Blog Tour: Hold Me Like a Breath by Tiffany Schmidt

Hi all, today for the Hold me Like a Breath by Tiffany Schmidt blog tour hosted by The Fantastic Flying Book Club, I get to share an excerpt from this story with you. But first here's a little about the book.

Publisher: Bloomsbury
Publication Date: May 19th 2015. 

Penelope Landlow has grown up with the knowledge that almost anything can be bought or sold—including body parts. She’s the daughter of one of the three crime families that control the black market for organ transplants. Penelope’s surrounded by all the suffocating privilege and protection her family can provide, but they can't protect her from the autoimmune disorder that causes her to bruise so easily. And in her family's line of work no one can be safe forever. All Penelope has ever wanted is freedom and independence. But when she’s caught in the crossfire as rival families scramble for prominence, she learns that her wishes come with casualties, that betrayal hurts worse than bruises, that love is a risk worth taking . . . and maybe she’s not as fragile as everyone thinks.

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Excerpt

“You know, if I were a regular girl, a guy walking me to my door at the end of the night would be a date”.

Garrett raised one reddish eyebrow in a look that made my pulse jump. “Oh yeah?”

I let him enter first, his gray-green eyes scanning all corners of the rooms that lit up automatically as we passed through. I liked the estate best late at night. There were still security at the gate and patrolling, but there weren’t family members and staff around every rounded corner. This was the only time of day it felt more like a house and less like the headquarters of business.

In the foyer I paused beneath the chandelier whose crystals seemed to drip down and form the abstract sculpture displayed on the round marble table placed halfway between the two curved staircases that led up to the second floor.

I put one hand on my hip and pointed a finger at him, at the muscles visible through the navy cotton of his shirt.

“Though he’d take me on a more romantic evening, than the clandestine parking lot shadiness and a rat-infested apartment”.

“Don’t let Carter hear you call his place rat-infested and don’t forget the dinner- that was good pizza”.

Garrett followed me up to the left branch of the stairs. His hand on the railing right beside mine, his breath was in my ear. I stopped at the top and turned to face him-our eyes, our noses, mouths were almost level from my vantage point two steps above him.

“On my date, we’d eat dinner off real plates, not ones made of paper”

Garrett’s smile changed from amusement to something warmer, something that touched his eyes and made him look younger, less intense-more like the boy I’d grown up crushing on than the duty-focused man who’d come home from college with a gun.

“And would you let this guy kiss you at your door?” He stepped around me and into the hallway that led to my bedroom.

“That’s for me to know.”

I dropped my voice so it wouldn’t carry down the opposite hallway toward the light that crept out from under my parent’s bedroom door. My heart was pounding so loud, I had a hard time believing they couldn’t hear its drumbeat.

Though maybe they could, because the door cracked open and mother stepped out, all regal elegance with her hair down and curling around the shoulders of her satin robe. I froze where I was, half in her hallway, half in my own.

“How was your night, sweet pea? How are you?” “Fun. Great.”

With my bruised hand behind my back, I made a stay put gesture to Garrett. He was close. So close I could feel his body heat and all I wanted to do was lean into it.

“Thanks for letting me go, but can we talk in the morning?” I yawned.

“Of course. Get some rest.” “You too.”

Before her door was even completely shut, I was turning to Garrett hoping the interruption hadn’t killed the flirtation and energy of the moments before. He was waiting eyes on me with an intensity that made me need to fill the silence.

“Where were we? Oh, right. I was knowing things.”

I could feel my cheeks warming with blushes, but I still added, “Kissing things.”

“And I was going to ask if I could find them out.” Garrett whispered, his voice deep. “May I?”

“That depends.” I continued down the hallway to my bedroom. He followed.

“Not if you’re going to treat me like I’m not old or smart enough to make my own decisions.”

“You can’t ask me not to care about you. I’m always going to want to keep you safe.”  He reached for my doorknob, and for a moment he was all stiffness and attention as he pushed it open and scanned my room. It was a moment I needed. To catch my breath. To convince myself that this was reality and not a fairytale fantasy. He turned away from my room and looked at me in a way that he never had before. This was not the look he’d given me when he’d lost a bet at eleven and Carter had told him to kiss me as punishment. It was a gaze of fire and flames and like he wanted to devour me whole- and something else too... fear? Like maybe he was as nervous as I was. It was a combination so intimidating and thrilling that even I edged closer and tilted my chin up, I couldn’t help but use my least favourite word.

“You’ll be careful? My counts are good, so you can touch me, just be gentle.”

“I’d never hurt you princess”. His voice was low, vibrating with emotion, and his hands were in my hair, the tips of his fingers barely skimming my skin. He leaned down-

“Pen? You still up?” Carter’s footsteps padded up the patterned carpet of the stairs, smashing the moment before it’d truly begun. Garrett let go of my hair and stepped backward, but not fast enough . Or maybe too fast. Maybe the sight of Garrett and I framed in the doorway to my bedroom wouldn’t have tipped off Carter if we hadn’t been so frantic to put space between our bodies.

“No” he growled. 

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Tiffany Schmidt is the author of Send Me a Sign, Bright Before Sunrise, and Hold Me Like a Breath. She’s found her happily ever after in Pennsylvania with her saintly husband, impish twin boys, and a pair of mischievous puggles.

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