Wednesday, December 2, 2009

New Release: Just a Game



It's all fun and games until someone falls in love...


Ad executives and college friends, Charlie and Sidney have what could be the perfect arrangement. On the working side, they're an excellent team. Sidney's money-man logic with Charlie's slick showmanship reel in new clients from all over the country.

On the pleasure side, their exciting, clandestine affair is wet dream material. At least it was until Charlie slammed down the boundaries. Boundaries he desperately clings to.

When a hurricane alert sees them stranded in a Florida hotel room, Sidney seizes the opportunity to push at those limits. Unfortunately someone's gotta give and Charlie's terrified that it just might be him...


Grab your copy today!

----------Excerpt---------


“And fuck you very much,” Charlie growled, tossing his cell on the coffee table and missing Sidney’s bare feet by a scant few inches.

Sidney shifted his feet over and crossed them at the ankles as he leaned further into the couch.

“Guessing that was a ‘no’ too?” Having long discarded his suit jacket and shirt, Sid was down to his white undershirt and suit pants. He’d rolled up the sleeves and pants legs in concession to the sticky Florida humidity that managed to permeate the room even with the windows shut tight and the A/C on high.

“Yeah.” Charlie ran an agitated hand through his hair. He’d dropped his jacket as well, but remained buttoned up. Uncomfortable, yes, but he was determined to get out of this state before things grew worse. “Nobody’s willing to fly with the hurricane threat, which is ridiculous; these people have hurricane threats all the damn time.”

Sid twirled the remote in his hand. “No, they fly knowing that a hurricane could happen at any time. When there’s an actual alarm going on and fifty mile an hour winds, it becomes more than a threat.” He pointed the remote at the TV, muted, and turned to the weather channel. A long red line rode the top and bottom of the screen with the words “Hurricane Alert” continuously scrolling across it.

“Face it, buddy, you’re not getting us out of here tonight.” Sid had accepted that fact long before Charlie did. But that fit. Sid was the moneyman for their advertising company, and the ruthless logic of a man who handled money all day long and knew exactly how far a dollar could stretch tended to rule his life. Charlie, however, was the promo man. He pushed, twisted, and manipulated until he got what he wanted, which was usually whatever client he was sweet-talking. Together, they usually managed to bag the majority of their accounts, allowing them to have a bit of playtime wherever they happened to be. Which was what they’d done tonight in celebration of their new client.

Then the hurricane alert sounded, and Charlie wanted fucking out of Miami.

He grunted at Sid, unwilling to give up, and swung around to face the balcony window. With blinds left open, he could see straight out to the beach that was only five minutes away. It’d cost a little more—okay, a lot more—to get so close, but up until then it’d been worth it. Now, he could see the ocean’s angry tossing, the bruised black hue of the sky, and the wind that bent the palm trees to damn near ninety-degree angles.

He swore, stalking over to the glass and pounding his fist against it. “Damn it, no.”

“What’s so wrong with getting a flight tomorrow again?” There was a quiet...something in Sid’s voice that made Charlie’s spine shudder.

Charlie thumped his head against the glass and almost jumped out of his skin when lightning zigzagged across the sky, illuminating the gray world outside. “Shit,” he hissed, blinking away the edge of white dancing around his vision. “I just have a schedule.” Charlie tossed the words in Sid’s general direction. “We handle the surfboard people out here, get home tonight, and then start wearing down that ditzy heiress-turned-fashion designer tomorrow.”

Charlie didn’t need to see Sid’s face to know his mouth had twisted in that familiar smirk.

Sid’s voice rang with barely leashed mockery. “For someone who makes a living pulling ideas out of his ass, you’re awfully worried about something so easily adjusted.”

Charlie’s shoulders went tight no matter how hard he tried to keep them from doing so. “Don’t do this, Sid.”

“Don’t do what?”

The sound of feet thumping carpet should not have been so loud. Charlie stared hard out the window as Sid’s heat eased closer. This time, he didn’t jump when lightning flashed, but that could have been because Sid’s mouth was dangerously close to his ear and Charlie had gone blind to the chaos outside. Instead, he watched Sid’s reflection close in. The room’s light threw them into a slight shadow, but he knew that face well enough without illumination.

“Don’t follow your little rules anymore? This self-imposed fucking distance? Guess what, Charlie boy. You can’t run away in a hotel room.” There was a nasty smile wrapped in Sid’s words as he drove in the fact that Charlie had been so desperate to ignore. “You can’t run away at all anymore.”

Fuck.

2 comments:

JenB said...

I love this story. Congrats on the new release. :)

s7anna said...

This sounds like a great story. It's going on my To be bought list...I can't wait to read it.

Happy Reading
Anna Shah Hoque
s7anna@yahoo.ca

Related Posts with Thumbnails