Sail

Book Two in The Wake Series

by M. Mabie

Blog Tour 13th – 25th April

This isn’t just a two-year long one-night stand. It’s my life.

This is my life. Our life. It isn’t just some careless affair.

I’ve made the worst decisions a woman could, but I’ll earn my second chance.

She can try keeping all the guilt for herself, but I’m just as much to blame.

Loving Casey wasn’t my biggest mistake. Fighting it for so long was.

I’ll show her how fearless our love makes me. I’ll protect her torn heart.

He still has magic in his eyes. He’s the man who makes me happy.

Her voice still brings me to my knees. She says my name like it’s sacred.

I live for the day when I’m his. To take care of him. To love him the way he deserves.

I can’t wait to be all she needs. I can give her a happy life, security and so much love.

Sometimes two ships never meet in the night, but ours did.

Sometimes the water is rough. It beats you all to hell until you have no choice but get stronger.

Our love story reads more like a tragedy, but to me it’s clean and pure.

Let them point their fingers. Without a love like ours, they haven’t really lived. I pity them.

I’m a cheating wife and a villain. I am his honeybee.

I’m a snake in the grass and I sleep best when I’m lying next to his wife.

I want to be his everything.

I’m nothing without her anyway.

This isn’t even close to over.

It’ll never be over.

Sail is the second book in the continuing Wake Series. For more information on the first book in the series see the link for Bait below.

The room was dimly lit with the few lights we’d left on. It was late, and even though I was tired from travel and just life in general, I craved the feel of him.

Our suite was warm, void of chill or worry. In the bedroom, we didn’t bother with a light, knowing where everything was by memory.

He guided me to bed. He let my hair down and brushed it off my shoulders, and then he held me close and pressed his lips to mine. Casey laid us down so softly I barely knew we were moving until I felt the fluffy pillow under my head.

I deepened our kiss and moaned when his body pressed against mine.

“We’re not going to have sex tonight, Blake,” he said breathlessly around my lips. Why? I wanted him so badly. Just like that. Slow and easy.

I tried to evict thoughts of uncertainty from my mind, but they snuck in with his words. His behavior was contradictory. He’d shown me nothing but affection and care since we saw each other in the airport.

Why wouldn’t he make love to me?

Old demons felt the need to speak up.

What if he doesn’t want you after the chase? What if he only likes the thrill?

I felt my body begin to tense for the first time since we’d arrived. The hands that had been wandering across his back stilled. The leg I had started to wrap around his waist slowly began falling to the side.

“Hey, where are you going,” he said, as he kissed my neck and ran a hand through my hair to the nape of my neck.

“I don’t understand,” I contested. “I want you.” He shifted his weight and I felt how hard he was against my inner thigh. He was definitely turned on. So what was his deal? “Don’t you want me, too?”

“Mmmm,” he breathed near my ear. “God, I want you.” His big right hand hitched my leg back around his hip and he palmed my ass, bringing my dress up to my waist in the process and exposing my pale pink underwear. “I’ve wanted you day and night for so long now. I don’t know how to not want you.” He spoke between kisses and rubbed his nose along my clavicle. Then he bit me gently at the crook of my neck. “But there’ve been too many times I’ve let that need for you cloud my focus.”

“But I—”

“No, Blake. Not tonight. Tonight, I’m going to make you come and then I’m going to sleep next to you. I’m going to fall asleep with you in my arms. All those nights I missed out on holding you and feeling you next to me. I stole them from both of us being scared and stubborn.

I have to be better this time. I see all that you’re doing and I’m so damn proud of you, honeybee,” he said calmly. “But I want more than just physical things from you. It isn’t that I don’t want you. Fuck, do I want you. But I need all of you. Not just this.” He moved against my center and I knew I had to change his mind. After hearing those sweet

words, I had to have him and I wasn’t going to fight fair.

“Please, Casey. Fuck me.”

He growled and pressed his forehead to my chest. “You’re evil.” He laughed. I wished he sounded defeated, but mostly he sounded amused. “You’re not making it easy for me to be noble.”

“Don’t be noble then,” I said as I wound my arms around him and

pulled him closer to me.

“If you knew what I was thinking about doing to you, you’d know I wasn’t.” He rolled partially over toward the center of the bed and ran his hand under my dress and up to my breast.

“Then tell me,” I shamelessly suggested.

The tips of his fingers roamed down my stomach and my pulse sped up. His fingers slid under the sheer fabric of my underwear and my breaths came in spurts as I mentally begged him to keep going. I was so wound up.

