Remember in high school, a long, long time ago. Well, at least for me—when you were fifteen and fell in love from afar. A crush, we call it, but my heart still gets all aflutter when I think back to my high school infatuation. Most times nothing happens from it, yet we hear of love stories of reuniting later in life. The passion still lives on.
Sometimes that first love is the strongest one we have because we hadn’t been hurt or jaded. That ultimate trust and whole hearted love is special. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying it can’t happen again in your life. Just that we can carry a flame for someone we barely knew in high school.
My new release is about such a crush. Eric, the nerd next door, worshipped his best friend’s twin sister Spice. She didn’t even acknowledge his existence except to threaten to knock his block off if he tattled on her. But Eric knew there was more to her than the tough exterior, her twin, Sugar, told him everything. When Spice returns to Chicago to reunite with her sister, Eric gets re-introduced and his world is rocked when his high school crush starts flirting with him.
BLURB:
Someone is about to get some Spice in his life.
Spice has nothing but the clothes on her back when she returns to Chicago. She's looking for a better life, and that means reuniting with her estranged twin sister, Sugar. She isn't thrilled to find out Sugar's boyfriend is a vampire. But then she meets Eric, once the bottle-cap-glasses wearing nerd next door - now grown into the kind of man she'd love to snuggle with on this cold winter night...and he’s offered her his room in Sugar’s house.
Eric can’t believe Spice has returned. He’d given up hope of ever seeing her again, let alone having her stare at him as if he’s sex on a stick. But now that all of his fantasies for them are coming true, reality rears her ugly head and Eric must tell Spice his intimate secret; he’s actually an Alpha werewolf looking for his mate and he thinks he’s found her.
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Excerpt
Warm yellow light streamed from behind her. “Forget your keys, Sugar?” a male voice asked from the doorway.
She stopped and glanced over her shoulder but saw only his silhouette.
“Oh my God, you cut your hair. Daedalus is going to freak.” The laughter in his comforting voice disappeared and he moved closer. “Don’t cry.” He wiped a tear from her face. “It looks great.” With a grin, he ruffled her short blond curls.
She couldn’t help but smile back.
He thought she was Sugar, her twin sister. Something in his voice sounded familiar. The face didn’t ring a bell though, but shaggy brown hair fell around most of it. He had a nice, easy-going smile. It would be wonderful to come home to a smile like that every night, but it belonged to her sister.
Her grin faded.
He wrapped his strong, thick arm around her shoulders and pulled her inside. Laughter drifted from the living room where three men and an oriental woman were setting up a board game.
One of the men, who had short cropped red hair, looked up. “Where’s the food? You were supposed to grab some grub on the way home from work.”
“We’ll order pizza.” The guy next to her squeezed one more time before walking into the next room, a huge kitchen.
“You cut your hair.” The woman spoke with a thick accent and sprung across the room to run her fingers through her hair.
Spice retreated and bumped against the entrance wall. This game of pretending to be Sugar used to be fun as kids but not anymore. With her hands raised, she kept the strangers at bay as they surrounded her like a pack of wolves. None of them looked dangerous, but what were they doing in her sister’s house while she was at work?
The way they grinned at her and each other, she concluded they were all good friends.
Sugar had everything she wanted; a loving man, friends, and a home.
“Daedalus let you cut your hair?” A short man built like a bodybuilder approached her.
The awe in his voice snapped Spice out of her self-pity and the protector inside reared its head. This was the second reference to someone allowing her little sister to do something. “What do you mean ‘let me’?”
What kind of relationship did Sugar have? She needed permission to cut her hair? Maybe destiny brought her back to Chicago to save her little sister from some monster. Again. All those bad things happening to drive her here couldn’t be coincidental.
She crossed her arms over her chest. “Where is my sister, and what are you doing in her house?”
They glanced at each other, confusion apparent on their faces. “What?”
The man in the kitchen stuck his head out of the door, chocolate brown eyes wide as he stared at her. “Spice?” The smile he’d given to her when he thought she was Sugar returned but wider.
Her heart skipped a beat. In the light his face seemed familiar as well. “I know you.”
“You should, we were only neighbors forever as kids.”
“Eric!” He had grown. Stupid, of course he’s changed. But she never expected that the skinny, lanky bottle-cap-glasses-wearing nerd would develop into a charming, handsome I-wanna-snuggle-you-on-a-cold-night kind of man. “Hi.” The jobs as a hostess, a bartender, and the most recent, a stripper taught her how to talk to men the way they liked. But with him grinning at her like a happy puppy, her mind went blank.
He swept her into his arms in a bone-cracking hug.
“Wow, I’d forgotten Sugar had a twin.” The redhead scratched his chin. “You look exactly alike, except your hair is short.”
Eric set her back on her feet. “Let me take your coat.” He tugged on the belt and untied it. To her surprise, the small action sparked warmth between her thighs. Not like he took off her clothes but she began to wonder what it would feel like if he did.
