by Lori Wilde
Chet Delaney was awaiting court-martial and he’d been indicted on several conspiracy charges. Treeni was dealing with the exposure of her father’s criminal behavior as well as could be expected. Marlie empathized with what she was going through. She remembered all too well what it had been like when Daniel had been accused of treason. She reached out to the love of Cosmo’s life and Treeni had reciprocated, opening up to her in unexpected ways. It was the first time either of them had had a close female friend and they were enjoying getting to know each other.
In the aftermath of media exposure, Marlie’s career shot off the charts. Sales of her last Angelina Avenger comic quadrupled. She’d been approached by several publishers to write a book about her experiences, and she’d received a lucrative offer from a video game design company who wanted to turn Angelina into a video game. She was still mulling over the opportunities. Much of her choice depended on whether Joel was going to return to the SEALs (Treeni had come forward to set the record straight about what had really happened in Iraq, and he’d been offered his position back) or if he was going to stay with NCIS. Marlie wanted him to do whatever would make him happiest.
“Ready, set,” Treeni called out. “Bowl.”
Eight men bowled in unison.
But not Joel. He left his ball sitting in the lane, took Marlie’s elbow, and hustled her away.
“Eight strikes!” Treeni’s voice carried over to them as Joel escorted her out into the parking lot.
“Darn, now we’ll never know for sure who’s the hottest of them all,” Marlie said as the door closed behind them.
“Like there was ever any doubt in your mind, Ladybug.”
“So why did you run off?”
“And show up those other guys? Please, I’m not heartless.” He grinned. “I couldn’t stand not having you all to myself for one minute longer.”
“Oh, no?”
“No. You’re in my blood, Marlie. I can’t ever get enough of you.” He pulled her to him, kissed the top of her head.
She laughed and entwined her arms around his neck. “Yeah, keep talking to me like that, babe.”
He kissed her long and hard until the door opened and his SEAL buddies came out to rib him for not bowling. He nuzzled Marlie’s neck and whispered, “Let’s go find someplace a little more private.”
“What do you have in mind?”
“I was thinking the Villereals’ float warehouse. We never did get to try out Neptune’s clamshell.”
“Deviate.”
“I knew you’d like it.” He grinned.
As his buddies sent up catcalls, Marlie pulled Joel’s head down and kissed him again, happy in the knowledge that this was indeed one hero worth holding out for.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
LORI WILDE is the best-selling author of more than twenty books. A former RITA finalist, Lori’s books have been recognized by the Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award, the Holt Medallion, the Booksellers Best, the National Readers’ Choice, and numerous other honors. She lives in Weatherford, Texas, with her husband and a wide assortment of pets. You may write to Lori at P.O. Box 31, Weatherford, TX 76086, or e-mail her via her homepage at www.loriwilde.com.
When readers ask me, “Julie Anne, where did you get the idea for your book?” I’m often tempted to be facetious: “In the frozen food aisle at the grocery store. I had a coupon!” But this isn’t as far-fetched as it sounds. I’ve learned over the years that ideas for books are everywhere, especially in mundane places you’d never suspect. It’s all in how you look at it.
Take BEAUTY AND THE SPY (on sale now). I was staring at the blank screen of my computer monitor, sort of ping-ponging between horror (Oh God! I have to write a whole book!) and elation (Hurrah! I get to write a whole book!), when I began to wonder: what if your life is suddenly wiped as blank as the screen facing me? What happens when everything you’ve always known is taken from you, if the supports of your life as you know it are kicked right out from under you, and not even your own name belongs to you anymore? So that’s what I did to heiress Susannah Makepeace. Beginning with the mysterious murder of her father, I yanked the timbers of her charmed life out from under her until she finds herself penniless, jilted, and living in the sleepy town of Barnstable with an aunt she hardly knows.
Once the walls of Susannah’s old life are torn down, everything she thought she knew about herself was suddenly cast in a different light, and she’s forced to stretch and grow. The first thing she does to test the boundaries of her new life is wander off by herself with her sketchbook, stumble across a naked man swimming—the cheerfully arrogant spy Kit Whitelaw, begrudgingly exiled to Barnstable—and fill a blank page with a drawing of him.
The rest, as we say, is history.
Or historical romance.
Julie Anne Long
http://www.julieannelong.com
Hi there. This is Angelina Avenger from Lori Wilde’s YOU ONLY LOVE TWICE (on sale now). No, I’m not the heroine of the book. What I am is a top notch comic book crime fighter, and my creator Marlie Montague—she’s the heroine. She loves spilling all my secrets, so I thought why not turn the tables. And no, I’m not dishing just because she barely has time to draw me anymore since that hunky ex-Navy SEAL Joel Hunter moved in next door.
She’s the shyest thing on the face of the earth and she rarely goes on dates. And talk about a bookworm. She reads so much it makes me cross-eyed.
But to give her credit, when a hit man appears on her doorstep with the business end of a semi-automatic pointed at her, she’s smart enough to channel me. Once again, I save the day by getting Marlie out of the house, over the fence, and busting through the kitchen window of the rock-hard action hero next door.
Of course what Marlie doesn’t realize is that Navy special agent Joel is on a surveillance gig and Marlie is his target. Now the two of them are fending off more double agents than a Bond flick and having a heck of a lot of fun in the process.
Problem is I’m beginning to wonder where I fit into all this. After all, three is a crowd. And if I’m not mistaken, my little bookworm creator seems to be taking her cues from me and turning into something of a femme fatale.
I’m so proud.
Lori Wilde
http://www.loriwilde.com
Table of Contents
Special Acknowledgment
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Epilogue
About the Author