Title: Audrey Author: Sean-Paul Thomas Genre: Contemporary Romance
From the author of My Sister and I and The Old Man and The Princess (recently optioned to be a motion picture) – comes a new, suspenseful romantic tale that will knock you off your feet. A story that has a reminiscence of ‘500 days of Summer’ and ‘Midnight in Paris’ with a fair dollop of ‘The Graduate’ thrown in. And of course Audrey, a delightful, older female protagonist who takes the young and wayward ex-con Joe under her wing.
Just out of prison Joe, a young builder from Edinburgh who writes movie scripts in his spare time, randomly meets Audrey, a washed-up, hard-drinking, chain-smoking, middle-aged French film actress at his local film festival. After hitting it off and spending one crazy, magical night together, Audrey sees some potential in Joe and his writing and tries to help him win back his estranged daughter by getting his first screenplay made into a movie in Paris. And so, the adventure of a lifetime begins…
“Don’t say that. Jesus. You were brilliant up there. And you barely look a day over twenty-nine.” Joe said with a reassuring grin. Audrey’s eyes widened and she smiled with delight at the compliment.
“Well the dim lighting out here in this dark alleyway is fantastic, yes?” she teased. “It hides all of my lovely wrinkles and skin imperfections.”
“Okay,” Joe said rolling his eyes. “Maybe thirty-five then when you were outside earlier in the natural light,” Joe said, teasing her back, trying his best to flirt with her now, but it had been such a long time since he’d played the flirting game with anyone, that he didn’t even know if he was doing it right anymore. They both chuckled at his words and Audrey even slapped him lightly on the arm. Joe took it as a pretty good sign that she enjoyed his rusty flirting banter, even if she was only humouring him. He was just about to ask her something else. Something a little bit deeper and meaningful. That was when the festival host suddenly appeared through the fire escape, desperately searching for Audrey. Joe realised instantly that he was coming to steal her away even before he gave Joe a quick dismissive look.
“Miss Beart? We need to take some more pictures now. Can you please come back inside?”
Joe had never felt so gutted before in his life. It was like the brick alley walls around him were all crumbling in and there was nothing he could do to stop the imminent disaster. They both hesitated and looked deeply into each other’s eyes like they knew they had so much more to say and ask of the other. At first, the festival host just assumed that Joe was only a starstruck fan and would be dropped by Audrey like a hot piece of coal effective immediately at the host’s mere white-knight presence in front of them. But after a long but comfortable silence, even Joe felt surprised that Audrey was still standing there and hadn’t made her excuses to leave already.
“So…” She finally uttered with that cute and delightful smile of hers, which was directed straight at him once again. “It would appear as if they remembered who I am after all…”
Audrey threw her almost finished cigarette down onto the ground and stamped it out with her shoe.
“I guess it was nice meeting you then… Joseph…”
“Please, just call me Joe”
“Hey, Joe, what do you know?” Audrey replied right back at him with a playful smile and a casual wink.
“You too, Audrey. It was an absolute pleasure,” was all Joe could fire back even though he wanted to say a million and one other things.
There was another fleeting second of hesitation. Joe didn’t want her to go anywhere and he knew she could feel it too, but in the end, he felt utterly powerless to make her stay. Who the hell was he to demand such a thing? In a normal world of boy-meets-girl, this would have been the ideal time to ask for her number or e-mail address or at least add her on bloody Facebook. But Joe did nothing. Not only was he well out of practice on the boy-meets-girl market front, but who the hell was he to ask anything of her? Joe knew he didn’t belong there. He knew he didn’t belong in Audrey’s world at that particular moment in time. He hadn’t yet earned that kind of accolade or respect as an artist. He was a nobody, and she was a somebody. Joe lived in Edinburgh as an ex-con, part-time plumber, and a starving writer and she lived in the vibrant, stunning, and equally chaotic city of Paris, or so he’d read on her IMDB page, deep within the magical film world that Joe hadn’t even begun earning the right of entry into. Plus, it felt even more awkward to him with the festival host still impatiently leering over them, still wondering why on earth Audrey hadn’t made her excuses and left with him yet, but at the same time not wishing to appear verbally rude by enforcing her to come back into the cinema.
“Good luck with the movie, too, and your writing.” Joe finally added, still not taking his eyes away from the middle-aged beauty.
“Merci Beaucoup,” Audrey replied, still gazing right at him before finally turning away and beginning to make her idle move back through the fire exit doors and into the cinema. “See you then,” she continued in a tone that suggested if Joe would only man the hell up and ask her to meet him later that evening for a drink or a late-night coffee so they could chat some more about movies, writing, or whatever the hell other life subjects that came up, then she would absolutely and positively accept his invitation. But Joe didn’t say another damn word, because Joe wasn’t that bold, or charming, or confident. Had he ever been? Yes, perhaps, once upon a time, before five long years of living in a lonely cell had robbed him of some crucial part of his personality and socialising skills to the extent where two minutes conversing with a French film actress convinced him that was two minutes more than what he actually deserved. Then, to the cinema host’s deep frustrations, Audrey suddenly paused at the fire exit door for much longer than he would have liked.
