Today Marie Medina shares a blurb and excerpt from her new release, With The Boys In The Band. When I first saw the cover, I knew I had to add it to my "to-read" list. Thanks for joining us, Marie!
Blurb:
Working as an assistant for the metal band Serration is
Alicia’s dream gig—a far cry from the cubicle she abandoned at her old job. She
promised herself she wouldn’t become starstruck, but the band’s frontman,
Vince, proves very hard to ignore. She manages to resist him on a daily basis,
but soon she finds herself thinking about the keyboardist, Emerson, all the
time.
The two men’s closeness confuses her a little, and Vince’s
promiscuous reputation makes her wary, but when Emerson invites her to Vince’s
summer house for a week-long getaway, she jumps at the chance. A single day in
such close quarters convinces Alicia of one thing: these two men want each
other as much as they want her. Will they only see each other as rivals, or
will they give in and let her lure them both to her bed and her very willing
arms?
Excerpt:
Emerson signed his name, and then
he initialed three times. He turned the paper over and signed again. With a
deep breath, which failed to fortify him as the tax form in his hand made his
eyes begin to cross, he signed and initialed two more times on the next page.
Then two more signatures and three initials were required on the next piece of
paper. Under that lay five pages stapled together, requiring him to initial
throughout and then sign at the very end.
When someone walked back into the
conference room, he said with unmistakable venom, “God almighty, if I ever see
that lazy shit again I will kill him with my bare hands!”
The person stopped abruptly and to
his surprise laughed. The beautiful sound, which always caught his attention,
made him jerk his head up.
“I wouldn’t blame you. I’ve been
filing and mailing and scanning documents for three solid days,” Alicia said as
she pushed her tumbling black curls off of her face. “I’m so glad we’re almost
done.”
“Oh.” He paused, feeling like a
jerk for losing his temper in front of her, even if he hadn’t known it was she.
“I bet you have been swamped. That must suck.” He rolled his eyes inwardly at
his lame evaluation, but what else could he say?
She dropped down into a chair
beside him and slumped over, her leg brushing his, which sent a zing of
pleasure through his entire body. Obviously not seeing his evaluation as
lacking in any way, she said, “It does. I need a vacation after this.”
“Come with us to Vince’s summer
house,” he blurted before he could second-guess his instinct.
Emerson played keyboard for a metal
band, Serration, with his high school friend Vince, and three guys they’d met
in college, Mike, Tom, and Garren. Just a week earlier, Charles, their manager
and accountant for the past six months, had abandoned them. At that point, they
had realized two things: some, but luckily not all, of their money was missing,
and none of their legal or operational paperwork was anywhere to be found.
Contracts, booking records, royalty reports, tax records, and all forms of
legal documentation, all were gone. Many important documents relevant to the
last six months of operations, they suspected, had perhaps never even existed.
Vince, with the help of his father and their family connections, had quickly
located and hired a good team of lawyers and both a new manager and a new
accountant for them. Except for being unable to find Charles, things had gone
smoothly since then. As soon as the lawyers were satisfied with all their
signatures, the whole band was heading to Vince’s summer house on a lake in his
hometown of Hella for a much needed break. They had intended to begin recording
again the next month, but for now it would have to wait.
Alicia smiled. “Really?”
Emerson nodded, pushing his long
brown hair out of his face and behind his ears. He had a tendency to hide
behind it, especially when Alicia was around, and he fought the urge now. He’d
been wanting to get Alicia alone for months, but other things always got in the
way between work and the other members of the band. He’d kept his growing
feelings a secret because he didn’t want anything the guys did, even with the
best of intentions, to ruin things for him. “As my guest. I insist. Here I am bitching
about having to sign stuff, all the while you’ve been shuffling all this shit
around for days with, I’m thinking, very little thanks.”
“Your thinking is correct. Everyone
has been a bit testy.”
He set back to work on the papers,
finding every highlighted spot and adding his signature or initials. He paused.
“Did you do all this?”
“The highlighting? Yeah.”
He let out a long sigh. “Wow. I am
going to make it my personal quest to see that you have an amazing time. As
soon as I’m done, I’m telling … um … blond guy?”
“Theobald.”
He stopped with his pen in mid-air.
“Theobald?”
She nodded. “Get used to it. I
think he’ll be a great manager.”
“Well, I’m telling him you are
coming with us. You were always on top of things with this last tour, so I know
exactly how hard you work. You learned the ropes so quickly.”
She laughed. “How did you know I
was always on top of things? My job changes every two days around here.”
He straightened the papers, trying
to come up with an answer. He couldn’t very well say he watched her constantly,
always made a point of knowing where she was and what she’d be doing each day,
at every stop, in every city. When their eyes met after his long pause, he
almost thought she might guess. Quickly, he said, “Because every time I see
you, you’re doing exactly what you’re meant to be doing, which is usually
making sure we aren’t missing a cue or an appointment or doing something
completely stupid, not to mention reminding others of the jobs they need to be
doing.”
She blushed and laughed again. That
laugh was improving his day more with each passing second, and the color rising
to her cheeks was adorable. “Wow. I’m glad someone has noticed.”
He nodded slightly and said in a
soft voice, “I certainly have.”
“Then I would love to come with you
guys. Are you still going this afternoon?”
“I think so.”
“And Vince won’t mind?”
“No. There’s plenty of room. No one
has ever had to sleep on the floor, I promise.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Oh, I’m
sure.”
He knew she was thinking of Vince’s
and Garren’s reputations. Both of them had flirted with her on many occasions.
“You’ll be my guest and have the perfect freedom to tell anyone to fuck off.
I’ll do it for you if I have to.”
“So I’ll have a protector from the
band’s bad boys, huh?”
“Oh yes.” She had always seemed
immune to the charms of the other guys, but was this a mistake? He hadn’t made
her status as his guest, or what he intended her status to be, one hundred
percent clear yet. If she didn’t know he wanted this to be like a date, what
would prevent her from hooking up with someone else? Most women would do almost
anything to get in Vince’s bed. Or so it seemed to Emerson.
She smiled and seemed about to say
something when Vince walked in. “Hey, Em, are you done yet? I figured you and I
could ride up together.”
He looked down and saw he had six
more pages. “Almost.” Then inspiration struck. “Hey, you know, I remember the
security codes and all. You guys go ahead when you get ready. Alicia’s going to
come, and I’ll give her a lift. I still need to finish packing, and it may take
a bit for her to get done here and get packed, too.”
Vince’s green eyes, which woman
always melted for, flicked to Alicia. Emerson didn’t like the heat there, or
the odd smile that played on his lips, but to his relief Alicia kept her gaze
on him, not turning it to Vince.
“Thank you! Give me the ones you’ve
done, and I’ll get started scanning. Just bring the rest down when you’re done.
Then you can go confront Theobald.”
She took the papers and breezed
past Vince with just an excited smile and nothing more. Vince smiled back,
running his fingers through his own dark, curly hair. He kept smoothing his
hair back as he turned and watched her walk down the hall, his eyes lowering
just enough to annoy Emerson.
