“Then you need to get to your hotel before the storm gets worse.”
“Bu—I . . . Ali, if you would just—” A frustrated huff escaped me as he used my elbow to gently yet firmly guide me out of his home. “I’ll be back,” I warned over my shoulder, and if I wascrazy, I’d swear he was looking at my ass. He licked his lips, shot me a wink, then slammed the door in my face. “Ugh! Rude,” I grumbled, trudging down the stairs.
Well, I guess it wasn’t really rude to put me out seeing as he hadn’t invited me here to begin with. I ran to my car and hopped inside. The rain was coming down so hard I couldn’t even drive right away. I didn’t want him to get upset over me being on his property. I pulled out of his driveway and drove a few feet down the road, just to get out of the view of his windows, before calling Jessica.
The fact that she answered the phone with a knowing laugh only pissed me off more.
“Either that was the quickest interview in life, or he rejected your ass,” she said.
Sucking my teeth, I couldn’t help but smile as I rolled my eyes. “Chile, he didn’t even let me finish my spiel before he was putting me out.”
Her cackling loosened my irritation and made me laugh too. “I don’t know why you thought that man was going to talk to you, Avery.”
“He didn’t even recognize me,” I whined. “My feelings are hurt.”
“Aww, pooh. You shouldn’t feel sad about that. It’s not like y’all were friends. All y’all did was make googly eyes at each other in passing over a decade ago.”
“For four years! Like damn. He didn’t even look like a flicker of recognition sparked in those beautiful eyes. Do I look that different, or did it really mean nothing to him at all? I just knew he liked me back then, and now, I’m starting to think he was probably holding in a laugh every time he saw me looking at him.”
“Or maybe he was just a nice guy who found you attractive.”
“Not attractive enough to approach me,” I countered with a pout.
“Either way, we grown now. And he doesn’t want to give you an exclusive, so you need to bring your ass home and tell Laya you need another assignment.”
“Absolutely not. I just got to Jasper Lane, and I’m not leaving until I get that interview.”
3
Ali
I couldn’t get her out of my mind.
When I said I needed inspiration, I wasn’t expecting it to show up at my front door. Initially, I was upset. Her showing up felt like a violation. For years, I’d hidden from the world. The only people I engaged with were my family, my friends, and people in Jasper Lane I could trust. That seemed like the only way I could continue to do what I loved without losing love because of the industry.
Unlike a lot of people, I wasn’t searching for fame when I had my first book published. I certainly wasn’t expecting so many people to tap in and care about not just my books but me. Fans searching for me, approaching me in public, paparazzi and bloggers reporting on my life, it was all too much. For a while, I accepted the fame as a part of being an author.
That changed shortly after I published my first traditional book. I was hungry for the chance to produce my work, so it felt like fate when I met Brooke, the daughter of Baxter, CEO of Billion Dollar Publishing. There I was, falling in love, andBaxter was using his daughter to not only convince me to sign to his company but have me so trusting that I’d sign his horrible contract. Needless to say, it worked. Brooke convinced me that I didn’t need a lawyer to look it over because I could trust them, so I signed. As soon as I did, she broke up with me.
The book ended up being a New York Times bestseller and it made millions, but because of the bogus contract, I hadn’t seen a full 10 percent of that. On top of that, I’d signed a contract that gave them forever rights, and it included audio and film as well. To this day, the book was still selling exceptionally well, yet I wasn’t getting any of the profit.
And then there was Tiffany. She was an up-and-coming journalist I was in a relationship with. Tiffany stole my manuscript and made it available online, allowing millions of people to read my work before I published it. Even with me being able to sue her for copyright infringement, the damage had been done. As far as I was concerned, there wouldn’t be a third time a woman used me or betrayed me.
Between Tiffany leaking the book and having to deal with bloggers and paparazzi, I seriously considered retiring for a while. The only thing that kept me writing was doing so on my own terms. No interviews, no events, no social media engagement. All I did was write, and I let my team handle everything else.
I hadn’t committed to a woman since Tiffany, which was why I felt like I was lacking inspiration to do this romance novel. Then Avery showed up at my door in the middle of a storm, looking like the perfect meet cute main character. As irritated by her presence as I was, I was still worried about her. About an hour passed before I started calling hotels to see if she was checked in and had made it safely. Of course they wouldn’t give me any information on their guests, so I’d been hoping and praying she’d made it safely to her destination.
There was something about her that was vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t place where I knew her from. When she mentioned being a reader of mine, I figured I’d seen her at an event years ago. I couldn’t get over how pretty she was. How sweet she looked. A part of me wanted to know if she tasted as good as she looked. Seeing rain dripping from her skin had me wondering if her pussy could get that wet too, and that’s when I knew it was time for her to get the hell up out of my house.
Regardless of how unexpected the interaction was, it didn’t motivate me enough to write. There was a time I didn’t need motivation to write. I had the discipline and focus to do it no matter what. These days, I found myself yearning for more. Maybe it wasn’t a muse or inspiration I needed. Maybe it was true companionship. It didn’t matter. I didn’t want to put myself in the position to be betrayed again, and even if a woman had pure intentions, my trauma would make it hard for me to trust her. No woman deserved to have to deal with that.
When I couldn’t take thoughts of Avery anymore, I decided to head outside and pick up the broken branches the storm had left behind. Gremlin made his way out too, but as soon as his paws touched the wet concrete, he went back inside. I couldn’t do anything but laugh. That damn dog hated being outside just as much as I did, and if it was too hot or too cold, or rainy, then he really didn’t want to go out.
“You just gon’ leave me hanging like that, Grem?” I asked as he trotted down the entryway hall, not even bothering to look back.
As I moved one branch after another to the curb, an idea hatched. I kept seeing scene after scene for a book. Storm, broken down car, damsel in distress in need of shelter. Grumpy/sunshine for sure. Ex-soldier, hidden from the world. Unlikely pair to the world yet perfect for each other. Sex . . . erotic, nasty, Earth shattering. Conversations, revelations, experiences. Andthen the black moment—her car gets fixed, and she leaves. Not because she wants to, but because she thinks he won’t want her to stay. And he lets her go. Not because he wants to, but because he wants her to choose to stay.
He wants her to choose him.
