A.C. James
Contemporary Romance
Thank you all for stopping by to help us welcome AC to our haven. She's given us an excerpt for you, but do be sure to visit her websites, too.
A.C.
James—author of erotic paranormal romance and erotica featuring BDSM. Author of
the EVER AFTER series. Wife,
mother, and storyteller extraordinaire. She resides in northeast Pennsylvania
drinking large vats of coffee while taming two toddlers by day and writing by
night. Recovering video game beta tester and tech geek who grew-up going to
cons and watching SmackDown. There's probably some cosplay pictures around
somewhere of her dressed up as Bloodberry from Saber Marionette J. Just don't
tell anyone.
Without further delay, let's get to the sneak peek of the book.
Excerpt:
NOTE: The sneak peek below is a very early look at a scene
from Fallen Ever After prior to copy/line edits.
Worry reflected in
her eyes. She wore a purple shirt with a silver swirling pattern, her blonde
curls darting out in various directions and again her ethereal face was
unmarred despite that she’d just turned forty, she reminded me of a
well-preserved Madonna. Her silver bracelets jingled as she grabbed her purse
from under a counter.
“Of course but are
you ready?”
I gulped. “I think
so.”
She nodded but I
was sure she could tell I was lying. I didn’t know what to think or expect. I
only knew that I shouldn’t get my hopes up and I should keep my expectations
low. My grandmother might not want to get to know me, might not want anything
to do with me after all this time. If she’d wanted to know me, if she’d wanted
me at all then she would have taken me in but I figured her grief over losing a
daughter made her incapable of loving the child that had stolen hers.
“Let’s go,” I
said. “We can take my car.”
Rue turned to the
cashier and placed a key on top of the glass case. “If I’m not back, can you
close up for me?”
“Sure. No
problem.”
She turned and
followed me toward the front of the shop. The bell chimed again as we exited
and made our way over to my BMW. Rue slid into the passenger seat while I
rounded the front of the car and took the wheel. We drove a few blocks and I
tapped the side of the steering wheel at a stop light. I sighed. It would be a long
three hour drive. Rue told me that my grandmother lived out by Lake
Springfield. The light turned green and I accidentally burned rubber when I hit
the gas and pulled onto a highway heading out of the city toward Springfield.
Rue looked over, her concern for me clear in her expression.
“Whatever happens
is meant to be,” Rue said.
I glanced at her.
The concern was quickly replaced by a serene look that almost seemed too calm
considering the occasion but then again that was Rue. She returned her
attention to the highway.
“Try to relax.
Watch the road. There’s no sense in worrying about what might happen,”
she said, trying to reassure me.
“I know. It’s
just…”
“You’re nervous.”
“Yeah.”
“That’s to be
expected.”
“I know that but
what if she slams the door in my face?”
My voice almost
broke.
“She won’t.”
“How do you know?
What did she say when you called her?”
Rue paused and
looked out the window again before turning back to me.
“Nothing.”
“What do you mean
nothing? You told her that her granddaughter who she’s never met wants to meet
her and she said nothing.”
I could hear my
voice rising as panic surged and I considered pulling the car over.
“I couldn’t reach
her.”
“So she’s not
expecting us. Wouldn’t it be better to wait until she calls you back rather
than us just showing up on her doorstep? You left a message, didn’t you? I
don’t want to do this. This is a bad idea. Not if she doesn’t know we’re
coming.”
I was shaking my
head, my hands clenching the steering wheel.
“It doesn’t matter
when we go. She won’t know we’re coming. Her number was disconnected and she’s
not listed in the phone book.”
What?
“This is a waste
of time.”
I didn’t mean to
sound bitter. I needed answers and her number being disconnected made me feel
deflated. Numbers don’t get disconnected without a reason. What if she moved?
But really I was afraid that it was too late.What if she’s dead? I’d never
get the chance to meet her and I’d never know why she never tried to be a part
of my life.
“Then how do we
even know that she’s still alive?”
“She’s alive.”
Rue said it with
such certainty that I felt my throat tighten but I didn’t want to get my hopes
up. I couldn’t get my hopes up.
“How can you be so
sure?”
“Your grandmother
gave me a book a long time ago. It used to be hers. I used it to do a locator
spell and the pendulum circled around the location of her house on a map. The
same house your mother and I played in as children. She’s still there.”
It’s not that I
didn’t believe in magic but you could never count on it to be entirely
accurate. No, I’d found that magic could be just an unpredictable as everything
else. I wouldn’t let her conviction give me false hope and be crushed when it
turned out it wasn’t true. But I didn’t want to sound like a cynical, bitter
unbeliever.
I loosened my grip
on the steering wheel. “Well, I guess there’s only one way to find out.”
Rue put her hand
on my shoulder. “You’ve come this far. I’ll be here every step of the way. It’s
going to be okay. I promise.”
She released my
shoulder and we drove in relative silence until we reached Lake Springfield.
Occasionally, Rue would break the silence to take my mind off it but it didn’t
really work. As we circled around the lake and I saw the houses my jaw clenched
and my teeth ground together. I had no idea how much the houses cost but I
could tell from the looks of it that it was a lot. The further we drove and the
closer we got, the angrier I became.
If she lived in a
community like this that meant she had to have money. She definitely had the
financial means to take care of me. I hadn’t even met her yet but the big
houses with their swimming pools and manicured lawns pissed me off. We turned
onto North Cotton Hill Road and passed a long driveway that led to a house on
the edge of the lake. The area was wooded and we passed the back of a
cookie-cutter development.
“Slow down and
turn,” Rue said, as she pointed.
I’d almost driven
past a dirt road that seemed incongruent with everything else. I slammed on the
breaks and almost had to back up but I cut the wheel to the left and headed
down the unpaved trail. The space went from being wide open to being edged by
trees that became thicker the further we went until we passed under power lines
and reached an old two story house.
“We’re here,” Rue
said.
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