Publication:
September
4, 2018
Publisher:
Sourcebooks
Casablanca
Julian
Grayson is taking a break
…from
his cheating fiancée
…from
his band
…from
his life in the spotlight
Charlotte
Clark is devoted to her work
…to
save the world
…to
help the homeless
…to
get a broken man back on his feet
When
Charlotte Clark offers to pay for Julian Grayson’s coffee, the
world-famous drummer assumes she wants something from him. But
Charlotte has no idea who he is, and Julian can’t resist keeping up
the charade—being incognito is a novelty and a relief. He’ll have
to tell her...eventually. But as Charlotte cheerfully undertakes to
transform his life, Julian realizes there’s something about her
that gives him what he hasn’t felt in years: hope.
**********
Samantha
Chase
Excerpt
She
relaxed against him and her breathing was starting to even out as he
kissed her again and began to hum. The melody had been in his head
all week—a ballad. For almost a year, Julian had blocked music from
his mind. Long before the wedding. He’d been so consumed with what
was happening in his personal life that it had been impossible to
think of anything other than what was going on around him.
But
now the music was back, demanding to be heard.
Back
at the house he was selling sat a magnificent baby grand piano. If he
were there right now, he’d be sitting at it and working through the
song in his head.
Instead,
he hummed softly. It was so loud and strong in his head that he was
surprised Charlotte couldn’t hear it with him. When he was certain
she was asleep, he slid from the bed and gently covered her with the
blankets before putting on a pair of sweatpants and heading out to
the living room.
Grabbing
a notebook, he walked out onto the deck and breathed in the beach
air. He sat down on one of the lounge chairs and began to write down
as much as he could about what he was hearing—he wrote out the
melody, made notes on how he would like to see it orchestrated, and
then played around with some lyrics. Those were always the hardest
for him, but when the four of them were together, the lyrics always
seemed to come.
That
was why Riley couldn’t write.
That
was why Matt couldn’t perform.
They
were a unit, and no matter how much Julian tried to convince himself
it wouldn’t bother him to retire from music, he was finding it was
a lie. He wanted to play. He wanted to write and create and record
and perform for the fans.
There
were so many obstacles to overcome, however. And although most of
them were his own mental issues, it didn’t make it any easier to
work through.
Tonight
had left him feeling what he hadn’t felt in far too long. Mainly
happiness and hope. Could he really keep that going? Keep the
momentum and work toward getting back to that place where he had been
when he was maybe twenty or twenty-five? That was when Shaughnessy
was new and everything they did gave him a sense of accomplishment.
Wouldn’t going back to that time be as counterproductive to him as
focusing on the past five wasted years with Dena?
No.
It took him less than a second to realize that. In one instance he
was focusing on positive, where the other was purely negative.
Only…sometimes
it wasn’t.
Tossing
the notebook down, Julian leaned back in the chair and sighed. The
reality was that in the beginning, things with Dena were good and the
two of them were happy. At least…he was. With nothing but calmness
around him and his mood better than it had in a while, he could look
back on those years with more of an open mind.
Yes,
some of the time together had been good, but he knew now the exact
point when he should have walked away.
And
it was certainly before he was standing at the front of a church for
his own wedding.
Raking
a hand through his hair, he stared up at the sky. It was cloudy and
dark with not a star to be seen. How could he have been so blind for
so long? How could he have given up so many years to something that
left him feeling nothing but rage and emptiness? Because of his own
stubbornness, he lost everything. Okay, not everything. He still had
his friends, his health, and most of his finances—damn Dena for
that payoff he’d made to get rid of her—but there was still a
large part of himself that was missing.
“Julian?”
Charlotte’s
soft voice called from behind him. He turned and saw her standing in
the doorway wrapped in the afghan from the sofa. Holding out a hand,
he silently beckoned her to him. She seemed to float like an ethereal
vision toward him. When she was next to the lounge chair, he
carefully guided her down until she was cradled in his arms.
“What
are you doing awake?” he asked softly, combing the hair away from
her face that was blowing in the ocean breeze.
She
kissed his jaw. “I woke up and you weren’t there.”
Everything
negative that he’d been thinking was gone. This woman—this
amazing woman in his arms—was all he wanted to think of. He kissed
her forehead. “My brain wouldn’t be quiet, so I came out here to
write a bit and then I was enjoying the peacefulness of the night.”
“Mmm…
It’s good isn’t it?” she asked. “That’s why you found me on
the beach that night. Sometimes it just helps quiet my soul.”
He
shifted to get them more comfortable and when the afghan slipped, he
noticed she was naked beneath it. His eyes met hers and she gave him
a shy yet mischievous grin. “Had I known what was going on
underneath this blanket, I would have come back inside. You must be
cold.”
But
Charlotte shook her head. “Not when I’m near you. You always keep
me warm.”
Holding
her closer, he felt so many emotions that he had no idea how to put
them into words. Did she have any idea how the things she said made
him feel? Affected him? Did she know that every day with her had him
this much closer to falling in love with her?
And
even saying it in his mind didn’t scare him.
Reaching
up, he cupped her cheek and kissed her lips. They were soft kisses.
Gentle kisses. Shy kisses. Charlotte was warm and sleepy in his arms
and with nothing but the moonlight over them, she was beyond lovely.
Buy the Book:
About
the Author:
Bio
taken from Samantha Chase’s site: https://www.chasing-romance.com
New
York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of
contemporary romance, Samantha Chase released her debut novel,
Jordan's Return in November 2011.
With
almost fifty titles currently to her name, she has no plans to slow
down. You won't find her books with the erotica or paranormal titles,
all of her works are pure contemporary romances.
When
she’s not working on a new story, she spends her time reading
romances, playing way too many games of Scrabble or Solitaire on
Facebook, wearing a tiara while playing with her sassy pug
Maylene…oh, and spending time with her husband of 25 years and
their two sons in North Carolina.
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