Title: Happily Ever His
Series: Movie Stars in Maryland Duet #1
Author: Delancey Stewart
Genre: Romantic Comedy
Release Date: August 15, 2019
Blurb
Tess was used to
being in the shadows. But when movie star Ryan McDonnell pulls her into the
spotlight, her whole world is threatened. Can a relationship that starts as a
secret fantasy ever survive in the real world?
My sister Juliet
has always gotten everything she wants.
It’s fine though. I
never wanted the spotlight. That was my sister’s domain. And now that she’s
America’s most popular starlet? She can have it.
But when Gran—the
feisty woman who raised us, and who I cannot seem to wean off video games, an
afternoon doobie, or her daily Manhattan—has a huge party to celebrate her 90th birthday,
Juliet brings the Hollywood madness straight to Maryland.
In the form of my
ultimate movie-star crush, Ryan McDonnell. I can barely form a
sentence around the guy (at least I don’t still have a poster of him on my
wall). And I definitely can’t get over the fact that he’s Juliet’s new
boyfriend.
I just need to get
through the weekend with them—and with the magazine people who are covering
them and the party for a feature. I just need to stay away from Ryan and his
warm curious eyes, his perfectly chiseled arms, and the impossibly sexy things
that come out of his mouth when we’re alone together.
It’s only one weekend, and I just need to remember that Ryan
is an actor. A good one. Because I almost believe him when he tells me we have
a chance together.
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Excerpt
My sister slid from
the back seat of the car looking every bit the movie star she was. I hoped
everything was going to meet her standards. The security guys had looked around
the property for God-only-knew what, and asked me questions about our alarm system
(nonexistent), our security perimeter (also nonexistent) and our emergency
evacuation CONOPS (seriously? Once they explained what a “CONOPS” was—a concept
of operations, in case you’re wondering—I explained that was also
nonexistent).
My big sister Juliet
lived in a world I could barely begin to understand, where movie stars were
people you actually knew. People like Ryan McDonnell.
Sigh. Deep,
lovelorn sigh.
My sister had never
really belonged here, and she didn’t fit in any better now, with her huge dark
glasses and slim-fitted pink capris and high-heeled sandals. The second I saw
her, I felt myself inching toward invisibility again. I loved her, but my life worked
better when Juliet wasn’t standing at my side, begging the world to wonder how
two sisters could be so different.
I pushed down my own
insecurities and smiled at her.
“You look great,” I
told her. It was true. She always looked great.
“Hey,” she said in
that breathy voice she’d become famous for. She pulled me into a tight hug,
smiled at me, and then took a step back, ducking her chin a tiny bit as she
said, “I want to introduce you to someone.”
A pair of long
jean-clad legs slid out of the car behind her, attached to a broad tall body
that I already knew too well was Ryan McDonnell. I was more than familiar with
this particular ‘someone.’ He’d been my on-screen crush forever, though I
hadn’t seen him in anything lately. There had been a movie I hadn’t seen—one
that hadn’t done too well, but it included zombies, which were not my thing,
even if you added in Ryan McDonnell hotness.
The object of my
movie star affections had bright blue eyes, perfectly tousled dark hair—cropped
close now, I noticed—and a body that appeared to have been carved from stone,
or so I’d thought in the last role I’d seen him in as a comic book hero
reimagined as a dark avenger. God, he was hot.
“Tess?” My sister’s
voice cut through my stupor.
“Sorry,” I said,
shaking off the dreamy haze. “Yes.”
“Yes?” He asked me,
a smile spreading slowly across the perfect lips I couldn’t stop staring at. He
chuckled, and I realized he hadn’t asked me a question. Embarrassment surged
inside me, making my stomach churn.
“No,” I said, covering
my affirmative declaration with an equally unnecessary negative word. “Or, I …
um, hello.”
“I apologize for the
short notice,” Ryan said letting my idiocy slide. People probably acted like
loons around him all the time. I tried not to look at him, but there were parts
of my body that were not listening at all to my brain. Ryan’s smile was like a
speeding train coming right at me and freezing me to the spot where I stood,
stupid and dazed. “I hope it’s not an inconvenience having us both here,” he
said.
I watched his
perfect full lips as he spoke, almost unable to process the actual words. I was
having trouble being human, thanks to his actual existence right in front of
me.
“Sure,” I said, my
voice higher than I remembered it being.
More answering questions
no one asked. My sister was smiling at me, shaking her head. Juliet knew about
my long-time Ryan McDonnell affliction, and it was pretty obvious at this
point. I hated that she undoubtedly knew I was flustered just trying to form
actual words around her new boyfriend.
I forced myself back
to sanity.
“Can I help get your
things?” I had no idea if it would be weird to acknowledge his status as my
favorite actor or if it was rude to pretend I had no idea who he was.
I settled for a
moronic silence on the topic.
Juliet put her arm
around me. “You don’t need to get the bags,” she said lightly, as two of the
men from her security team emerged from a second car, all black T-shirts and
muscled arms pulling suitcases from the trunk.
Of course not. My
sister had people for that.
Coming Soon
Releasing September 5, 2019
Author Bio
Delancey Stewart is an award-winning author who writes fiction with
humor, heart and heat!
Author Links
