Outside the Lines by Beth Rhodes

Book Title:Outside the Lines 

Author:Beth Rhodes 

Genre:Contemporary Romance 

Release Date:December 8, 2015 

Hosted by: Book Enthusiast Promotions

For the first time in her life, good-girl Maria Rodriguez throws aside caution for an all-consuming desire. She wants freedom from rules and her family looking over her shoulder. She wants the love she’s only ever dreamed of. But that love walks away. Jaded bachelor David March doesn't believe in love. His fling with the pretty Hispanic woman from California is as close to feeling as he wants to get. Now, he’s back home, burying himself in work and trying to forget.

Shortly after he leaves, Maria finds out she’s pregnant. Her first leap into freedom results in a life-changing consequence. She knows she has to find him. But what she finds is not what she expects. David is not the down-to-earth man he portrayed. And the love she remembers has been replaced by cold calculation and contracts. He lied to her once. Can she trust that a marriage agreement will bring back the love they once shared?

Rating: ☆☆☆☆

Families are complicated…

Maria Rodriguez and David March came together for a summer of fun, freedom and love. When they part ways, and then reconnect, they each have a much different take on what that time actually meant. Maria believed she had found the love of her life but soon realizes that David was, in reality, much different than the man she had known. Caught between misunderstandings and different expectations – both their own and their families – they have a lot to sort out before their unplanned family grows.
This was a slow starting story for me as much of the history between Maria and David was glossed over in the beginning. I didn’t really understand all the conflict and drama that was suddenly happening. David was actually kind of a jerk and not very likable at all. He wasn’t cruel or abusive but just very cold and standoffish. And his behaviour after the summer just didn’t sign not romantic hero material. No, not all. Maria, on the other hand, seemed to weather each blow as best she could, trying to balance her unborn child’s needs, her own, and even those of the stranger she fell in love with. Lots of uncertainty leading to misunderstandings, leading to drama, leading to conflict…

Lots of drama, some a bit over the top, but I really found myself getting into the storyline and the characters. At the end I realized that I cared about them. Both seemed to grow and mature as they worked through their problems – always a good sign! My first book by this author and certainly not my last…

One of my favourite quotes - “Don’t ever stop thinking with your heart, Maria. It’s what brought you to me, and I need you.”

Blog Post: When your Hero is a BETA with Alpha tendencies
Hi! Beth Rhodes here, celebrating another year in publishing. I’ve noticed lately that romance novels are having a serious relationship with the Alpha Male. Billionaires, military personnel, fighters, policemen… romance novels have them all.

But, I have to admit, sometimes…my heroes are different.

Alphas disguised as Betas. Or, Betas with a streak of Alpha.

In Letters From Home (Love Beyond Reason, book 1), a contemporary military romance, Zack is a Non-commissioned Officer in the United States Army. He falls in love with an Officer… a doctor. And you know what? He smiles, a lot. He wants his woman, and he won’t take no for an answer…but you’d almost never know it. And my favorite scene? The one where he shows that Alpha streak over the other man.

****

When Anabel snapped her fingers, Zack moved. Everyone moved.

He didn’t mind shoving the love-struck Phillip out of the way, either. Could this be the guy Lena had been going on about? An overseas address for the town’s pride and joy could be found in the newspaper… Maybe Zack hadn’t been the only one sending her letters.

He caught Lena just as her knees gave out.

“Hey.” Phillip countered the move with indignation, and his hand came out to stroke Lena’s arm.

An unexpected ball of fury lodged in Zack’s throat. He gritted his teeth. “Upstairs?”

Anabel patted Phillip on the arm with a consoling smile and nodded to Zack. “Sí. Take her to her room, Zack. I’m sure she’s just exhausted. I’ll follow you up.”

He took the stairs two at a time and turned the corner to the girls’ room, his steps quiet on the shaggy carpet.

Lena moaned and moved in his arms.

“Take it easy, babe.”

“Oh.” The word was drawn out, and she shifted in his arms. “I don’t feel good.”

Zack changed direction and gently kicked open the door across the hall from the bedroom. Letting go of her legs first, he set her down and lowered her to sit on the edge of the bathtub. She leaned against his leg so that he was stuck.

Bending at the waist, he reached for a hand towel from the rack above the sink, turned the cold water on, and soaked it. He squeezed the thick purple cotton, draining the water.

With one hand full of towel, he placed a hand on her head, and his fingers caught in the soft web of her hair, his breath stopped in his throat. Okay. It’s just hair. Really thick, shiny hair, which he shouldn’t be touching, because it made him feel an unbelievably tender ache inside. But not just that, he wanted to touch her. He shook the thought from his mind.

