Polished Slick (Natural Beauty) (23 page)
Read Polished Slick (Natural Beauty) Online
Authors: Holley Trent
Yeah, she’d burned a few things, all right, but she’d discovered she didn’t suck so bad with soup.
They’d been eating a lot of soup.
“Next week, if he can get her on the plane. She’s terrified.”
“Of what? The plane or the trip in general?”
“Both.” Jerry raked his loose hair back from his face and tied it into a quick ponytail. She loved his hair. Although he threatened to lop it off every time he plugged in his shaver, so far she’d managed to circumvent the destruction.
She couldn’t blame him for wanting it to go away, but she also knew part of his revulsion to the length was because of history, not reality. He didn’t look like a girl. Not in the least. She could say that with certainty now that she’d seen pictures of his mother.
The hair suited him, just like his tats—although his little mermaids wore bikini tops now—and just like his ugly orange camo pants.
“I had to promise Dad wouldn’t be around before she let me buy the tickets.”
“Was that a lie?”
“Yes, because I haven’t spoken to Dad, except that one time I drove over to pick up some adapters I left in the office. That was awkward. Kate was watching me as if I were going to steal something.”
“Yikes.”
“Yeah, I don’t think we need to worry about Dad popping in unannounced.”
“Oh, shit.” Trinity dropped the ear of corn she’d been shucking and scrambled to her feet from the picnic blanket.
Jerry stopped shucking, too. “What?”
“Did you remember to check those outstanding soap orders before we left?”
“No, but what difference would it make? Not like we can ship anything on a Saturday, anyway.”
“It’s not the shipping I’m worried about. It’s production time. We were already behind thirty dozen units because those shops put those holiday orders in, and we didn’t have the supplies to make them. Those supplies just came in, but if there are more orders waiting…”
He sighed. “…then you need to go buy the ingredients over the weekend.” Wedging his phone out of his pocket, he brought up his browser and tapped around for a while.
Trinity waited, shifting her weight as he checked the database.
His upturned gaze and grimace gave her the answer she didn’t want.
“Dammit. Just email me the number of units and I’ll do the math on the way to Chesapeake.”
“Yeah, I’ll call Daisy and let her know she can pick up some weekend hours. She’s going to be swamped for weeks.”
“Good. She can join the club.”
She bent down and gave him a long, tender kiss before jogging to her car. “I’ll be back in four hours
tops
, she said.”
He held up his wrist and pointed to his watch. “Work-life balance, pixie. I’m going to hold you to it.”
Look for
Clean Slate
– Ben and Daisy’s story – on 8/25/13.
Daisy Mooring is queen of the boondocks dorks. Just ask her ex-husband. Married at eighteen and divorced by twenty-two, the Carolina girl is all washed up at quarter-life. She’s the resident wallflower at Natural by Nicolette, and spends her days at the cosmetics company going mostly unnoticed, quietly observing and leaving the talking to her loud-mouthed mother. But when she accidentally blurts out during the staff retreat that she’d marry a sexy foreigner so he could stay in the country, all that attention she’d been shunning for so long catches up to her at once.
Ben Thys actually doesn’t need any help staying in the US, but now that the pretty redheaded soap maker is on his radar, he can’t stop thinking of the possibilities. The Belgian national could have the life his American big brother has: the home, the friends, the job. A sweet little wife would just be icing on the cake.
But Daisy’s been burned before by a man who claimed to love her. It doesn’t matter if Ben could be the beginning of her fresh start if she can’t clean her slate of the past.
Other Contemporary Romances by Holley Trent
Sensual
My Nora
– November 2012, Crimson Romance (print and e-book)
Reinstated Bond
– January 2013 (e-book)
Her Resident Jester
– February 2013, Calliope Romance by Musa Publishing (e-book)
Sold As Is
– February 2013, Crimson Romance (print and e-book)
Saint and Scholar
– July 2013, Lyrical Press (e-book)
Teaching the Cowboy
– Coming winter 2014, Calliope Romance by Musa Publishing (e-book)
Colleen’s Choice
– Coming March 2014, Crimson Romance (e-book)
Erotic
Executive Decision
– May 2012, Calliope Romance by Musa Publishing (e-book)
Calculated Exposure
– September 2013, Lyrical Press (e-book)
About Holley Trent
HOLLEY TRENT is a Carolina girl gone west. Raised in rural coastal North Carolina, she has Southern sensibilities but her adventurous spirit drove her to Colorado for new experiences.
Holley writes sassy contemporary romances threaded with oodles of conversational humor, and fantasy/paranormal romances set in her home state.
For Holley’s complete backlist, including titles from Calliope Romance/Musa Publishing, Crimson Romance, and Lyrical Press, please visit her website at holleytrent.com.
Want to chat about
Shake Well
or another Holley Trent title? Catch her on Twitter where she tweets under the handle @HolleyTrent or fan her Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/writerholleytrent.
Polished Slick
is a work of complete fiction. Characters and settings appearing in this work are fictitious or used fictitiously.
© Holley Trent.
Second edition, August 2013 - First edition published 2012 in e-book format by Rebel Ink Press.
Art credit: “Beautiful young woman…” © Amir Kajikovic, 123rf.com
All rights reserved.
For more information, please visit holleytrent.com.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any printed or electronic form without the author’s permission.
Warning: this book contains adult situations including sex and strong language use. It is not intended for consumption by minors (age of majority as specified by your territory of residence).
Table of Contents