Charming You by Kris Jayne
Description
Find more from this author on:
About the author:
P.S. If you’re buying her a gift, she has a penchant for single-malt Scotch and scarves.
What inspired you to write your book?
Midway through, I knew I wanted to have a story with my main character’s best friend for book two, and then that one gave me an idea for book three. One idea leads to another.
Here is a short sample from the book:
CHAPTER ONE
Micky Llewellyn cursed her luck a thousand times in the past nine days.
It started last Wednesday when she was pulled over for speeding, and the cop gave her a ticket for going seventy-three in a sixty-five. Who gets a ticket for going eight miles per hour over the speed limit?
Her dog ran away on Saturday morning. Ophelia the beagle darted between houses and howled ecstatically at her freedom. A neighbor finally discovered her two hours later digging through some trash and wolfing down questionable food stuffs.
On Monday, she met her new boss—a slick-haired, sharp-featured man with an overly white smile who used words like “synergy” and scheduled meetings at seven o’clock in the morning.
She spotted a mouse—or worse, a rat—in her garage, heard a family of birds in her chimney, and possibly broken her toe on the coffee table.
Plus, her stepmother was coming into town this weekend.
Micky thought the cold that flattened her two days ago was just an allergic reaction to recent events…and now this.
Now—on top of everything—her car battery died. She was going to be late to her brother’s house for dinner.
Sweat beaded on her brow. The September temperatures still hovered above eighty, even as the sun faded. Micky looked around the emptying parking garage and pulled her cell phone out of her purse to call the auto club and explain her dilemma.
“Yes, Ms. Llewellyn. We can have a technician there in forty-five minutes to an hour.”
“No chance they’d get here sooner?” Micky questioned hopefully.
“Possibly, but at rush hour on a Friday, that’s the best we can do.”
It was already after six thirty, and it would take her at least forty-five minutes to drive across Dallas to Pete’s house. Being there by seven thirty was way out of the question.
She ran a fatigued hand through her dark chocolate, shoulder-length waves and then wiped her forehead with the back of her hand. She hated to be a kink in her brother’s plans.
Technically, Pete was her half-brother, and her stepmother would no doubt see her tardiness, at best, as a result of chronic irresponsibility and, at worst, as a direct personal attack. Lila Llewellyn-Vanoy didn’t believe in bad luck—just bad planning and malicious intent.
Micky gave up trying to make the woman happy a long time ago. What Lila thought of her didn’t matter anymore. But she didn’t want to ruin Pete’s evening. He planned to introduce his girlfriend to his mother, and it was important. He told Micky that marriage to Clarissa was in his near future, so Micky wanted the evening to go smoothly.
The thought of being late tensed her shoulders as she slid back behind the wheel of her Toyota Camry. She turned the key again and hoped for signs of life. Nothing. Her sigh evolved into a cough. Though she was finally much better today, remnants of her cold remained.
She called Pete.
“Bad news. My car battery died, and I’m going to be late.”
“Shit. How dead is dead?” Micky heard Clarissa Langley, Pete’s girlfriend, inquire in the background.
“I turn the key and hear nothing but clicks and the faint laughter of the gods,” Micky quipped. “AAA is on the way. Is your mother there yet?”
“Not yet,” Pete answered before saying something to Clarissa about Micky’s car. “She’s already checked into the hotel. She wanted to freshen up before coming over.” He paused. “She did tell me she’d be here promptly at seven thirty.”
“Of course.” Micky coughed. “Where’s she staying?”
“The Crescent.”
“Of course,” she said again as she turned her key in vain and prayed for a mini-miracle. A sharp knock on the driver-side window startled her into a loud curse.
Micky looked up into crisp green eyes framed by the longest, darkest eyelashes she’d ever seen. The chiseled angles of his face mesmerized her until she remembered she was in a downtown parking garage. Alone. Lord only knows what this guy wanted.
“Who’s that?” Pete asked.
“I don’t know. Some man.”
“Do I need to call the police?”
“Uhhh.” She paused and surveyed the man leaning over her car. “I doubt it. Do serial killers wear Hermes ties and look like Cary Grant?”
“You never know.”
“It’s fine,” she told her brother. “I’ll give you a call when the auto club guy gets here.”
