A ROMCOM NOVELET || Can a girl fall in love at a Romance Writers Convention with a dreamboat hunk who is determined to steal her heart?
Annie attends the glamorous convention to promote her new romance novel. But the first man she meets is not only...
Video above is Cory Montieth from GLEE singing I'll Stand by You.
It was a couple minutes later when Annie stomped out onto the sidewalk in front of the hotel, her golden curls flying behind as she stormed on. Down in the elevator and all through the lobby she was oblivious of the glances cast at her by the hotel guests, and the same here out on the street by the passers-by. San Franciscans might be used to seeing all kinds of strange characters on their city streets, but it was obvious by the attention they were giving her that fit-to-be-tied lady pirates were a rarity.
With her lips pressed tightly together in a thin angry line, Annie stepped off the curb to cross Powell Street. A horn blared as a taxi whizzed by, barely missing her, and the clanging of an approaching cable car caused her to quicken her step. She ran in front of the quaint car to the opposite sidewalk on Union Square.
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Her boot heels clicked on the pavement as she strode toward the center of the square, past the panhandlers and street prophets and the others milling around, and she blew out a long angry sigh. She shook her head vigorously, as if it would help to shake away the fury boiling up within her.
Why was she so incensed, she couldn't help wondering, to the point where her blood seemed to be boiling? Why couldn't she just laugh at Van Drake and his romantic antics instead of allowing them to affect her like this?
But the answer was simple, and she knew it. He had taken her most secret desire and turned it into a reality. He was tempting her with it, flaunting it at her, and the trouble was, she wanted it.
But she was afraid to take what was offered. As foolish as it might seem to others, never again did she want to love a man and take the chance of being abandoned and hurt.
Annie threw herself down on a bench and breathed in deeply of the warm spring air, hoping it would help her throbbing emotions calm down. She looked up to the sky, through the treetops and over the tall buildings, and there she could see the full moon, a perfect circle of light hovering over wonderful San Francisco. It stabbed at her heart like a knife. This was every woman's dream, right here in her lap, a handsome roguish rake of a man laying down his love for her in front of an audience for all to see and here. And what did she do? She ran away. Like a frightened child. Like an inexperienced virginal miss. And she was neither!
She closed her eyes, the moon imprint shining brightly on the blackness of the back of her lids, and she wished for a moment that she could just calm down, go back inside and deal with Van Drake in a more adult and professional manner. Then, she heard the sound of running footsteps and her eyes flew open again. She looked back the way she had come, only to cringe back against the bench when she saw Van hurrying over to her.
"Here you are," he said gruffly, a moment later, standing in front of her in all his pirate glory. "Why did you run out of the ballroom like that? What are you doing out here in the square?"
