'Without Chase' by Jo Frances

Blurb:

After a difficult childhood raised by an unreliable mother, Chase Reston finally has the life he's always dreamed of. He has an NBA career, a bachelor pad on the beach and a great relationship with his model girlfriend Jamie. Then overnight, a gambling scandal destroys it all. Determined to protect those he loves from being implicated, Chase decides to cut himself off from them until his name is cleared. He embarks on a career saving strategy---playing basketball overseas and dating a sexy actress to raise his profile. His new life also results in an unexpected benefit: finding love and friendship in the most unexpected places. Meanwhile, a devastated Jamie, seeing only that Chase has coldly and quickly moved on, finds herself falling in love with the heir of a powerful political family. Adam is Jamie's perfect match and talk of an engagement quickly develops. Will Chase regain his reputation in time before losing Jamie for good? Or will they decide that their relationship is a first love that has run its course?

Read an excerpt:

If Chase had known that by the end of that day, his life would be changed forever, he would have made it a point to remember every precious thing that happened. Instead, the day started out like most. He woke up to the pleasant feeling of his girlfriend Jamie spooned up against him and nuzzled her awake. 

"Hey." 

Her blue eyes fluttered open and she turned over, nestling into his shoulder. "Hey, baby." she said softly. "I missed you." Jamie had been in Rio for the past week working, and the week before that he had been away on a road trip.

"I missed you too. I missed you a lot." Their separations were getting harder to bear. Jamie's modeling career, launched the night he was drafted into the NBA, had been successful from the beginning. But now it was beginning to take on a life of its own as she was being offered acting roles, and work with instantly recognizable designers. Terms such as All-American beauty captured her blonde hair, large blue eyes and lush lips. But the long legs that held up her nearly six-foot frame, and a feminine but athletic figure made Jamie a rarity in that she appealed to both the fashion people and the mass market alike.

Chase drew her closer, tugging off the tee shirt she wore. "I know we've been together almost two years, but come on, it isn't time to start wearing sweats to bed yet," he teased her as the shirt came off. 

"I was cold last night," she said. Chase ran his hands all over her skin as she talked, golden from her time on the Rio beaches. "Maybe you shouldn't keep your windows wide open."
"Maybe you should just sleep closer to me." He buried his face in her hair. "I'll keep you warm."

"We won't get much sleep that way." She smiled up at him as he lowered his body into hers.

 Available on Amazon

About the author:

Jo Frances is a Southern California based writer. She worked as a writer's assistant in a Hollywood production studio, where she met many of the people that inspired the Jamie and Chase series. Although she is much happier as an independent writer, blogger and aspring reality show contestant, she retains a soft spot for the people whose lives make waiting in line at the grocery store checkout go by a lot faster.