Sunday Smooch with Ally Blake!

Welcome to another LoveCats DownUnder Sunday Smooch!

Today we have a smooch from Ally Blake but first 

... the winner of last week's Sunday Smooch Giveaway is  Devika Fernando.

Can you please contact Christy McKellen on christymckellen (at) gmail (dot) come to receive your copy of THE UNFORGETTABLE SPANISH TYCOON.

And now for today's Sunday Smooch from Ally Blake’s TELL ME TRUE.

April Swanson is so hopeful about all the possibilities New Year’s might bring, she’s practically Pollyanna. She’s hardly wishing for the world, after all – just a little less family crazy and the promotion she's perfect for. Surely then she can finally let loose and not strive to be such a good girl all the time.

For reformed bad boy, Finn Ward, hope is a four letter word, yet he has a New Year’s wish of his own - to silence his dark and twisted past before it unravels his future and hurts the people he cares about. No matter what.

So why would fate trick two such disparate souls into a fake first date? Maybe because they’ve both made the wrong wish...

Setup:

After hiring The Cinderella Project (a seriously un-politically correct match-making biz!) to help her find her va va voom, April’s first field mission is to recommend herself to a man. (Yikes.)  “Merely for practice, darling,” she’s promised. And by picking an ‘ungettable get' - a man she can’t possibly have - surely it will make every other man she ever approaches feel easy in comparison.  Spying Finn sitting tall, dark, and broody across the other side of a crowded bar it’s clear to April that he’s the most ungettable of them all.  But the thing with being told she can’t…April begins to wonder if she can.

Scene:

“You are the very definition of still waters, aren’t you, Finn?”

His voice was deep, hard with warning, as he said, “No sense spinning fairy tales about me in your head, April. Believe me.”

She shook her head. Once. Twice. “See that’s the thing with you, Finn. I don’t believe you.”

Before she could stop herself she wrapped a hand around his tie, dislodging the perfect knot. He didn’t react. Not even a blink. So she curled her fingers into his shirt, pulled harder, popped a button from its hole.

Still nothing.

It was infuriating. The man might as well have been made of stone.

The impulse to ruffle his hair, tug his jacket from his shoulders, to undo him somehow came over her like a tidal wave – huge, sudden unstoppable.

The man was so self-contained. Surely that couldn’t be healthy. It would be the kinder thing to help him relax--

Oh, stuff it.

April grabbed Finn by the shirt front, rose up onto her toes, and kissed him, planting one right on his beautiful mouth.

His resistance sang through him so powerfully he vibrated, while sparks of heat sprang up all over April's body at the feel of him beneath her hands, her mouth, her heart.

Turned out his resistance could only last so long, as April had barely registered what she’d gone and done before Finn finally broke off his leash and took complete control. Hauling her close with one arm, his other hand came to rest against her cheek, his thumb stroking the edge of her jaw as his devastating mouth slid over hers.

And, whoa, mamma, she felt it all the way to her knees.

April couldn't remember why she'd ever thought him made of stone. He was all heat and energy, the most vital life force she’d ever known coursing beneath his skin.

Finn. Yep, this was Finn who was kissing her like he had all the time in the world. The very same beautiful giant hunched dramatically over his empty glass in the bar the other night. The guy who was meant to be merely practice.

*   *   *

April never thought herself a contrary sort, but meeting Finn put paid to that!  How do you react to being told ‘no’? Got any good ‘oh, yes I can!’ stories of your own?

Leave a comment to go in the draw to win an ebook (epub or mobi) copy of TELL ME TRUE.

Come back next Sunday, when the winner of today's giveaway will be announced and a smooch from Sue Mackay will be posted!