Top 10 of 2012 Day 4- Book Boyfriends of 2013 and a Giveaway!

Today’s post is a long one so bear with me! It’s Best Book Boyfriends of 2013 (MUST be from a book released in 2013 and from a book you've READ in 2013)

And make sure to stop by my co-hosts sites Fiktshun and Magical Urban Fantasy Reads for their lists! Oh and make sure to sign up with the linky to share your lists! And don’t forget to enter the giveaway! Details at the bottom of this post.

This is by far one of the hardest categories for me! There’s so many swoon-worthy guys so there are honorable mentions but they deserved to get as much attention as the others! I’m not doing covers for this post I’m sharing quotes and scenes from the books!

1. Hector de Ventierra  from The Bitter Kingdom by Rae Carson. He will always be in my heart and he will always be on my top 10 list. Anyone who says this deserves it!

He lifts his head and considers me thoughtfully. Then he tips up my chin with his thumb and kisses me again—a sweeter, gentler kiss that feels like sun breaking through the clouds.

The pit of my stomach buzzes as I press my forehead into his chest, saying, “I told you that you would kiss me again.”

He laughs. “It’s the ‘and more’ part I remember most vividly.” He gently pushes me away, putting a safe cushion of distance between us. He grabs my hands and lifts them to his lips. “When we reach Bassajuan, maybe I can get you to myself for a while.”

The earth tilts a little.

“In the meantime,” he adds. “I really should teach you how to care for tack. I find myself in need of a distraction.”

I grin. “Good idea.”

2. Jeb from A.G Howard’s Splintered. He is one of the most romantic dudes on my list at least in my mind. I swoon whenever I think of him. One of my favorite scenes with him in it check this!

Without warning, Jeb snags one of the rings in my belt and spins me around. In one smooth motion, he lifts me onto the narrow, crescent-shaped table. My skin trembles beneath his touch as he scoots me all the way against the wall, his hips wedged between my thighs. We’re level—face-to-face--. The fluttery feeling fills my head—and in the shadow of my darker side, a rush of satisfaction wells up, a perverse thrill that I can stoke his emotions to this gut-deep reaction.

I brace my hands against his shoulders to maintain space between us, but it’s only for show. My bluff fades to weak-kneed enthusiasm the instant he snags my wrists and pulls them down, leaning in do our noses touch.

“Reality check right back at ya,” he says, his breath a hot rush in the chilly room. “I know you’re not a kid anymore. You think I’m blind?” His fingers lace through mine, pinning my arms against the cold, smooth mirrors so our heartbeats pound against each other. “You’re the one who’s oblivious. Because there’s nothing brotherly about the way you make me feel.”

3. Adrian Ivaskov from Richelle Mead’s The Fiery Heart. Yep I’ve been in love with this dude since Frostbite what more can I say?!?!? And he’s so *sighs*

“I made you cry,” I said. That memory would always be a wound in my heart.

“I cried because I loved you, and I didn’t know how to fix you.” She reached up and brushed my lips with her fingertips. The world swayed around me. “And that was my mistake. You fixed yourself. You didn’t need me.”

“No, Sydney.” My voice was ragged. “I do need you. You have no idea how much I need you.”

I brought my lips down to hers, and it was like everything that had ever happened to me had simply been a warm-up for this moment, that this was where my life truly began. I pulled her to me, and if she’d ever had any doubts about whether I wanted to taste her blood, I knew they vanished then and there. It was the taste of her mouth, the taste of her skin…those were what I craved, the things that drove me wild. Her hands caught the edge of my shirt, and we broke the kiss briefly so that she could pull it over my head. She splayed he fingers on my chest, and this time she was the one who shook. I looked into her eyes, and although they burned with passion and longing and that primal need that had fueled both our races since the beginning of time, I could see the nervousness in them too.

4. Jack from Kresley Cole’s Endless Knight. Sex on a stick that’s what this dude is! He’s a hawt Cajun with an accent that makes me swoon!

He was right; I was gone for him. Stupid to fight it. I gazed up at him, whispering, “Just, just don’t hurt me again. If I kiss you, and then you get disgusted . . .”

He gave a low laugh, moving his hips against mine. “Does it feel like I’m disgusted?”

I gasped. “Jackson!”

“You smell like honeysuckle. You likin’ ole Jack now?”

“I never stopped liking you. Even when you were warding me away with the power of Catholicism.”

“Can’t help the way I was raised—anything supernatural is supposed to be either a miracle or satanic.”

I rolled my eyes. “And you’re still trying to figure out which I am?”

“Non. I’m trying to figure out if I’m still Catholic.” He grinned that heart-stopping grin.

Gorgeous lips. I wanted them on mine.

