Bonded for Life - Book Tour and Giveaway

​Was she a dangerous infatuation, or a second chance at love?

Bonded for Life
by Sharon Buchbinder
Genre: Small Town, Second Chance, Romantic Suspense 

Lola Getz and Webster Bond felt an instant spark when they met as high school students in Victory Shores. But their budding romance was cut short when Lola’s parents died in a plane crash and she had to return to Mexico. There, she became a famous artist and married a man who turned out to be a fraud. Webster, meanwhile, joined the army, earned medals of honor, and came back to his hometown as a cop.

Years later, Lola’s life is in danger when armed men break into her house. She flees to the only place she feels safe: her twenty-fifth high school reunion. Webster is surprised and thrilled to see her again—and vows to keep her safe. But is she his long-lost love or a deadly temptation?


Amazon * Bookbub * Goodreads

​

​Prologue

Victory Shores High School
Victory Shores, New York
Twenty-Five Years Ago

Lola Getz threaded her way through the crowd, anxious to get to her locker to grab her books for her next class. Members of the football team, spread out between the locker-lined walls, streamed toward her and blocked her path.
Madre de Dios. Just what I need today.
A hulking offensive linebacker stepped in front of her and stared down her blouse. “Hey, Chica! Why are you in such a hurry?” Waves of body odor rolled off him and over Lola.
Wishing she had a can of deodorant to hose him down, she waved a hand in front of her face to dispel the B.O. “I have to get to class.”
“I have to get to class,” he mimicked in a high-pitched voice. “Why bother? You’re going to get married and change diapers.”
How many times in her life had she heard this sexist crap? She was sick and tired of being told all she was good for was to take care of a man and to breed. She was an artist, a damn good one, and no one was going to take that away from her. No one.
Someone pinched her butt. Hard.
She whirled and kneed the creep in the crotch. The quarterback, who often bragged he was the smartest player on the team, howled and dropped to the floor.
Lola considered the writhing boy. “Not so smart now, are you?”
Ms. Cross, the Women’s Studies teacher, materialized at her elbow. “Where are you supposed to be, Lola?”
“I was trying to get to my locker—until this pack of hyenas attacked me.”
“Go on. I’ll take care of them.” Ms. Cross yelled, “A month’s detention for the entire football team.”
“Aww, come on!”
“Not fair.”
“We were joking!”
“She attacked the QB!”
“I didn’t do nothing!”
“Dickhead made us do it!”
Escaping the tumult, Lola raced down the hall and around the corner. She skidded to a stop at her locker and yanked the door open. She had a fraction of a second to register something didn’t belong in the narrow space—a scrawny kid!—before he fell on top of her.
With a loud “oof,” she landed flat on her back on the floor. The boy’s face smashed into hers, his beak of a nose pressing into her right eyeball. In the moment, all she could think of was, “At least he doesn’t reek of B.O.!”
“Ohmigod, ohmigod!” The kid scrambled to get up, slid on the notebook-paper-strewn floor, and fell on top of her again.
A sharp elbow jabbed her in the breast. “Watch it, compadre!” she yelped.
His arms flailed and sought purchase on the recently waxed floor. “Sorry,” the kid moaned. “Sorry, so sorry!”
She attempted to roll out from under him, only to get tangled in his legs.
Madre de Dios. What else can go wrong today?
The poor boy’s expression as he tried to get off her, only to slide with a clang into the metal locker, set her off on a burst of giggles.
“Ohmigod, you’re crying.” His face creased with worry. “Don’t move. I’ll get the school nurse.”
Shaking with mirth, Lola gasped, “No. Stop. Don’t go.”
He knelt at her side and peered into her eyes. “Your pupils are dilated. You’re in shock.”
“I’m fine, I swear.” She sat up and wiped a tear off her cheek. “Who put you in there?”
“My arch-enemy, Dick Heade, and his merry football henchmen.” The kid extended his hand and assisted her to her feet. “They think it’s tons of fun.”
“What a cabrón!”
“If that means what I think it means, yeah. He is a—”
“Bastard.”
“I was going to say dickhead, but then that’s his name.” The boy shrugged. “Overkill.”
If the kid hadn’t been as skinny as a decoration for Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, he would have been cute—and sexy in a Johnny Depp kind of way. When he’d been on top of her, he’d rubbed her in all the wrong places—and caused all kinds of sensations that she’d never felt before. In fact, she hadn’t wanted the feelings to stop. Where had that come from? And he’d made her laugh. No other guy in this school had made her giggle like that before. “What is your name, amigo?”
“Webster. Webster Bond.”
“Hmm. Stirred but not shaken. I like that in a man.”
His face became a deep red. “And you are…?”
“Lola. Lola Getz.”
The class bell rang.
“Mierda. Late—again.”

