Divorced Heroine

EXCERPT

Set Up: After running into each other at their twentieth college reunion, Brenda has persuaded Janet to bail and hit a bar they frequented as undergraduates. Now they’re dancing together…

Brenda spun around to face Janet when they got to the far corner of the dance floor. She knew Janet would prefer to be in the corner rather than on the front edge, where bar patrons could easily gawk at them. She preferred center stage herself, but—she grinned at her partner—tonight she’d cater to Janet’s desires. She just wished she could get a better read on them. Did they include her, yet? She saw no need to rush things, now that they’d reconnected after all these years.

Brenda had already decided Janet needed, once again, to break out of her shell and get on with her life. Of course, Brenda had often been accused of making quick judgments, if not rash ones. But she was sure the universe hadn’t crossed their paths just so they could share a drink and swap life stories. While she wasn’t looking for a permanent relationship—whatever that was—she was always on the lookout for a relationship that might offer enough challenge and spice to keep her going for more than a night or two.

Brenda smiled at Janet. She knew for certain this tall, dark-haired woman with gorgeous, long legs could provide ample challenge and spice for some time. She held out her hands, interlaced her fingers with Janet’s, and picked up the beat to the fast-paced hip-hop music. At arm’s length, they swayed and stepped to the music. They circled each other.

Brenda filled her lungs. Her body throbbed with the music. Her brain clicked into hypersensitive mode—once again, she’d become the huntress. “Are you ready for me?”

BLURB

Janet Baxter keeps her post-divorce life neatly compartmentalized: Secure job, spacious Westchester County home, successful adult children, dependable community volunteer activities. Why is she drawn—for the first time ever—to attend her twenty-year college reunion in New York City?

Always a free spirit, Brenda Cassidy is comfortably bisexual and has no plans to ever settle down. But a fling? The reappearance of svelte, reserved Janet Baxter in Brenda’s life is nothing less than a gift, worthy of every enticement Brenda can conjure up. Can Brenda seduce Janet into an endless night of the lovemaking they enjoyed too briefly as college roommates? What if the lady wants more?

BUY LINKS

Want to support keeping LGBTQ Romance available for everyone? If you purchase The Lady Wants More (or any of the books in this week’s reading challenge) through the link on the book’s I Heart SapphFic page, a small portion of the price goes to help keep the website running. Definitely a worthy cause.

The Lady Wants More is exclusively on Amazon and is on sale for $0.99.
It is also available on KU.

If you live outside the U.S., this universal link will take you to the appropriate Amazon outlet:

Click on the links travel to the rest of today’s excerpts:

The reappearance of svelte, reserved Janet Baxter in Brenda’s life is nothing less than a gift, worthy of every enticement Brenda can conjure up.

For week two of highlighting my 58 published romance novels, I’m jumping out of time order to let you in on a giveaway and a marvelous opportunity to fill your Kindle and win gift cards!

Every Week, I Heart SapphFic sponsors a sapphic fiction reading challenge featuring books in each of two themes/tropes, with most of the books on sale for the week.

One of this week’s tropes is “divorced heroine,” and my novella The Lady Wants More has been selected to participate. Many featured authors (including yours truly) are offering giveaways and prizes this week in the I Heart SapphFic Readers Group on Facebook – here’s your chance to not only fill your kindle but enter for other giveaways. You can read more about the Weekly Reading Challenge HERE – to further entice you, the grand prize drawing at the end of the year features multiple gift cards, topping out at $250!

THE STORY BEHIND THE LADY WANTS MORE

Some of you may remember a marvelous e-publisher that was among the first to publish and promote LGBTQ books – Torquere Press, 2003-2016. I am deeply sorry it is gone. Their editing staff and graphic artists were marvelous to work with.

