I’m on the fifth draft of my first paranormal romance and I think I’m almost ready to turn it over to one of favorite editor’s, Khriste Close of Scribe Ink Editing. This is a novella so I’m working through this one extra hard because I want to make sure that all the questions are answered in less than 30,000 words and it has the feel of a longer work. I don’t want to miss a thing.
And I think I’m finally ready to share a little bit of the story, so here goes! This is the first meeting of Ada Trevors and Ewan Hathorn.
The Scent of a Witch
“She’s new.” Ada pointed to a female bartender at the smaller bar near the entrance. The shapely blonde poured a line of shots for a group of guys. “Whoo,” she yelled out after throwing the first one back like it was water. “Who’s buying the next round?” Her laugh-filled holler rang in the air.
“Maybe you should buy the next round for her.” Ada nudged Russ, disrupting the fourth check of his watch in the last thirty seconds. “She seems approachable.”
“We’re leaving.” Russ glared at her.
“We have three minutes. Go talk to her.” Ada pinched his thigh as she’d done when she needed him to focus on course work in college. “Do it or I’ll start tickling.”
“That’s not necessary.”
“Huh?” Ada released her hold on Russ’s thigh and looked up at the man who had appeared at their table. Of course she wouldn’t have heard him approach. The band was playing at an earsplitting level and the guys surrounding the side bar were laughing just as loud, still she jumped a little at the sound of his voice.
“Your credit card. It’s on the house.” The man held a gold card between his long fingers and smiled.
“Cool.” Russ jostled in the seat next her, indicating that she should move.
Russ’s bounce to get out of the booth rocked her body from side to side on the springy cushion, but she remained otherwise motionless. Her gaze locked with that of the man in front of them.
He was as out of place as she was in the bar. Among a crowd of button down cotton shirts and jeans, he wore an olive green suit that fit his lean body like it had been sewn into place. He was the first man she noticed all night because stood with a wide stance of absolute confidence not some imagined, alcohol-induced swagger. And an unfettered smile stretched her own lips upward.
“Thanks” She managed to take the card from his hand and shove it into what she hoped was her purse. “We appreciate it.”
It wasn’t that he was strikingly handsome – his brows were too thick and dark for his parchment colored face, his chin ended in a point and his smile revealed incisors that appeared sharper than normal. It was his eyes that held her in place. Looking into the dark orbs rimmed in a flaming gold was like looking into a pond in the moonlight – playful beams of light mingled in the shadows creating something beautiful and slightly dangerous. Her heart skipped a beat then two then three as she searched the depths of his eyes for her reflection in them.
For a moment she thought he sought the same. That was until he spoke again.
“Management hopes you have enjoyed your evening but you are being asked to find entertainment elsewhere.” His voice was deep and smooth, devoid of the Texas twang she encountered in the small town, like it was meant to be heard accompanied by a saxophone. She could have listened to him talk all night.
Only if he hadn’t just told her to get out.
“What?” Ada gulped the last of her now tepid beer, trying to find relief from the heat that overtook her body with the speed of a forest fire. Asking her to leave or not the man was quietly but deftly triggering her libido. “Wh-why?”
He raked his long fingers through his midnight black hair which hung in a straight line inches from his shoulders and groaned.
Ummm…
She could also bear to hear that deep throated sound all night. Of course it would be better if her hands were twisted into his silky looking hair and her naked body was writhing beneath his.
Shit, had it been so long since she’d been with a man that good grooming and a sexy voice had her body humming a symphony? Maybe.
And just maybe she imagined the slight rock of his body backward and the gentle purse of his lips as if he were following her thoughts down the same licentious path.
![Attribution: By David_Vasquez (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons](http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AWelcomeToVegasNite.JPG)
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