NovelTea Next Door TWRP #5 Best Seller!!

Wow I can hardly believe it! NovelTea Next Door is TWRP #5 best seller and #1 in Suspense. I don’t know how long it will last but it’s exciting!!

To celebrate, here is a new excerpt (a scene between Grant and Juliet):

“And what makes you want to do this…to spend your life doing this? Do you crave danger or something?”

The assessing look in Juliet’s eyes told me that my answer would be important in her determining my character. I selected my words with care. “Danger? Not exactly. I could say that I do this because I’m a patriot, serving my country. Maybe I do to a certain extent.” I stood and walked toward one of the many bookshelves littered throughout her apartment. “But really I do it because it needs to be done.”

“What about your family, Grant? What do they think of what you do?”

I peered at her with a wry smile. “My family?” I would much rather have been detained in a Mexican prison than add to that subject. “Let’s just say that if you come from a model family you probably wouldn’t elect to take my place. My years growing up were an ideal training ground for my chosen profession. I learned to trust no one.”

She rose from her seat and came up beside me. “But you trusted me.” She didn’t touch me again as she had at the table but I was sure wishing she would. I would enjoy that a whole lot more than talking about my history.

“Yes, I trusted you.”

“So, tell me about your family. You’ve never said anything about them before.”

This conversation was not going the direction I would have chosen. Time to switch tack. I pulled out one of the volumes of poetry from the shelf and flipped through the pages as I answered her. “I have an older, married sister who lives a couple hours away.”

I’d had enough heart to heart time. Stopping my perusal through the book on Emily Dickinson’s Love Poem number XX, I began to read out loud. “‘I have no life but this, to lead it here’” I looked up to see Juliet with a pleasant smile on her face and eyeing me with that particular gleam which always made my pulse speed up. I continued. “‘Nor any death, but lest dispelled from there.’”

Now Juliet joined in with me. “‘Nor tie to earths to come, nor action new, except through this extent, the realm of you.’” The poem ended there and we just continued to stare at each other. I’ve never been much of a poetry fan but there are moments when it hits you straight between the eyes.

I set the book down on the shelf in front of the row of organized books and then reached out to cup her cheek. There was an honesty about her that pulled on me. I’d spent so much time dealing with low-lifes and hardened government agents that it was something completely new to be faced with absolute sincerity. Of course, there were other things about her I enjoyed—the way she smelled like something fresh and innocent, how she made me laugh, her manner of crinkling up her eyes when she was angry or confused, her no-nonsense way of approaching things. I could go on and on—there were too many things.

On her own, she moved her face closer to mine. “Grant?” She spoke in a gentle, smooth tone, sending my empty existence into a whirl again.

“Yes, Juliet?” I moved a centimeter closer and prepared myself to touch her lips once more.

“Do you think you could teach me something?”

I raised my eyebrows at her question. What was she referring to? She couldn’t possibly be thinking what I was thinking. “I’m sure there are a lot of things I would love to teach you, Juliet.” I think I just loved saying her name. There’s something sensuous about the way it flows off my tongue.

“Good.” She stepped back and then smiled at me. “I want you to teach me that pick-pocket trick.”

“What?” I was still in a fog. I was just about to kiss her and now…she wanted me to teach her to pick-pocket? I shook my head from side to side. She was something else. Another smile tipped the corners of my mouth. “Sure, if that’s what you want.”

Want to read the first chapter? Come by my website. Available now at The Wild Rose Press.