Today’s story excerpt comes from the very excellent Mindy Klasky!
I’ve been on what I would call “nodding” terms with Mindy since the late-90s. She was originally published by the same New York publisher as I was. (I think we may have even shared an editor for a time…)
I always considered her one of the cool kids, doing cool things with her writing career. I loved her fantasy books.
Fast forward many years, and I “re-meet” Mindy as part of Book View Cafe. She’s doing even more cool things! I’m so impressed with her and her dedication to both the writing as well as the marketing of her books.
This is a romance, which is not necessarily my thing. However, this is an easy, delightful read. Even if you don’t think romance is your thing, this story might be. Give it a try!
Fly Me to the Moon
“Can I come in yet?” she called into the back room.
“Patience is a virtue,” came Finn’s teasing voice.
“Found seldom in children, and never in men,” Lexi muttered, completing one of her mother’s favorite sayings. She paced in front of the counter. She’d already turned the sign on the front door to “Closed.” She’d counted out the day’s deposits, zipping them into the leather bag she’d drop off at the bank on her way home. She’d rearranged the gift enclosure cards by the register, making sure every one was teamed with a matching envelope, and she’d straightened the basket of wind-up toys at the end of the counter.
Truth be told, she should do a walk-through of the entire store. There had to be a way to freshen the displays, to make her stock a little more inviting. Maybe it was because of the hard freeze last week—four days where the mercury hadn’t gotten above twenty. Or maybe it was because Lexi had decided to stop dressing like a Victorian lady’s idea of Christmas, trading in her long skirts for cabled sweaters and tights. Or maybe it was the American Dollar store, doing a brisk business at the end of Main Street.
Whatever the reason, the store’s income was down almost twenty-five percent over each of the past three Decembers. And if the month before Christmas was slow, Lexi knew she could never last the three long months before spring. January, February, and March were always devastating to her bottom line; she only made rent by relying on savings.
She thrust down a twinge of nerves and called out, “Finn? Please?”
The smile on his face when he appeared in the doorway turned her knees to water. “I love to hear you beg.”
Her cheeks flamed so hot she couldn’t draw a breath. All of a sudden, they weren’t standing in The Christmas Cat, surrounded by glass windows, visible to any resident of Harmony Springs who happened to walk by. Instead, they were in her bedroom, in her bed, and Finn’s hands had slipped beneath the silk of her bathrobe, gliding between her thighs to…
His low laugh told her he was remembering his own private scene. But he held out his hand to her, inviting her to break the spell, to step into the back room. “Close your eyes,” he said as she reached his side. And she trusted him enough to do just that.
He put his hands on her shoulders, on the burgundy lambs-wool sweater dress that she’d hitched high with a patent leather belt. She was confident enough in his touch that she didn’t pull away. She barely let herself think about the scars he might feel through the knit fabric, the contours of skin that would never be soft and smooth and perfect.
Instead, she trusted him to pull her forward, to turn her a quarter circle to her right, to guide her forward until her thighs brushed against a solid edge.
“Okay,” he said, his voice so soft by her ear that she shivered. “You can open your eyes.”
And she did.
“Oh, Finn…” she breathed.
It was amazing. He was amazing.
