“You’re killin’ me, here, O’Donnell.”
“You’ll be fine.” She ate a candy and took a drink of coffee and thought of Marya, and how they’d spent part of that amazing Sunday in bed, and how they’d made more coffee and laughed and talked before ending up on the couch doing a lot more than talking. Marya had lingered until the last possible minute, and Ellie’s lips still tingled at the memories. She ached and burned in the best possible ways.
Rick finally answered his desk phone, and Ellie finished a report, trying not to think about how Marya felt naked against her. A flush raced up her thighs, and she took another drink of coffee, as if that would somehow help. Her desk phone rang. She didn’t recognize the number, but it was a local area code.
“O’Donnell,” she answered.
“Hi,” said a very familiar voice. “You need to go to the Pig and Pint this evening and pick something up.”
She smiled. Marya always got right to the point. “Okay. Will do. Anything else?” She could feel Rick’s gaze on her, and she glared at him.
“Yes. But it involves things I’d rather show you in a few days.”
“Sounds good. Talk to you later.”
“Definitely.” She hung up, and Ellie returned the phone to its cradle.
“That wasn’t a business call,” Rick said.
“Yes, it was. My business.”
“Date call,” he said, beaming. “On your work phone? Who is it?”
“Oh, for Christ’s sake. Gwen’s having some people over, and I decided to go.”
“She wouldn’t call you on your work phone.”
“Whatever.”
“I’ll find out,” he said. “I always do.” And he grinned.
“Give it a rest. I’m having drinks with Gwen.” At least, she probably would, at some point in the future. After she took care of this overseas booty call.
“You met somebody at Fashion Forward,” he pressed. “And you didn’t want to give your cell phone out because she might be crazy.”
“Yes. That’s it. I’m going on a date with a potential nutjob, but she’s hot enough that I can overlook the crazy for a night.”
He laughed. “Nothing wrong with a one-nighter. And good for you. She’s more available than Morales, right?”
“Shut up.”
His desk phone rang again before he could tease any more, and Ellie pointedly put her earbuds in, giving him an extra glare, though they both knew she didn’t mean it. Besides, in two hours, she’d be on her way to the Pig and Pint. She pulled up another report.
* * *
Only two tables were full when she entered, but that was to be expected, since it wasn’t even three o’clock yet. Ellie chose a small table in the back and settled in.
“Hi, there. Good to see you again.” The same server from the last time Ellie was here approached with a glass of what looked like whiskey, a menu, and a manila envelope. She put all three on the table. “How are you?”
“Good. You?”
“Excellent. Let me know when you’re ready to order some food.” She winked and went back to the bar.
Ellie picked up the glass first and sipped. Red Breast. She smiled and picked up the envelope, one of those padded jobs. Something in it made it bulge. She opened it and took out a note, what looked like plane tickets, and a flip phone.
She looked at the tickets first and her eyes widened. Athens, Greece, leaving this Friday. The note was written in Marya’s strong, spare print, with no extraneous flourishes. “When you arrive, turn the phone on and text me.” She had included a number and finished with, “No celebrities, no agents, no policies. Just us.”
Oh, hell, yes. She put everything back into the envelope and scanned the menu. The server appeared a few moments after that.
“What are you in the mood for?”
Ellie smiled. All kinds of things, none of which were on the menu. “Club sandwich.”
“Good choice.” She took the menu. “Another drink?”
She considered. “I’ll finish with a Coke.”
The server nodded. “Keeping your wits about you?”
“Something like that.”
“Better than the alternative.” She flashed a smile and went to the kitchen.
Ellie sipped her whiskey and silently toasted internships, undercover ops, and the start of her vacation.
And maybe, just maybe, the start of something else.
###
ABOUT ANDI MARQUETTE
Andi Marquette is a native of New Mexico and Colorado and an award-winning mystery, science fiction, and romance writer. She also has the dubious good fortune to be an editor who spent 15 years working in publishing, a career track that sucked her in while she was completing a doctorate in history.
She is co-editor of All You Can Eat: A Buffet of Lesbian Romance and Erotica, a Lambda finalist, and Order Up: A Menu of Lesbian Romance and Erotica. Her most recent novels include the romances The Secret of Sleepy Hollow, The Bureau of Holiday Affairs, and From the Hat Down.
