I have no idea how it can suddenly be Wednesday again but it is and therefore it is time for more Wednesday Words. I won’t mask my astonishment that time flies. Or that I’m currently using masking tape to piece together my edits. Okay, they aren’t really that bad. As you might have guessed, today’s #1lineWed theme is **MASK**. This snippet is mostly self-explanatory. Warning, it gets a bit sexy so you might want to be aware of who is reading over your shoulder. Just sayin’…
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Gen
I have no idea what possessed me to walk away, leaving him in my living room. I should have thrown him out. All right, I should have requested that he leave. There was no way I could physically make him leave. I heard the front door shut and my locks click. I stopped at the entry to my kitchen. I’d been thinking about a glass of wine before I’d heard the motorcycle stop in my driveway. No, I fervently wished I’d ignored the sound and had taken the bottle to the bathroom where I’d planned on a long bubble bath.
Exhaling, I turned—and almost buried my nose in his chest. I jerked backwards, putting space between us, and glanced up. He was looking at me. No. That’s not what he was doing. Looking was too tame a word. His eyes were glued to me, his focus so intense it raised goosebumps on my arms.
“Back off, Wizard.” I meant to say that with a firm tone, like I dealt with minor miscreants who came into my office. Instead, my voice whispered out, making the order more of an invitation.
Something flickered, like a red flame, before his lids lowered to mask what lurked in those unusual green eyes of his. Before I could move, he grabbed my wrist and pulled my hand to his crotch, flattening my palm against him. He was fully erect and my fingers curled around him in self-defense.
One fingertip brushed across my cheek before tracing the outline of my lips. He leaned in and his breath warmed the fragile skin behind my ear. My body all but hummed in anticipation and I forgot to breathe.
“You’re mine, Pink.”
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I almost feel like I should post the blurb and cover again because I haven’t gotten around to making snazzy graphics to share, entice, and get readers hyped up to buy the book next week. I’ve been working on getting it ready to publish instead of the fun stuff. Anyway, writers, are your characters masking anything you want to share? Readers, what Halloween mask would you wear to go trick-or-treating?
Silver James 
Ooo, good one! Can’t wait!
You know me, I don’t need fancy graphics to want to buy this book, so I’m all for working on it instead of marketing stuff. But :sigh: I know the marketing stuff needs to get done. (Which is as much a directive to me as anything. I really need to get to work on the blurb, etc.)
Gah. I only have one instance of mask in CU and it holds a major spoiler. Wait… if I substitute X and Y for the names, maybe…
“We’ve admittedly taken a blow today,” she said. “The person we’d hoped would shed some light on the doings of the SSA cast us farther into shadow. Furthermore, when we’d hoped she would unburden herself…”
I snorted at the thought of Y carrying any sort of burden, but everyone ignored me, including X.
“…someone made certain she would not divulge their secrets.”
Faye raised her hand and waited for X to call on her, which I thought was pretty dumb, but I didn’t see anyone else filling the silent void. Not even me, even if I was shouting internally for her to ask the damn question already.
“Someone?” asked Faye once she’d been called upon by the teacher. “You mean she didn’t off herself?”
“No, child, she did not.”
Frankly, I hadn’t thought about exactly what happened when it happened. I mean, I’d never assume Y would commit suicide rather than talk. She’d always seemed too self-possessed to consider ending her own life. On the other hand, the idea someone had murdered her hadn’t entered my mind either. In a way, I guess I’d assumed the magic building inside her had popped her like an overinflated balloon.
“Grimm and Meyer?” I asked, without raising my hand, I might add.
“I don’t necessarily sense their magical signatures here, but it’s possible they masked them. Or perhaps one of their compatriots did the deed for them.”
Oooh! I haven’t gotten there yet. Now I’ll get to see if I was right on X and Y. 😉 I’m a little over 50 pages in. So far, fun times! And yeah, we all gotta do the marketing thing. Which is mostly to rope in new readers. All my usuals are like you–just hyped ot have a new book coming. 😀