Hi, fellow addicts!
Thanks for inviting me to
talk to you about Along Came Trouble,
which released on March 11 from Random House / Loveswept. It’s the second book
in my Camelot series, but you don’t have to read the first one, How To Misbehave, in order to enjoy this
one. (Though feel free to, especially if you like hot Italian men, basements,
tornadoes, or sex.)
Along Came Trouble is that not-so-rare beast The Bodyguard Book. But
it’s a little different, too—at least to may way of thinking. The heroine,
Ellen, is a divorced single mother of a two-year-old, and she’s got Issues
about the possibility of getting into another relationship. Her plate is FULL.
And okay, yes, maybe she’ll have just a smidgen of this man-dessert, but that
is all. Whereas the hero, Caleb, is
more of a mind to twirl her around his fork and eat her whole. Also, there are
paparazzi, an impromptu concert, and a lot of other shenanigans. It’s fun!
In this scene, heroine
Ellen and her neighbor, Carly, are walking downtown. Ellen’s son, Henry, is
riding in a backpack on Ellen’s back. Carly was recently dating Ellen’s
brother, Jamie; Ellen is newly interested in Carly’s friend, Caleb. In a
nutshell, they suck at love.
“Are you really doing okay?” Ellen knew it had to
be hard on Carly, first losing Jamie, now risking cameras and rumors every time
she stuck her head outside. Though she was certainly better equipped to handle
the pressure than most people. Carly had a thick suit of emotional armor that
she rarely took off.
Back before she got pregnant and her husband walked
out on her, she’d been a choir teacher at a ritzy private school in Columbus.
Ellen liked to imagine Carly in front of a gang of awkward twelve-year-olds. She’d
have been one of the tough teachers, the kind who had firm rules and a wry
sense of humor. The kind who set standards her students killed themselves to
meet.
But she had a soft side, too, much as she hated to
show it. Once, in an unguarded moment, Ellen had caught Carly looking at Jamie
with such simple, perfect adoration, she’d been embarrassed to witness it.
She hoped the two of them would get a clue sometime
soon.
“I’m fine,” Carly said. “This week has been all
kinds of crazy, but it’ll blow over. The press will figure out I’m boring
eventually and find someone else to chase after.”
The sun beat down on the crowns of their heads and
the tips of their shoulders. Henry’s weight balanced on Ellen’s hips and
pressed the balls of her feet into the asphalt. “Cracker,” he said, and she
passed another one back to him.
“I miss Jamie,” she said, and then shook her head
at her own tactlessness. Missing Jamie was the last thing she was supposed to
talk to Carly about.
Carly smoothed her hands over her bump. “Me, too.”
Picking invisible lint off the black camisole that stretched over her stomach,
she flicked it into the air. “But don’t tell him I said that.”
“I wouldn’t.”
“What a mess, huh?”
“Yeah.” What a terrible mess. Jamie wounded but
flippant in L.A., Carly wounded and bitter here, and Ellen suffering from a
weird combination of reckless, angry lust and deep mortification every time she
thought about Caleb. Which was every four seconds or so, all morning long.
She’d thrown herself at him, and he’d responded with
Better if I don’t. Of all the painfully innocuous ways to be turned
down—like she was a piece of cheesecake or a third beer. Nah. Thanks, but
I’m good. Better if I don’t.
Probably last night had been nothing out of the
ordinary for him. No doubt women swooned into him all the time, and he had to
pluck them off him, like ticks. Just one of life’s hazards when you were Caleb
Clark.
Whereas she was so ridiculously smitten, she’d
spelled his name with Henry’s alphabet blocks. C-A-L-E-B.
Mama spelled?
Nothing, Peanut. Mama’s being silly.
“So what’s the story with Caleb?” she asked.
Silly, silly Mama.
Ruthie Knox’s Camelot series continues in this
sizzling eBook original novel, featuring two headstrong souls who bump
heads—and bodies—as temptation and lust bring nothing but delicious trouble.
An accomplished lawyer and driven single mother,
Ellen Callahan isn’t looking for any help. She’s doing just fine on her own. So
Ellen’s more than a little peeved when her brother, an international pop star,
hires a security guard to protect her from a prying press that will stop at
nothing to dig up dirt on him. But when the tanned and toned Caleb Clark shows
up at her door, Ellen might just have to plead the fifth.
Back home after a deployment in Iraq and looking
for work as a civilian, Caleb signs on as Ellen’s bodyguard. After combat in
the hot desert sun, this job should be a breeze. But guarding the willful
beauty is harder than he imagined—and Caleb can’t resist the temptation to mix
business with pleasure. With their desires growing more undeniable by the day,
Ellen and Caleb give in to an evening of steamy passion. But will they ever be
able to share more than just a one-night stand?
E-book. 350 pp. ISBN
978-0-345-54161-1.
Ruthie
Knox graduated from Grinnell College as an English and history double major and
went on to earn a Ph.D. in modern British history that she’s put to remarkably
little use. She debuted as a romance novelist with Ride with Me—probably the only existing cross-country bicycling
love story yet to be penned—and followed it up with About Last Night, which features a sizzling British banker hero
with the unlikely name of Neville. Other publications include Room at the Inn (a Christmas novella)
and How To Misbehave, book 1 in the
Camelot series. She moonlights as a mother, Tweets incessantly, and bakes a
mean focaccia.
Find Ruthie Knox:
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Website: http://www.ruthieknox.com/
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