Waiting for a Girl
Like You
Kissables, #1
by Gina Conkle
Date of Publication:
December 13th 2017
Cover Artist: Rebecca
of Dreams2Media
Genre: Hot
Contemporary Romance
BLURBS
2 Stories in 1 Book
Proper Care and Feeding of a Broken Heart
Bookstore clerk Abbie is off-the-charts
nervous her first night moonlighting in a sex-for-hire job. If she only kept
her mouth shut…but nothing goes as expected, including the intense blue-eyed
surfer who walks through her door. Mark wants to work out a few kinks —and
leave the lifestyle for good. Past mistakes still haunt him, but sweet Abbie
turns Mark’s plans upside down, and two broken hearts discover honesty is the
hottest aphrodisiac.
Anything But Safe
Former trophy wife Jennifer wants to thrive
again, but when her new life hits a speedbump, her unlikely hero is rough
working man AJ. The woman AJ rescued is out of his league, but the two together
are magic. Jennifer smooths his hard edges, and when she’s with AJ, her true,
quirky colors show. A surprise threatens to derail the two who quickly
learn…love is anything but safe.
Excerpts: Waiting for a Girl Like You (2 stories in 1
book)
The Proper Care and
Feeding of a Broken Heart (story 1)
My cheeks burned but I stood taller.
“I don’t know what Mrs. Smith told you but when she said ‘fresh face’ that was
code for I don’t know what I’m doing. I’ve never done this before. Any of it.
Not sex for hire. And certainly not BDSM. Much as I want to bolt, I need the
money. So can we get this over with?”
Another
dry chuckle. “You know how to get a man going.”
I
glared at him through my bangs and hugged myself tighter. Music pulsed from the
room next door, but I couldn’t say what the song was. Did they need a sound
track to get going? The frazzled side of me surrendered to how little I knew
about sex. Despite standing bravely, I was small and adrift on an unknown sea.
Surfer Man stepped within touching distance,
his blue eyes on the verge of grey, lit with a strange mixture of hard shell
and tender patience. A faint line traced the left side of his mouth like
contempt came easy.
“First
rule,” he said evenly. “You only talk when spoken to.”
“Then
what am I supposed to call you?”
The
question startled us both. I was throwing out the no names rule and for good
reason. Something dawned on me. With the closed door, it was just the two of
us. This square room was my island. Control could go either way. Surfer Man’s
mouth opened, but an adrenaline rush took over and my hip cocked sideways. In
the world of fight or flight, my body tensed with its version of fight.
“Oh, let me guess. You’re going to say Call
me master or some crap like that. I work at a bookstore. I’ve read those please
spank me Mr. Billionaire books.”
I liked a few of them. Reading the books was
one thing. Living them was another.
One
side of his mouth curved up. “Maybe you should tell me how you really feel.”
I
exhaled slowly, blowing bangs off my forehead. No sense in telling him what I
really thought. Talk about a mood killer. No man wanted to hear me say this
place is for losers who can’t find a girl. Yet, this guy was no loser.
“Real
billionaires don’t look like you do in those jeans of yours.”
He
chuckled, his blue eyes flaring wider. “I’m no billionaire.”
Oh,
but you are one hot man. Thankfully my filter worked and I kept that to myself.
“You know what it is? It’s the whole BDSM
scene thing. Sex isn’t a scene. It’s sex. Two people being honest skin to
skin.”
Sinews
under his forearms flexed while music cranked louder in the next room. His hard
shell scrutiny narrowed, and I cringed. Sneering at my customer’s preferences
wasn’t a smart idea. How he got his rocks off was his business.
“Honest
sex.” He let the words settle in his mouth. Surfer Man shook his head and made
for his gym bag.
“What?
Are you leaving?” My voice notched higher. I didn’t want him tying me up, but I
didn’t want him to leave.
“This
wasn’t a good idea.”
Scowling
at me, he stood under the bulb, the red light pouring over him. How was it a
nice looking man in his thirties paid a hefty price to tie a woman up yet he
was the one getting all contorted about it? I was pretty sure he could get the
average beach bunny to shed her bikini and play sex games for a night. Unless
his tastes ran too dark.
I
eyed the bag at his feet. Dust lined a few creases. “Maybe we could talk
instead.”
He
laughed harshly. “You’re naked. I paid for sex with a pretty woman.
Not conversation.”
“Want
me to cover myself with the sheet?”
“No,”
he said, his face screwing up like I wasn’t playing with a full deck. “I don’t
want you to cover yourself.”
Feet
planted wide, the bulge in his jeans was gone. The lost reaction bugged me. He
didn’t find me attractive anymore? To add to the strangeness, my reversal irked
me. I should be glad. I could run down the hall, grab my clothes and purse, and
run out the door and never come back.
Red-tinged light cast shadows over his
features. He set both hands on his hips, his raw voice reaching out to me. “Why
do you want me to stay?”
Anything But Safe
(story 2)
Tendons stood out on AJ’s neck. If she
read him right, he was flummoxed by their sizzling chemistry. What made this different
was liking each other so quickly. It was powerful. Overwhelming and
mind-consuming. Conversation flowed naturally. She’d dumped her troubles at his
feet last night without a second thought. AJ listened. And when things weren’t
hot and heavy, he was fun. She needed fun.
His
long legs stretched out under her old table last night did things to her. Her
nerves shot to life when predatory blue eyes tracked her movement in the
kitchen. AJ was different. Comfortable and uncomfortable at the same time. And
his thoughtfulness with the herbs? She wanted to kiss every inch of skin on his
body.
“No
need to glower at me,” she said. “You brought up how different we are last
night right after I got into your truck.”
His
mouth’s hard line softened. “That’s what’s bugging you?”
