Chapter One
Jasmine
The public library is the literal worst place to stalk an author. First, it's public. Says so right there in the name. Second, it's full of distractions…like virtually every book on the shelves, except for the one about keeping only a few books in your home. Honestly, fuck that book. Third, it's too quiet.
I'm only an hour into my quest to convince River Jamison to speak at Dirty Book Club, and I'm already bored. Ordinarily, this wouldn't be a problem—see item two on the list. But since I can't actually read and actively stalk at the same time, you see the problem. I'mbored.
Loralei Grey, the librarian and my friend, knows it. She keeps grinning at me from behind the chest-high counter as if she expects me to snap at any moment.
"You could help me, you know," I remind her for the fifth time, my elbows planted on the marble counter as I glare at her over the top. The stack of books beside her is almost as tall as she is, but she just keeps adding to it, humming some rock song to herself.
The musty smell of thousands of books lingers in the air around us. Behind me, a group of school kids types away at the public computers, whispering back and forth. Their teacher flips aimlessly through a magazine at a work table beside the computer station, one careful eye on the kids.
"Nope." Loralei's smile grows as she checks in another book before neatly placing it on her stack to be shelved later. I swear, she's been weird lately. Something's up with her. "I'm not risking my job by giving you River's home address."
I knew she was going to say that.
I've been trying to convince her for the last ten days straight, but she's been woefully unhelpful. I get it, really, I do. She loves her job, and it's not like I want her to lose it or anything. I'd feel awful about that. But her work computer has the information I need to do my job. And she won't even walk away and leave me alone with it for two minutes.
It's not like I'm going to murder him in his sleep or anything. I just want to help connect him with local readers. If it weren't for that, believe me, I wouldn't be here. I donotneed to meet my heroes. Ever, actually.
"What's he like?" I can't help but ask Loralei. She hasn't been particularly forthcoming about what she knows about the man. All she's really said thus far is that he reads a lot, doesn't say much, and is tall. How any of that is supposed to help me entice him into speaking at Dirty Book Club, I don't know.
"Well, he's—" she breaks off and then nods toward the massive double doors. "See for yourself."
I whip around, my gaze landing on a man standing on the raised dais just inside the library's entrance.
Sweet baby Jesus…
I expected an over-caffeinated, middle-aged man who looked like a cross between a college professor and an anxious introvert. That's the picture I painted in my head.
I was wrong.
River Jamison is the physical embodiment of my dirtiest fantasies. Messy black hair sweeps across his forehead, ending just above startling green eyes and a pair of wire-rimmed glasses. His beard doesn't hide his full lips, which are currently pursed like he's annoyed with the world. The way he's got his arms crossed over his broad chest screams "standoffish".
He's younger than I expected, closer to thirty-five or forty than the fifty or sixty that I believed. He's also got the body of someone who spends a lot of time at the gym rather than behind a desk all day.
This is a problem. Actually,everythingabout him is a problem. Hot and grumpy is my weakness, and I am not a size twenty-two with a litany of failed business ideas and a sheaf of speeding tickets in my past because I have self-control, okay?
Maybe asking him to speak at Book Club is a bad idea.
"That'sRiver Jamison?" I whisper. At least, I mean to whisper, but the library has vaulted ceilings and an echo…and I say it far louder than intended.
He hears me and immediately glances my way. His gaze rolls over me like a wave, his expression darkening slightly before turning downright arctic, as if my very existence is an annoyance he could live without.
Rude.
I square my shoulders and scowl right back at him. Probably not a great way to convince him to do what I want, but he started it.
For some reason, scowling at him seems to amuse him. He actually cracks a smile and nods at me before he jogs down the steps into the main library, then makes a beeline down the center aisle before disappearing between two stacks, like he's on a mission.
I bounce to my feet, determined to follow him. I did not waste my whole day waiting for him for nothing.
"Want a word of advice?" Loralei asks.
"Nope," I say, rolling up my sleeves. "I'm catching this grump all by myself."
"If you say so…" She doesn't sound convinced. Doesn't really look it, either. "Just…be careful. He can be a grouch."
