If You Stay

24-year old Pax Tate is an asshole.

Seriously.

He’s a tattooed, rock-hard bad-boy with a bad attitude to match.

But he’s got his reasons.

His mother died when Pax was seven, leaving a hole in his heart filled with guilt although he doesn’t understand why.  What he does know is that he and his dad are left alone and with more issues than they can count.

As Pax grew up, he tried to be the kid his father always wanted; the perfect golden boy, but it didn’t work.  His dad couldn’t overcome his grief long enough to notice and Pax couldn’t keep up the impossible perfect façade.

So he slipped far, far from it.

Now, he uses drugs and women to cope with the ugliness, the black void that he doesn’t want to deal with.  If he pretends that the emptiness isn’t there, then it isn’t, right?

Wrong.

And it’s never more apparent than when he meets Mila.

Sweet, beautiful Mila Hill is the fresh air to his hardened frown, the beauty to his ugly heart.  He doesn’t know how to not hurt her, but he quickly realizes that he’s got to figure it out because he needs her to breathe.

When memories of his mother’s death resurface from where he’s repressed them for so long, Mila is there to catch him when the guilt starts making sense.  Mila is the one…the one who can save him from his broken troubled heart; from his issues, from the emptiness.

But only if he can stop being an asshole long enough to allow it.

He knows that.  And he’s working on it.

But is that enough to make her stay?

***********

I couldn't put this book down! I read it in an afternoon.
At first I thought wow Pax is just kind of a sick guy - Just knowing how good looking he is and to just do these things with the "bar whores" is just beyond me but the more I read the more I understood all about Pax and his demons. Mila well she is everything Pax is not she soon becomes his sunshine. It's a struggle for him to hold on to that sunshine and sure enough it comes crashing down all around him. Mila is at a lose as to what to do and as she feared all along that he would shatter her heart he does. I know it's not intentional but Pax has work to do before he can make things right with Mila if she will have him.
Lot's of hot sex. Fabulous ending.
There's even a book 2 "If You Leave" which is based on Mila's sister Madison.

Quotes:

"There are some things in life that can't be explained. Period. Assholes are assholes. Rainbows are pretty. Kittens are cute. Chick flicks are sad. It's the way of things, no explanations."

"Oh, Red. If you want to turn up the heat, you've got to be careful not to get burned by the fire."

"She pulls me closer and in this moment, I now that she is everything that is light and good in the world."

"Sometimes we hurt those that we love the most."

CONTENT RATING

Romance: 4 out of 5

Kink: 3 out of 5 

Raunch: 3 out of 5

Overall Hotness:  5 out of 5