Mia Ryan was on the path to make all her
dreams come true. Her life was everything she wanted it to be; until one
fateful night changed everything – leaving her broken and without direction.
Nearly a year later, she still has little faith in anyone or anything.
Desperate to reclaim her life’s ambition, she takes an unexpected offer that
promises to solve all her problems. But as Mia moves forward, she’s faced with
obstacles she couldn’t have foreseen. The biggest of them lies within the
mystery of Ethan Fitzgerald; a man who affects her like no other, but who she
should avoid pursuing, at all costs.
On a mission himself, Ethan Fitzgerald
didn’t care who he pissed off on his road to fulfill his mother’s dying wish.
He relied on himself, and was closed off to the world around him – until Mia
Ryan walked through his door. Normally one to avoid messy emotions, Ethan’s
world is turned upside down by Mia, and he can’t seem to get enough of her.
There are lines you can cross that will
change the course of your life forever …
“What the hell are you doing here? Are you
stalking me now?” I snapped.
I attempted to remove his hand, but the
effort behind it was marginal. Everything within me relished his hands all over
me. My knees became weak with the heavy want coursing between my legs. My upper
body constricted with my wayward needs. Ethan tightened his grip as he whirled
me around so that my back was on his front. The music shifted to a slow,
deliberate song that was fitting for my predicament. I cursed Usher underneath
my breath for coming out with this song. Ethan had buried me into his body. It
was impossible not to notice his hardness. He ran his hands down the front of
my thighs until he hit bare skin.
“It's hard to stalk someone when they're
in the club that you own,” he shot back.
“You own this place?” I stammered.
“I have a vested interest, so I come in on
occasion. You can imagine my surprise when I discovered you were here,” he
remarked.
My concentration was dwindling with every
stroke he made upon my body. Ethan continued running his hands up and down my
thighs, causing my heart to beat out of my chest. I bit my lip to keep from
moaning from the pleasure when his fingers lingered towards the inside. My
hands took on a mind of their own as they slid down his waist and thighs. His
breaths trickled across my neck. It heightened the erotic dance south of me. I
was in the danger zone with him. I fought to find my rational side to avoid
undressing for him right then and there. My mind grasped at the few functioning
brain cells to keep him talking. It was my last line of defense to keep him
from kissing me.
“Why are you so upset?”
“I'm angry because you keep denying me
when it's clear you want me. To top it off, you come to my club and dance with
countless men right in front of me,” Ethan growled.
He ran his nose down my neck before
licking away a bead of sweat. I gasped. The hand that he had moved to my waist
slipped underneath my top. He caressed my belly before running his fingers
further down, making every ounce of me come to a dull ache. Against my will, my
body moved in ways to encourage him to travel further south to take full
advantage of me. Ethan's hands settled along my waistline, lazily trailing his
fingers along it. My mind screamed one last time that this was not an option
for me. In a lastditch attempt, I paused his hands so he wouldn't go any
further. Ethan whipped me around to face him. The passion in his eyes was
unmistakable.
“I'm trying to do the right thing,” I
moaned.
His hands drifted underneath my shirt and
up my sides on their way north this time. As he progressed along my rib cage to
the lower line of my bra, he moved us off the dance floor. Ethan pushed me up
against a pillar at the far end of it. He brought his body right into mine. He
tossed in an occasional thrust of the hips as he pinned me, just to remind me
how very well he knew my body. Ethan cupped my breast with tender strokes of
his hand before pressing his lips on a spot underneath my ear lobe. It was
enough to melt every part of me. I was throbbing all over for him.
“You want me. I want you. I don't care
what's right or wrong,” Ethan hissed.
I tilted my neck as he trailed deep kisses
down my collarbone and exposed shoulder. I wanted him so much that it was close
to making me burst. I moaned even louder when his teeth grazed the crook of my
shoulder. He sucked along my neck with eagerness, making no effort to hold back
his want for me. I slanted my head to bring my lips vigorously down on his. My
tongue drifted across the top of his mouth before his tongue met mine where
they danced to the beat with the music around us. My hands moved down to his
hips as he pumped against me. I slid them even further down to his ass. Ethan
responded by grinding harder and grabbing one of my legs to raise it around his
hip.
Our bodies melded together in an erotic
dance as our mouths devoured each other. I lost myself in the music, in his
lips, in his body, in his hands, and in the desires he brought out in me. His
hands ran up and down my body while his lips and hips brought me to the point
of no return.
