Spotlight & Giveaway: Technically Yours by Denise Williams

Today, HJ is pleased to share with you Denise Williams’s new release: Technically Yours

Eight years ago, he fell in love with a stranger he couldn’t have—today, she’s back in his life and the sparks between them threaten to set her career on fire.

Pearl Harris has learned the hard way to be careful in work and in love. She has the chance to make lasting change at OurCode—a nonprofit aimed at inspiring high schoolers to code—but a recent scandal puts its reputation at risk. Further complicating things, Pearl didn’t expect the one man she never stopped thinking about to join as the newest member of her board of directors.

Cord Matthews fell for Pearl when they met in an elevator eight years ago. She’s just his type: smart, capable, and makes him laugh, but when she broke his heart, he decided love wasn’t for him. When they reconnect after years with no contact, Cord is tempted to consider breaking his ban on serious relationships. But going public with a romance between them might derail Pearl’s career and the progress she’s made at OurCode.

While Pearl and Cord are both hesitant to trust their feelings and take a risk, it soon becomes impossible to keep ignoring the electricity between them. Cord is a skilled programmer, but a workplace romance might spell disaster for both of them–and love isn’t easily debugged.

Enjoy an exclusive excerpt from Technically Yours 

Cord

Five Years Earlier

When she walked out the door, the scent of her lingered in the air like a reminder of the what-ifs burrowing into my head, and I stared at the set of house keys on my desk. The two identical cuts sat side by side, the light reflecting on the surface of the metal. Since Pearl had made her choice, I needed to let her walk away and set off on the path she’d chosen. I needed to give up on all the nights under the stars, and the feel of her skin dusted with sand, and my pathetic heart. I knew that, but I was still on my feet and halfway to the door before the sound of her heels on the tile had faded.

“Wait,” I called out. The overhead lighting against the dark sky outside the office windows was like a muted spotlight making the white of her shirt that much brighter against her skin. Her gaze had traveled back down the hall toward my door, and our eyes met for an instant. “Pearl. Wait.”

At my approach, she turned, giving me her back and a view of the nape of her neck, the soft and supple skin I’d wanted to kiss a hundred times. “I don’t think we have anything else to say to each other.”

My instinct was to step back, to walk away and let her go. But damnit, this was Pearl. I shifted so I was close enough to feel the warmth of her body and waited for her to pull away. I was basically asking for the pain of more rejection, but then she shifted toward me, one tiny, incremental movement, and I slid my fingertips down her biceps, the contact between us like a thousand micro shock waves on my skin. “Will you look at me?” I didn’t stop the slide of my fingertips over her arms. “Please.”

Her eyes met mine and held when she turned to face me, resignation in her voice. “What’s left to say?”

“I just want to know one thing,” I said. A crease settled between her brows and I gently wrapped my hand around her wrist, raising it so we could both see her tattoo. “Your heart.” I grazed my thumb across her wrist, pausing on the third star inked there. “If it spoke louder than your head, what would it say right now?”

“Cord, what does it matter?”

I lifted her wrist higher in response, breaking eye contact with her to examine the stars I’d memorized while hoping for something more between us. “It matters to me.” I spoke against the tattoo, my lips brushing over her skin, and I could feel the hitch of her breath.

“It doesn’t matter what my heart would say, because . . .” Pearl brushed hair off my forehead, the contact making me close my eyes for a second. This was the moment. This was our moment, and I didn’t want to lose it. Behind her, the doors to the elevator opened, but she didn’t move as we continued to search each other’s faces. The words hung between us, unfinished, while she brushed the same spot again and then slid her fingers into my hair. “Because my heart is unreliable.”

Our lips were a breath apart in the empty lobby, but the whole space felt full, full of everything I knew we both wanted, everything we could be. My voice was low when I spoke. “Nothing about you is unreliable.” I drew her closer, and the soft way she leaned into me felt both familiar and brand-new.

“I should listen to my head.” She stepped back, not letting go. “I need to listen to my head.”

With her back against the wall, I inched closer, my hand now firmly at her waist. “But what would your heart say?” Pearl wore delicate diamond studs that gently scratched my lip when I spoke near her ear. “Because it should get a say.”

“Cord . . .” She let my name hang there. I don’t know if she moved first or I did, but then our mouths met, lips and tongues melding in the way I’d imagined for so long. The kiss deepened, and my whole body reacted to every move of her soft lips. The way she held me, fingers digging in, made me feel claimed in the best way.

“Don’t go,” I panted, breaking the kiss and then taking her mouth again, holding her lower back to pull her flush against me. When she rocked her hips, soft meeting hard, I groaned, needing more. “Stay with me.” I trailed my lips down her jaw before finding her lips again, my palm at her neck to hold her to me.

Pearl deepened the kiss, her fingers in my hair like an answer, but then she stepped back, eyes wide and the pulse in her neck throbbing. “It’s too risky.” She fumbled behind her and pushed the down button as I regained my senses.

“What? No. I don’t understand.” My heart pounded, and I shook my head as if rebooting this moment.

When the doors opened behind her, I thought about reaching out, of pulling her back into the kiss, but she’d stepped out of reach on purpose. “If I could put heart first for anyone, Cord, it would have been you.” She took two steps backward into the waiting car.

“But . . . but it can be me.” I wished I had more practice fighting, because I wanted to fight for her, get her footsteps to move toward me and not away, but my head still spun from that kiss. “You can put your heart first with me right now.”

“It’s not what I need. I don’t want . . . I can’t want this. You know I can’t.” Pearl shook her head as the doors began to close. “But I wish I could.”

By the time I lunged forward, my brain connecting with my body, the doors had shut and I was left in the empty lobby, with the imprint of her kiss on my lips and every muscle in my body poised to follow her and fight for this. But she didn’t want to fight, and she was already gone. Still, I waited for the doors to open, holding my breath in hopes she’d change her mind.

I waited a long time, staring at my warped reflection in the elevator doors before deciding I would never wait like that again and never put myself in a situation where I wanted to.

Excerpt. ©Denise Williams. Posted by arrangement with the publisher. All rights reserved.
 
 

Giveaway: (1) One Paperback copy of TECHNICALLY YOURS, US.

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Meet the Author:

Denise Williams wrote her first book in the 2nd grade. I Hate You and its sequel, I Still Hate You, featured a tough, funny heroine, a quirky hero, witty banter, and a dragon. Minus the dragons, these are still the books she likes to write. After penning those early works, she finished second grade and eventually earned a PhD in education, going on to work in higher education. After growing up a military brat around the world and across the country, Denise now lives in Des Moines, Iowa with her husband, son, and two ornery shih-tzus who think they own the house.

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