About Me
- Katie Ashley
- Atlanta, GA, United States
- I am the New York Times, USA Today, and Amazon Best Selling author of The Proposition, Proposal, Music of the Heart, and Nets and Lies. I am represented by Jane Dystel of Dystel and Goderich for all books except for Proposition and Proposal.
The Proposition
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Last Teaser Tuesday for 2012 & several weeks!!
So, this is going to be the last Teaser Tuesday for 2012 and probably for a few weeks. I tried to make it nice and extra long to tide you over the lonely weeks without a glimpse of Aidan and Emma, lol.
To set the stage: this is when Emma has come to Aidan's house from the hospital on bed rest. Overwhelmed by her feelings and fear of what could happen to Noah, she's been weeping in the bathroom rather than taking a shower.
To set the stage: this is when Emma has come to Aidan's house from the hospital on bed rest. Overwhelmed by her feelings and fear of what could happen to Noah, she's been weeping in the bathroom rather than taking a shower.
Without hesitation, Aidan drew
her into his embrace. She should have shrugged him away. Being close to
him when she was so emotionally broken was playing with fire. But she was so
very tired of being alone all the time and having to bear every burden on her
own. Aidan had enough strength for the both of them, and just being held in his
arms sent comfort pulsing through her.
Grabbing him around the back,
she fisted his shirt in her hands, hanging on for dear life. Aidan’s lips
warmed against her ear, causing her to shiver. “Shh, please, sweetheart. Don’t
cry,” he crooned in her ear. “I’m here for you, and we’re going to get through
this together.”
His words reassured her, and for both him and
for Noah, she tried pulling herself together.When her cries begin to quiet,
Aidan pulled away to gaze at her. His blue eyes blazed with
intensity. “Listen to me. You have every right to be scared, but I want you to
believe me when I say that Noah is going to be fine. He’s blessed with some strong as hell genes.” Placing his
hand on her belly, he smiled. “He’s part Fitzgerald, and for generations, the
men of my family have been known for being tough, scrappy fighters with a will
of iron to survive.”
“Really?” she questioned with a
hiccup.
Aidan nodded. “But even more
than the fighting Irish Fitzgerald blood pumping through him, he’s inherited
the most amazing DNA from his mother. She’s the strongest person I’ve ever
known.”
His words, coupled with the
sincerity in which he spoke them, caused a burning wildfire in her chest. “Oh
Aidan,” she murmured.
He brushed her hair out of her
face. “You just have to keep being strong, Em. That fire that burns so deep
within you—the one that’s seen you through the darkest times—you’ve got to
stoke it to burn a little brighter.”
“I’ll try.”
“Now come on. All the hot water
is going to be gone before you get cleaned up.” He rose up off the floor.
When he tore his shirt over his
head, she widened her eyes. “What are you doing?”
“Taking my shirt off. I don’t
wanna get drenched helping you take a shower.”
Her head shook wildly from side
to side. “I don’t need your help.”
“You’re exhausted, Em. Just let
me help you, okay?”
“I don’t think that’s a good
idea.”
“And why not?”
Heat flooded her cheeks. “Because
you’ll see me…”
A playful grin curved on his
lips. “Have you forgotten that I’m well acquainted with every gorgeous inch of
your body?”
She stared down at her hands in
her lap. “No, but it was different then. We
were different then.”
The feel of his burning stare made
her finally look up. “And it’s different now because I’m not going to devour
you when I see you naked. I’m going to take care of you. There are more levels
of intimacy than just sex, Emma.”
“I know,” she whispered.
“So let me take care of you.”
She exhaled a defeated breath
and nodded. “Will you turn the chair around, so I’m not facing you?”
An amused glint twinkled in his
eyes. “Yes, Miss Modest, I can.”
“For your information, there’s
more of me than the last time you saw me,” she argued as he adjusted the shower seat.
He turned around and shrugged.
“I doubt that. Besides, you’re still just as beautiful as the first time I saw
you.”
