Revenge Bound by Heidi Joy Tretheway { Playlist + #Giveaway }

On the Internet, secrets never die…

Violet can’t imagine anything worse than having her very private, very naked photos strewn across the Internet.

Until they multiply like a virus.

With her name, address, and phone number attached.

And her boss finds out. And a stalker finds her.

Violet’s refuge is a rock star known for going through groupies faster than guitar picks. Letting Jayce get close enough to protect her exposes her secrets—and her heart—to a man whose celebrity could ruin her.

That’s because being a nobody is the one thing that keeps Violet’s photos from making headlines. And it’s the reason she can never fall for a rock star.

Secrets spread like wildfire when a celebrity fans the flames.

REVENGE BOUND is a full-length, standalone novel, and a companion to the Tattoo Thief books. It contains steamy scenes and strong language intended for mature readers.

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Heidi Joy lives in Happy Valley off Sunnyside Road. She swears she did not make that up.

Heidi’s obsessed with storytelling. Her career includes marketing, journalism, and a delicious few years as a food columnist. Media passes took her backstage with several rock bands, where she learned that sometimes a wardrobe malfunction is exactly what the rock star intends.

You’ll most often find Heidi Joy with her husband and two small kids cooking, fishing, exploring the Northwest, and building epic forts in their living room.

She loves to hear from readers via messages at facebook.com/author.heidi.

Excerpt 

Jayce wants to protect Violet from a stalker who is sending increasingly aggressive texts to her, but she’s afraid to admit how the stalker found her.

Fingers brush my jaw and I’m slammed back into the present, into the rock-hard chest of another man who doesn’t think twice about dominating me physically. I twist and my nipples brush against him, proof that my body is betraying me again.

“Violet. Come back to me.” Jayce is still, his sweet breath fanning across my face as he holds me. “I’m not going to hurt you. I just want to know what’s driving this. I want to help you stop those texts.”

The softness in his voice, the way his arms relax and blend our bodies together with gentleness rather than force, uncoils the knot inside me. I slip my arms around his shoulders, leaning into him for strength, and he hoists me up and carries me back to my room where he sets me gently on my bed.

Oh, God. Where is he taking this?

I bow my head so he can’t see the panic on my face and I feel the bed dip under his weight. He sits beside me, sifting his fingers through my hair.

I take a shuddering breath. “You can’t.”

Jayce’s hand makes trails through my curls and he hesitates, but then resumes the gentle stroking. “I’m not someone who likes to be told what they can and can’t do. Try me.”

Jayce reaches across my lap, threading his fingers through mine. The sweetness and simplicity of this gesture rocks me. I want to make him go away, this man whose fame could explode my Internet secret, and at the same time beg him to stay. I sigh heavily.

“I’ve tried, Jayce. My name and number got out on the Internet, and that’s how the creeps got my number to text me.” It’s the truth, but not nearly half of it.

Jayce pulls my hand to his mouth. Slowly, deliberately, he locks his eyes on mine and kisses each of my pale knuckles laced between his own. “There’s more.”

I open and close my mouth, not wanting to give him more. He releases my hand and fishes his phone out of his pocket. “Do I need to Google you to find out myself?”

“No! God, no, don’t …” I squirm, desperate for an excuse, but his fingers fly over the screen and he starts scrolling through results. My words tumble out, trying to reach his ears before he finds the Sexy Bitches site.

“It was a mistake. I didn’t want—I never wanted these pictures to be public. Or to happen. I swear. My boyfriend took them. Ex. Ex-boyfriend. He took my camera and he tied me up and he shot them.”

I see Jayce land on the site. The photos load on his screen. Even just a few inches wide, I see myself clearly and cringe at what he must think of me.

“I broke up with him. And this is his revenge.”

Jayce’s face is hard and angry, his jaw ticking as his shoulders tense. His hand in my hair is tighter, almost painful, but I don’t think he even notices. I hold my breath for Jayce’s reaction and after a long moment, he drops the phone on the bed beside him and turns to me.

