Palm Springs Heat (25 page)

The wind blew her hair off her
forehead.

“I don’t care what color your hair
is,” Clay said, “as long as it doesn’t stop me from seeing your beautiful
face.” Then he put a hand under her chin and looked into her eyes. “I forgive
you for whatever,” he said, “as long as you forgive me.”

“Forgive
you
?”

“The man you wanted to destroy
deserved to be destroyed.”

“I made a mess of things,” Lara
said.

“Yes, you did. I need to thank you
for that.”

“But, my idiotic plan.”

“Idiotic? It
worked
.”

Lara pulled back and waited for him
to continue.

“You wanted to be the woman who
ended The Rotation, right?”

Lara cringed.

“This is how the end of The
Rotation comes to be: Clay Creighton falls in love.”

Now Lara looked up into his eyes.
He had the old confidence. But not the swagger. Just sincerity. And tenderness.
And humility.

“You’re right,” he said. “I haven’t
been telling you the truth, either. But I’ll tell you the truest thing I ever
knew: I love you, Lara Dixon. I’ve loved you since that first evening, when we
talked all night about cars and sports and—”

“And whether love really is a
battlefield?”

Clay outlined the wine stain with a
finger. “And whether love really is a battlefield.”

“Oh, Clay…I love you. I knew it
then, too. I knew it—and I should have put an end to my stupid plan right on
the spot.”

“It wouldn’t have done any good,”
he said. “We weren’t ready.”

“And we are now?”

He kissed her again, and suddenly
the world was warm and cool and open and mysterious and bright and
muddled—gloriously muddled—all at the same time. And she could live with it
that way.

THE END

The opening to

 
FAST LANE ROMANCE #2: MALIBU
BRIDE

COMING
SOON

The Malibu
sunset was stunning. Tongues of reflected fire danced red and gold on Santa
Monica Bay. Even
the air glowed. But standing on the deck outside her office at Fast Lane Enterprises,
Sushma Vishnuveda stared at her phone. It was time to make the call.
 

Why
did I not see this coming?

For six years Sushma had worked day
and night to save Fast Lane, the men’s entertainment empire owned by notorious
billionaire playboy Clay Creighton. The man Sushma loved. She had been so sure
that someday he would love her back. And then Lara came along, intending to
destroy him. But it was Lara he fell for, destroying Sushma’s hope of
having him as her own.

It
is my own fault. I wanted him as a lover, but he saw me as a colleague. Mixing
business and romance?
Never again
.

Sushma felt her certainty grow. She
had to change the way she related to men. The way she spoke.
The
way she carried herself.
She turned her back on the sunset and faced her
office window. It reflected a petite woman with eye-catching curves and full, sexy
hair. But Sushma saw a body that needed to be taller and straighter and hair
that was too thick. In short, she saw everything that Lara Dixon was not.

The
way I look—that will have to change, too.

And the first step toward creating
the New Sushma was to make the call.

Sushma flipped through the contacts
on her phone until she came to Holt Richards.
Or, more
precisely, HRP.
Holt’s company was one of Hollywood’s
premiere packaging agencies, working out deals that brought top talent—movie
stars, directors and screenwriters—together.
Big deals.
 
Important deals.
The kind that were
touted in
Variety
and talked about by
envious people in the trendiest bars.

It meant, of course, working with
bastards, but that didn’t frighten Sushma.
Partly because
Holt wasn’t a bastard.
He was a gentleman.
Handsome.
Well-dressed.
  And, like Sushma, a UCLA grad.
Thoroughly professional.
And respectful.
He would make a good boss. But, mostly, Sushma knew she had right temperament.

I
know how they think, because I have been a bastard, too.

She jabbed the touch screen with
her thumb and listened for the ring.

Fast Lane Romance #1

PALM SPRINGS HEAT

by
DC Thome

 
Published by T2W Inc.

Kindle Edition

 Copyright©2012 Dave Thome

Palm
Springs
Heat
was originally published as
Fast Lane
by Dave Thome in November 2011.

 Kindle Edition License Note

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment. It may not
be re-sold or given away. If you would like to share this book, please purchase
a separate copy for each recipient. If you did not purchase this copy, please
go to Amazon.com to purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the work
of all authors.

Palm Springs
Heat
 
is
a work of fiction. All characters, situations and dialog are products of the
author’s imagination. Any resemblance to events or to persons, living or
dead,
is entirely coincidental.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

DC Thome is the romance-writing pen name of Dave Thome, a
self-employed journalist whose work has appeared in several magazines and
newspapers. He’s also taught writing at Marquette
University and wrote 20 screenplays,
several of which have been optioned by film production companies or won writing
awards. A lifelong Wisconsin resident, he lives in the Milwaukee
suburb of Shorewood with his wife of 30 years, Mary Jo.

MORE BOOKS DC/DAVE/DAVID THOME

Man Writing a Romance
by Dave Thome: A collection of humorous essays about love, sex and one man’s
journey into the world or romance novels.
Based on the blog
Man Writing a Romance, which chronicled the writing of
Palm Springs Heat
.
Available for Kindle at
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005YU8GRK
.

Metal Mom
, A
Screenplay by Dave Thome: When suburban mom Anna Petrovic shocks her husband
and teenaged kids by resuming the heavy metal singing career she left behind
years ago, everyone in the family needs to learn to adjust—which is more easily
said than done.
Available for Kindle at
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007S6O3BG
.

Follow the Man Writing a Romance blog as DC continues Lara
and Clay’s story—and expands on the stories of other characters from Palm
Springs Heat in Fast Lane Romance #2: Malibu Bride and Fast Lane Romance #3:
San Fernando Dreams and to get updates on release dates.
http://manwritingaromance.blogspot.com/