Sometime in early 2010, Torquere put out a submissions call for a twelve-book lesbian romance series featuring the signs of the Zodiac. My sun sign is Cancer, and I immediately knew I wanted to write a heroine who shared my sign: nurturing, loyal, reserved, resistant to change, seeks a well-ordered life. And there’s more – the Cancer Zodiac symbol is a crab, well known to scuttle backwards to reach its destination. Like my heroine Janet, I often take a circuitous route to accomplish my goals.

Who to partner her with? Go with what you know. My husband is Aquarius, the opposite of orderly, structured – a sign that can never be put in any box. Voila, Brenda emerged to challenge the reserved and hesitant Janet. They were a lot of fun to write.

The Torquere Press edition was published in June, 2011 – under the sign of Cancer, of course. Our contract was for two years, so when rights reverted to us, we thoroughly edited it, expanded some scenes, and published it under our own imprint in October of 2014.

I’d always loved our cover, and I’d met the original cover artist, Alessia Brio, at a writer’s conference a while earlier. I was thrilled she was willing to adapt her original cover for our new edition.

BOOK INFORMATION

Title: The Lady Wants More
Author: Adriana Kraft
Cover Artist: Alessia Brio
Publisher ‏ : ‎ B&B Publishing (October 24, 2014)
Length: Novella, 22,000 words, 83 pages
Genres: Erotic Romance, Sapphic Romance, Later in Life, Second Chance

BLURB

EXCERPT

Set-Up: A few days after their brief connection at the twenty-year high school reunion, Janet is pacing her bedroom, cell phone in hand, with Brenda’s number already entered. She finally hits “send”…

“Hi, Janet,” Brenda chirped, “I hoped you would call soon. So are you joining me for the ballet?”

Janet rolled her eyes. Obviously, caller ID hadn’t allowed her to surprise Brenda. “I’m fine. How are you?”

“Oh,” Brenda replied. “Sorry, should’ve asked first. I’ve had a good week so far. Though thinking about you has been a distraction at times.”

“Oh.” Janet held her breath. It hadn’t occurred to her Brenda might think about her as much as she’d been thinking about Brenda. Distraction? That was a mild way of putting it. Brenda had been an ever-present weight since they’d parted Saturday night.

“So,” Brenda cooed, “have you thought about me much these last few days?”

“Some.”

“Just some.”

“A lot,” Janet confessed.

“That’s better. I’d hate to be the only one losing sleep.”

“Losing sleep?” Janet blurted out. “You, too? I didn’t think you’d lose sleep over me.”

“Two a.m. on the dot. Haven’t missed a night yet.”

“Oh my. I wake at two also.”

Brenda chuckled. “I told you there is some sort of karma at work here. So what do you think?”

“Maybe.”

“Maybe there’s karma, or maybe you’ll join me a week from Friday?”

“I have to be in the city that afternoon for a meeting with an author and her publisher.”

“How convenient. So you’ll join me for dinner and the ballet?”

“I don’t know about dinner. It’s a late-afternoon meeting, the only time the publisher could clear her calendar. Maybe we shouldn’t plan on dinner.” Janet swallowed and wet her lips. “Before.”

She could imagine Brenda mulling over the implications of that single word. She wished she was more skilled at veiled repartee, but she never had been.

“Ah,” Brenda said at last. “My loft isn’t far from the theater. Of course, you could drop by after your meeting to freshen up. Though if you do that, we might not make it to the ballet.”

Failing to hold back a giggle, Janet said, “You’re pretty confident, as usual.” She sobered. “I’ll change clothes in a restroom before heading over to meet you at the theater. I often do that when I have plans after work and don’t want to go home first.”

“You do plan ahead. Let’s grab a sandwich on our own before the performance, then, and have drinks and dessert afterward at my place.”

Janet closed her eyes and nodded. “That sounds good.”

“Your enthusiasm overwhelms,” Brenda chided. “Do you still love crème brûlée?”

Janet responded quickly, “Of course I do. But I wouldn’t want you to go to a lot of work.”

“Not a problem. I don’t have anything on my calendar from mid-Friday afternoon on—except you.”