Title: Hawthorne's Calm
Series: Oceans #3
Author: M.A. DeOlmos
Publisher: Lock & Key Publications
Release Date: December 1, 2014
Warning!
The
highly anticipated trio is back just in time for the holidays! Engross yourself
this holiday season with the gorgeous Hawthorne men. Go ahead. You deserve to
treat yourself to some holiday cheer & a new meaning of Fa-La-La-La-La!
Synopsis
For some, life has a grand and beautifully
wicked way of handing out life's lessons. Ocean and Lawrence Hawthorne can
attest to this until they've run themselves to the ground. Yet somehow, within
those lessons that leaves them emotionally battered and scarred, comes the
birth of new hope. New life.
Ocean Hawthorne is a man of action and
principal. His past drug addiction and healing wounds of causing his twin
sister's death has and still continues to shape him into the fierce fighter
he's become outside the MMA cages. Life has been cruel to him, yet it still
managed to give him the one person who gives his lungs the sole reason to keep
breathing…Livie Acosta.
Livie has been through the worst of the
worst. She lost her mother to suicide, followed by her father, who was also her
best friend, in an unexpected death; which only led to her own suicide attempt.
She has fought all her life. Lost a lot of those battles, yet still manages to
keep her head above the turbulent rising waters with her feet planted on the
ground. She is growing into her own person while becoming a firm and steady
anchor within the Hawthorne family. She will soon learn what it is like to be
completely selfless and will be driven more than ever to rise above the demons
who have haunted her all of her life. There is one thing that she will have to
face head on whether she is prepared to or not. As a Hawthorne, she has no
other option but to fight and conquer!
Lawrence Hawthorne has been the glue within
the razor edged pieces of hearts his family is still trying to piece together.
He's never met a challenge he couldn't overcome, test he couldn’t surpass, or
women he couldn't protect. Livie his Sunshine was the first stranger to flip
his world upside down in all the right ways, and now he has the beautiful and
witty Dulce on his arm to keep him on his toes. He still has a lot to learn
about his soul mate's past. Even though he is a powerful force of determination
and love, he finds himself in a bind when his guilt over Dulce's past begins to
tear away at his heart.
Together this new family will have to
conquer the worst. Ocean will have to grow wiser in patience, Livie will have
to come to terms with her mother's intuition, Lawrence will have to let the
past be exactly that...the past...as Dulce will finally have to let someone in.
Will these fierce souls find the strength within
each other to find the calm after the storm or will they continue to repeat
their pasts, once again?
Links to Buy
Also Available
#1 Oceans Collide
#2 Oceans Submerged
Excerpt
Livie
I find myself
standing next to a man that just seconds ago was the happiest I’ve seen since…
well actually, I’ve never seen him this happy. Moments ago, Ocean was showing
me a side of him that instantly made me fall in love with him all over again.
However, right now-within seconds-that same man has become a ticking time
bomb—scratch that he's more like a unhinged hand grenade with less than one
second to cause mayhem!
Immediately, Law
arrives at the door after my initial set of screams for him to hurry his ass up
and help me. Moving quickly and without hesitation, he takes a hold of Ocean’s
arms and locks them behind his back.
Looking at Law,
I see the shock and sprinkle of hate playing on his handsomely cool features
and it further confirms to me that the arrival of Ocean’s mother-pregnant
mother at that-is not a good omen for the days, weeks, or months to come.
The curious minds
of our morning guests start trickling in, hovering around us at the front door.
Finally, someone speaks. It’s Ocean, of course, more than ready to go 300Z
Gerard Butler style on his own mother.
“Who the hell
told her to show up!?” Ocean flings Law off him in one violent ripple of his
shoulders. He spins around to face the crowd behind him.
I look at the
woman still standing in the not so safe
zone
as she stares at the tight and rigid back of her son. A son that is in
so much pain he cannot stand to look at her.
“Dad!” He roars
out as his father comes forth.
