They call him The Mute for a reason.
Hard, cold and calculated, he rarely speaks.
When he does, it’s with disdain.
When he does, his words aren’t meant for me.
When he does, my stomach flips and my world tilts on its axis.
He is thirty-three.
I am eighteen.
He’s a single dad and my father’s business partner.
I’m just a kid to him and his enemy’s daughter.
He’s emotionally unavailable.
And I am…feeling. Feeling things I shouldn’t feel for him.
Trent Rexroth is going to break my heart. The writing isn’t just on the wall, it’s inked on my soul.
And yet, I can’t stay away.
A scandal is the last thing my family needs. But a scandal is what we’re going to give them.
And oh, what a beautiful chaos it will be.
Excerpt:Trent’s gaze cut to mine and stopped when his grays met my blues. The fading noise of Vicious barking at people to move along, and my father finally letting go of my arm to move toward Jaime and Dean—probably trying to gain both allies and sympathy—died down.
“I don’t like you,” Rexroth whispered under his breath, his voice harsh.
“I never asked you to.” I shrugged.
“You won’t be working here.” His arm brushed my shoulder, but I didn’t think it was by accident. I let loose a sugary smile, scanning his face and torso for no other reason other than to taunt him. “Good, you’ll be doing me a favor. My father is the one forcing me to work here. He’s pissed I turned down five Ivy League colleges. Remind me, Mr. Rexroth—which top tier university did you attend for your degree?”
The low blow was supposed to retrieve some of my lost dignity, but bile burned my throat, shotgunned from my stomach. Trent Rexroth was known in Todos Santos as an exhilarating success story, rising from the gutters of San Diego. He went to a shitty state college that accepted even the illiterate, working as a janitor on campus after hours. Those were given facts he’d recited himself in an interview for Forbes.
Had I really just tried to make him feel less worthy because he wasn’t born with a silver spoon in his mouth? It made me sicker than wearing my mother’s designer garbs.
Trent smiled, leaning into my body, into my soul. His smirk was more frightening than any scowl, frown, or grimace I’d ever seen. It threatened to tear me apart and sew me back together however he pleased.
“Edie.” His lips were dangerously close to my ear. A delicious shiver moved down my spine. Something warm rolled inside of me, begging to unknot and flower into an orgasm. What was happening, and why the hell was it happening? “If you know what’s best for you, you will turn around and leave right now.”
I elevated my head to meet his gaze and showed him my version of a grin. I was born and raised in a world of intimidating rich men, and I’d be damned if I go down like my mother—addicted to xanax, Gucci, and a man who paraded her on his arm for a short, glorious decade before keeping her solely for public appearances.
“I think I’m going to go find my desk now. I’d wish you a good day, Mr. Rexroth, but I think that ship has sailed. You’re a miserable man. Oh, and one for the road.” I fished for a Nature Valley bar in my mother’s purse and plastered it to his hard, muscled chest. My heart slammed into my neck, fluttering like a caged bird.
I hurried after my father as he glided down the vast, golden-hued hallway, not daring to look back. Knowing I’d started a war and arrived unequipped. But I also knew something else that gave me a surfer’s rush—if I could slam the final nail in my employment coffin and make Rexroth vote against me, I’d be off the hook.
I had just the plan for it. All I had to do was act like a brat. Game on.
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Vicious
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About LJ Shen:L.J. Shen is an International #1 best-selling author of Contemporary Romance and New Adult novels. She lives in Northern California with her husband, young son and chubby cat.
Before she’d settled down, L.J. (who thinks referring to herself in the third person is really silly, by the way) traveled the world, and collected friends from all across the globe. Friends who’d be happy to report that she is a rubbish companion, always forgets peoples’ birthdays and never sends Christmas cards.
She enjoys the simple things in life, like spending time with her family and friends, reading, HBO, Netflix and internet-stalking Stephen James. She reads between three to five books a week and firmly believes Crocs shoes and mullets should be outlawed.
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I do like unconventional stories, when you read Scandalous by L.J. Shen, it totally makes sense. Last HotHole to find his match, Trent is definitely not choosing easiness; from a complicated personal life, ruling the world with his friends, an enemy who tries to take him down, and in between in this turbulent sea, someone he wasn’t expecting, the one that could make him push his buttons like no one else, starving and craving with need.
hH fights hard and dirty, not giving a damn to everyone, emotionally unvailable… until Edie.
Be ready for some madness, because with Trent, life is not a quiet river.
I adore Trent, he is flawed, enjoying life, cocky as hell, sexy as sin with a level of hatred on a high dose. He is not nice to people, only with daughter, his family and his friends… the others… well they get angry and secretive version. Love how money can provide him power but have still his head on his shoulders, remembering where he comes from.
Edie is the surprise in Trent’s life, the tide he didn’t expect. What a tide, a tempting, tormenting and sinful one that haunted and driving him crazy. She seems wild, reckless and totally uncontrollable. Once more, appearances are deceiving, and Edie isn’t the one you’re expecting. In spite of her very young age, she is more mature, wise and hiding from the world her scars. She is a badass, a woman who’s trying to protect her loved ones and to find her way in this world of crazies.
Each other having assumptions on the other, giving each other’s life hell, pushing constantly until they can’t take anymore. Little does Trent knows that Edie is a fighter and won’t give up because of him. One thing goes on the other, and as much they seem to hate each other, the line between hate and love is gonna be crossed. Yes, I was entertained!
The sexual tension and animosity definitely shows amazingly into the sex scenes. Wilder, hotter, harder but turning into something more scorching, deep, beyond the physical.
Even with all the differences that should bring them apart, their dysfunctional family perfectly fit in that mess, right where it belongs. The relationship between Trent’s daughter, Luna and Edie is beautiful, incredibly natural and pure. I was just swooning with these two shenanigans.
The title Scandalous fitted wonderfully well to that story, but it was so much more than that. It’s to see beyond people’s differences, to accept fully without judging the ones you love, to fight for that love and never take it for granted. Once you find that kind of love that makes you whole, you don’t care about what people think. You just ride the tide.
