Snippet Saturday, and NEWS!!

This announcement was supposed to come last weekend, but I needed to get the story done first for my own peace of mind.

And the story, or rather Castaway 3/AHW8, is finished!!! At least, the rough draft is done. 😀 There’s still a lot to do with edits (my pass, the editors pass, beta readers, back to editor, formatting, etc), but holy carp, after FAR TOO LONG the next installment of Anything He Wants is finished!

So, mark your calendars, because “AHW: Castaway part 3” will officially be made available on Monday, July 22nd. Why so far out, you ask? Well, next week I’m flying across the country to Atlanta, GA, for the RWA Nationals conference!! I’m leaving this coming Tuesday and won’t be back until the following Sunday, and almost immediately after THAT I’m heading up to Canada to visit family. So to say July is jam packed is an understatement! Part 3 was supposed to be done a long time ago, but I kept running into snag after snag after…well, you get the picture. 😉

Anyway, that said, let’s get to the meat of this post!! It was hard deciding what to choose; most of what happened in this week’s new stuff was *clears throat* action of one variety or another. And since I like keeping my site from being labeled Adult, I’ll go ahead and give you a conversation snippet. Not as fun as last week’s maybe, but I still enjoyed writing it. 😛 As always, this is unedited and subject to change between now and time of publication. Enjoy!

*~*

I stared at the small cottage. “So what are we going to do,” I asked, “walk right up to it?”

“Not quite. You stay here, and I’ll go check it out.”

I glared at him. “Like hell.”

Jeremiah gave me a droll look. “Do you have training to sneak into an open location like this undetected?”

“Well, no, but… Why are we even here? If you know this is a trap, why are you playing right into it?”

“If we run, he’ll chase us. If we play into his little game, there’s a chance he’ll slip up and give us the chance to take him down.”

“That is the stupidest…” I groaned loudly. As much as I didn’t want to be left alone, I also didn’t want to go into that cabin. “What am I supposed to do if someone comes down the road?” I asked in a sarcastic tone. “Hide in the grass? Maybe pretend I’m some kind of rock and hope they don’t notice.”

Jeremiah just watched me for a moment, and then, surprisingly, he wrapped me in his arms. “This is going to be okay.”

I had no idea until I felt his arms around me how scared I was. Everything welled up suddenly: the fight earlier, the running and hiding and thievery to get where we were. I’d held myself together pretty well, but there on that English dirt road, I wanted nothing more than for this nightmare to end so I could have a good cry. The safety in his arms was an illusion, and I hated that.

No. I will not break down out here.

My breathing was shaky as I stepped away, out of Jeremiah’s arms. I didn’t want to admit it, but he was right: this exercise wasn’t for me. “Fine,” I said stiffly, “I’ll stay here and try to keep out of sight.”