Can’t Buy Me Love, page 27
‘Of course. He deserves it. Why?’
My brother gave me a sidelong glance. ‘Do you think we should scare him a bit more? Just to make sure?’
‘What are you planning? Ash?’
‘I’m not going to do anything.’ Ash turned round and headed back inside. ‘He is so not my type. I’ll just, you know.’ He scrabbled about and dug his phone out. ‘I reckon some YouTube footage, a bit of naked babe there chained to the bed with some of your women there telling what happened to them? Just in case the whole court case sinks. We’ll keep it in reserve, but – should make sure he can’t get off with the whole thing if everyone changes their minds about giving evidence in court.’
Brandishing his phone, Ash disappeared back towards the Honeymoon Suite.
‘You’ve got to admire a mind as devious as that.’ Cal gave my shoulder another squeeze as we found the Micra hidden away behind a convertible Mercedes.
‘Yep. Not just bent, totally warped,’ I said happily. ‘Right. To the lamb passanda, Jeeves, and don’t spare the horses.’
Cal doffed a nonexistent hat and muttered, ‘Yes, milady.’
Sitting in the front of the Micra as we led a procession of cars down the hotel drive, I closed my fingers around the matchbox in my bag and heard the slight, distinct rattling of the nose within. I slid open the tray a fraction and smiled inside.
‘What are you grinning at?’ Cal risked taking his eyes from the road for a second.
‘Just my good luck nose.’
‘Hey, don’t try to outweird me.’
I closed the box up and let it fall back to the bottom of the bag. ‘Wouldn’t dream of it, Cal.’ I rested my head. ‘Wouldn’t dream of it.’ But in the back of my mind a tiny thought took wing. Ganda had known what I needed. Somehow. And it wasn’t what I thought I wanted. Wasn’t money, it wasn’t Luke – it was this skinny, dark-eyed lunatic currently hunched over his steering wheel, blowing imaginative curses at the traffic and occasionally throwing brilliant glances my way. Ganda had known, and somehow he’d got it for me.
As Katie would have said, I was one lucky, lucky bitch.
* The End *
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Thank you note from Jane next ...
Thank you
Well, hello.
It’s very nice to see you here, within the pages of this book. When I say ‘see’, I don’t mean that I’m watching you, or anything, although that is a very nice top you’ve got on, I mean that this is a fabulous way for writers to connect directly with their readers, and tell them how much they appreciate them.
Writing is a lonely business. Obviously we talk to our characters, but there’s only a written page between doing that and being called ‘mad’, and besides, our characters are rubbish at communicating back (although, oddly, some of mine did remind me to put the rubbish out this morning, so…) It’s knowing that people like you are going to read what we write that makes sitting alone with a laptop, a packet of HobNobs and a hot water bottle not feel quite so much of a sad pursuit. So I really do appreciate the fact that you’ve invested time that you could otherwise have spent crocheting a cover for the cat, reading about Cal, Luke and Willow, and Winnie the goat.
If you feel so inclined, you might like to leave a review, to let other people know what you thought of Can’t Buy Me Love. You might also like to peruse some of my other books – they’re all set in North Yorkshire, so reading them is like going on holiday to the wilds of the Yorkshire moors, without the terrible internet connection and the killer sheep.
I’m going to sidle off now. I have to go and chat to some more people who don’t really exist, and listen to them moan about the weather.
Jane
x
About the Author
Jane was born in Devon and now lives in Yorkshire. She has five children, four cats and two dogs. Jane is a member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association and has a first-class honours degree in creative writing.
Jane writes comedies which are often described as ‘quirky’. Her UK debut, Please Don’t Stop the Music, won the 2012 Romantic Novel of the Year and the Romantic Comedy Novel of the Year Awards from the Romantic Novelists’ Association.
Jane’s Choc Lit novels are:
Please Don’t Stop the Music, Star Struck, Hubble Bubble, Vampire State of Mind, Falling Apart, How I Wonder What You Are, I Don’t Want to Talk About It and Little Teashop of Horrors. Plus The Art of Christmas, The Boys of Christmas and Christmas at the Little Village School, which are eBook novellas.
For more information on Jane visit:
www.janelovering.co.uk
www.twitter.com/janelovering
More Choc Lit
From Jane Lovering
Please Don’t Stop the Music
Book 1 in the Yorkshire Romances
Winner of the 2012 Best Romantic Comedy Novel of the Year
Winner of the 2012 Romantic Novel of the Year
How much can you hide?
Jemima Hutton is determined to build a successful new life and keep her past a dark secret. Trouble is, her jewellery business looks set to fail – until enigmatic Ben Davies offers to stock her handmade belt buckles in his guitar shop and things start looking up, on all fronts.
