Spotlight & Giveaway: Recklessly Ever After by Heather Van Fleet

Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Heather Van Fleet to HJ!

Hi Heather and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, Recklessly Ever After!

If your book was optioned for a movie, what scene would you use for the audition of the main characters and why?

Every author dreams of their books being made into a movie. I’d be lying to say if I wasn’t one of them.
Today, I’m going to share with you all a scene from Recklessly Ever After, that I would most definitely ask to be used during auditions if a Recklessly Ever After movie happened.
 
This is part of the first chapter. And nothing says chemistry like forced proximity…in a broken down elevator, right?
 
My random question to you all is, what would YOU do if you just so happened to be stranded in an elevator with a sexy-as-sin, former Marine with claustrophobia?
Me? Well, I’d likely channel my inner Kenna.

Getting stuck in an elevator with the sexy blond you’ve been fantasizing about for months should have been a dream come true. But for me, it was a damn nightmare.
Standing before me, dressed in a pair of blue, cloud-patterned scrubs, McKenna Brewer put her hands on my forearms and spoke to me as if I were a kid. “Just breathe, Gavin. I promise we won’t be in here long. In through your nose, out through your—”
My throat burned as I growled out the words. “I’m fine.”
“Let’s at least get this off you.” The back of her knuckles grazed my chest as she tugged on the ties of my hoodie. “You’re sweating and—”
“Don’t touch me.” I nudged her out of the way with my shoulder, then moved to the other side of the hospital elevator. There, I pressed my forehead against the wall, silently begging for this to be over.
I’m surprised she even remembered who I was, since we hadn’t seen each other in a few months. That tended to happen when you were a recluse like me. Collin and Max, my best friends, both said I had issues—which I didn’t deny. But really, it was the introvert in me that avoided crowds and going out. Plain and simple? I just didn’t like people. When I did see McKenna, I avoided her. It’s not that I didn’t like her. I just had no idea what to say when I was around her. She made me feel things. Weird things. Things I’d avoided for years. Things I was dying to experience but had no idea how to let myself do.
Her small hand settled against my lower back. I jumped at the unexpected touch, ramming my dick against the metal bar halfway down the wall.
“Son of a bitch.” I curled over at the waist, my hand on my crotch.
“Oh God. Are you okay?”
I turned to face her, teeth gritted. “Been…better.”
“Is anything fractured? Do you need me to take a look?”
“Not unless you wanna see my dick,” I snorted through my wince.
“Huh?” She jerked her head back, eyes narrowed.
“Never mind,” I barked, not meaning to. But nothing said claustrophobia like a clingy nurse—good intentions or not. “Just…stay back and give me a sec, all right?” I paused for a minute before adding hastily, “Please.”
Her eyes flashed between my crotch and my hands, widening in surprise. “Ohhh.”
“Yep.” I popped my lips and waited for the pain to ease, eyes to the ceiling, heart racing too quickly. Sweat beaded along my temples, and I shut my eyes, imagining myself in a safe place.
The psychiatrist had told me to go there mentally whenever I had one of these…these episodes. The irony is that the place where I always went was with the woman standing right there in front of me. Fucking hilarious how fate worked sometimes. McKenna had been the star of my dreams for God only knew how many months. I’d done my best to keep my distance until I was right enough in the head to make a move. Or at least I’d tried to. But there I was, freaking out in front of her. Max had been right when he’d told me I didn’t have game.
I stepped back, only to slide to the floor against the wall. “Fuck me,” I mumbled under my breath, hands in my hair. I was a damn mess.
“I called for help.” A few feet away, McKenna crouched to the floor, her white orthopedic shoes coming into view. “It shouldn’t be that much longer. Heck, maybe it will be a simple factory reset, and they won’t even have to call the fire department.”
I nodded, unconvinced. A minute passed. Then two. I was counting the silent seconds in my head.
“Is your, um, stuff okay?”
I looked up at her question, finding her bottom lip pulled between her teeth. “My stuff?” She nodded, eyes shifting briefly to my crotch again. “My dick, you mean.”
Her lips curled into a half grin. “There are more suitable terms to use in front of a lady, you know.”
“Guess I’m not a suitable kind of man.” I propped a knee up, wincing, then leaned over on one hip and rubbed my hand over my chest. My dick was the least of my problems right now.
McKenna sat next to me, still managing to keep some distance between us, thank God. I respected that about her. Typically, when I was having one of my moments, people tended to crowd around more, which usually ended with me causing a scene.
“You don’t have to be suitable to say suitable things. Trust me.” She winked.
I grunted and leaned my cheek against the cold wall, eyes locking with hers. My chest grew tighter with every breath, but hearing her talk? It helped.
“For example, a more appropriate term for your stuff would be ‘penis.’”
I lifted a brow. “You really gonna do this now?”
She nodded quickly, and hair from her short ponytail fell over her forehead and nose. She blew the strands away, but they landed in the same spot. She’d cut her hair since I’d seen her last.
“Yes. I am, actually.” She rolled her shoulders—one, then the other, only to fling her arms out in front of her and wiggle her fingers. My lips twitched as I watched her. Damn cute is what she was. “There’s ‘member,’ ‘groin,’ and ‘wiener’— although that one might be crossing the line as far as suitable goes. Then there’s ‘manhood.’ That’s always been my favorite.”
I frowned. Was she serious? Or was she fucking with me?
“Oh! ‘Endowment’ is a good one too.” She crossed her legs, only to flap them up and down like wings. Her energy level was contagious, like Chloe’s when she couldn’t sit still.
At the thought of my friend’s daughter, my chest eased a little.
“I’d prefer to call it my disco stick,” I mumbled.
“Of course you would.” McKenna rolled her pretty blue eyes. “But from my standpoint, I don’t necessarily like pet names for the peen.”
I frowned. “You just called it a peen. Isn’t that a pet name?”
She shrugged. “It’s better than ‘beef whistler,’ ‘wing dang doodle,’ ‘zipper ripper,’ or the ‘just-in beaver,’ am I right?”
“Did you just call my dick Justin Bieber?”
“No, silly. It’s the ‘Just. In. Beaver.’” She grinned. Not a hint of a blush covered her cheeks. This girl was shameless.
“Damn. You’re something.”
“Something good, I hope.” She shimmied in place. I couldn’t help but grin, loving the way her nose scrunched up as she spoke, but then things went quiet again, reminding me where we were.
I rubbed a hand over my newly grown beard just as a creak and a thud sounded above us. I shot up and pressed my palms against the wall, ready for battle. With a motherfucking elevator.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
 
 

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Book Info:

Gavin St. James

After the hell I’ve been through in the Marines—in life—there’s nothing I crave more than routine, stability, peace. Until McKenna Brewer walks into my life.

She’s impulsive, fiery, tempting as hell, and everything I don’t need. But when she offers me a night of no-strings-attached passion, I can’t resist.

When our night together has unexpected consequences, I can’t help but think this might be the perfect opportunity to show McKenna just how much I want her.

The only problem? She doesn’t do forevers. But forever is exactly what I need with her.

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Meet the Author:

Contemporary romance author HEATHER VAN FLEET is stay-at-home-mom turned book boyfriend connoisseur. She’s a wife to her high school sweetheart and a mom to three little girls. In her spare time, you can find her with her head buried in her Kindle, guzzling down copious amounts of coffee. She lives with her wonderful family in Moline, Illinois.