Plot Monkeys

I am so thrilled to know that so many of you have gone out and bought STRIPPED, my August Blaze! Some of you have even read it already (oh, to be so fast of a reader!) and others have it on their TBR piles. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

For those of you who are not yet convinced …one last excerpt.

It’s always tough to pick a scene for an excerpt though. I have to be honest and admit that I can’t always remember which parts I’ve put up in the past of this book! (I know, it’s awful…my memory is not good.) I’ve already posted quite a few scenes from this book…the first “meet” between the heroine, Lilith, and the hero, Mac, right after he’s nearly lost his job. Just yesterday, I posted a snippet at AccessRomance that was pre-love scene. You can read it here.

But here’s a scene that’s a bit different…part of the scene that makes this book part of the BAD GIRLS CLUB, with Tori Carrington’s TAKEN and Leslie Kelly’s OVEREXPOSED. Enjoy!

“Hey, Izzie,” Lilith called just as the door opened and the bell jangled. “What do you know about computers?”

Izzie greeted the new customer, a leggy brunette dressed entirely in sleek, black leather. Lilith glanced out the window and caught sight of a Ducati motorcycle. She liked this chick already.

“Well, I don’t know how to find any naked pictures of Heath Ledger, and I haven’t figured out how to send a death-ray to spammers, but I do the website for the bakery,” Izzie offered.

Lilith watched the newcomer lower her sunglasses to eye the café menu as she inhaled deeply. The aromas in this joint were incomparable.

“So you know how to enlarge pictures? Other than ones of naked movie stars?”

Izzie grinned. “Yeah, give me a sec.”

The new patron and Izzie chatted while Lilith tried to be patient. She drank more of her cappuccino and finished her cannoli in two bites. She wondered about where Mac was right now, then gazing out the window at the sandwich shop and lemonade stand across the street, remembered that he’d grown up only a few blocks from here. Is that why she’d gravitated toward this side of town today? Or had her craving for decadent Italian sweets been purely accidental?

She didn’t believe in coincidences. Nothing happened without a reason.

“So, what do you need?”

Lilith jumped at Izzie’s sudden appearance, but this time laughed in response. Eventually, she’d get used to not having her extra sensory perception. Or better yet, she’d get her powers back and would look back at this time as a bitter memory. Except for Mac. She’d remember him with bone-melting recollections, that was for sure.

“I need a close up of this guy’s ring.”

Izzie leaned toward the laptop and squinted. “It’s pretty big already.”

“Not big enough.”

Izzie sat down and slid the laptop toward her. Her fingers flew over the keys and type pad with confident ease, but when she turned the screen back toward Lilith, the picture was all distorted.

“That won’t work,” she said.

Izzie shrugged. “You need a higher resolution picture.”

Lilith grunted. She vaguely knew what that meant. More pixels per square inch or something. She flipped back to the Google Images page, but while this picture appeared several times, none offered the resolution she needed.

“How can I get a higher resolution picture?”

“Where’d you get the first one?”

This from the stranger in black, who hovered a few feet away, her hands wrapped around one of Natale’s signature espressos. A quadruple shot.

Lilith would take any help she could get. “Newspaper website.”

“They’d use a lower resolution there so the page will load faster. They’d probably only use high res in the actual printing process.”

Lilith frowned. “I don’t have any contacts at the paper. I don’t think they’d give access to their archives to just anyone.”

The stranger arched a brow, a tiny grin quirking her full, generous lips. “Do you want access?”

Oh, Lilith really liked this chick a lot. She didn’t have to have her powers to read the edgy wickedness in this woman’s posture, expression and smile.

“Most definitely.”

The brunette put her coffee down and threaded her fingers together to give them a stretch. Lilith scooted the laptop around to give her room to work, but she simply leaned over the machine and worked standing up, her eyes darting periodically outside Natale’s plate glass window.

“Nice ride,” Lilith commented about the Ducati.

Her fingers didn’t slow. “Gets me around. Who is this guy, anyway? Don’t tell me you’re trying to figure out if that ring is a wedding band and he’s the asshole you’ve been dating for the last two years.”

Lilith nearly spit out the last of her cappuccino. “Ew.”

The stranger nodded in approval. “So he’s not your lover.”

“Say that again and I’ll dump the dregs on you. He’s a jerk I’m investigating.”

“A jerk?” The stranger snorted. “What makes him different from every other man on this planet?”

“Good question,” Izzie muttered. With no other customers in the shop and closing time quickly approaching, she’d taken to wiping down the tables of all their remnant stickiness. Lilith silently hoped the stranger would hurry. She needed to return the laptop to Josie, but more than that, she needed to know if Boothe Thompson was a minion of Evil like she suspected.

