Page 12 of Trick
“Then, one of the people at the recording studio I used in Pittsburgh suggested that I audition for audiobook narration after finding out that I’d appeared in a couple of high school and college theater productions. I wasn’t sure I actually had the skills to act out the parts, but she convinced me to give it a try.”
“What kind of books do you narrate?” Abby asked.
Before I could answer, Camille jumped in. “With that sexy, bedroom voice of yours, you’ve got to be doing smutty romance,” she declared.
She looked slightly disappointed when I told them that I’d voiced several children’s books and a fictional account of awoman raising her kids on her own after her husband was killed in World War II.
“And yes,” I teasingly revealed, “I also do romance. I’ve recorded two of them so far, and I just started recording my third.”
“I knew it,” Camille crowed, reaching for her phone which was on the table next to her plate. She started tapping at the screen then asked for my last name. “I want to listen to your stuff.”
“It’s Ashcroft, but I record romance under the nameLaura Asher.”
“This is so exciting!” Molly squealed, grinning widely. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell us.”
I shrugged. “I’m sorry. My ex was always embarrassed by the romance books I did and hated for anyone to know. I guess I got used to keeping it to myself.”
“Your ex sounds like a dickbag,” Camille mumbled distractedly, still tapping and swiping at her phone.
“He is. And a lying, cheating dickbag at that.”
Ella reached for my hand and gave it a squeeze. I knew she understood, having heard all about her own lying, cheating ex-husband.
“Well, I think it’s incredible, Lauren,” she said, before being interrupted by her friend.
“There, I just downloaded one of your books. I think we need to give it a listen,” Camille waggled her eyebrows and grinned, then pressed the button on the side of her phone to turn up the volume before setting it down on the coffee table.
The other women were excited as the audiobook started to play, and I cringed as I heard the intro for my last narration project – a particularly steamy storyline involving a dirty-talking hockey player and his teammate’s sister. It had been a duet narration, which was a first for me. It was freeing to only concentrate on the various female voices, rather than having to adjust to a lower register to voice the male characters as well.
I was proud of the work I did, but listening to it with a group of people I didn’t know well could be mortifying. I sighed as I realized I was letting Beau the Bastard get into my head about my romance audios being too slutty.
“You might as well be doing porn, Lauren. It’s embarrassing as hell,” he’d told me more than once. The more successful I became, the more he complained. I didn’t think that was a coincidence.
I took a deep breath, mentally pulled up my big girl panties, and forced myself to relax as the sound of my voice filled the room. Dammit, I was done letting my cheating ex-fiancé and his insecurities live rent-free in my mind.
“I’d been around hockey players all my life, and I’d never, ever, wanted to lick one from head to toe. Until him. Damian Mathers. All-star centerfor my brother’s team, sexiest man alive, and an all-around pain in my ass. And not the good kind of pain in my ass, either. The man had major big-dick energy – and as I’d learned three-point-two seconds ago when he’d dropped the towel from around his waist – he also had an actual big dick to back it up.”
“Hot damn! I love it when a book jumps right into the good stuff,” Camille hooted. “Now, let’s see if he knows what to do with that big dick.”
“He does,” I assured her with a satisfied grin. Damian’s character was probably my favorite book boyfriend. My trusty vibrator had gotten quite the workout while I’d been recording that book.
With the other ladies listening with rapt attention, I put aside the last lingering smidgeon of embarrassment and settled back into my chair to enjoy their reactions.
Chapter 5
Trick/Jase
King hit the button on the remote to pause the TV as the second quarter of the game ended, so that we could all go upstairs to grab dinner. The tortilla chips and Ella’s homemade salsa that I’d eaten earlier had worn off, and my stomach was ready for some real sustenance.
I heard the faint sounds of the women talking as I followed Lucky up the basement stairs and into the kitchen, only to run into him as he came to a dead stop in the middle of the room.
“What the hell, man?”
Lucky turned to look at me in confusion, then pointed in the direction of the living room where they were having their book club.
“Move it, guys, I’m starving,” King grumbled, shouldering me aside as we blocked the path to the massive spread of food setting out on the large island.
“Shush, listen!” Lucky quietly demanded, again pointing toward the living room. The dude looked seriously freaked out, and it took me a few seconds to figure out why.
