Today is the release day for Claimed by Love by Melissa Foster! I am so excited to share this fantastic new contemporary romance with you!! Grab your copy and check out the release festivities that Melissa is sharing with us!!
Family law attorney Gabriella Liakos has one true love, Elpitha Island, where she grew up and hopes someday to return. But Elpitha is in financial ruins, and Gabriella will do anything to keep it from falling into the wrong hands.
Duke Ryder is a savvy real estate investor set on making Elpitha into an exclusive resort. Unlike other investors, he’s not scared of purchasing a property where one family has roots so deep they practically reach the ocean floor…until he meets his beautiful, stubborn, and enticing tour host―the daughter of the owner of most of the island.
Gabriella sets out to dissuade Duke from purchasing Elpitha, but Duke has other ideas. He wants Gabriella and the island. Duke’s powerful seduction draws Gabriella in, but can a savvy investor who’s used to glamour and glitz, and a woman interested in preserving the culture she adores find a happily ever after together?
The RYDERS are the newest addition to the Love in Bloom series. Each book may be read as a standalone novel, or as part of the series.
MORE RYDERS coming soon!
Seized by Love (Blue) - Now Available!
Chased by Love (Trish) - Releasing Aug 2016
Swept Into Love (Gage)
Chapter One
DUKE
RYDER BALANCED his cell phone against his shoulder, listening to his buddy and
investment partner Pierce Braden talk about their newest potential investment
property as he followed the rickety wooden dock onto the white sandy beach.
“The dock just might be the most stable thing on
Elpitha Island,” Pierce said. “Try to soak in a little sand and sun while
you’re there. That’s the best part of the island.”
Duke’s eyes were immediately drawn to the sprawling
oak trees he’d read about, standing sentinel over the forested acreage beyond.
Long, thick branches spread like languid arms draped in moss, reaching for…what? One glance told him that there
wasn’t much to reach for, save for a building that looked more like a forgotten
Mediterranean villa than the welcome center of the small Southern island. The
stone and wood building had a deep porch that spanned the entire length of the
left side with stone pillars. A wooden trellis laced with the most captivating
flowering vines shaded the area. Although the structure itself was in need of
repair, it was surrounded by perfectly manicured, ornate gardens, which
contrasted sharply with overgrown and unkempt bushes littering the far edges of
the property.
“The proximity to the mainland isn’t bad,” Duke
said to Pierce. He set his suitcase on the sand and looked back at the
Atlantic. “It only took an hour fifteen to get here.” Elpitha was the smallest
of the vacation islands off of South Carolina, and more than half of the land
had been owned by the Liakos family for centuries. It was just over eight
square miles, and not many investors wanted such a small tract of land, or to
deal with families that were as entrenched as the Liakos family was thought to
be. Some families might sell out, but they would fight tooth and nail against
change, which could cause discourse on an island this small. Duke and Pierce
weren’t deterred. The restrictive size of the property would only increase the
value, making it an exclusive vacation spot for the elite.
“With Hilton Head and the other islands so
overrun,” Pierce said, “Elpitha is ripe for development. Although we’ll have to
work around that name. Who wants to go to an island called Elpitha? It sounds
more like a disease than an island.”
Duke squinted up at the blazing sun and loosened
his tie. “I don’t know. I kind of like it.” He noticed a plantation-style home
tucked behind the trees in the distance. “They weren’t kidding about the
strange mix of Mediterranean and Southern feel of the place. This should be
interesting.” Duke knew some of the island’s history, and though he still
didn’t understand why Greeks would immigrate to the South and try to re-create
their country’s feel, it didn’t much matter. If he and Pierce decided to
purchase the land, they would bulldoze every structure and give the island a
complete Southern overhaul, making it the most desirable resort area in the
South.
“Chuck called earlier and said Liakos’s
granddaughter Gabriella is an attorney,” Pierce explained. “He thinks they
might bring her in on things. Apparently their family keeps things tight. So if
you meet her, play nice.”
The hollow clank of a screen door hitting its frame
drew Duke’s attention. A woman stood on the porch of the old building, shading
her eyes from the sun as she looked out at the water. Her long dark hair hung
halfway down her back. Duke was too far away to see her features, but there was
no missing her curvaceous ass and full breasts, not to mention legs that seemed
to go on forever beneath her short summery dress. Duke watched with interest as
he listened to Pierce relay the most recent information from the attorneys and
engineers.
The woman glanced at her watch, then settled her
hand on her hip. A voice rang out from inside the building, and the pretty
woman hurried back inside.
“I just found proof of life,” he said to Pierce as
he stepped onto the sandy path. “I’ll call you once I’ve done some recon.”
His black leather shoes quickly lost their shine
from the dusty road as he approached the building. Voices filtered out the open
windows as he mounted the steps. He glanced through the screen door, spotting
the brunette he’d just seen. She was facing away from him, speaking heatedly in
Greek, hands flailing as her exasperated voice pitched higher.
A thick-waisted man with salt-and-pepper hair sat
at a table near the counter, amusement shining in his dark eyes as the brunette
ranted to an older woman, and then the man said something Duke couldn’t hear.
“Ugh!
Baba!” The younger woman threw her hands up in the air and flew out the screen
door, nearly smacking Duke in the face.
He stumbled backward, giving the angry woman a wide
breadth as she paced the front porch. She mumbled something in Greek and then
crossed her arms, raised her shoulders, and dropped them quickly with a loud harrumph. Duke couldn’t help but drink
in the flush on her smooth, sun-kissed cheeks. Her nose was small and straight,
and her almond-shaped, dark—and currently angry—eyes were shadowed by lashes so
long they brushed her cheeks.