****

Dazed, Webster watched the hypnotic sway of Lola’s hips as she walked away. She tossed a glance over her shoulder and smiled at him. His heart did a flip-flop sort of thing, and he grabbed his chest. Do I need to see a doctor? Or did she make my heart go into overdrive?
She was so different from the other girls. Nice. Sincere, not fake. And beautiful. Her long black hair had smelled like roses and summer days. And her centerfold body, curvy and soft in all the right places….
He closed his eyes and recalled the moments she’d writhed beneath him. Heat traveled from his head to his toes and all points in between. For a nanosecond, he’d contemplated calling after her, getting her number, asking her out. The idea had evaporated the moment he’d spotted Dick Heade grinning at him with his Hollywood-white teeth. His was the smile of a shark about to devour his prey.
“Oh, hey, Dick. How long have you been standing there?”
“Long enough to see you fall on top of the booty-licious Mexican exchange student, Dweebster.”
Webster wished he could knock that smug look off his tormentor’s face. He had to turn the tables on Dickhead or the cabrón, as Lola had called him, would never stop bullying him.
“I agree, she’s nice. Thanks for the set-up.”
Dick frowned and tilted his head like a dog hearing a high-pitched sound.
“For the record, her name is Lola,” Webster added. “Lola Getz.”
Dick smirked. “Well, I’ll see she gets what she needs.”
“She needs to be left alone.”
“Who died and left you in charge?”
Webster winced.
“Did I hurt your feelings, Dweebster? Daddy’s dead, Mummy’s trying to keep a roof over your heads?”
Webster clenched his fists in his pockets. Punching Dick in the mouth would be a bad idea. The jerk’s father was president of the school board and could get people fired. Webster’s mother needed her job as the secretary for the counseling department at Victory Shores High School to pay the bills.
“What’s the matter, Dweeb? Cat got your tongue?”
“Lay off him.”
Dick faced his blonde girlfriend. “Hey, Beth! Ready for study hall?”
Seniors had more liberties than other students, including a free period to roam the halls. Study hall was a euphemism for going under the bleachers and making out. Beth, a cheerleader, probably knew every bench by name, rank, and serial number.
“We’ll go in a minute.” She faced Webster. “Sorry about your dad.”
“Thanks. I appreciate it.” It had been eight months since the car accident. Sometimes, like now, the ache from his father’s sudden death felt like yesterday. Other times, he forgot his father was gone—until his mother brought home day-old bread and thrift store clothes. Their lives had been turned upside down by his father’s death. And Dick knew it.
Dick opened his mouth to say something, but Beth grabbed his arm and pulled him away. “If you want to study, I suggest you shut up.”
Webster let out a long breath and stared up at the ceiling dotted with pencils and spitballs. He couldn’t wait to graduate and get away from all these jocks, jerks, and jackasses.
With one exception: a dark-eyed girl named Lola who’d probably forgotten about him the moment she’d flipped her hair over her shoulder and sashayed down the hall.
​

Sharon Buchbinder has been writing fiction since middle school and has the rejection slips to prove it. An RN, she provided health care delivery, became a researcher, association executive, obtained a PhD in Public Health, and is an administrator in higher education. She is the author of the Hotel LaBelle Series, the Jinni Hunter Series, and the Obsession Series. When not attempting to make students and colleagues laugh or writing, she can be found walking her pugs, Agent Frank and Igor Valentino, waiting on her Maine Coon cat, Buster Brown,  or breaking bread and laughing with family and friends.


Website * Blog * Facebook * Twitter * Instagram * Bookbub * Amazon * Goodreads

Follow the tour HERE for special content and a giveaway!
​
Nov 1
kickoff at Silver Dagger Book Tours
A Writer's Life

Nov 2
A Wonderful World of Words
I'm Into Books

Nov 3
Ilovebooksandstuffblog
Zia Westfield

Nov 4
Maggie Blackbird

Nov 5
Bedazzled By Books

Nov 6
J.M. Northrup
Naughty Nightie Book Blog

Nov 7
Word Processor, Romance, Cats, Kids and Creed
All Things Dark & Dirty

Nov 8
Book Reviews by the Reluctant Retiree
4covert2overt ☼ A Place In The Spotlight ☼

Nov 9
Plain Talk Book Marketing
The Sexy Nerd 'Revue'

Nov 10
Lisa Everyday Reads
Books all things paranormal and romance

Nov 11
Book Bites....with a side of coffee

Nov 13
#BRVL Book Review Virginia Lee Blog
C.A.Milson

Nov 14
Tina Donahue - Heat with Heart
Celticlady's Reviews

Nov 15
All The Write Stuff
Country Mamas With Kids

Nov 16
eBook Addicts
Girl with Pen

Nov 17
❧Defining Ways❧
Insane Books

Nov 18
Craving Lovely Books

Nov 20
Inside the Insanity
Kenyan Poet

Nov 21
Momma Says: To Read or Not to Read
My beauty my books

Nov 22
Midnight Book Reader

Nov 23
Thanksgiving

Nov 24
Scrupulous Dreams

Nov 27
ⒾⓃⓉⓇⓄⓈⓅⒺⒸⓉⒾⓋⒺ ⓅⓇⒺⓈⓈ
Stormy Nights Reviewing & Bloggin'

Nov 28
Sylv.net
Royally Insane Books

Nov 29
The Book Dragon
The Scratching Post

Nov 30
Twisted Book Ramblings
Trixie Reports Books

Dec 1
The Bookshelf Fairy
Painting With Words

a Rafflecopter giveaway