“It
didn’t bother me. Not at first. Then, after Richard’s call, I wondered if I was
making another bad decision.” Her voice faded. “You were a great listener, but
it crossed my mind that you were after one thing and one thing only.”
AJ’s
crystalline blue eyes pierced her. “Sex.”
The
nicest shiver ran down her legs. “Yes.”
Hot
sun beat down on the rest of the world. It was August. Standing under the
pepper tree, AJ was a tall, cool drink of water. Stained coveralls didn’t put
her off nor did his tattoo and the rough cadence of his speech. Under the gruff
exterior was a real man with a good heart. He visually devoured her every time
they’d crossed paths around town, and last night was no exception. But, could
she be content with a sex only fling?
“Well,
that’s a relief.” Faint sarcasm edged his last word.
“What
is?”
His
steady gaze never wavered. “I thought you might be going in a different
direction.”
She cocked her head. “Did you think I was
about to give you the ‘let’s be friends’ talk?”
“I
thought you were about to give me the ‘let’s hook up for sex only’ talk.”
“Oh
AJ,” she said around hiccups of laughter. Her cheeks burned. She shook her
head, a little dazed. “I…I don’t know
what to say to that.”
“It’s
not the first time a woman like you propositioned me.”
Eyes
rounding, she laughed at the absurdity. “I’m not propositioning you.”
“Good
because my answer would be no.”
She’d come for lunch and conversation of the
talking variety. A kiss or two was more than welcome, but they needed to slow
down, let things simmer. AJ’s forbidding frown told her some of Hidden Valley’s
well-shod women had dallied with him, and he was having no more of it. The town
was an eclectic mix of gated communities, small farm-to-table co-ops and
wineries. A lot of working class people had lived here long before it was hip.
Hurt
bloomed in her chest at the idea of any woman taking advantage of AJ’s
goodness. Or his body. His past was likely more colorful than hers, but his
flat out refusal to hook up intrigued her. He’d messed around in the past. What
made him change his mind?
MY INTERVIEW WITH
GINA CONKLE
How would you describe you style of writing
to someone that has never read your work?
Overall,
I write poignant romance with light moments and lots of banter. The heat level
has gone from smolder to sizzle with each book. My Georgian romances tend to
have more “sparkle” in story tone with some grit (since I feature a mix of
nobility and commoners). My Viking romance tends to be evocative, atmospheric,
with keen attention to history while building sensual tension.
Waiting
for a Girl Like You was new territory…as in the farthest end of steamy yet
still digging deep in to the character’s motives and emotions.
What mindset or routine do you feel the need
to set when preparing to write (in general whether you are working on a project
or just free writing)?
I begin
as a pantser. Whoever shows up consistently in my head gets his/her story told.
I’ll write scene snippets with secondary characters and main characters. To
draw out nuances, I listen to music and read non-fiction that pertains to the
story. Once I’m “in” things flow (as long as I show up each day). Before I go
to bed, I make notes about scene(s) for the next day. The book plays like a
movie in my head.
I free
write when I’m stuck. Most times that means I didn’t get to know key characters
well. I’ll start off with an interview and after a few questions their voice
takes over. It’s stream of consciousness, switching back and forth from first
person to third person.
Do you take your character prep to heart? Do
you nurture the growth of each character all the way through to the page? Do
you people watch to help with development? Or do you build upon your character
during story creation?
Writing
a character is building a trustworthy friendship. It takes time. If you keep
showing up, characters keep sharing little secrets. Sometimes they burst on the
page out of nowhere. That happened with Juliette Sauveterre (a secondary
character) in The Lady Meets Her Match. I was writing and all of a sudden there
was this super saucy Frenchwoman taking over.
With
Waiting for a Girl Like You, I was surprised how Mark was working his way out
of BDSM. And he’s a surfer. He kept showing me things as we went along and I
knew honesty was a big deal for him. He’d never equated honesty and sex until
he met Abbie.
Have you found yourself bonding with any
particular character? If so which one(s)?
In
terms of traits, I’ve noticed a penchant for highly intelligent characters, and
the lowly male scraping his way through the world. I’ve not written Dukes and
Billionaires (there is one filthy rich commoner, Cyrus, in The Lady Meets Her
Match but he’s a bruiser of a self-made man).You could say I prefer lifestyles
of the regular and common to the rich and famous.
One
character I keep going back to is Hakan, a Viking chieftain who wants to lay
down his sword and live a peaceful farmer’s life. He was in my first ever
story, Norse Jewel. The series grew to six books (one and two are published).
Hakan shows up in all of them!
Do you have a character that you have been
working on that you can't wait to put to paper?
Will
Longsword. His story is intricate. He’s a strategic, bad-ass leader who faces
the toughest decisions. The woman he falls for puts him in the worst
conundrums. He’s the last book of my in progress “Forgotten Sons” Viking
romance series.
Have you ever felt that there was something
inside of you that you couldn't control? If so what? If no what spurs you to
reach for the unexperienced?
I have
a rule posted in my office: “Be bold. Take risks in every story.” I have to
have a “breath catching moment” with every book I write. The first time it happened I gasped and said
out loud, “You can’t write that.” My hand was poised to delete the words when
realization hit. I was scared, but those words were true. I was digging deeper
into the story.
If I
don’t have a visceral moment with a story, I’m doing something wrong.
Author Info
Gina Conkle writes Viking, Georgian, and
contemporary romance. She grew up in southern California and despite all that
sunshine, she love books over beaches and stone castles over sand castles. Now
Gina lives in Michigan with her favorite alpha male, Brian, and their two sons
where she occasionally gardens and cooks. Living in snow gives her the perfect
excuse to get lost in reading and writing.
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