Crawl in Bed With Lou Sylvre

Crawling Into Bed With

Lou Sylvre

And a Good Book

Important things first, are these sheets silk or cotton?

I’m glad you asked! These sheets are heavy silk, hand died and woven by Sonny James himself. (Oh, if you don’t know who that is, well, he’s the husband of Luki Vasquez, the James half of Vasquez and James in the series of the same name. He does beautiful work, I’m sure you’ll agree. These blues are exquisite.

What are you wearing?

Umm… well, can we just say yards and yards of cotton with a little lace… floral kind of thing going on… oh, my. Embarrassed…

What are we snacking on in bed while we read tonight?

Delicious, red-freckled, yellow Rainier cherries, fully ripe, juicy and sweet. They are my little way to thank you for crawling into bed with me and letting me talk about my book.

If I open this nightstand drawer, what will I find?

A packet of old love letters, scented with the cologne my lover and partner wore; a formal portrait of her and me—in which she is smiling and I look slightly worried; amigurumi Angry Birds; and a crystal flute. At least that’s what’s on top. Also a poem by e e Cummings—anyone lived in a pretty how town; a candle and matches, and some… things that might be best left to the imagination.

Do you roll up in the blankets like a burrito, or kick the covers off during the night?

No burrito, but I might burrow if it’s cold. Generally, probably more off than on. I won’t hog them, if that’s got you worried!

Can I put my cold feet on your calves to warm them up?

Oh, yes, please! I don’t get cold easy, and I want you to be comfortable. It’ll probably even feel nice.

What are we reading? 

We’re reading my latest release in the Vasquez and James series I mentioned above. The series is suspense, and this title is Finding Jackie. It’s available at Dreamspinner Press Store, here: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=3812, though you can also get it at Amazon, B&N, All Romance ebooks, and Rainbow ebooks to mention a few.

In this book, Luki Vasquez and Sonny James get married—have a wonderful wedding in Hawaii, but things go really wrong when Luki’s nephew goes missing. I’ll share with you this little bit. They’re in the middle of their search for Jackie, and they’re tired, and maybe discouraged, but they have each other for comfort.

Coffee became necessary before they made it to Lincoln, two hours east on I-80. A lot of the scenery along the stretch was flat and bland, and when the sun set, Luki actually dozed. He was glad Sonny was younger than him, though he would never admit it. He was also glad Sonny was so good behind the wheel, and that Kaholo’s old truck was what Sonny had called a “good runner.” This would not be a good time to have the engine break down, or the tire go flat, or the driver fall asleep at the wheel.

When he opened his eyes and sat up, trying to stretch within the confines of the seat belt, Sonny looked at him and asked, “You okay?”

He nodded and bit his lip. He hadn’t often been asked that in his life, especially not while more or less working, and he wasn’t sure he liked it. He knew he had let love and smiles chip away at his armor, but he knew the hour was coming—soon—when he would need his ice and steel. And when that time came, it would be life and death. For some reason, he saw in his mind a vision of Bear’s snout, black lips drawn back in a snarl that showed inches of sharp fang. He thought to himself, Okay, yes, my protector Bear, and my other protector, St. Christopher, I should be all right. And then there was Sonny, the man who cared the most, and for whom, directly or indirectly, all Luki’s chances were taken.

He realized he hadn’t said a word and Sonny probably hadn’t seen him nod. He spoke up. “Yeah, baby, I’m fine. You?”

“Good. Well… okay, at least. If you reach into that bag in front of the console, there, I got you coffee. I dumped sugar in with a bucket loader, so it should be sweet enough, and I got an extra cup on the outside, so it’s probably still warm.”

Luki followed the direction, closing his hand on a tall, warm, paper cup. “My God, baby. I no longer believe you are human. You’re an angel. You’re of the heavenly host. You’re a god, actually.” He wondered how the hell Sonny had stopped the truck, got out and gone into a store, come back and started up again, and he had slept through it all.

“Zeus?” Sonny asked, “Thor? No, I know! Apollo. Right?”

“If that makes you happy, dear.” Luki peered at the window glass. “Damn, I can’t see a bloody thing out there.”

“Unless I miss my guess, there’s nothing out there to see. Just flat stuff, maybe cows.”

“How far are we from Lincoln?”

“I think we have about a half hour.”

“Sweetie, I’m sorry I fell asleep. I should have been helping you stay awake. You’re so tired I can practically see Zs rising from your head.”

Sonny laughed outright at that. “Damn, Luki, you never stop surprising me. When I first met you, I thought you never laughed or joked, never knew anything beautiful, and didn’t have the faintest idea of what it meant to care for someone. I was so wrong.” He switched his left signal on, and what Luki saw of Sonny’s face in the flashing light told him he was right—Sonny had nearly reached the point of exhaustion. As Sonny smoothly pulled into the left lane and passed a semi without speeding up or slowing down, he went on. “Yeah I’m tired, honey, but please don’t be sorry. I’m really glad I could let you catch up on a few minutes of the hours’ worth of sleep you’ve missed…. Um… Luki? What if…?”

Still fogged with sleep, it took Luki an extra second or so to catch up with Sonny’s sudden change of focus. But, he recovered before Sonny found a way to ask the question he seemed unwilling to ask. “What do you mean, Sonny? What if we don’t find him in Lincoln? That’s a real possibility. It’s a pretty big city, but chances are he’ll be downtown somewhere, if he’s there. Still, ‘downtown’ doesn’t narrow it down much. I guess I’m hoping if we don’t find him, we’ll at least get a lead. Shit, the truth is, I’ve deliberately not been thinking about that possibility. I can’t see past just getting there. You have ideas?”

“No.”

Luki waited for more. When it didn’t come he asked, “Just ‘no’?”

“Yeah, just ‘no’. Sorry. I’m really at a loss at this point. It didn’t seem quite so overwhelming when we were at the Roadhouse, or even Grand Island. But, like you said, Lincoln’s a city. The whole idea of how easy it would be for a kid to disappear there scares me.”

“Yeah,” Luki said, then with an effort, offered assurance. “It’ll be all right, baby. You’ll see. We’ll find Jackie some-fucking-how and bring him home.”

Please include any links you'd like to share with readers.

My blog is at http://www.sylvre.com .

My facebook author page is https://www.facebook.com/AuthorLouSylvre?ref=hl , but you can also find me on my personal page under Lou Sylvre.

On Twitter, I’m known as @Sylvre .

I can be reached by email at lou.sylvre(at)gmail.com .