“What are you doing later, Joe?” Audrey asked out of the blue. Joe found himself utterly taken aback by her question, but quickly composed himself with a sharp, cool, and confident response that he would thank himself for in the not too distant future.
“Nothing I can’t get out of. Why, what do you have in mind?”
“Can you show me where to buy some cigarettes around here?”
“Aye. I can do that.” Joe replied, utterly delighted but trying his best to hold it in.
“Good. Why don’t you meet me out front in say… thirty minutes, and I’ll maybe even let you show me around your wonderful city, too, if you’re lucky?” Audrey said, finishing with a wink.
Joe smiled with utter pleasure. He couldn’t quite believe what Audrey had just said, but he went with it all the same.
Sean is an author from Edinburgh in Scotland. He is the best selling Kindle Author of ‘The Old Man and The Princess’ which was recently optioned to be a major motion picture.
Sean spent most of his childhood and teenage years on the move with his Scottish and Irish army Parents growing up in the likes of Cyprus, Germany, Wales, and England, as an army brat.
With a keen interest in both reading and writing, he was diagnosed with travel and writing bugs very early in life. Now, writing, travelling, reading, cinema, and Scottish football (Supporting the mighty Edinburgh City for his sins) are his main passions in life.
His main inspiration for writing today comes from living in such a beautiful, charming and hauntingly, Gothic city, such as Edinburgh. An awe-inspiring wee city that has given him so much amazing inspiration to write the more time he spends there.
Recently, Sean has been working on a couple of screenplay adaptations of his books. One of which ‘The Old Man and The Princess’ made the final of the Nashville Film Festival Screenwriting Competition 2018 and has since been optioned by an award-winning Director /Producer team. Scheduled to go into production in Ireland in the summer of 2021 filming has been postponed until 2022 due to the recent covid pandemic.
It’s all sunshine and butterflies until your brother’s best friend dropkicks your heart. I knew I had it coming with Weston McKnight. The Adonis next door. The fever crush. The always protector. The man who walked away after pulverizing my soul.
Seven years ago, he left our little town with a promise he couldn’t keep. I waited. I worried. I suffered. I stopped chasing dreams built on that boy’s mile-wide shoulders. Then I found the pig—and sweet chaos found me.
I had to rescue that poor squealing baby before he was roadkill. I didn’t know he belonged to Captain McGrumpy. I never guessed I’d collide with a scowling, moody, scary-hot West again. Same man. New secrets. Oh, but that all too familiar tension…
We’re stuck as frenemy neighbors for the next two months. Facing a dilemma with bittersweet memories and flaming glances. What’s the harm in seeking a little closure? Massive. Can we even use words without risking an all out kissing war? Well… Am I in trouble with my worst best friend again? Definitely.
Full-length romance thriller with a sticky sweet Happily Ever After forged from friends-to-lovers madness. Witness one broken man’s redemption quest to claim the girl he shouldn’t with so many small-town hijinks, countless dad jokes, and a little help from a bad-tempered pig.
The moment our lips meet, it’s like a generator blown to pieces. A hundred thousand watts of raw electricity, hot and fast and furious, so wild with sparks it welds our lips together.
Fuck.
No.
Fuck!
She gasps into my mouth and I groan back a curse. Her lips firm with surprise, then soften, giving way to the sudden attack of my tongue.
I’m no longer in control of my own body.
This kiss has its own rules, its own gravity, its own soul.
I’d be a complete fool to try to stop its energy.
Her lips are too soft. Too warm. Too perfect in every way, shape, form, and whimper.
When my tongue claims hers, soft and wet as a summer strawberry, she molds to my chest, dragging her body against mine.
I can’t separate my hot mouth from hers, even though I know full well I should.
Stumbling back a step is the only thing that saves us.
That’s what she does to me, her and her thieving, glorious lips. She knocks me upside the head and renders me fucking boneless.
I tear myself away violently, just a few inches, both of us staring in wild-eyed shock at each other, fighting to remember how to breathe.
Goddamn. My eyes slide to those ruby-red lips again with a need to bite her.
I can’t. I won’t.
But hell…one more time, maybe.
Just one more taste and then I’ll stop. I’ll pull back from the brink before we face annihilation.
It takes nearly all my willpower to crush my lips against hers, to roam her mouth every way I’ve wanted for years—fucking years—only to shove myself away.
Dammit all. My bright ideas especially.
I’m panting like a wild animal—breathing like I’m in disbelief—and for her, I want to be.
Nicole Snow is a Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author. She found her love of writing by hashing out love scenes on lunch breaks and plotting her great escape from boardrooms. Her work roared onto the indie romance scene in 2014 with her Grizzlies MC series.
