Happy New Year!  I am excited to be joining my first #WIP Wednesday blog hop.  I’ve been enjoying reading many other talented author’s excerpts each Wednesday for the last few months and am excited to join them this week.
Today, I’m sharing a fun (at least I think so) unedited excerpt from my upcoming release, Having it All which is the third book in my Passion series.    If you’ve read Wanting it All and Securing it All, you know that Lukus and Tiffany are each coming to terms with the exciting new dynamics of their new relationship.    As you can see, things don’t always go exactly as planned, but then if they did, what fun would that be to read about?  We join Lukus and Tiffany in the middle of their first real argument.
Unedited Excerpt:
“I hope you’re right, Bri.” A knock on the bathroom door interrupts the girl’s conversation. He must still be mad because the knock is echoing loud enough for Brianna to comment on the other end.
“Wow, where are you and why does it sound like he’s about to kick down the door?”
“I’m in the bathroom; the little part where the toilet is.”
“Ewww. You called me while you’re going to the bathroom? That’s just gross.”
“Will you stop already? I just came in here because it’s the only door that has a lock on it.”
The pounding is back. “Tiffany! Open up. Come on. We need to talk.” The sound of Lukus’ voice brings back her panic.
“Seriously? You felt like you had to put a locked door between you? Holy shit, he really did scare you. You need to tell him, Tiff.”
The pounding continues as Lukus keeps trying to open the door. “I don’t think I need to tell him. He is pretty much figuring it out.”
The pounding stops. “Please, baby. Open up. We need to talk.” He’s changing tactics.
“Go away, Lukus! I’m not ready to talk yet.”
“I know that’s not true. You’re talking to Brianna right now. Hang up the phone and open the door.”
“Fine, I’m not ready to talk to you yet. Go away.”
“I’m not leaving. Don’t make me try to find the key. God only knows where I’ve put it.”
Brianna is talking in her ear again. “Tiff, open the door and talk to him. I have to go anyway. I see Markus heading back my way and we’ve been gone a long time from our table.”
“Thanks for listening, Bri. I really don’t know what I’d do without you in my life.”
“You’d be bored, that’s for sure. Go take your lumps. Trust me. Make-up sex can be really awesome.”
“So I’ve heard. Unfortunately, I have to get through the argument first. My ass is not looking forward to that.”
Tiff can now hear Markus close to the phone. “You girls have talked long enough. Time to hang up. Let’s go.”
“We were just hanging up. I’m trying to calm her down. Here, take the phone. You talk to her.”
“Brianna, no! I don’t want to talk to…”
“So you snuck into the club and decided to have a run-in with Robinson.”
“…Markus. Go ahead. Let me have it. I’m stupid, and I should stop thinking, and just act like a robot, and do exactly, and only, what Lukus tells me to do and…”
He’s laughing at her. “Stop. You’re overreacting more than he is. Seriously, you need to hang up the phone and talk to him.”
“Last time I saw him, he wasn’t planning on talking.”
“Well, he is now. I’m hanging up.” And he does.
“How rude.”
The pounding is back. “I can hear you in there. Open the door, Tiff. Please, baby.”
She takes a few deep breaths to calm herself, using a few sheets of toilet paper to clean up her smeared make-up. The loud blowing of her nose brings a chuckle from the man on the other side of the locked door. At least he sounds in a better mood.
She’s seated on the floor with her back against the far wall of the small room. Taking a deep breath, she reaches up to unlock the door and Lukus presses the door open. The room is tiny, meant only for privacy when using the toilet. It’s not meant to be a place to hang out. When Tiffany makes no move to get up to leave, Lukus lets himself in. Leaning back against the now closed door, he slides down to sit on the floor. Their legs intertwine in a tangled mess in the small space.
“This is an odd place for us to make up.”
Tiff sneaks a glance up to see he’s smiling. “Is that what we’re going to do?”
“Yep. You’re going to say you’re sorry for not listening and defying me by going to the club without me. Most importantly you’re going to admit I was right to not want you to go there alone, especially since we haven’t gone through the club rules yet and you weren’t wearing my collar to keep you safe. Then I’m going to say I’m sorry for ‘losing my shit,’ as Derek calls it, and scaring the hell out of you in the process.” Lukus reaches out to take her hands in his, linking their fingers together as if to start weaving them back together. “I really am sorry, baby. You have to believe me. That’s never happened to me before. I would never hurt you intentionally.”
“I’ve never seen you like that, Lukus. It scared me.”
“Full disclosure here. I scared myself.”
Her eyes fly up to meet his with that comment. “What do you mean?”
He takes a few long seconds before he answers. “The only answer I can come up with is that I don’t think I’ve ever cared enough about anyone else to get so emotionally invested before. Part of me is still pissed that you’d defy me. You have to know. That never happens to me. Ever. It’s gonna take some time for me to get used to that happening. Tack on how scared I was when I saw Robinson with his hands on you and I lost it, okay. I’m not proud, but there it is.”
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