Summer Lovin'

Finito!

Okay, I'm going to add an epilogue, it can't be helped, but otherwise, the story is completely written... and I love it.

I started this blog long ago when this story was just a babe. It has some maturing to do in the next couple of weeks, but it won't be long before I can send it off into the big bad world and see how it does.

EEEK!

Thanks for sticking with me.
With this one down, I'm sure it won't be long before I have another going.

That's the way of things around here. :P
Love you all!

Excerpt Monday

Once a month, a bunch of authors get together and post excerpts from published books, contracted work or works in progress, and link to each other. You=2 0don’t have to be published to participate–just an writer with an excerpt you’d like to share. For more info on how to participate, head over to the Excerpt Monday site! or click on the banner above.

~*~*~

Nathan woke to heat. With a pounding head and groggy eyes, he shifted away from the source only to have the source follow him. Clammy hands on his abdomen and moisture from her skin against his thighs sent his body into early morning alert. Almost twenty years. You'd think he would be immune. He should be immune.

Stacy.

She'd curled into his side during the night and was wrapped around him.

5 a.m. Too fuckin' early, but too late to reclaim any sleep. Geez. He should have slept in the second bedroom. As was his practice lately, he slid out of bed and jumped into a cold shower that hardly relieved his arousal. Twenty-nine days was a long ass time.

But necessary if he wanted to ease back.

Dressed—armed—for the day in his blue and pink floral jams and his muscle t-shirt, he hit the kitchen for a quick meal. He made oatmeal, not because it was his favorite, but because it was supposed to lower cholesterol. He figured he better try to stay one step ahead of the grim reaper. Forty-four had snuck up on him like a damn snake and sunk its venomous teeth into his heart.
“Nate! For the love of God.” Stacy rushed to the stove.

He swung around to her and watched in horror as she reached for the pot of boiling oatmeal. Swift as he could, he snagged her around the waist.

“Ow!”

The sticky, thick liquid glooped down the side of the metal and hit the burner where it sizzled and burned. Shit.

“Put me down, you idiot.”

When he dropped her, she stumbled against the table, but he was already grabbing a towel and tossing the pot into the sink. “Did you touch it?” he asked, his heart pounding against his ribcage.

“No.” As she straightened her spine, his awareness that she was going to spew more needs all over him peaked—a result of eighteen years of marriage. “Nathan. I scheduled us to go deep sea diving today.”

“I ca—”

She lifted a hand, successfully succumbing his excuses. “Since you have work, I'll be going by myself.”

Stacy was typically a calm woman. Paired against his own temper, they'd made a good match, but it was times like this when he would give anything to see her fight. Sometime since yesterday afternoon, she'd lost her spark.

He bit his tongue on the urge to ask her about it.

Silence between them had never been awkward before. Now, he didn't think he could get out of there fast enough. He couldn't do this right now. Not when he had a team waiting on him in the Philippines, not when every encounter with her weakened the wall he'd built in order to protect her.

“Nothing?” She strode to the sink and turned on the water. “You have nothing to say. Great, just great. You're unbelievable, you know that?”

Nathan froze. There was no winning in answering, but she expected something. “I have to work. I know this vacation is important to you—”

“To us!” She yelled, dropping the pot so that water sloshed from the sink and drenched her sleeves. “Us. I didn't plan this getaway on my own a year ago. You were there too. We decided to come down here while the kids were in Germany.

“But here I am, by myself even after the sun goes down. And alone when I wake up, too. And you! What do you do? Nothing!” She turned to him, sending poisonous darts with her cold blue eyes as her voice rose. “I need more than you are giving.”

Nathan's shock meter shot through the roof as Stacy grabbed her breasts, squeezed them as if offering them to him. “I want sex, damn it, and you can't even find it in you to roll over and wish me goodnight.”

~*~*~

“Links to other Excerpt Monday writers

N ote: I have not personally screened these excerpts. Please heed the ratings and be aware that the links may contain material that is not typical of my site.

John Gerard

John. You've been in Germany for the past few weeks. What is your favorite part of being in Europe?

J: My Grandparents have a summer home in the mountains. I love coming here because of the history.

History, huh? You're a little young for someone interested in history. What's your favorite era?

J: *smiling* It's a toss up between the Victorian--I always wanted to be a pirate when I was a kid--and of course, World War II. My father, his father and my great grandfather all served in the Army. Here, I get to really jump in, you know? It's not just the museums and memorials. It's real life. The pubs, the people, libraries, churches--

A living history, John?

J: Yes!

Do you think you'll follow in their footsteps? Join the military?

J: Hmm. I don't know. It's hard, you know? My dad, he works alot, even now after being retired for the last five years. He's gone alot. It's hard on my mom.

You have two siblings, right?

J: Julia and Josiah, trouble and terror--respectively. *grin*

Do you travel with them often?

J: This is our first time without my mom. I guess Mom and Dad needed a break. *snort* Like we don't know what that means, right?

They get along, your mom and dad?

J: Yeah. I've seen them argue, hard. My mom, she's the quiet one and my dad really knows how to let lose, but they've never not worked it out...

You worried about them this time?

J: *pause* Nah. Whatever it is, they'll work it out. They have to...

Tell me what you do for fun. I wanted to change the subject, just to ease the moment.

J: I love soccor. I spent a lot of time abroad as a kid and soccor just stuck with me. I've been working out four times a week while we're here--running, mostly. One thing about Germany, and Europe: there's no Gold's Gym on every other corner. Well, I like to lift when I'm home, but aside from my studying, I just keep busy. And Dad puts me to work.

He's a real slave driver?

J: He's old school, right? We live in the mountains, and staying warm in the winter means swinging an axe for wood. *grin*

When we're interrupted by Josiah, I put my pen aside to greet him.

josiah: I hate to swing an axe.
J: That's cuz you're lazy doofus.

The interview wraps up quickly, and I smile at the brothers who obviously have a great affection for each other even if it does mean taking a ribbing. As my thoughts swing back to the man who should have loved me forever, my heart breaks a little at the thought of tearing these boys' home.

I'm just about to leave when the daughter stops me with a suspicious narrowing of her eyes, and she asks me when they can expect to see an article in the American magazine I work for.

Soon, I tell her before I drive away...

And the consequences will threaten everything you know.