By popular demand, here's excerpt #2 of my upcoming release, Anticipation. Direct continuation from the first one! Hope you enjoy!



Anticipation by Sarah Mayberry

Chapter One cont'd:



His hand felt extraordinarily hot against her bare skin and she had to resist the urge to shake him off. He touched her all the time - casually, platonically - and usually she welcomed the easy, casual affection behind his gestures. Tonight, though…

“I have an appointment,” she said, gazing up at him. 

He’d let his dark brown hair grow so long the ends where only an inch from his shoulders. His clear green eyes were steady on her face.

“I thought we’d kick on to Subterrain, or maybe Mojo,” he said. 

“You mean you assumed we would.” 

“Come on, Blue, don’t give me a hard time. I need to dance. And not to this shitty teen crap.”

“I’m busy.” She gestured for him to get out of the way. 

“Cancel whatever it is and come dancing with me.” He gave her his best wicked-naughty smile, the one that had charmed countless women out of their underwear.

“Let me get this straight - you pretty much ignore me for the last two months except for when we’re at work, but now I’m supposed to drop everything because you suddenly want to party?”

Eddie had the grace to look a little shamefaced. “You’re seriously going to give me a hard time over Denise?”

“Yeah, Eddie, I am.” She lifted her chin, daring him to try to sweep his shitty behaviour under the rug.

“She was jealous. You know how it goes,” he said. 

“Of course I know how it goes. Doesn’t mean you being a douche bag is okay.”

Because Eddie’s girlfriends were always either jealous of her, or wanted to be her new best friend, the world’s most obvious neutralise-the-perceived-threat gambit and one she’d long since learned to side-step. 

“You’re right, I’m sorry. I was trying to do the right thing.”

“The right thing by whom?” She could hear the bite beneath her own words and hated herself for it. She wasn’t an abandoned puppy, whining for her master’s attention. Just because she loved Eddie didn’t mean she was his doormat. She had her own life, her own needs and wants and ambitions, and the day she forgot that was the day she took a long walk off a short pier. “You know what? Forget about it. I’m sure the blonde will go to Subterrain with you.”

“Blue. Come on.”

His other hand landed on her opposite shoulder, stopping her from leaving. She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him. She wasn’t giving in on this. She had her self respect.

“I’m not some toy you can pick up and put down when it suits you. I’m a person. I’m supposed to be your friend.”

“You really want to get into this?”

“No.” 

But she didn’t move, and neither did he. She clenched her jaw, holding back the rush of words suddenly crowding her throat. No way was she telling him how much she’d missed him. How much he’d hurt her with his benign, casual neglect. No freaking way. 

“I’m sorry,” he said after a long beat. “I should have just told her to get over it.”

He was sincere, she could see it in his eyes. She could feel herself wavering, and when he slid his hand from her shoulder around to the back of her neck, she softened even more. 

“I’m a dumb asshole, and I really am sorry. You know I couldn’t live without you,” he said, his voice rough and low with emotion. 

Every inch of her was aware of the place where his palm was pressed to the nape of her neck. He was standing so close, she could smell his deodorant and the warm scent of his skin. 

“Don’t do it again,” she said, her voice just as rough and low as his.

“I won’t. Scout’s honor.”

“Like you were ever a Scout.”

“I like to camp. That counts.”

She aimed a finger at him, stabbing him in the chest with it. “Don’t try to be charming. I’m not one of your women.”

Which was the whole point, really. 

He did his best to look suitably chastened. “So, you want to grab a cab now or hang out here a bit more before we kick on?”

She blinked. Was he serious? Had he not heard a word she’d said?  

“I told you, I have other plans.” And she wasn’t going to drop everything just because he’d crooked his little finger, apology or no apology.

“To do what?”

“To have my brains fucked out.”

His hand slid away from her nape. “Tell me you’re not hooking up with that asshole.”

“Could you be more specific?”

“Reid.” He said the single word with a pronounced, very Brazilian curl of his lip.

“None of your business.”

He frowned. They knew each other too well for him to read her evasion as anything other than assent. 

“The guy is trouble, Blue.”

“I’m not marrying him. There’s no need for you to get your panties in a wad.”

She knew why Eddie was worried - they were both privy to the talk that floated around Brother’s Ink, the tattoo studio Rafel and Eduardo owned together. She’d heard the rumours that Reid was connected to the local biker gang, but what did that matter to her? The only part of him she was interested in was his body, and then only for the next few hours. 

“Can you not be a smart ass for five seconds? The guy is bad news.” His accent was more pronounced, a sure sign he was getting worked up.  

“I can run my own private life, thanks.”

She shouldered past him but knew without looking that he followed her into the street. It was cold out, a typical mid-winter Melbourne night, the wind sharp as a knife. Eddie caught the collar of her denim jacket as she tried to shrug into it, jerking it away from her.

“Will you listen to me?”

She spun toward him, all the hurt of the past few months welling up inside her. “No, I won’t. You’ve been AWOL from my life for three months, Eddie. You don’t get to throw your weight around when you haven’t been around.”

“Fine. Be shitty with me, do whatever you need to do. But stay away from Reid, okay? Promise me.”

There was so much fierce protection in his eyes. If his sister hadn’t died young, Blue imagined he’d have been like this with her, too. Determined to save her from herself. 

For some reason it made her even madder. He was such an infuriating, self-indulgent, lazy, arrogant prick sometimes.

“You worry about your own sex life. God knows it’s enough of a disaster zone.”

“This isn’t about me.”

She pulled her jacket from his grasp and slipped into it. “I can look after myself.”

Eddie knew that better than most, which made this stupid big brother routine even more laughable. 

“Go find that blonde. Odds are good she’ll do anything you tell her to,” she told him before turning away. 

The traffic cleared for a brief moment and she stepped out into the street. She could feel Eddie watching her, could feel the gravitational pull of his disapproval and anger and concern, but she didn’t so much as glance back. She was too pissed with him, for too many reasons to count.  

A car had stopped on the other side of the road, signal blinking as the driver waited for a parking spot to become available. Blue darted over the white line in the centre of the road, aiming to cut in front of the stationary car. She was in the middle of the lane when she heard the loud roar of a motorcycle engine. Instinct snapped her head around. 

A single headlight bore down on her so fast she barely had time to register it.

And then the world went black.