Penyanyi : Excerpt Time!
Judul lagu : Excerpt Time!
Excerpt Time!
Well, it's theme week again here at Star-Crossed, and this week's theme is a random paged excerpt. I chose my excerpt from page 14 of my October release "Hounded," found in the anthology A Witch In Time, a Molten Line release from Liquid Silver Books. I chose the excerpt because I finally got the reminder email from our little blog yahoogroup at 1:31 PM today, that said I was supposed to be up on Thursday (arghin'-fargin'-yahoo!). Since it's a novella, and didn't have 131 pages, I used the hour as the first page digit, and added the 3 and 1 to give me 4, so came up with 14.In a parade, Rex encountered Lin, a lovely lady impersonating the goddess from whom he's estranged as a loyal servant. It turned out she wasn't just a costumed temptress, but a hunter sent by his goddess to track him down and bring him back. A fellow exiled Packmate, Max, has come to his rescue in the guise of giving the huntress transport, and the two are discussing Lin's fate and Rex's attraction to her.
(Contains M/M, and the beginnings of not-quite worksafe)
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Rex couldn't help but watch her sleep. And wonder why he wasn't going out as well. His question was answered a minute later when the pilot came back through the door from the cockpit. "Am I glad to see you, little brother." Max made his way hand over hand to Rex's seat and clapped him on the shoulder.
Rex sighed and embraced his former Packmate. His cheek rested against the other man's and he breathed in the wolf-scent of home gratefully. His body pressed against the older man's and Max wrapped his arms around him, responding to the need for comfort and touch.
"I thought we lost our last chance," Max said. "I worried about you being on your own." He glanced over at the sleeping Lin. "But you found yourself a patron, I see."
Rex's gut sank. He didn't want to break Max's bubble. "It's not what you think," he said.
Max chuckled. "Hey, the Lady doesn't rule us now, remember? We're not subject to Her rules."
"No, it's just...”
"I can smell her all over you," Max said, drifting over to the sleeping woman. "She's delicious. Would you share?"
Rex's laugh was only a touch bittersweet to his own ears. "Forget it, Max," he said.
"I'm crushed, little brother." Max lifted a hand to touch the sleeping woman's hair. "There's certainly a resemblance."
"You're better off not knowing. She's an Arrow."
Max drew his hand back so fast it sent him into a tailspin. "What? How did--you get--caught up--in that?" He spoke only when he faced the younger man.
Rex watched him spin. His coat flapped like great batwings around him. Finally dizzy enough to take mercy on his friend, he unhooked one latch of the webbing and stretched out an arm to stop the pilot's crazy trajectory. The coat kept spinning another quarter-turn until it came to rest, wrapped around Max's legs. "I didn't know," he said. "I was running from the Whites and I looked up and there she was. I thought she was the Lady at first." That moment of fear-terror-relief still confused him. "I just jumped on the parade float and hoped nobody would notice me long enough for me to lose the Whites."
Max's lip quirked. "And the sex came into play when?"
Rex blushed. "She was already worked up when I got there. I think I was just in the right place at the right time." He looked over at Lin. "She's a Truebreed. They're not known for their discriminating tastes. She said so herself. It wasn't until after she was done that her pendulum gave me away."
"I'll change course," Max said. "I can put us on an intercept with Helios. If she gives us trouble, she can go airlock-surfing." The disreputable grin was gone, and the older man's eyes hardened. "I've made a contact on board the array. I think he might be able to help."
Rex's heart jumped. "Who is it? How...”
Max shook his head. "Let's deal with our present problem first." He reached for the medkit panel housed in the wall. "I can make it painless..."
"No!" Rex unbelted himself all the way and floated out of his berth towards his Packmate. "We don't kill."
Max's nostrils flared and Rex smelled the wolf in him stir from slumber. "We don't have the luxury of mercy," he said.
Rex grabbed hold of a stabilizer strap and pulled himself in close against the wall. "Mercy is not a luxury," he said. "We. Don't. Kill."
A low growl rumbled in Max's throat as his blue eyes met and held Rex's. Rex's stomach clenched at facing down the elder Packmate whose will should have been sacrosanct. He took a shaky breath. "We are not animals, Brother."
Fine trembling started in his limbs as Max's eyebrows raised. "Of course we're animals," he said, pushing himself back from the medkit panel. "We're all animals, formed of clay and by the whim of the Gods." He spread his arms and executed a graceful flip, and Rex felt the tension ease between his shoulder blades. "She gets to live. For now."
Rex tried not to let his sigh push him across the room. "I appreciate that. Especially as she's put a binding on me that keeps me close to her. She goes out an airlock..."
"And you follow her like a Good Dog."
Rex's lips twisted.
"So why the hell is she dragging you to Deimos?"
He shrugged. "Ask her. I'm planning to. As far as I can tell, Diana's given her a limited time to bring me to Deimos."
"Why Deimos? It's a shithole."
"I don't know," Rex said, agitated. "Maybe she's into the food. All I know is that once Lin delivers me to Diana, the compulsion to follow her will be gone. After that...I'll deal with that when it gets here." He made his way back to the recliner and wriggled back into the webbing.
"And the other compulsion?" Max asked archly, settling his hand over Rex's crotch. "The one that's keeping this in a semi all the time?"
Rex sighed. "I want her. A lot. She felt so good when I put my fingers inside her." Just thinking of it made his cock ache. "But not bad enough to start thinking with my dick instead of my head."
Max's arms went around Rex’s waist. "Maybe you need a little relief." He ground his hips against Rex's erection.
Rex hardly dared to ask. "It's been lonely," he said. "Without the Pack."
Max's hands worked at the fastener of his pants. "I know. It's not easy being an exile." Rex's cock sprang free into Max’s hand and he pushed himself to his knees. Sudden tightness built in Rex's gut. The mere sensation of human contact sent such relief through him that his chest caught. And when Max's mouth closed over his dick, there was just as much comfort as pleasure. He whimpered as the blood rushed to his cock, swelling it in his Packmate's mouth.
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excerpt from "Hounded" in A Witch In Time ( ISBN 1-59578-283-4)
1 Response to "Excerpt Time!"
Wow, Xandra! You can really spend a fascinating tale!
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