A Bleak December
Author: Hanleigh Bradley
Genre: Romance,
Contemporary Romance, New Adult Romance,
Release Date: 1st
May 2018
Price: 99c / 99p
Key Words: Romance,
Contemporary Romance, New Adult Romance, Short Story, Novella, Christmas, Death
of a Parent, Loss of a Loved One, Office Romance, Depression, Grief,
Length: Just below 20K
Availability: Amazon,
iBooks, Barnes and Nobles, Kobo, etc.
Amazon: http://amzn.to/2oTOGJg
Blurb:
Her Christmas
list isn't long. It is the shortest it has ever been. She doesn't want a pretty
new pair of shoes or a new dress to wear to her work's New Years Eve bash.
All Ella wants
is a Christmas Miracle.
With a sick mum
in hospital and a little brother at home, she struggles to maintain order in
the chaos that is quickly engulfing her. If she doesn't get her miracle will
her entire world fall apart? And if it does, who will help her put it back
together again?
Excerpt:
He’s my boss.
That doesn’t stop me though. It doesn’t stop my mind from picturing him naked
standing in my shower, water cascading down over his toned, muscular flesh. No.
It doesn’t stop my inappropriate thoughts, and it definitely doesn’t stop me
having them at the most inopportune of moments. It’s not like I just think about
him when I’m lying in bed late at night. No, I fantasise about him during staff
meetings, when he’s being a pain in the arse bossing us all around and when
he’s reprimanding me yet again for being late.
Do you want to
know the worst bit? It’s not the thoughts. I can deal with my dirty mind; it’s
always been that way. Dirty thought after dirty thought, wrapped in a world of
dirty thoughts. No. The thoughts are fine; it’s the things that come out of my
mouth. The actual words that I apparently have an equal lack of control over.
Like right now, the whole room has gone silent in shock because of my stupid,
big mouth. As if I just said that. I can feel my cheeks redden with
embarrassment and my best work friend is laughing under her breath beside me.
The bitch.
Tristen had
asked me why I was late. It was a reasonable enough question but why, oh, why
couldn’t I give him an equally sensible response??? No. Instead, I only went
and gave him the most ridiculous cock and bull story known to man.
“Why are you
late?” Tristan Riggens, my boss had asked in that deep, authoritative, yet
almost disrespectfully uninterested voice of his. It’s a voice that threatens
to destroy you while drawing you in, keeping you walking some imaginary
tightrope.
“My dog ate a
condom.” Why that sentence made it passed whatever filter I have, I will never
know. Sometimes my mouth does unexplainable things, embarrassingly
unexplainable. It’s a problem I’ve had since childhood and it shows no sign of
improving.
The room goes
silent, but he doesn’t react at all. His face remains expressionless except I
think I can see humour in his eyes, or at least I hope I do. He’s not exactly
easy to read and right now I really have no idea what he thinks. “Well, I hope
your dog is okay now.”
“He’s absolutely
fine.” I’m probably the colour of the Christmas tree in the corner. I think I
might throw up my breakfast from the sheer embarrassment that I now feel.
“Someone should
call the RSPCA.” A voice says from somewhere behind me.
“You might want
to reconsider where you stash your condoms.” Another of my colleagues laughs.
My best friend,
the one who’s supposed to be on my side is in fits of hysteria. In fact, she’s
laughing so hard she’s close to choking. I hope she chokes.
“Okay.” Tristen
tries to divert their focus from me and my condom eating dog, back to the
meeting.
“New Year – we’ll be having an office party.”
If he thinks
talk of a party might divert their attention from my poor imaginary dog, he is
wrong and he clearly doesn’t know his team that well. “How on earth did your
dog get a hold of a condom?”
“Did it still
have the foil wrapper on?”
“Eww, it wasn’t
used, was it?”
I’m shrinking
into myself. Massively embarrassed. Eyes on the floor. Cheeks burning hot. Head
pounding. Heart palpitating. How the hell will I get out of this one? I have an
uncanny knack for getting myself into a bit of a pickle and absolutely no skill
at getting myself back out again. “That’s enough – I’ve heard more than enough
about condoms and dogs for one day. Back to work.” He’s shaking his head as he
dismisses us all before leaving the open offices of our floor of the TRW
Advertising building. Walking into his office, he closes the door behind
himself. Lucky sod. At least he has a door he can hide behind.
“Fuck.” I say
under my breath.
“Only you Ella.”
Sadie laughs beside me. “I don’t know how you do it.”
“I just open my
mouth…” I sigh.
“You don’t even
have a dog!”
“I know.” I’m
groaning in mortification. “We should get back to work before Tristen gets all
shitty.”
“Or worse,” Sadie
whispers, “Delos might come out of her office and have at us.”
“As if – Clara’s
too nice for that.”
“To you. She
hates me.”
“That’s not
true.” I laugh gently. The door to Tristen’s office opens once more, and he
pops his head out. “Winthrope. Reed. Do I need to find you something to do?”
“No sir.” Sadie
nods her head before turning back towards her cubicle.
I move to follow
her, but Tristen is still talking. “Winthrope, in here please.”
“Shit.” I
grumble before following him into his office. This is the moment when he
finally tells me that enough is enough and I need to start being on time, or
worse look for a new job. The new job scenario is probably more likely. My
tardiness is my biggest failing. I’m lucky I haven’t already lost this job.
He’s sat behind
his desk; calm and composed in a way I have never been. He motions a hand
towards the leather chair in front of him, and I take it gratefully because my
legs are like jelly. My mouth is practically glued shut because I can’t trust
myself not to say something completely absurd. His eyebrow is raised. “Your dog
ate a condom?”
“Yes.” My sister
Tia says when you lie you have to own it.
“Have you taken
him to the vets?”
“No. He… he just
coughed it up.” I tell him, desperately hoping that he doesn’t see through my
lies.
“You do need to
make a better effort to be on time for work in the morning.”
“Sorry Sir.” I
tell him honestly. It’s not exactly news to me that I need to get my shit
together.
About The Author:
Hanleigh loves
books more than nearly anything in the world; whether its reading them or
writing them, Hanleigh just can't get enough. She relishes in the way authors
can create worlds with the words they put in their books. She loves the way
your imagination introduces you to a new world when you read a book. It may
well be a world completely foreign to the one you live in. That world is
brought to life; inspires you to dream, captivates your imagination, entices
your senses.
Hanleigh first
took to reading as a small child reading Dr Zeus. She then fell in love with
romance literature when she first read Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen; when
she first swooned over Mr Darcy. She's read more books than she can count and
owns more books than some libraries.
Although born in
Scotland, she sometimes wishes she could live inside the world that she can
create inside her mind, but since that isn't possible she puts pen to paper and
shares that world with this world instead. There is something addictive about being
able to mould your words into something that causes the reader to fall into
your mind. When you put pen to paper and create a world, it's exhilarating.
Every word has meaning. You know every character intimately. You know every
secret, every whisper, every smell, every look; as the author you know the
world you created and more so than even the most avid of readers you can get
lost in your own creation.
Author Links:
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Goodreads:
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