“Hey. Come on, Lena.” With a hand supporting her shoulder, Zack lifted her weight from his leg and crouched down in front of her. He placed the cold towel in her hand and helped her place it against her forehead for a moment. “How you feeling now?”

She opened eyes still clouded from fatigue and blinked. “A little better. I think.”

A knock on the door, and it opened, bumping into his back.

Anabel slipped in and set a glass of water on the counter. “Everyone okay?”

Lena nodded her head. “I think…I just need to lie down for a little while.”

“Zack, could you…? I’ve got Uncle Eddie down there, and he just dumped a pan of chile con carne down the front of the oven.” Giving his shoulder a squeeze, she kissed him on the top of the head. “Gracias, mi otro hijo.”

****

But enough of about Zack…

David March is my first ever rich boy. And what fun I had learning about him. He’s privileged yet down-to-earth. Behind his desk, he is always in control. But when he steps into his personal life, things always get squishy.

He fights love because love brings pain. In spite of that, I love him and can’t help but share him.

Characteristics that make the hero loveable:

1. Sense of humor: you’re going to love David’s attempt to name the baby

2. Protective: The way he takes down Tammy after she loses it at the coffee shop makes the reader’s heart melt! Okay, mine. Makes my heart melt.

3. Vulnerable: I never met a guy so afraid to love. He tries so hard to keep it from happening…

He never hurried, never stopped the sweet caress of his hands against her skin, into her hair, down to lightly draw figure eights around her nipples.

It drove her mad until finally, finally she climaxed, tightened around him as all thought left her.

He tensed in her arms and grasped her—hard hands on her thighs as he too let loose within her. She slumped onto his chest. Her cheek mashed against sweat-sheened skin.

David rolled them over and lifted his hip so she could get her leg out from under him. She slid the leg straight and curled the other one more tightly around his waist.

He was accommodating the tiny person between them.

She turned her head and placed a kiss on his arm before resting back down against the pillow of his muscle and snuggling into his embrace. He lifted the covers over them.

“I’ll never move again.”

His chuckle vibrated through her. “I’d like that.”

“You would?”

He didn’t answer right away. Instead, his hand rode down her side and settled on her hip. “I—” He stopped, cleared his throat, silent again.

Her heart skipped a beat. Her man wasn’t uncertain. He didn’t lack confidence.

“What?” she whispered, finding his glinting gaze through the dark of the room. The moon had finally reappeared and light shown through the window.

He tightened his grip for a moment before continuing his sweet stroke.

She shivered at the touch, trembled to her core, and he pressed himself into her. Maria laughed then because his arousal might have diminished some, but perhaps he wasn’t quite done after all. “Not quite ready to give up the ship?”

“I’m not too old, yet.”

“Old?” She laughed. “When we hit thirty, let’s talk about getting old.” Her breath stopped in her throat. Would they still be together at thirty? “Right now, you’re just virile—lots of endurance. You can go all night. Right?”

It was David’s turn to laugh. “I’d like to be together when we’re thirty.” His voice turned serious. “I’d like to be together when we’re forty, too.”

Tears stung her eyes as she blinked them away. She wanted to keep the conversation light, didn’t want to scare him away. “Good plan. We’ll talk at fifty. If things are going to hell in a hand-basket then, we’ll…” The touch of his fingers against her clit made her voice fade. “Or that.” And she shuddered.

It hardly mattered to her if she came again or not. He’d filled her heart with his words, with his uncertainty. He was more vulnerable than she realized. “Come on, baby,” she whispered against his neck, and reached over her leg to cup him.

He came again in an instant, flooding her, tensing in her arms, every muscle tight with strain. Her light touch made him jerk against her, and she smiled when he grabbed her hand and brought it to his lips.

“I couldn’t be with anyone else, ever again.” David drove into her one last time and then dropped into sleep against her, left her hanging on the edge to I-love-you. He hadn’t said it yet. But she was starting to think, perhaps…

He just didn’t recognize it.

She was determined to make this work. She’d prayed for a happy ending and a chance to be with the man she loved. She was married now. Some might say foolishly, but she liked to think of it as faithfully—believing in something she couldn’t see.

Beth Rhodes is a wife, mother, friend, and lover. She lives with her Army husband and their six children at the base of the mountains in Colorado. She loves the cold, coffee, camping, and sunshine

Her stories are full of life, family, and love. You can find her reading just about any genre of romance, but her favorites are fast-paced suspense, where life is on the line and love is the only saving grace. She wants a book that makes her heart pound and her pulse race.

Beth is a member of Romance Writers of America, Pikes Peak Writers, Colorado Romance Writers, and International Thriller Writers. She is signed with Entangled Publishing and Boroughs Publishing Group.

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