Sunday Spotlight is a feature we began in 2016. This year we’re spotlighting our favorite books, old and new. We’ll be raving about the books we love and being total fangirls. You’ve been warned. 🙂

Hurts to Love You is the third and final book in the Forbidden Hearts series by Alisha Rai. I’m really sad that this book is closing out the series as I have enjoyed each book a great deal. I’m super excited to share an excerpt from this book today because I adored both Gabe and Eve. Their romance was sweet with just the right amount of steam to keep things interesting so you should definitely check this book out when it releases.

Hurts to Love You comes out on Tuesday, March 27th so be sure to pre-order your copy now or enter our giveaway below for a chance to win your own copy on us.

Being bad never felt so good, in the third novel in Alisha Rai’s sexy Forbidden Hearts series!

Well-behaved women don’t lust after men who love to misbehave.

Heiress Evangeline Chandler knows how to keep a secret . . . like her life-long crush on the tattooed hottie who just happens to be her big brother’s friend. She’s a Chandler, after all, and Chandlers don’t hook up with the help. Then again, they also don’t disobey their fathers and quit their respectable jobs, so good-girl rules may no longer apply.

Gabriel Hunter hides the pain of his past behind a smile, but he can’t hide his sudden attraction to his friend’s sheltered little sister. Eve is far too sweet to accept anything less than forever and there’s no chance of a future between the son of a housekeeper and the town’s resident princess.

When a wedding party forces Eve and Gabe into tight quarters, keeping their hands off each other will be as hard as keeping their clothes on. The need that draws them together is stronger than the forces that should shove them apart . . . but their sparks may not survive the explosion when long-buried secrets are finally unearthed.

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Excerpt

Gabe placed his napkin on the table, relieved he wouldn’t have to choke down any more sweets. Give him bags of potato chips any day. “No thanks necessary, kiddo.”

“No one’s given you grief over my canceling today’s appointments, have they?”

One girl had yelled at him this morning. Gabe didn’t blame her—Livvy’s specialty was watercolor tattoos, and people traveled from all over to see her. But he wasn’t about to tell the overwhelmed bride that now. “Nope. We have it handled. Feel better.”

Gabe and Eve gathered their belongings, Eve shrugging on a light jacket that blessedly covered her lush arms.

Gabe squinted at the spring sunshine when they came outside. The last frost had passed, and the days were growing longer. The perfect weather for a hike, Paul would have said.

Gabe shoved the pang of grief aside. After almost two years, Paul Kane’s death shouldn’t still feel so sharp, but reminders of his old friend often came when he least expected it. They’d grown especially strong since Livvy and Jackson had moved back home. Paul’s younger siblings were nothing like him, but occasionally Livvy would smile or Jackson would roll his eyes, and Gabe would feel a need to excuse himself for a minute or so.

Eve finished typing something on her phone. “I can’t believe we managed to get Chef Jose on such short notice.”

“Is Jackson peeved he doesn’t get to make the cake?” Jackson had a strong aversion to crowds, which was why Gabe was taking his place at Liv- vy’s side in the wedding party. One of her brides- people, as Livvy called them. A world-renowned chef, Jackson was instead handling the food for the event.

“I think between taking care of his café and his mother and making sure Sadia doesn’t wear herself out with wedding planning, Jackson has his hands more than full. He was the one who asked me if we could outsource this. He’d prefer to concentrate on the wedding dinner menu.” Eve tucked her phone into her purse. “Thanks for coming with. I know this task isn’t in your wheelhouse.”

“Is picking cake in your wheelhouse?” It was a genuine question. Prying details out of Eve about her life was like chipping away at a stone tablet. Time-consuming and a little hypnotic.

He might have been raised on the estate that neighbored the Chandlers, had even been best friends with Nicholas, but he’d been so much older than Eve she’d barely registered on his consciousness when they’d been young.

And then the split between the two rich families had happened. Though they’d lived in the same town, his interactions with the Chandlers had been sporadic at best. He’d seen Eve twice over the years—once when she’d come into his shop with a friend, and a second time when she’d been a drunken coed in a bar. He hadn’t viewed her as anything more than a kid either of those times. A lost, shy, vaguely lonely-looking kid.

When grown-up Eve had been reintroduced into his life a month ago, at a lunch Livvy and Nicholas had hosted, that kid was long gone. Her body was curvy, her face innocent yet erotic, with full lips and sleepy eyes. She was buttoned up inside and out, not a single emotion or spare inch of skin visible.

Lust and desire had hit him instantly, but he was a grown-ass man, and he’d tamped it down. Slowly, over the past few weeks, that desire had grown. And now here he was, salivating at the sight of her bare arms.

Good thing you can’t see her ankles. You might straight up die on the spot from lust.

“I do eat a lot of cake.”

He looked down at Eve. She was so sweetly rounded but so much smaller than him. He’d never been particularly attracted to short women, but he imagined she would fit perfectly under his arm.

Imagine is all you’ll ever do. He made his tone deliberately light. “I eat a lot of burgers. Is there a wedding burger that needs to be chosen?”

Another twitch of her lips. “Please don’t give Livvy any ideas. We’re at capacity on what we can whip together in the next week or so.” Her voice was low and throaty. It skimmed over all of his nerves and senses, promising rough and lusty delights.

“I’ll try not to.”

They stopped at her car, a nicely maintained Acura. It was bland and personality-less. As were her clothes, a brown silk shirt and wine pants. She was like a painting framed with the most mundane of wood, but she’d shine no matter what she wore.

You sound like a smitten fool. You’re too old for this.

Was he? No, probably not. But he was definitely too smart for this.

Forbidden Hearts Series

Giveaway Alert

We’re giving one lucky winner their choice of one of our Sunday Spotlight books. Use the Rafflecopter widget below to enter for one of this month’s features.

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Are you as excited for this release as we are? Let us know how excited you are and what other books you’re looking forward to this year!

About the Author

Alisha Rai

Alisha Rai has been enthralled with romances since she smuggled her first tattered novel home from the library as a teenager. She writes hot and emotionally complex contemporary romance novels and is frequently sought as a speaker on topics such as love in the digital age, sex positivity, and inclusive representation in romance and media.

She is the first author to have an indie-published book appear on Washington Post’s annual Best Books list. Her books have also won the RT Reviewers Choice Award and have received critical attention and rave reviews from sources such as Library Journal, USA Today, BookRiot, Washington Post, Bitter Empire, NPR, and Smart Bitches Trashy Books. Alisha spends most of her time traveling, reading, dreaming up sexy heroes and heroines, and tweeting.

Alisha adores hearing from readers! Feel free to send an email or @ her on Twitter.