Title: MY THING WITH TIMOTHY KAY
Author: Misty Urban
Genre: Contemporary romance (long, steamy)
Book Blurb:
He’s an A-list Hollywood director who makes gripping blockbuster films and takes his mom to premieres.
She’s trying to get her life together after a divorce.
He doesn’t do relationships.
She doesn’t play make-believe.
There’s no future together. But when Timothy Kay strolls into the bed & breakfast where Dale is landscaping for a friend, they can’t seem to stay apart. What happens, though, when a film-shoot fling becomes a thing? And what can Dale do when stepping into Kay’s spotlight might risk everything she loves, and take away what little she has left?
Excerpt:
The glass doors slid on their rails without a hiss as I snuck outside. There wasn’t anything in the bed and breakfast expensive enough to tempt a robber, but Bernie had sunk a lot of money and time into redoing the rooms with modern touches, filling the house with original art. She loved this place, and I was the Desert Bloom’s protector while she was gone.
A stone clattered as I searched for something I could use as a weapon. Bernie had left me a pile of copper pipe she’d salvaged from her plumbing upgrade, but pipe meant I would have to be close enough to swing. The garden hose had a setting that produced a painfully strong stream, as I’d learned when watering my new bed of prairie dropseed.
The cottonwood tree filling the back yard was a full-grown beauty, in her prime, and after the summer rains her healthy green leaves rustled happily in the breeze. In those first quick years, she’d grown straight but then sprouted two branches that extended nearly horizontal, like loving arms, just above the height of the man’s head. About fifteen feet up she branched again into a thick crown that provided an enormous canopy of shade. She was going to be the centerpiece of my garden, Mother Nature’s glorious sculpture, and I didn’t want this random stranger carving his initials in her.
He seemed around my age. Not starving, judging from the shoulders that filled out his collarless button-down shirt, and he moved with the long-limbed, rangy grace of a natural athlete. He didn’t display the jerky, nervous movements of someone on a controlled substance, but his dark scruff of beard, tousled hair, and wrinkled clothes looked like he’d been sleeping in the street for a week.
He looked good, rumpled. I reminded myself he was a problem. Especially when he ran a hand over the thick grooved bark, tilting his head to look up into the canopy. The pose, one I’d struck many times, unnerved me.
“Hey. What are you doing to my tree?”
He dropped his arm and turned toward me. A lot of people are taller than I am, but this guy loomed. I thumbed the switch that would turn my nozzle into a water cannon.
“Who are you, and what do you want?” His low voice held a silky quality, like he was accustomed to using it.
Did he think I was the one out of bounds here? I gave him my best stony glare. “That’s my line.”
“What are you doing?”
“Again, my question.” My finger twitched as he moved toward me. He wasn’t smelly or repulsive. His scowling eyebrows, thick and dark, were as unruly as his hair. I scowled back. “Why are you here?” I wasn’t intimidating much, parroting his lines back to him like bad improv.
“I’m staying here tonight.” He said this with confidence, as if he wasn’t trespassing on Bernie’s land, as if I wasn’t holding an expandable garden hose.
“We take paying customers only. You’re not sleeping in our yard.”
“I’m sleeping inside.” Annoyance darkened his face. Maybe he was on something and was getting to the paranoid stage. I’d heard people could become unusually strong while hallucinating, and he had the advantage in inches and pounds.
I aimed the nozzle. “Sorry, we’re all booked.” A lie, since the only guests were the construction worker on a project and the writer I never saw. “I have staff. A big guy. Huge. Who knows martial arts.” I waved the nozzle to emphasize each word.
Taiye would shriek with laughter at being called big. He was as slender and light as a canary, and his martial art was tai chi.
My intruder kept walking toward the porch. I wracked my brain for backup. “And…we have a cowboy. Old rodeo style. Real tough. He’ll—” What did rodeo cowboys do? “He’ll lasso you.”
Tree man’s snorted laughter. “Give me that hose before you—”
“I warned you.” I switched the water on full bore.
A gentle spray showered him, droplets that shimmered like a golden halo before settling to earth.
“You—” Water dripped from his chin, and he reached for the hose.
Panicking, I cranked the switch. The gentle plume turned into a hissing jet that plastered his shirt to his chest. Broad chest. Muscles that flexed when he threw up his hands to shield his face.
The stream had to sting. I didn’t want to damage him and bring on a lawsuit, but every twist of the nozzle produced a new jet. A hard, wet surface slapped against my back, big arms clamped around mine, and before I could utter a curse, he’d snapped off the water and plucked the hose from my hands as if relieving a child of a toy.
Maya and I had taken a self-defense class before she left. I drew back an elbow to deliver the sequence of jabs we’d learned. Where would the solar plexus be on a guy this tall? Before I could aim, he stepped away, leaving my back cool and damp.
“I’m a guest here.” His deep voice penetrated the rush of blood in my ears. “I’m registered. I put down a deposit. Or someone did for me.”
“What? We don’t have anyone arriving tonight.” The only reservation was for the Hollywood diva posing with the silly name of—
“Golightly.” He wiped droplets from his thick eyebrows, still knit in a scowl.
“Oh. Whoops.” Bernie was not going to appreciate my reception of her best-paying guest. “Um. Welcome to the Desert Bloom Bed and Breakfast, Mr. Golightly.”
Buy Links (including Goodreads and BookBub):
From the publisher: https://boroughspublishinggroup.com/books/my-thing-timothy-kay
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/my-thing-with-timothy-kay-misty-urban/1144363355?ean=2940166130709
What makes your featured book a must-read?
This book is a must for readers who love small-town romance, divorced heroines, 40ish heroines who are rebuilding their lives, and the Hollywood-celebrity-falls-for-normal-citizen trope, which is personally one of my favorites. Kay is the kind of reclusive, reserved hero with great depths hidden behind the gorgeous face, and Dale is my favorite sort of heroine: seemingly prickly on the outside, but with a huge, loyal heart. There’s an inclusive cast and lots of fun and laughter along with high-level steam. This is the book that will make you believe the fairy tale can happen at any time, especially when you least expect it.
Giveaway –
Enter to win a $20 Amazon gift card:
Open Internationally.
Runs July 9 – July 17, 2024.
Winner will be drawn on July 18, 2024.
Author Biography:
Misty Urban fell in love with stories at an early age and has spent her life among books as a teacher, scholar, editor, writer, and bookseller. Her favorite stories take you new places, teach you new things, and end with a win. She especially likes romances about unconventional heroines who defy the odds and the unexpected heroes who woo them, so that’s mostly what she writes. When she puts down the book she likes to take long walks, drag her family to new places, or hang out around water, dreaming up new stories.
Social Media Links:
Author website: https://mistyurban.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authormistyurban/
Amazon author page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Misty-Urban/author/B002TQ3K3C
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/mistyurban
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/mistyurbanwrites/