Hope Entangles: A New Adult Romantic Comedy (Book 2 of 3) by Alice Bello Read Free Book Online Page B

going to be there, and we’ve got five
Amazon and New York Times bestselling authors coming, all
interested in signing on with us!”
    My account loaded up, and I clicked on
my last email from Janine, sent late last night.
    Oh… my… god…
    She had Sheryl Helms, Casey Wagoner,
Leta Storm, Carla Vaughn and… dear mother of god—Terra Banks…
coming to an open house.
    Crap on toast…
    I had to force myself to breathe.
“W-why do you need me?”
    Janine chuckled. “Because of your
Olivia Lovelace cover, sweetie.”
    Oh, I didn’t like it when she called me
sweetie. It always heralded bad news.
    “ It doesn’t even come out
until next week,” I protested.
    “ Yeah, yeah, yeah… but
between the advance reviews popping up all over the internet and
review blogs, and the amazing pre-order sales on all the major
distributors, it’s already in the top ten.”
    “ That’s fantastic… but what
has that to do with me?”
    Janine snorted. “Sweetie, every single
reviewer has commented on the cover. Said it’s the most erotic
piece of cover art they’ve ever seen. Said they’d buy the book just
to be able to stare at him!”
    Oh…
    I felt myself sag in my chair. They
wanted the cover artist who made that photo…
    And there truthfully wasn’t
one.
    I felt tears start to burn in my eyes,
and pure, undiluted shame rose up in me.
    I was a fraud, wasn’t I?
    Sure I could shoot a good,
sexy hot cover… but could I ever— ever —shoot an image like that
one?
    I closed my eyes and felt my
self-confidence puddle on the floor.
    “ Do you think you could get
that gorgeous hunk of man to come with you?”
    I was about to ask “What man?” when it
hit me she was talking about Jake.
    “ No, Janine. He is no longer
available for sittings.” And wasn’t that the understatement of the
century. Even if I could face him, he’d probably spit in my
face.
    Do people still do that?
    Gross.
    “ Well, I’m sure you’ll be
able to pull off more covers like that one. Plus, look at all those
fantastic covers you’ve done for us. I mean, Olivia didn’t like
those bed shots… with the two cute as molten sin blonds, but ever
since I put them on that New Adult cover for Lorna Carr’s new
novel, it’s been selling three times her usual sales
figures.”
    I drew in a clean breath on that one.
At least Janine and company still liked my actual, real work. I
looked at my laptop screen. The pic of Billy practically smoldered
there on the screen. I picked a suitably gothic font, in tarnished
silver, and typed in the title and author name.
    Looked pretty damn good. So I loaded it
up and emailed it to Janine.
    “ I’m sending you the Big Bad
Wolf cover now. It’s only a preliminary. I can always change
it—”
    Janine gasped on the other end of the
connection, and from the clattering sound—and the breathless string
of curse words she employed—I think she dropped the
phone.
    That had to be a good sign… well,
unless she was agape with shock because maybe Billy was her nephew,
or best friend from high school’s son…
    I cringed. All of those potential
reasons would be just horrible to live through.
    I heard her trying to grab the phone,
and then she started talking before she even had the thing up to
her ear.
    “ I can’t freaking believe
it!”
    Still, I couldn’t tell if she was
thrilled or angry.
    “ So, do you like it?” I
ventured.
    “ Like it? I fucking love it!
My god, that gorgeous young man is going to sell the shit out of
that book.” I could hear her fanning herself with something,
knowing her, it was someone’s writer’s contract.
    I smiled. She liked it… hell, she’d
practically had an orgasm over it.
    “ Now, sweetie,” and there’s
that sweetie again! I wasn’t out of the woods yet. “This one isn’t
a one shot guy too, is he?”
    I blinked. “Um, no. He’s local and
would probably pose for me again.” I didn’t tell her I already had
a few great shots left.
    “ Oh, good. Because