“Name one guy who isn’t a complete asshole,” the stranger said, swiping her tongue over her shapely lips as her concentration deepened.

“Mac Mancusi,” Lilith whispered.

“You know Mac?” Izzie asked, surprised.

Damn, Izzie had good ears.

“Biblically,” she replied.

Izzie’s eyebrows shot up. “No kidding? You and Mac? Wow. I can’t picture the two of you together.”

Who could? “You won’t need to. We won’t be together much longer.”

“You’re dumping him?” Izzie asked, clearly disappointed. “You’re right, you know, Mac’s not a jerk. He grew up just a few blocks from here. Our families know each other. I’d think any woman would love to catch a good, honest cop like him.”

The stranger stopped her work. “You’re sleeping with a cop.”

Lilith pushed the laptop closer to get her to resume what she suspected was illegal hacking. Goddess bless her.

“I’m sleeping with him, I’m not married to him,” Lilith insisted. “Trust me when I say that my definition of right and wrong varies from his by huge degrees. Keep working and your next ten espressos are on me.”

The stranger smiled and returned to her task. “I won’t be around that long, but thanks for the offer.”

“Add her to my tab,” Lilith instructed Izzie. “Any time she stops in, coffee’s on me. What’s your name?”

“Seline.”

With a nod, Lilith instructed Izzie to give Seline free reign of her coffee tab.

“Does that mean you’re actually going to pay it someday?” Izzie asked, an amused grin tugging at her full lips. Her mood had apparently improved.

“Soon. I swear.”

Lilith tapped her fingers impatiently on the table, stopping when Seline gave her warning glare. This woman’s computer savvy could result, ultimately, in the returning of Lilith’s powers. Only then could she get her income going again so she could actually pay bills like her bakery tab.

The longer Seline worked, the deeper she frowned, her dark gaze glued to the screen, her hips swaying back and forth as if the rocking motion enhanced her ability to think. “Don’t get ahead of yourself. I haven’t got it…wait…ding, ding, ding. We have a winner.”

Lilith clapped enthusiastically. “I had a feeling you were up to the task.”

“You would,” Izzie quipped.

Not only had Seline found the picture in a higher resolution, she’d enlarged the picture so that Boothe Thompson’s hand filled the entire screen. At first glance, Lilith had to use all of her self-control not to throw back her chair and chant the incantation to summon Regina immediately.

It was there. The red sickle symbol of the warlocks, impeded inside the stone.

Instead, she took a deep breath, blew it out slowly and willed herself to remain calm.

Seline eyed her suspiciously. “Is that what you need?”

Lilith saved the image to an email addressed to herself and backed it up to Josie’s desktop, then shut off the machine and tucked it in the bag. “Unfortunately, yes.” She stood and extended her hand to Seline, who, after a moment’s hesitation, gave it a strong shake. “Thanks for your help. If you ever have need of a psychic, look me up. Well, in a few weeks when I’m back on the job.” She patted the laptop case. “I think I just found my golden ticket back to gainful employment. Izzie, thanks for the sugar boost and the Wi-Fi.”

Izzie waved. “Anytime.”

Lilith weaved through the tables and chairs until she reached the door. The bell jangled when Izzie called out, “Lilith!”

Lilith turned.

“Don’t be so quick to write off a great guy like Mac,” Izzie said, her voice tentative, as if she couldn’t quite believe she was offering romantic advice. “Maybe you and he can find a way to make it work, even if you think there’s no way it ever could.”

She gifted her favorite baker with a smile, but didn’t respond. How could she? Now that Lilith had this information about Boothe, she could make huge inroads with the Council. Chances were, she’d have her powers restored very soon. And when that happened, she doubted Mac would stick around. They’d made this little reunion work because she hadn’t been able to freak him out with her mind reading. Once she regained her powers, she couldn’t see how two such divergent people could make a relationship work.

She waved to Seline and started back up the street to the University, where she’d catch the train back to the city. After a few blocks, she had her concentration fully on what she’d discovered. She didn’t give Mac and his soft touch and warm tongue and intelligent humor a second thought.

Well, not a third thought at the very least.
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WINNERS FROM YESTERDAY’S FOR ASPIRING AUTHOR’S CONTEST:
# 2 - Jodie
# 13 - Becca (lucky 13)
CONGRATULATIONS! Please email Janelle - Janelle @ Janelle denison .com (no spaces)
She’ll decide who gets the CD and who gets the book (identical except format) - if you have a preference, let her know. Worst case, she’ll pick randomly who gets what!)