Excerpt Monday (September)

September 13, 2009 on 1:44 am | In ERD, Uncategorized | 10 Comments

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 don’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.

From ALL THE WOMEN IN PEARL, available now at Ellora’s Cave

John began to turn away. Unwilling to face his back again, she hurried to say, “I need to thank you.”

He paused then stretched his long legs and crossed them at the ankle. His forearm rested along the length of the windowsill. He angled his head and looked at her, his eyes glittering in the dark. “So thank me.”

Challenge. She wrung her hands. “I’m unsure how.”

“They’re only two words, C.C.”

“They are, aren’t they?” She untwisted her fingers, smoothed her skirt, and spoke to his knees. “Thank you, John.”

“For what?”

“For…” Buying me. No. He hadn’t done that. It was a terrible insult to permit herself the thought that he had. “Taking me home.”

She glanced at the door, out the window, and added, “But I can’t accept it. I’m going to ask Lewis to return what you paid. I shouldn’t have allowed matters to proceed so far. They weren’t holding me prisoner. I was free to leave when I chose. I planned to leave in the morning, to wire Ethan and ask that he see me from Pueblo to Pearl.”

“A man doesn’t surrender land once it’s in his hands,” John said flatly. “You won’t speak with them again.”

“Land?” She covered her mouth, understanding.

His attention returned to the window. Collette cursed herself, her unfortunate silence and her ill-timed tongue. She rounded the bed and touched his shoulder, unsure why she did it but knowing she needed contact. Maybe he did too.

The muscle beneath her hand bunched. He tucked his chin closer to his chest. “Go to sleep. We’re leaving at sunup.”

“To go back to Pearl. But that’s not where you were going, is it?”

“That’s over. Now I’m going back to Pearl.”

She sank to her knees beside him, her skirt nudging his legs. If he wouldn’t look up, she would go down.

John did turn his gaze upon her when she touched his thigh. The quickening breeze pulled at her hair. He reached for the flyaway strands and wrapped them around his fist, studying her from beneath heavy lashes.

“What are you about, girl?” He returned her hair to her shoulder, smoothing the strands with a slow caress over the curve of her breast. Collette stopped breathing. The heel of his palm centered on her pebbling nipple, resting there. “This isn’t innocent. It’s a paying pose.”

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