Title - Three Rivers
Author - Chloe Barlow
Genre - Contemporary Romance/Romantic Suspense
Release Date - March 25th 2014
Blog
Tour Dates – March 24th-April 4th
"A heartbreaking tale of letting go and learning to love again. A
jaw-dropping debut novel you have to read.” -
Helena Newbury, New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author.
How do you start
over when you gave everything to one life, one plan, and lost it all?
Althea
refuses to allow herself to love again. Imprisoned in grief at twenty-four after her
husband’s sudden death, she’s convinced her heart died along with him. She
spends her days honoring his memory by clinging to the legal career he helped
her to build and to the remaining pieces linking them together.
Griffen’s
been running from his past.
Despite success as an author and investigative journalist, he’s been traveling
through life on autopilot. For a decade, he’s chosen perilous adventures and
meaningless sex over the danger of any attachments. When he finally returns
home to Pittsburgh, he’s slammed by the awakened memories and regret he’s spent
years trying to escape.
A chance
encounter brings them together. Their instant desire for each other – and the
bond they discover between them – shocks them both. Despite her best efforts,
Althea can’t resist Griffen’s charm or his intriguing proposition – if she
agrees to a no-strings affair with him for the two weeks he’s in town, he
swears he’ll walk away when their time is up. Assured she can test the waters
of a new life while keeping her vow never to betray her husband’s memory by
opening her heart to another, Althea throws herself into the escape Griffen
provides her.
Their perfect
plans go awry when the intensity of their connection overwhelms them. Will they risk it all on the chance
of something great together…or will the power of their secrets and guilt tear
them apart?
v
La Vie En Rose — Madeleine Peyroux
v
Little Talks — Of Monsters and Men
v
Ol' Man River — Ray Charles
v
Change The Sheets — Kathleen Edwards
v
SexyBack — Justin Timberlake
v
Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.) — Katy Perry
v
Blurred Lines — Robin Thicke
v
Sex On Fire — Kings Of Leon
v
Fallen (Live) — Sarah McLachlan
v
People Gonna Talk — James Hunter
v
Love Is Blindness — Jack White
v
Live Like a Warrior — Matisyahu
v
Over the Love — Florence + The Machine
v
Things Will Change — Treetop Flyers
v
Many Rivers to Cross — Jimmy Cliff
v
No One's Gonna Love You — Band of Horses
v
Safe and Sound — Capital Cities
Follow Chloe on Spotify to
hear this and other soundtracks from future novels:
Griffen stroked her cheek and
Althea thought how truly sorry she was to have woken him, especially because
what she didn't tell him was that tonight it wasn't her deceased husband Jack's
face in her nightmare that turned to dust and disappeared. It was Griffen's.
"Althea..."
Griffen whispered.
"Shh.
No," she said softly as she reached up and caressed his face gently in
return. "Will you just...will you please make love to me, Griffen?"
"Anytime,
gorgeous."
But it won't be anytime
anymore,
Althea thought. He will turn to dust and
I will be all alone. Again.
And
she knew it had to be that way, because this emptiness in her heart was the
penance she would always have to pay for failing Jack.
Griffen
led her to the bed and they made love. It was the most tender and gentle
experience of their time together. Griffen touched her everywhere, stroked her
hair, kissed her face and soothed away each tear. He ran his lips down her
chest and she gasped as he sucked her nipple into his mouth reverently. He
somehow managed to put on a condom despite touching every part of her
constantly and slid gently inside of her. She was grateful because she didn't
want any lead-in this time. She just needed him inside her, while her hands
were full of his hair and his warm, giving flesh. She moaned and lifted his
head from her breast to look at him.
"Baby,"
he said, kissing her eyelids and finally claiming her mouth. She wrapped her
legs around his, even curling her feet around his calves, desperately trying to
make every inch of her body touch his.
She
was so preoccupied with how full and complete she felt that her climax
surprised her. This had not been about an orgasm, it was about closeness and
human contact. Running off the demons of loss and fear, if only for a moment.
But
Griffen didn't know how to leave her unsatisfied. He couldn't touch her without
making her body go off like a sparkler in the backyard on the fourth of July,
and even now, with his gentle lovemaking, it was no different. He groaned in
her ear and came right along with her, spurring more spasms and electric shocks
through her body.
"Oh
Griffen, yes, Griffen," she responded.
He
leaned up and looked into her eyes, brushing her hair back from her face. His
face looked so tormented.
"Oh
Althea," he said sadly over and over again, almost like a prayer, until he
rolled over and held her until she finally fell into a blessedly dreamless
sleep.
Althea leaned back and forced a smile and laugh as she looked
around. Her brazen pretense was tossing kerosene on Griffen's fiery emotions.
With each nervous dart of
her eyes, Griffen's heart pounded with more anger. He leaned closer and
whispered hotly in her ear, "Is that better? Am I making you
uncomfortable? God forbid someone thinks you aren't a perfect widow pining away
alone after all these years. That you're still living an adult life," he
growled. "Maybe I should ignore your rules and touch you anyway. I know
you like it when I do."
"Stop it,
please." She breathed slowly, calming herself. "We can touch. Just
not here."
"Fine. I get it."
Griffen couldn't stop how angry he felt.
The irony wasn't lost on
him. Most women he'd been with begged him to be serious with them and tell the
world they were together. That had never appealed to him, until now. Yet here
was this beautiful, desirable woman that he wanted to express affection to and
she couldn't bear to let anyone know they were together. He hadn't even
realized how furious it made him until he found his heart was racing and he was
feeling hot with anger.
Althea must've sensed it
because she leaned over and whispered, "No. You don't get it, and you
shouldn't have to. This is my thing. My issue." She looked around to see
if anyone was staring at them and looked into his eyes. "I do want to
touch you. I want you to touch me." She swallowed and lowered her voice
even more. "Very much."
"Fine," he
gritted out. When he looked down at her, with her eyes turned up so full of
concern while her lips parted and she panted just a little from the desire that
coursed through them every time they were near each other, his heart pounded
for a different reason. "I need to touch you, too...everywhere."
"Yes, please,"
she whispered.
Chloe
is a contemporary romance novelist and practicing attorney living in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with her husband and their sweet puppy. She is a
native Washingtonian that graduated Duke
University with a degree in English and Chinese language. She met her
husband at Duke and he brought her to
Pittsburgh over a decade ago, which she has loved ever since and made her
adopted hometown. She also attended the University
of Pittsburgh Law School where she continued to be a book-loving nerd.
Chloe
has always loved writing and although she does do it professionally as a
lawyer, she cherishes the opportunity to craft her fictional novels and share
them with the world.
When
Chloe isn’t writing, she spends her time exploring Pittsburgh with her husband
and friends. She also enjoys yoga, jogging, and all Pittsburgh sports, as well
as her Duke Blue Devils. She is an
avid reader and wrote her debut novel Three
Rivers in her spare time. She continues her tireless legal style of
research in her fiction work as well. For example, in an effort to bring
authenticity to Three River’s treatment of grief and loss, she consulted with a
psychologist and grief counselor during its preparation.
.jpg)
