Today’s #1lineWed theme is all about the crossings. Crossed up, crossing streams, uncrossed, crossing over, crossing out, across, the cross, double cross… The possibilities are endless! And in this little snippet from my current WIP, SEAL MOON (releasing March 21), our intrepid heroine is trying to keep a stiff upper lip in the face of her hero’s…frustrating charm, shall we say? 😉
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Taylor stared, aghast—obviously bordering on a hysterical breakdown because she would never think, much less use, a word like aghast. Given she’d been tossed off a drilling platform and dragged through the Gulf of Mexico to this deserted island, she was entitled. “I fear I’m at a loss for words. I truly don’t understand how you can still be single.”
Riley brushed wet sand off his chest and didn’t miss the way her eyes tracked the movement of his hand. Her mouth—and what a fantastic mouth it was—said one thing while everything else about her screamed the opposite. Face straight, he said, “I see what you did there. Sarcasm doesn’t become you.”
She threw up her hands, her expression matching her frustrated, “ARGH!”
“Yeah, I have that effect on women.”
“Why you…you…insufferable…egotistical…detestable…insufferable—”
“You said that one already.”
She made a strangled noise, pivoted and marched off down the beach.
“This is gonna be fun,” Riley muttered under his breath. Too bad she was headed right into the viper’s nest. “Yo, duchess?”
“Don’t talk to me!” She didn’t bother turning around. Arrogant man. Arrogant, too-sexy-for-her-own-good man. Who had saved her life when time was running out.
“We need to head the other way,” he called.
Taylor registered his expletives as bullets sprayed at her feet. They were in deep doodoo now. She met him halfway, sprinting for all she was worth but she still managed to pant out, “Who are those guys?”
He grabbed her hand and towed her behind him. “Hell if I know. Run, baby.”
Following close as Riley ducked between two large boulders, Taylor popped off, “I can now cross running for my life on a tropical beach while crazed mercenaries shoot at me off my bucket list.”
Riley pulled her around so she’d be ahead of him. “Follow the trail, duchess. I’m going to create a little diversion.” Before he let go, he reeled her into his chest and kissed her. Thoroughly. With tongue. His free hand cupped her very sweet ass. “Hellava bucket list you got there, babe.”
***
What about y’all? What’s crossing your mind at the moment?