contemporary romance ebook

WARNING

Some of the books on this site contain material of a sexual nature or graphic violence and are only suitable for adults. By reading the excerpt below you release me as the author of any responsibility.

Excerpt

The revolving doors felt as though they were chasing her heels as she struggled to make it out into the early evening air. They only added to the lingering feeling that her interview had gone badly, possibly worse than the other eleven she’d already had at various marketing agencies across Manhattan.

Heaving a long sigh to try to expunge the feeling of abject misery that was starting to encroach at the corners of her soul, Emily tilted her head back and stared up at the sky. The heavy grey clouds that lingered there made her pine for the clear blue skies of her native California. In all her life, she’d never experienced as much rain as she had done in the past three months in New York City.

Looking at her watch, she silently cursed as she realised she’d been in the interview for over two hours and there was still no hope of getting the job. She’d felt nothing positive in her time in the meeting room, not one sign that they were going to consider her for the position.

Stepping out into the street, she shrieked as the heavens opened, the clouds above her blackening and knitting closer together as they poured their contents down onto the unsuspecting populous of the city.

She dashed straight back under the porch of the building she had just exited and growled low in frustration. Today was not her day.

Emily stared blankly at the rain as it fell heavily, rapidly creating a sheet of water on the road and puddles on the pavement. She watched it gurgle down a nearby drain and then raised her eyes up to watch the drops as they fell in rapid succession, so close together that she could barely make out the buildings opposite her.

Three months, thirty-two rejections outright and twelve interviews, three of which had been today. According to Mina’s calculations, they should have both had jobs two and a half months ago. Instead, she was still jobless and now the funds were running dangerously low. Not only was this city lacking in work, it was at least twice as expensive as her home town.

Closing her eyes briefly, Emily felt like laughing at how foolish she’d been for not listening to her mother’s warnings about what the big cities were like and being stubborn in her idea. She couldn’t ask her mother for money now, not after she’d flatly told her that she could make it on her own—just watch her. She let her shoulders sag and realised that she was too young for this. She was barely out of college and trying to make it in a city like New York. No one was going to hire her. They didn’t want an inexperienced girl like herself. They wanted an experienced woman.

“Or a man.” She thought.

Opening her eyes, she looked down at her jacket, the tan coloured suede marred by dark patches where the drops of rain had hit her before she’d managed to make it under the shelter of the building.

“Shoot.” She frowned and then pouted for good measure, not caring if people were looking at her. She was young—she could pout if she wanted to. She felt like poking her tongue out at a woman as she breezed past her, a large umbrella shielding her from the downpour.

Emily’s eyes widened as she watched the umbrellas bobbing up and down the street; zigzagging domes of blue, black and red.

Slipping one strap of her oversized bag off her shoulder, she pulled it open and began to rifle through it, her movements growing more desperate and verging on frantic as she quietly cursed herself. She swore she’d packed the umbrella this morning, Mina had mentioned it and she remembered picking it up off the side table in the small hallway of their apartment. It had been right next to the mock-Tiffany lamp.

“Shoot!” She said again and this time accompanied it with a stamp of her foot.

“You alright, miss?” The dulcet tones of a British accent cut through her thoughts and Emily found that the interruption wasn’t at all unpleasant.

Raising her head slowly, she followed the black pants up past the black shirt until she reached his face. The frown of concern he was wearing made her knees weak.

William blinked as she looked up. Her wide hazel eyes stirred something inside him until his stomach felt hot and his chest grew tight. She smiled slightly and it caused her cheeks to turn cherub like, perfect round peach-like globes that made her cute enough to eat—boy did he want to. As she fought for something to say, he studied her face, her smooth complexion and little button nose leading his eyes down to her shiny red lips. He was astounded that her lips were the only part of her that make up had touched. He’d grown used to seeing the girls in this city plastered in make up and now he was faced by something so natural but so beautiful all the same that it only made her seem an even more heavenly creature.

