USA TODAY bestselling author Adriana Herrera makes her triumphant return to contemporary romance (after her stellar historical debut A Caribbean Heiress in Paris) with the release of On The Hustle!
Intrigued? Well read on to discover the synopsis and an excerpt from On The Hustle, which releases on October 11th 2022.
Alba Duarte is the queen of the side hustle.
As the eldest daughter in her crisis-prone family, she’s always stepped up to help. Her favorite gig is doing Instagram-worthy, bookish-themed bedroom makeovers for friends. Her most hated? Working as the assistant to the most gorgeous—and most infuriating—man on earth.
Theo Ganas is a former Olympic swimmer and heir to a bona fide real estate empire. He’s also about as warm and fuzzy as a New York City winter, and quite frankly, Alba has had enough of his ridiculous demands and cold shoulder. When opportunity knocks, she decides to put herself first for once…which means leaving her demanding boss—and relatives—behind.
Her new life in Dallas seems like everything Alba’s ever wanted, until a bafflingly charming and attentive Theo turns up in the Lone Star State with an offer she simply cannot refuse. Agreeing to do a home improvement reality TV show with her sexy, and suddenly flirtatious, former boss is not a good idea, but it just might be the makeover her heart has been waiting for.
“What’s this?” I squeaked out, pointing at the two plates on the coffee table. There were two cushions side by side on the rug and he’d lit all the candles. It was atmospheric as hell and this meal had just become an endurance challenge.
“I thought we could watch something,” he said, as he uncorked a bottle. I stared at the food like it was going to jump off the plate and grab my face.
“Sit,” he ordered as he passed me my glass and lowered himself down, but my knees didn’t budge.
“They’re going to get cold,” he grumbled through a mouthful of taco. Seeing him wolfing down food like a regular human put me a little bit more at ease.
“Damn, you’re so freaking pushy,” I protested, sinking down next to him. He scoffed or maybe some taco went down the wrong pipe. It was hard to know with how much food he was shoveling down this throat. “Also, rude. Isn’t the chef supposed to eat after the guests?”
“The chef does whatever the fuck he wants,” he informed me after washing down a mouthful with some beer. It was so annoying how hot I found his rude ass. “Eat, and if you don’t stop putting your ass in my face, one of these days I’m going to take a bite out of it.” I almost dropped my damn tacos.
“What the fuck, Theo?” I knew my face had to be beet red. He just grinned and licked his lips, and thankfully I was already sitting down, or my knees would’ve given out for sure.
“What?” he asked, like I was the crazy one. “I said what I said. Your ass is bitable.” He popped the rest of the taco into his grinning mouth.
I had shit to say. A lot of it. But I decided to eat a taco first, because there was still the chance that I’d gone into some kind of low blood sugar episode and was hallucinating. I picked up what looked like a birria taco with one eye on the plate and the other on Theo’s slick expression. I dipped it in the little bowl of broth first, then closed my eyes and moaned when I actually took a bite.
“Holy shit!” It was hard to stay pissed at his greasy behind when he provided me with tacos this good. The meat was tender and perfectly seasoned and the broth was tangy with a hint of smoke. My taste buds were in heaven. “Did you make this?” I asked, the ass-biting comment forgotten as I practically came from a second bite of taco.
“Nah.” He was smiling with teeth now, like me losing it over a taco was the absolute best thing. “I got it at a spot down the street.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. It was kind of fun not having to be pleasant to him all the time. “I thought you were going to cook for me.”
The smile from a minute ago was still tipping up his lips. But it wasn’t amusement I saw on his face. Not quite. It was…satisfaction. It seemed that me being a brat about him cooking for me was great news for Theo.
“I said I’d feed you,” he teased. “Not that I’d make it.” I really resented that he could look that hot in just a white T-shirt and jeans.
“Thank you, again,” I said through my last bite. Instead of answering he grabbed his beer from the table and leaned back to watch me eat.
“There’s nothing to thank me for.” It was unnerving to have him this close. Especially when my body could no longer refrain from reacting to his proximity. “You were great this morning.”
“I hated not being able to ream out that asshole,” I finally said and kept my attention on a smudge on the glass top of the table.
“I was surprised you didn’t. You never shied away from going toe to toe with me in the office.” He sounded genuinely confused that I hadn’t acted with Chase the same way I did with him. But truth was that with Theo, even when he was at his most forbidding, I’d never felt like it wasn’t safe to tell him what I thought. Even when I knew he wouldn’t like it.
“Chase is looking for any excuse to claim I’m not fit to do this job. I’m not giving him any ammunition by running my mouth. But now that you scared the shit out of him, I assume he’ll be watching his back.”
“He better.” Jesus, that sexy, mildly threatening rumble in his voice. It made my entire lower body turn to water.
“You’ve got something there,” he said, as he lifted one of the linen napkins he’d brought from the kitchen—the man was the poster child for Taurus rising, always prepared—and dabbed the corner of my mouth. That little bit of contact, barely a touch, jolted me. My nipples hardened from the blood rushing to places it ought not go. I bit my lip and his own parted just a bit, a sharp intake of breath lifting his chest. I knew the air couldn’t actually be crackling around us, but I could almost swear that if I lifted my hand thunderbolts would shoot right out of it.
He was so close, those gray eyes sparkling, lit up by something that I’d only gotten glimpses of before, but that now he was finally letting me see. There had been occasions when I’d catch Theo looking at me in a way that felt…not so much intrusive, but maybe startled. Like he didn’t want to be staring but couldn’t quite help it. But since his arrival in Dallas he just let himself linger for long moments. Examining me as if he found the sight absolutely riveting. My lips tingled as he locked his gaze on them. I desperately wanted him to kiss me. I was woman enough to sit with that truth.
I wanted Theo Ganas.
From ON THE HUSTLE by Adriana Herrera, published by Carina Press. Copyright © 2022 by Adriana Herrera. Reprinted courtesy of Carina Press.