“Yes son.” His
father answers calmly, knowing better than all of us in the crowded foyer that
this is an extremely dangerous situation.
The pain in his
father’s eyes at the sight of a woman he once loved-and honestly probably still
loves-is breaking my heart with each passing second.
“Did you
tell her? How does she know? HOW. THE. FUCK. IS. SHE. HERE?!”
A shaky voice
responds and it’s from no one standing on our side of the door.
“Ocean, son. No
one invited me. I looked you up. I wanted to—to--”
“To what
Sabrina! You wanted to show up on the happiest day of my fucking life and ruin
it to hell? Is that what you wanted to do? Mission-a-fucking-complished!”
As he spoke to
her with his back turned she winced at his hateful words, but I couldn’t blame
him for it. I don’t think anyone could right now. Ocean was hurt and broken
beyond repair when it came to his mother.
He forever
blamed himself for what happened to his sister. He has the guilt of having
killed her in that terrible bike accident engrained into his soul. He loved
Stormie-his beautiful twin sister-with his whole heart. When he needed his
mother the most after her death, she just up and walked away.
I would be
beyond pissed too if she showed up today like this...which she just did. I push
away the resurfacing thoughts of my mother’s demise before I allowed my own
emotions of guilt and abandonment to resurface and cause me to react out of my
own emotional torments. When I look away from Sabrina, my eyes too easily found
the wet shiny pieces of glass on the tile floor in front of me.
Immediately,
they held my eyes captive. The demons inside of me start rearing their ugly
heads trying to find a broken link in my still-wounded and slowly healing
armor. I was stupid for thinking they had left me, that I had won.
Apparently
they’d only taken a fucking vacation! The bastards were just giving me a break.
Layla and Dulce found their way to me taking each one of my hands in theirs.
Damn… did my face look that twisted they recognized my rising fear too?
“Ocean. I know
you’re mad at me and hate me, but I am still you’re mother.”
Uh-oh! Wrong
thing to say Sabrina.
Ocean spins
around this time to face his mother.
She did not
shrink under his hateful glare, stupid woman. “Ocean. I am still your mother. I
came here to find you so you could meet your sister when she’s born.”
Time stops as
well as Ocean’s breathing and probably his heart. He sways on his feet and I
release my hands from Layla and Dulce to support him. He grabs onto me
desperately as his body and mind fight against each other to steady himself.
I feel like
slapping the shit out of this woman. How dare she say some shit like that? I
look up at his face needing to see what's there. His eyes are locked on his
mother’s stomach. She looked about ready to pop any moment now.
“I’m having her
here in Dunlap, Ocean. Her name is going to be Stormie.”
All hell breaks
loose inside of Ocean. He pushes me back towards Law, lunging forward toward
the woman screaming at the top of his lungs.
Thank god Santi,
Trevor, and Joseph were close enough because if not, they wouldn’t have been
able to stop him in time from strangling his own mother.
As tempting as
it is to let him have at her, it just isn't right. Pffft, almost isn't right.
“YOU CAN’T
REPLACE STORMIE! SHE’S DEAD! STORMIE’S DEAD! I FUCKING KILLED HER, YOU STUPID
BITCH!” Ocean repeats this chant over and over as it takes three huge men and
all of their muscles-and I mean all of their muscles-to hold him down.
I
personally had enough of this show for today. Our happiness was now tainted by
this selfish bitch standing in front of all of us in all her fucked up,
pregnant and shameful glory.
Ocean is dragged
away from me like a two year old having the temper tantrum of the millennium
back into the living room.
I step
forward grabbing the door facing off with Ocean's mother. “Listen, your bright
idea to show up after being ghost for so long… not such a bright idea. I don’t
suggest you ever try doing this again. Ocean is a great man, cousin, friend,
soon to be husband, and a great son…but he is not your son anymore. Please
don’t come back here because next time it’ll be me gunning for your throat for
the pain you’ve caused him, not Ocean.”
I close the door
lightly in her face even though I want nothing more than to slam it shut. The
only thing that keeps me from doing just that is her extremely pregnant belly.
