Snippet Sunday: O For A Kayak

We thought we'd go with a different theme this week, with the first sentences introducing our two main characters. First up, the first we see of Chloe...

The karma train had derailed.

Chloe Masters woke half an hour late and discovered a brief power outage during the night had shut down her alarm clock. She took a quick shower and started to dress. That was when she realized the red silk shirt she'd chosen had a stain. Frustrated, she pulled it off and grabbed a white silk tunic and black pants from her closet. She belted the tunic with a heavy black cord and tucked the pants into high burgundy suede boots. As she was braiding her long, dark hair, she looked through the bedroom window and saw the rain. This was no spring shower, but a torrential downpour that sent the pedestrians ten stories below running for cover.

Looks like I'm going to need a kayak to get to the office, she decided.

Snippet Sunday: Getting Frisky

Picking up where we left off a couple of weeks ago, with Chloe and Gabriel getting carried away with themselves, for good reason...

            “I couldn't agree with you more.” She sat up, straddling him, and undid her buttons, slowly, deliberately, as if performing a striptease. She casually tossed the blouse aside and reached for the front clasp on her pink lacy bra. She unhooked it, removed it slowly, dropping it to the floor.

He reached for her, but she stopped him. “Not yet.”

She unbuttoned his shirt as slowly as she had undone her own, her hands caressing his chest, lightly pinching his nipples, running her fingertips through his chest hair, savouring the feel of his flesh. She rocked back on her heels, her hands moving lower, lower, until she reached his belt. She unbuckled it with the same slow, unhurried motion, then unzipped his jeans. She slipped her hand inside his boxer shorts and smiled. “Oh, you're big,” she said softly.

Snippet Sunday: World Domination

Today we're going with another piece from the manuscript, with Gabriel and Terry trapped at their lodgings in the Lake District, with not much to do but playing chess...

Terry smiled. "Care for a game?" he asked, as if seeing an easy mark.

I must be bored out of my mind to play that, Gabriel thought to himself. He came over regardless, sat across from his friend, and looked at the line of pawns. He glanced up at Terry, who seemed to smile in a way that indicated he knew something Gabriel did not. Oh, why not? “What are we playing for?”

“Nothing much. Just world domination.” Terry laughed.

“Oh? Just that, huh?”

Snippet Sunday: As Punctual As Ever

Changing pace from our recent features with our lead characters getting all hot and bothered for a week or two. Here we have Gabriel meeting up with his colleague and friend Terry, a writer and historian. They're on assignment in the Lake District.

                    “Hello there, Terry,” Gabriel greeted his friend.

                    “Hello yourself, you young bastard,” Terry said with a grin, his Scots accent as distinctive as ever. He rose from the chair, extended a hand, and Gabriel shook it, smiling.

                     Gabriel made a show of looking at his watch. “As punctual as ever, I see,” Gabriel remarked, teasing him.

                    “Some of us didn’t have that far to come, so we left late,” Terry replied with a straight face. “Helen sends her love. She’s busy marking papers and terrorizing the second year students. She’ll come down next weekend. Have you eaten?”