Want a little taste of something new?
Here it is...the first excerpt from my upcoming release,
The Librarian,
January 6th,
The Librarian
Lee Brazil
Kisses kept are wasted;
Love is to be tasted.
There are some you love, I know;
Be not loathe to tell them so.
Lips go dry and eyes grow wet
Waiting to be warmly met.
Keep them not in waiting yet;
Kisses kept are wasted.
Edmund Vance Cooke
Prologue
Adrian
sat on his bed, statistics book open in his lap, studying for the test he had
in the morning. The subject matter fascinated him, but his attention kept
drifting to the clock on the desk across the room. The closer midnight came,
the more frequently his gaze returned to the red numbers. Where had Val gone? He'd
said, but Adrian
had barely listened, absorbed in his book. What if something had happened to
him?
His hand drifted toward the cell phone on his night table, and
he picked it up. He stared down at the little device, the latest technology
available. His parents had bought it and brought it up to him with his clean
laundry last Sunday. They'd been so proud of it, Dad explaining all the neat
features of the phone, Mom insisting on snapping a few pictures of him with it.
Adrian
had stayed in their dorm room since he'd left the library at five. Val hadn't
called. He flipped the phone open and checked anyway. Fully charged, as always.
No messages, no calls. Except the three from his mother earlier, making sure he'd
hung up the shirts she'd ironed for him, reminding him to keep the phone
charged, and to eat vegetables with his dinner. He saved the messages. She
would like that.
He tried to turn his attention back to his book and the test
that loomed, but thoughts of what Val might be doing, and who he might be doing
it with, kept intruding. They hadn't made any commitments, but he and Val had shared
a bed for the past week, and he'd known he loved Val since October, when he'd
kissed his blue-haired roommate for the first time. A spontaneous, awkward,
drunk kiss during a dorm Halloween party, neither he nor Val had mentioned it
when they sobered up the next day, though Adrian
treasured the memory as the most wonderful kiss he'd ever experienced.
That had been a month ago, and in the last few weeks Val had
broken up with his boyfriend, and Adrian
secretly thrilled to hold his friend and offer support. One thing had led to
another, one fumbling kiss to a caress, the caress to sex. From that night on,
they had slept here together, exploring and learning each other's bodies,
wants, and desires.
But this morning, Val had mumbled something about not
waiting up for him. Adrian,
too busy rushing to get ready for class and his upcoming exam, paid Val little
attention. Now he wished he had. It might have saved him this anxious, sharp
pain in his stomach, the heaviness of his heart. Events were scheduled all over
campus. He had no chance of finding Val at any of them. Pep rallies, concerts,
lectures, study groups. He wouldn't even recognize any of Val's punky friends
if he ran into them.
The thump of feet in the hallway stopping outside their door
drew his attention. His gaze fastened on the door and he heard the click of Val's
key in the lock as the knob turned. The sight of his roommate's flushed cheeks,
plump, red, kiss-swollen lips, and crazily mussed blue hair sent his heart
plummeting and his stomach churning. He swallowed to keep from throwing up, and
forced himself to speak.
"Where have you been?" Adrian cringed at the whiny need in his voice.
Val's head turned in slow, languid fashion and Adrian flinched. Fuck. He tried the word out inside his
head, ignoring the heat along his cheekbones. His mother would freak if he ever
said it out loud. It fit though. He knew that look. Val had just that look when
he came. When Adrian
sucked his cock, or stroked him to orgasm, he looked exactly like that: sated,
flushed, and happy. But Adrian
hadn't put that look there tonight.
Val's eyes lit up when he saw Adrian
watching him, and he stumbled forward to collapse in a heap across the neatly
folded quilt Adrian's
grandma had hand stitched for him as a graduation gift. "I'm in love."
He moaned, twisting onto his side gingerly to face Adrian.
Adrian
struggled to keep his face interested and not show his devastation. He was in
love too. "You went on a date?"
Val nodded, his eyes drifting closed dreamily. "He's so
awesome, Adrian.
He's on the football team. Blond hair, blue eyes, the broadest shoulders..."
Voice trailing dreamily away, Val's own blue-eyed gaze snapped up and locked on
Adrian's. "And
man, he's got skills. I've never felt like that before."
Adrian
nodded, keeping an encouraging look on his face, and he closed the statistics
book in his lap. No studying would happen now. He listened, his heart breaking
slowly, as Val described his new boyfriend in elaborate detail.
Look for more next Sunday!
