A Sunday Snippet 2: At the Billionaire's Promise

I'm still hard at work on At the Billionaire's Promise. And I really cannot wait to release it. This story is just filled with so much emotion. As I said on Facebook during the week, David is much darker in this book. But this scene isn't about David... The second Sunday snippet for you all, from At the Billionaire's Promise. Enjoy xxx

My feet crunched over the leaves as I ran. The sound of David’s voice calling to me had faded, along with the sound of his footsteps as he followed me. I was alone. The pain in my ankle finally screamed at me for attention as I tripped and fell over a branch on the forest floor. I lay there, tears soaking into the ground beneath me. The cold ground seeping into my bones.

Alone. The word echoed in my mind. I had really thought David was the one. Given myself over to him, wholly and completely. Only to have it thrown back in my face. The way he’d looked at me. He really believed I would betray him like that. That I was capable of ruining his life.

It started to rain, the droplets growing larger until it was a downpour. And still I lay there, a broken person. When Richard had finished with me it hadn’t hurt like this. Not this complete destruction that I felt. It was amazing that something so simple could rip my life into shreds. I curled into a ball not caring that my body was soaked through and my hair was plastered to my head. None of that mattered anymore.

It hit me then as I lay there, I needed to know where Lucy had gotten her interview. It should bother me that someone had deliberately set out to destroy my life. And they had succeeded.

The sound of a twig snapping nearby caught my attention. I wanted to call out. But I was too frozen. Pain and the cold of the rain that fell around me had left me frozen on the ground. The sound of another twig snapping and the crunch of leaves left me in doubt that there was someone nearby.

Part of me hoped that it was David. Had he followed me all the way out here. Would he tell me he was sorry for doubting me. Tell me that he loved me, that he would never believe such lies?

“David?” My voice came out in a hoarse sob. I lifted my head and stared around at the trees, there was nothing that I recognised. Nothing to tell me where I was or how far I had actually run.

The sound of someone swearing nearby had my heart hammering in my chest. Whoever it was, it wasn’t David. The voice was familiar and yet… Another twig, another step closer to me. My body screamed in pain, my lungs burning and my ankle throbbing as I shivered on the ground. But I had to move. I had to run. Something inside me told me that whoever was out there wasn’t my friend. And after everything that had happened I could easily believe it.

I pushed my body to my knees and then to my feet. My ankle protested as I gingerly tried to put weight on it. But I didn’t have a choice. I started to move. Hobbling at first until I could pick up a little speed, but the faster I tried to run the slower my body became. It was like one of those nightmares. The ones where you run but no matter how fast you go you never really move. You’re just forever jogging on the spot. That’s what it felt like.

The sound of the footsteps grew louder until it hammered inside my head. I expected at any moment for someone to reach out and grab me. But I still ran. My urge to survive, to escape racing through me.

I could hear breathing now. Whoever was behind me was gaining rapidly, no longer trying to hide their footsteps as they raced to catch up to me.

The feel of a hand closing around my sleeve made me scream. He flung me against a tree, my body slamming into the hard wood, knocking what little air was left in my lungs from my body.

“David!” I screamed his name in sheer desperation.

“Not David, sweetie.” 

I scrambled to my feet as Richard’s voice rang in my ears. Panic spurring me on. I ran, ignoring the pain in my ankle, the burning of my lungs. I ran with the desperation of someone who wanted to survive. After what he had said in the letters I couldn’t risk him catching up to me.

“Bitch! Get back here!” He crashed after me, the sound of him racing through the trees after me made me whimper.

I lost my footing, my body slipping down the side of an embankment. I tumbled down, my scream echoing around the trees and bouncing back to me. As though it was mocking me.

I came to a stop, my head ringing. I was caught on something, my jumper ripped and knotted around a tree branch. It was the only thing holding me in place. I watched Richard come towards me, his booted feet crunching through the muddy leaves that I had tumbled over.

Struggling the tree branch that held me groaned heavily. I chanced a look, my stomach dropping out as I realised just how precarious my situation was. The lower half of my body was suspended over the jagged edge of a cliff. A sheer drop to the river below. If I fell… Well I wasn’t particularly hopeful about surviving if I fell.