“Don’t worry. I told you I’d take care of you.”

Sail Links Goodreads | Casey's Playlist | Blake's Playlist

Sail – M. Mabie

6 Brilliant and Beautiful Stars, Sail is perfection!

“The best things in life are worth waiting for, honeybee. Otherwise, fairy tales would start with happily ever after.”

I have been anxiously and patiently *HAHAHA* for Sail since I read the very last words of Bait. Needless to say it feels like forever, when in actuality it’s only been a month. I stalked Amazon for a full day and a half, hitting the refresh button, like a junkie needing her next fix! When it finally loaded, I dove in, without looking back, beyond excited to dive back into the words and the story that would more than likely leave me speechless, yet again.

Casey and Blake have already been on one hell of journey since we began this story, but when we saw them last, everything was up in the air. Casey knew in his very soul that he loved Blake, but was this ever going to be enough? Could he be strong enough to love her the way she truly deserved? Blake knew with every fibre of her being that Casey was the one, but would he be able to give her what she truly needs, and would she finally be able to stop hurting him? Could she be strong enough to make the hard choice and own her actions?

“Concave and convex, we fit together like two praying hands. A prayer that begged for absolution and time. We were both sinners and the truth of that hurt.”

Decisions have finally been made and with conviction and sheer determination to follow through Casey and Blake start out on a brand new path. A fresh start that begins first and foremost honesty, transparency, unapologetic love, maturity, sacrifice, devotion and most importantly trust. Having finally faced the consequences for their actions and having the veil pulled back, has allowed them to finally confront all of their weaknesses, face their insecurities and make some very hard choices, but they do it together.

“She was terrible at loving me. Never getting it right, but she tried. She fought hard, usually with herself, and that alone gave me hope.”

As reader who absolutely fell head over heels with this couple from the very start, you cannot possibly imagine the anxiety I had beginning Sail, I was extremely nervous and excited to see where Casey and Blake’s journey would ultimately lead. But as I progressed through the story I realized something, I had nothing to be afraid of. Having been through almost every possible form of emotional torture before, these two characters had become something that is astounding. They grew, they adapted, they trusted implicitly, and they became everything we as readers knew they could be. Never before has a transformation in characters affected me so much, I wanted to stand up and cheer, they are inspiring.

“I want her to trust my heart.”

Blake in this book, just astounded me, I think she may have just become one of my very favourite female leads in a story ever! She is totally transformed and her new outlook on everything in life, as well as love is a monumental departure from the flighty, confused, wishy washy girl we met in Bait. Casey is just as loveable in the book, actually if it’s even possible I fell even more in love with him in this book. He is strong, kind, thoughtful and extremely support of Blake. He displayed inconceivable restraint and patience in seeing his deepest desires through to the end.

“I will never leave you. Even when I’m gone. I’m here.”

Words fail me when I try to put into words how deeply affected I was by this book. I ran the full range of emotions while reading Sail. It’s simply perfect, in every way. I wouldn’t and couldn’t change a single word. Mabie took a story and characters that I absolutely adored and cranked it up by 1000. Mabie’s work is something that will move you deeply, her words, her voice is beautiful. Taking two characters that were so incredibly flawed and had made such unbelievably bad decisions come full circle was an absolute pleasure to experience. Sail is romance, its passion, its heartbreak, its perseverance, its learning and moving on from your mistakes, and your past, it’s facing the truth and discovering that love can ultimately overcome even the most incredible odds.

“Some people probably fall in love as if they’re peacefully dropped into a bed of feathers. Falling in love for us was like right before a bike wreck when the front wheel gets wobbly. Out of control.”

Bait

Book One in The Wake Series

Still on Sale for 99¢

He was trouble from the start, but I couldn't resist.

She was the best kind of trouble. The kind that was so wrong, it felt right.

I’ve tried and failed to stay away from him.

I’ve done everything in my power to make her mine and keep her.

He’s almost impossible to say no to.

She never tells me yes.

We’re always fighting.

When we’re not fighting, we’re… well… making up.

He makes me laugh so hard.

I miss her laugh the most.

I'm a liar.

She knows the truth, but won’t admit it.

Sometimes, I wish I'd never met him.

I wish we could meet all over again. I'd do better.

His sweet girlfriend knows.

The guy she’s with is a fool.

I’ll never love anyone like I love him.

She doesn’t love me enough to choose us.

It was the wrong place.

