Title: Feeding the Fire
Author: Andrea Laurence
Release Date: March 16, 2015
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Synopsis
Pepper
has no interest in Grant Chamberlain…until she accidentally wins him at
a school auction and finds the mega-hot firefighter impossible to
ignore. Find out what happens next in the second playful and sexy ebook
romance in the Rosewood series!
Living
in the small town of Rosewood, Alabama, hairdresser Pepper Anthony has
one rule—never date a Chamberlain. She’s always said, “the only thing
worse than being ignored by a Chamberlain is being dumped by one.” But
Grant Chamberlain, town fireman, isn’t used to rejection, and Pepper has
consistently turned him down since high school. She isn’t intimidated
by his family; she’s one of the few who refuses to take their crap.
When
Grant volunteers at the charity bachelor auction, to his surprise,
Pepper buys him. She hadn’t meant to, but Adelia Chamberlain dropped a
cold drink in her lap, sending her leaping into the air at precisely the
wrong moment. Suddenly she had a massive bill to the town and Grant at
her disposal. Since the money has to come from her “restore the house”
fund, she decides to use Grant for manual labor instead of romantic
dinners. Grant is happy to help, sweaty and shirtless, because one way
or another, he’s going to get Pepper to admit she’s attracted to him.
All it takes is a small spark, and soon they’ll be fanning the flames.
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Excerpt
Grant
stepped out from behind the curtain to a roar of applause. The minute
the lights hit him, Pepper felt her heart skip a beat in her chest like
she’d been hit with paddles of a defibrillator. He was wearing a black,
slim-fit suit with a black shirt and tie. Even though he was indoors and
it was nighttime, he was wearing his trademark Ray-Ban sunglasses. The
glasses always seemed to accent the square line of his jaw and the sharp
angle of his nose.
His
full lips curled into his charming smile, with the slightest hint of a
dimple visible on his cheek. It reminded her of him looking at her, just
like that, from between her trembling thighs.
Damn
him for being so sexy. His confidence made him that much more
attractive. And frustrating. And irritating. Her fingers itched to reach
for her paddle, but she resisted. She wasn’t going to pay for his time,
even when he smiled at her that way.
“The
lucky lady with the winning bid will go with Grant to a romantic dinner
at Brio’s in Birmingham and if she likes, he’ll take her on an
exhilarating ride down a windy country road on the back of his
motorcycle.”
Pepper
could almost see all the wild fantasies rushing through the heads of
every woman in the room. It was a nice thought—hair blowing in the wind,
thighs clamped around Grant’s narrow hips, arms wrapped around his
waist. Even she could imagine the hard feel of his abs beneath the thin
cotton of his T-shirt and the vibration of the engine against her most
sensitive parts. There was a rumble of approval as they readied their
paddles and sized up their competition.
Good luck to them, Pepper thought.
Like a beach ball bouncing around the room, the bids flew fast and furious. Before long, they’d topped three thousand.
Suddenly
Pepper felt awkward. Even though she and Grant weren’t dating, she
didn’t exactly want to sit around and watch other women battle for him.
Looking around the room, she spied Adelia Chamberlain coming back to her
table with a glass of ice water. Maybe another drink would help. Or
perhaps it was the right time for a restroom break. She could beat all
the other women that would rush the ladies’ room when the auction ended.
Pepper
slipped her purse onto her shoulder and picked up her paddle so she
could dump it in the bathroom trash can. “I’m going to get some air,”
she whispered to Ivy, then started to get up.
The
ambush was sudden and unexpected. When they first came in Pepper had
noticed the cable that the A/V people had taped to the floor, but the
room was much darker now. Adelia didn’t see it and caught the toe of her
shoe on it. She didn’t fall, thank goodness, but she did stumble,
slinging her full glass of ice water into Pepper’s lap.
With
a cry of surprise and alarm, Pepper leapt out of her chair, holding her
arms high to avoid the water that practically covered her from neck to
knees.
“Four thousand!” Allison Price announced from the stage.
The
MC’s words were an even larger shock to Pepper than the water. She
turned her head toward Grant and the action onstage. He was looking
straight at her with a wide smile of confidence across his face. He
winked at her, and Pepper felt her stomach sink into her boot. Allison
was pointing in Pepper’s direction, trying to coax a higher bid out of
the audience.
Yes,
please, she screamed in her head. Make it forty-five hundred. Hell,
make it four thousand and one penny. Just outbid her. She was answered
with deafening silence. The only one in the room making a sound was
Allison up on stage. It seemed that suddenly, all the battling women
seemed to give up. Even Grant wasn’t worth that much, it seemed, and she
agreed.
“No!” Pepper shouted, but there was no stopping it.
“Going once . . . going twice . . .”
“I didn’t mean to—”
“Sold! To the lady in the blue sweaterdress, paddle twenty-two!”
Pepper
looked down at her dark blue sweater, suddenly made even darker by the
spreading water mark. Her damned paddle, the one she never wanted to
begin with, was still in her hand. She watched as it slipped from her
fingers, clattering to the ground in slow motion as the gravity of the
situation caught up with her. Four thousand dollars. She’d just bid four
thousand dollars. Because of well-aimed ice water.
“Oh,
Pepper,” Miss Adelia fussed, dabbing her with an inadequate cocktail
napkin and shaking off the well-meaning hands of the folks that were
more concerned about the older woman nearly falling. “I am so sorry. I
didn’t even see that silly cord,” she said. “Is your dress okay?”
She
couldn’t respond. All Pepper could do was close her eyes and try to
keep the tears of frustration and aggravation from rushing down her
cheeks.
She had just paid four thousand dollars for a date with Grant Chamberlain.
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