing each knuckle
that are already turning red and bruised.
He slowly lifts his head as tears
and ferocious sobs pour out of his heavenly lips. I shuffle closer to him on my
knees pulling his arms around my waist. If I could climb on top of him I would,
but too many people were
here.
“Ocean baby, this is still our day.
Remember this?” I flash him the beautiful promise ring he put on my finger.
“That means we get through this together. I am not leaving you. This is Livie
and Ocean’s day. We can do or go wherever you want, just me and you baby. We go
big together or we don’t do this at all. Will you take me? Will you take us
away to start our new promised lives together? I need you to Ocean. Please.”
I place one of his hands on my
chest so he can feel my heart beating for him. His tortured eyes roam over my
face resting on my lips, then his head cocks to the side as he continues to
study my face. Not knowing how else to reach him I cover his warm and badly
bruising hand pressing it harder on my chest.
“You still w—want this? You still
want me?”
I roll my eyes at him in
exaggeration expecting him to have said something much more intelligent than
that. “Ocean. For a twenty seven year old man, you’re ridiculously stupid. I
love you Ocean Grant Hawthorne. L-O-V-to the fucking E you! Get your ass up and
make this day about us. Now!”
I don’t know why I’m yelling or
cursing but he responds to it. Grabbing my face as if I’m an apparition about
to disappear any moment, he kisses me hard. So hard it hurts my lips, but I
take his anger, his passion, and his hate.
I absorb it all for him because we
drown together; that’s our rule. I wipe his tears away with my hands kissing
his face dry with my newly aching lips.
He places his hands on my hips,
guiding us both off the floor and pulls me tightly into him again. “You got it
baby, let’s go.”
Ocean holds out his hand to Law who
tosses him a set of keys. He quietly guides me out the front door of our home
without saying a word or making eye contact with anyone.
As we walk down the stairs to his
Range Rover, I pray.
Os Jesus Cristo dao-me por favor a forca para sobreviver a este mar
aberto, nos estae afogandose Amen. (Jesus Christ, please give me the strength
to survive this open sea, we are drowning, Amen)
Meet M.A. DeOlmos
My
name is Melissa De Olmos, it's quite a mouth-full but that's me. I live in
the sunny, tropical and extremely too tranquil city of Palm Bay, Florida with
my two lovely crazies’ ages six and three. I could say that writing novels has
been a passion that I've always pursued but I can't. Writing for me has always
been my own secret escape into a land of wonders, opportunities, timeless loves
and so much trouble that I sometimes wonder if I need medication for the
stories that pop into my head. I am in love--no-- I am obsessed with everything
mystical, fantasy, true to a reader’s heart, and fiction. It has been an
enormous pleasure and indescribable experience sharing my Oceans Series with
the world and I cannot wait to fill this world with more crazy for you awesome
people to devour.
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