Love, Lies and a Bloke

By Danielle Hylton-Outland and April Fifer

What do you do when you don't know who you are...and the one you love doesn't either?

Katherine Thomas is a lackluster kind of girl who refuses to bend the rules. Until one day she loses her job and is forced to re-evaluate her life. One trip to Australia changes her world forever. She meets Brody, a hot and steamy man—in uniform. What she thinks is a night of fun and little lies turns out to be much more. One thing leads to another and Katherine realizes she's in love. When an unexpected turn of events reveals Katherine's true story, she must fight to make Brody understand that her love is real. Will she find a way?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Totally Bound Publishing
• Release date: Jun 2, 2015
• ISBN: 9781784304065

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A Totally Bound Publication

Love, Lies and a Bloke

ISBN # 978-1-78430-406-5

©Copyright Danielle Hylton-Outland and April Fifer 2015

Cover Art by Posh Gosh ©Copyright January 2015

Edited by Jennifer Douglas

Totally Bound Publishing

This is a work of fiction. All characters, places and events are from the author’s imagination and should not be confused with fact. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, events or places is purely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form, whether by printing, photocopying, scanning or otherwise without the written permission of the publisher, Totally Bound Publishing.

Applications should be addressed in the first instance, in writing, to Totally Bound Publishing. Unauthorized or restricted acts in relation to this publication may result in civil proceedings and/or criminal prosecution.

The author and illustrator have asserted their respective rights under the Copyright Designs and Patents Acts 1988 (as amended) to be identified as the author of this book and illustrator of the artwork.

Published in 2015 by Totally Bound Publishing, Newland House, The Point, Weaver Road, Lincoln, LN6 3QN

Totally Bound Publishing is a subsidiary of Totally Entwined Group Limited.

Warning:

This book contains sexually explicit content which is only suitable for mature readers. This story has a heat rating of Totally Simmering and a Sexometer of 1.

LOVE, LIES AND A BLOKE

Danielle Hylton-Outland and April Fifer

What do you do when you don’t know who you are…and the one you love doesn’t either?

Katherine Thomas is a lackluster kind of girl who refuses to bend the rules. Until one day she loses her job and is forced to re-evaluate her life. One trip to Australia changes her world forever. She meets Brody, a hot and steamy man—in uniform. What she thinks is a night of fun and little lies turns out to be much more. One thing leads to another and Katherine realizes she’s in love. When an unexpected turn of events reveals Katherine’s true story, she must fight to make Brody understand that her love is real. Will she find a way?

Dedication

To all of the women who live in a hard reality and just need a little escape.

Trademarks Acknowledgement

The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of the following wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction:

Honda Accord: Honda Motor Company Ltd

Post-it: 3M Company

Victoria’s Secret: L Brands, Inc.

Band-Aid: Johnson & Johnson

’67 Camaro: General Motors, LLC

McDonald’s: McDonald’s Corporation

Jack Daniel’s: Brown Forman Corporation

Coke: The Coca-Cola Company

Cast Away: Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

Papa Don’t Preach: Madonna, Brian Elliot

Chapter One

Next! Katherine shouted from behind the outdated photo booth counter. Please sit up straight and place your shoulders back. Her voice carried through the building, and every time she spat out that same boring sentence it would be followed by a blinding flash from the camera bulb.

Umm, can I at least smile? the young girl asked, irritated and apparently over-confident just having earned her new license.

No, Katherine quickly said, then snapped the picture. The young girl stomped off speedily to what Katherine could only assume was the girl’s mother.

It’s a license, not a photo shoot, Katherine thought to herself. Katherine’s own license immediately popped into her head. Her chocolate-colored hair looked oily black and her deer-in-headlights look taunted her every time she had to display it.

Katherine Thomas was the photo taker, and she spent her entire day standing in the same spot and shouting out the same sentence over and over. She liked to call herself a ‘photo taker’ because ‘DMV photographer’ seemed a little overkill. There was nothing glorious about snapping people’s pictures on a camera that was older than her and having them come out looking like the customers were sunburned because the machine had too much red ink in it.

Kathy… Kathy… a man’s voice sang behind her.

Katherine rolled her eyes and finally turned to face her boss, Chuck. My name is not Kathy, she said through clenched teeth. He was a scumbag, and sleaze saturated every ounce of his aura. She could always feel him staring at her while she stood behind the photo booth.

When Chuck wasn’t treating her like she was an idiot, he was making sexual remarks to her. On two occasions, Katherine could have sworn he had brushed up against her ass on purpose. If she could have proven it, she probably would have nailed him square in the jaw.

What do you want, Chuck?

I need to see you in my office, he sputtered.

What an asshole, Katherine said under her breath. She motioned for Janice, her co-worker, to come take her place. Katherine and Janice had worked together for a couple of years. Janice was very beautiful and sweet in nature. Katherine wasn’t really friends with her per se, but she did like Janice. Katherine had always thought that she had the cutest shape and gorgeous red hair.

The line for the photos wrapped around the waiting room, and it was twenty minutes before closing. That’s how it always was. No one ever showed up in the middle of the day. It was invariably after four o’clock before the building would become overrun with human bodies everywhere.

Katherine made it to Chuck’s office, and he was sitting behind his twenty-year-old desk made of solid oak. A vision of her leaping over his desk and strangling him flashed through her mind. She quickly shook off the image.

Yes, Chuck? Katherine asked as she stood there.

We are getting some complaints about your behavior, Chuck said.

By whom? Katherine demanded then thought of the teenager earlier that had been one pout away from throwing a tantrum.

By some of the customers. You never smile, and you seem irritated all the time, Chuck went on.

That’s because I am, Katherine thought to herself, but remained silent.

This is a customer service job. You need to be more welcoming.

Chuck’s voice made Katherine cringe.

"Chuck… I stand behind a camera all day taking driver’s license photos. It’s an assembly line. There is no customer service! If I stopped every person and asked them their life story, we wouldn’t close before nine."

"Sorry, Kathy. This is going to have to go in your review. I think you should take some time off and really think about what your future holds here at the DMV. I have scheduled for Janice to take your place

Reviews for Love, Lies and a Bloke

[bookwhisperer · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Katherine is having one of those “horrible, no good, very bad days” when she gets fired from her job by her pervy boss, realizes her boyfriend is useless, and that her parents still have high hopes for her (which she believes she will never accomplish.) So when the opportunity presents itself for her to get away, she seizes it. Kat grabs a globe sitting in her apartment, spins it and lets her finger choose her destination. She hops on a plane to Australia and while checking into her hotel, Kat ruins into a handsome Aussie (Brody) *sigh* and they immediately hit it off with one another. But Kat has feed him a ball of lies about herself and if he ever finds out about them, could he forgive her? Outland and Fifer have written a fast, spicy, and tempting read. We have all had those days where life, at that moment, just sucks but the character Kat decided to take it to the next level and make something better out of it. I could never just pick up and vacation in another country so I think that this is why I liked this book so much. I could live vicariously through the character Kat. And believe me when I say “Dang, I wish I was her landing in Australia” when she runs into Brody. Their chemistry together was amazing and you just knew that they were meant to meet and fall in love. However, the authors do not make it quite that easy on them and you will find yourself speeding through the pages in hopes that things work out. ~BookWhisperer Reviewer MC~