HEARTLESS SAVAGE by Terri Anne Browning: Release Blitz, Excerpt & Teasers

 

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“Damn it!” she grumbled under her breath, her shoulders drooping comically in disappointment.

“What?” I asked with a laugh.

She sighed. “We had a little bet going. Raven and I both thought you would come home with a ring on your finger.”

I lifted my hand and turned it left and right to emphasize the lack of a ring. “Sorry, Mom, but—”

“No ring!” Dad whooped as he came out onto the porch. “I’ll be taking that payment tonight, thank you very much.”

“Gross,” I muttered to Ryan under my breath. I could only imagine what the prize for winning the bet was, and I didn’t want those images in my head. Especially when pink filled my mom’s cheeks, and she slapped at Dad’s chest, telling him to shush.

Ryan laughed quietly as he pulled me against him, tucking me under his arm and letting his hand slide down to my hip. It was a bold move to make in front of my father, but Dad had always been laid-back when it came to anything to do with my best friend and me. When I glanced his way to garner his reaction to Ryan holding me so possessively, it was to see something close to approval in his green eyes—and maybe a little relief too.

“Mom.” I pulled her attention back to me. “I don’t have a ring—”

“Yet,” Ryan stressed.

“Yet,” I agreed to soothe him, stroking my fingers up his back underneath his coat and T-shirt. “But Ryan and I are getting married in November.”

“Really?” Mom squealed, bouncing from one foot to the other.

“Don’t go getting excited, woman. The bet was a ring on her finger,” Dad reminded her. “No ring means I win.”

“Shut up, Jet,” she scolded. “I don’t care if you won or not. Our baby just said she’s getting married. That’s something to celebrate.”