I have something SO FUN!!!! Ruthie Knox, author of our of our favorites (actually many of ’em!!) “About Last Night” has just sent over an excerpt from her upcoming release. It’s a new serial series entitled Roman Holiday 1: Chained: A Loveswept Contemporary Romance.
Ruthie Knox’s serial novel, Roman Holiday, is a road trip story. The first episode, Chained, releases November 11 (and it’s already up for pre-order). Just look at that sexy cover!
So… are you ready to taste-test “Chained”? 😉
In this scene, Ashley is chained and padlocked to the palm tree, staging her grand gesture, and the developer, Roman, who she’s only just met, has thrown her a loop by noticing that she’s cold and offering to wrap her in a space blanket that he’s retrieved from his car.
Roman Díaz was ruining her life. He could at least have the decency to be cruel.
He dropped to one knee, wrapped her legs in the crinkling blanket. He smelled good—aftershave or soap, clean and fresh like a very manly breath mint—and she willed herself to stop widening her nostrils and sucking at his smell like an excited puppy.
She was not excited. Or attracted. Or a puppy.
And this was serious business. She had to study him as though she were a detective, or, no, a soldier, because that was what you did with the enemy. Learned his ways. Found his weaknesses and exploited them.
It was beyond unfortunate that she was so awful at exploiting things.
He leaned back to survey his work. “Of course, if we leave that on you, in three or four hours you’ll be crisping up like a cat on a hot tin roof.”
He pronounced roof as though it had a u in it. Ruf.
Not the sort of accent she would have predicted for a Latino developer from Miami. She’d figured Roman Díaz would be Cuban, Honduran, Nicaraguan—and he looked the part. But he had to be second generation, at least. He spoke English too perfectly for it to be anything but a first language.
And even then, ruf? Wasn’t that how they said it in Canada?
“You wouldn’t do that,” she said.
“No.” He tipped his briefcase over, unlatched it, and withdrew a smartphone, which he used to take her picture from several different angles. “I wouldn’t.” He spoke quietly, his words punctuated by the phone’s artificial shutter noise. “Because you are a liability, Ashley Bowman. And I am a cautious man.”
“Why are you taking my picture?”
“I’m documenting you. Six-twenty a.m., Monday, August twenty-seventh. Protester alive and well.”
She snorted. “You can fake those.”
“Protesters?”
Once again, she couldn’t tell if he was joking. “I meant pictures.”
He put the camera away. “I’m sure I could. But why would I waste my time?”
“Because you’d already secretly done away with me and dumped my body in the ocean?”
“You’d float right back to shore. I’d have to chop you into pieces and hire a boat to take you way out where it’s deep, and even so.” He laid out this plan as though he’d considered it but rejected its impracticality. Then he looked at his watch.
“Bigger fish to fry today, huh?” she asked.
Roman glanced at her legs, and it was possible—just possible—that his eyes stuttered in the vicinity of her breasts as he brought his gaze back up to her face.
But if he’d ogled her, it had been the smoothest ogle in the history of ogling.
“You aren’t a fish,” he said. “You don’t have a tail.”
Ashley wiggled her legs in the metallic blanket. “No, but this is pretty fancy. I feel like you’ve upped my cool factor by about three hundred percent.”
Roman blinked. Frowned.
He looked toward her toes and shook his head slightly, as if to clear it.
“So,” he said. “You have my attention. Was there something you needed to tell me?”
She had planned to make a speech. To tell him what Sunnyvale meant to her—all the time she’d spent here with her grandmother, the people they’d met and the friends they’d made. Their crew of regular renters who came back year after year, Mitzi and Esther, Stanley and Michael, Prachi and Arvind . . .
Her family. Her home.
She tried to think of a way to put into words why she’d come back to live here every winter, even after she left at eighteen. How it wasn’t just a bunch of apartments plunked down on one of the cheaper Keys—wasn’t simply inexpensive weekly or monthly lodging for old folks down for the season and vacationers too strapped to afford Key West prices.
It was magic. The kind of magic made up of canasta tournaments by the swimming pool and long, laughter-filled evenings sitting on the dock surrounded by tiki torches and old friends. The magic of belonging somewhere. Having something.
That’s what she’d wanted to tell Roman Díaz. But he had his arms crossed, and his flat, expressionless eyes made her uncomfortable, reminding her too vividly of how she must look to him. Young and dumb and barefoot. Full of reckless, useless passion.
What did a man like him care about canasta?
