A race across the moors -- #MFRWHooks #Steampunk #Victorian #Giveaway

 

Happy Wednesday! For today’s MFRW Book Hooks blog hop, I’m dipping into my steampunk novel The Journeyman’s Trial, Book 2 of The Toymakers Guild series. Here’s a bit I haven’t shared before. It’s a bit long... but hopefully exciting enough to keep you interested.

Just to thank you for reading – I will give away a $5 bookstore gift certificate to one reader who leaves me a comment. Be sure to include your email so I can find you if you win!

Blurb

If she builds it, will they come?

Technically brilliant and thoroughly wanton, Gillian Smith has found her vocation: designing innovative erotic devices for the Toymakers Guild. Lust is a lubricant to creativity at Randerley Hall. But what happens when two Toymakers fall in love?

If you like intelligent, lusty women and kinky steam punk sex toys, pick up a copy of The Journeyman’s Trial.

 

The Hook

Rafe and Samson swept past them in a thunder of hooves. The mare sprinted down the hill after them at a terrifying rate. Gillian held on for dear life. As they reached flatter ground, she tried once more to rein in her mount. Instead, the bloody beast only galloped faster, trying to catch up with the stallion ahead.

The bitter wind plucked at Gillian’s clothing and whipped her hair against her face. “Rafe!” she cried. “Damn you, Rafe, she’s out of control!”

Perhaps fifty feet ahead of her, the wiry journeyman turned back with a grin. It wasn’t clear he could hear her, but he must have gotten the gist of her complaint. “Relax!” he called. She could barely make out his words. “Let her have her head. She knows what she’s doing.”

Gillian wasn’t inclined to obey, but she had little choice. Clinging to the saddle horn and tightening her thighs against the horse’s flanks, she let Dorothea carry her across the moors.

Little by little she lost her fear as the fleet-footed mare sped through the darkening afternoon. As her nervousness abated, her excitement grew. To move so fast – it was rather thrilling, after all. Her heart raced in time with the hoof beats striking the turf and her breath came in gasps.

Rafe circled back until he was galloping beside her, the strides of their horses synchronised despite the rapid pace. If she reached out – if she dared to let go for a moment – she might even touch him. A new kind of exhilaration seized her, triggered by his closeness and the persistent pressure of the saddle against her splayed sex. She’d never been one to take risks, but Rafe – Rafe clearly had a wild streak. It called out to her. An unexpected laugh bubbled up from her chest. The wind snatched it away.

The ground swept by in a blur. Her unruly hair stung her cheeks. She couldn’t stop laughing. Rafe flashed her another grin. Strong, lithe, utterly at ease, he leaned over Samson’s neck, touched his heels to the horse’s sides and urged the stallion into a faster gallop.

Gillian mimicked his actions. To her delight, her steed also accelerated.

“Sky’s going to open any minute,” he called over his shoulder. “But I have a place...”

A cold droplet slammed her in the face, followed by another. In seconds she found herself riding into what felt like a swarm of frigid needles. She bent low, almost prone on Dorothea’s neck, her fingers buried in the mane. The mare picked up speed, clearly as uncomfortable as Gillian in the sudden deluge.

By now it was pouring so hard that Samson had become a dark shadow ahead, glimpsed through a grey cascade of rain. Water dripped from her sodden hair into her eyes. Her heavy wool jacket, soaked through, encased her torso like a corset of ice. Her skirt stuck to her thighs, which were sore from the effort of holding on.

The cottage seemed to appear out of nowhere, a jumbled pile of stone huddled at the base of a knoll, flanked by a rickety-looking wooden shed. Rafe slowed Samson to a walk. The magnificent beast came to a stop in front of the hut, its chest heaving from exertion, steam rising from its flanks despite the cold. Dorothea circled the stallion, then paused, panting and shuddering.

Rafe leapt off his horse and grabbed Dorothea’s bridle. “Hey, girl! That’s a good girl!” Rain had plastered his dark hair to his forehead, but in the gathering dusk, his eyes shone.

