Title: The Black Coach
ISBN: 978-1-62420-311-4
Author: Nickie Fleming
Genre: Gothic Romance
Excerpt Heat Level: 1
Book Heat Level: 3
TAGLINE
The Devil is riding his black coach across the moors of
Yorkshire and hunts virgins. Or is this so?
BLURB
Strange things are happening
in the village of Pickering, Yorkshire. Two girls are found murdered, and there
is talk about strange going-ons at night. Caught in the middle of this turmoil
is Maggie Thompson, an orphan, who needs to fence for herself. Running away
from an employer who maltreated her, she nearly dies during a winter storm. She
is rescued by a man who lives in a nearly abandoned house. Neil Harrington has
his own secrets however. Maggie will have to trust on her feelings to know what
is right or wrong. And she can’t forget there is a killer on the rampage…
EXCERPT
Sometimes I wondered if I looked different to different people.
You know, because not everyone finds the same things attractive, but everyone
thinks I am attractive. So I often wondered if what I saw in the mirror every
day, was what other people saw when they looked at me?
And I'll bet you thought you had an identity crisis.
It's not that it's all bad. It isn't. There are obvious advantages
to all the weird things I can do. I guess the closest thing I could compare it
to, is being a celebrity. Sure they're rich and famous and beautiful, and all
those things are awesome. But they never really know if people want to hang
around with them because they're a nice person or because of all those awesome
things.
Whatever. It didn't matter. My increased heart rate, the warm
feeling I was getting all over, those were just dopamine. Something about Ren
was attractive to me, so my stupid brain was releasing dopamine into my blood
stream and blocking my production of serotonin. Which was why I was having a
hard time forming coherent thoughts.
"Yeah…" was all I could get out. Then I giggled.
I know. GIGGLED.
I cleared my throat and pulled myself together, ready to wow him
with the intelligence I knew existed somewhere under all that hair tossing and
eyelash batting.
I seriously couldn't control it.
Unfortunately, Casey Santoro chose that moment to plop down next
to me. "Amandaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa," she whined. "I think Paul is
cheating on me."
I sighed. Casey always thought her boyfriend Paul was
cheating on her. She was just one of those girls. Which was too bad because she
was otherwise pretty and sweet, with dark hair and big, expressive, almond
shaped eyes. "Casey can this wait? I'm kind of busy."
"Noooooooooo, Amanda, I'm seriously worried!"
No Casey. You are seriously insecure.
But I couldn't say that.
I looked at Ren. "Sorry."
"It's okay," he said amiably.
I turned back to Casey. "What happened?" I noticed Ren
watching me out of the corner of my eye.
"I came out of English last period and I saw him talking to
Amy Morningwood. She wrote something down on a piece of paper and gave it to
him. I think it was her number," she moaned.
"Casey, Paul and Amy are doing a class project together. I
know because Kristy is in that same class. I'm sure whatever Amy wrote down had
something to do with that."
"Ohmigod, are you sure Amanda?" she said.
"Pretty sure."
"Oh thank God! Thank you so much, I feel so much
better." She looked over and seemed to notice Ren for the first time.
"Oh hi, I'm sorry, I'm Casey," she said.
"Ren," he said nodding, an amused look on his face.
"Anyway, I didn't mean to interrupt you guys, sorry,"
she said and took off.
I rubbed my forehead, feeling a headache coming on.
"Do your friends do that to you a lot?" Ren asked.
"Not just my friends. Everyone does it."
"Why?"
I sighed. "Freshman year, I helped Jody Beckett, this dorky
senior girl, get together with Kyle Manning, the most popular boy in
school." There was some love spit involved, but I left that part out.
"Ah and you've been Miss Lonely-hearts ever since."
"Pretty much. Well minus the advice column, the drinking and
the adultery."
"Good to know," he laughed as the bell rang. "So
what are you doing for lunch?"
"I have a Winter Carnival meeting."
"What's that?"
"Every year for Valentine's Day the cheerleaders put on this
carnival to raise money for charity. We have a few weeks left and we're kind of
behind."
"You're a cheerleader?"
"Don't tell me you're one of those types who doesn't like
cheerleaders?" I hope. Wait, no I don't care. No I do. Not.
"Not at all," he said, smiling.
I sighed with relief. On the inside. I think.
"Well, have fun, I'll see you around," he said
pleasantly.
"I'll sext you later."
He gave me a funny look. "Oh God!" I felt sick with
embarrassment. "I was thinking of saying 'see you next period' but
then I just decided to say 'see you later' and 'see' and 'next' somehow
combined into…'sext…' oh God…"
"Not the worst thing for a pretty girl to say to me," he
laughed and headed out.
My chest ached a little after he was out of sight. Oh God… was I
having… feelings for Ren?
~ * ~
"Okay so everybody
needs to sign up for at least one shift at one of the booths," Mrs. Solis,
our faculty advisor, told the room.
I liked Mrs. Solis because she was real with me. Every once in a
blue moon someone comes along that is immune to my Charisma. Mrs. Solis was the
only person at school who wasn't affected by my charms, so I relied on her for
straight shooting. The upside and downside of her immunity was she treated me
like she treated everyone, which was kind of crappy.
The Varsity, Junior Varsity and Freshman squads were packed into
Mrs. Solis' small classroom. We were all sitting kind of close and Hilary
Hudson kept giving me these uncomfortably intense looks from where she sat
across from me. Damn pheromones, they worked based on attraction and since
Hilary enjoyed the romantic company of the fairer sex, I was exerting a pull on
her.
I made sure not to make eye contact and instead focused on the
math worksheet I was secretly working on. Unfortunately, some people were more
susceptible to my pheromones than others.
Sometimes if the person was sensitive enough, they could pull a 'Kevin
Friedman' without my even kissing them. I had never experienced this thank God,
but Phil had.
"Who wants to work the funny photo booth?" Mrs. Solis
asked the room.
"I'll do it," I heard Angela say. I was keeping my head
down still because I could feel Hilary's eyes on me.
"Me too," piped in Jessica Johnson.
Mrs. Solis nodded. "Okay, the dunk tank?"
This went on for I didn't even know how much longer. I lost track
of time after I peered up to see if Hilary was still staring, to have her lick
her teeth at me. I'd always thought Phil was just being a homophobe, but it was
actually really uncomfortable. Though truth be told if a guy licked his teeth
at me it would've been just as creepy. I'd never understood the appeal of 'tooth-licking'.
"Okay Amoretto looks like you're the only one left."
"Wait, what?" I asked confused. I hadn't absorbed
anything anyone had said for the past few minutes.
"You're working the kissing booth."
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