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SYDNEY TATE SWORE she was never going to do this again She scratched out a sentence with her pen Why had she accepted her friends’ writing challenge? And why had she thought she could write so steamy and make it sound confessional? It shouldn’t be this difficult! She sighed and tried again

My chest rose and fell as his hand dipped beneath ainst h I was certain he could feel the heavy beat of my heart And then—

And then? Sydney paused and raised her pen And then what?

She rubbed her forehead and stared at the lined notebook she favored as a journalist for writing down keywords and quotes Ordinarily she had no probleht notebooks by the pack because she was constantly running out of paper But her job as a reporternoas pure fiction

She scowled at the page and twirled the pen around her fingers She had been so confident that she could write a few fictional confessions and prove her point about how easy it was to fake an erotic diary All because she didn’t think that a published diary was the real thing

When Isabel Bennett, the town’s librarian, insisted that their book club read The Secret Diary of an Anonymous Victorian Lady, Sydney had supported the decision It wasn’t her first choice of reading material but she had been curious about why it was a phenomenal bestseller across the nation

Well, a bestseller everywhere except for the little agricultural town of Seedling, Washington The Secret Diary was banned from the town’s library and the only bookstore in the area for its erotic content

But Isabel had bought a copy online and it had become her favorite book Sydney should have kept her mouth shut and not questioned its authenticity Laura Dawson, the youngest and wildest member of the book club, didn’t have a problem with the book Her only coh sex But Sydney couldn’t help but notice the inconsistencies in the diarist’s story

It was ile Victorian wo—and had sex with Ernest in so ht Sydney should know She’d survived the crash and burn of a secret love affair of her own

But she wasn’t going to think about her past mistakes and bad decisions It had been six months since she’d lost her boyfriend and her career in one fell swoop She had a new start in a nen She was still working in journalis, but she had proven to herself and others that she wasn’t cut out for that

Okay, concentrate You write for a living You can do this She pressed her pen against the paper The story was about to get juicy What happened next?

Her ainst her bottom lip And then?

Nothing Absolutely nothing! These characters were going to be stuck at second base forever She gave a loud exasperated sigh that seemed to echo in her corner of the public library

Sydney scrawled a big X across the sheet of paper and tossed her pen down “Co since you’ve had sex You knohat happens next”