Category: Corporate Fire

Corporate Fire was released from the KDP Select program at Amazon, and I spent Friday uploading it to other vendors. It made BEST SELLER on All Romance!! If you click on the link, you’ll see the little silver star on the page.

I’ll post more Masked Hearts later today, but I wanted to share the good news!!

Available now at the following venues:

All Romance $1.99
Smashwords $1.99
Amazon $3.99

Walking in, she felt naked without Jill and Jill’s clubbing friends surrounding her. Large groups crowded around tables made for two. The wall to the side had curved booths facing the bar. Most of them were taken, but there were a few empty ones. Then she spied an empty tall table being wiped down by a waitress. She decided to sit there for a better view.

The scent of perfume and hair gel coming from the bar tried but failed to conceal the smell of sunblock from earlier in the day. A guy who looked scruffy like a ski instructor sat on a stool with his back against the bar and stared right at Grace. He nodded towards her, and his blond bangs fell over his eyes. Her eyebrows rose in surprise, and she twisted her head to see if a beautiful woman was behind her; she was used to being ignored. When she saw no women close to her, she turned back to the guy and gave a hesitant smile. He actually smiled back. Not love at first sight, but he was the eye candy she’d been hoping for.

She shifted her gaze to the table. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him turn away too. She looked up to study him unnoticed, but he glanced back at her and winked. Grace held her breath. What if he approached her? He’d be breaking rule number one because he had no connection whatsoever to anyone she knew. She took a deep breath and told herself it would be fine if he approached. People talked at bars all the time. It was normal bar behavior.

A waitress appeared and set a drink in front of her. She hadn’t even ordered yet. “I think there’s a mistake,” she said to the waitress.

“A gentleman bought it for you, sweetie,” said the waitress. She seemed barely old enough to be serving alcohol. “Oh, here’s a note that goes with it.” The waitress slid a napkin with the bar’s name stamped across it in front of Grace before she dashed to her next table.

“He’s not right for you,” was scrawled under the stamp.

Surprised, Grace looked up at the bar. The guy smiled before looking away again. She hadn’t seen him write on a napkin. Was the note talking about the ski instructor? She looked at the drink: a cosmo—what she usually ordered when she went clubbing. She glanced back at the guy. Yikes.

His hand was now planted on the butt of a blond who was nipping his lower lip. Why had he been flirting with her when he was just biding his time, waiting for his date? He squeezed the woman’s butt before sliding his hand down to her thigh and then up her very short skirt. Grace’s eyes widened—she’d never allow that in public, even after the hundredth date.

The woman stepped closer, and his hand slid up a little further, causing a shiver to run through the woman. Grace stared at their faces. They talked as though he wasn’t fingering her right at the bar.

A blush warmed Grace’s face, and she averted her eyes to the napkin. So if the ski guy wasn’t sending her notes, then someone else was. No. She slid the note away. She’d already been burned twice in one day. She didn’t want to find out that the third time was the charm.

She stared at the drink and tapped her finger on the table. It looked cheerful—probably the happiest thing she’d seen all day. She took a tiny sip and allowed the bright flavors to soak into her tongue. Her mood lifted a smidgen. She should at least thank the man.

Her hand shook as she took a pen out of her purse. She told herself she wasn’t going on a date with anyone—just telling someone thanks. Before she talked herself into putting the pen away, she wrote on the other side of the napkin. “Thank you for the drink. It made me smile.” She wasn’t sure about the last part. It seemed like oversharing, but before she could crumple up the napkin, the waitress whisked it off the table.

“I assume this is for your secret admirer?”

Grace nodded, dumbstruck. She tried to watch the waitress as she wove through the crowd, but she lost her.