Promise Me Always
Rhonda Shaw
Publication date: February 26th 2018
Genres: Contemporary, New Adult, Romance
Synopsis: Gabrielle Wells was everything Danny Anderson shouldn’t want. She was his opposite in every way, but he couldn’t keep his distance, and fate seemed to push them together at every turn. She consumed him, and the more he learned about her, the more he realized she was exactly what he didn’t know he needed. But then past mistakes forced him to walk away and never look back, breaking Gabrielle’s heart in the process.
Fast forward six years, and it seems as if fate is intervening again. Danny, now a best-selling rap artist, returns to his hometown, and is reunited with the only girl he’s ever loved.
Gabrielle isn’t the girl he left behind, though, and Danny realizes life has thrown her quite a few curves. But he will stop at nothing to get her back, refusing to let his true desires—love and family—continue to elude him. However, when Danny’s past crashes into his present, threatening everyone he loves and everything he’s fought for, he must decide if his promise to Gabrielle of “always” is worth the risk.
Excerpt
School hadn’t been in my plan this year, intending to drop out and focus on my ticket out of this hellhole, which didn’t require a diploma, but something had pulled at me to show up, and now I wondered if I was looking at it. I didn’t question fate; I believed in destiny or predetermination, but the last thing I needed was some stuck-up chick interrupting my plans. I struggled to harden myself against her, but watching as she sunk against the locker in defeat, the desire to reach out, to shelter and comfort her, was too overwhelming.Pushing away from the wall, I stepped out of the shadows. I would help her one more time, and then I would forget her and this place.
“You don’t want to be here alone for too long.” My voice was harsher than I meant it to be, but she needed truth more than she needed a friend.
Her head jerked up. I half expected her to cower away, but she surprised me by reaching for her bag and rushing forward to get in step with me. “Thank you.”
I glanced at her out of the corner of my eye, but didn’t stop.
“It was nice of you—”
“I’m not nice.” I snorted at the ridiculousness of that description.
“Oh. Well, I appreciate that you—”
“Look.” I stopped, turning toward her as I lowered my hood. “You seem like a nice girl; maybe a little uptight, but whatever.” I waved at her, standing there all buttoned up. “But watch your back, all right?”
Her eyes watered. “Watch my back?”
Jesus. I hadn’t meant to make her cry, so I bent toward her, forcing her gaze to mine and
tried to soften my message. “Look, I don’t know who you are or where you come from, but you don’t belong here. We all know that. I’m just trying to give you some pointers, so I don’t pass your body along the side of the road somewhere.”
She nodded as a tear fell down her cheek.
I sighed and shifted my weight, at a loss as to what to say. I was obviously going about this all wrong. “Fuck it.” I grabbed her arm and pulled her down the hall with me. “Let’s go.”
She let me tug her with zero resistance and that worried me. If she wanted to survive in this hood, she needed to have some fight in her.
Once outside, I jogged down the cracked cement steps, giving acknowledging nods to those who still mingled around the front of the school and were glancing our way, curious about what was transpiring. When I reached the crumbled sidewalk, I stopped and let go.
“Now get out of here. Go home and don’t stop until you get there.”
“Can I at least know your name?”
“Jesus Christ, girl! What’s your deal? Just get out of here.”
She scowled, tears forgotten. “I can’t even know your name? What? Am I not good enough?”
My brows lifted, surprised at her change in tone. I studied her a minute, before shaking my head. Maybe she did have a backbone on her. “D.”
“D?” she repeated with a look of disbelief.
“My name is D.” Maybe she wasn’t as smart as she looked.
“Your name is D? Like, as in the letter ‘D’?”
I nodded as I pulled my hood back up. “Yep.” I started down the sidewalk before turning and walking backward. “And you’re not in Kansas anymore, Dorothy.”
Author Bio:Rhonda owes her love of reading to her mother who would read to her each night before bed and sometimes give into pleads for more than one chapter. These days, if Rhonda doesn’t have a book in her hands, it feels like something is missing. While romance is her true passion, Rhonda enjoys reading multiple genres.
Born in California, but transplanted to the Midwest, Rhonda is warm weather girl to the bone (even years later, winter and her are not on speaking terms) and loves nothing more than a balmy, summer evening. She also loves all animals–especially her silly French Bulldog, Keno.
Nowadays, she has so many characters and story ideas running around in her head that she can’t keep up with them. But one day, she’ll tell each one.
Everlasting Circle
