Last Dance by Jeffe Kennedy
Missed Connections Series
Contemporary Romance
It was five minutes. His hand on the small of
her back. His eyes watching like there was no one else in the crowded club. His
body a breath away from hers. A kiss full of heat and need and promise.
But then the stranger disappears. And
Charlotte Emory can’t forget him. Worse, according to the dating Rules she and
her four best friends swear by, all she can do is post an ad online. No names,
no numbers. Just a missed connection – and the hope he’ll meet her, and see
where another dance leads.
Except Mr. Mystery has his game, too, and he
isn’t playing for only one night. He tempts Charley into a daring exploration
of power, lust, and suspense, where even the most innocent requests sound
indecent…and the indecent ones make her burn all night.
If she plays by the Rules, they’ll never get
past teasing each other. But rules were made to be broken…
Excerpt:
The problem with martinis is,
although they look and taste fabulous—plus low carb, if done right—the steep
slope of the glass makes them easy to spill. Disaster in the making.
Particularly
on the second round.
Being
a cautious sort, if only in this arena, I sipped at mine before taking another
step and used the opportunity to survey the club’s offering of masculine
company. And to let them get a good look at me. Take the spotlight when you can because there’s always someone meaner
ready to upstage you. The bright bounce of lights glanced off a good set of
shoulders here—and ooh, a very nice ass in black jeans there. A table of guys
gave me a long look as I passed and I pretended not to notice, though the
dark-haired one could be a possible.
“Any likelies?”
Amy asked, taking the fresh drink from me as I got to our table, blowing me a
kiss of thanks. She wore a lacy black sheath she’d designed in her spare time and made from remnants at her job—and she
made it look like couture, the talented bitch.
I set down my own
glass. “Nobody stands out as fabulous. But the table over your right shoulder
might have potential.”
“The night is
young,” Ice observed, scanning the dance floor below with dark eyes. She’d
refused another round, as had Julie. Both of them still nursed their first
drink, though Ice—Anaisa, though only her professors called her that—was
theoretically not supposed to drink alcohol. She made a regular practice of
doing all the things her family disapproved of, which was fairly easy since
most of them lived elsewhere, some of them in India. Marcia didn’t drink at all
and she clutched her seltzer, clearly wishing to be at home. It was a rare
Friday night that I didn’t have a show, Julie wasn’t slaving in her restaurant,
and everyone else was free, too, so we’d talked Marcia into coming out with us
instead of staying behind in our empty house. But no one could force her to
have fun.
Believe me, I’d
tried. My own personal sacred mission. Saint Charley, that’s me.
“I gave the
bartender Marcia’s number though,” I added, because I couldn’t resist. The girl
needed poking. “He said he wanted a virgin sacrifice for some shamanistic
ritual.”
“Oh, ha ha.”
Marcia at least transferred her black look from the seltzer to me. “There’s
nothing wrong with saving myself.”
“Saving is
economical.” Amy nodded, making a serious face.
“A virtue, even.”
Julie licked off the end of the plastic gecko tail the Lizard Club used for
drink stirrers. “Unless you count hoarding. Then it turns ugly.”
“Oh my god. That
show is riveting.” Ice shuddered. “I’m horrified but I can’t look away. Even in
reruns.”
“It’s a disease.”
I deflected Marcia’s glower of warning with my best Julia Roberts angelic
smile. It’s a good one. I’ve practiced it. “You can’t judge people like
that—just give them your compassion and try to help. Or refer them to social
services.”
“Charlotte Emory,
I’m going to crawl across this table and strangle you if you don’t shut up,”
Marcia growled.
I batted my lashes
at her. “What? I’m just trying to help.”
“Well, you’re not.
I’ll find the right guy sooner or later.”
“Sooner is more
likely with you pried out of the house,” Ice noted.
“And later than
anyone we know,” Amy toasted her with a martini already half gone.
“Than the rest of
the known universe.” Julie poked Marcia with the gecko tail, which at least
diverted Marcia’s attention onto her.
“I hate all of
you.” Marcia folded her arms. “Why don’t you go dance already?”
“Hello, ladies.”
Ooh, right on cue, Mr. Dark Hair had come through. His gaze fell on me and I
returned his very charming smile. “Wanna dance?” he asked me.
Yes. Yes, I did.
About Jeffe Kennedy
Jeffe Kennedy is an award-winning
author whose works include novels, non-fiction, poetry, and short fiction. She
has been a Ucross Foundation Fellow, received the Wyoming Arts Council
Fellowship for Poetry, and was awarded a Frank Nelson Doubleday Memorial Award.
Her award-winning fantasy romance
trilogy The
Twelve Kingdoms
hit the shelves starting in May 2014. Book 1, The
Mark of the Tala,
received a starred Library Journal review and was nominated for the RT Book of
the Year
while the sequel, The Tears of the Rose received a Top Pick Gold and was
nominated for the RT
Reviewers’ Choice Best Fantasy Romance of 2014. The third book, The Talon of the Hawk, won the RT
Reviewers’ Choice Best Fantasy Romance of 2015. Two more books followed in this
world, beginning the spin-off series The Uncharted Realms. Book one in that series, The
Pages of the Mind,
has also been nominated for the RT Reviewer’s Choice Best Fantasy Romance of
2016 and won RWA’s 2017 RITA® Award. The second book, The Edge of the Blade, released December 27, 2016, and
is a PRISM finalist, along with The Pages
of the Mind. The next in the series, The Shift of the Tide, will be out in August, 2017. A
high fantasy trilogy taking place in The
Twelve Kingdoms world is forthcoming from Rebel Base books in 2018.
She also introduced a new fantasy
romance series, Sorcerous
Moons, which
includes Lonen’s War,
Oria’s
Gambit, The Tides of Bàra,
and The Forests of Dru. She’s begun releasing a new
contemporary erotic romance series, Missed
Connections, which started with
Last Dance and continues in With a Prince.
In 2019, St. Martins Press will
release the first book, The Orchid Throne,
in a new fantasy romance series, The
Forgotten Empires.
Her other works include a number of
fiction series: the fantasy romance novels of A
Covenant of Thorns;
the contemporary BDSM novellas of the Facets
of Passion;
an erotic contemporary serial novel, Master
of the Opera;
and the erotic romance trilogy, Falling
Under,
which includes Going
Under, Under His Touch and Under Contract.
She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico,
with two Maine coon cats, plentiful free-range lizards and a very handsome
Doctor of Oriental Medicine.
Jeffe can be found online at her
website: JeffeKennedy.com, every Sunday at the popular SFF Seven blog, on Facebook, on Goodreads and pretty much constantly on
Twitter @jeffekennedy. She is represented by Sarah
Younger of Nancy Yost Literary Agency.
GIVEAWAY- Win an e-copy of Last Dance in digital format (mobi or epub)
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