Today there are two things to be excited about--
Talk Turkey was released yesterday, and today for #WIPWednesday we finally get to see a little action between Crawford and his fake husband, Mateus. *g*
The five inches of snow we had melted last week, and while it's chilly, it just doesn't feel like Christmas yet. Which is why I'm so excited about the Dreamspinner Press Sleigh Ride Advent Calendar--a little bit of holiday goodness every day. Including
Talk Turkey, my offering for the anthology. You've met Carson and Tom in #WIPWednesday posts, so I won't talk too much about them. This isn't a steamy holiday romp--it's a humorous, adorable lark.
Dreamspinner is having a site-wide holiday story sale through Dec. 5. You can pick
Talk Turkey up on sale right now at Dreamspinner Press (along with my older holiday titles,
The Magic of Weihnachten,
Late Bloomer,
Traditions from the Heart, and even
Campfire Confessions, because Valentine's Day is a holiday, too!
I'm past the three-quarters mark with
Tall, Dark and Deported, which is good because it's due to my publisher on Jan. 1. NaNoWriMo was a great motivator, but so was the electric attraction between Crawford and Mateus that kept my fingers on the keyboard. Today's #WIPWednesday is a scene from the book after Crawford and Mateus have been caught in a late summer thunderstorm out in the orchard and take shelter in an old barn. There's nothing like getting caught in the rain and the adrenalin rush of dodging lightning and hail to get the blood pumping and lower whatever inhibitions these two had left that was keeping them apart. Chock full of tropes, right? Delicious!
Tall, Dark and Deported
Mateus took one look
at him and started to laugh. He let the picnic basket drop to the
ground at their feet and closed the distance between them, his hands
coming up to pluck at Crawford's hair. Crawford started to laugh when
he realized he'd had hail in his hair.
Mateus did, too.
It felt natural to return the favor, his fingers
skating through Mateus's dark locks as he swept the melting ice out
of it.
Crawford's
heart was pounding from their run, and it felt unnaturally loud to
him in the heavy silence of the deserted barn. He and Mateus were
standing close enough that their breath mingled, and Crawford
couldn't stop himself from stepping up, close enough he could count
the drops of water in Mateus's eyelashes.
He hesitated,
hovering close enough to kiss him, until Mateus's eyes closed and he
leaned in the rest of the way, closing the small gap between them. He
tasted like rain, wild and [another word]. Crawford pressed in,
chasing the flavor across Mateus's lips and into his mouth when
Mateus melted into the kiss and let him in.
Crawford's hands
fisted in Mateus's wet sweater, pulling at it until Mateus backed
away and took it off with one swift motion. He tossed it onto a bale
of hay in the corner, and Crawford scrambled to take his own shirt
off. The buttons were a challenge for his rain-chilled hands, but
Mateus swooped in to help, and the two of the managed to wrest the
stiff, wet fabric out of the way.
Crawford shivered
once his skin was exposed, but when Mateus crowded in against him a
moment later, the chill disappeared. Skin to skin, heat flared
between them. Crawford ran his hands up and down Mateus's back, his
fingers greedy for any part of him he could touch. He'd wanted to do
this for weeks, and he wasn't about to waste any time now that he had
Mateus bare in front of him.