“Sooner if you think you’re headed for dismemberment and a crawl space. Or later if he buys you dinner.” Micky laughed at Pete’s suggestion before he reversed himself. “Scratch that. I need you here.”
“He doesn’t look like the crawl space type. And I’ll make it at some point.”
They said their goodbyes and hung up. Without power, she couldn’t roll down the window, so she cautiously opened the car door.
“Hello.” The green-eyed man smiled. “Are you having some trouble?”
“Umm…my car won’t start. I’ve already called the auto club. They’re on their way.”
“Oh, well, I’m right here,” he turned and pointed to the dark blue Mercedes parked next to her. “I’ve got jumper cables if you need a start.”
The man tossed his dark blue suit jacket into the passenger seat of his car, removed his expensive silk tie, and began rolling up his sleeves. By now, Micky had climbed out of her car and stood next to him, acutely aware of his height. He had to be at least six foot three. He looked down at her even though she wore three-inch heels that heightened her already tall, five-foot-eight frame.
He was hot. There was no denying that, and it made Micky immediately suspicious. Not that he meant her harm, but in her experience, good-looking, charming men were often times up to no good.
Slightly shaggy, dark brown hair fell in his face when he leaned over, framing startling green eyes. His smile was warm and gentle. Micky took note of his lean but muscular body with its broad shoulders and masculine, athletic grace.
Heat washed over her, and not from the weather. His tan hand extended toward his car, and she wondered what those strong fingers would feel like on her body.
God, he’s a complete stranger. Her throat went dry. She pursed her lips and shook her head like an Etch-a-Sketch to erase the images springing up in her mind.
“So, do you want a jump start?”
Her body screamed, “Yes!” But, she managed to pull it together enough to answer about her car.
“I think I do.” Her voice was husky from the surprising rise of desire within her as much as from her previous week’s illness. “No harm in trying. If that’s not the problem, the AAA guy will figure it out when he gets here.”
He popped his hood, then his trunk, and pulled out an emergency kit much like the one she kept telling herself she should get.
“I keep telling myself I should get one of those,” she confessed, stepping between their cars.
“You should. I bought them for my mom and my sister.”
“Just the women?”
He laughed and walked back to the front of his car. “All I have is women.”
“How gallant,” Micky replied.
“I try. Do you have brothers and sisters?”
“I have a brother,” she said. “That’s who I was talking to on the phone.”
“Are you close?” he asked, shouting as he opened the hood of his car. Micky climbed into her car to pull the lever by her knee and pop the hood.
“Yes, actually,” she shouted back. “It would have been nice to have a sister.”
Reflecting on her childhood she realized how often she’d felt alone. Micky had gone with her mother after her parents’ divorce, which meant leaving Pete as well. She would have loved to have more siblings around while she was growing up. People who understood what she was going through and could share the painful experiences of her parents’ divorce and subsequent remarriages.
“I can see that. I always wanted a brother,” her handsome savior said, standing in front of her car and reaching inside for the release hatch to fully raise the hood. He fiddled for several seconds, but couldn’t get it open. “Hey, do you know how this thing works?”
Micky walked up beside him. Her fingers probed under the hood, brushing against his in the small space. He smelled incredible – tangy, salty spice. She found the latch and quickly released it.
“You just have to know where to push,” Micky said, looking up at him.
She inhaled his scent, and the heat of his strong body next to hers triggered an acute awareness of his proximity. His brilliant, emerald eyes sparked as he looked down at her. Micky wasn’t vain, but she knew men often admired her statuesque frame. She avoided his eyes and gazed down, noticing the top button of her blouse had come undone, and she was revealing a bit more cleavage than she intended.
He grinned at her. “Well, isn’t that always how it is.” With that, he quickly hooked the cables to each car battery and commanded her to try her key again. She turned the ignition and her car rumbled to life.
“Fabulous,” the sexy stranger exclaimed, leaning over her open car door.
“Thanks so much…?” Micky trailed off, not knowing his name.
“Nick.” He presented his soiled right hand then withdrew it. “Nick Halden. I work at Winston Stratford.”
Micky recognized the first two names on the long list of partners in the law firm occupying the top four floors of the building. Now she understood how he afforded the Hermes tie.
