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Continue reading for a preview of my next novel,
Always.
By:
Ariel has always felt her looks were the one thing holding her back from a peaceful life. She doesn’t want the life her best friend has in Hollywood where leading men are a dime a dozen and powerful, rich men have all the control. She just wants to design her clothes and stop thinking about having to dodge overly friendly people…and then she spots him. He’s dark and mysterious and makes her want to understand all of the cravings and feelings he causes. He’s unlike any other man she has ever met before. But can she trust him with more than just her heart?
August has grown up on the streets with no family and no softness in his life. He is a hard man who knows that if you want something you have to fight for it and the one thing he is more than ready to fight for is the little redhead he met when he came to town. She’s his soft respite from the dark life he is living and he will do anything to keep her safe and with him, she just doesn’t know it yet.
Book four of the Hollywood Forever series is here and ready to heat up your device. Ariel has finally met a man she can’t run from and August has met a woman he doesn’t want to hide from. These two are going to be combustible. There is a slight trigger warning with this one because of how horribly alpha August can be when it comes to keeping his girl safe but I promise it ends in a happy ever after and a love will burn brighter than any Hollywood star – Always!
Chapter One
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Ariel
So my best friend is hitting it with a rock star and I am sitting in my third class of the day wondering when my misery is going to end. That's okay. It's alright that Ivy is hundreds of miles away living it up at parties with stars while I sit in a class I will never use for anything. Designing clothes doesn't have a lot to do with German Lit and how it influenced the modern era but this is the class I am stuck with.
I signed up late because I kept wanting to maybe go with Ivy and find out what was out in the world but I also chickened out in the end and couldn't see my life going anywhere if I moved with my best friend and followed her around all the time. I spent all of high school doing that. Ivy is beautiful and funny and can charm the pants off anyone - obviously if she has turned the head of Wes Marshel. He is reportedly not very friendly.
But she is clearly in love with him. You can hear it in her voice and from my conversation with him, he is equally smitten. So, she is going to move away and have rockstar babies and I am still going to be sitting in German Lit class with a professor who keeps trying to look up my skirt and makes lewd gestures to me when he asks if I can stay after class. I know I am going to have to report him to the dean but I just want things to run smoothly for just a little while.
I already had to report one of my high school teachers for trying to cop a feel but then I had Ivy to back me up but now I only have myself. I stand and make my way to the front of the classroom to leave and sure enough, Mr. Kruit calls my name. Fear and revulsion course through me at the thought of having to spend any time with this man. I turn with my eyes downcast.
"Ariel, such a pretty little name for a pretty little girl." The way he says the word little makes me need a shower. "Can you stay over today or is this friend going to need you to come home with them again?" he knows the excuse I keep giving him is shit but I don't even care anymore.
I want to vomit. Sometimes I wish I didn't have tits. Or an ass or whatever the hell it is that attracts these kinds of men to me. He is old enough to be my grandfather. This might have been one of the reasons I hesitated about going with Ivy. It's bad enough to have the run of the mill pervs hit on me and try to constantly harass me but if someone with money did it I'm not sure how I would be able to stop them from doing whatever they wanted to me.
I open my mouth to tell him to leave me alone when someone bumps into me from behind. I would have tipped forward into Mr. Perv but an arm around my waist keeps me upright and pushes me at the same time into the stream of students leaving for the day. I am not about to look this little bit of luck in the mouth but I do turn back to try to find out who helped me make my escape this time. All I can see is someone tall talking to the professor who isn't even looking at me anymore.
Thank God.
I don't wait around on campus either. Oh no, there is no way I am waiting around for him to finish with his meeting so he can try to come find me and I have to run all over again. I pull my hair back and stuff it under a ball cap, throw my sweater on over my shirt and hit the pavement until my feet take me to the cute little café I found about a year ago.
I've been coming here nearly every day to people watch. I used to come less but when Ivy left this is the only place I don't feel her presence. That sounds weird but every time I go to the places that we used to hang out together I just get sad at all the memories and then I miss her and then I call her and I don't want to bother her or interrupt something good for her. She's out there living her life while I'm just walking through mine.
A man comes in and takes a seat over by the bathrooms. Now there is a man no one can miss. He has to be six-five if anything and big. He looks big. Kind of like the kind of muscle you spot guarding the Hollywood stars. His face is also very familiar like I have seen him before. For someone who people watches as much as I do it's amazing how often I don't pay attention to the faces. I just know the clothes. And he's wearing some expensive pants that have to be hand-tailored if I was guessing just by the look of them. Of course, his thighs wouldn't fit into normal jeans that you would find in a department store.
When I come to his face he is looking back at me with just as much intensity as I am him. I squirm in my seat. I don't do well with the opposite sex. I'm pretty sure all they want is sex and this guy looks like he wants to have it right now, on the tables with everyone watching. And for the first time in my life, I might want the same thing.
I pick up the phone and start calculating the time zone difference wondering if I can call Vee yet. Fuck it, I'm going to try her even if she doesn't answer. Maybe I can pretend to stay on the phone long enough that my crazy hormones settle back down. It's either try to call Vee or go talk to tall, dark, and broody. Given my crippling shyness, I think I will stick with talking to the people I know.
It rings a couple of times and I resign myself to having to call her a second time when she picks up.
"Hey girl, you finally up?"
"How did you know I took a nap?"
I laugh until I realize a couple of people are looking over at me. "I called earlier and your hunk told me to call back that you were napping and he didn't want you disturbed for a little while." We spend the next five minutes talking about how hot Wes is and how they are going to make me beautiful rock star/movie starlet babies to dote on. She tries to tell me that it isn't serious but I can hear it in her voice. If he hurts her I'll have to fly out there and neuter him.
I interrupt Vee from making her denials and lying to herself, because I know the truth, "Hey quick question, is it normal for you to see the same person popping up everywhere you go?"
Vee pauses before she tries to answer me. I can almost hear what she is going to tell me before she opens her mouth. Vee says I am too pretty and that me not realizing how pretty I am just makes men want me all the more.
"Explain?"
