Happy Wednesday! For today’s Book Hooks hop, I’m sharing a bit from my taboo erotic romance Incognito: Secret Lives, Forbidden Loves. This excerpt is G-rated – but most of the book most definitely is not. It’s real romance, though... even ends with a honeymoon!
Blurb
Shy and serious by day—insatiable by night.
During the day, Miranda Cahill works diligently on her doctoral thesis. At night, she has sex with strangers. Her secret life explodes when she realizes her masked partner at a kink club and the charismatic colleague courting her are in fact the same person – the one man who can teach her to accept her diverse desires, as well as to trust her heart.
The Hook
Passing a classroom, she glanced through the glass-paned door and saw Mark Anderson in front of two dozen students. She stopped to watch him. Although she could not hear his lecture, his face was animated. He smiled often, laughed occasionally, gave his students complete attention when they spoke. Pacing from one side of the room to the other like an actor on a stage, he moved with lithe grace. He used his hands, gesturing expansively one moment, clenching his fists dramatically the next. Occasionally he ran his fingers through his tousled brown locks, sweeping them back off his forehead.
Miranda found herself transfixed. His performance ran the gamut from the melodramatic to the comic. Just like his Dickens, she thought. There was an ache in her chest as she realized how attractive he was, how accessible he seemed. Not at all like the arrogant, mocking gentleman in her dream.
He was totally focused on his class, but suddenly he looked over at the door. Did he recognize her standing on the other side of the glass? She felt the intensity of his gaze, and it seemed that their eyes locked for a long moment. Miranda was embarrassed, as if she had been discovered engaging in some forbidden act. Blushing, she hastened away.
Mark found her fifteen minutes later in the lounge, drinking a cup of coffee, skimming a Xeroxed manuscript and trying to calm the silly beating of her heart. “Miranda!” Pouring himself some coffee, he sat down next to her. “What did you think of my first lecture?”
His manner was so friendly, she couldn’t help answering his warm smile. “Actually, through the glass I couldn’t hear anything you were saying. I was just admiring how much you were able to communicate with body language.”
“Ah, yes, the fruit of my years in amateur dramatics. You might not realize that you are looking at the favorite leading man of the Kenosha Community Theatre. Why, everyone in southern Wisconsin had heard of Mark Anderson!”
“You’re from Wisconsin?”
“Alas, yes, but I’ve been trying to remedy that failing. Graduate school in San Francisco and London. Six months working on my dissertation on a remote island in Nova Scotia. Six months ‘sabbatical’ in Thailand. And now lovely Boston, which I am enjoying more every day.”
Miranda somehow got the notion that this comment had a personal dimension. She ignored the discomfort associated with that thought and forced herself to continue with the conversation.
“Where are you living? Have you found a decent apartment?”
“Actually, I’ve got a great place, on Pearl Street.”
“In Chinatown?”
“Exactly. On the third floor, above the Jade Garden Restaurant. It’s an old building, with tall windows and wooden floors. I look out on an alley, so it is relatively quiet. The only problem is, with the cooking smells that filter up from below, I’m always hungry!”
They both laughed, and Miranda felt marginally more relaxed.
“What about you, Miranda? Where are you from?”
“Born and bred in Cambridge. Spent my childhood playing in Harvard Yard.”
“Miranda Cahill—you’re not related to Herman Cahill, the Shakespearean scholar?”
“My father. He’s retired now, living in Florida. Obviously, I couldn’t do my graduate work anywhere but here, in his department.” Miranda sighed. “All the expectations are a bit of a burden, though. No one mentions it, but everyone knows that I’m his daughter.”
“I’ll bet you were named after the character in The Tempest,” said Mark with a laugh.
“His favorite play,” nodded Miranda. “It is a good thing that I wasn’t a boy, or he might have named me Prospero!”
“So, what does your father think about your unconventional thesis?”
“He refuses to comment. He can be something of a curmudgeon sometimes. In fact, I think he finds it embarrassing, but titillating.”
“Well, I can understand his perspective.” There was an awkward moment of silence. Miranda stared at the bottom of her coffee mug. Mark finally spoke.
“Look, I’ve got to run. I have a student conference in five minutes. But I’d love to talk some more. Why don’t you come over for dinner tonight?”
Miranda hesitated, nervous all over again.
“I’m as good a cook as I am an actor, if I do say so. Do you like spicy food?”
“Definitely.”
“Then I’ll cook Thai. Please, don’t disappoint me, Miranda.”
He looked so earnest, so open, and so darned attractive, Miranda could not say no. “What time?” she asked.
“How about eight? It’s 17 Pearl Street, apartment 3B.”
“Can I bring something?”
“Just your lovely self,” said Mark. Then he noticed her blush, and made his tone more matter-of-fact. “You could bring a bottle of wine, if you felt like it. Red.”
Miranda smiled, sensing that he understood her ambivalence. “I have a bottle of Côtes de Rhone that my father sent for my birthday. I’ve been saving it for a special occasion.”
“Seems very appropriate.” Mark glanced at his watch. “I really have to go, but I’ll see you tonight, okay?”
“See you tonight,” said Miranda. Then she sat by herself for another ten minutes, waiting for her heartbeat to return to normal.
Buy Links
Ebook
Kinky Literature: https://kinkyliterature.com/book/362-incognito-secret-lives-forbidden-loves
Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B1N7CTMQ
Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0B1N7CTMQ
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/2940165857058
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1147874
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/incognito-secret-lives-forbidden-loves
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61138791-incognito
Audio - Narrated by Freya Victoria
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Incognito-Secret-Lives-Forbidden-Loves/dp/B0BMWG2XQK
Audible: https://www.audible.com/pd/Incognito-Audiobook/B0BMWDKQH2
Be sure to visit the other authors participating in today’s Book Hooks blog hop!
1 comment:
Nice and smooth meeting between them. Therre are little hints of more to come done so neatly and subtle
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