Being Me by Lisa Renee Jones
Publication date: June 2013
<div style=”font-size:11px”>Publication date:&nbsp;05/01/2013</div>Inside Out Trilogy #2
Published by Gallery Books
Pages: 351
NOW OPTIONED TO STARZ for TV!
The sexy second installment in the Inside Out erotic romance trilogy, following If I Were You—in the seductive tradition of Fifty Shades of Grey.
Fascinated by the dark fantasies in the journals she’s discovered, and the two men who have now found a place in her life, Sara McMillan finds herself torn between her new life and her past. Now, more than ever, Sara identifies with the lost journal writer, Rebecca, and is certain that something sinister has happened.
In the arms of the sexy, tormented artist Chris Merit, Sara seeks answers about Rebecca and ends up discovering things about herself she never knew existed. Chris forces Sara to reconsider who she is and what she truly wants from life, but not before his dark desires threaten to tear them apart. Her boss, Mark Compton, offers her the shelter to understand just what those needs mean to her, and what they might have meant to Rebecca, but can she trust him to lead her to a final conclusion to Rebecca’s story?
He is rich and famous, and dark in ways I shouldn’t find intriguing but I do. I so do. I don’t understand why his dark side appeals to me, but the attraction between us is rich with velvety promises of satisfaction. . . .
In the bestselling style of Fifty Shades of Grey, Lisa Renee Jones delivers sexy thrills and heart-pounding sensuality with a tantalizing page-turner in which the eyes of a high school English teacher are opened to a world she never knew existed, and she finds a passionate craving within that she never knew she possessed.
The journal comes to Sara McMillan by chance, when she inherits the key to an abandoned storage locker belonging to a woman named Rebecca. Sara can’t resist peeking at the entries in the journal . . . and she finds a scintillating account of Rebecca’s affair with an unnamed lover, a relationship drenched in ecstasy and wrapped in dark secrets.
Obsessed with discovering Rebecca’s destiny after the entries come to an abrupt end, Sara does more than observe the players in the woman’s life; she immerses herself in the high-stakes art gallery world Rebecca inhabited—and is magnetically drawn to two men. Which one seduced Rebecca with his masterful and commanding touch and brought her fantasies to exquisite life? On a daringly erotic escapade, Sara follows Rebecca’s path to fulfill her own hidden longings. But after she tastes the forbidden pleasures Rebecca savored, will Sara be helpless to escape the same submissive fate?
Back of the Book
I arch into him, drinking in his passion, instantly, willingly consumed by all that he is and could be to me. . . .
Sara McMillan is still searching for Rebecca, the mysterious woman whose dark, erotic journal entries both enthralled and frightened her. Tormented by a strong desire to indulge the demands of her new boss while also drawn deeper into her passionate bond with the troubled artist, Chris Merit, Sara must face a past as deeply haunting as Rebecca’s written words. In one man’s arms, Sara will find the safe haven to reveal her most intimate secrets and explore her darkest fantasies. But is safety just an illusion, when the truth about Rebecca has yet to be discovered?
Read an Excerpt
The idea that I’ve convinced myself he is less controlling than he is has my heels colliding heavily on the driveway. I charge toward his car, the same car I’ve let myself drive instead of holding on to my own identity. I don’t look his direction but damn him, I can feel him all over, everywhere, inside and out, and in intimate places I can’t convince my body he isn’t welcome. It’s beyond frustrating to know that anger this potent isn’t enough to stop the thrum of awareness that just being near him creates.
Not for the first time, I feel Rebecca’s words from that first jour- nal entry I’d read deep in my soul. He was lethal, a drug I feared. I relate to her, and I understand the inescapable passion she felt and lost herself inside. I don’t want to be her. I’m not her. And for the first time since my initial first few encounters with this man, I wonder if I am drawn to him because I’m self-destructive, and he to me for the same reason.
Suddenly he is there, at eye level, as he had been the first night we’d met, when I’d spilled my purse. My gaze lifts and meets his, and a blast of awareness shakes me to the core. My breasts are heavy, my thighs achy. My skin tingles. A fine line between love and hate, Alvarez had said, and I understand them in this moment. I stare into his eyes and I wonder if he too is thinking about the night we met and the many ways we’ve made love.The many we have not and I want us to, when I should not. I should be seeking space, independence, and my own identity, which he is threatening by taking over my life. It makes no sense how I feel in these eternal moments. How can I be this furious with him and still powerfully, completely lost in him?
“We have a lot to talk about, don’t we?” he asks, breaking the spell. His tone is low, and the rasp of anger in his voice is impossible to miss. It jolts me back to reality. He showed up at my client’s house and he’s angry with me?
My temper overpowers all other emotions in me and I reach for the key. His hand closes over mine and heat races up my arm and over my chest.“Don’t do what you did tonight ever again, Sara.”
The sharp command in his voice hits a bull’s-eye on every physiological male dominance issue I own, of which there are many. I try to pull my hand back but I am captive to his grip, leaving me with words as my only weapon.“Ditto to you. And yeah.We have a lot to talk about—somewhere other than my client’s front yard.”
