What could she possibly say? #MFRWHooks #SteamPunk #AltVictorian

Welcome to this week’s MFRW Book Hooks blog hop! My snippet from The Journeyman’s Trial seemed pretty popular last week, so I thought I’d share another excerpt from later in the story, after Gillian and Rafe have become lovers. Enjoy!

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?

The Guild’s tribe of talented, uninhibited engineers has embraced Gillian as one of their own. Edward Thorne, the perverse genius who founded the Guild, undertakes to train her in the skills she’ll need as a journeyman, from practical mind-reading to transcendental orgasms.

As Gillian labours to impress the charismatic Master, her enigmatic fellow journeyman Rafe both entices and frustrates her. Their passion seems to go beyond mere appetite, but in Randerley’s promiscuous and permissive environment, does love make any sense?

When the Toymakers receive a commission to equip London’s most exclusive brothel with the latest sexual technology, Gillian has the chance to demonstrate her formidable abilities as well as to help Rafe exorcise the demons of his past. She doesn’t realize she’ll be forced to choose between Rafe and her future in the Guild.

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

The Hook

“Why did you play with me for so long, making me believe the Master had enjoined our abstinence? I’ll agree, I’m not the most patient woman in the Empire, but what about you? I sometimes worried that you didn’t want me.”

“Self-discipline has intrinsic value.” His voice was unexpectedly solemn. “It’s a dark world, Jill, dark and cruel. To survive, you’ve got to rein in your passions and sharpen your intellect. I’m training myself for the future.”

“Surely you have a bright future as a member of the Guild.”

He ran his fingers through her auburn tangles, then planted a tender kiss on her lips, but she felt a distance grow between them. “That may not be my destiny.”

Gillian remembered the Master’s story about Rafe’s background. Losing his parents under such horrific circumstances could not help but burden his spirit. “Put the past behind you,” she murmured, holding him tighter. “You’re not responsible.”

“The past?” He extricated himself from her arms so he could search her face. “What are you talking about?”

“The Master – hmm – he told me about your mother – and your father...”

“My father was framed!” Pushing her away, he threw off the quilt and bolted upright on the bed. “My cursed uncle engineered the entire charade because my mother refused his advances!”

“What?” Gathering the bedcover around her shoulders, she sat up beside him. She huddled closer, offering him her warmth.

“My father’s brother – the devil himself – lusted after my mother for years. Derrick is a wealthy barrister, influential and outwardly respectable, but my mother chose his younger brother, a lowly chemist, instead. Derrick never forgave either of them, and never gave up pursuing the woman he wanted. Long after I was born, the bastard continued to hound her. I’ve seen some of his disgustingly lewd letters. They served as evidence during the trial.”

“Your father’s trial?”

Rafe nodded. “The official story was that master chemist Peter Wystock discovered his wife’s infidelity and concocted a cunning poison to punish her for her indiscretions. In fact, my uncle stole the poison from my father’s laboratory, making sure that the labelled bottle would be found after Mama’s death.”

Gillian struggled to make sense of the story. “Didn’t anyone suspect your uncle’s involvement? From the letters, I mean?”

“He used a pseudonym, obviously. Mama knew who sent them, though.”

“But modern graphology—”

“And wrote with his non-dominant hand. He clearly spent years planning the crime, even as he continued to work at seducing my mother. Mama discarded the offensive missives, but Derrick bribed one of the servants to retrieve the most recent ones from the rubbish and plant them in her bedroom after her death.”

“That’s horrible. But how do you know—?”

“The filthy wretch told me himself, after the hanging. Gloating, he was, positively jubilant at the success of his scheme. You see, I was only sixteen. He’d been appointed my guardian. He loved seeing me suffer – hammering more nails into my parents’ coffins.”

Gillian seized his hands. “Oh my God, Rafe!” His face twisted with pain; he seemed a stranger. She wanted to comfort him, but what could she possibly say? Her own sorrows, the loss of her parents and her aunt’s shabby treatment, seemed trivial by comparison to this tragedy – this vicious crime!

Find all the buy links at https://www.lisabetsarai.com/journeymanstrialbook.html

Be sure to visit the other authors participating in today’s Book Hooks!

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