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Welcome to The Wormhole and my stop on the tour.
It is my pleasure to feature:
Date by Mistake
an Indulgence anthology by Candace Havens, Shannon Leigh, Gwen Hayes, Jill Monroe, and Rosemary Clement-Moore
Four stories. Four dates. How can these dates by mistake turn into love ever after?
Welcome to The Wormhole and my stop on the tour.
It is my pleasure to feature:
Date by Mistake
an Indulgence anthology by Candace Havens, Shannon Leigh, Gwen Hayes, Jill Monroe, and Rosemary Clement-Moore
Four stories. Four dates. How can these dates by mistake turn into love ever after?
Blurbs:
Mr. Virile and the Girl Next Door by Gwen Hayes
Seduction is the name of the game when two rival dating advice darlings agree to
be romantically linked to boost publicity. But all bets are off when they take
the battle of the sexes from the web to the bed!
Tycoon Reunion by Candace Havens and Shannon Leigh
Sparks fly when a project brings a heartbreaker back to town and into the path
of the woman he left behind. He’s determined to win her over in the boardroom …
and the bedroom!
Passionate Persuasion by Rosemary Clement-Moore
A hot playboy who has left a string of hearts in his wake can’t forget the
cellist who haunted his fantasies. Now it is his turn to use his power of
persuasion to prove he’s the only man to keep her satisfied.
Date on the Run by Jill Monroe
When an reporter mistakes a hard-bodied military man for a crime source, she
soon finds it’s just as much fun undressing her new bodyguard as it is
uncovering her latest case…
Excerpt:
from Mr.
Virile and the Girl Next Door
Holly Winters. That name sounded
familiar, but he couldn’t recall why.
A prickle of unease hit Dane
between his shoulder blades, where he always held his tension until his weekly
session with Brigit and her Fingers of Wonder. Yet another woman off limits. He
would never do anything to screw up his massage hour.
Holly Winters was…cute…for lack of
better word. Like, Laura Ingalls Wilder in a black cocktail dress. He tried to
place her in his memory, but it became frustratingly clear he hadn’t slept with
her. He’d have remembered all those freckles. He’d have done a lot of
connecting- the-dots.
She, like her agent, shook hands
with an easy confidence and, as Mags introduced him, a momentary cloud passed
over her eyes. Was she trying to figure out a connection as well? There was
small talk as they stood around the table, but Dane was distracted. Had they
gone to school together? Was she somebody’s sister? He placed her firmly in the
mid-twenties range based on, well, his experience with women of varying ages.
He tried to mentally dress her in different outfits to jog his memory, but all
he succeeded in doing was mentally undressing her.
Not helping.
It was just that she was curvy. The
kind of curves that spilled out of bras, which had him dying to know how low
those freckles went. He was sure he could find out, but wasn’t sure he should.
He needed to figure out why her name was familiar if her face and body were
not.
“Mitch!” Magdalene gasped,
pantomiming a ridiculous amount of agitation. “I just remembered…we’re supposed
to be at that office thing, um, meeting right now.”
Mitch, not nearly as good at
feigning surprise, also gasped. “How could we have forgotten? If we hurry, we
may still make it on time.”
A flurry of apologies ensued with
both agents talking a mile a minute and making zero sense. A waitress brought
over the Cosmo Mags had ordered, and Mags encouraged Holly to take her place or
the drink would go to waste. Dane barely had time to protest their leaving when
they were just…gone.
Holly blinked at him a few times,
the little crease above her nose furrowing crescents deep into her skin. “Well,
that was weird.”
Her voice sucker punched him. It
was low, throaty, and it flipped a switch inside him that was normally reserved
for blondes about six inches taller. Holly was cute, but not hot. And she had a
nice set, but he was a leg man.
Usually.
They’d obviously been set up for
some reason, and he was supposed to know something about her that he didn’t.
All of these things should make him wary and rational instead of suddenly very,
very turned on.
Dane shook his head and remembered
his manners, pulling out a chair. “Weird seems tame, but I agree.”
Holly took Mags’ seat and held up
her new drink in toast when he sat down. “Well, here’s to getting the bottom of
it.”
He tried to come up with a quip or
thought or, hell, anything to say, but his tongue couldn’t work around the
sandpaper dryness in his mouth. He wasn’t actually nervous was he? He reminded
himself that he was twenty-eight years old, not fourteen, but this sensation
felt achingly close.
Dane tried to recall the last time
a woman had made him nervous and came up with—too long ago to remember. Well,
except for the dominatrix two years ago, but that was a different kind of
nervous and, while he enjoyed the experience, it wasn’t one he’d repeat.
No, this feeling was completely
different. He was…anxious. Filled with a sweet anticipation that made all his
nerve endings a little raw. He’d been coasting safely on a very scenic highway
for many years, but all of the sudden, it felt like he was going off-road for
an adventure in pot holes, blind corners and lots of mud. His adrenalin spiked
even as he tried to talk himself down.
“So, Dane, why are we here?” Holly
asked without guile.
God, that voice. Even a direct,
honest question sounded provocative.
He’d have to play this one cool.
Not usually a problem, but tonight was going to take some concentration. “I’m
here meeting my agent for a drink to talk about my upcoming book release.”
Though obviously, that wasn’t what Mags had really invited him here for. “You?”
Those crescents deepened above her
nose again. He tightened the grip on his glass to avoid the temptation to
smooth her brow gently with his finger. What the hell was wrong with him?
“Same actually,” she answered.
“So, you’re a writer?” he asked.
“Accidentally, I suppose. I’m a
blogger with a book deal.”
“Well, that explains what we have
in common,” Dane replied. “I run a website as well. My book comes out in July.
You?”
“Next year.” She had faint crinkle
lines when she smiled and it turned his stomach inside out. Why, he had no
idea. “Congratulations. What’s your book about?” she asked.
Dane tipped his glass and watched
the amber liquid move with the motion. He was proud of his website and even
prouder of his book, but suddenly it seemed…shallow. His life’s work and he was
ashamed to admit it to this woman. “Dating advice for men.”
Holly sputtered, and her pink drink
sprinkled the table. She quickly mopped up the mess with the cocktail napkin in
one hand while covering her cough with the other.
“Uh…” he eloquently expressed.
Idiot.
“I’m so sorry. And embarrassed. And wanting to
die,” she said. “It’s just that…oh my God.” She shook her head.
It occurred to him that he liked
the fact that she seemed so human. It seemed like all the women he spent time
with were practiced, maybe even a little plastic if he thought about it too
hard. This girl with a husky laugh and genuine imperfections like smile lines
and freckles felt like a new frontier of some kind. Why did women try so hard
to cover them up?
“You’re going to have to fill me in
here, Holly. What has you so flustered?”
Smoothing the bodice of her dress,
Holly tried very hard to repaint some poise over her composure. “I just
realized who you must be.”
Dane felt his eyebrows reaching for
his hairline. “And who might that be, exactly?”
She downed the rest of the Cosmo in
one gulp. “You, sir, are the antithesis of everything I hold dear.”