“We’ll shake hands another time,” she responded after a brief pause. “I’m Micky Llewellyn. I work in marketing at Azur, the tech firm on the fifth floor.”
Nick raised his eyebrows. What did he think she did for a living?
“Pleased to meet you, Micky.”
“I’d better be going. If I leave now, I can be slightly rather than egregiously late.” She rolled down the window and closed her car door.
“Big Friday night plans.”
“Not especially. Just dinner with family.”
“The brother?”
“Yes. And my stepmother, who is a real stickler for promptness.”
“Lovely.” He said with a deep, rich laugh. “Well, I won’t keep you, but I will ask you a favor.”
“What’s that?” Micky asked.
“I think you owe me a drink. How about tomorrow?”
“Owe? That doesn’t sound like a favor.”
“A favor in return for services rendered.”
“I can agree to that. But, I don’t know about tomorrow. Give me a call on Monday.” She lied.
As she dug a business card out of her purse, she knew she should have just agreed, but she didn’t want to appear too eager or to rush into anything. That had bitten her in the past.
So what if she’d probably spend the whole weekend working instead of allowing herself the distraction of drinks with a handsome, successful man who looked like sin in a suit? He was probably used to getting whatever woman he wanted, whenever he wanted.
“I’ll definitely call you. It’s not every day I get to be the white knight for a beautiful woman.”
Nick gave her a charming smile that quickened her pulse. Suspicion inched up her spine even as the warmth of his gaze invaded her belly. Micky had horrible luck with charmers. The last one made her week from hell seem like a hangnail. She smiled at her well-dressed white knight and backed out of her parking space.
As she drove off, she couldn’t help but take another peek at him in her rearview mirror.
Jesus, he’s hot.
Maybe her luck wasn’t so bad after all. At least she hoped so.
Related products
-
Pass the Hot Stuff by Dana Page @DanaPage_author
Blythe Townsend is a belle in desperate need of having her chimes rung. But the man she is dating would have to get his head out of his briefs – his legal briefs – long enough to notice. She lives in the French Quarter with her dog, Lady Marmalade, and is determined not to go sour on love even though she has dated every nutcase along the Mississippi Delta. When she spots a man she christens Tall, Dark and Eye Candy, she starts to feel what she’s been missing. A lover of classic movies, she is going to have to reach down deep to find her inner big-shouldered broad to find something a little sweeter and overcome the obstacles that are about to be hurled at her like doubloons from a Mardi Gras parade.
HUCKLEBERRY MILTON by Bradley J Milton @bradleyjmilton
HUCKLEBERRY MILTON is a brand new rewrite of Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn, set in a time warp between Haight-Ashbury in the Summer of Love and today, right here on the social-media Internet. It’s like Austin Powers meets The Office with a mix of 80s technology and today’s Internet. The experimental literary cut-up techniques, the pop culture references and and the psychedelic touches make it a book that can be read forwards and back, to and from anywhere. Now who’s got the remote for that 400-channel Russian satellite dish?
Orange Juice in Bishop’s Garden by Otessa Ghadar
You know that summer, right… the summer where EVERYTHING changed? Orange Juice in Bishop’s Garden (OJBG) is that summer. And Bishop’s Garden is the place where it all happens. It’s the summer of ’94 and naive and rebellious teens are engaging in all kinds of underage tomfoolery. Think grunge, Doc Martens, raves, the invincibility of youth, and epic first loves.
This book details the lives of a group of teenagers navigating high school and growing up in DC during the 1990’s. It’s all about teen magic– creating new and marvelous mischief with best friends, listening to mix-tapes and reading Sassy magazines, missing the last Metro, and getting stuck miles from payphones. Accompany the young heroine, Sarah, as she gets herself into idle summer misbehaving, love triangle betrayals, and friendship fallouts. This is a story about what her life is like before school’s truly over and she knows it’s all going to change for good. It’s about the friends she’ll never forget, those first mistakes, and her childish dreams not yet polluted by reality. She and her friends will engage in typical teen idolatry of hot musicians and renegades. They’ll set each other up and tear each other down. They’ll crash house parties and realize that sometimes in life, there are no ‘do-overs.’ They’ll steal cars, candies, and hearts. They’ll make you wish you were a teen again.
