Read Outmatched in October (Spring River Valley Book 10) Online
Authors: Clarice Wynter
Outmatched in October (Spring River Valley Book 10) (11 page)
THE END
And in
November 2013
It’s clear to Danielle Lennox that handsome veterinarian Taylor Croft is still on the rebound. That doesn’t stop her from wanting to make more than music with him when she joins his after-hours band.
Dani is ready to play naughty if that’s what it takes, but Taylor isn’t a one-night performance, and he’s looking for commitment.
Can he tame her wild spirit enough to settle down before they both end up singing the blues?
NAUGHTY IN NOVEMBER
Chapter One
Danielle Lennox hitched up her skirt and crossed her legs at the knee, letting one of her stiletto-heeled suede boots dangle impatiently. She glanced at her watch, and then transferred her gaze to her handsome companion.
He rolled his dark eyes in sympathy.
“How long does it take to find a fuse?” she asked, nodding toward the door that separated their rehearsal space, the back room of the music store on West Denton Avenue, from a small storage room.
“Apparently longer than ten minutes.” Taylor Croft didn’t look at this own watch. He just leaned back in the folding chair in which he sat behind his electric keyboard and laced his long fingers behind his head.
If Dani hadn’t been so impatient to get back to their evening rehearsal, she would have taken more time to appreciate the play of muscles under Taylor’s tight blue t-shirt and the way a day’s growth of stubble shadowed his chiseled jaw line. But she’d been doing enough daydreaming about her new band mate lately, and the way she was going to get through the rest of this rehearsal would be to keep her mind on their objective, to practice songs for their Friday night gig at Colette’s Pub down the street.
That plan had been working passably well until ten minutes ago, when the other two members of Love Notes, singer Claudia Galvin and their ‘manager’ guitarist Owen DeWitt, had discovered a faulty fuse in an amplifier. The two had gone into the storage room to find a replacement, and they hadn’t been seen since.
“Shouldn’t we check on them?” Dani crossed her arms over her chest and bounced her foot in time to her growing irritation. She certainly didn’t begrudge the newly forged lovers some sneaky alone time. In fact, she thought it was really quite romantic and much better than watching them make goo-goo eyes at each other through every sappy love song they played. What bothered her more was, in the month since Owen had invited her to join their after-hours band, she’d been sending very clear signals to Taylor that she was up for some sneaky alone time with
him
, and he still remained charmingly, maddeningly clueless.
“I could play the wedding march. That might give them a hint.” Taylor smirked, and Dani’s pulse jumped. Dr. Croft, D.V.M. was Spring River Valley’s resident veterinarian by day and the star of her lusty fantasies by night. Ever since she’d first seen him perform with Owen and Claudia at Colette’s, she’d been dying to get to know him better.
Auditioning for Love Notes, the band Owen had named after the music store he managed, had given her the chance to meet Taylor, but she hadn’t yet figured out the perfect way to seduce him.
Cooling her heels while Claudia and Owen got it on in the store room was not helping, mostly because it didn’t seem to be giving Taylor any romantic ideas.
“Why don’t we just knock on the door and tell them to keep their hands to themselves and get out here?” she asked.
“I have an idea.” Taylor pumped up the volume on his own amplifier, stretched his skillful fingers over the keyboard and coaxed a few bars of the
Jeopardy
theme song out of the instrument.
There was some noise from the store room in response, and a second later the door finally opened.
Claudia emerged first, her dark wavy hair in disarray. Owen followed, surreptitiously tucking the tails of his button-down shirt back into his pants.
Now Dani rolled her eyes. It just wasn’t fair. “Did you two find that spare fuse?” she asked, in wide-eyed innocence.
Owen glanced at Claudia, who had the decency to look contrite. “Um…no. We don’t have a spare,” he said.
“Unless there’s one way back in the—”
“We could go check again,” Owen interrupted Claudia.
Dani rose and planted her boots firmly on the linoleum. “That’s okay. It’s getting late anyway. I was going to suggest we call it a night.”
The two lovebirds looked relieved, and they grinned slyly at each other. Dani would have loved to suggest they get a room, but they probably already had one. She plucked her coat from the back of her own chair and shifted her gaze back to Taylor. “I’m going to get some air. Buy a girl a cuppa coffee?” That was a start. Maybe she needed to warm up her cool bachelor from the inside out.
Her heart stuttered when he nodded. “I could use some caffeine, actually. I’ve got some files to go over before I call it a night.”
She smiled indulgently at Claudia and Owen and slipped on her coat. “I’ll meet you outside then,” she said before letting herself out of the back room. If getting Taylor to agree to late night coffee was first base, then making him forget all about his paperwork was a home run, one that she planned to score before the evening was over.
Considering herself the third of two voices, Clarice Wynter is the contemporary romance alter ego of a multi-published paranormal and science fiction romance author. She lives in the Tri-State area with her husband and her children and a trio of cats.
To learn more about
Clarice and her books visit her website and blog:
Look for the rest of the Spring River Valley Series-to be released throughout 2013
Jilted in January
Fixed up in February
Mixed up in March
An Affair in April
Matched up in May
Jaded in June
Jealous in July
Awakened in August
Seduced in September
Outmatched in October
Naughty in November
Desired in December