Contemporary Romance
Date Published: November 25, 2024
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Pressured by her looming deadline and an unfinished romance manuscript,
author Molly Covington applies her immersive research skills and goes all
in. She hires a male companion for inspiration during three days of research
in Las Vegas.
Enter sexy, confident Jared Washington—an extreme sports enthusiast
and relationship skeptic who moonlights as a Plus One male companion.
Molly’s contract puts him within arm’s reach of buying his own
business and making his dreams come true.
The chemistry between her and Jared is surprisingly easy. Before their
Vegas rendezvous comes to an end, one of them will need to lay all their
cards on the table to discover if they’ll be lucky in love.
EXCERPT
Molly
Searching for an escort was not the same as
searching for porn.
At least, that’s what I kept telling myself as I hit
enter on my keyboard. Holding my breath, I waited as
the list of results⎯Elite Males, Premium Gigolos, Stags
R Us⎯populated my laptop screen. I perched on the
edge of my black leather desk chair in my home office
overlooking the Seattle harbor. All the entries sounded
like adult films. Each one screamed precisely what to
expect, which made choosing any one in particular
impossible.
With one eye shut and a tentative finger, I clicked
on the top entry, Elite Males. An obscene amount of
oiled flesh filled most of my monitor—a close-up photo
of a smooth-chested guy flexing his defined muscles
while lying on his back. The shot highlighted his torso
and prominent tattoos, capturing only his lips and chin;
he was clean-shaven, and his jaw was also, for some
reason, shiny. Ugh! Too much! The home page wasn’t
quite as bad as I’d expected but still cringe-worthy:
almost laughable. The guy in the image provided what
was supposed to be an enticing, yet exaggerated,
display, which I assumed⎯combined with his other
“talents” listed in the reviews that read like porn⎯must
have earned him his five-star rating. To each his own.
The parts of the man I could see on my screen were
considered conventionally hot. However, after reading
the list of customers’ erotic comments, I swallowed
back the bitter tang filling my mouth. I felt dirty just
looking at his image⎯and desperate. But I guess, for
all intents and purposes, I was. My deadline from my
publisher loomed overhead, and I had no manuscript to
submit. My stomach rolled.
“It’s been a year, Molly,” Renee had said last week
after huffing into the phone. “The editors expect
something after that advance. Your reputation will only
buy you so much time. Can you at least give me the
first fifty pages so I can appease them? Try to barter an
extension?”
Picturing Renee’s scowl was easy⎯an otherwise
non-existent crinkle above the bridge of her button
nose, with her perpetual bold lips in full pout mode.
A cold sweat broke out across my forehead. “I’ll
get you something soon. I promise.” My hollow words
sounded more like a question as I brushed off the brittle
ends of hair that flaked onto my sweatshirt, an
inevitable consequence of straightening my Jamaican
locks with my flat iron. However, my hair wouldn’t
have done that if I hadn’t fallen asleep at the computer
the night before, attempting to muscle out some words
that never came. I should have just gone to bed at a
decent hour with my silk hair wrap.
“Look, Molly, you’ve been a real trouper since
breaking off the engagement with Enrique. But I think
gifting your cousin your non-refundable venue for her
wedding was…a mistake. Admirable, but a mistake
nonetheless.”
About the Author
Amanda and Lisa-Marie are a co-writing team of best friends who share
imaginary worlds, including a short story, Shivers, published in Moments
Between. Lisa Marie Potter (BIPOC) is a mom of four who grew up in
Nottingham, England, and now resides in Alaska with her husband and golden
retriever. Amanda Nelson grew up in Maryland and moved to Arizona, where she
attended college and currently lives with her husband and four kids. Both
women are members of the Author’s Guild and were part of a Manuscript
Academy Podcast featuring their writing and critique group. They also review
books on their socials, hike the Olympic National Park, and fight over the
same fictional crushes.
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