An Unwelcome Visitor - 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.

I may be unable to post new excerpts for the next 2-3 weeks since I’ll be traveling to the UK. This week's excerpt is longer than usual to make up for my absence. 

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

You can read my last excerpt at: https://auroraspringer.blogspot.com/2022/04/a-priceless-vase-excerpt-from-lured-by.html

In the last excerpt, Josie made Leo laugh. In this week’s excerpt, a visitor arrives while Penelope is showing Josie around the garden.

They had admired the pink and white roses and were circling back to the table when the patio door slid open. An incongruous vision emerged of a slim man with a handsome face and jaunty outfit. His jacket bore alternating stripes of black and yellow, and his brown hair was cropped short with the ends tinted gold. He minced over the flagstones on five-centimeter high heels like a foppish townie promenading on the pier at a seaside resort.

A dangerous dandy, Josie suspected. His gaudy jacket hung wide at one side and the bulge over his hip suggested a holstered weapon.

“Drat,” Penelope groaned. “It’s Ned Grampon.” She continued in a conspiratorial whisper, “I wish he wouldn’t visit us. Now, I’ll have to speak with him and Tata will be rude.”

Ten sentences plus a few more:

“Shall I leave you?” Josie whispered.

“Oh no. Please stay. You can divert Tata, while I listen to Ned.” Ceasing to whisper, Penelope took Josie’s arm, possibly for moral support, and they walked toward the unwanted visitor.

Grampon made a flourishing bow to the head of the household, saying in a squeaky voice, “Sir, I’m delighted to see you in such excellent health.” Without waiting for a response, he rotated to face the daughter. Throwing his arms wide, he cried, “Lovely Penelope, you are a veritable angel roaming among your flowers.”

“Good afternoon, Ned.” Penelope pressed Josie’s arm and made the introductions, “Captain Ned Grampon. My friend, Josie Yazzie.”

Cringing at his florid verbosity and grating falsetto, Josie merely said, “Hello.”

He bent his head in a slight bow and resumed his flirtation of Penelope. “Allow me the pleasure of your charming company on this sunny afternoon. Will you escort me around your blooming flower beds?” He stepped forward and offered his arm.

Her cheeks blushed pink and Penelope said, “Ned, I can’t spare much time since we have another visitor.”

Unwilling to make an ignored third, Josie slipped her arm free and murmured, “I’ll chat with your father.”

Grampon steered Penelope into the path behind the rose bushes, while Josie rejoined Horlis on the patio and slid into the seat opposite him. 

His face as dark as a thundercloud, the Felicine man glowered at Grampon’s slim back as if he wished a bolt of lightning would strike the dandy.

 

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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