So I love my bestie, Anna Bloom, and I ADORE ADORE ADORE her series – The Uni Files and The Art of Keeping Faith (Book two) is OUT NOW!!!!
I had the privilege of reading this weeks and weeks ago and dear god, my emotions were all over the place. If you thought year one was bad, wait until year two. I was constantly texting Anna, caplocks and everything! But my beautiful Benjamin, my Benny boy. My heart ached and killed and you will see why when you read The Art Of Keeping Faith.
I’m hoping you will love Zoe in it too…she is awesome 😉 hahah.
Anyway, Anna wrote an exclusive scene JUST FOR ME and I thought “hmmm everyone loves Ben, so I should really share him.” So here is my generosity for you 😉 hehehehe.
Be warned, it MAY be spoileri-sh, but we all love spoilers hey HAHAHA
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It’s official. I can’t feel my legs.
My left butt cheek went numb forty-five minutes ago. That was twenty minutes after my right ankle started to sting with stabbing pins and needles.
I’m not moving though. I am going to sit right here until she turns up. She will turn up. Won’t she?
Something happened yesterday that I wasn’t expecting. Lilah McCannon finally let me go. I’m not gonna lie, it came as a bit of a blow.
What she doesn’t realise though is that I am not letting go of her. Is she completely crazy? This is Lilah, so of course there are always elements of the crazy involved, but that crazy? That’s just downright demented. There is no way I am walking away from her, I knew it months ago, way back in March when I was offered the contract in the States. I knew it the moment she told me I should go, and I knew it yesterday when I watched her back unwillingly out of my room.
I had a plan though, I always had a back-up plan. There was always something in place just in case she decided to go through with it.
Now I am sitting waiting for her on the fountain at Trafalgar Square. Waiting for her to realise her mistake and find me here. She will realise won’t she?
I guessed she would. Well I hoped she would that’s why I left her the get of jail for free card in the form of an iPod and a post it note.
Dave and the others are going to be pissed when I don’t turn up at the airport but I know I can’t leave without having this resolved. Lilah thinks I don’t know why she let me go. She thinks that I deserve more than her. Again with the crazy? So I have come up with a compromise. I am going to go. I am going to go to the States and give Sound Box a chance but under no circumstances am I allowing Lilah McCannon to break up with me.
It’s just not happening.
Saying that though, I have been sat on this fountain for four hours and there is no sign of her. She must have found the Post-it note, and listened to “Hey There Delilah,” by now?
Or maybe she finished her exam and decided to go out somewhere and get trashed. I didn’t think of that before. Why the fuck didn’t I think of that before? I should have waited outside the exam hall so I could pounce on her the moment she left the building. It’s been twenty four hours without kissing or touching Lilah McCannon. Twenty four hours is a long time. I wonder how bad it’s going to be when I am in a different country to her on a permanent basis? I have a feeling it’s going to suck badly.
I am just sliding my phone out of my pocket when I catch a glance of a girl standing opposite the fountain. She is panting, bright red and has her head dipped low between her knees.
Lilah.
I am up off the fountain and stepping towards her in one long stride, my hand automatically reaching for her skin.
Lilah.
She came.
“Take your time, Lilah,” I sarc. I can’t help but laugh as she glares up at me from her head down position.
“It’s a bloody long way to run Ben.” Lilah straightens up and I move myself against her, feeling her fit perfectly against my body. I run my hands down her bare arms until my fingers link with hers.
“Did you know there was a Tube strike today?”
Ah.
I’m not really in the mood for discussing the current transport affairs right now though.
“I am never going to let you, let me go, Lilah. Do you understand that?”
“But. . .” I don’t let her speak anymore, I pull her in towards me and lower my mouth towards hers. I kiss her for everything that she and I are worth. Everything that we are and always will be together.
“So I’m not allowed to let you go?” she breaks away to ask. “What if I was secretly just waiting it out, making excuses, you know how shit I am at breaking up with people.”
I stare at her, meeting her eyes as my heart thuds in my chest. “But?”
Lilah grins at me, her beautiful smile that makes her grey eyes sparkle like the sky at dawn.
“Ben.” She pulls me back in towards her. “I’m bloody kidding, I’m an idiot. You must know this by now. Please don’t ever let me, let you, go.”
“I won’t.”
“Promise?”
“I promise, that I will never ever, let you, let me, go.”
“Don’t break that promise.”
We stare at each other, and for a breathless moment it feels like we are the only ones standing in the middle of Trafalgar Square on this hot July day.
There are so many things I want to say. I want to ask her if I can just go home with her and not bother going on the plane. I want to know if she fancies being my wife and staying by my side for the rest of our lives. But at the same time I know there are a lot of people with high expectations for me, Lilah is just one of them.
So instead of asking her to marry me I say “I’ve got to go and catch my plane.”
And she says. “Go get them Benjamin Chambers.”
I lean down and kiss her again putting my heart and soul into it. Then I turn pick up my guitar and start to walk across the square, forcing my feet to move away from her.
I turn and catch her watching me leave with an expression of part pride part heartbreak on her face.
I flash her my cocky smile I like to reserve to piss her off. “Don’t drink too much hey Lil!” I call out.
She shrugs. “Who me? Are you kidding?”
I am at the edge of the square when I hear her shout at me.
“Ben, come back soon.”
I turn and smile.
I am so going to be back soon, because there is no damn way I will be able to stay away.
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The Art of Letting Go – Year One
Amazon || Amazon UK
The Saving of Benjamin Chambers (Short prequel)
The Art of Keeping Faith – Year Two
Amazon || Amazon UK
Z. Elizabeth 