Cursed by Love (30 page)
Authors: Jacie Floyd
Tags: #Literature & Fiction, #Romance, #Contemporary, #Romantic Comedy, #Romantic Suspense, #Mystery & Suspense, #Suspense
In
about two minutes, he’d break out in hives from the cloying scent combined with
the rampant middle-class-values decor. Family pictures lined the mantle in the
living room. Knick-knacks rested on frilly lace things. He’d bet his Porsche
that coasters bloomed automatically under every beverage.
Structured,
neat, and fragrant, a reflection of Annabel herself.
Everything
in the house whispered its good taste in monotonous neutrals. Nice, he
supposed, if he went in for this sort of
Boy Meets World
, mom, and
apple-pie hominess.
Which
he didn’t.
Not
that he had any reason to dislike sitcom-perfect domesticity. But growing up
without a mother present, he’d never experienced it. This whole scene existed
as the polar opposite of his childhood and adulthood. Both had teemed with loud
and boisterous chaos.
He’d
never lived anywhere that remotely resembled this house or neighborhood, and
he’d never dated a woman with as little fire and flash as Annabel.
Roger
trailed him inside. “Would you go out and come back in again? The lighting in
here isn’t what I expected.”
“Forget
it,” Max said. “We’re not staging anything or doing any retakes.”
“If
you’re willing to settle for a pasty image that makes you look like one of
The
Walking Dead
, fine by me.”
Annabel’s
stepdaughter chewed on her thumbnail and creased her forehead as she eyed Roger
from head to sneaker. Max empathized with her concerns about the
two-hundred-twenty-pound free spirit sporting a ponytail, eyebrow piercing,
forearm tattoos, scruffy jeans, and a concert T-shirt. He attempted to set her
at ease. “Roger’s the chaperone-slash-shooter for tonight. Even though he’s
misguided enough to worship the Dave Matthews Band instead of real rock ‘n’
roll, he’s harmless when he’s not obsessing about things like camera angles and
lighting.”
“If
you say so.” Carly took a small step back, as if reluctant to give them the
benefit of the doubt. “Please take a seat in the living room. Anna said to
offer you something to drink and let her know when you got here.”
A
footstep at the top of the stairs alerted Max to his date’s presence before he
could decline the offer. In spite of himself, he watched Annabel descend.
A
nervous smile flickered and softened her expression before it dimmed and faded
into the more familiar lines of stern disapproval. And he hadn’t even done
anything to annoy her yet. That he knew of.
Roger
stepped forward. He adjusted the camera to zoom in and capture her entrance.
Waiting
at the foot of the stairs, Max assessed her appearance. She’d reverted to
full-on Ice-Princess mode. Black suit jacket buttoned up to her chin, and skirt
hem hanging down past her knees. Sensible, boxy looking shoes. Hair slicked
back so tightly at the nape of her neck he was surprised her eyes didn’t cross.
“Anna,
I thought you were going to wear your hair down.” Carly’s artless comment
inserted a drop of sweetness into the awkward moment.
Annabel
smoothed her fingers over the sides of her hair, as if to harness any
rebellious strands that dared to escape from their prison. “I’m more
comfortable with it up.”
“You
look gorgeous.” Roger panned the camera between the woman and girl. He nudged
Max in the ribs, then pulled back to record Max and Annabel’s first greeting.
“Doesn’t she look gorgeous? Give her a little kiss.”
Max’s
gaze skimmed over Annabel’s body again. The classy, understated style suited
her.
Too prim and proper for my taste.
Although the suit did hug her
figure nicely. The slit up one side of her skirt showed an enticing bit of
shapely leg and thigh when she walked. And that mouth with the peek-a-boo smile
playing around the edges almost begged for a kiss.
But
the expression of alarm that crossed her face sure didn’t. Or the backpedaling
she employed as he reached for her.
“Oh,
my.” She fluttered her fingers like crazed bats. “I guess I’m not very good on
this side of the camera.”