The mare immediately grew calmer. Gillian drooped in the saddle, blinking raindrops off her eyelashes, shivering and miserable.

Rafe reached for her hand. “Just swing your leg over her back and drop. I’ll catch you.” As she toppled off the horse into his arms, his strength sent little tendrils of warmth through her chilled body, but that soon dissipated as he set her on her feet.

“I need to see to the horses,” he said, nodding toward the shed. He pressed a key into her palm. “Get inside where it’s dry.

The obviously deserted cottage scarcely looked waterproof. However, a stout padlock secured the warped plank door, which yielded to Rafe’s key. The hinges groaned as it opened, revealing not the damp, musty, vermin-infested interior she’d expected, but a snug, neat space with clear signs of human occupation. To the left stood two rush-bottomed chairs and a rough pine table, flanked by a set of shelves holding pots and bowls. On the right there was a wooden bedstead covered with a red wool blanket, a tin trunk at its foot. Rush matting covered the packed earth floor. The far wall boasted a stone hearth. Though cold now, it held charred remains that looked recent. And wonder of wonders, several split logs sat piled to one side, along with a basket of apparently dry twigs for tinder.

Gillian stumbled into the dim room, falling to her knees in front of the grate. Though her hands shook with cold, she managed to prop one of the logs up against the wrought iron and stuff some of the tinder underneath. She found a covered terracotta jar of matches tucked into a natural alcove on one side of the chimney. Her teeth chattered as she tried to get one to light. After a dozen failed attempts, she tore off her gloves and tossed them aside. Finally she succeeded in igniting the twigs. A tiny flame strained upward, licking the underside of the log.

Wearied by her efforts and still racked by shivering, she half-collapsed in front of the hearth, watching the flickering red-gold filaments twine, merge and grow.

“Oh, well done, Jill! A fire’s exactly what we need!” Chill, damp air swept into the cottage as Rafe pulled open the door, then subsided as he shut it behind him. “Are you all right, then?”

He knelt by her side. His garments were as soaked as her own, but somehow he seemed to radiate warmth.

“I – I’m – so cold...” She wanted to throw her arms around him, to clutch him to her chest and bask in his heat, but she didn’t have the energy.

“Better get these off.” Without ceremony or hesitation, he started unbuttoning her jacket.

His touch shocked her out of her lethargy. “Wa – wait! What are you doing?”

He swept his damp hair off his forehead and smiled. “You’re drenched. You’re shivering so hard you can hardly talk. If you don’t shed those wet clothes, you’ll catch a fever or worse.”

“I – we – we scarcely know each other...” She crossed her arms over her chest, hugging herself. The sodden wool of her sleeves almost froze her palms.

“Gillian – we’re both members of the Guild. I can’t believe you’re pleading modesty!”

Indeed, what was wrong with her? Since she’d come to Randerley, she’d been naked, or nearly, more times than she could count. Why was she acting so weak, so cowardly, so ordinary?

“I – I don’t know – I...” Tears shimmered on her eyelashes.

“Hey there!” He stroked the wet tangles covering her head with a hand so gentle it made her chest hurt. “Don’t cry, Jill. You’re a bricky tart, just exhausted, that’s all. Look – tell you what, I’ll go first.”

Get your copy today!

Kinky Literature – https://www.kinkyliterature.com/book/618-the-journeymans-trial-the-toymakers-guild-book-2/

Amazon US – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09MQV4Y86

Amazon UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B09MQV4Y86

Smashwords – https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1118032

Barnes and Noble - https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-journeymans-trial-lisabet-sarai/1140567579?ean=2940165096259

Kobo – https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-journeyman-s-trial-the-toymakers-guild-book-2

Apple Books - https://books.apple.com/us/book/x/id1597807423

Scribd - https://www.scribd.com/search?query=9780463505649&language=0

Add on Goodreads – https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59740783-the-journeyman-s-trial

I hope you'll visit the other authors participating in today's blog hop. And don't forget to leave a comment! There's $5 in books up for grabs!

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