Happy Wednesday! It’s time for another MFRW Book Hooks blog hop – lots of great books, lots of opportunities for you to find your next read.
My hook today comes from my recently published boxed set The Toymakers Guild: The Complete Series. The collection is available exclusively on Amazon, free for KU subscribers. But... you can always buy the individual books from other stores!
Today’s excerpt, from Book 2, is an early stage encounter between Gillian and Rafe, the man she will soon come to love (as well as lust after).
Blurb
At Randerley Hall, lust is a lubricant to creativity. Nothing is impossible. Nothing is forbidden.
Defying the repressive morality of the Victorian era, the Toymakers Guild uses advanced technology to fabricate bespoke sexual devices for the discrete pleasure of select clients. Its members are not only brilliant engineers but also sexual renegades seeking freedom from the prudish society that surrounds them.
Nineteen-year-old prodigy Gillian Smith arrives at Randerley to apply for an apprenticeship in the Guild. With her technical abilities and her lascivious temperament, she is eminently suited to join the Master Toymaker’s close-knit band of uninhibited erotic artisans. Gillian flourishes among the Toymakers, designing and implementing ever-more-outrageous carnal contraptions. Each voluptuous commission she completes, each sensual adventure she enjoys, binds her more tightly to the Guild and to the perverse, tortured genius who is its founder.
If you like brilliant, wanton women and kinky steam punk sex toys, dive into the alternate universe of the The Toymakers Guild.
At the foot of the stairs, she almost collided with a lean, dark figure. If he hadn’t grabbed her by both shoulders, they both might have tumbled to the floor.
“Why, hello, Jill!” A cocky smile lit the young man’s aquiline features. “I haven’t seen much of you lately.” He held on to her for considerably longer than was necessary to stabilise them. When he let go, she continued to feel his hands, heating her skin through the fabric of her garment.
“Good afternoon, Rafe.” She brushed some imaginary dust off her somewhat wrinkled lab coat. It was true that she’d barely spoken two words to her fellow journeyman since he’d rescued her on the moors two weeks before. Half the time he hadn’t even been at the dinner table. She’d wondered if he was travelling again. “I’ve been occupied with learning my new duties. The Master has been training me.”
His eyebrows arched. “Training, hmm? I’d like to know more about just what that entails!” He ran his fingers through his unkempt black locks. “I never got any sort of training from the Master. Of course, he wasn’t around much. If I recall, he left Randerley only a few weeks after I joined the Guild.”
“When was that?” She wasn’t sure how she felt about the brash, forward young man who’d stolen a kiss within half an hour of her meeting him. Well, perhaps stolen wasn’t exactly the right term, but still, he seemed to have quite familiar manners.
“Two years ago last Christmas. Seems like a lifetime.”
“And before the Guild?”
His expression darkened. “I don’t really want to talk about that. Anyway, I’ve got an appointment with the Master in two minutes.”
Gillian stepped back to give him free access to the stairs. “You mustn’t keep him waiting, then.”
“But I’m really delighted to run into you.” He chuckled at his own jest. “Care to go riding with me tomorrow afternoon?”
“I’ve got quite a lot of work—”
“Tomorrow’s Saturday. Even that slave driver Featherstone takes Saturday afternoon off! Come on, Jill. Say yes!” His hand was back on her shoulder, casual, warm, maddening.
“Well... I grew up in the city, so I’m not much of a horsewoman.” She had to admit to being curious about Rafe. With his loose-limbed grace and easy smile, he was definitely attractive. Shouldn’t she be focused on her training, though?
“We’ll put you on Dorothea. She’s a sweet, biddable mare who won’t give you any trouble. And Samson likes her.”
“I don’t know...”
“I’ve got to go!” He squeezed her shoulder briefly and ran his fingers through her curls, then bounded up the stairs. “Meet you at the stables tomorrow at three,” he called out as he climbed out of sight.
“But...” There was no one to listen to Gillian’s excuses. In any case, why should she object? Rafe was a fellow member of the Guild. It was only fitting they should get to know one another – perhaps intimately.
Her first loyalties, both professional and carnal, belonged to the Master. She felt quite certain though, that neither he nor anyone else in the Toymakers Guild required exclusivity.
Buy Links
Available exclusively on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CGQMD3S6/
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CGQMD3S6/
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0CGQMD3S6/
https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B0CGQMD3S6
Free on Kindle Unlimited!
Add on Goodreads – https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/198043949-the-toymakers-guild
Add on BookBub -
https://www.bookbub.com/books/the-toymakers-guild-the-complete-series-by-lisabet-sarai
Be sure to visit the other authors participating in today's Book Hooks!
1 comment:
Interesting and intriguing bit here. Raises a lot of speculation
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