by Alice Ward
When he failed to speak, I motioned to the Edwardian style couch with my pen. “Shall we?”
“If you wish.”
Still, he didn’t move, and I waffled so dramatically between being the first to sit and waiting for him to oblige me that I wobbled in my heels. My face grew warm as I realized the likeliest reason for his stillness.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I should’ve introduced myself.” I clacked toward him with my unburdened hand extended. “Sadie Danes, The Apple.”
“Tate McGrath.”
I almost chuckled at the unnecessity of his introduction, but he slid his palm against mine, and I froze. Hot sparks crackled and popped through my hand and up my arm. The air between us was suddenly gone, and my lungs were squeezed to prunes by invisible fingers. His eyes plunged into mine like harpoons, but they burrowed past the recesses of my racing mind to venture south into the nether land, which responded with a throbbing I didn’t know possible of the female body. All the moisture had gone from my mouth to slicken my panties instead, and my tongue was somehow three sizes too thick and impossible to maneuver.
“Okay… I mean… we should… the interview…” The last time I’d stumbled over my words like this, I’d been in the fifth grade standing in front of the class about to give a presentation on Jupiter and its known moons.
His thumb twitched, but he continued to grip my hand as he jerked his chin toward the couch. “After you.”
My fingers became ice-cold the moment I dislodged them from his, like he’d been the only source of heat in the room, and I clumsily tottered to the sofa. Sinking with some relief onto one end, I propped my elbow up on the armrest and situated the pad of paper on my lap. Tate joined me, and it didn’t escape my notice that he chose to seat himself on the middle cushion rather than the one on the opposite end from me. A boulder rolled through my stomach.
“Well, first, I want to thank you for agreeing to—”
“Did you want to record this?” His brow was raised again, and he’d rested his elbows on his knees with his hands clasped tightly before him in a pose of relative unapproachability.
I blinked, processing the interruption, then hastily dug into the clutch I’d paired with my outfit. “Right, yeah, sorry.” I was starting to notice a pattern of apologizing to this man, and I wasn’t fond of it. “I mean, thanks. For the reminder, I mean.” God, I sounded like such a putz.
He didn’t reply, choosing instead to watch me extract the device from the purse. The small silver recorder hummed as I pressed the button, and I placed it on the waxed mahogany coffee table in front of us.
“Okay…” I exhaled a long breath, determined to pull my act together. “Like I was saying, I wanted to thank you for agreeing to do this interview. I know you’ve spoken with a lot of reporters and television hosts since making it on the big screen, but you did very few interviews prior to that, back when you were exclusively a Broadway man. So, thank you for taking the time to talk to me.”
I was speaking like rapid-fire now, syllable after syllable careening from my mouth and crashing into each other. Tate’s eyes were on my lips as if he was trying to figure out what I was saying. I felt my cheeks coloring again, but I couldn’t pull the reins hard enough to halt the sprinting horses hauling my tongue until it was too late and everything I’d said had jumbled together.
A dense silence stretched between us. The deep blue eyes were still on my mouth without a single flicker of comprehension, and not even a lash moved. My lungs were starting to ache with lack of oxygen. Finally, he offered me a sharp nod. “You’re welcome.”
This interview was going to be a mess.
TO BE CONTINUED...
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Alice Ward is a USA Today bestselling author whose books consistently break into the Top 100 on Amazon. Three of her books were Top 10 Amazon bestsellers, one of which - The Surprise - reached an all-time high of #4.
She writes hot and steamy contemporary romance novels and is prolific, releasing at least one new book every month. Her books are widely read, especially by women and any other lovers of the romance genre. My Stepbrother, My Lover, was her first smash hit.
Alice has been in love with love since she was a little girl. She had quite the collection of Barbie dolls growing up and spent much of her playtime crafting the perfect Barbie wedding day (and when she wasn’t doing that, she was working on attempting the perfect cartwheel).
When Alice outgrew Barbie dolls, she began to write her thoughts down in her diary. This was how she discovered that she had a knack for telling romantic stories. Her first fans were her close girlfriends, and her stories were a hit among them. They, along with her family, enthusiastically encouraged her love for writing.
Alice now lives in Miami with her wonderful, hunky husband. The beach is her all-time favorite place to relax with her laptop and write. When she needs a break from writing (and when no one’s looking) she loves thumbing through celebrity gossip magazines. It’s her guilty pleasure.
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COPYRIGHT AND DISCLAIMER
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2018 Alice Ward
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.
The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of the trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.