“It’s just . . . this is too great a place to throw away,” she said. “It needs fixing up, I know, but if you put the right person in charge . . . I would do the work. I would work hard. You could turn a profit. Why knock it down when it has so many good years left?”
His eyebrows gathered themselves together. He had abundant eyebrows—the kind of eyebrows with the potential to take over his whole face if he didn’t keep them carefully trimmed. Which obviously he did, but still. Somewhere, there was a sophomore-year-of-high-school photograph of this guy with giant caterpillar eyebrows.
The thought made her a little smug, and she cherished the feeling for a moment, imagining Roman in thirty years with eyebrows so bushy and uncontrolled that they crawled right off his face.
“That’s your whole pitch?” he asked.
Oh, no. I have a much better pitch. I just thought I’d start with one that sucked, in case I didn’t need to waste the ringer.
Ruthie Knox’s Roman Holiday – Exclusive giveaway! How to enter for a chance to win?
Ruthie Knox and Loveswept would like to offer three lucky winners a sassy luggage tag of your choice from Anne Taintor! Tell us what you think of the excerpt or answer this question in the comments below: If you could surprise your lover with a trip to anywhere in the world, where would you want to go and why?
Maryse will pick the winners at random on Friday, November 8!
Thanks for another great giveaway. I think I would surprise him with vacation to Bora Bora. Of course this a dream vacation so money would not be an issue. …
Great excerpt! I can’t wait to read Chained!
As for the question, I would take him to New York City! It’s a city that never sleeps, has so many entertaining and historical things to do, and it is one of the best cities in the world.
I Would Take Him To Italy. He Went There Years Ago And I Was Not
Able To Go With Him. He Would Call Me Every Night And Tell Me
He Missed Me And Wished I Was There Sharing This Trip
With Him. He Always Says Someday We Will Go Together.
Love it! I’d head back to Thailand! Getting caught in tropical rain storms, exploring the beautiful terrain and massages on the beach!
I would take him to Toronto to visit the Hockey Hall of Fame.
I would take my husband to Tahiti. With the beautiful beaches and beautiful island….I would enjoy just spending time with him. I think I really lucked out and was able to marry my best friend. Sometimes children, work and life seem to get in the way and we tend to forget how fortunate we are to have one another. Being able to watch the sunset from the beaches of Tahiti with him would be a once in a lifetime opportunity.
Hooked! I would take him to the Cayman Islands. Picturesque beauty.
It would be to Italy to finish our honeymoon we had to come home from early 17 years ago.
I would go to Seattle Washington. So many of the books I have read take place there I almost feel I know the downtown area.
I would take my husband to Washington so we could see where my parents got married. Their love is truly what inspires me
I would take my guy to Paris the city of lovers 🙂
We would to Hawaii.We were suppose to go for our honeymoon in ’96’ but at the time we had started a our business.Next thing you know we had 5 children to raise.Busy,busy,busy!
I would bring him up past Cairns in Australia there is a island that is protected. You can go snorkeling, go to top of the island to watch a romantic sunset & hike over the most beautiful landscapes ever! To get there you kayak over.
I enjoyed the excerpt
I would take him back to Maui, we loved it so much there. Had a condo right on the beach, so relaxing.
I can’t wait for this book to come out, although I am a bit disappointed that it is serialized (I’m not a fan). But anyway, if I could surprise my darling with a vacation, I’d take him to New Zealand, because I know he would love to see where the Lord of the Rings was filmed 😀
I would take my guy to Spain!!!
I would take him to a secluded tropical paradise because I have always dreamed of Island vacation!
Can’t wait to read!!! My husband always wanted to go to Italy so I would take my son and daugher and make memories while remembering him and all the fun we would have had with him knowing he’d be watching over us enjoying every min!!!
I would take my husband to Regensburg, Germany. He went to college there and has always wanted to go back.
We’d head to South Africa–Pretoria, the Cape. My hubby’s from SA, and most of his family is still there. I’ve never been, and he hasn’t been home in almost 10 yrs. So that is definitely where we’d go!
I would take him to Bora Bora or Italy becasue it has always been a dream of mine to go to any of those someday.
I just love the excerpt and can’t wait to read the rest of the book.
I’d want to take go to the Scottish Highlands with my boyfriend! It has a special meaning to both of us, and plus!!! I’ve read so many historical books that have Scottish lairds I want to meet one LOL! 😀
Thanks to the author and you, Maryse, for the giveaway!