But Ben has secrets too. When Jemima finds out he used to be the front man of hugely successful Indie rock band Willow Down, she wants to know more. Why did he desert the band on their US tour? Why is he now a semi-recluse?
And the curiosity is mutual – which means that her own secret is no longer safe …
Find out more and purchase from your favourite ebook store.
Or visit www.choc-lit.com for details.
Star Struck
Book 2 in the Yorkshire Romances
Our memories define us – don’t they?
And Skye Threppel lost most of hers in a car crash that stole the lives of her best friend and fiancé. It’s left scars, inside and out, which have destroyed her career and her confidence.
Skye hopes a trip to the wide dusty landscapes of Nevada – and a TV convention offering the chance to meet the actor she idolises – will help her heal. But she bumps into mysterious sci-fi writer Jack Whitaker first. He’s a handsome contradiction – cool and intense, with a wild past.
Jack has enough problems already. He isn’t looking for a woman with self-esteem issues and a crush on one of his leading actors. Yet he’s drawn to Skye.
An instant rapport soon becomes intense attraction, but Jack fears they can’t have a future if Skye ever finds out about his past …
Will their memories tear them apart, or can they build new ones together?
Find out more and purchase from your favourite ebook store.
Or visit www.choc-lit.com for details.
Hubble Bubble
Book 3 in the Yorkshire Romances
Be careful what you wish for …
Holly Grey only took up witchery to keep her friend out of trouble – and now she’s knee-deep in hassle, in the form of apocalyptic weather, armed men, midwifery … and a sarcastic Welsh journalist.
Kai has been drawn to darkest Yorkshire by his desire to find out who he really is. What he hadn’t bargained on was getting caught up in amateur magic and dealing with a bunch of women who are trying really hard to make their dreams come true.
Together they realise that getting what you wish for is sometimes just a matter of knowing what it is you want …
Find out more and purchase from your favourite ebook store.
Or visit www.choc-lit.com for details.
How I Wonder What You Are
Book 4 in the Yorkshire Romances
“Maybe he wasn’t here because of the lights – maybe they were here because of him …”
It’s been over eighteen months since Molly Gilchrist has had a man (as her best friend, Caro, is so fond of reminding her) so when she as good as stumbles upon one on the moors one bitterly cold morning, it seems like the Universe is having a laugh at her expense.
But Phinn Baxter (that’s Doctor Phinneas Baxter) is no common drunkard, as Molly is soon to discover; with a PhD in astrophysics and a tortured past that is a match for Molly’s own disastrous love life.
Finding mysterious men on the moors isn’t the weirdest thing Molly has to contend with, however. There’s also those strange lights she keeps seeing in the sky. The ones she’s only started seeing since meeting Phinn …
Find out more and purchase from your favourite ebook store.
Or visit www.choc-lit.com for details.
I Don’t Want to Talk About It
Book 5 in the Yorkshire Romances
What if the one person you wanted to talk to wouldn’t listen?
Winter Gregory and her twin sister Daisy live oceans apart but they still have the ‘twin thing’ going on. Daisy is Winter’s port in the storm, the first person she calls when things go wrong …
And things are wrong. Winter has travelled to a remote Yorkshire village to write her new book, and to escape her ex-boyfriend Dan Bekener. Dan never liked her reliance on Daisy and made her choose – but Winter’s twin will always be her first choice.
She soon finds herself immersed in village life after meeting the troubled Hill family; horse-loving eight-year-old Scarlet and damaged, yet temptingly gorgeous, Alex. The distraction is welcome and, when Winter needs to talk, Daisy is always there.
But Dan can’t stay away and remains intent on driving the sisters apart – because Dan knows something about Daisy …
Find out more and purchase from your favourite ebook store.
Or visit www.choc-lit.com for details.
Little Teashop of Horrors
Book 7 in the Yorkshire Romances
Secrets, lies, carrot cake – and an owl called Skrillex!
Amy Knowles has always been the plain sidekick to her pretty best friend Jules. And whilst the tearoom they both work in on the Monkpark Hall estate in Yorkshire is not exactly awash with eligible bachelors, it’s obvious where the male attention is concentrated – and it’s not just on the cakes!
There is one man who notices Amy. Joshua Wilson also works at Monkpark, where he flies his birds of prey for visitor entertainment. He lives a lonely existence but he has reasons for choosing isolation – and, in Amy, he may have found somebody who understands.
Then a management change brings slick and well-spoken Edmund Evershott to Monkpark. He’s interested in Amy too, but for what reason? Josh suspects the new manager is up to no good – but will Amy? Because Edmund could leave her with much worse than a broken heart …
Read a preview of Little Teashop of Horrors here ...
Or purchase from your favourite eBook store.