His eyes are on fire and he twists, his hand pulling me back against the bed, his body following until it’s hovering over mine. “You never wanted this picture to be taken?” His voice shakes with anger.

“No.” I bite my lip, his mouth inches from mine.

“You never wanted to be tied up?” His voice is lower, more gravelly.

“Not like that,” I whisper.

“What do you want, Violet?” There’s an edge of danger in this question, a demand, and his other hand digs into the flesh of my hip.

My heart beats loudly in my ears and I tear my eyes away from his eyes, to his lips, his pulse pounding in his neck, his body so close above me. He could crush me if he’d just let go.

And that’s what I want in this moment, to just let go, to let someone else share this secret that’s haunting me.

I wrap my arms behind Jayce’s head and pull him closer. “You.”

More powerful than instinct, more immediate than pain, his mouth is on mine, his lips demanding, his body descending. His hand leaves my hip and moves up my ribcage while the other remains buried in my hair.

I let him in. Let his tongue tease apart the seam of my lips, let his hips settle into mine, let his arousal between my thighs draw out an ache of my own.

I kiss him back with swirling, cacophonous feeling—the need to be protected, the need for comfort, the need for release.

And yes, even if I deny it, the desire to be dominated.

Playlist for REVENGE BOUND by Heidi Joy Tretheway

Thanks for inviting me to share the music that inspired REVENGE BOUND. Although I rarely write to music with lyrics, this playlist formed over the course of all the other things I do as an indie author, from managing mailing lists to designing graphic teasers.

REVENGE BOUND is set in the world of Tattoo Thief, a fictional band I’ve chronicled in a set of standalone novels, each about a different member of the band. This book is about Jayce, Tattoo Thief’s lead guitarist, so my playlist includes guitar-focused tracks as well as some deeper, emotional music that connects to Violet’s character.

So, why did I pick these songs? I selected a few favorite lyrics for you.

Babylon by David Gray – The lyrics of this song perfectly capture how Violet and Jayce are hesitant to ask for what they want and need from each other. “If you want it, come and get it/ (for) crying out loud. The love that I was giving you/ was never in doubt. Let go your heart/ let go your head/ and feel it now.”

Collide by Howie Day – Jayce and Violet were never supposed to be together: he’s a rock star who goes through groupies faster than guitar picks. She’s a middle school art and sex ed teacher who is fired when her principal finds out about the naked pictures Violet’s ex posted online.

That makes these lyrics make sense: “Even the best fall down sometime/ even the wrong words seem to rhyme/ out of the doubt that fills my mind/ I some how find/ you and I collide.” When Jayce and Violet collide through a friend and then a stalker’s threat, Jayce’s steadfast belief in Violet and willingness to protect her makes him a truly swoon-worthy book boyfriend.

Elsewhere by Sarah McLachlan – I love the fierce, raw and emotional music from Sarah even twenty years after its release. Her lyrics connect to the unusual nature of Jayce and Violet’s power exchange relationship that might not be for everyone, but fit these two perfectly.

“I believe/ this is heaven to no one else but me/ and I’ll defend it as long as I can be/ left here to linger in silence/ if I choose to/ would you try to understand.” Defending a person’s passions, and the belief that there is no one right way to love or be loved, are themes threaded throughout the book.

Unpack your Heart by Phillip Phillips – The lyrics for this song burrowed under my skin and won’t let me go. From “bring your daylight/ bring your dark” to “bring all that you’re scared to defend/ and lay it down when you walk through my door … your sorrow, your beauty, your war/ I want it all, I want it all.”

This is Jayce’s attitude toward Violet: he’s willing to embrace her light and dark if only she’d let him in enough to protect her. Phillips captures it in such an upbeat, celebratory anthem that the song carries the enveloping feeling of unconditional love. Although I didn’t hear the song until I’d finished REVENGE BOUND’s manuscript, this new release floored me by capturing it perfectly.

Some of the other songs in this set just felt right, even though the lyrics weren’t directly part of my story. I hope you enjoy this eclectic list, and I always love hearing from readers with new music suggestions! Find me here: facebook.com/author.heidi