SEx – Silver Expressions

It’s birthday time for Roxy Harte – and also her blog day here at the SEx blog.  Madame informed me via text message that Sir Hawtness has abducted her for a day of birthday decadence.  I think I might have heard rubber gloves being snapped in the background, and when I called her, it was hard to understand her around the ball gags.  So while the candles on Roxy’s cake burn like buns after a sassy paddlin’, I’m here to treat all of you SExx0rz to a tasty excerpt from Roxy’s upcoming release, “Reaper,” coming soon from LSB’s Sterling line.  Join me in wishing Roxy the best birthday to date!  Happy birthday, babe!

Reaper by Roxy Harte

Kendra Lake has a secret she’s keeping from Detective Jonathon Taylor of NYPD’s Homicide division. Intrigued by her, he will not rest until he discovers what she is hiding from him since she has been linked to at least three crime scenes in as many days.

Born Cynethryth ae Llyn Fawr in seven-twelve ante christum, Kendrah became immortal the day she traded her soul for the cloak of the reaper. To say that she has seen it all…been there, done that…is a gross understatement. She has been loved and given her heart in return but the price of loving again is too great because everybody dies.

When Detective Jonathon Taylor is in the wrong place at the wrong time, careening around a curve doing one-twenty on icy roads with his suidcidal ex-wife at the wheel, Kendrah is there to help the two of them cross over. What will be the price for saving one life?

—

“I can leave?” Kendrah asks, pushing away from the table and standing.

“Yes.” Detective Taylor holds open the door for her. “That accent of yours? You’re from England?”

“Once,” she admits. “But that was a long time ago. A different life.”

“I’ve always been a sucker for a foreign accent, he admits, following her into the large room filled with the desks of lower ranking detectives. “You intrigue me Ms. Lake.”

She starts to walk away but he grabs her elbow and she faces him, her expression demanding an explanation. He stretches out her arm, looking down its length, rather looking at the tattooed sleeve covering her arm from shoulder to wrist. “This is unusual. When I first sat down with you, I thought, beautiful, vibrant, but once I took the time to take a closer look at the individual pieces that make the whole, it’s very disturbing.”

She licks her lips, self-consciously. She hasn’t stood so close to man she has no intent of crossing over for centuries. His scent surrounds her, cologne and coffee, but beneath that his scent, and she realizes she likes that scent entirely too much. It brings to mind other centuries, other men, love and lust and sex, want, desire, need, and pain.

She doesn’t want to remember the love lost and tries to jerk away but he only smiles, holding her wrist tight but not hurting her. “I can’t inquire about a tat? This one is truly a work of art. Can you explain the symbolism?”

She remains silent.

“I know a little bit about symbolism,” he admits. His finger traces the narrow band of trumpets circling above her bicep, each trumpet containing another figure, impressing him with its sheer level of artistic detail. He recites a verse from Revelations. “And the seven angels, which had the seven trumpets, prepared themselves to sound.” He touches the first trumpet depiction which within its shape holds a representation of earth. “See? This trumpet perfectly represents what happened when that trumpet sounded. The earth was assaulted by hail and fire.”

He touches the second trumpet, depicting the sea within, tarnished with red crests, reciting, “…and the sea became blood.”

Kendrah tries again to pull free her arm but he strokes the third and fourth trumpets sensually with his thumb, continuing to quote, not direct quotes, but understanding the verses enough that he paraphrases. “…and there fell a great star from heaven…the sun falling…and the moon and stars were darkened.” Lifting his gaze to hers, he asks, “I wonder what kind of a life a girl would have had to inspire the Biblical rendition of Armageddon on her arm. Some kind of messed up life, I’m guessing. ”