Fascination Island Book 2
Kate Hinderer
Determined to someday sing on the stage in New York City, Collette takes an internship at the luxury resort on Fascination Island.
While she plans to hone her craft by singing nightly on the stage of the Moonlight Serenade restaurant, she never expected to be pushed outside her comfort zone.
Shy and reserved, she is challenged to step outside herself and release the inner diva. When Falcon comes along, sparks fly and secrets are revealed.
Before long Collette is forced to make life-changing decisions that will impact her future in ways she never even imagined.
EXCERPT:
Learning to love the water…
“Hey, hey,” Falcon called, slipping a finger
under my chin and tilting my head up to look him in the eyes. “I’m not going to
let anything happen to you.”
I nodded my head vigorously but couldn’t make
my feet move toward the water or my hands move to slip the dress over my head.
Falcon’s hands ran down my arms, taking my quivering hands into his own. His
expression showed the shock he felt when he realized I was shaking. He pulled
me into a tight embrace, his arms crushing me to his chest, holding me firmly,
letting me feel his strength.
“You can do this, Collette. You can,” he
whispered, his chin resting on my head. “You are one of the strongest most
resilient people I know.”
It took me another moment to pull enough
courage from him to be functional again. I stepped back, quickly pulled the
dress off, and began marching determinedly toward the water. My courage lasted
until the moment my toes hit the water. At that moment, if Falcon hadn’t
positioned himself directly behind me, I would have turned tail and run all the
way back to the hacienda.
“A couple inches at a time,” Flacon encouraged.
He rested his hands on my shoulder, propelling
me forward a couple inches. Soon the water reached my ankles. The shaking in my
arms calmed but didn’t completely still.
“Do I have to go any further?” I begged, my
voice unsteady, the panic barely masked.
“You’re doing great,” was Falcon’s only
response.
He walked me forward a little more until the
little waves licked my knees and then he let me stop. Instead of allowing me to
retreat, Falcon wrapped his arms around my shoulder, pressing my back to his
chest.
“Close your eyes,” he whispered.
“Are you crazy?”
“Just try it,” he teased.
Against my better judgment, I did as he asked
and closed my eyes. For a moment my mind flashed to the image of my dad
floating in the pool. I shivered. Falcon tightened his hold and then began to
talk.
“Let go of the image that always comes when you
think of the water and your dad. Pay attention to your other senses. Can you
feel the soft sand caressing your toes? The warm water surrounding your legs?”
I tried to focus in on what he suggested,
tuning into the water, the waves, the sand. Each feeling was soothing and gave
me nothing to fear. Combine that with the strength of Falcon’s arms, the
comfort of his presence, and the sense of touch wasn’t too bad, even in the
water.
“Can you hear the sound of the water meeting
the shore? The symphony of the waves cresting then falling in on themselves?
What about the birds singing in the forest, the sound echoing easily across the
water?”
At his suggestion I switched my focus and took
in the musical sounds around me. Usually I heard music everywhere I went, but
near the water fear easily overrode all other emotions. Now, secure in Falcon’s
embrace, it was easy to hear the nuances of the birds, the tinkling of the
water brushing the shore, even the sound of the water bumping into our legs. It
was magical, or nearly so.
About this Author:
In a nutshell: Writer. Blogger. Journalist. Marathon runner. Social media enthusiast. Beer drinker. Avid YA reader. Traveler. Chicago native. Milwaukee resident. Music fanatic. Fashion lover. Oldest of nine.
Writing has been in my soul from the very beginning. In grade school I started my own local paper for the street I lived on. In middle school I wrote for the school paper and loved any English writing assignment. I started writing novels in high school. At the time my friends were the characters, the setting was almost always Regency England, and I scratched the story into lined notebooks.
Now, I have a journalism degree and a dozen various business writing gigs under my belt. I’ve lived in a handful of US cities including Milwaukee, Chicago, Boston, St. Louis and New York. I pen a personal fashion and lifestyle blog, ModlyChic.com, and continue to write about commercial real estate.
My first book, Aurora Undefined, was published in 2011. The Emerald Isle, the first Fascination Island book, came out during the summer of 2012, at which time I immediately began writing the second book in the series.
Next up . . . stay tuned! I’m working on a new contemporary novel as well as the third book in the Fascination Island series.
Author Links:
http://www.facebook.com/KateHinderer
http://katehinderer.blogspot.com/
http://www.modlychic.com/
@kate_hinderer
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4772538.Kate_Hinderer
http://www.amazon.com/Kate-Hinderer/e/B004Y7N2N2/
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