His eyes glint fire a moment before he releases my hand and helps me to my feet.There is a possessiveness to his touch that has me leaning into him when I should be shoving him away. He notices, too; I see it in the slight narrowing of his eyes, the gleam of satisfaction in their depths that I both hunger for and reject.
“I’ll follow you to my place,” he informs me.
“I have no doubt you will.” I click the key clicker to unlock the car. I’m about to open the door when his hand comes down on it, and he leans close, so close his breath is warm on my neck and ear. That woodsy scent of him, which I could luxuriate in for a lifetime, permeates my senses, tearing down my already weak defenses.
His hip nudges mine.“Don’t think for a minute that when we pull up to my apartment, you’re going to ask for your car and leave.”
It is all I can do to fight him when he touches me. Purposely, I do not look at him, certain all my resolve to distance myself from him will crumble.“If I decide to leave, you can’t stop me.”
“Try me, baby.You’re coming up to my apartment.”
I whirl on him.“I don’t want—”
“I do,” he vows, and before I know his intent, his fingers twine into my hair and he pulls me into his arms, against his hard, warm body.
“Let go,” I hiss, my hand flattening on his chest. I intend to push him away, but the heat of his body seeps through my palm, radiating up my arm. My elbow softens, and I am instantly closer but not close enough.
“Not a chance,” he promises, his mouth closing on mine, firm with demand. His tongue licks into my mouth with one brutal, commanding swipe followed by another, and I have no resistance left. I’m weak, so very weak, for this man. As always with him, he demands my response and I helplessly respond. I am instantly wet and wanting, my nipples tight points of aching need.
My Review:
5/5 – Since I don’t have a 4.5 rating I am giving a 5 but feel it should be 4.5
4.5 big Super stars
This is NOT a stand-alone book, you need to read book #1 of Lisa Renee Jones’s Inside Out series, IF I WERE YOU.
As with most trilogies you will have questions that are not answered in the first book and might not be answered until the last one. Please try having some to be patience!!!
This book was written as present tense and in first person POV. Makes it easier to figure out what is happening in the past (with Rebecca’s journal entries) and the present.
BEING ME picks up right where IF I WERE YOU left us hanging…finally an answer to what happened to Sara in the storage facility! The lights are out and Sara is about to hyperventilate as she hears things and think at any moment she will be grabbed.
She manages to escape in one piece only to have Chris come to her rescue. After that scare she will need to be more careful in trying to discover more information as we are not sure where the danger is coming from. Is the danger from Rebecca being missing or from something in Sara’s past?
“Woman—”
“Save your commands for another more enticing time, Chris. I’m not staying in the car. Haven’t you watched Friday the 13th? Michael slashes the girl in the car.”
“Michael is from Halloween. Jason is Friday the 13th.”
“Whoever he is, he slashes the girl in the car. I’m not staying in the car.”
There is a lot of back and forth between Chris and Sara. You learn more about each of their pasts. How it shaped them into who they are today. The problem is that you feel that Chris’s information is dragged out of him where Sara will share hers. Makes them have a lot of hurt feelings, untrustworthiness, and pain in the relationship.
She continues to work with Mark in the gallery even as she is aware that he wants her. The tension between them evolves throughout the book. With it finally coming to a head when she is hurting over Chris’s leaving her to deal with his pain in his own way.
As for Rebecca you find out part of what happened to her and who is responsible. Also who feels they are responsible for what happened to her.
We also wonder what has happened to Sara’s friend Ella. Where is she and why is she not getting in touch with Sara.
As for the ending what will Sara decide?
Here are a few I can’t wait for answers on:
Will she go to Paris with Chris?
Where is Ella?
What exactly happened to Rebecca?
I can’t wait for the next book in the series REVEALING US which comes out in September 2013.
A Few of my favorite lines from Ava/Sara/Chris/Mark/Ricco from the book:
Ava:
Not only is he a jerk, but he has the sexual expertise of a Gummi Bear.
Sara:
I lash out. “We’ve has this conversation, Chris. Fucking me does not give you the right to run my life.
Everything Chris does is as raw and real as the pain he struggles to bury in some deep, dark cavern of his soul. And I dread the moment he discovers just how notperfect I am.
“I know. The problem is that everything you tell me is because you’re forced to tell me- not because you choose to tell me. You never fully trust me.”
Chris:
“Is that what we’re back to, Sara? I’m fucking you? Is that where last night took us again? Why you are all over me in a parking lot?
Because if you want me to fuck you, I’ll fuck you until you can’t remember your damn name and you never forget mine.”
Baby, the ways I’m going to fuck you are too many to count, but not tonight. Tonight, I’m going to make love to you.
“I’m going to own you, body and soul. I will bind you. I will fuck your ass. Your mouth. I will do what I want. And none of this even comes close to where I’ve been and where I will never take you.”
“Good.” He breathes out and I feel the relief wash over him even through the phone line. “Because it would suck to feel like this alone.”
Mark:
“I go for what I want but I respect certain limits. Tell me you belong to him and I’ll back off.”
“I caused this, and I almost did the same thing to you. I would have, if not for Chris. You and I both know it’s true. Go home, Sara. Get as far away from me as you can.”
Ricco Alvarez:
“Men like Mark do not need machetes to dice your independence and self-respect. They mind-fuck you.”
A few pics – enjoy:
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