MIDWEEK TEASE~7~

Happy Hump Day and welcome to this week's tease! Midweek Tease is put together each week by the wonderful Angelica Dawson where we all get to share a small slice of a published book or a work in progress. Comments are encouraged and most welcome! :)  

This week's tease comes from my book Dating 911. My nurse, Roxanne Carter, finds herself in a bit of a predicament....

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Unyielding hands suddenly yanked her onto the gurney, her arms pinned between her body and Ralph’s chest.

Her expelled breath exploded in a muffled “oommf”. With wide eyes, she stared down into Ralph’s lecherous face. He was definitely awake, and a lot stronger than she would’ve imagined.

“Ralph. Let me go,” she said through gritted teeth, trying to breathe through her mouth so she wouldn’t hurl.

“Sure, sugar, after you give me a little kiss.” His words slurred and his fetid breath fanned her face as he spoke. Dry cracked lips puckered as he levered his head toward hers.

She reared back as far as possible within his firm grasp, and twisted her head. His sticky kiss met her neck. Revulsion clawed her skin. Dodging his torpedo tongue by rotating her head back and forth, she called for help. Ralph was still drunk. Experience with drunks in the ER had taught her he wouldn’t listen to her commands while still under the influence.

Just when she thought things couldn’t get worse, his free hand stroked down her back and rested on her butt.

“Now, Ralph, you need to let me go. You’ve had too much to drink and are in the emergency room. I’m trying to help you.”

God, how could I have been so stupid as to let my mind wander off my work?

He squeezed her bottom.

“Oh!” Crap! She needed a new plan—-and fast.

“Can I be of assistance?” a familiar baritone drawled.

Another swoop of Ralph’s mouth had her on the defensive before she could glance at the doorway. “What do you think?” she snapped. “Could you hurry?”

“Well, I’d be happy to come to your rescue. But what’s in it for me?”

Shock infused her system. Her head veered toward the cool voice filled with laughter. She stiffened. Jett leaned against the door jam. Helmet under his arm, face smeared with soot, he must have had a recent battle with a fire, but his deep grey eyes danced with mischief.

This was her savior? Lord, help her!

Diverted by the sight of Jett, Ralph licked a trail of slime from the side of her neck to her ear. She shuddered even as bile rose. Roxanne swallowed—-hard.

Yuck! This was all Jett’s fault. If he hadn’t distracted her in the first place, her attention wouldn’t have strayed from her work.

“Listen,” she said through clenched teeth. “Isn’t it your job to serve and protect? Get over here and get me off him, or call someone who will.”

“That’d be the police, sweetheart.” He chuckled. “The motto of the PFD is ‘Survive, Prevent Harm and Be Nice’. I might be persuaded to be nice and get you out of your dilemma on one condition,” he said in his slow, lazy drawl. “Have dinner with me.”

“What?” She dodged another amorous advance of Ralph’s lips, and twisted again to glare at Jett. He’d moved from the doorway and slowly advanced toward them. Hope flared.

“A woman in your position can’t be too picky in your choice of rescuers. Take me, babe, or leave me. Isn’t one dinner worth the price of your freedom?”

His words doused the kernel of hope before the emotion had taken root. “Forget it,” she stated flatly. “Cruz!”

“Sorry, but my brother is outside in the ambulance bay with a truck that rolled in hot, red lights and all, along with the rest of the available staff. Code three, I think. I’m all you’ve got. But, hey!” He shrugged and turned to leave. “I know when I’m not wanted. I’m not a completely heartless bastard. I’ll let someone know about your trouble with old Ralph. They’ll get in here…eventually.”

Another squeeze to her backside from Ralph’s wandering hand changed her mind. “Wait! Don’t go!” Panic heightened her anxiety. Her heart thumped against her ribcage, and her breath came in short pants. She continued to struggle against Ralph’s ardent advances. “I’ll have dinner with you. Just get his hands off me.”

Jett turned and advanced on the gurney. Roxanne held her breath expectantly.

“Listen, man. You’ve got a hold of my woman. My baby only kisses me. Right, honey?” With a wink, Jett easily disengaged her from Ralph’s passionate embrace and draped a possessive arm around her waist. Heat from his palm seeped into her scrubs and singed her skin.

My woman? My baby?

She wiped at the drool stuck to the side of her face and neck, shuddering. Sidestepping out of Jett’s enthusiastic embrace, she whirled on Ralph to make sure he was still safe on the gurney.

Seemingly exhausted from his zealous effort, he held his arms toward her. “Come here, darlin’,” he slurred. “I need you.”

“What you need, buddy, is to dry out. Now lie back and behave,” she said in a stern tone. Placing a palm on his chest, Roxanne shoved with just enough force to ease him back into a prone position.

He slumped against the pillow and sighed. A half-smile curved his lips. She shed her gloves, straightened her scrubs, and rushed to the sink to wash away Ralph’s enthusiastic affection. A masculine chuckle reminded her of her “savior’s” presence. She met his gaze in the mirror. Grey eyes twinkled with amusement, triggering her anger.

“Is that the fastest you move? It’s a good thing I wasn’t in a raging inferno, or I’d be dead!” she whirled around and plunked her hands on her hips.

Jett’s charming mask slipped for a fraction of a second. He recovered, casting her a cool smile complete with eyebrow wiggle. “All I need to know is what time to pick you up tonight, sweetheart.”
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BLURB
Emergency room nurse, Roxanne Carter is a loser-magnet wishing she could enjoy her single life. Commiserating with girlfriends over butterscotch martinis creates the idea of The Dating Manifesto—a not so scientific research project which promises to point the way to dating success. While gathering data to find the most suitable single men available, she wades through a series of unsavory, stale dates, which literally places her back at ground zero. Just when she is ready to give up, sin personified in the form of sexy firefighter Jett Avery, arrives tainting all of her previous data.

A traumatic warehouse fire, in which firefighter Jett Avery's closest friend dies, has him suffering from Posttraumtic Stress Disorder. Attempting to stave off the worst of his depression, he decides to use his brand of therapy...Sex. The remedy has lost luster until he encounters ER nurse Roxanne Carter. 

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Dating 911 available here: https://www.amazon.com/Dating-911-Kathleen-Grieve-ebook/dp/B005UQ3KYC/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1482305834&sr=8-2&keywords=dating+911

That's all I have for now! Please stop by and heat up your Hump Day with the rest of this week's Teases. See the link below.  

Kathleen 💋