Sunday Snippet: Seeing Red

Happy holidays to those who celebrate. We had a lovely day, even if the temperatures were in the mid-teens. It's way better than the minus ten degrees we had earlier in the week.

I had some catching up to do with a work project and didn't get much watched, but I did catch a couple more episodes of Batman: The Animated Series. I guess I'll be watching all next month also because it's going to be removed from HBOMax.

I got to catch a couple of good episodes, featuring The Joker and Harley. Bane made his first appearance and the Clock King showed up again. Harvey and Two Face along with the Riddler both had episodes. And the episode with Baby Doll ended up being better than I remembered.

That's pretty much it for the life update this week. Tonight's post is from Seeing Red, a novella featuring metahumans and how they navigate working and living together.

Here's the mini-blurb:

Vesta Crock can't stand tension and a major meta-human uprising puts everyone on edge. Jones Blaylock becomes her target for a series of supposedly fun pranks, but when a fellow member of their team gets injured, Jones sees red and that's not a good thing for the firestarter.

And a preview snippet…

Whoa. Vesta never failed to shock him. From full-on struggling female to responsive woman in less than a heartbeat.

Crossed the line. Mistake. Big mistake. The red haze of lust gripped him hard and his blood pumped, surging through his veins. Her lips opened and his tongue sought hers. He wanted to kiss her forever. But, no, he couldn't … getting tangled up with a team member screamed bad idea.

He eased away from her. "Ves? You with me now?" Her mouth called to him, but he resisted the urge to lock lips with her again.

She nodded then blinked. "Wow. That was … intense." Her thumb brushed over her lower lip.

He backpedaled and downplayed the reaction they had to each other. "You gave me a scare. How bad was the dream?" Let her think he didn't know what she referred to.

Vesta cocked her head to one side. "We're obviously not talking about the same thing, Jones." Her eyes slid shut and her shoulders drooped.

I'm a dick. Guilt sank its sharp teeth into his gut. But he needed time to wrap his head around what happened. He had to get a handle on the way he'd been acting with her lately.

Letting out slow breath, Vesta gave him the bullet points. "Nightmare level dream, vortex intensity." She shrugged. "Sorry you got sucked in." Her tone oozed irritation.

Jones shook his head. "Don't be. I'm glad I got here when I did." He waited a beat. "How often does a nightmare hit so hard?" He didn't have a clue she even had terrible dreams.

Vesta shut down. "That's none of your business, Jones." She scrambled to the edge of her bed, fished around for a shirt and yanked it over her head. "I'm fine. You can go now." She settled on the edge of the opposite side facing away from him.

Dammit. He'd misstepped with her. Again. The sizzling reaction had him off balance.

"Yeah, okay." He started for the door. "Ah, almost forgot, Mixed-team skills training starts tomorrow. Wanted to let you know." Lame. So lame.

But he had to try to smooth things over.

She lifted a hand in acknowledgment but didn't speak or turn his way.

He backed out of her quarters, reluctant to leave on a bad note. "Sucks to be the team leader sometimes." Mixing the personal and professional … definitely not in his wheelhouse.

I have a lot of love for this story. Vesta is going to push Jones's buttons and his struggle to keep his cool will be tested in big ways.

 

That's it for this week.

Cheers!

Skye