Linkin Park - Numb
Goo Goo Dolls- Here Is Gone
Eighteen Visions - Broken Hearted
Jack’s Mannequin - The Resolution
Lifehouse - Broken
OneRepublic - Feel Again
Evanescence - Going Under
Carolina Liar - Show Me What I’m Looking For
Timbaland - Apologize (feat. OneRepublic)
Taylor Swift - Twenty-Two
Katy Perry - Last Friday Night
Moby - South Side
Bon Jovi - You Give Love a Bad Name
Fall Out Boy - Sugar We’re Going Down
The Verve - Never Let You Down
Switchfoot - I Dare You To Move
Enrique Igelsias - Escape
Black Eyed Peas - I Gotta Feeling
Usher - Love In This Club
Leann Rimes - Right Kind of Wrong
The Fire Theft - Heaven
Akon - Don’t Matter
Snow Patrol - Open Your Eyes
Colbie Caliet - Fallin’ For You
Howie Day - Collide
Sum 41 - With Me
Lifehouse - Everything
Buckcherry - Sorry
Maroon 5 - Love Someday
Blind Pilot - Half Moon
M. M. Koenig was born and raised in
Minnesota. She now lives in the Twin Cities area with her loving dog Marley.
She is a graduate of the University of Minnesota with a Bachelors of Science in
Sociology.
M. M. Koenig enjoys being active and has
a variety of interests that coincide with her passion for life. Always one to
try new things, she has acquired a variety of skills. Her sarcastic nature and
multitude of experiences tend to find their way into her novels.
When she has free time and isn't
writing, she spends as much time as she can with friends and family. To fuel
her soul, she is constantly looking for new music, movies, and books to keep
the writer's block at bay.
Top 10 Favorite Books
or Series
1. The Breathing
Series by Rebecca Donovan
2. Thoughtless Series
by S. C. Stephens
3. Fifty Shades of
Grey Trilogy by E. L. James
4. Hopeless and Losing
Hope by Colleen Hoover
5. Beautiful Disaster
and Walking Disaster by Jamie McGuire
6. The Bad Boys Series
by M. Leighton
7. The Neighbor from
Hell Series by R. L. Mathewson
8. The Love Series by
Tina Reber
9. Easy and Broken by
Tammara Webber
10. On Dublin Street
by Samantha Young
5 Fun Facts about
Conflicted
1. A recent review
commented on the relationships that Mia has with her friends (Bri, Jackson,
Trey, and Shane). The reviewer was
curious as to whether those characters were based on four of my closest
friends, and if so, that I was ‘one lucky chick’. The answer to that is yes! The friendship between Mia and Bri is very
similar to the relationship I have with my best friend. The friendship’s Mia has with the boys is
loosely based on the friendship I had with three of my closest guy friends in
college. My best friend and I lived with
a group of our closest guy friends our junior year of college. It was my most memorable year in
college. It’s a time I reflect on and
feel so incredibly fortunate to have so many memories with some amazing people.
2. I’m a very active
person that loves trying new things. In
chapter fifteen, Ethan whisks Mia away for the day to help take her mind off
things. He takes her to the pier to
spend a day out on the lake. How Mia
learns how to wakeboard was loosely based off when I learned how to
wakeboard. There was an incredibly handsome
guy that taught me how to over the course of a summer.
3. I wrote Conflicted
out of order. The middle came to me
before the rest of the story did, and I went with it. I wrote for nearly six months straight and
inadvertently wrote three-fourths of Complicated with Conflicted. After continuous requests from my closest
girlfriends to read what I had, I finally shared a few chapters. It was then that I realized that I had wrote
two books at once. As a result, I
divided the two books and made some minor adjustments to Complicated to ensure
the timeline remained accurate.
4. Mia’s story has
been with me for a very long time. I was
terrified to actually write it. I had
written on and off over the last ten years and it was always a version of Mia’s
story. My best friend gave me the push I
needed to finally commit to writing a novel and to later publishing it.
5. I’ve had several
reviewers state that they felt like they were watching a movie or TV drama
while reading Conflicted. I can honestly
say that part of my writing process is seeing the entire scene in my head prior
to writing it down. In doing so, I try
to be as true to the moment as I possibly can be and hope that the setting and
emotions hit the mark.
