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.

Last time I introduced a snippet of a story in which the male main character ties up the female main character in a bathroom. The obvious explanation for this is that she surprised him while he was robbing her museum. However, I did hint at that they knew each other of old. This week I’m giving you the “prequel” by posting a snippet of the chapter before, taking place one day earlier, when they run into each other and my heroine recalls their last encounter. So if you want to, you could start by reading this, and then going on to read September’s excerpt.

And speaking of the heroine – I told you had problems naming her. She now goes by Kathleen.

I hope you enjoy!

EXCERPT:

I scanned his face for a sign that he recognized me, but found none. He still looked good. Older, admittedly, but good. His features had lost their boyish sweetness and he had grown into the nose that had been just slightly too big. He looked more angular. Stronger. More determined. There were a few lines around his eyes that hadn’t been there last time, and on the left side of his upper lip there was a new, tiny scar. I stared at his mouth in fascination. Even with that scar, it was perfect. God, I wanted to kiss him. I wanted to rip his clothes off and see if the rest of him was as good. And at the same time, I wanted to hit him across that arrogantly handsome face. The bastard. It may have been ten years, but I was still longing to tear his heart out and shove it up his nose.

And yet that morning last time had begun so well.

I woke up, and without a sound I crawled out of bed and started to pull my clothes back on. He sat up, the sheets falling away from his elegant, tanned body. I felt my cheeks flush as heat rushed through my body at the sight of him. Why had I ever gotten out of that bed? Oh, yes. I had to go home.

“Where are you going?”

“Home,” I said, slipping out of his bedroom door. “My mother might worry.”

Drunk with a new sort of sexual power, I simply counted on him to come after me and beg. And he did.

His jeans still unbuttoned, he caught me just by the door. He pulled me to him, and he was smooth and silky and still warm from the bed. He pulled his fingers through my hair and tilted my head back.

“Hey, Birthday girl,” he whispered. “You haven’t even told me your name.”

“Kathleen.”

“Kathleen,” he repeated slowly. “Pretty. It suits you.” He traced the line of my jaw with his finger. “So can I have your phone number, Kathleen?”

Even that light touch was enough to make my senses reel. Of course I would give him my phone number. I would have told him anything. I was putty in his hands. If he’d asked me to, I’d have lain down right there on the floor among the beer cans, discarded clothes and empty cartons of take-out and let him do whatever he wanted to me.

Suddenly the door to the left opened, and a young man peeped put, blinking at us. He was wearing boxers and a t-shirt and he coughed deeply, the sound of a seasoned smoker in the morning.

“Anybody seen my cigs?” he asked. “Oh, there they are.” He picked up a crumpled packet of cigarettes from the floor and put one between his lips. I shuffled my feet in embarrassment as he checked me out while he lit it.

He inhaled and laughed, the laughter turning to another cough.

“Hell, Ryan, you did it. You really got the redhead to come home with you. But you’re not getting your twenty bucks if you didn’t actually poke her.”

It took me half a second to understand what he was saying. I was a bet? A bet? My brain seemed incapable of grasping this simple fact. It juggled it about, twisted it, stewed on it, but refused to accept it. It simply couldn’t be true. I stared at my lover, willing him to refute it.

But he didn’t. Instead, dark red color was creeping into his cheeks, and he flipped the hair out of his eyes.

“It wasn’t like that,” he said hurriedly and I felt hot tears begin to sting behind my eyelids. When guys say that, it’s always like that.

A bet. I was so cold my teeth almost chattered. I felt used and dirty and stupid. Such an idiot. A gullible, virginal, little idiot. The butt of a joke, that was what I was. I blinked and blinked, fighting the tears that were welling up with alarming speed. I couldn’t cry in front of them. It would be the final humiliation. I’d never survive it.

Luckily, the other guy saved me.

“So did you?” he insisted and I felt a rush of ice-cold fury, blotting out everything else. My ears were ringing with it and it made my voice sound coarse and raw.

“You want to know what happened?” I said. “I fucked his brains out. Big deal. If you weren’t so ugly, maybe I’d do you too.”

I tore the door open and stormed off, slamming it so hard behind me that the wall shook. Crappy cheap building. It suited them. The goddamn assholes. I wanted to kick something. Or run a mile and scale a wall. And then I wanted to go back and neuter the son of a bitch.

He caught up with me on the stairs.

“You have to believe me. It really wasn’t like that.” There was a note of desperation in his voice that just fueled my anger. I wrung my arm from his grip.

“Listen, Ryan or whatever your name is.” I was surprised at how cool and steady I sounded. “I don’t know how it was, and I don’t really care, because I know how it’s going to be. You’re not going to get my phone number. You’re not going to get anything from me, except this.”

I flipped him the finger. And then I walked down the stairs and I didn’t once look back.

Links to other Excerpt Monday writers

Note: 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.

So, to kick it off, your hosts:

Alexia Reed, Urban Fantasy (R)
and
Bria Quinlan, Rom Com (PG13)

Joining us this week:

Jamie Babette, Fantasy Romance (PG13)
M.G. Buehrlen, YA Fantasy (PG13)
AJ Chase, Paranormal Romcom (PG13)
Stephanie Draven, Paranormal Romance (PG13)
Heather S. Ingemar, YA (PG 13)
Cynthia Justlin, Romantic Suspense (PG13)
Kaige, Historical Romance (PG13)
Julia Knight, Fantasy Romance (PG 13)
Nadia Lee, Paranormal Romance (PG13)
Jeannie Lin, Historical Romance (PG13)
R.F Long, Paranormal Romance (PG13)
Shawntelle Madison, Paranormal Romance (PG13)
Christa McHugh, Paranormal Romance (PG13)
Debbie Mumford, Fantasy Romance (PG13)
Bria Quinlan, Rom Com (PG13)
Megan S, Paranormal Romance (PG13)
Dara Sorensen, Historical Fiction (PG13)

Melissa Aires, Futuristic Romance (R)
Kendal Ashby, Contemporary, (R)
KB Alan, Contemporary Erotic Romance  (R)
Carly Carson, Contemporary (R)
Cate Hart, YA (R)
Felicia Holt, Contemporary Romance (R)
Ali Katz, Historical Erotic Romance (R)
Inez Kelley, Contemporary Romance (R)
Annie Nicholas, Paranormal Romance (R)
Christa Paige, Paranormal (R)
Mary Quast, Contemporary Romance (R)
Alexia Reed, Paranormal Romance (R)

Sara Brookes, Erotic Paranormal Romance (NC17)
Ella Drake, Historic Paranormal Romance (NC17)
Angeleque Ford, Dark Urban Fantasy (NC17)
J. W. Hankins, Dark Fantasy (NC17)
Kim Knox, Erotic Romance (NC17)
Elise Logan, Contemporary with Paranormal Elements (NC17)
Dawn Montgomery, Paranormal Erotic Romance (NC17)
Kirsten Saell, Erotic Fairy Tale Romance (NC17)
Bryl R Tyne, Erotic Sci Fi m/m, (NC17)

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