Triggered by Love

by Rachelle Ayala

  She and Brando had talked about honeymooning in Hawaii, visiting Kerry’s home in Maui, and surf-camping on the beaches. He’d wanted her to quit work, have lots of babies, and be a full-time mom. She’d argued for one more show, always one more show, from Milan to London and then Manhattan—always bargaining for one more.

  Had Brando known the dream was just that? A dream never to come true? Here she was, sitting in an airplane thirty thousand feet in the atmosphere, as close to heaven as she could get, and she still couldn’t honestly tell him she’d give it all up to be the wife he’d envisioned. She wasn’t meant for the minivan, picket fence, and PTA meetings. Some might call her vain, but being pretty was her identity—for better or worse, and she loved the creativity that came with high-fashion design.

  Avery stared out the airplane’s porthole window at the unchanging blue sky. She closed her eyes, letting the sun stream in and paint the insides of her eyelids fiery red.

  She and Brando differed even in the wedding vows they wanted. He preferred the traditional one with the dreaded line, “till death do us part.”

  She’d wanted to write their own, together with him, and change it to “all the days of my life.”

  Except she ended up saying goodbye to him and to Mrs. Avery Bonet, suburban mom.

  Her thoughts drifted, and she remembered the first time she met him. She was at her sewing machine, concentrating hard on a collar. It had been turned inside out. She’d stitched the seam and darted it. She was about to notch it to turn, when the smoke alarm pierced her eardrums.

  A fireman covered with full protective gear charged toward her. Before she could turn the collar inside out, he’d grabbed her around the waist. He raced ahead of the flames and carried her down the ladder. She clung on to him for dear life, paralyzed with fear, sure that any minute, he’d slip and fall.

  When his feet hit solid ground, he said to her. “Hello, I’m Brando.”

  “Hello, I’m Avery,” she’d parroted and remained dazed at her rescue, not wanting to let go of him.

  “I have to go, but I’ll look for you,” he’d promised. “Hellos are goodbyes turned inside out.”

  And she’d stood there on the snowbank wondering exactly what he meant. The collar she was making wasn’t finished, and it was inside out.

  Her fingers tightened, intertwined with Jason’s, and she felt him squeeze her hand. Did Brando approve? Could she let him go?

  “Goodbye, Avery,” she heard Brando’s voice inside her heart. “One day, we’ll say hello again.”

  And then she got it, the whisper of his words made sense. She’d said goodbye to Brando that night on the bloody floor of the fashion show and said hello to Jason.

  One day, it would turn inside out, and she’d once again say hello to Brando, this time forever. Then it would be her turn to wait for Jason to say hello to her again in the place with no more goodbyes.

  Peace covered her heart as she opened her eyes and found Jason gazing into them. Leaning toward him, she kissed him and said, “Every goodbye leads to a new hello. I’m saying goodbye to grief and hello to love. I love you, Jason Burnett.”

  “I love you, too, Avery. Hellos are goodbyes turned inside out.” He winked and added, “Say goodbye to Avery Cockburn and hello to Avery Burnett.”

  Thank you for reading Avery and Jason’s challenging yet beautiful romance. I hope you enjoyed their story, and if you did, please consider putting up a review for Triggered by Love. Thanks!

  Matt Swanson may not have won the playoffs this time, but he is about to hit the jackpot on New Year’s Eve with Safire, Ivanna’s sister. Please turn the page for a preview of Blush of Love.

  Blush of Love - Excerpt

  Matt Swanson and Ivanna’s sister, Safire, hit it off in a New Year’s Eve romance, Blush of Love, Club Cockburn, #3

  Excerpt © 2018, Rachelle Ayala

  Chapter One

  No way. It can’t be. The Matt Swanson?

  Safire Chu blinked and blinked, but the man standing at her apartment door seemed like the real thing—three dimensional, oozing with charm and was that a whiff of cologne? Three-dimensional avatars, well, actually 3D projected on 2D screens, didn’t smell like sex and spice and woods and oh gosh, they didn’t stand at her door with a bouquet of red roses.

  “You must have the wrong apartment.” Safire found her voice which managed to eek from her throat.

