Please help us welcome Sharleen Scott to the blog today. Sharleen is here to share her book, Caught in the Spin. Caught in the Spin is Romantic Suspense story. Welcome, Sharleen! We are all excited to hear more about Caught in the Spin.
Caught in the Spin by Sharleen Scott
About Caught in the Spin:
When Tallie Peters lands the job of assistant to Nashville’s premier music manager, she’s sure things are finally looking up for her and her son. Meeting gorgeous former bull rider Tom Black confirms it. But Tallie’s new life dives into a chaotic spiral with the premature release of her brutal ex-husband from prison. He wants his son and will stop at nothing to take him from Tallie. Tom offers Tallie and her son refuge behind the gates of the Masterson-Black ranch, but he soon finds that the best security measures are no match for a determined ex-con with nothing to lose.
Genre: Romantic suspense
- Amazon Buy Link: https://amzn.to/2U9KiHv
Excerpt from Caught in the Spin:
The moon began its ascent through the graying sky. A cool breeze tickled Tom’s cheek and tossed the party lights from side to side, not cold but noticeably more comfortable than earlier in the evening. He relaxed, stretching his long legs to ease his disagreeable knee. The crowd had grown in number as the sun went down. Friends of friends arrived with snack foods and beer in hand. Additional musicians, hearing of a jam session, joined the party and gave the original players a break and a chance to dance with their spouses. Tom estimated at least seventy people filled the yard and pool. With Abby in bed, Harlie worked her way through the crowd and settled into an animated conversation with Marcy Stockton. Clay had reclaimed his guitar and led the group of musicians through a soulful blues ballad that enticed more dancers from their chairs. Jax and Tallie danced in perfect step.
Tom tried to ignore the dancing pair but found them in the crowd and tracked their movements. The music was unhurried and Jax held her close, talking in her ear and laughing when Tallie responded. He wasn’t sure what they had in common. Tallie was a single mom who was a good eight to ten years older than that scrawny kid. Tom looked away, watching the children in the pool splashing and yelling to one another. They were a motley bunch: a couple of chubby ones, a short girl with freckles, the drummer’s auburn-haired twins, and Tallie’s towheaded, skinny son. The boy was lean, roughly five feet tall, but he’d fill out soon enough. Tom glanced from Tallie’s kid to Jax and realized Jax had filled out some since he’d arrived in Nashville eight months earlier. He’d shown up on Clay’s doorstep hungry from low-paying bar gigs and needing a job. Clay added him to the band and kept him as a permanent houseguest they thought of as their own kid. Tom had sort of adopted him too. He was a great kid.
And the kid certainly had filled out; his bony shoulders were more muscular, probably thanks to Clay’s home gym. Now, he had those more mature arms wrapped around Tallie and Tom didn’t like it. Jax wasn’t a kid anymore but a fairly large man who rested his hand in the same place Tom had enjoyed pressing his hand earlier. He narrowed his eyes and stared at them, turning away when Jax looked his way and grinned.
If Tallie was interested in Jax, there wasn’t much Tom could do about it. It was probably for the best anyway. Tallie dragged emotions to the surface Tom didn’t want to acknowledge. His experience with serious relationships was flawed, and he knew he’d end up hurting her. No matter how he looked at it, this was for the best. He relaxed, relieved he’d dodged a bullet. Tallie deserved a whole man, not a gimpy old bull rider like Tom Black, and with Jax, she would have that. The kid had two good legs and, as far as Tom knew, didn’t carry the relationship baggage Tom did. And if it came to a fight over her, Jax had already proved his mettle by showing up on a superstar’s doorstep asking for help. That took a lot of guts and Tom wasn’t sure he could compete with that sort of thing anymore.
He wasn’t the man he used to be.
Jax leaned and spoke in Tallie’s ear.
“I’m what? Are you flirting with me?” she asked with a laugh. “If you are, I should let you know I’m old enough to be your…much older sister.”
He laughed. “Yeah, right. I can’t say the idea hasn’t crossed my mind, Tallie.” He looked at her with appreciation. “You’re a hot woman.”
Tallie was amused by his candor. “But?”
“But I’m not ready to die, and I think flirting with you would end my time on this rock too soon.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Well,” he said, “if looks could kill, you’d be dancing with a corpse.”
Tallie looked around. There wasn’t anyone paying noticeable attention to them. Tom was the only single man she knew in the crowd, and he was watching the kids in the pool. “Who do you think wants you dead, Jax?”
“You didn’t see the looks Tom gave me when we started dancing?” He spun her around. “Don’t look. He’ll see you.”
She did anyway. Tom was looking their way now but the expression he wore didn’t indicate he wished Jax dead. He seemed bored to her. “I don’t see—”
Jax turned her again so he faced Tom. “Well, he’s doing it now. He’s clenching his jaw,” he said with a laugh, certainly more pleased than worried. “And his right fist.”
“You’re paranoid. Tom isn’t interested in me.” Tallie had hopes but didn’t seem to gain ground.
“Oh, come on. You don’t see it? That guy is seriously interested in you. Oh…there he goes again, staring at me and clenching his fist. He’s pissed off.”
“Jax—”
“I’ll bet if I kissed you, he’d fly right out of his chair and beat the crap out of me.” Jax looked at her mouth and bent forward.
“Jax! No!” she said with alarm.
“I won’t,” he said with a sly smile, straightening up. “I asked you to dance so I could apologize.”
What was it about her? Everyone wanted to apologize for something tonight. “Why?”
“When we met the other day, I was a little out of it.” He looked abashed and Tallie held back a smile.
“Clay mentioned tequila.”
“He thought that?” he said with concern. “No, nothing like that. I don’t drink the hard stuff. I was tired.”
“From club hopping?” she asked, remembering the conversation about his three sets in two clubs.
“Yeah, that and, well.” He blushed. “I met someone and she…”
Tallie raised a maternal eyebrow at him.
“Not that! Jeez, I just met her,” he said. “How do you women do that eyebrow thing anyway? My mom does it and she freezes me every time.”
Tallie laughed. “What about the girl?”
“Girl? No, no. A woman. She’s at least twenty-two. And hot. Like you.” He grinned when Tallie blushed. “We started talking and didn’t stop until the sun came up. That’s why I was tired.”
“Why are you telling me all this, Jax? You just met me.”
He shrugged. “You’re easy to talk to. And well,” he said with a comic leer, “if things don’t work out for me with Sasha, and Tom keeps acting like you aren’t the hottest woman he’s ever seen, I might give you a call.”
Tallie was amused by his assumption. He was an adorable kid with those chocolate-brown eyes and long lashes, but too young for her. “So, you and Tom are…what? Not friendly?”
“Tom? We’re cool. He has a big TV and stuff. And when Clay and Harlie, you know,” he said and raised his eyebrow suggestively, “want to be alone, it’s a place to go if I don’t have plans.” Jax glanced over his shoulder. “But if I keep dancing with you, I doubt he’ll let me hang out anymore. He may not let me breathe much longer.”
The song ended and Jax walked Tallie to her chair. Tom still sat with his long legs stretched and his arms folded across his chest, giving no indication her dance with Jax bothered him. With a wink to Tallie, Jax disappeared into the crowd and surfaced a moment later among the impromptu band with his guitar in hand. Before Tallie could say anything to Tom, Jax played an earsplitting lick and the band was off and running again.
About the Author:
Sharleen Scott is the author of the romantic suspense Caught Series and Tangles, the story of a man struggling with his mother’s escalating Alzheimer’s disease. She lives in the eastern foothills of the Cascade Mountains with her husband Brett, two college kids, two spoiled cats, and a pup.