Moving his eyes to her hair, he let them drift over it, running from the slightly darker roots, over the soft honey gold tresses that looked as though they would feel satiny under the pads of his fingers to the outwards curl at the tips just above her shoulders.

He frowned at the sight of her brown jacket spotted with rain. He’d been so preoccupied with her that he hadn’t noticed the weather. The sudden realisation that it was raining brought the noise to his attention and he listened to the swoosh of the cars as they drove fast through the puddles—regardless of the people walking the streets—and the patter of rain as it hit the numerous umbrella protected people as they walked past.

He moved his attention quickly back to the angel in front of him as he realised that she was saying something.

“…Umbrella. I swore I packed it. This day is going so badly…”

“Badly?” William arched a brow, wondering what could be so bad about it. His day appeared to be getting better by the second.

“First my interview goes wrong and then the rain spoils my last good jacket and I don’t have my umbrella. I seriously think the world is conspiring against me. I just want to get away from this place.” She cast a dirty look at the building they were standing under and sighed again.

“This place?” William moved his eyes to rest on the revolving door, watching as the caretaker locked it for the evening.

“Interview number million and one.” Emily complained as she started to look through her bag again. She had to keep her eyes off him or she was going to start staring.

In the few brief moments in which she’d had a chance to look him over, she’d come to the conclusion that she’d never seen anything like him. He was lean, clearly hid a well defined body under his neat black shirt and trousers, and his face was the kind that a teenage girl would sigh over in a magazine. Hell, she’d sigh over it right now if she thought he wouldn’t think she was crazy.

Her eyes had happily traversed his face, taking in the curve of his throat and the strong angle of his jaw, the soft tempting fullness of his lower lip and the fine arch of his brows, even his ears were sexy. This man in front of her, this god among men, had her knees trembling like she was thirteen and had just had her first kiss. Actually, her knees hadn’t even trembled this much when that had happened. She was shaking like a leaf inside, her body burning with unbridled feelings of desire and her brain constantly thinking up day dreams—a new one inspired by every tiny movement he made and each word he said.

Raising her eyes again, she swallowed hard as they met his. Her world span, her legs felt like they no longer functioned and her breath wouldn’t come. Staring deep into the crystalline blue pools of soul staring back at her she felt her mouth go dry and her heart sounded fast and hard in her ears. He was a god. There was no way on earth a man could make her feel like this just by looking at her. Her mind raced forwards, trying to consider what would happen to her if he touched her, if he placed just one of those large hands of his on her. She’d probably melt into a puddle.

William broke eye contact with her and looked at his watch. It was gone seven in the evening. He was meant to be home by now, should be getting ready for dinner tonight. There was no valid reason for him to be still standing there passing idle conversation as the rain continued to pour down. He had an umbrella, had a long jacket on that would protect him, yet here he stood, captivated by the slight little girl in front of him and wanting to know just why she’d seemed so miserable when he’d first seen her.

“It’s a little late for an interview.” William watched to see if she’d look at the building again.

“Yeah.” Emily sighed. There was nothing else she could do but wait for the rain to stop, and talking to him was far more entertaining than watching the people in the streets going about their business. “I was in there for over two hours and you know what, I still don’t think I’m going to get the job.”

William looked pensive for a moment and then narrowed his eyes inquisitively.

“Which department?”

“Huh?” It suddenly dawned on her that he had no rain on him so he must have come out of the building beside them. She always was perceptive. “Marketing. I want to be a copywriter.”

“Copywriter.” He sounded as though he was making a mental note of it. He had the first part of two pieces of information he’d grown determined to get from her, now he just needed the second.

“You work here?” As he looked pensive again, she wondered if she was being too nosey. She was used to her little town where people talked to each other when trapped by a rare rainfall.

“Yeah, I work here…” William started and tried desperately to find a job title or department to say, anything other than his real position.

“Bet you work near the top, with the big bosses.”

“Something like that, yeah.” He muttered, thankful that he didn’t have to explain what he did. With a slightly grim looking smile, he nodded towards the rain and felt her watching him. He resisted the desire to grin as a plan popped into his head. “Doesn’t look like stopping, does it?”

