Surprise!

EVEN VILLAINS FALL IN LOVE is coming out Friday!

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Yeah, that was my reaction too. It just so happened that there was a teeny, tiny computer glitch that bumped EVFIL's release date to April 20th. I had a nice panic attack (which you saw on Twitter if you follow me there), emailed my lovely editor, gave her a panic attack because she wasn't tracking that at all, and after several frantic email exchanges the glitch was found and order was restored to the universe.

It just wasn't restored fast enough.

EVFIL is coming, but not until Friday. I promised the loyal tweeps who had pre-ordered that they would have something to read by Wednesday, and since they won't have EVFIL I am giving you something extra special.

This is the opening scene to EVERY HERO NEEDS A VILLAIN, the second book in the Heroes and Villains series, and it takes place seven years before EVFIL opens (yes - I know there's a chronology problem there - hush).

Enjoy!

It started while I was brushing my teeth. Not the most romantic thing in the world, but absolutely necessary after kissing Johnny Berneder. Licking a giant slug would have been better, at least the slug wouldn't have tried to swallow my ear when it was done sliming my face. Seriously, thirty seconds in I think I threw up in my mouth a little.

Thirty seconds of that was more than enough to tell Johnny, nicely, that there wouldn't be a second date. Brushing my teeth was essential to survival afterwards. I was going to brush my teeth for thirty minutes, then curl up with a pint of ice cream and cry. Johnny was the proverbial "Nice Guy" – you know – the one that always finished last. If there was any justice in the world he would have turned out to be charming, romantic, spontaneous, and funny. Instead he was… drippy.

Nice guys, bad boys, geeks, jocks… I tried them all, and all I had to show for it was a series of lame dates, bad kisses, and lonely nights.

The phone rang while I was foaming at the mouth. I considered letting it go to voice mail, but it was probably Katrina calling for a full report on my latest disaster. Calling her a friend was stretching the term, we worked together, but she would listen to me sob over why males were horrible for hours.

I rinsed my mouth, and rushed to the phone. "Hello?"

"Hello, beautiful." The voice on the other end was seductive, all dark chocolate and promises of satin sheets.

I dropped into my overstuffed blue papasan chair and tried to pin the voice to someone I knew. "Is this Ethan?" The man on the other end chuckled. It was suddenly warm in my little Austin apartment, especially for February. I fanned myself, and wondered which of the few guys I talked to had a sexy alter ego. "Mark?" I guessed.

"None of the above," the man assured me. There was a click in the background, like a light switch being turned on. "How are you tonight?"

Dangling my feet off the papasan I contemplated lying, but why bother? "It was awful," I told my mystery caller. The nitty-gritty details would probably drive any decent date away, they'd probably drive away mouth-breathing prank callers too. "Kissing Johnny is like sticking your head into warm banana jello. I don't recommend it."

"I'm not interested in kissing Johnny," he said with a hint of seduction in his voice. There was an unspoken invitation there.

You can add EVFIL to your GoodReads profile, or pre-order the book from the publisher. If that's not enough to get you to Friday than consider grabbing a short story to tide you over.