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In the darkness of the bar, with the slow, sexy beat of the music in the background, Jack was looking … delicious.
He saw her and smiled, and she steeled herself against the anxious flutter in her chest.
Don’t look at his smile … look at his teeth. White, straight—perfect. No, not helping. Look away.
His hair. Look up.
It looked thick and wavy and it was being held up over his forehead. Very nice hair.
Don’t look at his hair.
His eyes. Dark and velvety. Chocolaty. Sexy. Bedroom eyes.
Definitely don’t look there.
A lazy layer of dark stubble sat on his jaw. It made him look a little rougher, a little more manly—maybe even a little dirty.
Brooke swallowed hard and pulled at the collar of her shirt. She’d wanted to look sophisticated, in charge and in control. But now all she felt was exposed. She tried to cover herself up a little before pushing her lips into a wide smile and attempting to saunter towards him.
He smiled and said, ‘You look incredibly sexy tonight. Hot date?’
JENNIFER RAE was raised on a farm in Australia by salt-of-the-earth farming parents. There were two career options for girls like her—become a teacher or a nurse. Rather disappointingly for her dear old dad, she became neither.
All she’d ever wanted to do was write, but she didn’t have the confidence to share her stories with the world. So instead she forged a career in marketing and PR—after all, marketing and PR professionals are the greatest storytellers of our time!
But following an early mid-life crisis several years ago Jennifer decided to retrain and become a journalist. She rediscovered the joy of writing and became a freelance writer for some of Australia’s leading lifestyle magazines. When she received a commission to interview a couple of romance-writers for a feature article Jennifer met two incredible Australian authors whose compelling stories and beautiful writing touched her cold, cynical heart.
Finally the characters who had been milling around Jennifer’s head since her long years on the farm made sense. Jennifer realised romance was the genre she had to write. So, with little more than a guidebook borrowed from the local library and a you-can-do-this attitude, Jennifer sat down to release her characters and write her first romance novel.
When she’s not ferrying her three children to their various sports, musical endeavours and birthday parties, you can find Jennifer at the boxing gym, out to dinner with her friends or at home devouring books.
Jennifer has lived in New Orleans, London and Sydney, but now calls country New South Wales home.
Something that has always fascinated me is finding out why people make the choices they do and where their emotions stem from. Reality TV is supposed to be a fly-on-the-wall interpretation of real life, but often it’s not. It’s manipulated to increase drama and sex appeal.
This thought led me on to social media, and the way people use that to manipulate the way people interpret life. Often it’s through a filter, and supposedly there are only ‘good hair’ days. Modern dating has become an exciting but scary place. All it takes is a ‘like’ on Instagram and a couple of Snapchats and next thing you’re tearing each other’s clothes off on the floor. Before you get to know each other. Before you consider the realities of spending time with that person.
We live in an age of filtered reality—and it ain’t changing any time soon. But I’m old school. I’d rather meet someone in person and find out whether they’re a sandwich short of a picnic or if they exude a strange smell, rather than ‘like’ them on social media and think later.
Brooke and Jack’s involvement in a reality TV show skews the way they look at life, love and each other. It takes time spent alone with each other for them to realise that the only way to fall in love—really fall in love—is to switch off, push aside pre-judgements and filtered realities and reach deep into each other’s souls. Love is not a filtered reality. It’s dirty and messy, heartbreaking and exhilarating. But when Jack and Brooke realise they need to experience it to feel it their lives can really begin.
Jennifer Rae x
Who’s Calling
the Shots?
Jennifer Rae
To my sisters from other misters:
Sonja Screpis, Carla Poole, Tiffany Steel and Julie Whittington.
Without you I’d understand nothing and laugh a lot less.
Massive love, my beautiful friends. x
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