We are so excited to be stop #6 on Susan Mallery's Thrill Me Excerpt Tour! Enjoy another peek into her upcoming book, Thrill Me! The full tour list is included at the end of the post. Make sure to some back on August 17 for a review on the book!
Giveaway details:
As part of the tour, we are giving away one prize pack to one lucky winner! Just fill out the Rafflecopter to enter! One luck winner will receive:
· Autographed copy
of Until We Touch (first mention of Zane Nicholson, the hero of Kiss Me)
· Susan Mallery lip
gloss (to make your lips “Kiss Me” kissable)
· Map of Fool’s
Gold
· Susan Mallery pen
· Heart-shaped
Susan Mallery notepad
“Morning,”
she said as he approached. Her lingering sleepiness faded as odd tingles began
in her toes and raced up to the top of her head. Horror replaced trepidation.
No, no, no! There
couldn’t be tingles or awareness or any of that. Uh-uh. No way. Not her. She
refused to be attracted to Delany Mitchell. Not after ten years and thousands
of miles. The miles being metaphorical for her and literal for him. They were
done. They’d moved on. Okay, technically she’d dumped him in a cruel and
immature way, but regardless of her failings, it was so over as to be a
relationship fossil.
Exhaustion, she told
herself desperately. The tingles were the result of exhaustion. And maybe hunger.
She would probably faint next and then everything would be fine.
“Morning,” he said as he
stopped in front of her. “You ratted me out to my mother.”
The words were so at
odds with what she’d been thinking that she had trouble understanding their meaning.
When the mental smoke cleared, she was able to breathe again.
“You mean I told her you
were in town?”
“Yeah. You could have
given me fifteen minutes to get in touch with her.”
She smiled. “You never
said it was a secret. I stopped by to see a friend and told her you were back.
She was surprised.”
“That’s one way to put
it. She gave me an earful.”
The barista handed Maya
her latte. Maya took it and started for the door. “If you’re expecting me to
feel guilty about that, it’s so not happening. How could you not bother telling
your mother you were coming home? I’m not the bad guy here.”
Del fell into step with
her. “I wanted it to be a surprise.”
“Is that what we’re
calling it these days?”
He held open the door
for Brew-haha. When they got to the sidewalk, he pointed to the left and she
walked along with him. Because, well—why not?
“You’re saying I should
have let her know I was home for the rest of the summer?”
“Speaking as your mom’s
friend, yes, you should have told her you were coming. Or that you’d arrived.
And if you didn’t want me to tell her, you should have said something. If she
scolded you, it’s your own fault. I accept absolutely no guilt or blame on the
topic.”
He surprised her by
laughing. “You always did have attitude.”
Back then it had been
bravado. She liked to think she now had a little experience or even substance
to back it up.
They reached the lake.
Del turned toward the path that led to the rental cabins on the far side. Maya
went with him. The day was sunny and promised to be plenty warm. August was
often the hottest part of summer in Fool’s Gold. Up in the mountains fall came
early, but not in the town itself.
Along the shores of Lake
Ciara, just south of the Golden Bear Inn, was a cluster of summer cabins. They
ranged from small studios to large three-bedroom structures. Each cabin had a
big porch with plenty of room for sitting out and watching the lake. There was
a play area for the kids, a communal fire pit and easy walking access to Fool’s
Gold.
Del led the way to one
of the smaller cabins. There was plenty of seating on a surprisingly large
porch.
“Not a suite at Ronan’s
Lodge?” she asked, taking the chair he offered.
He settled next to her.
“I spend enough time in hotels when I travel. This is better.”
“But there’s no room
service.”
He glanced at her, one
brow raised. “You think I can’t cook?”
It had been ten years,
she thought. “I guess I don’t know that much about you.” Anymore. She
didn’t say the last word, but she thought it. Because there had been a time
when she’d known everything about Del. Not just his hopes and dreams, but how
he laughed and kissed and tasted.
First love was usually
intense. For her it had been that and more. With Del, for the first time in her
life she’d allowed herself to hope she might not have to go it alone. That
maybe, just maybe she could believe that someone else would be there for her.
To look out for her. To give a damn.
“To start with, I can
cook,” he said, drawing her back to the present. “There was a last-minute
cancelation so I got the cabin.”
A couple of little boys
played down by the water. Their mother watched from a blanket on the grass.
Their shrieks and laughter carried over to them.
“It’s going to be
noisy,” she said.
“That’s okay. I like
being around kids. They don’t know who I am, and if they do, they don’t care.”
Some people would care, she thought, wondering how difficult his version of fame
had become.
He’d made a name for
himself on the extreme sports circuit. Crazy downhill snowboarding stunts had
morphed into skysurfing. He’d become the face of a growing sport with the press
clamoring to know why anyone would jump out of a plane with a board attached to
their feet and deliberately spin and turn the whole way down.
After a few years of
being a media darling, he’d made yet another change, designing a better board,
and then starting the company that built them. That move had made him more
mainstream—at least for the business crowd—and he’d become a popular guest on
business shows. When he’d sold the company—walking away with cash and no
announcing what he would do—he’d become the stuff of legends. A daredevil
willing to take life on his own terms.
She’d wanted that once.
Not the danger, but the being famous part. It would have been one of the perks
of being in front of the camera instead of behind it. For her it hadn’t been
about money or getting a reservation at a popular restaurant. It had been about
belonging. That if others cared about her, she must have value. Be worthy, in
some small way.
Time and maturity had
helped her see the fallacy of that argument, but the hollowness of needing it
had never completely gone away. With that dream over, she would have to find
another way to make peace with her past.
To be continued....
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