“David!” I screamed his name again. He couldn’t hear me, and even if he could he wouldn’t come for me. Not after what had happened. We were finished. But I didn’t want to die. I wanted a chance to explain to him how much I loved him. That the interview had been a lie, I wouldn’t betray him.

“David!” I screamed again. My voice growing hoarser, my throat raw. The tree groaned again and the sound of tearing fabric had me scrabbling at the wet ground. I needed to pull myself up further, if I could then I stood a chance at surviving.

“He can’t hear you. No one can.” Richard crouched down beside me, the smile on his face was twisted and cruel.

“Why are you doing this, Richard? Please, help me?” I struggled harder, my arms tiring from trying to pull my body up further, but I seemed to be caught on something. Something that was pulling me down.

“Richard, please help me.” He mimicked my voice, mocking me. “Why would I help someone like you?”

“Please, you don’t want to do this.”

“You’re right, I hadn’t planned it this way. I wanted to use you first. Normally couples have one last fling. But not you… You had to have your goon come after me. Bruises take a long time to heal… But I could live with that. But when he came after my job… My girlfriend…” Richard paused and stared off into the distance, seeing something that only he knew about.

“He took it all from me. Everything, gone because the great David Ashcroft decreed it. Well it’s my turn. You were mine first. He had nothing but sloppy seconds.”

I struggled again, my body slipping a little further as the jumper ripped. Panic was beginning to overwhelm me, swamping my body and leaving me breathless. What Richard was saying couldn’t be true. David wasn’t like that.

Richard reached for me, his hands wrapping around my arms as he tugged me upwards. The jumper ripped further coming free of the branch. The only thing that held me now was Richard’s hands. Without his grip on me I would fall to my death.

“I’m interested to know if he’s taught you anything…” His words made sick to my stomach.

The sound of people running through the trees gave me hope.

“David!” I screamed again.

“Carrie!” The sound of his voice as he answered me lifted my heart and filled me with hope. With him was my place.

“Pity he won’t get to you on time…”

Richard released me suddenly. I slid towards the edge, the mud and leaves making it almost impossible to get a proper grip. But I clung on. I only had to hold on for a few seconds more and then David would find me.

Richard crouched down beside me, his eyes taking in my dishevelled appearance as he reached out and trailed his fingers down my neck. He moved lightening fast, his hands wrapping in my hair, tugging my head back as he kissed me. He ground his mouth against mine, drawing blood as he bit down on my lip making me cry out.

When he pulled away the smile was back on his face. I had lost ground, my hands slipping across the mud as I tried to cling to the tree branch that had saved me in the first place.

He lashed out, his fist connecting with my jaw jolting my head back. Stars burst behind my eyes as I tried to hold on. I wasn’t even sure if I was holding on anymore. There was a rushing sound that filled my head, before my collided with something icy cold. There was nothing. No sound. No screams of terror, not even pain. Just nothing.

A Sunday Snippet: At the Billionaire's Promise

A nice juicy snippet from At the Billionaire's Promise, for you all to sink your teeth into. Enjoy, and don't forget to let me know what you think.

I stood in the kitchen sipping a cup of hot black coffee when David finally reappeared with the two security men. I watched them stand in the hall, their voices low as they talked. David’s face had the concerned expression I’d come to know him for. The one he spent quite a bit of time trying to hide from me.

They finally seemed satisfied and both left. David’s hand remained on the door handle for a few seconds longer than normal. When he finally turned back to me his face was expressionless and I realised he’d been using the few seconds to hide his true emotions.

“Well?” My voice was far more impatient than I’d intended, but it was done.

“Well, what?”

I sighed, “What did they say? Did they find out how some weirdo got in here and took the pictures?”

A flicker of emotion crossed David’s features as I used the word weirdo, but it was gone in a flash. Almost as though it had never been there in the first place. It was something that amazed me. How could a man who was so passionate, who felt so deeply, could so easily hide what his true thoughts were.

