Keep Talking – JJ Arias

She shot a cocky glance at Vivian and added, “Dirty.” Vivian’s lips didn’t move but Bryn felt her amusement in the floating feeling in her stomach. “Taking notes on me?” Bryn’s chest and throat and skin all tightened at once. Vivian’s attention was the unbearable heat of the spotlight and just as irresistible. “Maybe only your vices,” she replied with an irrepressible grin because she was really here.

Invited to the same event as Vivian and up for the same award. She took a deep breath and let her anxiety about all the unknowns go. Vivian took a drink and handed it to Bryn first. Another point in the gentleman column. “A good martini is hardly a vice,” she said with city lights dancing in her dark eyes. “And it’s a necessity in a room full of people who think networking is a personality trait.”

Bryn laughed and led them toward a distant corner overlooking the street forty stories below. Leaning against the modern railing, she sipped her strong drink and watched Vivian. “So why not skip this whole thing altogether?” She kept her attention on Vivian and strained to read everything she wasn’t saying, and Bryn was sure there was a universe of things Vivian wasn’t saying. “Maybe I’m a masochist,” she muttered into her martini. Something about Vivian’s dodge made Bryn’s heart do a soaring triple axel and blow the landing.

“Avoiding a simple question?” Vivian dropped her gaze to the neckline of Bryn’s vest before lazily traveling back up. “Maybe I was bored in my room and the scenery up here is…” She took a slow sip of her martini, holding Bryn’s gaze over the rim and turning Bryn’s knees to jello. “More interesting.” “Vivian, keeping the new golden girl all to yourself?” a man with glorious long, gray hair and less glorious bolo tie asked. The woman at his side looked at Bryn with a predatory smile.

Before Bryn could find something to say in response to the strange greeting, Vivian was moving. With all the subtlety of a landmine, she turned on her heel. Bryn almost expected Vivian to punch him in the face, but instead she slipped in next to Bryn. No, not next to her, slightly in front of her, like she might shield Bryn with her body.

Shield her from what, Bryn didn’t know. But Vivian’s body language changed drastically. Like she was trying to appear larger and scare off a bear. “Adorable attempt to infantilize from a grandpa dressed like a⁠—” “Seraphina Wilcox,” the woman said as she extended her hand toward Bryn. “Although you probably know me better as Arabella Nightingale from All My Days.” Bryn shook her hand while offering her best equivocal response to a woman she’d never seen before in her life.

“So nice to meet you in person.” “Richard Weiss,” the man said next, presenting his hand.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. Editing by Kat Jackson @katjackson_author Cover Art by Elizabeth Hope @elizabethhopeart Cover Layout Design by Bryce Oakley @bryce.oakley OceanofPDF.com For my wife. Always. Always. Always. OceanofPDF.com Contents Also by JJ Arias Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Chapter 34 Chapter 35 Chapter 36 Chapter 37 Epilogue Bonus Epilogue Acknowledgments About JJ Arias OceanofPDF.com Also by JJ Arias Contemporary Sapphic Series Dominion Series Goode Girl Series Standalone Contemporary Sapphic Romance The Single Matchmaker Objecting to Her Undercover Madam Whipped Body Check Crossing the Line Guava Flavored Lies Destination You The Love Conspiracy For Love or Scandal Tasting Temptation Like First Love, Again Breakup Buddies Paranormal Sapphic Romance Series Dusk Queen Series Lilith’s Legacy Duology YA Fantasy Magic Unseen OceanofPDF.com Chapter One “It’s not a mullet,” Bryn disagreed.

“It’s a shaggy lil’ do.” Marta, a seventy-year-old hairdresser with one functioning eye, turned the salon chair toward the mirror. Salon was generous for the microscopic shop situated in a strip mall. The waiting area near the front had walls lined with posters of 80s hairstyles and a handful of mismatched chairs. Chairs where two ladies even older than Marta waited, one for her turn and the other for Bryn. Bryn, wet hair freshly dyed black and half in her face, used her fingers to bring her long bangs forward.

She needed the tiniest trim for them to land at her brow line in a flip without getting in her way. “You know how many mullets I handed out before you were born?” Marta combed her hair in sections with the pointed end of a comb. “It’s shorter on the sides and the front than the back,” she said like she was offering a medical opinion.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: d12af04b628e3c93
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 3,065,680 bytes (2.924 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• Pages: 267
• Language: English (en)

Reading & Word Statistics

• Estimated Reading Time: 430.89 minutes
• Total Words: 86,178
• Total Characters: 493,250
• Average Words per Page: 322.76
• Average Characters per Page: 1847.38

Most Frequent Words

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