Just before he kissed me, he said, “You might be different from what I thought, but I’m goan to protect you anyway. I’m goan to try to accept all this. But you got to accept me.”

“Accept you? What are you talking about?”

“I’m a nineteen-year-old bayou boy. I got a fondness for liquor. I’m goan to say stupid shit. Doan you go getting your feelings hurt at the drop of a hat.”

I laid my palm against his face. “You’re going to get more than your feelings hurt if you stay with us. And it will be my fault because I don’t want to separate from you. You wanted me to let you go.”

“That was before I realized something this week. I wasn’t goan to live a long life even before the apocalypse. Before there were Baggers, cannibals, and plague. Now I figure I’ll spend my limited time left doing what I want.”

“And what do you want?”

His grin deepened. “You’re what I want, and I’d like to be doing you.” He leaned down, pressing his lips to mine.

At that contact, the rain began to pour down at last, pelting the cabin’s tin roof. I hadn’t heard that sound since the night I’d gone to Jack’s home in the bayou.

He drew back. “Christ, your lips are sweet. Douces comme du miel.” Sweet like honey. He yanked off his shirt, revealing his damp chest, the rosary around his neck. I’d missed seeing him like this.

My fingers skimmed over the raised scar on his arm. How I loved that mark. If he hadn’t been getting that wound tended to the night of the Flash, he would’ve died like most everyone else.

His hands landed on my ass, giving it a possessive squeeze. “T ’es pour moi, Evie. You’re mine. Every part of you.” He leaned down, took my lips once more. Between kisses, he said, “I told you once and I’ll tell you again: there is nothing that can happen to you that we can’t get past. Just give me a chance to get to you. Promise me.”

“Jack . . .”

“Promise me. You doan leave me again.”

“I promise.” Staring at his lips, I said, “Would you always come for me?”

He drunkenly murmured, “Chase you like a junkyard dog.”

5. Kaidan Rowe from Wendy Higgin’s Sweet Peril. Son of the demon of lust that has a heart of gold and is sexy as hell? Yes please! Ooh he’s a drummer too!

He pushed forward until I was against the stacked washer and dryer, and his knee slipped between my legs.

“To you,” he whispered, his breath hot against my mouth. “I swear it.”

The kiss became fast and frenzied, pulling each other closer with greedy hands until Kaidan broke away and breathed against my ear, “Let me see you again.”

6. Nolan from Page Morgan’s The Beautiful and The Cursed. Possibly the sexiest hunter of demons ever! And he has a smooth Scottish accent! I heart him!

Nolan hooked his arm around her waist and brought her closer against him. It felt entirely different from when Thomas had gripped her. Nolan held her as if a riptide were trying to steal her away from him. A low, hungry groan rose up his throat—and Gabby gave in. Her fingers fanned out across his chest and she returned the kiss, her lips turning soft against his.

7. Stephen from Cat Winter’s In the Shadow of Blackbirds. The only ghost to make my list. He’s as sexy as he is sweet and I fell for him hard!

 I slid my fingers up the frame until I touched his hand. “Please stay safe. It’s not everyone who has the patience to photograph a butterfly.”

He gave me a smile that seemed bith grateful and sad.

I swallowed, and he continued to search my eyes with his own, as if her were trying to say something he couldn’t articulate with words. The space between us shrank. Our breathing accelerated until it became the only sound in the house. My heart pounded like I was about to leap off a cliff a hundred feet high.

Before I could say anything awkward to break the spell, he pulled my face toward his and kissed me. I lost my balance at first, but then I closed my eyes and held his smooth neck and enjoyed the warmth and hunger of his mouth. His hand moved to the small of my back and brought me closer. Our stomachs touched. Our chests pinned the photograph between us. He wrapped his arms around me and held me tight against him, as though he were kissing me goodbye.

8. Edward from Megan Shepherd’s The Madman’s Daughter. A sexy beast mmmmmm oooh and all I have to say is WATERFALL SCENE!

In the morning Edward was gone. The coals were cold in the light filtering through the screen of water. The cave looked different in daytime, without shadows clinging to the dark corners. It was only a damp outcropping, bare except for clumping moss near the puddles and more spiders than I cared to notice.

The knife, which Edward had left by the fire while we slept, was gone too.

I peered through the gap in the falls. A young man’s naked form bathed in the shallows of the pool. I jerked back with a gasp, embarrassed to see Edward undressed. I’d never seen a man naked before. The memory of his body against mine all night and the brief, unreturned kiss made me feel suddenly very warm.

I splashed water on my face from a puddle. Went to check on my dress. Washed the cuts on my arms. No matter how I tried to busy myself, I couldn’t stop throwing glances at the waterfall.

“Oh, dash it.” I tiptoed back to the gap. My heart thumped in my ears.

