For today's #TeaserTuesday, we bring you an exclusive excerpt from Nicole Dyke's second Kensley Panther's novel, Guarded. Guarded releases on Monday December 9, 2023 and is currently available for pre-order on Amazon.
From the Blurb:
Jameson Bates
I have a secret. We all have secrets. I’m nothing special.
It just so happens, however, that my sworn enemy also knows my secret.
He’s the absolute worst person to know this, and there’s nothing I can do about it.
What he does with this information is totally out of my hands and completely in his.
This is why I’ve never let anyone in. I don’t trust easily. I keep to myself.
I’m closed off. Angry.
Guarded.
Garrison Dixon
I shouldn’t have seen what I did.
I shouldn’t know what I do.
But how Bates can think I would ever say anything is beyond me.
Everyone thinks I’m just a big, dumb football player with nothing more to him.
The truth is I’ll never say a word about what I witnessed. I don’t care about it the way he thinks I do. I wouldn’t hurt him.
And I’d let him know that—all of it—if he wasn’t so damn . . .
Guarded.
Excerpt:
And then from behind me, I hear the loud voice that haunts my nightmares, laughing happily with a couple of other guys from the team. He stops, shooting that blinding white smile right at me. His blond hair is shaggy, like he can’t be bothered to cut it. He’s wearing a t-shirt and jeans, looking like the fuckboy he is.
“Hey, Batesy.”
I hate that fucking nickname. I forgot. Trav isn’t the only one with a nickname for me. Dixon loves adding a “y” to my last name, making it all cutesy and making me want to puke.
“Walk. Away.” I glare at him, but he doesn’t heed my advice.
He saunters up to me with that cocky grin that’s always present on his stupidly handsome face. Not a care in the world because that’s Garrison Dixon for you . Too damn dumb to know the world is shitty.
“Happy birthday.” I grimace, hating that everyone knows every goddamn thing about everyone else in this town. He grins widely. “I can’t fucking believe you beat me to eighteen by one week.”
I should just walk away. I don’t need this shit. I don’t need to be thinking about Dixon. “As if I can help that. What the hell do you want?”
“You still pissed-off at me?”
I roll my eyes. “I’ve been pissed-off at you since you took my fucking glue stick in kindergarten, Dixon. Now fuck off.”
He chuckles at that, but I see a glimmer of something else there. Maybe hurt ? But I don’t think so. Again, I don’t think anything can hurt him. He’s too big and too oblivious for anything to hit him deep enough to hurt.
“Jesus fucking Christ. It was mine . You stole it from me. I let you borrow it, and then I took it back.”
“That’s bullshit.” My eyes widen with shock and anger because that’s so not how that happened. It was my goddamn glue stick, and he knows it. And fuck, I’m eighteen years old today and getting into a fight about glue. “It was mine, and you know it. You knew it then too, but in Dixon’s world, no one else exists. It’s your world, and everything belongs to you.”
“Is that really so hard to admit?” he asks, and I think he’s actually serious.
“Fuck off, Dixon.” I start to walk away, but he catches my arm, stopping me. I glare up at him, hoping to slice through him with my eyes, I guess.
And for whatever reason, he falters. Dropping my arms, he runs his fingers through his shaggy hair. “Look, I didn’t say anything about you and Travis.”
Goddammit. We aren’t doing this here. “Shut. Up.”
“No.” He’s such a stubborn motherfucker. “I’m not going to shut up. You’ve always been a prickly bastard, even in kindergarten, but this is getting out of hand. I didn’t say anything about Travis and you, and I’m not going to say anything.”
I grab the collar of his t-shirt, pushing him until his back hits the lockers, and look into his eyes with all the threat I can muster. “Nothing happened for you to say anything about.”
“That’s what I’m saying. I didn’t say anything, so this animosity is pretty fucking stupid.”
“Where the hell did you learn that word? It’s awfully big.”
“You talking about my vocabulary or something else? Because if you’re talking about something else, yes, it is.”
He raises an eyebrow in challenge, and I nearly startle at the innuendo. What the hell is he doing? Not that dick jokes aren’t present daily in high school, but he shouldn’t be talking about dick to me. A guy he saw kissing another guy. Someone he’s holding a secret about and can hurt anytime he feels like it.
Guarded is currently available on Amazon for pre-order and will be available as part of your Kindle Unlimited subscription.
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