Excerpt
What
did he think he was going to do—assume a new identity and move to
another state? It was
something he might want to consider, because by Monday—when he hadn't shown
up in the coffee shop—Jo was good and mad at him.
It
felt as if her body were tuned in to him; didn't matter what time of night it
was or how quiet he was on his way into the apartment. Once her subconscious
assumed he was restless, she got restless. Before she knew it, she was blinking
into the darkness, waiting. When the yelling came, as it inevitably would, for
Jo it felt worse than before.
Each
night he was shredding a jagged little slither off her heart and his answer to
the fact she'd kept her mouth shut to protect his secret was to avoid her?
She
was going to kick his ass.
Halfway up the second flight of stairs in their apartment block, she heard a
familiar deep rumble. Picking up the pace, she arrived—a little breathless and
ready to spit nails—at the top of the sixth flight. Rounding the corner she
discovered he was talking to the head of the residents' committee.
Heart thudding erratically and unable to blame it entirely on the stairs,
she gave him the once over. As usual he was in the prerequisite jeans, presently
matched with a dark round-necked sweatshirt and a charcoal sports jacket. She
had seen him in similar clothes a hundred times, so what was it that suddenly
made him more of a feast for the eyes than before? No one had the right to look
that good when they hadn't slept in as long as he hadn't so her singing pulse
could just shut up.
She
glanced at the bag in his hand. 'Are those cookies?'
'Freshly baked…' Daniel smiled his infamous smile at their neighbour who behaved
liked a giddy schoolgirl in response.
'Danny confessed to a sweet tooth,' she explained. 'Have to look after our boys
in uniform when they're away from home, don't we?'
'Yes.' Jo nodded. 'It's a long way to Staten Island.'
Daniel leaned forward and turned on the charm. 'Still too far away from home
baking, right, Agatha?'
She
patted his arm. 'Let me know when you run out.'
'You're too good to me.'
'Yes, she is.' Reaching out to ruffle woolly white ears, Jo crooned, 'Isn't she,
Gershwin?'
When
her hand dropped Daniel replaced it with his. 'Bye, little guy. Look after your
mom.' As their neighbour left, he tilted closer to her and lowered his voice.
'Did I mention this is the second batch she's baked for me?'
Jo
didn't say anything as they waved goodbye but as soon as the door down the hall
closed, she swung on him. Aiming a brief glance over a wide shoulder, she
grabbed a fistful of dark sweater and backed him into the elevator.
'Stay,' she ordered before turning to close the cage door.
Just
once was it so much to ask the stupid thing to close without having an argument
first?
'Need a hand with that?' a deep voice enquired.
'Don't make me hurt you.' It took several angry attempts to achieve her goal
before she pressed the button and turned on him again.
Leaning against the back of the cage, he reached into the bag before tilting it
towards her. 'Fresh-baked cookie?'
'I
hope you choke on them.' She folded her arms over her breasts. 'How long are you
planning on avoiding me?'
'That's what I'm doing, is it?' Taking a bite of toffee pecan, he leaned his
head back and frowned as he studied the creaking mechanism above their heads.
Jo
was too mad at him to play games. 'You think you're the only one losing sleep
since you moved in across the hall? But did I say anything? No. What I did was
make sure you weren't late for work. Thanks for that, Jo. No problem, Daniel.
That's all it would have taken. We could have gone on pretending I didn't know.
Instead you asked, I answered and now you've decided to punish me for not lying
when apparently I wasn't any good at it to begin with.'
When
his gaze locked with hers, a warning sparkled in his too-blue eyes.
She
sighed. 'Our apartments wrap round the building. We share a wall. How long did
you think you could hide it?'
Daniel tossed what was left in his hand back into the bag. When his gaze lifted
to the appearance of their floor—despite the speed of the elevator—Jo could
sense she was running out of time. What would it take to get through to him?
'Why
do you think I didn't say anything, Danny?'
It
was a question she would prefer not to answer, but even the softening of her
voice wasn't enough. His shoulders lifted a very visible inch and the knuckles
of the hand holding the bag went white. Ridiculously, it felt as if she was
losing him.
As
the elevator shuddered to a halt he stepped forward and looked her straight in
the eye.
She
lifted her chin. 'I'm not moving.'
Setting his hands on either side of her waist, he simply lifted her out of the
way and set her down at the back of the elevator. When he did Jo dropped her
arms and lost it.
'You
can't avoid me forever!'
As
if it knew not to mess with him, the cage door moved with one sharp tug. The
second he stepped into the hall, he turned and yanked it shut again.
Her
eyes widened. 'What are you—?'
Reaching through the cage, he hit the button to send her back to the ground
floor.
Forget kicking his ass. She was going to kill him.
Back to books
Text Copyright © 2012 by
Trish Wylie Cover Art
Copyright © 2012
by Harlequin Enterprises
Limited
Permission to reproduce text granted by Harlequin Books S.A. Cover art used by
arrangement with Harlequin Enterprises Limited. All rights reserved. ® and ™ are
trademarks owned by Harlequin Enterprises Limited or its affiliated companies,
used under license.
Behind The Scenes
New York's Finest Rebel
is the second in a planned
series of four books and until further notice is officially my all time favourite
story with my all time favourite hero.
It
combines several of my favourite elements: A man in uniform, an uber-confident
heroine, two people who on the surface haven't been able to stand the sight of
each other for years and more than a healthy dose of humour. Basically it had me
at 'hello', or more precisely from the moment a pair of red stiletto's caught
Danny's eye on the stairwell in his new apartment block.
He can be observant that way.
What
shall I tell you about Danny? Oh. Where. To. Begin.