I’d asked him one night as we lay in bed together. His arms were still wrapped tightly around me, and our bodies were still half caught in the heated after-glow of our love making. He’d lifted my hand to his lips when I asked the question, his face taking on a solemn look for a split second before it was gone, swallowed by the smile he gave me.

“It’s just something I’ve learned over years of business dealings. He with the best poker face wins, or at least he won’t leave with his reputation in ruins.”

“But, why do you still do it with me? Can’t you trust me?”

“Of course I can. It’s merely a habit. One that will probably take as many years to break as it took to develop. And it’s not really something I can let go… I need it…”

I crawled up next to him and ran my hand down his cheek, he kissed my palm before rolling me back underneath him once more. I was pinned beneath his broad strong chest, and still I wanted to tell him that he didn’t need to hide from me. Didn’t need to protect me from his true thoughts.

“I won’t betray you, I promise…”

“Carrie, I know you won’t. You don’t need to promise me anything but your love…”

“Same goes for you mister.” I lifted my hand to playfully swat at him, but his strong fingers wrapped around my wrist holding it above my head.

“I’ll do more than promise you just my love, I promise you my heart. For always. It’s my promise to you.”

“Carrie, can you hear me?” David’s voice pulled me from my memory, I’d become completely lost in my own thoughts. Enough that I hadn’t heard a word of what he’d said to me.

“I’m sorry, my mind was elsewhere…”

He sighed and frustrated ran his hands through his hair. “This is serious. What I’m telling you is not something that you can just afford to dismiss.”

“Fine, I’m listening, I swear.”

“They think whoever broke in here… Whoever, took the pictures, is the same person that broke into the office last night… Or at the very least it’s the same group of people.”

“How can that be? Why would they do that? None of it makes any sense?”

David shook his own head. “I have no idea, but we’re going to have to be even more careful from now on. We can’t take any risks…”

I nodded. The sound of the buzzer made us both jump. My eyes darted to David’s but he wasn’t even looking at me. Instead his gaze was trained completely on the door.

“I said for no one to be allowed in…” His words trailed off as whoever was at the door began to hammer on it.

“David. I know you’re in there. It’s me… Aaron?”

David moved for the door, his stride once more calm and assured. When he pulled the door open Aaron burst inside, a brown envelope in his hands. An envelope that looked oddly familiar.

“What the hell is this? Do you know about it?” Aaron’s voice was filled with anger as he waved the envelope around. “No one threatens Heather. Not anymore. I’ve finally gotten things back on track… The last thing she needs is more crap. She’s pregnant for Christ’s sake.”

“Well until you tell me what you’re waving around, how am I supposed to know what you’re talking about?”

Aaron thrust the envelope into his brother’s hands and then caught sight of me leaning against the kitchen counter.

“Shit, Carrie, I’m so sorry… I didn’t realise you were here… I thought maybe you’d be at the office.”

No, Aaron, I’m right here…” 

He looked sheepish as David pulled the envelope open and tugged a scrap of paper from its depths. I watched as David’s expression went white as he scanned the note. Leaving the cup on the counter I went to him. My hand on his shoulder made him jump. Whatever was happening he was visibly shaken. I tried to catch sight of the whatever was on the paper but he hid it from me, folding it and pushing it back inside the envelope.

“When did you get this?” His voice was once more filled with authority as he turned on his brother.

“It was on the doorstep this morning. You don’t seem all that surprised?”

“I’m not.” When David didn’t offer any more of an explanation the tension in the room shot up. Aaron’s fists were clenched as he moved towards his brother.

“Either you tell me little brother, or you and I are going to have a big problem.”

“Do you believe it?” David’s voice was low, menacing.

“Believe what?”

“What the note says?”

Aaron’s eyes darted in my direction for a second before returning to his brother’s face. He let out a long sigh and it seemed to deflate him completely. His shoulders dropped and the dark circles beneath his eyes suddenly stood out in stark relief against the paleness of his face.

“You know I don’t.”