When she’s not writing novels, novellas, and stories or co-editing anthologies, she serves as both an editor for Luna Station Quarterly, an ezine that features speculative fiction written by women and as co-admin of the popular blogsite Women and Words. When she’s not doing that, well, hopefully she’s managing to get a bit of sleep.
CONNECT WITH ANDI:
Website: www.andimarquette.com
OTHER BOOKS FROM
YLVA PUBLISHING
www.ylva-publishing.com
The Secret of Sleepy Hollow
Andi Marquette
ISBN: 978-3-95533-516-8 (mobi), 978-3-95533-517-5 (epub)
Length: 45,000 words (166 pages)
Tabitha “Abby” Crane, a doctoral student working on her thesis, doesn’t allow herself much time outside academia. Fortunately, she’s managed to squeeze in a research trip over Halloween weekend to the historical society of Sleepy Hollow, New York, where she hopes to uncover new research on the notorious town’s most infamous legend—that of the headless horseman. But she has a personal stake in this trip: Abby’s own ancestor, Ichabod Crane, disappeared mysteriously over two hundred years ago, perhaps at the hands of the ghostly horseman.
Abby has no reason to expect anything of Sleepy Hollow beyond immersing herself in archival collections and enjoying its Halloween festivities, but then she crosses paths with Katie, who makes her head spin and her heart pound. When Katie invites her on a nighttime visit to the glen where the horseman allegedly rides, Abby can’t say no, upending her plans for a quiet research retreat. And when Abby and Katie, who has her own ties to the famous story, find what may be the key to the disappearance of Ichabod Crane all those years ago, love, legend, and magic intermingle, making clear that Sleepy Hollow has plans of its own for yet another Crane.
Requiem for Immortals
Lee Winter
ISBN: 978-3-95533-711-7 (mobi), 978-3-95533-712-4 (epub)
Length: 86,000 words (263 pages)
Professional cellist Natalya Tsvetnenko moves seamlessly among the elite where she fills the souls of symphony patrons with beauty even as she takes the lives of the corrupt of Australia’s ruthless underworld. The cold, exacting assassin is hired to kill a woman who seems so innocent that Natalya can’t understand why anyone would want her dead. As she gets to know her target, she can’t work out why she even cares.
Book one of The Law Game is a dark lesbian thriller with a twist in its tale.
Four Steps
Wendy Hudson
ISBN: 978-3-95533-691-2 (mobi), 978-3-95533-692-9 (epub)
Length: approx. 92,000 words
Alex Ryan lives a simple life. She has her farm in the Scottish countryside, and the self-imposed seclusion suits her until a crime that has haunted her for years tears through the calm and shatters the fragile peace she’d finally managed to find.
Lori Hunter’s greatest love is the mountains. They’re her escape from the constant hustle and bustle of everyday life. Gro
wing up was neither traditional nor easy for Lori, but now she’s beginning to realise she’s settled for both. A dead-end relationship and little to look forward to. Her solution when the suffocation sets in? Run for the hills.
A chance encounter in the mountains of the Scottish Highlands leads Alex and Lori into a whirlwind of heartache and a fight for survival as they build a formidable bond that will be tested to its ultimate limits.
COMING FROM
YLVA PUBLISHING
www.ylva-publishing.com
The Lavender List
Meg Harrington
After the Second World War, Amelia Maldonado opts to live a quiet life bussing tables at a diner during the day and going out for auditions at night. The one bright spot is her friendship with the charming Laura Wright, a well-heeled woman with a mysterious war-related past.
When Laura shows up outside the diner barely conscious and spitting lousy lies, Amelia takes it upon herself to figure out the truth. From mobsters to spies, Amelia quickly finds herself forced back into a world of shadows she thought she’d escaped long ago and thrust into partnership with the one person she’s sure can ruin her—the enigmatic Laura Wright.
If Looks Could Kill
© 2016 by Andi Marquette
ISBN (mobi): 978-3-95533-722-3
ISBN (epub): 978-3-95533-723-0
Also available as paperback.
Published by Ylva Publishing, legal entity of Ylva Verlag, e.Kfr.
Ylva Verlag, e.Kfr.
Owner: Astrid Ohletz
Am Kirschgarten 2
65830 Kriftel
Germany
www.ylva-publishing.com
First edition: 2016
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to locales, events, business establishments, or actual persons—living or dead—is entirely coincidental.
Credits
Edited by Jove Belle
Cover Design by Dirt Road Design
Cover Photo by © Subbotina Anna | Dollar Photo Club
If Looks Could Kill Page 17