“Always the flirt, aren’t you?”
she replied with a grin.
“Just stating facts, ma’am.”
Aidan’s hands then reached for the hem of her shirt. Instead of protesting, she
let him pull it over her head. His gaze hovered over her cleavage a little
longer than it should have before he tossed her shirt onto the wicker hamper.
“Stand up,” he instructed.
“You’re so bossy.”
“And you’re so damn stubborn,”
he countered as he pulled her pants down.
Left in only her underwear, she
shivered. As if to even the playing field, Aidan’s fingers went to his fly and
took his pants off as well. His eyes met hers as she brought her arms around
her back and unfastened her bra. After it slid to the floor, she wrapped her
arms around her breasts.
Aidan rolled his eyes. “Oh Em, seriously? Quit acting
like I’m some pervert getting off at this.”
A little flicker of hellfire
sparked within her at his exasperation. Her hands then went to the waistband of
her underwear, and she ripped the panties down her thighs as best she could
with her belly getting in the way. Meeting his surprised gaze she strode over
to the shower and sat down on the chair. “I’d like my vanilla body wash please
and the pink sponge. Thank you.”
His chuckle echoed off the
bathroom walls. Sticking his hand in the shower, he handed her the body wash.
“I already put your shampoo in there.” He closed the shower door behind him.
Emma didn’t dare glance back to see if he’d dropped his boxers or not. “Want me
to wash your hair?”
“You seriously want to do
that?”
“Of course. Besides it’s not
like you’re going to let me wash the good parts anyway.”
A giggle escaped her lips. “I
thought you were going to behave,” she protested.
“I am. That’s why I want to
keep my hands busy with your hair.”
Monday, December 10, 2012
Teaser Tuesday: The Return of the Monsters aka Aidan's Nephews
As a writer, you have a fondness for your characters. Some you anticipate their arrival on the scene while others just come out of thin air. That's kinda what happened with the pool scene with Aidan's nephews, or as he likes to refer to them "the monsters". These three precocious boys, John, Percy, and Georgie, just appeared, and man, were they fun to write because they were able to get under Aidan's skin where Emma was concerned.
So, it was a no brainer that I had to have them in The Proposal. Here they are getting under Aidan's skin yet again!!
So, it was a no brainer that I had to have them in The Proposal. Here they are getting under Aidan's skin yet again!!
“Uncle Aidan?” Percy began.
“Yeah?”
“Don’t you
think you ought to marry Emma?”
Aidan
jerked his head up, slamming it against trunk lid. “FUCK!” he shouted as he saw
stars before his eyes. A few more expletives escaped his lips as pain raged
through his skull.
“Nice
mouth you got there,” John chided.
Gritting
his teeth, Aidan rubbed his aching head. “You mention that to your mom, and
I’ll tell her about your ball-sack comment.”
John’s
eyes widened. “Dude, that is so not
cool!”
“Yeah,
well, that's what blackmail is for.” Aidan started to resume gathering up the bags when he
noticed Percy staring expectantly at him for an answer. Aidan sighed. “Perce—”
His blonde
brows knitted together. “Don’t you love her?”
“Oh
Christ,” Aidan muttered, raking his hand through his hair. He winced as pain
once again shot through his head. “Did your mom put you up to this or
something?”
“No. When
I asked her the same question, she just said that you were a cad.” Percy
shrugged. “I don’t even know what that means.”
“I’m
pretty sure it’s a dude who acts like a douchebag to women,” John said.
Aidan glared over at John. “I am not
a cad!”
He held
his hands up. “I didn’t say it. Mom did.”
Leave it to his sister the
English professor to resort to name calling him something from the nineteenth
century. He handed Percy one of the box’s from Earl and Virginia’s. “Perce,
it’s complicated because—”
“You’re a
cad?” John asked.
Ignoring
him, Aidan said, “I was stupid and did something that hurt Emma’s feelings
pretty bad. It’s going to take her some time to forgive me and let me back into
her heart.”