Since then Snow aims for the very best in growly, heart-of-gold alpha heroes, unbelievable suspense, and swoon storms aplenty. With over a million books sold, she lives for the joy of making two people fight with every bit of their soul for a Happily Ever After.
Current fan favorites include her Enguard Protectors series, accidental love novels, plus long beloved MC romance thrillers like the Grizzlies and Deadly Pistols.
Title: Night Prince Author: Felice Stevens Genre: LGBTQ+ Paranormal Romance
A vampire who’s lost everything meets a man who has nothing to lose.
For centuries, Massimo D’Alba, banished prince of the Fold, has wandered through life frozen in darkness and pain. Betrayed by his younger, power-hungry brother, he’s existed for centuries but not lived. A rain-soaked night brings smart-mouthed New Yorker, Damion Avery, to his doorstep and suddenly he’s riding spin bikes, shopping for yoga pants, eating ice cream…and falling in love.
Damion Avery can’t figure out why Prince Tall, Dark, and Incredibly Sexy wants him as his personal assistant, but he’s not going to second-guess his good luck. Even though he has to work all night and sleep during the day, the job is too good to be true. But where does Massimo sneak off to in the dead of night? Is he a spy, an assassin, or something else? And what’s with those glowing purple eyes? Damion knows he shouldn’t fall for his boss. But Damion was never one to follow the rules.
When duty calls him home, Massimo must return to save his kingdom, forcing a life-changing decision: leave Damion behind forever, or reveal his deepest, darkest secret to the man who has become his everything, who owns a part of Massimo he’d thought gone forever…his heart.
Massimo glanced up from reading the newspaper as Damion bounded down the stairs.
“Where are you off to? You look like you’re on a mission.”
“I’m going across town to Macy’s. They’re open late tonight—until nine-thirty, and I need some new clothes.” He pointed at his ripped jeans. “I only have one other pair, and I need some shirts and stuff, especially now that you want me to sit in on your video conferences with you and not remain in the background. It’s my dinner hour, so I won’t be taking time from work.”
Massimo set the paper down, frowning. “First of all, you should not worry about doing personal things during your free time. I do not own you, Damion. You work for me. Second of all, I think that is a good idea. Are you sure they will have what you need?”
Damion snorted. “They’re only the biggest store in the world. I think I’ll find something.” His blue eyes twinkled, and Massimo fought that internal war that made him want to grab Damion and kiss him, while knowing it was wrong. It was exhausting to fight this attraction, and instead of it waning as he’d hoped, it was gaining strength.
Damion snapped his fingers. “Hey. I have an idea. Why don’t you come with me? You can help me pick out stuff and tell me what looks good. I’m hopeless like that, and you have a great sense of style.”
Massimo was hesitant. “You want me to go clothes shopping? I’ve never done that before. I wouldn’t know what to do.”
Damion’s eyes bugged out, and he stood mute for a moment. “You’re kidding. You’ve never been in a department store?”
Massimo shrugged. “Why would I? I have a tailor come and make my suits and shirts. Anything else I need, Claudio orders for me. Stores are crowded with people.” He made a face. “Why would I want to go?”
“Because you can try stuff on you might not know you even want. I love impulse-buying. Please? Come with me?”
It was pointless to try and resist those big blue eyes. And that was how Massimo D’Alba, prince of the Fold and one of the most powerful vampires in the world, found himself in a dressing room in Macy’s, wearing a hot-pink T-shirt that said: Yoga is my superpower,and an indecently tight pair of gray sweat pants.
“I think not.” He exited the dressing room to show Damion, who stood in front of the three-way mirror in a tank top the color of his eyes and biker shorts.
When their eyes met, Damion’s jaw dropped, and he spun around.
Massimo shifted under his heated stare, and his cock hardened. Mortified, he took a step away, praying Damion hadn’t noticed. “I can’t believe you made me try this on.”
“Oh, loosen up. Lots of guys wear this when they exercise.” Damion cocked his head. “You look good. Really good.”
“I look as ridiculous as I feel. I’ll stick to what I have, thank you. And we came here for you, not me.”
Damion turned to his own mirror, and Massimo’s gaze fixed on his perfect ass, hugged by the second-skin material of the biker shorts. Massimo had enough trouble with the damn spin bike; did he need to be tortured by Damion wearing next to nothing while they exercised? Having a hard-on while spinning was a singularly painful experience he tried to avoid.
Felice Stevens has always been a romantic at heart. She believes that while life is tough, there is always a happy ending around the corner. Her characters have to work for it, because just like life in NYC, nothing comes easy and that includes love.
Felice is the 2020 Lambda Literary Award winning author in best Gay Romance. She lives in New York City and has way too much black in her wardrobe. If she’s not writing, you’ll probably find her watching reality TV or procrastinating on FB in her reader group, Felice’s Breakfast Club.