It was the wrong time.

It should have been him.

It will always be her.

Bait Links Goodreads | Casey’s Playlist | Blake’s Playlist

Bait – M. Mabie

5 Temper Tantrum Inducing Stars

“I’ve already warned you. You won’t be able to get enough. Now here’s your chance to stop this, while you still have the willpower.”

I chose to open my review with this quote because it’s simply the perfect warning before beginning Bait.

I will first start by saying that I am a complete sucker for angst ridden stories. The more turmoil, the better, and Bait more than delivers. It will quite literally cause you untold amounts of distress, and frustration causing more than a few outbursts of expletives!

This story is not for readers that are intolerant to infidelity in stories; Bait is the first chapter in the new Wake series by M. Mabie. Blake is a young successful woman on her journey to not only find her true self but also exploring and accepting her hearts truest desires. Real life, love and all the things that happen in between are far from cut and dry, right and wrong. Mabie explores all of the shades of grey in a story that compels you from the very start to settle into her world, and fall in love with Blake and Casey. The amount of conflict within these pages will most likely cause you to mutter and scream at your e-reader! I kept trying to reason with them, but they’re characters in a story, so they never heard a GD word I was saying to them, that never the less deterred me from continually trying. I’m sure I looked like a total lunatic, while reading this book.

Meeting Casey, the sexy and confident, brew master, with the unruly hair that refuses to be tamed, ignites a fire within Blake she never knew was possible. From the very start, Blake is drawn to Casey like a moth to a flame. Casey is drawn to Blake in the same way, oblivious to the pain it will cause him. The passion is white hot. One night, is never going to enough for them, its’ supposed to be a one night stand, and a way to take the edge off. The only hiccup in this scenario is that Blake is a very serious relationship with a man, whom for the most part is completely oblivious to who she really his. Cory is safe, level headed, practical, predictable, reliable and comfortable. Casey is the complete polar opposite; he’s adventurous, spontaneous, hot tempered, and sexy beyond words, passionate and a free spirit.

“Cory was attractive and Casey was perfect."

But where these two men differ the most, is in their understanding of the woman they both love. To their credit, the Blake that exists in each of their worlds’ could not be more different. Blake is torn from day one between, who she thinks she should be, what she believes is expected of her, and who she really is and who she is becoming. She slips on and off her masks easily enough early in the story, but as her heart and her mind wage war with each other, it becomes painfully obvious to everyone involved, that this cannot possibly end well. Straddling both worlds, is dangerous and taking its toll on Blake and Casey. Both of their struggles are painful and yet completely understandable.

How do you choose between two men, when you believe deep down, that you do indeed love them both?

How do you turn your back on someone, you have completely fallen in love with, even if they’re going to destroy you?

“There was no turning back. I shouldn’t have, but I warned him. I should have stopped, I also knew that I wouldn’t. I couldn’t. It felt too right.”

The writing in Bait is flawless, the story so incredibly captivating that I became lost in it. I found myself becoming incredibly emotional, and overly sensitive to what was happening within the pages. I was so completely invested in the events unfolding in front of me that I forgot I was reading a book! Bait is written in dual perspectives alternating between Blake’s thoughts and feelings and Casey’s and this makes the story even more powerful and insightful. My heart ached and broke for both of them continuously. Ironically enough I had not one single ounce of sympathy for Cory, Blake’s fiancé…that should tell you something I think. I had no problem what so ever in choosing the man for Blake its Casey, it’s always going to be Casey. They are meant for each other. My husband was constantly consoling me, and reiterating that it would be okay, everything would work out it in the end…but here’s the catch… Bait ends in a MASSIVE cliff hanger! This first book is so incredibly fraught with passion, deception, lies, omissions of truth, heart break and grief that not only will you not have a choice but to devour it, you will be sitting in the corner rocking back and forth muttering to yourself while begging Mabie for the next book.

“What we had was only for us. It was undefinable. We were both slaves to it.”

M. Mabie lives in Illinois with her husband. She is the author of the steamy comedy Fade In. Her sophomore release, Bait, is the first book in the angst-filled erotic Wake Series. She writes unconventional love stories and tries to embody "real-life romance."

She cares about politics, but will not discuss them in public. She uses the same fork at every meal, watches Wayne's World while cleaning, and lets her dog sleep on her head. She has always been a writer. In fact, she was born with a pen in her hand, which almost never happens. Almost.

M. Mabie usually doesn't speak in third-person either. She promises.