Tag: Katie Ashley

Sports + Bad Boy + Second Chance

The Hard Way, by Katie Ashley, is NOW AVAILABLE!

Amazon US: http://amzn.to/2bAuwiA

Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/2bzDAWm

**Additional retailers to follow**

About The Hard Way…

Cade Hall has always been the golden boy of the gridiron. Because of his talent at football, coupled with his father’s wealth, he’s always gotten his way. But when a night of drunken debauchery lands him in hot water with the college athletic board, neither his influential father nor his charming grin can save him. Cade finds it a total buzz kill when he is sentenced to community service with troubled youth at an inner-city shelter. But his nightmare is only beginning when his greatest high school regret is the very one in charge of the program, and she has him by the balls in more ways than one.

For Avery Prescott, senior year was a nightmare of epic proportions, and Cade Hall played the lead villain. After she fled her small town for college in the bright lights of Atlanta, she thought she had escaped the painful memories of her past. She never could have imagined Cade would waltz through the door of the outreach program she presided over. But Avery has news for Cade—she isn’t the same shy, doormat of a girl she was in high school. Since she holds Cade’s football future in her hands, she’s more than ready to make payback a real bitch.

Will they stay in the defensive zone or discover that sometimes life’s greatest lessons are learned the hard way?

An Excerpt from The Hard Way…

“Is this one of those old-timey record players?”

“A Victrola,” I answered as I joined him.

Cade snapped his fingers. “That’s right. There was one of these at my grandparents’ house.” He eyed the contraption curiously. “Does it work?”

“Sure.” I set my cup down before winding up the crank. Then I placed the needle on the record, and a slow instrumental tune came out of the Victrola’s horn. At Cade’s groan, I grinned. “Not a fan of classical music?”

“No. It’s more about the fact that it’s one of Strauss’s waltzes.”

Cocking my brows at him, I asked, “You know Strauss?”

With a snort, Cade said, “Don’t look so surprised, and no, I didn’t learn about him in Harlington’s music appreciation class either.”

I held up my hands. “I wasn’t alluding to anything.”

“Yes, you were alluding, as you say, to the stereotype of me being an uncivilized jock,” Cade teased in a snooty-sounding voice.

“I’m sorry. I’ve got to stop doing that. You really are so much more than a jock.”

He swept his hand to his heart. “Why, thank you.”

“So tell me how you know Strauss.”

“I have waltzed at ten cotillions and three debutante balls.”

“Wow. That’s quite impressive.”

“What about you?”

“I’ve never been to a cotillion or deb ball.”

“No, I mean, haven’t you ever waltzed before?”

I laughed. “Oh yeah, I often practice my dance skills out in the corn.”

“Every lady should know how to dance.”

“But I’m not a lady.”

Cade smiled. “Yeah. You are.” When I started to protest, he said, “Money and position aren’t what make a lady. It’s what’s inside you that counts.”

His words and his tone caused the breath to wheeze out of my lungs. Just when I thought he couldn’t surprise me any more with the things he said, he went and said something like that. “Thank you,” I finally mumbled.

“You’re welcome.” The world seemed to slow to a crawl around us as we stood there staring at each other. The sound of Cade clapping his hands together caused me to jump. “Okay. One waltz lesson coming up.”

“I’m going to warn you that you’re probably going to regret this. I’m the worst dancer ever.”

“How can anyone who plays the piano suck at dancing?”

“I’m not sure how it’s possible, but trust me, it is.”

Cade laughed. “We’ll see.”

A tingling jolt of electricity shot through me when Cade took one of my hands in his. After he put his other hand on the small of my back, he drew me closer to him. Even with all the times I had sat next to him while we worked on our project, I hadn’t been this close.

“Now you put your other hand on my shoulder.”

“Okay.”

“Step back with your left foot and then bring your right to the side.” After I followed Cade’s lead, he said, “Now bring your left foot to your right, and then step forward with your right.”

My mind spun as I frantically tried processing Cade’s instructions. Somehow it managed to click together, and I followed his lead. “Hey, you’ve got it,” he remarked with a smile.

“It’s not because of me—it must be the teacher.” I glanced up at him and smiled. “Sports, brains, and dancing; you’re really a true triple threat.”

“You forgot devastating good looks and charm.”

I grinned. “Does that make you a quintuple threat?”

“Make it a sextuple threat if you throw in the money.”

“I should have known you’d find a way to have ‘sex’ in your title.”

Cade threw his head back and laughed. “Always busting my balls, Prescott.”

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