“Just
pretend I’m not here,” Roger said as if it would be possible to overlook a
supersized gorilla with a forty-thousand-dollar camera glued to his face.
“Then
quit trying to direct everything,” Max told him. “Just let things happen. And
don’t worry,” he said to Annabel. “I’ll make him stay ten paces behind us at
all times.”
“No,
no, he’s fine. He’s just doing his job. Getting a taste of my own medicine will
make me more sympathetic to my subjects in the future.” She flashed the
cameraman an elusive smile.
She
excluded Max from the offering of goodwill. Okay, he got the message. He shoved
his hands in his pockets. “You ready to go?”
“Yes.”
She turned to retrieve some kind of flimsy wrap from the closet. “Do you know
where we’re going?”
“Nope.
I was only told where and when to show up—and what to wear.” He pulled at the
knot on his necktie again. Damn thing. He hated having to wear one on his day
off.
“We
have a reservation at Ernesto’s at six.”
Ernesto’s
. The kind of restaurant Max tended to
dodge. A stuffy, over-priced, pretentious place in Mt. Adams that served prissy
little portions of nouvelle cuisine. Sighing, he resigned himself to the choice
and tried not to yawn.
“From
there, we’ll go to the symphony. I hope you like Wagner.”
He
chuckled, assuming she was kidding. But when he checked, her expression
revealed nothing but seriousness. “Wagner? Really?”
“His
music’s quite stimulating. My husband and I used to have season tickets for the
symphony. I gave them up when he—” She stopped and bit her lip. “I gave them up
a few years ago.”
The
symphony. Stimulating?
Ri-ight
. She must be older
than he guessed. What decade had she been born in anyway? Oh, well, maybe he
could catch up on his sleep.
And
he’d given up his poker night for this.
Meet
Your Mate,
the first
book in the Good Riders Series is available now at
Amazon.com
!
Meant for Me
The third book in the Good Riders Series
January 2015
When
Nicole Smith was just a teenager with a head full of dreams, she saved the life
of Mitch Grayson, a troubled boy about to join the Army. While she doubted
she’d ever see him again, she could never quite forget him either.
When
their paths cross again, Mitch carries the internal scars of all he has seen
and endured. Throughout his tours of duty, he carried Nicole’s picture into
combat. Naming her his Good-Luck Angel, he believes the photograph kept him
safe time after time. Now, they both have successful careers and meaningful
lives, but neither of them can decide if fate is throwing them together again…
or working overtime to keep them apart.
My
most important professional resource is the community of writers surrounding
me. This includes all of the inspiring and talented women of The Ruby-
Slippered
Sisterhood, The Pixie Chicks, The Lucky 13s, the
Fivecorners
, and The Golden Network. I am so grateful to
have all of these talented and supportive women in my world.
Special
thanks to my daughter Sarah. I literally could not have accomplished this
without her technical expertise. In 2013, she urged me to consider
self-publishing my manuscripts. In 2014, she almost single-handedly made it
happen.
Thank
you to my son Evan, for encouraging me to write and always making me laugh.
Additional
thanks to editor Annie
Oortman
, cover designer Kim
Killion
of The
Killion
Group,
excellent Beta Readers Annie W. and Donna S. CURSED BY LOVE would not look
nearly so polished without the efforts of these ladies.
The
McNattons
and the Floyds are the people who formed me
and shaped me. For good or bad, they made me the person I am. I’ll always be
grateful for their love and support.
Last
but not least, thank you, Goble, for making all my dreams come true. You are
the love and the light of my life.
This is a work of fiction. Names,
characters, places and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or
are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons,
living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Cursed
By Love:
©
2014 by Jacqueline Floyd.
Cover Design: Kim
Killion
,
Hot Damn Designs
Digital Edition 1.2
All rights reserved. Where such
permission is sufficient, the author grants the right to strip any DRM which
may be applied to this work
Table
of Contents