David nodded as though suddenly satisfied and started for his office. Aaron followed him, leaving me standing in the centre of the living room as though I had no part in any of what was going on. Anger bubbled within me. It was one thing for David to keep secrets that I didn’t know about. It was another thing entirely for him to keep secrets in front of my face. Secrets that obviously involved me. It was me in the pictures. David wasn’t in them. And whoever had broken in had done so when I was alone…

“David!” The tone of my voice when I called his name was enough to stop him in his tracks.

He turned and looked at me as though curious over what I was calling him back for. It just made me angrier.

“Aren’t you forgetting something?”

“What?”

“Me? This involves me… In fact this has more to do with me, than it does with anyone else in this room…”

“Aaron and I will work out what’s best much faster if we can talk freely…”

I cut him off with a wave of my hand. I stalked towards him and my hand cracked across his face faster than he had a chance to react to.

“How dare you.” Tears burned in the back of my throat. “How dare you treat me like I’m just your secretary. Easily dismissed when the big boss decides it’s time to have a grown up conversation.”

“But you are my secretary?”

His words infuriated me. But worse still, they wounded me. His words stabbed through my chest and ripped my heart into pieces. I felt physically sick, as though he had pulled my heart clean out and then stomped all over it. I was just his secretary. All his talk of love and marriage. All of it meant nothing. It meant nothing because when he wanted to, David would simply dismiss me.

I took a step back from him, my entire body shaking. Whatever David saw reflected in my eyes made him move towards me, but I waved him away.

“Don’t touch me. Don’t you ever touch me…”

“Carrie, I didn’t mean it like that… You’re misunderstanding…”

“No, David, I’m not. I’m really not. For the first time since we got together, I think I’m finally understanding exactly what you mean.”

His face crumbled, before he replaced his expression with one of cold indifference. I turned and marched for the door, grabbing my coat from the hangers inside the door.

“You can’t leave, you need someone to go with you…”

“I don’t need anything from you, David, not now… Not ever.” I tugged the door open and stormed out. I didn’t look back, not even when David called after me. Once I would have turned every time he called my name. But not today, not now.

New Release, Image of You and a snippet from it.

Running from a ruined past, Kat finds herself working for a talent agency. But the past has a nasty habit of catching up with you, no matter how hard you try and hide from it. When the firm takes on handsome rock star Matt Henley as their newest client, Kat is thrown into turmoil. Matt not only seems to recognise her as the high school geek from all those years before, he insists she is the only one he will work with.

Kat is the only one who can help him get his life back on track. But Matt is unwilling to spill his secrets, even when they come back to bite him in the ass.

Some secrets destroy lives, and some destroy trust. But what happens when they tear two people apart? 

Adult 18+

Excerpt:

"I don't want to work with anyone else... No one but you... Kitty Kat..." The nickname he had given me sent shivers down my spine. The way he said it. Almost made me believe that he felt something for me. I wasn't sure if it was real or if it was just the way he could speak. There was after all something in his voice. There had to be, otherwise people wouldn't listen to him sing. Not the way they did. His voice could do things to you... If you let it.

"I don't think it's a good idea. I'm no good at this, Matt. I'll make mistakes and one of those mistakes could cost you big time... I can't take that risk."

He stood and moved around the counter until he was standing directly in front of me. I swallowed hard and lifted my gaze until I was left staring up into his face.

"It's not your risk."

"What?" Confusion swamped me as I stared up into his rich brown eyes.

"It's not your risk. It's mine. That's as long as we're still talking about my career..."

I nodded and swallowed again, harder this time. He lifted his hand and trailed his fingers softly against my jawline.

"Of course we're talking about your career... What else would we be talking about?"

"I don't know, Kitty Kat, maybe the spark between us... That's a risk for us both..."

He lowered his face and pressed his mouth gently against mine. His hands cupping my cheeks as he brushed his lips across mine. It was feather lite, almost as though he was afraid that if he pushed me too far I might break... That he might break me.

The kiss deepened as I pushed my body against his. I couldn't help it. I wasn't even sure why I did it. It was as though I had no control over myself, that whatever I had tasted in his kiss ignited a passion within me. A passion that until now had remained dormant.

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