Hollywood on Tap (21 page)
Authors: Avery Flynn
Tags: #Romance, #Contemporary, #Romantic Comedy, #comedy, #sexy, #movie star, #millionaire, #secret, #alpha hero, #brewery
The camera operator zoomed in on Sean’s face. Natalie stopped breathing and her hand flew to her neck. The pearls were gone, but old habits died hard.
“Because I’m done running.” The camera pulled back, showing the Sweet Salvation Brewery sign that Sean stood in front of. “My name is Sean Duvin. I don’t have a lot to recommend me. I’ve lied to the people I care about. I’ll probably never want to sit around and talk about my feelings. I’m a slob. I like to fly by the seat of my pants. But I love you, Natalie Sweet. I love your button–up sweaters, the fact that you’re always talking, and your damn clipboard. I love that you make a plan for everything and that your contingency plans have contingency plans. From this day forward, I promise I’ll never hurt you. I’ll never pretend with you. I’ll never lie to you. I’ll always love you.”
He might have said more, Natalie couldn’t hear over the sound of her own crying. Damn that man. He could make her ugly–cry harder than anyone she’d ever met. If this was love, it pretty much sucked.
Miranda elbowed her and handed her a tissue. “Clean yourself up, you have to go out there.”
She took the tissue with shaking hands and wiped the tears from her face. “I can’t.” She sniffled into the tissue.
“Do you love him?” Miranda asked.
She closed her eyes and saw Sean’s lazy smile. Heard his warm voice. Felt the strength and gentleness in his touch. “Yes.”
Miranda yanked Natalie out of her chair and shoved her toward the door. “Then get your ass out there before he’s gone.”
Her feet wouldn’t move and everything inside her was a jumbled mess, making her float and sink at the same time. “I’m scared.”
“Of course you are.” Miranda gave her a quick, tight hug. “That’s how you know it really matters.”
Sean glanced at the brewery’s front door. Not even a shadow moved behind it. The rejection hit him like the number–six bus and his brain stopped functioning except to register the throbbing ache in his chest.
“And is she in there?” Rupert nodded toward the brewery, nudging the camera operator so he turned the lens toward the building. “Your Natalie?”
“Yes.” The single word barely made it out through the narrow opening in his constricted throat.
The three men stood there staring at the door like a pack of fools, waiting for a miracle.
Nothing.
Nothing.
Nothing.
Sean grimaced and reached for the cool detachment that had served him so well in the past. He couldn’t find it. “That’s a wrap.” He spun on his heel and headed for his SUV.
“Wait,” Rupert called, his voice rising excitedly. “The door. It’s opening.”
Sean turned, afraid to even hope.
The brewery door opened and Natalie walked out. She took three steps and stopped. Her nose looked a lot like Rudolph’s, she clutched a tissue box to her chest, and she looked breathtakingly beautiful.
He didn’t think. He just ran. Not away from his past this time, but toward his future.
She collapsed against him and he wrapped his arms around her.
He buried his face in her hair and breathed in her honeysuckle scent. “I didn’t think you were going to come out.”
“It took some time.” She looked up at him, her blue eyes watery behind her black–framed glasses. “I don’t have a flowchart for this situation.”
The fact that he’d made her cry punched him in the gut. He wiped a tear away with his thumb, wishing he could make sure they never fell again. “I don’t think love works like that.”
She shook her head. “No, but that’s okay.”
He had so much to make up for, so much to say that it ate away at him. “I’m sorry about—”
Silencing him with a finger to his lips, she raised up on her tiptoes, stopping just short of his mouth. “No matter what your name is, you’ll always be the man I love.”
“I love you, too,” he whispered against her lips.
“I know, you just told the whole world.” She giggled. “You don’t always say a lot, but when you do, you make a hell of a statement.”
“That I do.” He lowered his lips to hers and the world faded away until it was just them.
They shouldn’t work. He was the chaos to her everything–in–its–place mentality—but they did. A little sweet, a little sour, they came together and made each other better.
Rupert’s excited whisper broke through the haze. “Are you getting this, Phil?”
“Yep,” the camera operator responded.
Making sure not to lose contact with Natalie’s lips, Sean raised his hand and blocked the camera lens.
In the background, the reporter chuckled. “And that, folks, is a real–life Hollywood ending. Reporting from the Sweet Salvation Brewery, this is Rupert Crowley wishing each of you your very own happily ever after.”
A Note From Avery
Hey you!
I really hope you enjoyed Sean and Natalie. Oh how I love pitting the strong and silent type against the chatty organizer. If you have a second to leave a review of
Hollywood on Tap
that would be awesome—you know every time a reader leaves a review Natalie gets a new pen to color code with. :)
Please stay in touch
(www.averyflynn.com)
, I love hearing from readers! Want to get all the latest book news? Subscribe to my newsletter,
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, for monthly prizes and more!