Read the dedication in this book
and you may get an idea of the impact he had, not just on me but on my lovely editor. If you end up
feeling the same way let me know.
Without ruining too much of the story (or leaving myself
with nothing to Blog about come release month), I can tell you Daniel is the youngest of the
four Brannigan brothers first mentioned in
The Inconvenient Laws Of Attraction and as such is third generation
NYPD. Knowing all of the brothers were in the same line of work (and with two
more stories to tell) I wanted to make them as individual as possible.
In Danny's case what I came up with first was he had been the only one of them who
didn't want to be a cop. Instead he joined the Marines at eighteen and it
was after his
father's death he came back to
join the 'family business'. Thing was, he was never quite able to let go of his
'first love' so he has remained a Marine Reserve and at the start of the story
is recently returned from a tour overseas.
My next step was to research
an area of
the NYPD which best suited his character and let me tell you, I spent weeks
of dedicated work on this subject. When I discovered the Emergency Services Unit
(ESU) I knew
I'd found a perfect fit for Danny. If you don't know what these guys do for a
living go Google it. I was seriously impressed!
But
despite the fact I've always wanted to write an NYPD hero story, I have to confess it
wasn't Danny who started this one in my head.
When Jo appeared in Liv and Blake's story she was
fascinating. Not so much because of the one scene she appeared in during
The Inconvenient Laws Of Attraction, but because
of her back-story and the way she became Danny's sister's best friend. How she
had got from where
she was then to where she is at the start of this story sparked my imagination big
time. Why had she been homeless at eighteen? Where was her family? How did the
rest of the Brannigan's react when Liv brought her home? I so wanted to
write her story and was very glad my editor chose it out of the two pitches I
sent her.
What I got with this heroine was
so much more than I'd bargained for. To say she's a handful would be a
HUGE understatement but considering the hero she was paired with she kinda had
to be. In all honesty I have never laughed as much while writing a book as I did
with this one. It also managed to reduce me to a blubbering heap by the last
chapter. Letting go of these characters left a huge gap in my life I'm hoping to
fill with the next Brannigan brother in line. For the record, that's Tyler. I'll
let you know when I have more to share about him...
Location, Location,
Location
Since Danny
starts the story as Jo's arch-nemesis, I wanted to place them somewhere they
were forced to face each other on a daily basis; hence the same apartment block
and coffee shop locations in the first couple of chapters.
Although never
mentioned specifically by name in the book, I pictured their neighbourhood being
along the lines of the
West Village/Bleeker Street area of New York with an apartment building which
could have the old fashioned elevator I so badly wanted them to use.
The chances of finding the kind of elevator I had in mind is highly
unlikely considering modern day health and safety laws, but having been in a
teeny, tiny version of something similar during a visit to Rome a couple of
years ago I've never been able to forget it.
As the story progresses and Danny and Jo's relationship begins to change,
symbolically we begin to open their horizons by literally getting out and about
a bit more. I really wanted to try and give little snapshots of everyday life in
the city; riding the subway, grabbing a soda and a slice of pizza for lunch,
talking a walk in one of the city's many parks. Basically
the same kind of thing I've done-and love doing-during my time there.
Having said that there is a little
more artistic licence laced
through
the reality than the aforementioned imaginary elevator. While all the parks
do of course exist (and yes,
for the eagle-eyed, that is the arch from the opening credits of
Friends), the fairground mentioned in the story may be a little more than can
currently be found on the edge of Central Park.
The carousel, however, I can
promise is definitely there
and I can't tell you how badly I want to take a
spin every time I see it. Carousels were one of my favourite things as a child
(not that I got to sit on one very often) and I think they're something we never
quite out-grow, no matter how scary some of the little wooden horses may look.
That's certainly the case for Jo who takes a great deal of pleasure
out
of the simple, almost child-like joys like a day at a fairground or swinging her skirt as she
waits for a crossing light to change. It also made a nice contrast to Danny's
life as he rescued potential jumpers from bridges and crawled into tight, dark
spaces when walls collapsed.
Both characters
inhabit very different 'worlds', despite living in the same city and I have to
admit that's one of the things I love most about setting stories
in New York. Spend any time there when you come from a tiny village on a small
island and the diversity is one of the first things that hit you. Is it any
wonder so many stories/TV Shows and Movies are set there these days?
Background Music
Despite
how long it took to be able to work while playing music during my last book,
with this story my problem wasn't listening to it. Instead it was finding the right
song. Once I was several chapters in and knew my characters better I decided to
go hunting again and struck gold.
Sometimes I'll discover little
'markers' along the way I like to believe are there to show me I'm on the right
path and that was the case with this track. But instead of finding a song with lyrics
I liked and allowing them to add to the story, I found one which summed up
everything I already knew. No question about it, this was Jo's song in the exact
same way this story started and ended with Jo.
It came from
Take That
and their album The Circus. The track was simply called,
You and the lyrics say it all. Hopefully you'll get why when you read
the story.
"Give
me your hurt if you're feeling pain. Tell me your secrets, I'll keep them safe.
Give me your love mixed up with sin. Every part of everything."
You can order a copy of the album
here
and the only Youtube video of the song I could find is
here.
*All Photographs are used to
give a visible representation of the Authors 'view' and are in no way
representative of the people or places in real life beyond the realms of the
Authors imagination.
Reviews
"Amazing! Loved this book, it
made me laugh, it made me cry, it made my heart hurt and it made it gladden.
Everything a truly great romance should be!"
~ Awarded 5
stars from
Jacquie on Goodreads
"What an awesome book, loved
the breezy style in which it was written & the fun fashionable heroine. The
hero and the heroine had such awesome chemistry."
~ Awarded 5
stars from
Saly on Goodreads
