Free Santa Reads Romance by Dara Joy Page B

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FROM THE AUTHOR:
     
     
    Well, I hope I've given you some laughs and a bit o' love n' happiness for the holiday season.
     
    To continue the good cheer, here's a nice, long excerpt for you from my novel, HIGH ENERGY. Trust me, Tyber Evans is perfect to curl up with next to a roaring fire… only it might be hard to tell the actual fire from, ah, him. (You have been warned, dear friend. Enjoy!)
     
    Love, Dara

HIGH ENERGY
     
     
    This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
     
    Copyright 1996, 2011 Dara Joy
    Kindle Edition

Chapter One
     
     
    “Men? Boil them in oil!”
    “You don't mean that.”
    “Cut off their—”
    “Zanita!”
    Zanita grinned at her friend Mills. “— lying tongues. “
    “Uh-huh.”
    “I was going to say lying tongues.”
    “Sure.”
    “Okay, so I wasn't. Anyhow, I am through, through, through!”
    Mills sighed dramatically. “Haven't I heard this before?”
    “I mean it this time, Mills.” Zanita slammed her palms down on the kitchen table for emphasis. “I have had it!”
    “Really. Was it any good?” Mills tried to hide her smile in her coffee cup.
    “Will you be serious? I'm trying to have a discussion here.”
    Mills sat back in her chair. “Is that what this is? And here I thought you came all the way over here for a good old rant-and-rave session.”
    Zanita threw up her hands in disgust. “That too!” She looked dismally down into her mug. “It certainly wasn't for your coffee.”
    “Watch it. Everyone loves my coffee. Just because you happen to prefer brew a spoon can stand up in doesn't make you a reliable critic. And we are getting off the subject— something you are remarkably good at, Zanita.”
    “Well, what did you expect?”
    Mills raised an eyebrow. “Lucidity? Rationality? Perhaps a modicum of believability?”
    “All right.” Zanita looked her square in the eye. “It wasn't.”
    “What wasn't?”
    Zanita slumped in her chair. “It wasn't any good.”
    Mills peered at her friend as if she had just come off Mars. Since people often wore that expression around her, Zanita chose to ignore it.
    “You didn't!”
    “I did.” She exhaled. “I don't want to talk about it.”
    “Then why did you bring it up?” Mills gave her a smug look.
    “Okay, okay.” Her friend knew her too well. No big surprise. “It was just so … blah. “
    Mills blinked several times. “Blah?”
    “You're looking at me like that again.”
    “Like what?”
    “Like I come from the mysterious face of Mars.”
    “Sorry.” Mills leaned forward in her chair. “But we are talking about Rick, aren't we? Your current paramour?”
    “My last, late paramour.” Zanita ran a hand distractedly through her short black curls. “And why are you so shocked?”
    Mills leveled her a look. “I shall count the reasons.” She ticked her fingers off one by one. “First, as I recall, wasn't it you who said you would never get involved with anyone again after Steve left you with nothing to remember him by except a mountain of debt?”
    Zanita closely examined the flowers on the wallpaper to her left. “I guess that was me,” she mumbled.
    “And wasn't it you who waited two years before going out again with anyone else?”
    Zanita peered at the intricate pattern on the tile floor. “I guess that was me also.”
    Mills nodded to emphasize Zanita's admission. “And wasn't it you who's