A priceless vase - Excerpt from Lured by the Lion for #WeWriWa and #SnippetSunday

 

Welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors and Snippet Sunday. Sample the work of a new author. Read snippets of stories in different genres.

I am posting excerpts from my new Sci-Fi Romance, Lured by the Lion. This story is part of a new series, Second Chances in Space, with standalone stories about space pirates, spies and second chances for romance.

Relevant background: Josie Yazzie, the captain of a small spacecraft, has flown to another planet to visit her aunt. She is having lunch with her new acquaintances, Penelope and her father, Leonardo Horlis, a widower still mourning his deceased wife.

In this excerpt, Josie is having lunch with them. She has aimed snide comments at Horlis about being too busy to mope over her husband’s death. In fact, she is nervous because she is strongly attracted to Leo and they are sitting on opposite sides of a small table.

You can read last week’s excerpt at: https://auroraspringer.blogspot.com/2022/04/moping-about-lost-loves-excerpt-from.html

The final sentence was: She could not hope to compete with his beloved dead wife.

Now, Leo Horlis has a chance to retaliate.

“You are fortunate to have an occupation,” Horlis said. “Did you truly fly to Wicks Paradise solely to see your aunt?”

“Yes. I had to deliver my father’s bequest to her. It’s an ancient vase with greenish glaze.”

“Hah.” His eyes crinkled in amusement. “You gave a priceless vase to a woman whose home is overrun with cats?”

Eight sentences plus a few more:

“Priceless?” Josie gasped. “Oh, surely not. Anyway, she put it in a glass cabinet.” A bubble of laughter burst from her lips, and she stammered, “Father can’t have known about her cats.” One glance at the laugh twitching on his lips made her bury her face in her hands to stifle her chortles.

To her surprise, he joined in with a loud guffaw.

Growing calmer, she wiped the tears from her eyes and looked at him.

He rubbed his face with both hands, exhaled in a gusty sigh, and smiled. “My spacefaring lady, your visit has done me good. I haven’t laughed so much in years.”

She wrinkled her nose, saying tartly, “I’m glad you find me entertaining.”

 Widow with a spaceship meets widower with a dangerous secret.

After the death of her ailing father, Jocelyn Navarre Yazzie is free to roam the galaxy in the Star Condor, the spacecraft she inherited from her deceased husband. She embarks on a trip to deliver her father’s bequest to her aunt on a rural planet outside the civilized sectors.

A chance encounter with the crippled Leonardo Horlis changes her future. Horlis suffers from a debilitating malady and expects to live for less than a year. Josie is strongly attracted to him, yet she cannot hope to compete with his beautiful dead wife, whose portrait dominates his house and his memories. Sympathizing with his grief and illness, Josie offers to transport him in her spaceship to the top medical center of the ultracivilized inner planets.

Their attraction intensifies in the cramped quarters of her spaceship. But, Leo has a dangerous secret that threatens to terminate their voyage and their lives. Can Josie and Leo escape the perils and vanquish the ghosts of their past to find happiness together?

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Find a catalog of my published stories HERE.