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THE LIKELIHOOD OF LUCY
by Jenny Holiday
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BLURB:
Trevor Bailey is on the cusp of
opening the greatest hotel in London. His days as a gutter snipe are behind
him, as he enjoys a life of wealth, society, and clandestine assignments as a
spy in the service of His Majesty. Until one tumultuous night churns up the
past he'd long left behind...
Turned out by her employer for her
radical beliefs, Lucy Greenleaf reaches out to the man who was once her most
beloved friend. She never expected that the once-mischievous Trevor would be so
handsome and gentleman-like and neither can deny the instant attraction.
But Lucy's reformer ways pose a
threat to the hotel's future and his duties as a spy. Now Trevor must choose
between his new life and the woman he's always loved…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
EXCERPT:
Who
was this man? He was the Trevor of her youth, yet he was not. The boy would not
have touched her like that. Would not even have noticed her face long enough to
bother with a dab of pudding gone awry. The boy had reserved that sort of
intense scrutiny for lock picking and cake filching.
The
man, by contrast, was causing her stomach to feel like little wings were
fluttering inside it.
It
was almost as if she wasn’t in the room, which was ridiculous because of course
she was. It was her lip he caressed. But he stared so intently at her mouth
that the encounter seemed somehow to be unfolding between him and it without
her presence mattering at all.
She
lifted herself onto tiptoes, and the tiny birds inside her took off, a great
flapping flock of them. They were propelling her toward him, and she wasn’t in
charge anymore. She pressed her lips against the spot of chocolate near the corner
of his mouth. If she’d thought the chocolate
tasted
sinful before, she’d been naive. The tang of his skin magnified it, made it
magnetic.
“Lucy,”
he rasped, his lips moving against her skin as he spoke her name. She waited
for more, for him to cry halt. He did not. So she remained where she was, her
lips pressed against the corner of his mouth but not moving, the roar of blood
in her ears a rushing waterfall.
Beneath
her mouth, his jaw clenched, became hard like iron, and his breath, already
short, took on a ragged quality. Warmth pooled low in her belly like that
chocolate, liquefied and hot. Every second they stood there, unmoving,
something coiled more tightly inside her. It was almost painful, but it was
impossible to imagine stepping away.
He
moved only an inch. Less than an inch. His lips grazed hers, and though they
barely touched hers, the warmth in her belly became fire. How was that
possible? They weren’t even kissing, not really, and yet she felt as if she
were at the gates of Bedlam.
A
thought crept in. She tried to push it away, but it persisted. This is why Mary
had fallen victim to her bouts of suicidal behavior. This—this unnamable
compulsion—would grow and grow until it took over, displacing everything else,
everything that made her herself. Unlike Mary, she
wasn’t
capable of producing great works of philosophy with the potential to change the
world, but she did have a life. A hard-won life she’d made for herself through
sheer force of will. Trevor was helping her—she’d had no choice but to permit
it given his logical argument that their arrangement would benefit them both.
But she needed to remember why she had agreed to stay only for six months.
Because men were dangerous—even him. Even Trevor. Perhaps especially him.
So
she stepped away.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Jenny Holiday started
writing in fourth grade, when her awesome hippie teacher, between sessions of
Pete Seeger singing and anti-nuclear power plant letter writing, gave the kids
notebooks and told them to write stories. Most of Jenny's featured poltergeist,
alien invasions, or serial killers who managed to murder everyone except her
and her mom. She showed early promise as a romance writer, though, because
nearly every story had a happy ending: fictional Jenny woke up to find that the
story had been a dream, and that her best friend, father, and sister had not,
in fact, been axe-murdered. From then on, she was always writing, often in her
diary, where she liked to decorate her declarations of existential angst with
nail polish teardrops. Eventually she channelled her penchant for scribbling
into a more useful format. After picking up a PhD in urban geography, she
became a professional writer, and has spent many years promoting research at a
major university, which allows her to become an armchair
astronomer/historian/particle physicist, depending on the day. Eventually, she
decided to try her hand again at happy endings--minus the bloodbaths. You can
follow her twitter accounts @jennyholi and @TropeHeroine or visit her on the
web at jennyholiday.com.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jennyholidaybooks
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/jennyholiday
BUY Links:
http://www.amazon.com/Likelihood-Entangled-Historical-Regency-Reformers-ebook/dp/B00WRGWHT2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1431466263&sr=8-1&keywords=the+likelihood+of+lucy
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-likelihood-of-lucy-jenny-holiday/1121815835?ean=9781633752825
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GIVEAWAY INFORMATION and RAFFLECOPTER CODE
The author will award a randomly
drawn commenter a $25 Amazon gift card.
Please use the following
Rafflecopter code:
http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/e561a37445/
Thanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteThanks for having me!
ReplyDeleteWelcome to my blog. I hope you have a great tour. Allana Angel
ReplyDeleteHi, Jenny! Welcome to Rogue's Angels' blog. Loved the excerpt! I wish you a successful tour!
ReplyDelete--Amber Angel