Their eyes met. His pupils dilated, the chocolate brown faded to amber, and something feral peeked at her.
She gasped and stepped back.
The pretty oriental girl took her arm and dragged her into the living room. She chattered about making tea, but Spice’s attention riveted on Eric as he stood with the men surrounding him.
What the heck? She’d seen need in men’s eyes before but this was darker, deeper, and so much more alluring.
Excerpt 2
To celebrate my release day I am giving away a copy of The Alpha today to a commenter.
Confession time! Tell me about your high school sweet heart, crush, or reunion.
17 comments:
Ooooh, I had a few crushes....nothing ever came of them and I never reunited at all. They always went out with the prettier girls, or my siser...hehe!!!
Oh well...that was a very long time ago and now I have the man who is more than my dream come true so I haven't really given much thought to my crushes.
I do enjoy reading a story of a hero or heroine coming back to their hometown and finding passion again with their old high school crush.
Valerie
in Germany
valb0302@yahoo.com
I had a crush on a guy that was three years ahead of me in school. We went together for a couple of years than broke up because of the age difference. He broke my heart and I hate to say this but I still have feelings for him.
Oh, my crush was a Summer Boy. His family owned a seasonal cottage on my road.
One of my friends outted me to him and we had the sweetest crush conversation.
"You have a crush on me? I have a crush on you!" LOL "Will you be my girlfriend?" And then we proceeded to kiss in the bathroom.
It didn't work out in the long term, but he was my first "puppy love".
I wasn't exactly popular and didn't have many friends but yes I had alot of crushes on some of my classmates. The one I remember most is Bob and we shared a kiss in the backseat of my sister's car after a football game and it was one of our birthdays. Any who, I haven't seen him since and he moved away right after graduation but rumors were running around that he was gay. I wish I knew for sure.
Robin
Robbibird3@aol.com
Young love still makes my heart flutter. The need to be with each other every waking moment. I can still remember the rush you get at such a young age. Wow! High school sweet hearts will never be forgotten. They will always have a special place in our hearts. Those are just memories you can't seem to forget. Your first love is just branded on your heart.
Happy Release day, Annie. Really enjoyed the excerpt and would love to read The Alpha.
As for my first crush, I was in middle school at the time and had a crush on my next door neighbor who was a high school freshman. Eons apart in experience and interests, and he always treated me like a kid, but he was such a sweet guy. He never put me down, even though I blushed as red as a fire engine whenever he got within 6 feet of me, and sadly, he moved out of state at the end of his freshman year. Never saw him again.
He made for some great fantasy material though, and I can still recall that butterfly in the stomach feeling I had whenver he was around. Good memories...
caity_mack at yahoo dot com
Congrats, Annie! I had a crush or two, hell, they're probably on the other side by now. Yeah, it's been that long ago...and far, far away...
I didn't have a crush in high school, but apparently someone had a crush on me. A few years after I graduated one of the guys in my class's mom talked to my mom and told her how much her son liked me. I truly didn't know. I helped him with his math homework everyday, but didn't read anything into it. I've never seen him since graduating to see if things could've added up to anything which is kinda a shame.
joderjo402 AT gmail DOT com
Congrats on your release; this book sounds great.
My high school was on a basketball player. Both of us were so painfully shy, that neither of us had the nerve to speak to the other!
Thanks,
Tracey D
booklover0226 at gmail dot com
As much as I believed I loved my high school sweetheart, I'm thankful we aren't still together! I don't think we would have been well suited for the long haul. There's still a tenderness for that first love though--our feelings are so intense at that age!
I love the sounds of The Alpha--I love second-chance kind of stories! Happy release day!
f dot chen at comcast dot net
I was really shy in school and the guy that I had a crush on was very outgoing and really popular. He was one of those guys that seemed like he was dating a different girl every week.
sstrode@scrtc.com
I had a habit of making friends with my crushes so that I wouldn't crush on them anymore. One such crush, though, lasted well into college. :) I lost track of him for years and then another friend found him on facebook. Gotta love technology.
cories119 [at] yahoo [dot] com
i reunited with my highschool crush and we r getting married soon we met when iw as 12 and he was 16 i was all girly droolin over him said a few sentences at a time he moved away afew montsh laer we met up again when iw as 18 have b een together ever since and im 27 almost 28 now
You do not want to know my High School sweet Heart brock my heart when i found out that he was seeing me and a other girl two.I realt though that he was the one.we met agian a year latter and he said do you think we could make up and i said in your dreams.
sasluvbooks(at)yahoo.com
I crushed on Johnny Depp in 21 Jump Street in high school. He seemed so cool.
linze_e at hotmail.com
SiNn you're the winner! But I don't have your e-mail so contact me at annienicholas at ymail dot com
I found your address on Rebecca's blog so don't worry about it!
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