After more than a week of feeling miserable, it’s good to be out among the living. This week I’ve been playing catch up, so it’s been crazy busy. Thankfully, it’s Mid Week Tease time. There’s nothing like a few Mid Week Teases to take the edge off an intense week.
For the past two weeks we’ve been in Jamie and Miles’s meet cute, from her point of view. This week, we step into his point of view to see what he’s thinking about the wicked vixen behind the bar who is more than a little determined to keep him at arm’s length.
<==EXCERPT FROM LOVE ME NOT==>
Miles stared at the large, heavy backlit menu. Quite an expense for a bar menu. Tahlia’s had gone all out to impress its high-end customer base.
He looked around the place. It was filled with people presumably like him. People with pockets deep enough that they wouldn’t flinch at paying twenty bucks for a fancy salad or a plate of calamari in downtown Cleveland, Ohio.
The concierge at his hotel had highly recommended the place. He reviewed the menu. It all sounded delicious and he’d been starving when he’d walked through those doors fifteen minutes ago. But honestly there wasn’t anything on the menu half as interesting as the green-eyed beauty behind the bar.
The woman was mysterious, yet familiar—bearing a faint resemblance to someone he’d once known. Someone he’d once cared for. He sipped his water slowly, stealing a glance at her. About five foot eight. Lean, athletic body punctuated by sensual curves that made him fully aware of a need to adjust his trousers. Without turning his head, he watched as she sashayed behind the bar, hips swaying, her black pants clinging to her curves in all the right places. Suddenly she threw her head back and laughed, exposing her creamy neck. Her shiny black hair, loosely twisted low at the back of her head, shifted and for a moment he had the visceral sensation of tangling his fingers in it. She laughed again, more quietly this time. Pete was a regular funny guy. With him she seemed comfortable, relaxed.
Returning the glass to the bar, he picked up the menu again. She was apparently immune to his particular brand of charm. He hadn’t been able to solicit so much as a smile from her, let alone any genuine interest.
But then, maybe it was too soon to say.
Jamie stood in front of him, her arms folded tightly across a very impressive rack. Not that he was staring. It was just hard not to notice the strain of her breasts against the tight rayon shirt. The top buttons were open, revealing ample cleavage, a black camisole underneath and glimpses of a colorful tattoo. “Ready to order?”
Was he ever, but what he wanted tonight wasn’t on Tahlia’s menu. “Everything looks delicious.” Miles made sure he’d returned his gaze to the menu before he said it. After all, he didn’t want to come off like a complete sleaze bucket, even if all he could think about was how amazing those breasts probably looked beneath that snug shirt. “It’s impossible to choose. Maybe you can recommend something.”
She studied him for a moment then put down her iPad. She held her hand out, waiting expectantly, and he handed her the menu. Her eyes roamed over the menu quickly before returning it. “You’re not a vegetarian or anything, are you?”
“No.” He smiled. “I’m definitely a carnivore. In fact, the more meat, the better.”
She pursed her lips then returned her gaze to the menu. He responded with an inward grin, reasonably certain she was trying her damnedest not to smile. It gave him hope. Maybe Jamie the Bartender wasn’t a lost cause after all.
“My hands-down favorite meal off the bar menu is the blue-cheese-crusted filet mignon with port wine sauce. It’s seriously a stroke of genius. Like an orgasm for your mouth.” She stared at him for a moment, seemed to enjoy watching him squirm on the bar stool.
He picked up his glass of water and almost missed his own mouth as he attempted to take a quick gulp. Setting the glass back down, he wiped the water from his beard with the back of his hand. “Yeah,” he said, barely able to raise his eyes to hers. “I’ll take that.”
“Perfect.” A full grin crept across her pretty mouth.
Yep. She was definitely fucking with him. And she enjoyed it. This girl was more than he bargained for. Yet there was something about her that made him want to barrel straight through the Danger: Keep the Fuck Out sign she was clearly projecting.
“So, how do you want your potatoes?”
“Potatoes?”
“You know, the brown things that grow out of the ground? We serve them here. Six different ways.”
“Oh yeah, umm…garlic mashed potatoes, please.”
She nodded. “Good choice. Side salad, Caesar salad, broccoli or the vegetable of the day?”
“What’s the vegetable of the day?”
She glanced behind her to look at the chalkboard with the special, soup and vegetable of the day written neatly in white, red and blue chalk. “Brussels sprouts in a white wine reduction.”
“Yeah, I’ll take that.” He folded the heavy menu closed, then handed it to her.
A wicked smile was perched on her dark lips. Did she have the slightest clue how incredibly enticing that smile was? “Great. Will that be all?”
He peered deeply into those bewitching green eyes framed by dark, smoky, cat-eyed makeup. “For now.”
Now it was her turn to squirm a little under his stare. She put the menu back behind the bar and turned to walk away.
Miles tapped his finger lightly on the bar. Maybe his prospects with this girl weren’t looking so bad after all.
<==END OF EXCERPT==>
Thanks for taking the time to visit. Don’t forget to visit the other stops on the list below.
Miles Copeland climbed to the top of his advertising agency because he isn’t afraid of taking risks and because he has something to prove to the father who betrayed his family. But when he falls for a moody, Gothic beauty with zero interest in anything but a purely physical relationship, he finds himself in dangerous territory.
Carolyn Hughey/K. T. Roberts, who also writes mysteries has been a hair stylist, an executive legal secretary, a chef, and of course, a writer. She brings together her culinary experience and her love of writing in Dishing Up Romance, One Menu at a Time, and Catering to Love. When not practicing one of her many talents, she enjoys oil painting, jewelry making, and cake decorating. Hughey lives with her family in Arizona.
When I started writing fiction again a little less than ten years ago, I fancied myself a pantser. I was a rebel at heart (though rarely in real life). So my unspoken mantra was, I don’t need no stinking outline! However, several stalled manuscripts languishing under my bed unfinished caused me to rethink this strategy. Then I heard an interview with prolific author Kimberla Lawson Roby in which she talked about her detailed outlining process. I figured what did I have to lose by trying it. So I outlined a scene I’d been stuck in for months. It worked! Then I outlined the next scene and the next one. Before I knew it, I’d finished my first manuscript since I’d started to write again.
Carol A. Strickland
Ruth A. Casie