Having grown up with a younger sister, Duke bided
his time in announcing his presence, not wanting to take the brunt of her
reaction to whatever the man had said to upset her.
She inhaled a deep breath, her breasts rising and
pressing against the sheer fabric, then falling as she exhaled loudly. Her
shoulders lowered, and the tightness around her mouth softened. She turned a
full-lipped, mind-numbing smile to Duke, as if she hadn’t just come out in a
firestorm.
“My father believes that no matter what he says, I
hear something else.” She tilted her head to the side in a thoughtful pose, and
in the space of a second her eyes filled with rebellion, making her even
sexier. “Hearing and agreeing are two different things.”
Duke wondered what her father had just said that got
her panties in a bunch. Christ. Now
he was thinking about her panties.
“I’m Gabriella Liakos. Welcome to Elpitha Island.”
The
granddaughter? Playing nice would
not be a problem with this feisty beauty. Duke shook her hand, holding it a
beat longer than he probably should, still mesmerized by the whirlwind of
energy radiating from her. “Duke Ryder. It’s nice to meet you. I didn’t mean to
intrude.”
“No one intrudes on Elpitha,” she said sweetly.
Duke shifted his eyes to the screen door, and she
laughed softly. It was the rare type of laugh that floated like the wind and
wasn’t easily forgotten.
“We’re Greek,” she said with a shrug, as if that
explained it all.
He arched a brow.
“When you combine a Greek father and a Southern
mother, who learned all the best
Greek ways, that’s what you get. Food, yelling, guilt, more food. Sweet love.
Crazy love. More food. That’s who we are.” She dragged her gorgeous eyes down
his suit to his shoes and put one hand on her hip as she had earlier, tapping
her lips with the other.
Duke wouldn’t mind getting his mouth on those
succulent lips for some crazy love.
“You’re the investor, checking out our island so
you can line your pockets, right?”
He couldn’t tell if the look in her eyes was
teasing or serious, but her sharp tongue piqued his interest even more. Duke
respected confidence, and even though it wasn’t the greeting he’d hoped for, he
liked knowing that Gabriella wasn’t a pushover.
“Something like that,” he answered casually.
As a real estate investor, Duke knew his clients
were vulnerable and, more often than not, taking a deal they didn’t really care
for because, by the time he swooped in to save the day, they had gotten a
strong dose of what failure tasted like. A hard pill to swallow. Which was why
Duke didn’t flinch as Gabriella measured everything about him, from his
appearance to his answers. While other investors were cold as sharks, Duke had
never quite mastered making ice flow through his veins. But he always got the
job done.
Her eyes flicked toward the water, where another
boat was nearing the dock. Her smiled turned genuine at the sight of a handful
of children waving from the boat. She waved both arms over her head and yelled
something in Greek, then settled her hands on her hips as she watched the
children file from the boat.
“It was nice to meet you, Gabriella,” Duke said,
hoping he’d see her later. The island had a population of just over two hundred
and fifty people, so he imagined it would be hard not to see the same people
throughout his stay. “I’ll just step inside and see about my room and a tour.”
“Lucky you,” she said, turning a steady gaze back
to him, “I’m your tour host.” She didn’t wait for him to reply as she opened
the screen door and hollered something in Greek to the people inside. Over her
shoulder, she said to Duke, “Give me a sec to get your keys and the cart, and
I’ll show you around and drop you at your place.”
It took a moment for him to remember that they
drove golf carts or used bicycles on the island and that cars were prohibited.
She hurried inside and headed directly to her Baba, which Duke now knew meant he was
her father, and said something that made the man laugh. She leaned in to kiss
and hug her father, and her dress crept up, exposing the backs of her thighs
and hugging her ass. He tried to ignore the stroke of awareness racing through
him. She walked around the counter and grabbed a set of keys from a hook, then
draped an arm around the shoulders of the woman with whom she was speaking
earlier.
“Mama,” Gabriella said to the woman. Her mother’s
hair was a shade lighter than hers. “Talk some sense into him, will you,
please?” She whispered something, then kissed her, too.
The woman wiped her hands on an apron and smiled at
Duke, catching him observing them. “Welcome to our island, Mr. Ryder. I’m Peggy
Ann, and this is my husband, Niko.”
Her warm Southern drawl took Duke by surprise after
hearing her speak fluent Greek, and he realized it shouldn’t have. They were in
the South, after all.
He stepped inside. “It’s a pleasure to be here, and
to meet you both.”
Gabriella’s father nodded. “Nice to meet you, Mr.
Ryder.”
“I’ll meet you out front,” Gabriella said as she
grabbed a large basket from the counter, then disappeared through a door in the
back of the room.
As he stepped onto the porch, Duke had a feeling
Pierce was wrong about the sand and sun being the best part of the island.
Those things had nothing on the intriguing woman who’d just slipped out the
back door.
Melissa Foster is a New York Times & USA Today bestselling and award-winning author. She writes contemporary romance, new adult, contemporary women’s fiction, suspense, and historical fiction with emotionally compelling characters that stay with you long after you turn the last page. Her books have been recommended by USA Today’s book blog, Hagerstown Magazine, The Patriot, and several other print venues. She is the founder of the World Literary Café and Fostering Success. When she’s not writing, Melissa helps authors navigate the publishing industry through her author training programs on Fostering Success. Melissa has been published in Calgary’s Child Magazine, the Huffington Post, and Women Business Owners magazine.
Melissa hosts an Aspiring Authors contest for children and has painted and donated several murals to The Hospital for Sick Children in Washington, DC. Melissa lives in Maryland with her family.
Visit Melissa on social media. Melissa enjoys discussing her books with book clubs and reader groups, and welcomes an invitation to your event.
Thank you for the fabulous feature! XOXO
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