The Excerpt
Lisa took the 5 x 7s he extracted from his jacket pocket. They were some of the shots from the atrium and they looked as hot as the setting. The first was of her alone in the Jaccuzi, her hair up in a dark sexy disarray and skin gleamed with perspiration, not a trace of her bathing suit showing through the choppy water of the tub. She stared at it disbelieving for a long moment, as if that sultry model was someone she didn’t know. In the next picture she was with Harlan. She smiled because he looked so ridiculous plopped down in the center of the whirlpool in all his clothes, grinning like he didn’t care. Then she went to the next one and her smile faded.
It was of them making the suggested eye contact. Her arms were around his neck and for all intents and purposes, she looked naked. But that wasn’t what shocked her. It wasn’t the way they looked, it was how they were doing the looking.
(…and a bit more…)
Was that what everyone else had seen? The two of them so lost in each other they gave off more steam than the heated water? Dizzily, Lisa realized the photo stripped bare all the complexities of her heart, right down to the urgent hunger that gleamed in her eyes and was reflected back in Harlan’s.
A strange hollow sensation stirred in her stomach as if the bottom had fallen out of it. She’d once heard that a camera didn’t lie. Was this the truth, then? Was this what lay beneath the confusion Harlan incited, this graphic display of sweltering desire? Her whole body felt weak. Her emotions churned like the tempestuous water and she couldn’t drag her eyes from that revealing exposé.
“Has Harlan seen this yet?” Her voice was faint with anxiety.
“Not yet.”
She rolled the photo between agitated hands. “I’d rather he didn’t see this one. I mean, it’s not as though you’d ever use it in the campaign. I wouldn’t want any wrong ideas—”
Teddy held up his hand to curtail her awkward explanation. He didn’t need to hear it. What was in that picture was crystal clear. “Sure, Lisa. No problem.” As she smiled in limp gratitude, he didn’t have the heart to tell her that this was the mildest one of the three Moe had developed. The other two were in a stack in Harlan’s stateroom waiting for his attention.
And they’d get it, too.
So much info packed into this marvelous sentence: "Lisa realized the photo stripped bare all the complexities of her heart, right down to the urgent hunger that gleamed in her eyes and was reflected back in Harlan’s."
ReplyDeleteIf it wasn't for commas, I don't know how I'd write!
DeleteGreat teaser. Loved the snippet.
ReplyDeleteJust from this snippet I can tell this is one HOT romance! Makes me want to go on a research cruise of my own--unfortunately not many available during the Regency! LOL Tweeted. And Happy Holidays!
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