DARKER WATER Excerpt

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Even though it was Saturday and I’d taken most of the day off—a big perk of working for myself—I couldn’t go home yet. I’d heard Hillary and Eric yelling at each other from out in the hallway and did an about-face to avoid getting involved. I’m sure the fight was truly important, like why he never took her out anymore or something equally vital to the well-being of the planet.

By my estimation, twenty minutes later, they were either still fighting or they were already making up. Either way, there’d be screaming I didn’t want to hear. So, I decided to stay at my favorite coffee shop for at least another half hour.

I took one of the comfy chairs in the corner, put my coffee and my feet up on the large ottoman in front of me, and opened the Angry Birds app on my phone. About fifteen minutes later, I saw jean-clad legs in my peripheral vision. His shoes were pointed towards me, but he didn’t say anything.

“Listen, I’m sure you’re a wonderful person, but I need to focus.” I pointed to my phone without raising my head. “Or I’m going to break my winning streak.”

“I’m not sure if you know this”—the legs moved a step closer—“but when you win, you don’t actually get any candy. Yeah,” he grumbled. “The day I found that out was one of the worst days of my life.”

I wiped my mouth to cover my smile—he’d probably take it as a sign I wanted to keep talking to him. “As much as I appreciate the tip, I’m not interested.”

“Me neither. Wait, what aren’t we interested in again? Oh, did you mean you and me…being interesting together? Then yeah, actually, I am interested in that.”

I looked up at him briefly. Well, no one could ever mistake him for average looking, that was for sure. Full lips that looked very comfortable wearing a smirk. The tattoos covering most of both forearms would’ve made my mom shake her head and say something witty like, ‘Maybe his parents didn’t give him enough coloring books when he was little.’

Light-brown hair tossed in a hot, I-have-more-important-things-to-take-care-of-than-my-hair way. One of those more important things might be his body. If I wasn’t completely cured of men, I’d thank him for making it a priority. Not that I didn’t find men attractive anymore—I couldn’t control that. And sure, I’d love to take a few more looks at the guy. But that wouldn’t bring me anything but frustration. And frustration didn’t bring me anything but the need for more batteries.

Three months ago, I would’ve been blushing, stuttering, making a fool of myself, and planning our wedding. Now I had more important things to take care of, like my sanity. And some very unhappy birds.

So I slumped into the chair and went back to my game. “Trust me, you don’t want me to get to know you, not if you like who you are right now. I’m cursed. I could turn you into a frog with barely any effort at all. Go find someone else to pretend to be in love with. I wish you luck.”

He picked up my coffee from the ottoman and sat down. “Congratulations. You’ve just made yourself twice as intriguing. You have to know that all men enjoy a good chase every once in a while.”

“I’m not running—I’m telling you to run. Go hunt down someone else.”

“I’m Carson.”

“Okay, go hunt down someone else, Carson.”

“Maybe three times as intriguing.” After a second, he stood. “Nice to meet you, Lane.”

“It’s Laney, but how did you—?”

He glanced down at my coffee cup, which he was still holding. My name was written in big letters on the side, the ‘Y’ an illegible scribble. I should’ve gone the more environmentally friendly route and skipped the paper cup. But not a big deal. All he knew was most of my name and my drink order. Thankfully they didn’t write my phone number on there, too. Not that he would remember it three minutes from now, because frankly, I’m not worth that much of his effort.

He handed my coffee back but didn’t go away, seemingly content to keep staring at me with a cocky grin. Okay, he was really far from average looking. But guaranteed, he was as much a liar as they all are. Maybe worse because the more attractive a guy is, the more he thinks he can get away with. I take that back—the more he can get away with. Because women are idiots.

“Let me guess,” I said. “You’re different from every other guy, searching for the one woman who will complete you. You’re considerate, caring, and really want a chance to know who I truly am.”

“Not at all,” he said, ticking the points off with his fingers and grimacing. “Definitely not. Dear god no. That’s not even close to what I want from you. And…was that all of them? I got distracted by your breasts for a little while there, so I may have missed one.”

I coughed, covering my mouth before I spit my coffee out. “Seriously?” In the last few months I’d had a lot of similar conversations with moderately similar guys. But not a single one had an answer even remotely like that.

“Seriously. I’m a complete asshole who only cares about what he can get from someone. Take you, for example. I saw you sitting here alone, no ring, great body. And thought, ‘I want to fuck her.’ And yeah, those were the exact words that went through my head. On the way over here I tried to figure out the fastest and most efficient way to get you into my bed—which isn’t far from here, by the way—hoping you weren’t the type who needed a couple dinners out first. So, Lane”—he popped an eyebrow—“are you?”

I didn’t know how to respond. Was I? I used to be. Except it had taken more than a couple dinners before I slept with someone. It had taken a commitment of some kind. And now? Even though I was done with relationships and love, I didn’t want to be celibate for the rest of my life. I wasn’t sure I was ready, but there was only one way to find out. And, as far as guinea pigs went, I couldn’t have found a more attractive one. So…

Fuck it. For some unknown reason, I’d shaved my legs this morning. Maybe it was a sign from the universe that today was the day to do some experimenting.

Oh my god, I can’t believe I’m about to do this. I stood, grabbed my bag, and pushed past him on my way to the door. Then I turned around. “I think that was an exceptionally efficient way to get me into your bed.”

 

 

The fairytale behind DARKER WATER

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In my upcoming contemporary romance series, Once and Forever, the stories are rooted in fairytales but, of course, they don't take the pretty route. Their moral is twisted and turned into a gritty, modern story about real people who go through as much cruelty as I can throw at them, but who come out stronger. Ready to be the person they should be and have the love they deserve.

