A Holiday Fling (16 page)

Twenty-five years ago

A piercing wail shattered the dawn air. The waiting crowd, safely restrained behind barriers, began to buzz with anticipation. In the command post, Kate Corsi danced excitedly from foot to foot. "Now, Papa?"

Sam Corsi laughed. "Not yet, Katie. That's just the two-minute warning siren."

She tried to stand still, but two minutes seemed like forever. She'd always known that her father's business was blowing up buildings, had even seen movies of his work. But this was different, her very first live shot. She tugged restlessly at the ribbon that held back her blond hair. "Can I push the button?"

"If you're good, someday I'll let you set off the blast, but not this time." Sam Corsi ruffled her brother's dark hair. "Someday the business will be Tom's, and he has to learn what it's like to control so much power."

Tom put one arm around Kate in an apologetic hug. "Your turn will come, short stuff."

The countdown by Luther Hairston was progressing. When he saw Kate watching, he closed one dark eye in a wink without stopping his steady counting.

"All right, Tom," Sam Corsi ordered. "Put your finger on that button and wait for me to say 'now!' Don't push it before I tell you to."

Looking a little sick, Tom set his finger on the button. But Kate knew he wouldn't make a mistake. He was the smartest big brother in the world.

Seven, six, five, four, three, two....

"Now!" her father barked.

Tom pushed so hard his fingertip whitened. Nothing happened, and for a terrible moment Kate's heart stopped.

Then machine-gun sharp bangs rattled from the tall building across the street, and clouds of dust rolled from the empty windows in the lower floors. Next came deep, deep booms that shook the bones. Walls pitched inward and the huge structure slowly collapsed into its base. Kate shrieked with joy.

Her father swooped her up to his shoulder for a better view. "Take a good look, Katie. This is Phoenix Demolition at work, and we're the best!"

Kate bounced in his arms. "Someday I'll blow up buildings, too."

Sam chuckled. "Demolition is no place for girls. Tom will run the company. If you ask nicely, maybe he'll let you work in the office."

"The times are changing, Sam," Luther said. "That lively little girl of yours might make a fine PDI engineer when she grows up."

"No daughter of mine is ever going to work demolition."

Kate sniffed. Papa was stubborn, but so was she. She'd make him let her into the business.

Because Katherine Carroll Corsi wanted to blow up buildings.

Stirring the Embers

The Starting Over Series

Book One

by

Mary Jo Putney

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Stirring the Embers

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Page forward and continue your journey

with an excerpt from

PHOENIX FALLING

The Starting Over Series

Book Two

Excerpt from

Phoenix Falling

The Starting Over Series

Book Two

by

Mary Jo Putney

New York Times Bestselling Author

Rainey had been jubilant when her agent called to ask her to read for the part of Marguerite St. Just in
The Scarlet Pimpernel
. Though she loved making small, quirky movies and had built a decent career with them,
Pimpernel
was the big-time: big budget, big names, and a rousing classic story.

She immersed herself in the script for days before her audition, until she knew exactly who Marguerite was. She even booked sessions with a dialect coach to help her create an alluring French accent, and a movement coach to teach her to curtsy and dance in proper eighteenth-century style.

As she arrived at the studio, one of Hollywood's hottest young female stars was leaving the audition room. Well, she hadn't expected the competition to be easy.

As always on such occasions, the room was full of people evaluating her as if she were a slab of overdone steak. She recognized the film's director, two producers, a famous casting director, and half a dozen executive types.

The director, Jim Gomolko, looked as if he'd bitten into something sour when he told her to go ahead with the test scene. But she'd come prepared. Dressed in a flowing dress with a period flavor, she curtsied gracefully to the executives, using her carefully practiced French accent as she thanked them for their kind consideration.

An expressionless male assistant fed her lines as she performed the scene where Marguerite first meets Sir Percy. She began the scene coolly, for as the most acclaimed actress in Paris Marguerite was used to men wanting to bed her. She'd learned to keep admirers at a distance.

Yet there was something about this Englishman, a hint of steel beneath his languid manners and wicked wit. As the scene progressed she gradually realized that this was a man of surprising depths and passions, one who could keep a woman intrigued....

When she finished her reading, the executives were nodding approval. Gomolko said, "I want you to read again with someone else, Ms. Marlowe."

One of the suits spoke into a cell phone and five minutes later Kenzie Scott ambled into the room. Rainey caught her breath, electrified. Though Scott was rumored to be on board for
Pimpernel
, her agent had told her the deal wasn't set yet.

Rainey had kept her fingers crossed because she was a great admirer of Kenzie Scott's work. And—well, of his looks, too, she was only human. But even more, she respected his acting. Though she preferred his early work, before he'd become a major star, he brought depth and nuance to even the most macho action roles.

He looked across the room at her as if she was the most fascinating, desirable woman he'd ever seen. Every cell in her body kicked into overdrive. Tall, dark, and charismatic, he was almost supernaturally handsome. He was often mentioned in the same breath with Cary Grant, and not only because of his chiseled features and the faint cleft in his chin. The real similarity lay in his easy, aristocratic British charm. On screen he could project strength, intelligence, wit, vulnerability—all at once if the role called for it. Those qualities were strikingly vivid in person.