“C’mon Reynauld, you’re already in fryin’ water. Where’re ya going?”
Ryan veered around his bodyguard, dodged an ugly silver car doing a bad job of parallel parking, and jogged across the street. Daws would stay on his heels even if he was late, and Mac could wait. What choice did he have? Ryan paid for his time.
He stopped in the middle of the sidewalk to peer up at the office building. The height made him cringe. It wasn’t even one of Manhattan’s taller buildings. Seven stories. Tall enough.
“What is up with you today?” Daws stopped at his side. “You’re edgy as hell and you’ve seen this building a thousand times. What is so fascinating?”
“Not sure. Maybe nothing.” He strode a wide angle around a couple of girls heading his way as they eyed him, pushed through the glass doors, and slid between a crowd of business suits and briefcases. It reminded him of a mud-covered pig rooting through tight-assed penguins. Grinning at the thought, he decided to hold it in his mind to use later.
Daws cut him off. “The paycheck is that way.”
“And what are you going to do? Throw me over your shoulder and make me go? Come on, lighten up. I’ll only be a minute.” He feigned anger at the body blockade. “Either get out of my way or come with me. There’s something I gotta do.”
“Something you can’t do across the street where you’re supposed to be?”
With an eye on where the girls he’d avoided were descending and joining forces with a few more, Ryan shifted out of their vision as much as possible. “Not unless you can pick this building up and move it over there. Might get kinda messy, though.”
Daws crossed his arms in front of his chest. “I’m not one of your flattering fans who thinks you’re hysterical. You’re holding everyone up and no matter who you are, their time matters…”
Ryan ignored the rant and ducked around to sprint toward the elevator. He called for someone to hold it when it started to close. Stares answered and relief showed on a suit’s face just before the door clenched tight. “Great. Guess we do the stairs.”
“Let it go, Reynauld. I promise if you’re good and play nice, I’ll bring you back after work.”
“Funny. We’re getting a crowd, you know. The more we delay, the more there’ll be and I’m not giving in.” Ryan noted the glower and did his best not to smile while near-sprinting toward the stairwell.
If you’ve been following my blog this week, you’ll recognize Daws from Moondrops & Thistles. He’s my Army Sergeant, now turned bodyguard for young pop star Ryan Reynauld. If you read Moondrops & Thistles, you’ll understand why he is now Ryan’s bodyguard and why he puts up with his antics. You’ll be ahead of Ryan, then, since he doesn’t know.
Off The Moon started as something entirely different than what it became. I sometimes let my stories do that: decide what they need to be despite what I wanted. I started with the idea of a young woman who is afraid to talk to people. As I started to develop the idea, Ryan popped his head in and kind of took over, ignoring what I wanted him to do and doing what he needed to do. He does that. I had to like him, anyway.
So this one is entirely from Ryan’s POV. When he continues to ignore Daws in the scene above, he finds Kaitlyn standing on a window ledge … uh, watching pigeons. Daws isn’t a fan of pigeons. Ryan isn’t a fan of heights. He’s terrified of heights.
His world abruptly changes. (That happens to some men when that meet ‘that’ girl, doesn’t it?) For Ryan, it gets pretty intense. It gets intense enough I recommend this one only for 17 and older. (Ryan’s language isn’t so nice at times, either, as is rather typical for… well, it’s true to his character).
Of f The Moon either yanks readers right in and holds them tight till the end, or makes them throw it across the room. At least, I figure that’s what happens when a reader tells me at the beginning she just loves it and I suddenly hear nothing more about it. It’s probably hidden in a corner underneath cobwebs. Ryan’s okay with spiders, as far as I know. For those who did finish it enough to leave a review, you can find them on the novel’s site and let them tell you what they thought. Granted, there are controversial issues. Ryan is often more an anti-hero than a hero. But he’s young. He has growing to do. And he finds a way to do that.
Of course, you can give it a try yourself, since it’s only $2.96 this week (only through Saturday at midnight!) at Smashwords. See whether it holds you in or collects spiderwebs. (Okay, I guess the ebook version won’t do that. I don’t recommend throwing an ereader across the room, not that I would do that to a book, either. But you get the drift. Drift. Water. Boats…) Ryan adores boats.
He forced his voice not to shake as he had practiced a bazillion times at the start of his career. “Is the view nice up here? Myself, I prefer the ocean view. You know, ’cause if I fall in the ocean, I can swim. I’ve yet to learn how to fly, though. But hey, to each his own, right?” He got nothing but a stare. “I bet it’s cool to watch everyone down there scurry like ants. I don’t have the nerve to look myself. Heights aren’t my thing. But hey, describe it for me. I’m visual. I’ll get it from what you say.”
Her eyes remained on his, wary. She said nothing.
“How about if you come this way more so I can hear you better? I haven’t heard a word yet.”
When he reached a hand toward her, she slid farther from him. He pulled it down. “Hey, it’s okay. I’ll listen harder. I’m Ryan. I’m supposed to be at work across the street but decided to check out your place first. Glad I did. I don’t often get to meet anyone who goes to extremes to be alone as much as I do. It’s quiet out here, huh? Well, not so much since I’m annoying you and you can tell me to go away if you want. I know how it is.” Complaining to himself about sounding so stupid, Ryan heard Daws return and tried to wave him away.
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