Details at www.choc-lit.com
Vampire State of Mind
Book 1 in the Otherworlders
Jessica Grant knows vampires only too well. She runs the York Council tracker programme making sure that Otherworlders are all where they should be, keeps the filing in order and drinks far too much coffee.
To Jess, vampires are annoying and arrogant and far too sexy for their own good, particularly her ex-colleague, Sil, who’s now in charge of Otherworld York. When a demon turns up and threatens not just Jess but the whole world order, she and Sil are forced to work together.
But then Jess turns out to be the key to saving the world, which puts a very different slant on their relationship.
The stakes are high. They are also very, very pointy and Jess isn’t afraid to use them – even on the vampire she’s rather afraid she’s falling in love with …
Find out more and purchase from your favourite ebook store.
Or visit www.choc-lit.com for details.
Falling Apart
Book 2 in the Otherworlders
In the mean streets of York, the stakes just got higher – and even pointier.
Jessica Grant liaises with Otherworlders for York Council so she knows that falling in love with a vampire takes a leap of faith. But her lover Sil, the City Vampire in charge of Otherworld York, he wouldn’t run out on her, would he? He wouldn’t let his demon get the better of him. Or would he?
Sil knows there’s a reason for his bad haircut, worse clothes and the trail of bleeding humans in his wake. If only he could remember exactly what he did before someone finds him and shoots him on sight.
With her loyalties already questioned for defending zombies, the Otherworlders no one cares about, Jess must choose which side she’s on, either help her lover or turn him in. Human or Other? Whatever she decides, there’s a high price to pay – and someone to lose.
Find out more and purchase from your favourite ebook store.
Or visit www.choc-lit.com for details.
The Art of Christmas
Novella
What if the memories of Christmas past were getting in the way of Christmas future?
It’s been nearly two years since Harriet lost Jonno, but she’s finally decided that it’s time to celebrate Christmas again.
Then she finds a stash of graphic novels belonging to her comic book-loving husband in the attic, and suddenly her world is turned upside down once more.
With the help of eccentric comic book dealer Kell Foxton, she discovers that the comics collected by Jonno are not only extremely valuable, but also hold the key to his secret life – a life that throws Harriet’s entire marriage and every memory she has of her husband into question.
As Harriet grows closer to Kell, she begins to feel like she could learn to love Christmas again – but first, she needs to know the truth.
Find out more and purchase from your favourite ebook store.
Or visit www.choc-lit.com for details.
The Boys of Christmas
Novella
Who are the boys of Christmas?
Mattie Arden has just escaped from a toxic relationship so when, a few days before Christmas, she receives a letter informing her that she has inherited a house from her great aunt Millie, it’s a welcome distraction.
Except it comes with a strange proviso: if Mattie wants the house, she must fulfil Millie’s last wish and scatter her ashes over ‘the boys of Christmas’.
In the company of her best friend Toby, Mattie sets out for the seaside village of Christmas Steepleton in the hope of finding out the meaning of her aunt’s bizarre request.
Whilst there, a snowstorm leaves them stranded for Christmas, and still no nearer to finding ‘the boys’. But as the weather gives Mattie time to reflect, she realises the answer to the mystery might have been under her nose all along – and that’s not the only thing …
Find out more and purchase from your favourite ebook store.
Or visit www.choc-lit.com for details.
Christmas at the Little Village School
Novella
A teacher’s life is never easy … especially at Christmas!
Working at a tiny village school in rural Yorkshire has its own unique set of challenges – but when teachers Lydia Knight and Jake Immingham are tasked with getting the children to put on a Christmas play for the local elderly people’s home, they know they’re in for a tricky term!
But in between choreographing sugar plum dance routines, reindeer costume malfunctions and trying to contain Rory Scott’s wannabe rap star aspirations, Lydia realises that, even as a teacher, she isn’t past being taught a couple of things – and one of those things is a much-needed lesson in Christmas spirit.
Find out more and purchase from your favourite ebook store.
Or visit www.choc-lit.com for details.
Introducing Choc Lit
We’re an independent publisher creating
a delicious selection of fiction.
Where heroes are like chocolate – irresistible!
Quality stories with a romance at the heart.
See our selection here:
www.choc-lit.com
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Read a preview of Little Teashop of Horrors next ...
Where heroes are like chocolate - irresistible!
Preview
Little Teashop of Horrors
Jane Lovering
Chapter One
Amy
The last customer of the day had drained the last of their tea, the last moistened finger had dabbed the remains of a scone into an eager mouth, and I’d squirted my last buttercream flower, when we heard the sound we’d been dreading. The heavy crunch of a large car, sweeping up the gravel drive to Monkpark Hall and drawing up at the main front doors. My heart thumped uncomfortably under my Edwardian outfit. What if the new boss decides to change things? What if he decides on a shake-up of the estate? What if—