  “You are Miss Safire Chu, aren’t you?” the man god in front of her insisted.

  “Uh, sure, if you say so.” She fumbled with her tongue as her brain busily catalogued his dark, smooth hair, his chiseled angular face, his lady-killer eyes, and all of the features she’d need for her latest superhero video game avatar.

  Yes, she was a video game designer, and she could use real models to fill out the wireframes she created—ones to represent Army rangers, Navy SEALs, interplanetary warriors, and, now that she thought about it, football players.

  “May I come in?” He angled himself as if he were about to barge through a line of defensive backs.

  “Sure, uh, yes, I mean, the place is a mess. I’ll get out of your way.” She stepped back and let the star football player into her tiny one-bedroom apartment, although she had no clue why he was standing in front of her with a dozen roses.

  “For you, Miss Chu,” Matt said, presenting the red roses. Once inside her tiny, cramped apartment, he appeared so large he practically filled the entire room.

  She couldn’t figure out where to turn or what to do as she hastily stumbled into the kitchenette and rummaged in her cabinets for a vase.

  Wait. Wasn’t that awfully rude to turn her back on him? She had a visitor, and shouldn’t she offer him something to eat or drink? Where were her manners?

  Safire looked down at her fluffy bunny slippers and her sweat pants. Oh goodness. She was a mess. She’d been up coding all morning and she was still in her pajamas. What time was it already? Four in the afternoon?

  “Mister, er, Swanson, I don’t know why you’re here, and I can’t find a vase. Would you like something to drink? Eat? Smoke? Oh, wait, I don’t smoke. How about some treats? Pocky sticks? I have chocolate, strawberry, and matcha flavored. Or tea? Oolong black or jasmine green?”

  “Whoa, there, slow down.” Matt laughed, and his smooth, deep voice was like long stringy molasses and dark whiskey.

  Safire swallowed the drool collecting under her tongue and froze, staring at his godly presence as he surveyed her messy and unlivable apartment.

  “Why are you here?” They were the only words she could utter.

  He swiped a large hand through his brown hair and grinned, melting her on the spot like an overheated wax candle. If she could capture that look for her latest superhero in Zombie Warlord, she’d knock the game off its charts. Who wouldn’t want a guy like that leading a team of zombie hunters?

  He placed the bouquet of long stemmed roses in her ice-cold hands. “I’m your date to Damon Cockburn’s New Year’s Eve Extravaganza at LushPuppies.”

  “You are? I didn’t know I was going.” With you.

  “You’re definitely going.” Matt flexed his biceps, well-visible under his tight, very tight, black T-shirt.

  She slowly shut her mouth, the one that had been gaping wide open and scrambled in her tight quarters for a vase. She had to have one, but it wasn’t as if men sent her flowers all the time. The last time was three years back when she was newly out of graduate school. She’d landed a job at Slipstream Entertainment, New York City’s leading video game company, and Damon Cockburn, the president and CEO had personally sent her flowers—tulips, she remembered, multiple colored tulips in every hue from brilliant orange to sooty pink to deep red.

  “I haven’t been thinking about the party because of all the deadlines at work. I’m not sure I can make it. I have so much to do …” She bit her tongue over the torrent of words spilling from her lips. This was Matt Swanson, pro football player, and he wasn’t interested in her deadlines or any other line
s.

  “You have to go,” Matt said firmly. “You won Game Designer of The Year, and I’m your date.”

  “You? Did Damon arrange this?” Safire hadn’t been on a date for well over a year. Her last “sort of” boyfriend had been an Army Ranger who’d wooed her while on his two-week leave. He was Damon’s friend growing up, and he’d dumped her for a blonde. Nope, she was definitely outclassed when it came to dating. Better for her to stick with Cory and Eliza, Damon’s cronies and his first two employees. They’d always gone stag to every party, although if she had any intuition at all, she could have sworn the two of them had a thing going—well, in the virtual world, at least, if not the physical.

  Matt’s grin grew almost as wide as his broad shoulders. “No one arranged it. I’m hoping you’ll accept my sincere desire to take you to the Slipstream New Year’s Eve Extravaganza. I’m a real fan of that last game you designed, Planet Wargames. I’m a level fifty-eight Stormtrooper.”