Each novel in the series will begin and end with their own fairytale, as I see it.
This is the fairy tale of DARKER WATER:

Prologue:

Once upon a time there was a young woman who lived in a tall glass tower in the middle of a city. She wasn’t incredibly beautiful but she was attractive, probably somewhere around the eighty-fifth percentile. She was smart, kind, honest, and good with animals.

But the most beautiful thing about her was her heart, for it was made of the purest of golds. Unfortunately, she wasn’t very good at taking care of it, and over the years, it lost its shine. Because every time she met a prince, she believed him to be perfect—strong but gentle, brave, and caring. So, she would show him her heart and give it to him to hold, thinking he would take care of it.

What she hadn’t yet realized was that there was a curse put on her…at some time…by someone. And the curse was this: The moment the woman gave her heart away and kissed the prince—believing it to be true love—the prince would begin to change. Sometimes slowly, other times quickly. But he always turned into a frog. And although the frog would give her heart back to her, each time it was a little more worn, a little less brilliant.

But the woman didn’t give up trying to find a prince who would remain a prince, knowing that somewhere out there was someone who could heal her heart and break the curse by remaining a prince after she kissed him.
Then one day, she finally understood the curse’s power. No one could heal her, she would never find a prince, and the curse would never be broken.

And so, clutching what was left of her heart, she gave up her search.

Epilogue:

Once upon a time there was a woman who though not stunningly beautiful, thought herself to be. Because she was in love with a man who made her feel that way. And despite himself, he was in love with her.

After all of the princes who’d turned into frogs and had damaged the woman’s heart, it took a man who was not a prince to mend it. And in return she mended his. For even though he’d long believed himself the lowest of creatures, he wasn’t. His heart was locked away, deep inside of him, and he had never allowed anyone in for fear they would discover how truly ugly it was.

But what he didn’t know was that his heart was pure and beautiful and strong. And all he needed was the right woman to unlock it and set him free…with a kiss.

 

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DARKER WATER is available for pre-order now. Sign up for my newsletter to hear the moments it's released. Or, you know, click one of the links below to buy it now. Then it'll show up on your eReader magically on October 3rd.

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Amazon             iBooks             B&N             Smashwords

 

DARKER WATER, a contemporary romance

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DARKER WATER  will be released on Friday, October 3rd!

You can even preorder it on Amazon, Smashwords, iTunes, and B&N, so it'll show up on your eReader automatically.

I'll share the links to other retailers as soon as I have them.

Until then, enjoy this gorgeous cover by Amanda at www.PixelMischief.com. In case you haven't heard, DARKER WATER is a contemporary romance, the first in a series of seven-plus books, all stand-alone novels. Yeah, that's right! Who says I can't write happy endings?! Okay, fine, I may have said that at one point. But people can change.

Drum roll please…

 Darker Water

DARKER WATER
ONCE AND FOREVER #1

 How beautiful is that? I could look at it forever.
Thanks, Amanda!

DARKER WATER is a twisted take on the Frog Prince story and is about Laney, a woman who's given up on relationships, love, and men, and Carson, a man who's never even tried relationships and love. He hasn't tried men either. Haha. Here's the book description:

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Laney Temple believes in love about as much as she believes in princes, happy endings, and honest relationships. After kissing way too many frogs, all she has to show for it is sore lips and a bruised heart.

 Luckily, Carson Bennett isn’t interested in her for her heart. Her lips? Hell yes. Other parts of her anatomy? You better believe it. But her heart? Nope, not even a little bit. So it just makes sense for him to selflessly volunteer himself to show her that great sex can just be great sex. Except, for them, it isn’t that simple.

 If Laney can’t keep sex and love separate, she’ll lose everything she’s gained. And if Carson starts to feel more than he should, Laney may be the one to pay the price.

 What neither of them want to admit is that their choices—not to love or be loved—have never been theirs to control.

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The real story isn't in what you read. It's in what you feel

 

Sometimes an author comes across a quote that sums everything up–their writing, their experience, the message they're trying to communicate to readers.

C. Joybell C. is a poet. An incredibly talented one who just happens to be kind and incredibly generous. Something she wrote is the perfect way to communicate the overall theme of my work. Here it is:

 

“Some people live in cages with bars built from their own fears and doubts. Some people live in cages with bars built from other people's fears and doubts…Some people live in cages with bars built from the choices others made for them, the circumstances other people imposed upon them. And some people break free.” — C. JoyBell C.

 

If you told me you've heard something as beautiful, tragic, meaningful, and just plain awesome than that lately, I wouldn't believe you.

 

In the Hyde series and The Heights, I've used epitaphs: those short quotes you find in the beginning of books that convey a little of what you're about to jump into. It takes a really long time for me to find the perfect one for each book. Here are the ones I chose:

 

Hyde:
“…I thus drew steadily nearer to that truth, by whose partial discovery I have been doomed to such a dreadful shipwreck: that man is not truly one, but two.
There was something strange in my sensations…an unknown but not an innocent freedom of the soul. I knew myself, at the first breath of this new life, to be more wicked, tenfold more wicked, sold a slave to my original evil…”
– Robert Louis Stevenson, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, 1886

Jekyll:
“When the people of the world all know beauty as beauty,
There arises the recognition of ugliness.
When they all know the good as good,
There arises the recognition of evil.”
– Lao-tzu

Strange Case:
“…everything happens for a reason. People change so that you can learn to let go, things go wrong so that you appreciate them when they’re right, you believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself, and sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.”
– Marilyn Monroe

Unseen:
“No one really knows why they are alive until they know what they’d die for.”
– Martin Luther King Jr.

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I still haven't found exactly the right one for UNEARTHED. If you ever happen upon a great quote, feel free to post it on my Facebook page. You may just see it in my next book. :)