Published by Self-published Genres: Coming of Age, Contemporary
Bloom by Elizabeth O’Roark
About Bloom:
She’s just lost her job.
Her parents are acting like idiots.
And now she’s the focus of a national media scandal.
The summer has gotten off to a bad start for Elle Grayson, leaving only one option: a summer spent hiding out at the beach with her best friend – and her best friend’s older brother James.
James Campbell, the focus of every childhood daydream, now grown up and gorgeous and … unpredictable. Fiercely protective one minute and belligerent the next.
Determined to keep Elle safe, from himself most of all.
Add Bloom on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23295533-bloom
Buy at Amazon: http://amzn.to/1IS0bUO
Deleted Scene
Max did mention having “a few people over”. We know him well enough that we’re not really surprised to find cars parked on both sides of the road, from one end to the other, when we get home from work. I shower and change, putting on the short dress I bought at the start of the summer solely for James’s benefit. He’s already outside when I get there, and I smile at the way his eyes flicker when he sees me. It’s been there all summer. I just didn’t always know what it meant.
Max pats his lap. “Got a place for you to sit right here,” he grins.
James is about to say something but Dan beats him to the punch. “No girl is safe in your lap, Max,” he says, grabbing a folding chair from the wall and squeezing it in next to his. For some reason James continues to frown.
“Well, well, the mysterious Danny,” I tease. “We never see you.”
“I know,” he says quietly. “I wish I was here more.”
“So how are things at the amusement park?” I ask him.
He smiles shyly. “Good. It’s been a long summer, though. I guess I know where I don’t want to be after I finish my MBA.”
Danny is so shy with me that almost any conversation with him is painful. He begins telling me about some dance at his frat in the fall, but it’s impossible to focus on anything he says when I’m feeling the slow burn of James’s eyes, that heat in his gaze that makes my whole body feel a little too pliant and loose.
Somebody asks Max when he’s heading back to Colorado and he suggests that he might go to some ashram in India a friend told him about instead.
“That’s super, Max,” scoffs Ginny. “I’m relieved you’ve found one more way to avoid getting a real job.”
James’s eyes drift to my legs. I cross them slowly, letting him get a good look, and that light in his eyes burns a little brighter. He shifts in his seat.
“Work to live, Ginny,” Max counters. “Don’t live to work.”
I look at the way James is sprawled in that chair and dissolve a little. I imagine those long legs tangled with mine, the look on his face as he watches me undress.
“Tell me that again in a few years when you’re homeless,” Ginny retorts. James’s eyes meet mine with a longing so intense that I can almost feeling it pressing against me like a solid thing though we sit several feet apart.
I rise, murmuring an excuse which is largely unnecessary as both Ginny and Max are too riveted by their argument to notice. I glance around me quickly once I get inside and then slide into James’s room. When he enters two minutes later I’m already in bed.
“You wore that dress on purpose,” he says, predatory as he moves toward me. “You knew it would torture me.”
“Not at all,” I counter. “But I definitely took it off on purpose.”
He peels the sheets back to find me naked and waiting. In seconds his shirt is off. I watch in breathless anticipation as his hand moves to his shorts. “My favorite moment of the night,” I breathe.
“I think I can top it,” he replies.
(c) Elizabeth O’Roark 2015
About Elizabeth:
Elizabeth O’Roark has a couple degrees she doesn’t use from the University of Texas and Notre Dame, and is a former medical writer who now lives in Washington, DC with her three youngish children. She is an avid reader and runner, when she is able to escape the aforementioned children. And she absolutely prefers writing fiction (a.k.a. just making shit up) to writing about liver transplants and amniocentesis.
Connect with Elizabeth online at:
Website: http://elizabethoroark.com/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7233016.Elizabeth_O_Roark
Amazon:http://amzn.to/1AnN8cg
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