You’re doing great!
Wow. You guys rocked the “Name my next book” post last week. to visit that.
I’m going to start narrowing down the selections and I’ll be back with a little poll.
IN THE MEAN TIME….I thought I might post a little bit of that first chapter to give you a little taste. The last excerpt was from Angelina’s POV, so I thought we’d try Paul’s this time.
If any more title ideas or TAG LINES come to mind, leave a comment. I’ll look at everything before the poll goes up next week.
“Whoa. Hold on!” I raced toward the girl sagging to the ground. Her wide, green eyes flashed a fear I’ve seen before. All too often. “I’m not going to hurt you,” I said. “Not going to hurt you.”
Her tiny body sagged back and would have fallen to the floor had I not grabbed her shoulders. What the hell?
“Hey. You okay? Hey!” I gently shook her, but she was out.
I didn’t catch the scent of alcohol or anything, so she didn’t pass out from that. And considering I was a bouncer, I’d seen that as well more times than I could count.
But the fear I’d seen in her eyes. What was that about? I was scary looking, yeah, but not that scary looking. Then again it was two in the morning, and I probably reeked with grease, sweat and beer from a long night at the bar.
“Hello?” a tiny voice called out. “Hey, you. Hello?”
I glanced around and saw only the open elevator door behind me. “Hello?” I called out.
“Here. Here.”
The voice sound like it was coming from the unconscious girl—wait, she had a Bluetooth wedged in her ear. I scanned the floor and found a smart phone off to the side. There was a woman on the screen waving her hands. Holy shit. I snatched the thing up and looked into the camera. The woman was pointing to her ear now.
“Oh. Yeah. The Bluetooth.”
I plucked it out of the unconscious girl’s ear and shut it off.
“—you so much. Thank God you came by. Please. You have to help her,” the woman on the screen of the phone said.
“What the hell is going on?” I said as I looked around. Maybe I was being punked or something. Maybe there was a hidden camera around. Hopefully not considering I needed to stay off the grid as much as possible.
“What’s your name?”
“Paul. You?”
“Jenna. Can you please press the 21st floor? Oh wait, you need the pass. Hers is—”
“I got one. That’s my floor.” I leaned to the side and swiped my key fob then clicked floor twenty-one.
So, this girl lived next to me? I hadn’t met the neighbor yet, but I’d only moved in last week, and I made it a point to not mingle much. No personal attachments allowed.
“Thank you. Wait, you’re Angelina’s neighbor?”
“Angelina?” I shifted the stranger around and hoisted her into my arms. Light little thing. Fit, too. Those yoga pants suited her. “Is that your name?” I asked, looking into her relaxed face. She looked more like a Lina…yes, that’s what I’d call her.
No. No nicknames. No connections.
But there was something about this girl that tugged at my rigid no dating rule. Maybe because it’d been so long since I’d been with a woman. I was primed and ready—
“Yes. Oh, thank goodness.”
“So, what’s your deal? What’s going on?” I asked, totally confused how I’d ended up holding a total stranger in my arms after a long night of plucking drunks off the floor of the club. None were as pretty as Lina, though. Such a fragile looking thing. Her head lulled against my chest, and a strange sensation of electricity and tingling ignited where she touched me. It wasn’t even skin on skin, but I felt it through my shirt.
Even through the stench of greasy food and sweat clinging to my shirt, her fresh scent sifted through. What was that, cucumbers?
“…was that what your name was?”
The voice from the phone yanked me out of my staring, and I said, “Yeah. Paul…Amos.” Holy crap I almost gave her my real last name. Didn’t give that out to anyone, though. “So, what’s her deal? Should I be calling an ambulance or something?”
“No. If you’re okay with it, can you just get her to her apartment?”
“As in…like bring her in there?”
“I’ll stay on the phone with you the entire way. It’ll be fine.”
There was nothing fine about me, a total stranger, bringing another total stranger into her apartment. I took care of drunks at the bar, but the furthest I’d ever gone was to get them to their cab or their car if they had a sober driver.
“Look. I know this might seem strange, and I can’t tell you much, other than she’ll be fine. We were trying something out and…well, you were a little unexpected.”
“You her shrink or something?” I glanced up at the numbers as they edged toward our floor. I was actually a little sad at the thought of letting this warm body go. It’d been so long. So very long since I’d just held a woman.
I couldn’t chance getting close to any female. I wasn’t safe. I ground my molars, the all too familiar anger rising up. It was my dad’s fault I couldn’t get close to a woman. Damn violent prick ruined not only my mom but me, too.
But at least Mom was safe now from that monster.
“Paul? Is everything okay?”
“Um yeah.” I cleared my throat, focusing my thoughts on this girl in my arms. She needed me to keep my shit together. Even though she didn’t know me, she depended on me to protect her. I could do that. Hell, it was my mission in life to keep people safe. I had a lot to make up for what I’d done to Isabelle all those years ago. “So, did you answer me? Are you her shrink?”
“You seem distracted.”
“Nice deflection, doc.” So she was a shrink. Great. What the hell did I walk in on? “Am I holding a crazy chick? Or—”
“No. Look. If you could just…help her, we’d be greatly indebted to you.”
Shrinks cracked me up, but I did have to give props to this one. To be on video chat at two thirty in the morning, and she’d yet not admitted to being Angelina’s shrink—this girl was good. “Jenna you said your name was?”
“Yes.”
“It’s fine. I’ll take care of her. What do you need me to do? We’re at floor 18.”
“Her key fob is in her—wait, she’d been holding it. No she hadn’t. Those pants have a zip pocket on the lower back. It should be in there. Can you try and find it?”
“Okay, but if she wakes up and freaks out thinking I’m trying to cop a feel, you gotta back me up on this.”
“Let’s pray to God she doesn’t wake up, for her sake.”
You guys are rock stars!
Thanks!