He had his back to me. He waded up to his chest and ducked underwater, whooping as he came up, holding his hurt rib lightly. I’d never seen him so carefree. And I’d certainly never seen him so…exposed. He didn’t have Montgomery’s impressive physique, but there was something undeniably strong in his wiry arms. Arms that held me last night.

I fanned a little air onto my face.

9. Wolf from Marissa Meyer’s Scarlet. Another beast but he’s hot as hell for a hybrid alien!

“It wasn’t me,’ He said, his tone unwavering. “There are other tattoos like mine. It was someone else.”

“Oh, really? Like you’re part of some cult or something?” The feathered body of one of the chickens pressed against her leg and she started, barely managing to keep the gun level.

“Or something,” he said with a flinching shrug. One foot crunched against the gravel.

“Don’t come any closer!” Scarlet yelled. The chicken clucked and dawdled away. 

“I will shoot, you know.”

“I know.” A flicker of kindness passed over him and he pointed at his temple. 

“You’ll want to aim for the head. That usually makes for a fatal shot. Or, if you’re feeling shaky, the torso. It’s a larger target.”

“Your head looks pretty big from here.”

He laughed—the expression changing everything about him. His stance relaxed, his face warmed.

10. Warner from Tahereh Mafi’s Unravel Me. I love this dude soooo much it’s not even funny! I know he’s bad but I’ve seen a soft side to him that makes me melt!

“Do you know,” he says, closing the cover of the journal only to lay his hand on top of it. Protecting it. Staring at it. “I couldn’t sleep for days after I read that entry. I kept wanting to know which people were chasing you down the street, who it was you were running from. I wanted to find them,” he says, so softly “and I wanted to rip their limbs off, one by one. I wanted to murder them in ways that would horrify you to hear.”

I’m shaking now, whispering, “Please give that back to me.”

He touches the tips of his fingers to his lips. Tilts his head back, just a little. Smiles a strange unhappy smile. Says, “You must know how sorry I am. That I”---he swallows---“That I kissed you like that. I confess I had no idea you would shoot me for it.”

Honorable Mentions

Liam from Mary Lindsey’s Ashes on the Waves. I loved that this was told in his POV it made me fall for him super hard. He was so sweet and loving!

She ran her fingers up my stomach and slid them between the buttons of my shirt, her fingertips skimming my chest, leaving tingles in their wake. Her simple touch had more effect on my tortured soul than a thousand words. I sighed and relaxed, the terror of prior moments receding like the tide, my breathing once again taking the slow rhythm of the bells sounding in the distance.

And one more little snippet.

As if under a spell, I could only stare in wonder at this beautiful creature. The light from the window reflected off her sleek ebony hair and flitted across her alabaster skin. The only sound was my uneven breath as I fought to control my desire.

“This is the part where you kiss me,” she said.

Without hesitation I obliged.

Finn from Jessica Spotswood’s Star Cursed. Hotness, hotness, hotness! And has a heart of gold too!

“Cate,” he murmurs, and his voice is hoarse with wanting.

“I know,” I stroke his stubbled jaw with one finger, then curl my hands around his waist. I rest my head against his shoulder, inhaling the scent of tea and ink, of Finn.

Happiness chokes me.

I didn’t know if I would ever be able to do this again.

His hands are tangled in my hair, roaming over my back, tracing the lines of my hips, as if he’s reassuring himself it’s really me and I’m really here, in his arms, safe and sound. His lips work their way from my temple to my cheekbone. I tilt my face up, eager for his kiss.

It does not disappoint.

Titus from Sherry Thomas’s The Burning Sky. A prince with many secrets but he wears his heart on his sleeve especially where Iolanthe is concerned. Even if she can’t see it. He even shows her when she’s in the form of a bird! *Swoons*!

“Remember it will be unpleasant and you will not be able to move immediately afterward. I will wait in the repository.”

She chirped after a few seconds, perhaps trying to make sure he had vacated the premises.

“I am still here, shuffling along.” He answered.

She chirped again. She was most likely telling him to hurry, but he chose to have a little fun with her—there was a severe scarcity of fun in his life. “You are anxious? Imagine how I feel, darling.”

She chirped twice in a row. He wished he did not feel so wretched—carrying on an imaginary conversation with her would otherwise have been a highly rewarding use of his time.

“How can you help? If you will only…” He stopped.

He had been trying, with no apparent success, to bridge the chasm between them. But that was not all he wanted, was it? No, he was far more ambitious than even he had realized. He wanted her to…

“Fall in love with me.” He heard, loud and clear, the words the truth serum compelled from him. “If you loved me, everything would be so much easier.”

Did any of my favorites make your list and what did you think of those swoon-worthy scenes? Fill out the linky and let me know! And good luck with the giveaway!

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