NEW RELEASE - TRY A LITTLE TENDERNESS - CHRISTA MAURICE
Blurb:
Sometimes you have to try a little harder for what you
want.
Taylor Elgin was a child star, but keeping
her career as an adult is frustrating. Now executives want to cut her part
unless she garners more audience appeal. Her producer has a perfect plan. Match
her character up with a fan favorite played by hot guy and terrible actor Ryan
Asher. It would be easier to just quit…
Ryan had a crush Taylor when he was a kid
and is thrilled to be partnered with her now. But does a guy carrying the scars
of an abusive childhood deserve America’s Little Girl? And then to learn she
never wanted to work with him in the first place? There’s no reason to even
try…
Excerpt:
They knew. They
all knew. Ryan drove to Taylor’s. He had to clear his stuff out of her place
before she got home. He wouldn’t have to see her until next week on set and
they’d have to figure out how to work around her disgust for the sake of the
show. At least if everybody knew, she wouldn’t be able to blackmail him.
He bundled his
dirty laundry into a trash bag and tossed his toiletries on top. Then he took
one last walk through of the apartment. Her bed where they had made love so
often. The amethyst necklace he’d given her on the dresser beside her jewelry
box. Her bathroom where she made herself so stunning. And where they had made
love a couple of times. The living room. Her color coordinated Christmas tree
was still up. The lights were turned on, casting a soft white glow on the room.
The first season of Vikings sat
beside the DVD player. He grabbed his trash bag and left the apartment.
Gale and Devi
were in the living room dressed for clubbing when he yanked open the front
door.
“Whoa, what
happened to you?” Gale asked.
“She knows. She
fucking knows.” Ryan threw the garbage bag of his belongings against the wall.
His dirty laundry tumbled across the floor.
“Fuck,” Gale
said. Devi retreated into the dining room.
Mick thundered
down the stairs in sweats. “What happened? Did she find out? Shit. Shit!”
“How did she
find out?”
“Mrs. Spencer
was at the party.” Ryan couldn’t breathe. His throat clotted with grief. It
wasn’t supposed to happen this soon. He should have had a few more days at
least.
“Mrs. Spencer
told her?” Mick demanded. “Fuck. What are we gonna do?”
The woman who
had been sleeping in Ryan's bed the other day came down the stairs but stopped
on the bottom step. She was wearing jeans and a T-shirt with a gym bag over her
shoulder.
“I don’t even
know if I still have a job.” Ryan rubbed his forehead.
“Text Marty and
ask him,” Gale said. “It’s not like you were an extra. You were a regular cast
member.”
“Do you really
think Marty is going to want Ryan on his show now?” Mick demanded.
“He was a
regular cast member,” Gale repeated.
Ryan pulled out
his phone. He texted Marty, “do I still
have a job?” he stared at the phone, but no response came.
“What happened?”
the new roommate asked.
“Taylor was
talking to Mrs. Spencer and Mrs. Spencer pointed at me and Taylor puked all
over her.” Ryan dug his fingers into his hair.
“Taylor puked on
Mrs. Spencer?” Gale said. “Awesome. Bitch deserved it.”
“Jesus. I knew
she’d be disgusted, but that’s something else.” Mick shook his head.
Ryan closed his
eyes. Tears leaked from under his lashes. Everything up in smoke. All day,
until Taylor got sick, had been magic. They had sun and sand and waves, and she
was so happy. If he had died two hours ago it would have been perfect. His
phone rang. Marty.
“Aren’t you
going to answer it?” Devi asked. She hadn’t come back into the living room, but
the new girl had moved to stand beside him.
“I don’t want to
talk to him.” Marty loved Taylor. She was like a daughter to him. Marty had to
be beyond pissed.
“Then I’ll
answer it.” The new girl held out her hand.
Ryan pressed the
phone to his chest. “No. I don’t want anybody to talk to him.” His phone
stopped ringing. “They know where I live. They’ll come looking for me.” His
phone started ringing again.
“Whatever it is,
I’m sure it’s not that bad,” the new girl said.
“Fuck you. What
do you know about it?” His phone stopped ringing.
“We are all
fucked,” Mick said. “Without Space
Odyssey, we can afford this place for another month if we don't eat. I've
got the one modeling gig coming. Tanya Bauer will pay, don't you think? Gale,
you have a couple of cleaning jobs and I've got my PR clients."
“Don’t kid
yourself,” Gale said. “Do you think anybody is going to want us in their house
now? And your PR clients are gone when you can’t keep our own past under
wraps.”
“I can earn two,
three hundred bucks a night. I’ll just take more nights.” The new girl
shrugged.
Ryan’s phone
buzzed with a text. Everyone stared at it.
“What does it
say?” Devi asked.
Ryan read the
screen twice. “Yes, you have a job.”
The phone buzzed with a second text. “Where
are you?”
“Okay, you have
a job. That’s good.” Mick raked his fingers through his hair.
“I have a job
where I have to pretend to fall in love with Taylor over the next four months.
I have to see her every day and know how disgusted she is by me.” His throat
felt like it was tied in knots.
Buy links:
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/try-a-little-tenderness-christa-maurice/1125397430?ean=2940154166833
Kobo
iTunes
GooglePlay
Free series preview available at: https://www.instafreebie.com/free/YloWu
Bio:
Christa Maurice spends a lot of time lost
in imagination. When not writing, she loves to travel and has spent several
years living overseas. She spent four years living in Abu Dhabi where the
temperature was always hot, the sunrise and sunset were pretty stable year
‘round and she could go weeks without speaking to a man who wasn’t selling her
groceries. You know that happens to a woman living in what amounts to a harem
situation? She spends a lot of time talking about shoes and thinking about men.
Which brings us right back to being lost in imagination…
Website:
Email:
Facebook:
Twitter:
@ChristaMaurice
https://twitter.com/ChristaMaurice
Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8050672
Amazon page:
Mailing list:
Crew
Comments
Post a Comment
Please type your comments