Today’s Snippet Saturday selection comes from my release Stoneface, which is currently available for 50% off at Siren-BookStrand as a retro release special.
http://www.bookstrand.com/stoneface
The set-up: Gwen and Liam’s sister, Amy, has apparently gone AWOL while on a trip to Rapid City, SD.
—
She called Liam’s cell. He answered using a Humphrey Bogart voice. “How ya doin’, shweeheart?”
Gwen giggled. Her partner in crime. “Hey, bro. How’s it hanging?”
“Long and low as always, baby sis. What’s up?”
“Dad’s freaking out. I figured I’d better call you and get the accurate story.”
He sounded aggravated. “I told Mom I had the information about my scripts. She insisted on calling Amy anyway because she hadn’t called home in a couple of days. They keep tabs on her like freaking prison wardens. I’m not worried about her.”
“Ah. I thought that might be it. Maybe she just wanted extra downtime.”
He laughed. “Probably more like up and down time.”
“What?”
“Hold on.” It sounded like he put his phone down, and a moment later he returned, his voice lower. “I wanted to shut my door so Mom doesn’t overhear. I think Amy was meeting a guy out there. Which would explain why her name didn’t show on the hotel register.”
Suspicion confirmed. “We think alike, bro.”
“I couldn’t say that for fear of blowing her cover, you know? What am I supposed to tell them? ‘Hey, don’t worry about her, I think she’s just getting her freak on.’ I think not.”
Gwen burst out laughing. “Yeah. Dad would threaten her with the convent again.”
“I haven’t managed to convince him that one, we’re not Catholic, and two, she’s an adult.” He sighed. “Can you come spring me tonight? Please?”
Another guilty pang. Except for the fact that she’d want to kill her father, she would have volunteered to live there to help take care of Liam instead of Amy. “Will they let you out tonight? Are you feeling okay?” He’d almost been hospitalized over a kidney infection a few weeks earlier. She’d got him to the book signing only because he snuck out while their mother was out making her regular grocery store trip and their father was out playing golf. Liam waited to call their mom until after Gwen had safely spirited him away for the day.
“Just, please, come take me to your place for a couple of nights. I’m having a good week. I can move around okay. You saw me on Saturday, I feel fine. Two or three nights, please? You can order me a hooker. Or at the very least a damn pizza.”
Gwen laughed. No way in hell could she tell him no. “Be ready to run at three. Toss your bags out the window.”
“You are such a good baby sister. I’m willing my Star Trek collection to you, you know that, right?”
“Even Malibu Worf?”
The old joke never failed to make him laugh. “Malibu Worf, Malibu Data, anatomically correct Q, the whole damn crew.”
“Okay. You break it to them, and I’ll slow down on my way past so you can jump in.”
“See you at three.”
She looked around. Nothing needed cleaning, but she’d have to rearrange the living room a little so he could easily navigate in his wheelchair if he needed to use it. He’d sleep in the downstairs office she rarely used. The comfortable queen-sized Murphy bed folded down from the wall and was easy for him to get in and out of. She’d had the downstairs guest bath modified a couple of years earlier, after his diagnosis and before her divorce from Dickweed, so it opened into the office with a door wide enough for a wheelchair and configured so Liam could use it without assistance. She fingered her phone and decided to send Amy a text message instead of calling.
Pls call or txt me or Li. M&D going batshit. We won’t rat u out, promise.
Hopefully that would get some sort of response.
If not, she wouldn’t get a moment’s peace.
—
Description
[Ménage Amour: Erotic Contemporary Ménage a Trois Romance, M/M/F, with M/M]
Gwen has a cheating ex, a paranoid best friend, crazy overprotective and ultra-religious parents…and is a successful erotica writer. Forced to overcome her fear of flying to search for her sister in Rapid City, Gwen doesn’t expect to run into her internet buddy, Tim. Better yet, Tim’s boyfriend, Jack, is a police detective. They welcome Gwen and her older brother, Liam, to stay with them during their search.
Jack earned his “Stoneface” nickname after personal tragedy hardened his heart. He loves Tim, but Gwen stirs up painful memories that make Jack’s feelings for her suspect in his own mind. It doesn’t help that he falls in love with her.
Unfortunately, finding their sister leads to more problems. Shattered trust, broken hearts, and Liam coming out to their parents in a defiant showdown make Gwen question her priorities. Can she risk her heart again trying to break through Jack’s “Stoneface” façade?
A Siren Erotic Romance