Percy shifted the box he was carrying to one hip. “You’re
having a baby with Emma, so the responsible thing to do would be to marry her,”
he said sensibly.
Aidan blinked a few times at Percy. “Did I hit my head
harder than I thought, or did you actually just sound like a mature adult,
rather than a kid?”
Percy grinned. “Maybe. Dad always says I’m an old soul.”
Aidan laughed. “I think he called that one right.” He
glanced over to John who wore an amused smirk. “Of course, anything you say has
to sound light years above this one,” he said, jerking his thumb at John.
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Teaser Tuesday: Enter Trouble with a Capital T
So this week's teaser introduces us to a new character....and a potential new love interest for Emma. Thus, why I'm calling him Trouble with a Capital T! You may have heard of him mentioned in the book blurb over at Literati Literature Lovers...That would be Dr. Alpesh "Pesh" Nadeen.
Shall we take a peek at him before we read his scene with Emma?!!
Sure, he's out of his scrubs and white coat here...but hello??!
He's going to play into the sequel quite a bit...he's a 180 from our all-American boy Aidan, but he's also a 180 in all the right ways of wanting to settle down with a wife and child. They first met when Patrick was taken to the ER with chest pains(the earlier teaser where Aidan and Emma see each other again for the first time). After she's put on bed-rest, he wants to get to know her better.
****ROUGH DRAFT & SUBJECT TO CHANGE******
Shall we take a peek at him before we read his scene with Emma?!!
Sure, he's out of his scrubs and white coat here...but hello??!
He's going to play into the sequel quite a bit...he's a 180 from our all-American boy Aidan, but he's also a 180 in all the right ways of wanting to settle down with a wife and child. They first met when Patrick was taken to the ER with chest pains(the earlier teaser where Aidan and Emma see each other again for the first time). After she's put on bed-rest, he wants to get to know her better.
****ROUGH DRAFT & SUBJECT TO CHANGE******
Pesh’s closeness caused her heartbeat to accelerate. His
woodsy cologne, the heat from his body, the tousled dark hair she wanted to run
her fingers through—it drove her to distraction. Breathing normally like he had
requested was completely out of the question. Instead, she managed to draw in
several harsh pants. Pesh’s dark eyes swept from the stethoscope up to hers. He
took the buds out of his ears and smiled knowingly. “Either I’m making you
nervous, or you need to get back to the hospital for your erratic breathing and
heartbeat.”
She felt a warm flush creeping across her cheeks. “No, it’s
you,” she murmured.
He cocked his eyebrows. “So you’re saying if Dr. Pendleton
were here taking your vitals you wouldn’t be reacting this way?”
Laughter sputtered from her lips. “Of course not.”
Shifting his body, he leaned in closer to her. His dark eyes
penetrated hers. “Why do I make you nervous, Emma?”
Her mouth ran dry, and she licked her lips. “Because…” You’re so damn good-looking, and your
fabulous body kicks my pregnancy hormones into overdrive, making me think things
about you I shouldn’t. But more than the lust, you’re kind and compassionate,
and if given the chance, I could see myself falling in love with you.
Emma exhaled the breath she had been holding. “You confuse
me.”
“I confuse you?”
Staring down at her hands, she said, “I still care very
deeply for Aidan, but when I’m with you, I start to feel…differently.”
“So I at least have a chance to woo you?”
She snapped her head up to stare at him. “To woo me?”
Pesh laughed. “Not a word you would usually use?”
“Not exactly.”
He tilted his head in thought. “Hmm, a chance to romance you
then? To wine and dine you?”
Emma smiled and pointed to her belly. “There will be no
wining, and with my bed rest, our dining is going to be a little limited.”
“Ah, but that’s why I brought food to you.” He rose off the
couch. “Let me go get it, and we’ll commence our wooing.”
He winked at her, and she laughed. “Okay.”
When Pesh got to the door, he stopped and turned around. “As
long as I have a chance to win your heart, Emma, I’ll take whatever you can
give me.”
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