“Got that right.” Emily muttered. “So badly used to long days of sunshine. Rain is not something we see very often back home.”

William checked his watch again, purposefully bringing to her attention the fact that he had an umbrella. Her eyes widened slightly on seeing it and he knew he was about to get the information he was looking for. Smiling internally, he congratulated himself on being so good at this—getting exactly what he wanted from people, getting the information he needed to get his job done.

Ruthlessly determined.

Someone had once called him that. It had been a chief executive of some run down, small time, printing firm in Brooklyn. He was only twenty-seven at the time, had barely started his now proud empire, yet he hadn’t changed a bit. He saw takeovers as a hunt, and the hunt it thrilled him but the kill, that was the sweetest nectar, seeing the once proud owner of a company break down and sign everything over in the hope that he would go gentle on them. He never did. It was kill or be killed, and he was the deadliest of them all.

William smiled again, adding to his thoughts that he was ruthlessly efficient alongside being ruthlessly determined. Supposedly, determination is what drove people to succeed and he was one man that no one said no to, not even if they wanted to. One look in his eyes and they surrendered to him, gave him exactly what he wanted and she’d be the same—only he wasn’t certain.

His heart skipped a beat at that.

He didn’t know this time.

He was suddenly unsure.

He’d only met her fifteen minutes ago and she’d already placed doubt into his mind. He told himself it would be better to let her go, not pursue her, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. He had to make her his. She had to be his.

“You okay?” Emily cocked her head to one side and frowned inquisitively. He was staring blankly at the umbrella with a curious expression on his face that made her think that he looked pained, as though something had suddenly upset him.

William just stared at the black umbrella.

For some unknown reason it was shaking.

He quickly realised that it wasn’t the umbrella.

It was him. His hands were shaking.

Snapping himself out of it, he silently cursed his weakness and cast it aside, quashing it and putting it out of his head. He was stronger than this, no one said no to him and it wasn’t going to start happening now.

“Here… had an idea…” He said quietly, his tone gaining more confidence as he roused himself from his thoughts. “You take this… I’ll write down my address and you can post it back to me… or give it to me when you start your new job.”

Emily looked a little floored by his statement so he just smiled wide.

“Bosses here can be right bastards. They don’t give people a chance in interviews. It’s kill or be killed to them… money is power and power is everything, and once they know they have power over you… you’re screwed.” He raised an eyebrow and continued to smile. “I know they probably seemed harsh in the interview but I bet you get that job you went for. Just wait and see.”

Pulling a piece of paper from his pocket, he hurriedly wrote his address down, being careful to absorb as much as possible of the beautiful look she was giving him as if he was some kind of god for saying such a thing to her. He realised she needed a hell of a good cheering up session to break her miserable spell. He couldn’t imagine trying to make it in this city with as little experience as she had—so young, too.

As he handed her the piece of paper, her fingertips brushed lightly against his and she felt a spark run through her, a thrill that made her whole being hum with delight.

Emily took the umbrella with a wide courteous smile and then let her mouth form an ‘o’.

“I don’t know your name.”

Bingo. He smiled warmly and extended his hand.

“William.”

Emily smiled at how genteel and proper he was being. Slipping her hand into his, she was a little surprised by the firmness of his grip and the way he ran his thumb against hers, sensuously, almost predatory.

“Emily, Emily Anderson.”

William let his other hand stroke the back of her one he was holding and sighed.

“Pretty name for a pretty girl.”

With a flash of a smile that melted her heart, he was walking away from her, heading in the opposite direction to the one she was about to head in and all she could think about was whether she would ever see him again. She looked down at the piece of paper in her hand, his address scrawled neatly on it. Sighing to herself, she slipped it safely into her bag and opened the black umbrella as she stepped out into the rain.

Rain. Now that she thought about it, rain wasn’t so bad, rain had given her the brightest, most welcome moment of hope she’d ever had in her short life. Looking back over her shoulder, she smiled as she saw him disappearing into the crowd.

And hope had a fine ass.

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