WHERE YOU ARE

Turn It Up - Book 4

by Natalie Parker

Cover & Excerpt Reveal

Release Date: February 11, 2021

Cover Design: Lori Jackson Design

Photo: Regina Wamba

Models: Hannah Peltier and Jered Sternaman

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Trope: Rockstar, second chance, best friends sister, friends to lovers

Synopsis

Matt

I feel like I'm on top of the world.

My rock band has taken off, I get paid to do what I love, and my home life is stable and peaceful.

And yet, it feels like something is missing.

Then my world is rocked when my bandmate's sister Melanie returns from her globetrotting adventures.
There's always been something about her...and now that she's back, sparks fly whenever we're together.

After weeks of building something together I though would last a lifetime, she vanishes.
She's gone without a word, leaving me nothing but a hole in my heart and questions I may never get the answers to.


Melanie

Seeing all the wonders this world has to offer is the second greatest thing I've ever done with my life.

The first? Falling in love with Matt, my brother's best friend and bandmate.
Despite the crush I'd always had on him, I couldn't let anything get in the way of my desire to travel the world.

Now that I'm back, I want nothing more than to stay right here with him for the rest of my life.

That is until I'm forced to leave again.

My biggest fear is that Matt will think he wasn't enough, when in reality, he is everything.

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Excerpt

“What are you still doing here?”

He’s quiet for a moment but I can see his wheels turning behind those oceany blues, seemingly looking for words of his own.

“I uh…, didn’t think I should drive.”

“There are still about nine guest rooms left in that house,” I say teasingly gesturing to my sister’s monster home.

“I don’t want to go to one of the guest rooms,” he says adamantly. “I… want to be where you are.”

My next breath stalls in my chest as I try to figure out if I really heard that right. He wants to be with me? But in what way?

“You…, what do you mean?” I ask with such a graceful stammer.

“I mean, I don’t want to say goodnight to you,” he answers, pulling his guitar strap off his shoulder and laying it down on the table outside the pool house door. He walks closer to where I stand in the door way, lightly gesturing with his hands as he speaks. “I can come in there, or you can come out here, we can keep talking, or we can fall asleep and talk more in the morning, I don’t care. I spent years trying to get moments with you alone Melanie, wanting so badly to get to know you. And then you disappeared for over two years. Now you’re back and I’ve had the time of my life with you today. For the first time, I got to find things out about you, laugh with you, and enjoy all those rays of sunshine that project out of you.” I’m frozen as I listen, hanging on to every word, still trying to figure out if this is really happening. “Call me greedy, but I’m not ready to give it up just yet.”

He wants more time- with me. I’m trying to get my head and my feelings around it. He’s not alone in his feelings. I want more of him too. I loved every moment I spent with him today and cursed myself for not spending time like this with him in all the previous years. I feel like I missed out on a lot with him but then I probably wouldn’t have gone anywhere and missed out on my dreams of exploring. Now that I’m home I want to find a nice guy to settle down with. And Matt is nice… but he’s a touring musician. Then again so is Jack and he is definitely settled.

Speaking of my brother, this is his best friend standing in front of me, his bandmate. Ugghhh! What do I do? Damnit those almost turquoise blues just twinkled under his eyelashes.

“Stay.”

Oh my god, what am I doing?

One of his dark eyebrows goes up, just barely enough to show the surprised relief in his expression as I step back away from the door jam, holding the screen door open, granting him entrance. He takes the cue and walks by me, carrying his guitar by the neck and takes it over to the far corner of the sitting area to prop it up. He turns to face me and we hold another silent stare.

“Can I ask for one other thing?” he finally asks.

“Yeah?”

“Can I take a shower? I’m caked in chlorine, sweat and sunblock,” he scoffs at himself with a sheepish smile.

“Oh. Yeah, of course,” I say, moving to the linen closet. I grab out some towels and lay them on the vanity of the bathroom before coming out and gesturing like I’m Vanna freaking White. “All yours,” I say, trying to sound upbeat and casual like him being wet and naked in the next room will have zero effect on me. Ha! Come to think of it I’m still in nothing but a t-shirt in front of him with no undergarments whatsoever. I self-consciously cross my arms over my boobs, but the motion hikes my shirt up my thighs so I drop them, and now my boobs feel exposed and for fucks sake! Matt just looks me up and down with that sexy smirk of his, enjoying the show. I pull on the bottom hem of my shirt as I turn and head towards the bedroom. “Take your time!” I yell like an ass clown over my shoulder.

When I get in the bedroom, I pull some sleep shorts out of the top drawer and yank them up my legs, breathing a sigh of relief once I feel the satisfaction of having my ass covered. I hear the shower kick on and my traitorous mind begins to assault me with thoughts of Matt naked under the spray, water droplets creeping across his tanned skin, rolling down his rippled abs. I picture his biceps as he reaches up to slick his wet hair out of his face like he did in the pool with his tattoos blazing. My brain starts to travel down his body to the wonders that possibly await at the base of his V before it threatens to self-destruct.

The pool house has an air conditioning unit but all of a sudden, I’m flushed and needing immediate relief. I sit on the bed and turn on the fan on bedside table. I lean forward and let its breeze waft over me, blowing the damp strands of hair off my shoulders. I’m only just starting to feel the cooling effects when I hear the water shut off and it sets my nerves on haywire. He’s about to come out… and then what the hell are we going to do? Kiss? Talk? Get it on? Sit and stare at each other some more?

He leaves me no time to ponder the possibilities when he appears in the bedroom door, shirtless, wet hair hanging in his face, zipping up his shorts, but leaving the top button undone so that they hang low on his hips.

“You’re tired,” he states simply as he gazes down at me. “Let’s sleep.”

Probably a good suggestion, seeing as how I was up early this (yesterday) morning and have been up for about twenty hours now. But looking at his damp and dewy skin, smelling the fresh clean scent coming off of him, courtesy of the fan, and the contented look in those eyes that now resemble the sea off of Scotland’s eastern coast before a storm…the last thing I want to do is sleep.

Matt takes two deliberate but slow strides towards me so that I have no choice but to stare his six-pack in the face, and turns off the bedside table lamp, shrouding the room in darkness, save for the dim light of the pool coming from the blinds. I watch his silhouette move around the bed until it reaches the opposite side before lying down on his back, his face turned towards me. I blow out a shuddery breath as I follow his lead, laying down facing him on my side.

“Just sleep?” I ask.

“Yeah, just sleep.” His voice grumbles out on a tired breath and it makes me feel a sense of intimacy towards him. “I meant what I said before. I want to spend more time close to you no matter what we’re doing, so long as I’m near you. In fact, here,” he pulls one of the pillows out from behind his head and turns to face me, placing it between us. “I’ll keep my hands completely to myself and just sleep…” he lets out a yawn as he lays an arm on the pillow. “… in the warmth of a beautiful sunbeam.”

Giveaway

One of Five eARC's for Where You Are

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Other Titles Within this Series

SEE HER

Turn It Up - Book 1

STILL HER

Turn It Up - Book 2

PICTURE US

Turn It Up - Book 3

About the Author

Natalie Parker resides in the Seattle area with her husband and two rugrats, but is originally a Michigan girl.

She always enjoyed writing and noticed she had a knack for it while earning her Psychology degree and has always been an avid reader, but never thought of becoming an author until one day there seemed to be a story to tell.

In her spare time, she enjoys reading, reading, reading to her kids, drinking coffee, reading, occasional yard work, reading, listening to music, reading and writing.

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