Good morning, ladies. I hope your week has been amazing so far. Welcome to my post on WIP IT UP WEDNESDAY blog hop. If you are new to this hop or are just now deciding that joining this hop would be a great idea, visit the WIP IT IP WEDNESDAY blog home page at: http://wipitupwednesday.blogspot.co.uk/
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This week I’m continuing from where I left off the last time I posted with my upcoming release, Outcast, Supernaturals Book 2, a paranormal romance.
This excerpt comes chapter 4 and follows last week’s post. This scene Leigh has made into the hotel without being spotted and harassed.
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The usher led me to the counter, where I waited in line to check into the hotel. I kept my head down and pretended to search my wallet for something. When I felt eyes on me from the short line to my left, I thought I would look up to see the eyes of someone who disliked me, but when I felt my body heat from the gaze, I turned to see Ryan’s beautiful, orgasm-inducing eyes staring at me. That hadn’t been the first time that I had truly looked at him, but it had been the first time we had gotten stuck in each other’s gazes that way. I’ve seen him lots of times, but most of those times it had been in passing. He was hot. His brown hair, thick body, and dark chocolate eyes, made me want to lick him from head to toe, but I had never fully drunk him in until then. Our gazes locked and stayed locked until the woman at the desk called to me…multiple times.
“Sorry,” I said, but I could tell she had been trying to get my attention for some time, and she was officially annoyed with me. She and I weren’t going to be friends, I told myself, thinking I didn’t need another person here this weekend that hated me.
I stepped up to the counter, but before I could give the lady my name, she asked, “Are you here for the wedding?”
“I am,” I said, not thinking. I had sat my purse on the counter and had started going through it looking for my photo ID when the woman had asked her question.
“Your name, Ms.?” the lady asked.
“Leigh Alexander,” I said, handing her my license.
I could still feel Ryan looking at me, distracting me even more. He was close enough to hear this conversation and that wasn’t a good thing because things were about to get embarrassing. At that second, I saw a frown pass over the woman’s face, and I understood that she had looked up my reservation and not found it on the floor with the rest of the wedding guests. And she wasn’t going to find it there.
My father had reserved an entire floor of the hotel for wedding guests. I only knew this because when my sister had called to tell me which hotel the wedding would be at, she told me about the floor, and told me my name wouldn’t be on the list. I hadn’t expected it to be. I would have booked a room in another hotel, but I’m a bit lazy and with the rehearsal dinner in the hotel restaurant, the wedding in the hotel chapel, and the reception in the gardens behind the hotel, staying at the hotel was much easier.
After promising my sister that I would be attending the wedding, I had called the hotel and booked a room a few floors below theirs in the hopes of being away from the family. I was checking in earlier than I had anticipated due to the early flight, but it was early afternoon and any previous occupant would have already checked out.
Before I could tell the woman that my reservation was on a different floor, she said, “I’m sorry, Ms. Alexander, but there seems to be a mix up with your reservation. You are related to the family, aren’t you? Your last names are the same.”
“Yes, I’m the bride’s sister, but…”
“Oh my, I’m so sorry. Someone must have made a mistake. I’ll get the manager,” she said, cutting me off and moving away from her computer to get said manager.
“That won’t be necessary,” I said loud enough to stop her.
“It isn’t an issue, Ms. Alexander. My manager can fix the issue quickly.”
“There isn’t a problem,” I said, praying she would come back to me so that I could lower my voice. “I booked a room on a different floor.”
She looked at me quizzically but didn’t move back to her computer.
Lying, I said, “I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to make it to the wedding because I live on the other side of the country, so I told my father not to put me on the list. I told him I would book my own room the second I knew I would be able to come, and I did.”
“Oh,” she said, looking relieved that a hotel employee hadn’t made a mistake.
She went back to her computer, looked up my name, and said, “We have you on the thirteenth floor. Your family is on the twentieth floor. Would you like me to move you closer to them?”
“That won’t be necessary. We won’t be in our rooms much with all the events lined up.” I leaned in closely and whispered conspiratorially, “And to be honest, after each event, I’ll be ready to have some peace and quiet away from them.”
She chuckled softly in understanding. I cut my eyes to my left to see if Ryan heard any of what I had said. All I needed was my insult to get back to someone in the family and give them more of a reason to hate me. He only smiled at me as if he agreed with my sentiment.
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That’s it for today. I hope you enjoyed it.
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Outcast, Supernaturals Book 2, a paranormal romance.
Leigh Alexander has lived every day of her life feeling like an outcast amongst her family and the small-minded people of Pine Hollow, a secretive community to which her parents belong. When Danielle, Leigh’s younger sister, asks Leigh to come home for her wedding, Leigh’s torn between wanting to be there for her sister and saving herself from people who’ve despised her all of her life.
Knowing she’ll regret her decision, Leigh gives into her sister and goes home for what she hopes is the last time. Leigh was prepared for people to ignore her, for them to shun her, for them to point out all the ways she didn’t belong all because she wasn’t a size perfect, but what she hadn’t been prepared for was falling for Ryan Hart, a man who she will soon learn knows all of the secrets her family and the town of Pine Hollow refuse to tell her.
Revealing the truth about Pine Hollow and the rest of the supernatural world might be forbidden, but to save Leigh’s life, Ryan will tell her everything about who she is, or more importantly who she isn’t, even if it will forever change her life and the lives of every person in Pine Hollow.
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***Shifter, Supernaturals Book 1, is a paranormal romance available for $2.99. Shifter is also available on Audio @ Audible.com*** Read by Margi Stephens
Abby is a plus size woman struggling to learn to love herself despite the damage her ex did to her mentally and psychically. For reasons unknown to her, she wakes one morning with an urge to adopt another cat. What she doesn’t know is that the cat she picks is actually Dimitri Sullivan, the son of a local shapeshifter pack’s alpha who was cursed by a powerful witch into the form of a common house cat after he had a one-nightstand with her. As the months pass, Dimitri finds himself falling in love with his new owner, but there is just one problem, she doesn’t know that he is her cat and she is currently dating his brother. When the witch that cursed him discovers that by falling for Abby, he is weakening her curse, she sets out to stop this from happening by any means necessary.
SHIFTER is a 374-page, stand-alone eBook.
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