  “You are?” Safire’s tongue found it hard to articulate. “I didn’t know pro football players had the time to play. Didn’t it take you hundreds of thousands of hours to level up?”

  He quirked an arrogant smirk at her and all but rolled his eyes. “We have our minions—you know those dregs who hang out at our mansions?”

  “Uh, well, no, I’ve never had any minions,” Safire admitted. “So, why are you here?”

  “You wouldn’t happen to know the secret code to jump into the treasure store with unlimited coin, would you?”

  Of course, she knew all the codes. Heck, she’d planted all the Easter eggs, backdoors, and testing levels herself, but her company made money not from people playing for hours on end, but on those who made in-game purchases for goodies like extra ammo, lives, healing potions, high power weapons and scopes.

  “No such luck, Mr. Swanson.” Safire narrowed her already narrow eyes. She might have been star-struck with him, the Matt Swanson in her apartment, but when it came to her work and her company’s secrets, she was as impregnable as a nun wearing a chastity belt armed with hand grenades. Okay, so the video gamer part of her had to add the grenades, but suffice it to say, Mr. Matt Swanson wasn’t getting past her, red roses or no roses.

  “No harm asking.” He spread his hands in an amiable fashion and grabbed a juice pitcher from her cabinet. As if he owned her place, he filled it with water, unwrapped the roses and arranged them in her stainless-steel pitcher.

  Did anyone even invite him in?

  Safire was way too mousy to throw him out. Besides, he made a great character study. Who knew he had a dimple under his right eye? Or a scar that might have marred his jaw if it hadn’t served to make him more rugged than she’d imagined. As for his nose, it looked like it could have been broken a time or two.

  The artist in her raked her eyes over his hot, well-endowed physique, noting the large hands with the splayed fingers, strongly veined forearms, corded muscles and thick neck, not to mention the V shape of his shoulders down to a narrow waist.

  Cataloging the lower half of his body would have to wait because Matt was done arranging the flowers, although one stem had broken and another was flopping listlessly over the lip of the pitcher.

  He placed the pitcher on her kitchen table near her open laptop, and his roving eyes centered on her screen. She got the distinct impression he’d be more interested in her code than if she’d done a complete strip tease, from her oversized T-shirt to her sweat pants and finishing with kicking her bunny slippers in his face.

  “Ahem.” Safire cleared her throat loudly. “Are we done here? Because Mr. Swanson, I really need to get back to my debugging work. I’m under a tight deadline.”

  “So am I.” He cracked his knuckles one by one in that annoying fashion that made her cringe. “I’ll pick you up at ten, day after tomorrow. Dress to impress.”

  “Excuse me?” Safire marched up to him, her hands on her hips, and craned her neck up, up, up. “What makes you think I don’t already have a date?”

  “Trust me. You’ll want my help.” He tipped her chin up to the point the back of her neck cricked. “I have it on good authority that your ex, Finn Meriwether, will be there partying with his surfer lady, and when the ball drops at midnight, you’ll want a guy like me locking onto your lips.”

  “Who put you up to this?” Safire pressed her hands over his chest both to keep him at bay and to retain some semblance of balance. Too bad he flexed his pecs and the heat of his body burned almost the entire way through her palms. Okay, she could study his musculature to make her animations more realistic, and the way heat radiated from his hard muscles, she could also use him as a personal space heater. In fact, her tiny apartment felt positively balmy since he’d barged in. But barged in, he did, and it was time for him to leave.

  “What makes you think someone had to put me up to this?” Matt rubbed the soft spot under her chin. “Your profile’s public at your company’s website, and you weren’t too hard to find. I happen to be free New Year’s Eve, and I’d like nothing better than to take you on a date.”

  Just staring into his dark blue eyes had Safire already melting like Laffy Taffy. Goodness knew he was gorgeous, and huge, and men of his star caliber just didn’t knock on doors of lonely video game designers, especially when she was so close to a deadline, but then, maybe she had fans, too, and he was one of them. Maybe in his eyes, she was a woman of star caliber. Planet Wargames was one of the hottest massive multiplayer shooter games on the planet, and it was her brainchild.

