Title: Notes & Roses (Stanford Creek #1)
Author: RJ Scott writing as Rozenn Scott
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: February 26, 2016
Megan Campbell is horrified when a stranger, covered in blood, collapses in her shop. When that same stranger, wild and angry, abruptly becomes someone very different, itâs not her safety she is worrying about, itâs her heart. With his stalker behind bars, former boy band singer CJ Taylor is starting a new life. Heâs bought a house in a small Vermont town, and taken back the name he was born with. Two years have passed since he was last in the public eye and as Cody Brennan, heâs finally feeling safe. Desperate to find some peace, all he wants is to connect to the music in his head, write new lyrics and forget the tragedy in his past. What he doesnât count on is meeting Megan. From her amber eyes to her tempting smile, she is everything he thought he could do without, the very thing he promised himself to avoid. But heâs thrown into her family and her life, and suddenly heâs found a place he wants to stay. Meganâs first instinct is to tame the powerful attraction she has to this stranger, but very soon desire becomes something more. Between them can they find the words to make things right? And can they stay safe long enough to fall in love?
His cell rang but, although he could hear it, the screen was too far gone, and he pressed the power button until the call vanished. Soon it would be out of power and he could push it away in the back of a drawer.
Which was when his second cell rang.
He reached for it on the sofa table and looked at the screen. The battery was lowâhe never remembered to charge the damn thingâbut it was probably enough to answer. He pressed to connect and braced himself for more bad news.
âWhat?â he asked. No point in niceties, his agent was one of those people who didnât put much store on the polite side of conversations. To the point, like a knife to the heart, Zee Childs was a hurricane in a tiny handset.
âJesus, CJ, answer your fricking phone,â she snapped heatedly. âI left ten messages.â
âMy primary cell broke,â Cody explained, but didnât add where heâd been for the last two days since said break. Zee was a good agent, a friend even, for sheâd stayed by his side, but if she had one tiny inkling heâd been hurt sheâd be at his front door. Not to mention that sheâd probably bring a news crew with her to capitalize on the drama of it all. Never let it be said that Zee Childs didnât know how to make a drama out of nothing to sell records.
âGet it fixed,â she snapped, ââcause, dammit, I have news.â
Cody sighed. More news. More hate mail, more threats, more lawsuits? What could top the bad news of a few days back, the news that had had him swallowing a tumbler of vodka like it would make everything better?
âWhat the fuck now?â he snapped.
Zee tutted loudly. âStow the bad-boy attitude; this is good news for once. I have two stations in a bidding war to get you on their sofas and talk.â
Cody could imagine Zee, wild blond hair in a frizzy mess around her head, her expression permanently enthusiastic, like a perky poodle, holding out a hand in a placating gesture. But imagining her didnât make the idea she was spouting any better.
âNo.â
âHear me out, babe.â
âI said, no.â
âCJââ
âCody, my name is Cody. CJ is long gone.â
âJesus fricking⦠CJ, Cody, whatever the frickinâ hell youâre calling yourself, itâs a hundred thousand just to come in and talk.â
âNo.â
âOkay, I could get them to one twenty-five.â
âWhat is it you donât understand about no, Zee? The show would want me to tell them everything, theyâd want their moneyâs worth, and theyâre not paying that much money for me to sit and look pretty. Iâm sorry, but everyoneâs had their pound of flesh, and Iâm done. I told you that.â
âPeople want your side of the story.â
My side of the story? People werenât ready for his side of the story. She was still talking and he tried to catch up with what she was saying.
ââ¦and then it all went to hell, and the money followed. Cody, look babe, Danny wants to talk to you.â
Cody highly doubted his ex-best friend wanted anything to do with him, not after Codyâs breakdown and the fact heâd left the band. Last time theyâd actually met, in the middle of a restaurant, had ended up with Cody on the floor staring at the ceiling, his lip split and Danny cursing at him before turning and leaving.
Every time they met after that was with lawyers between them, hashing out how little of the band Cody was entitled to after he decided to leave. Heâd wanted nothing but Zee fought for him, told him he should get something.
And all that time his bandmates, Danny, Sam, Zach, and Tyler, theyâd looked at him with emotions ranging from pity to anger.
Hell, what did they want? Heâd let them use the lyrics heâd written.
The pressure of being in the band, of working twenty-hour days for something he didnât enjoy, for having to live a life in the public eye, was all too much.
But Danny, he missed Danny like a lost limb.
Now he was numb to it all. For the longest time after theyâd fought, heâd turn to tell Danny something, or pick up his phone to contact him, but after one attempt at reconciliation at one of the lawyer meetings, heâd backed off. Dannyâs anger and dismissal was the worst one of all.
Leah had died, and then the public falling out between him and Danny had served to intensify the pressure. It had been his fault. All his fault.
Fuck. I canât do this again.
Full time romance writer Rozenn Scott creates passionate love stories with a guaranteed happy ever after. Her series of novels, set in the beautiful Vermont town of Stanford Creek, focus on strong, independent women who find love. Writing as RJ Scott, she is the author of over ninety bestselling gay romance novels and has never met a bottle of wine she canât defeat.a Rafflecopter giveaway