ACT ACCORDINGLY
By C.E. Hansen Release Date: July 16, 2014 Paperback, 472 pages
Genre: Erotic Romance/Adult/Fiction
Twenty-six-year-old Nic Maretta is having a bad year. She just found out that the man she was in love with and planned to marry is just that, married. So she does what any normal woman would do. She gets drunk, brushes herself off and swears off love forever. She is thankful to have a best friend that not only loves her, but accepts the new ‘Nic’. This new Nic has decided to live life on her own terms, mocking convention; as well as her own situations. It’s goodbye heartache and hello sexual freedom. After all, what’s good for the goose, is good for the woman who likes sex! Or something along those lines. Until she accidentally bumps into Brendon… He is immediately taken in by her beauty and tenacity. She is instantly turned on by his good looks and sex appeal. One crazy night, one too many champagnes and way too many phone contacts, Nic throws caution to the wind and calls Brendon. To her surprise he comes running. Game on!
C.E. Hansen is an American writer who wrote her first romance novel at age fourteen when she discovered writing about boys and girls was way easier than actually having a relationship of her own. Since that time, her communication skills haven't improved, but she likes to think her writing has. After earning an associate’s degree in literature from WC, she worked in a bus company, a law office and a wine/gourmet food shoppe, but she never abandoned writing.She's a proud mother of a beautiful daughter, lives in New Jersey with her husband and Maltese Zoe, and if she's not working on her latest sexy story, you can find her reading, watching cable television, or indulging in her unhealthy addiction to chocolate.C.E. Hansen's debut novel IT'S A CRIME was released May 2013, her follow up novel IT'S A SHAME, was released November 11th, 2013.Her latest, ACT ACCORDINGLY, takes a turn from her normal. Instead of a thriller/suspense, it is a romantic comedy with a healthy injection of spice!
Chapter 1
I knew I had to get off the street. I must be a holy
mess; tears streaming down my face leaving little black trails of mascara. I
pushed open the heavy wooden door and walked into the hazy, smoke filled bar.
As I stepped inside, I blinked my eyes several times
trying to adjust from the bright sunshine I’d just left to the dimly lit room.
As my vision became accustomed to the dark interior, I looked around trying to
gauge the mood of the place.
God knows I needed anonymity.
I wanted to be the stranger.
The one no one knows.
The screwed up mysterious one…well, sans the screwed up
part.
God…why was I here?
What the hell did I do wrong?
A song was playing, the music strained.
It was coming from a section of the room directly to the
right of where I stood.
You’re just too good to be true…can’t take my eyes off of
you….you feel like heaven to touch…I want to hold you so much.
Frankie Valli’s voice drifted out of the worn speakers of
the old jukebox sitting in the far corner. It looked as though it’s been
sitting in the same corner of the square room since it was manufactured, which
from the looks of it had to be some thirty-odd years ago. Greasy cobwebs
reached out from the wall tethering the music player in place; holding it
hostage. Was that a metaphor for my life right now?
Weird thing was, it sounded perfect. Just enough hum to
give away its age, and enough clarity to bring you back in time. It would have
been really funny and somewhat nostalgic, if not for the reason I was stuck in
this time warp.
The lights of a Skeeball game, next to the jukebox
blinked, beckoning me to pop in my loose change. It was leaning precariously to
l the side, and I wondered why.
I noticed that there was, what appeared to be, nearly an
entire roll of duct tape wrapped around both a broomstick and the bent metal
leg, in an attempt to keep it level.
It failed miserably.
Holy Christ, this place is old and stinks of old men,
stale beer and cigarettes.
It reminded me of when I was a kid and I would tag along
with my dad to the local bar, while my mom would do the errands, like the
grocery shopping, so on and so forth.
He would plop me onto a barstool, and order me a Shirley
Temple with extra cherries. Boy did I think I was hot stuff then. Me, my
Shirley Temple, and Jim.
A ‘Slim Jim’ that is.
Bar snacks to a kid was like cocaine to a junkie. Not
quite the healthiest thing for you, but damn, it made you feel so cool.
I’d watch my dad play pool for hours. He’d even shown me
how to rack ‘em. That’s where I learned those pool skills I’d acquired; those
skills that left many a guy embarrassed as I kicked their butts in 8-ball,
9-ball and one pocket. I even managed to make a few bucks while making their
nights as miserable as possible.
I couldn’t help the sardonic smile.
I leaned my head back and breathed in through my nose.
Then it hit me like a freight train.
My life.
Days gone by.
It was like smelling a memory.
Those were the most potent. The ones that you can see in
your mind’s eye when you sniffed in deeply; granted those memories could be
great, or totally suck.
The memories with my dad, well, they were the best, and
the worst. He died in 1998, cancer. My loss still had the power, after all
these years, to reduce me to a crying mess. It was the worst time of my
life…until now.
I walked towards the bar and took a seat down at the end.
Purposely choosing this particular seat because it was the furthest away from
any life form, carbon or not.
It’s not that I’m unsociable or anything.
Wait, yes I am. I am totally antisocial.
It isn’t that I don’t like people, just that whenever I
engage in conversation with strangers, I always wish I hadn’t.
Granted this group looked like quite the ‘gregarious’
crowd.
In case you couldn’t tell by my tone, my sarcasm is
riding at an all time high, and I’m definitely being a total bitch now.
My name is Nic and yes, I’m a woman.
Nic stands for Nicoletta.
Nicoletta Maretta.
I know, I know. Before you start laughing, let me tell
you my parents thought it was hilarious too. My mother loved the name Nicoletta
and my father, well, he wouldn’t tell her no.
He never told her no.
And she never left his side.
Ever.
He loved her too much to deny her anything, and she loved
him more than air.
Besides it made him laugh his ass off. Unfortunately, it
was totally at my expense, until he died. Now you know why I insist on Nic.
Whip, bang, back to the future. Don’t really need the
additional pain that comes with thinking about my dad.
I sat down and put my purse on the seat next to me. Good
deterrent in case anyone thought I wanted company.
I love you baby and if it's quite all right…I need you
baby to warm the lonely nights…I love you baby, trust in me when I say.
Trust?
Really?
“Are they playing this stupid song right now?” I mumbled
out loud.
I looked around and realized, that yeah Nic, they are
playing this song, and you my friend are stuck in the seventies, in a joint
that probably hasn’t seen the likes of a broom since the day the Skeeball
machine’s leg got bent out of shape. Which is pretty much what just happened to
my life.
Lucinda Williams – Are you Alright?Alanis Morrisette – You LearnAdele – Turning TablesAdele – One and OnlyIron and Wine – Flightless Bird, American MouthBruno Mars – It Will RainChristina Perri – Jar of HeartsThe Script – BreakevenKelly Hogan – I Like to Keep Myself In PainJulia Holter – Hello Stranger
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September 22nd ~ A Book and a Cup of Coffee – Author InterviewSeptember 23rd ~ Penny Write's – Guest Post
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