Excerpt: 'Thrill Me' by Susan Mallery (and Fool's Gold Getaway info)

Susan Mallery joins us to share an excerpt from Thrill Me, the latest in her Fool's Gold series. Thrill Me arrives July 28, just in time for a thrilling event for readers: Susan's Fool's Gold Getaway July 31 to Aug. 1 in Chicago. The getaway includes lots of fun and giveaways, along with plenty of opportunities for readers to hang out with Susan. Find out more about the event and get info on tickets here.

About Thrill Me (courtesy of Mira):

Meet the Mitchell brothers of Fool's Gold, California—five gorgeous men who've left a trail of broken hearts in their wake…

Maya Farlow learned the hard way to depend only on herself, so when she fell too deeply for the bad-boy charms of Del Mitchell, she did the only thing she could—she ran. Stunned, Del left Fool's Gold to make his name and fortune in extreme sports.

Now ten years later, Maya's been hired to promote her hometown's new slogan, The Destination for Romance. The celebrity spokesman is none other than Del, the man she dumped but never forgot. Awkward!

Although Del's not the type to hold a grudge, he's determined to avoid falling a second time for the woman who broke his heart. He's a daredevil, not an idiot. Trouble is, in all his adventures, he never found a rush as exhilarating as Maya's kiss. Maybe risking his heart will prove to be the biggest thrill of all…

Susan sets the scene for us …

Susan: When I see a group of hot guys, I get a special thrill. (Hey, I'm happily married, but I'm not dead!) When those guys are brothers … quivery! I'm so excited to introduce the Mitchell brothers of Fool's Gold, five sexy bachelors who will fall love over the next few years … no matter how hard they resist.

Thrill Me is the first book to feature the gorgeous Mitchell brothers. Del left Fool's Gold in his early 20s, broken-hearted. Not only did Maya leave him — she dumped him in the most final way she could think of so that he wouldn't try to follow her: She told him he bored her. She lied. In fact, her feelings for Del were so overpowering that she feared losing herself.

But Del didn't know she lied, so he set out to prove to himself that he wasn't boring. He took the world of extreme sports by storm, then grew rich after he invented a better sky surfboard. (Yes, that's a thing.)

In this scene from Chapter Five of Thrill Me, the truth finally comes out.

EXCERPT

Del sucked in a breath. "It's Aidan. He's pissed. Seriously pissed."

"At you?" Maya asked.

He nodded. "For leaving ten years ago. I honest to God never thought about it from his perspective, but he's right. I took off and all of it got dumped on him. The business, the family. There was no warning. He got stuck because I took off."

"And you got stuck before him."

He shook his head. "No, I didn't."

"You did. You grew up knowing you had to take care of everything. You had to be there for your mom and your brothers. No one asked you if that was what you wanted. There wasn't a discussion."

"Why are you taking my side?"

She gave him a slight smile. "You're the Mitchell brother I like best. You know I'm right. You were expected to take care of everything. What if you wanted something different? No one asked."

"And I took off, leaving Aidan to pick up the pieces." He swore again. "I'm a selfish bastard."

Something prickled her skin. While the attraction was still there, she had a feeling that wasn't the cause. It took her a second to recognize what it was. Guilt.

"It's not your fault," she told him, wondering how much he was going to hate her when he realized the truth. "It's mine."

"How do you figure?"

"I'm the reason you left."

His dark gaze settled on her face. "I wondered if we'd get to that."

"We had to," she whispered. "It was inevitable."

One corner of his mouth turned up. "I'd love to dump this on you, but I was a big boy. I made my choices."

"No, you reacted to mine. To me breaking up with you." She reached for him and rested her fingers on his forearm. "Del, I promised to marry you. We were going to run off together."

"Yeah. So either way I was leaving. Why didn't I see that before?"

She shook his arm. "That's not the point. I'm trying to apologize here. If you could listen?"

"No apology required. You changed your mind. You're allowed. I wish you'd been honest with me—you could have told me you had concerns. But you didn't. It's not like I was the love of your life."

She listened for bitterness and heard only resignation. Which made her feel awful. Why did he have to be so accepting? Anger and resentment would be a lot easier to deal with.

So here it was. Her moment to come clean.

"I'm sorry," she told him. "About what happened. About what I said. I know it's too late and that hearing it now doesn't change anything, but I want you to know, I lied."

His gaze sharpened. "About?"

She glanced down at the wild grass and flowers below, then forced herself to stare directly into his dark eyes. "I didn't have concerns. Not the way you think. It was… I was terrified. I loved you more than I ever thought I could love anyone. You were my entire world. But I couldn't trust you."

He started to pull back, but she held on to his arm. "It's not personal," she told him. "Watching my mom and how she was with men. The things she said. I was so afraid that no one could love me. At the same time I believed you did, and that was more than I could handle. I guess the truth isn't that I didn't trust you, I didn't trust myself."

She dropped his arm and wanted to turn away. But this apology had been ten years in the making. She had to see it through to the end.

"You were my first love and my first time and when you asked me to marry you, I was thrilled. And so frightened. What if it didn't work out? I knew having you leave would destroy me. Plus, I wanted to go to college and have a career. What if I asked for that and you said no? So in my eighteen-year-old logic, I decided I had to end things in such a way that you wouldn't try to talk me into staying."

She swallowed against the emotion tightening her throat. "That's why I said you were too boring. To hurt you and make you hate me. It was never true. I loved you and wanted to be with you. But I didn't know how. I'm sorry. I was cruel and I regretted what I did immediately. I knew the outcome was right, but how I did it was horrible. And I apologize for that."

Del's expression tightened. She braced herself for the well-deserved explosion, only there wasn't one. He reached out and gently stroked her face.

"Well, damn," he said softly.

Find out more about Susan and her books at www.susanmallery.com.