This book contains the full collection of scripts from season one of the oldest and longest running teen web series, “Orange Juice in Bishop’s Garden.” And it’s the prequel to the epic romance between two teen girls that has become known as “The Sarah & Gwen Experience.” The love story develops in season 2 and spans to season 6. It’s part recollection, part urban legend, and part pure fiction, and completely inspired by the author’s memories of growing up in DC and the enchantment of her youth. The author, Otessa Ghadar, captures teen life as it is lived–dramatic, filled with self-discovery, and the pain of growing up. Together, as a whole, the stories and the characters ring true. Read the book and you’ll realize you’ve either been– or known– one of these characters before.
Venture into Bishop’s Garden and remember what it feels like to have your whole life ahead of you! Best part is, when you’re done reading, you can meet the characters by watching the webseries adaptation online (www.ojinbg.com).
Fate Interrupted by Kaitlyn Cross @KaitlynCross6
Dean Jacobs is one of Milwaukee’s hottest eligible bachelors and in no mood to settle down, until she comes along. Evy, however, is focused on opening a new dessert bar with her sister but Dean won’t take no for an answer. She finally gives in to the want in her gut and – much to her surprise – discovers he isn’t the player she thought he was. Just when things turn into a fairytale sent from above, Dean’s past comes back to haunt him. The only question is: will it make them stronger, or rip them apart?
The Secret History of Hatty Ha Ha … ends by S M Mala
Each person is still trying to come to terms of what happened that fateful night when ‘Hurricane Hatty’ took beautiful Hatty away and the devastation and joy it made to their lives.
After six years, further unexpected twists and turns take place for Murray, Delores and Jake, each one carrying their own weight of guilt after Hatty was cruelly swept away… but was she?
Could that really have been the end of Hatty Ha Ha or is someone hiding a secret?
Life’s twists and turns continue in this tale of young and old love, desire and lust set against the backdrop of tropical heat.
Enemies show their real claws and secrets are eventually revealed which will bring great, life changing, joy for some and complete tragedy for others.
The mystery and sexually charged relationships continues until the secret life of Hatty Ha Ha … ends.
Pushing over 40 by S M Mala
Maya wants a baby but at forty two there’s one problem… she hasn’t got a man to help her get pregnant. She created and runs a website called ‘Pushing over 40’ to help women of a certain age trying to have a child. It’s a place where can they give each other advice, support and hope.
And as she tries to find a man to help her with this small task, other than the sperm donation clinic regular taking her money, there are two people who could deliver the goods.
Her brother’s new neighbour Tony or her sister in law’s brother, the wayward Adam. Both of whom she really likes but the pair aren’t your usual run of the mill suitors.
But you have to be very careful for what you wish for as Maya then finds out the downside of getting pregnant and how it can really destroy your soul and diminish your hope if things go unexpectedly wrong.
A heart wrenching story dedicated to all women who have loved and lost in the battle to become pregnant when they’re ‘Pushing over 40’… or not.
Dream Lover by Té Russ
Liz and John have been best friends for years. They’ve never thought about taking things past their platonic relationship. John was previous left at the altar, and Liz has relationship issues of her own stemming all the way back from childhood.
But at some point things begin to change for John. Once he embraces the feelings he is developing for Liz, he makes it his mission to make her see whether she realizes it or not she feels the same way.
On the Fly by Katie Kenyhercz
Jacey Vaughn has a newly minted MBA when her father dies unexpectedly and leaves her his NHL team. Well-versed in business but not so much in hockey, Jacey navigates this new world with a few stumbles. She definitely doesn’t plan on falling for the team captain. At the first hint of scandal, a local Las Vegas reporter latches on, and Jacey finds herself in the newspaper with headlines that hurt instead of help. Jacey’s determined to keep her father’s legacy alive and make the team successful, but while she has no problem denying her feelings to the media, she can’t lie to herself.
Carter Phlynn has known nothing but hockey his entire life. Drafted into the NHL at age eighteen, winning the Stanley Cup is all he’s ever wanted. Nothing has ever disrupted his focus. Not until he meets his new boss. Jacey gets under his skin like no one else, and while dating the team owner would be a disaster for his career and reputation, he can’t get her out of his head. Carter has never had a relationship last more than a month, but the more he’s around Jacey, the more he can’t picture his future without her.
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.