  “Great, I’d love to.” She reluctantly pushed herself away from him, both to regain her dignity and to keep from embarrassing herself. She was a video game celebrity, and she shouldn’t walk around star struck just because the real Matt Swanson was inside her apartment. “Since you know where I live, I’ll see you New Year’s Eve.”

  End of Excerpt. To read more, please pick up Blush of Love at your favorite retailer.

  Acknowledgments

  My greatest thanks go to Amber McCallister for not only being my first reader, but sticking to this story through all of the revisions. A lot more than 140,000 words were written, and the plot twists changed several times. Amber helped me with brainstorming and provided several suggestions that steered me in a different direction. I believe it all worked out in the end. It’s truly a gift to have a first reader who is so dedicated to reading along while I write.

  Thanks also go to my editor, Kimberly Dawn, who is always ready to help. She’s reliable and accurate, and I so do appreciate having her give this manuscript a final rinse and polish.

  As always, readers are the best. This story isn’t the easiest to read because it deals with abuse and corruption. It is also a story of love and redemption, and in the end, I hope it is uplifting, even if it’s not safe.

  Reading List with Heat Levels

  With Audiobook Links

  Note on Heat Level: Sweet, kissing only, love scenes (if any) are behind closed doors. Sassy, love scenes are summarized and non-descriptive. Steamy, love scenes are detailed and descriptive.

  Don’t forget to download my Free Books: http://rachelleayala.net/free-books

  Contemporary Romance: Bad Boys for Hire Series (Steamy)

  Bad Boys for Hire - Ryker Terri Martin gets caught in the middle of a motorcycle club vendetta when she tries to hire a biker for her birthday date. Audiobook link.

  Bad Boys for Hire - Ken After Jolie Becker is left at the altar, her friends secretly hire a hunky beach bum to cheer her up. Audiobook link.

  Bad Boys for Hire: Nick, This Christmas, paraplegic Carol Cassidy is caught between the naughty and the nice: a hired Santa and a disabled firefighter. Audiobook link.

  Bad Boys for Hire: Liam, The unluckiest woman in America heads for Ireland and gets caught between a bad boy and a black cat. Audiobook link.

  Bad Boys for Hire: Gage, Sherelle’s bestie turns into a bad guy when he catches her snowed in alone at a mountain cabin.

  Bad Boys for Hire: Axe, Leanna enco
unters danger and love when she searches for a daughter she gave away in Mexico.

  Bad Boys for Hire: Roni, Roni ordered hits for the cartel, but can she kill the disabled firefighter whose ex hires her?

  Sweet Romance: Have A Hart Romance Series (Sweet)

  Christmas Lovebirds Can two little lovebirds and Christmas cheer open Melisa’s heart to giving Rob another chance? Audiobook link.

  Valentine Hound Dog A fashion designer and her basset hound puppy convince a burned ex-firefighter that beauty is never skin deep and neither is love. Audiobook link.

  Spring Fling Kitty A stray cat shows a fire chief and his fiancee’s sister that doing the wrong thing is sometimes right when it comes to love. Audiobook link.

  Blue Chow Christmas Brian and Cait have been married for twelve years, but their secrets could blow them apart. Can two lost chow dogs and a special boy open their feelings up for true love and commitment? Audiobook link.

  Valentine Wedding Hound Jenna loses sight of the true meaning of her wedding when she signs up for a reality show full of tricks and dares. Audiobook link.

  [Sassy] Summer Love Puppy Can love rebuild a ruined past? Grady and Linx share more than a hidden dog and devastating secrets.

  Dog Days of Love Nessa has a doctorate. Dale is a dropout. Can a woman looking for Mr. Perfect fall for a happy-go-lucky Mr. Wrong?

  Valentine Puppies and Kisses Jenna and Larry’s Valentine Anniversary party turns into a nightmare. Will puppies save the day and their marriage?

  Sports Romances (Steamy)

  Played by Love, A soccer star dons nerd glasses to score a anime fangirl who won't date jocks. Audiobook link.