The Darkest Secret: A New Adult Romance Novel (25 page)

BOOK: The Darkest Secret: A New Adult Romance Novel
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“Were you always this mean or was I not paying attention?”

“I was playing before. Now I’m giving you a dance lesson. Here – give me your hand again. That’s it.”

His other hand is on my waist. I keep telling myself not to look at my feet, but when I look up I meet his eyes and they’re dark and soft, with a purposeful expression that makes my stomach flutter.

“It’s all in the hold,” he says, so close I can feel his breath warm on my lips. “I’m not supposed to be
pushing
you around the floor – we move as one.”

“Okay.”

“You’ll get used to it. Pay attention to where my hands and feet steer you and I’ll pay attention to where your body leads me, okay?”

My breath catches in my throat.

“No fair. You can’t talk to me like that after I’ve had a few drinks.”

He gives me a reproachful look.

“I thought this was dinner and a movie.”

“It is.”

“Good. I thought we were going to go slow...this time.”

I glance up at him.

“There’s a ‘this time’?”

“There is, right?” he says, looking suddenly anxious.

“Yes. I’d like that.” I sway on my heels against him. He wraps his arms around me and we stay like that for a while – held, but with space to breathe.

Acknowledgements

T
hanks as always to my family, for being willing to put up with the same meals over and over when I was too brainfried from this book to figure out what to feed them. Extra special thanks to my sister for Facebooking and general book pimping above and beyond the call of duty.

A big thank you to Nadia Simonenko, author of Lost, for offering invaluable marketing advice at a time when I thought I’d never be able to dig myself out of the Amazon doldrums.

And thank you most of all to you for reading - a book without readers is no book at all. If you’ve enjoyed this book, please consider leaving a review for the benefit of other readers.

For news of upcoming novel releases and giveaways,
you can subscribe to my newsletter at Jessica Pine updates.

About the Author

Jessica Pine is a small romance author of undisclosed height. When she is not writing she is thinking about writing, editing things she has written or worrying that she is not writing enough. She is fond of owls, particularly keen on avocados and enjoys talking about herself in the third person.

You can join her mailing list at https://tinyletter.com/jessicapine

About the Publisher

To self-publish or not to self-publish, that is the question. The good news: whatever you decide, we’re here to support you.

You might not want to deal with the hassle of being your own publisher. It can be hard to find a good cover designer, to deal with formatting and publishing, to decide what promotions are most cost-effective. Not everybody wants total control over every detail – you want to write, and let the publisher do the rest.

The problem is that most traditional publishers pay out 15-25% of royalties, and even digital-only publishers only pay 35% of net royalties. Some vanity digital publishers make you pay them for “publishing packages” and then still take royalties from you. And most publishers depend on their authors to do promotion and marketing, or worse: force authors into ineffectual promotional tactics like blog tours.

We think that sucks. We want a publisher with good royalties and author-friendly contract terms. A publisher who gives us control when we want it, and who takes the reins when we get overwhelmed with options. A publisher who knows how to sell our books and who isn’t out to screw their authors for a dime.

Well, we couldn’t find that publisher, so we decided to do it ourselves. PubYourself has long been dedicated to helping authors self-publish – if you want to self-publish and do everything yourself, we give you the tools and support to do it! But if you don’t want to do it on your own right now, or if you decide your time is better spent writing, let us publish your book!

Come check us out at http://www.pubyourselfpress.com

BOOK: The Darkest Secret: A New Adult Romance Novel
8.15Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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