{Book Review & Giveaway} There You Stand (Between Breaths #5) by Christina Lee (@Christina_Lee04 @SignetEclipse)

From the author of All of You and Before You Break comes a new Between Breaths male/male romance about the silent, inked up skateboarder and the tattoo artist who unravels him piece by piece...

Tattoo artist Cory Easton has worked long enough at Raw Ink to know, just by looking at a dude, what his body art reveals, what makes him tick, what even makes him scared. Until he meets the quiet and remote Jude York--so unreadable, so unreachable, and so unlike anyone else, he can't help but arouse Cory's curiosity.

As captivating and complex as his ink, Jude is a mystery--and Cory's falling fast and hard under his spell. Against his better judgment to steer clear.

The rumors of Jude's past overshadow him--whispers of prison and an unmentionable secret that's kept him in the protective shadows of a local motorcycle club. As Cory probes deeper, he wonders how much he really wants to know. Especially since Jude has awakened something inside him that has been buried too long--and has him feeling completely alive for the first time in forever...

Includes a preview of Christina Lee's upcoming adult romance Two of Hearts.

Cory Easton is just going through the motions of living.  He goes to work, tries to occasionally have a drink with his friends and then he goes home – alone.  That’s the way that he wants it because his heart can’t take another tragedy like the one that occurred on that fateful rainy night. 

But he can’t seem to get away from the intense green gaze of Jude York.  

“Could be because Jude was quiet, kept to himself, and rarely made eye contact. But the combo of his dreads and sleeves of ink made him look threatening— hard around the edges— and that made some folks around here anxious. Add the fact that there was a darkness in his eyes, and that he seemed almost hyperaware of his surroundings. People figured he had a lot to hide.”

Jude is known for his off the charts skills as a skater and for his mysterious silence.  No one knows where he came from or who he really is.  That’s just the way that it has to be because he’s been on the run from his past for as long as he can remember – and Cory is only one that could ever change that.

 “This one means something, doesn’t it?” he said, placing his fingers over the black crane tattoo on my heart.

“Yeah,” I said in a pant as he pressed his lips there, too. We had never discussed my ink before but I could tell each time we were naked he took notice.

“It’s for the people I’ve lost in my life. In Japanese folklore, a crane is the carrier of souls to the afterlife.”

His gaze melted me and I shut my eyelids to quiet my thrashing heart. I was in Jude York’s bed, he was touching me, and it felt like a goddamn gift.”

If you’ve never read a M/M romance before, There You Stand is the absolute perfect beginning! The connection between Cory and Jude is so much more than physical and Christina makes that truly tangible.  Both of the characters are so remarkable that I couldn’t help but get totally lost in their story.

It’s full of mystery, angst and wickedly passionate moments between two of the hottest guys ever to grace a page and I seriously swooned all the way to the end…

Exclusive Excerpt - 

“Come inside, please.”

I followed him through the door, telling myself it was only to get Chopper acclimated. But Chopper seemed right at home as he bound to the kitchen and lapped at the water in the dish that Jude had set down.

“I can’t stay long,” I said, feeling almost shy, like it was my first time at his place. “I have a shift at Raw Ink.”

He nodded. “I just finished my morning at the Board Room, but I’ll be heading to the skate park.”

“What was that one trick I saw you practicing the other day?” I asked, watching Chopper sniff around the room.

“Hmmm . . . the one-eighty pop shuvit?” he said, shrugging. “The one I really want to trick out on someday is the upside-down three-sixty loop. But I need a pipe for that. They’ll have one at the arena for the upcoming games.”

“A pipe?”

“A curved wall with a lip so that I can hang upside down.”

“Holy Christ, you’re going to maim yourself,” I said.

He laughed. “It’s a difficult trick but I’m definitely up for the challenge.”

Suddenly he grabbed my face and backed me against the wall, kissing me hard and deep and desperate. Like he was releasing it all—giving it all to me. “I don’t want to talk right now. I want to taste you.”

I groaned and wormed my body closer, reaching behind him to grab his ass. We were both instantly hard and he ground his hips against me.

“Every damn night I’ve dreamt of you,” he said against my lips.

I pulled back to look at him. “You have?”

“Oh yeah.” His gaze fastened on mine. “I knew I couldn’t have you, so the next best thing was the fantasy of you.”

“Same here,” I said. “I’d lay in bed and jerk off to thoughts of you.”

He panted against my mouth. “What did you think about?”

“This,” I said. “Your hands on me, your lips all over my body.”

“God,” he groaned. “And here you are. Right in front of me. And I want nothing more than to have all of that and more with you.”

He backed me down the hallway, yanking off my shirt and unbuttoning my pants.

It felt so urgent, like we were running out of time. Not only because I had a job to get to, but also because I never felt certain of how many more days we might have left.

“I need to touch you,” he said, hemming my thighs against the bed, and forcing me to lean back.

About The Author - 

Mother, wife, reader, dreamer. Christina lives in the Midwest with her husband and son--her two favorite guys.

She's addicted to lip gloss and salted caramel everything. She believes in true love and kissing, so writing romance novels has become a dream job.

Author of the Between Breaths series from Penguin. ALL OF YOU, BEFORE YOU BREAK, WHISPER TO ME and PROMISE ME THIS available now. Book five in the series, THERE YOU STAND, coming in April, 2015.

Also, her Adult Contemporary Romance, TWO OF HEARTS is releasing on May 5th, 2015.

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