And don’t forget to check out
Enemies on Tap: Sweet Salvation 1
. It’s Miranda’s and Logan’s story and wowzers, those two are hot together.
xoxo,
Avery
Books By Avery Flynn
The Killer Style Series
High-Heeled Wonder
(Killer Style 1)
This Year’s Black
(Killer Style 2)
Sweet Salvation Brewery Series
Enemies on Tap
(Sweet Salvation Brewery 1)
Hollywood on Tap
(Sweet Salvation Brewery 2)
Layton Family Series
Temptation Creek
(Layton Family 1)
Seduction Creek
(Layton Family 2)
Passion Creek
(Layton Family 3)
Novellas
About Avery Flynn
Avery Flynn has three slightly–wild children, loves a hockey–addicted husband and is desperately hoping someone invents the coffee IV drip.
She fell in love with romance while reading Johanna Lindsey’s Mallory books. It wasn’t long before Avery had read through all the romance offerings at her local library. Needing a romance fix, she turned to Harlequin’s four books a month home delivery service to ease the withdrawal symptoms. That worked for a short time, but it wasn’t long before the local book stores’ staffs knew her by name.
Avery was a reader before she was a writer and hopes to always be both. She loves to write about smartass alpha heroes who are as good with a quip as they are with their *ahem* other God–given talents. Her heroines are feisty, fierce and fantastic. Brainy and brave, these ladies know how to stand on their own two feet and knock the bad guys off theirs.
Find out more about Avery on her
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Join her street team,
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Also, if you figure out how to send Oreos through the Internet, she’ll be your best friend for life.
Contact her at
[email protected]
. She’d love to hear from you!
Also by Avery Flynn
Enemies on Tap: Sweet Salvation Brewery 1
"Flynn's first novel in the is brand spanking new series is intoxicating!"
– 4.5 Stars, RT Book Reviews
Enemies …After years away, Miranda Sweet returns to Salvation, Virginia to save her family's brewery, but her fate is in the hands of her lover–turned–enemy, Logan. What's a girl to do when the only person who can help her is the man who betrayed her?
Lovers …Logan Martin can't believe his luck when the woman who smashed his heart to smithereens walks into his bank asking for his help. What she doesn't know is that he needs the land her brewery is on––and he'll do whatever it takes to get it.
An Irresistible Combination …Their wager becomes a battle between their attraction and their determination to win. But it's in each other's arms that they realize there might be more at stake now than their bet. With the town against the Sweet Salvation Brewery's success, Logan has to choose between what's expected of him and what he really wants…
"This story has it all!"
– Jennifer Probst, best selling author of The Marriage Bargain
So what if Gabe Campos is a model–dating billionaire that gets Keisha Jacobs hotter than a Ferrari’s engine on the straightaway? He keeps pushing her to sell her family’s furniture business, but she’ll never give in.
Forced by a snow storm to spend the night together, their passion ignites. The next day, however, it’s back to business. The only way Keisha can save her family is to win a bet with the billionaire. But neither realizes their hearts are part of the bargain…
High–Heeled Wonder: Killer Style 1
"When a fashionista and her bodyguard get tangled up together, watch out for sizzling sex and surprising plot twists."
– New York Times best selling author Rebecca York
Sylvie Bissette is the woman behind The High–Heeled Wonder, a must–read blog for fashionistas everywhere. Tony Falcon wouldn’t know a kitten heel from a tabby cat, but when a murder investigation leads him to Sylvie, he realizes the feisty fashionista may be his best chance at catching the criminals who killed his best friend. But solving that case means going after the people Sylvie cares about, and soon his attraction for her—and the danger she’s in—has him wondering if solving the case is worth hurting the woman he can’t stop fantasizing about…
This Year’s Black: Killer Style 2
"Incredible writing with witty humor and scorching sex scenes. This Year's Black belongs at the top of everyone's TBR list.”
– New York Times bestselling author, Gina L. Maxwell
When someone embezzles millions under Devin Harris’s watch, he isn’t going to let the private investigator working the case go it alone—even if she is the woman who blew him away in bed and then blew him off. Allegra “Ryder” Falcon is a fighter, but just when it seems like it couldn’t get any hotter between her and Devin, the case they’re working takes them to a tropical paradise where the danger increases. From the catwalk to the pineapple fields, they have to work together to track down the missing millions before the thief finds—and kills—them.
Jax and the Beanstalk Zombies: Fairy True 1
"Avery Flynn leads us into a shimmering magical world with a sexy twist that is pure, unadulterated fun. I loved this story!"
– Darynda Jones, NY Times Bestselling Author
You know there’s trouble ahead when zombies aren’t your biggest worry.
The treasure hunter…Veronica Kwon is determined to be the only person in control of her destiny. After surviving a broken engagement and turning her back on her wealthy manipulative father, she started a treasure hunting company and is ready for the adventure of a lifetime.
The ex–fiance…Jax Taylor is a Southern charmer with enough sex appeal to melt the polar ice caps. He disappeared three months before their wedding and swore he’d never cross paths with Veronica again.
The magic beanstalk…Brought together again by their dying mentor, who has found three enchanted beans, Veronica and Jax agree to an uneasy partnership. Together they’ll climb a magic beanstalk to the cloud kingdom, but will their destiny be the riches they so desire, the passion they thought dead…or will the undead get them first?
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