Subconsciously,
I was seeing my mom standing there with AJ in her belly in the once upon a time
good memory bank my brain was still desperately holding onto.
Layla touches my
arm, bringing me back to my reality. “Thank you for doing that. I was afraid of
hitting her myself, pregnant or not.” She laughs lightly at her comment as if
she was joking to lighten up the tension but I know the threat was real.
I understood
though, I too wanted to cause that woman as much pain physically as she was
causing her beautiful son, my Ocean, emotionally.
I smile at her,
feeling the pain I know she feels as well. Walking back into the living room
together where moments ago, everyone was shedding tears of joy.
Ocean was on the
floor pounding his fists into the tile as if the porcelain tiles were the cause
of all his life’s pain.
“No!” I rush
over to him, shoving my way through Law who briefly tries to block me. Dulce
tugs at his arm just in time helping me move his solid ass out of my way. My
body crashes onto the floor in front of Ocean before I know it.
Ignoring the
sharp stabs of pain my knees are tingling with, I grab both of his hands to
stop him from breaking all of his knuckles or worse. I pull his hands up to my
lips kissing each knuckle that are already turning red and bruised.
He slowly lifts
his head as tears and ferocious sobs pour out of his heavenly lips. I shuffle
closer to him on my knees pulling his arms around my waist. If I could climb on
top of him I would, but too many people were here.
“Ocean
baby, this is still our day. Remember this?” I flash him the beautiful promise
ring he put on my finger. “That means we get through this together. I am not
leaving you. This is Livie and Ocean’s day. We can do or go wherever you want,
just me and you baby. We go big together or we don’t do this at all. Will you
take me? Will you take us away to start our new promised lives together? I need
you to Ocean. Please.”
I place one of
his hands on my chest so he can feel my heart beating for him. His tortured
eyes roam over my face resting on my lips, then his head cocks to the side as
he continues to study my face. Not knowing how else to reach him I cover his
warm and badly bruising hand pressing it harder on my chest.
“You still
w—want this? You still want me?”
I roll my
eyes at him in exaggeration expecting him to have said something much more
intelligent than that. “Ocean. For a twenty seven year old man, you’re
ridiculously stupid. I love you Ocean Grant Hawthorne. L-O-V-to the fucking E
you! Get your ass up and make this day about us. Now!”
I don’t know why
I’m yelling or cursing but he responds to it. Grabbing my face as if I’m an
apparition about to disappear any moment, he kisses me hard. So hard it hurts
my lips, but I take his anger, his passion, and his hate.
I absorb it all
for him because we drown together; that’s our rule. I wipe his tears away with
my hands kissing his face dry with my newly aching lips.
He places his
hands on my hips, guiding us both off the floor and pulls me tightly into him
again. “You got it baby, let’s go.”
Ocean holds out
his hand to Law who tosses him a set of keys. He quietly guides me out the
front door of our home without saying a word or making eye contact with anyone.
As we walk down the
stairs to his Range Rover, I pray.
Os
Jesus Cristo dao-me por favor a forca para sobreviver a este mar aberto, nos
estae afogandose Amen. (Jesus Christ, please give me the strength to survive
this open sea, we are drowning, Amen)
Author Bio
My
name is Melissa De Olmos, it's quite a mouth-full but that's me. I live in
the sunny, tropical and extremely too tranquil city of Palm Bay, Florida with
my two lovely crazies’ ages six and three. I could say that writing novels has
been a passion that I've always pursued but I can't. Writing for me has always
been my own secret escape into a land of wonders, opportunities, timeless loves
and so much trouble that I sometimes wonder if I need medication for the
stories that pop into my head. I am in love--no-- I am obsessed with everything
mystical, fantasy, true to a reader’s heart, and fiction. It has been an
enormous pleasure and indescribable experience sharing my Oceans Series with
the world and I cannot wait to fill this world with more crazy for you awesome
people to devour.
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