Monthly Archives: January 2014

Punctuality

I said I would be done before Christmas with North Sea Dawn.

Obviously, that did not happen.

I do feel terrible that I missed my deadline, but the changes I am making to the manuscript will make it better – I promise.  In the meantime, because you have been waiting so patiently, I have another teaser. Below is a scene at the bathhouse:

The courtyard was still quiet, and nothing else was out of place. Soft curses and mutterings carried to his ears, although he was sure the woman inside had no idea how the stone walls and water transported sound. He caught a few words, ‘arrogant’, ‘handsome’, ‘self-assured’, and ‘peeping-tom’ were among them. He chose to focus on the compliments and ignore the rest. Her chattering teeth had grown loud enough to concern him when he finally heard her toss another cloth into a basket and climb out of the pool.

For a moment, he did not see the courtyard or pay any attention to potential threats. He listened to the sporadic pitter, patter of water hitting the stone floor and imagined how it would get there. His mind’s eye saw her black hair slicked down her back, water running across the curve of her bottom and down the backs of her legs. The snap of a towel as she shook it out caused his fantasy to lean forward over the table of linens he knew to be inside. The water would slide down her neck, across her chest, gaining speed as it reached the slope of her breast. It would caress the pale skin there until it slowed to a standstill on the rose-colored peak made hard by the cold pool. For the longest moment, the water drop would hang, suspended. A curtain was drawn aside in the bath house and allowed to fall closed. His fantasy collapsed, but Eric found himself licking his lips and wishing for the barest taste of cool water.