Sample Sunday...an excerpt from my upcoming novel: Sweet Taboo

Hey y'all..am I the only one who is glad Christmas has come and gone? I don't know why, but I just couldn't find my Christmas spirit this year, but oh well. 

Today, I want to give you a little sample of a novel that I wrote earlier this year. I had plans to have it released by the publishing company I was briefly signed to, but when those plans fell through, it's just been sitting in limbo (along with a few other projects I've started). Something kept telling me that I should not let this book just sit there in my computer documents, collecting dust, so I made the decision to self-publish it. **this is not the final version, scenes may be changed before book is released**

Synopsis:

The clock is ticking and Naomi Henderson is running out of time. Her 20 year class reunion is quickly approaching, and she’s determined to have a husband to flaunt in her ex-best friend and arch-nemesis, Laura Nixon’s, face. 

After a string of failed romances and bad luck forces Naomi to move back in with her widowed father, she’s shocked to find that not only does her dad have a new woman in his life, she’s white. As the family blends together, Naomi meets her step-mother’s nephew, Matthew. Not impressed in the least bit by her new family members, she wants nothing to do with these new people who have taken up space in her dad’s life and home. But no matter how much she tries to avoid Matt, the romantic tension between them is undeniable.  

Just when it looks like Matt has potential to be her white knight in shining armor, tragedy strikes, and Naomi quickly learns that while love may be blind, color isn’t. She’ll be forced to choose between the man she loves and a society that still isn’t accepting of interracial relationships once racism rears it’s ugly head.

Excerpt:

As soon as I made it downstairs, I knew something was odd. The television was on and there was noise coming from the kitchen. With daddy and Donna already gone, I thought someone had decided to break in. I looked around, trying to find something to protect myself with. My eyes focused on the iron fireplace tool set. 

I quickly ran over and grabbed one, then slowly made my way into the kitchen. Tightly gripping the long handle of the shovel, I crept towards the kitchen on my tippy toes. 

The refrigerator door was open and whoever was in here was humming a song to himself. Robbers are bold these days, I thought. They break in a persons home, then decided to raid the fridge and fix a damn snack before they leave…where they do that at? My heart was beating really fast, and beads of sweat formed on my forehead in anticipation of what was about to happen. Whoever was in the kitchen was either going to kill me, or I was going to kill him, but I wasn’t going out without a fight.

The intruder closed the refrigerator door just as I held the shovel over my head, ready to strike. We both yelled once we saw each other. I’m the take action first, ask questions later, type of girl, so I brought the shovel down hard over the head of who I now saw was a white guy, who was wearing only boxer brief underwear as soon as he closed the fridge and turned around.

“Who the hell are you and what are you doing in my father’s house?” I yelled, preparing to hit him over the head again.

He held his head with a painful look on his face. “Jesus, what the fuck is wrong with you?”

“I’m asking the questions here, and you still haven’t answered mine.” I went to strike him again, but he managed to grab the shovel before I hit him. 

He tossed the shovel across the room. The spot where I’d hit him over the head was already turning a dark purplish color. “I’m Matt. Do you always go around assaulting people with fireplace tools?”

“Do you always break into people’s homes then decided to fix yourself something to eat before you go, while wearing nothing but your damn drawers?” I shot back.

“First of all, I didn’t break in here. My aunt gave me her key. I’m staying here for a couple of weeks while my place is being painted and…”

“Your aunt? Who, Donna?”

“She’s the only aunt I have who lives here,” he snapped sarcastically while rubbing his forehead.

I simply stared in shock. Daddy hadn’t mentioned anything about this to me. “My father didn’t mention anything to me about you being here while they’re gone.”

“That’s because you were already asleep by the time I got here last night.”

My mouth was still open in shock, but it was also open for another reason. Matt was fine as hell! My eyes did a quick scan of his body, from head to toe. The very first thing I noticed about him were his piercing blue eyes and the sexy, smoldering squint he had, which kind of reminded me of how Clint Eastwood used to look in those old Western movies I used to watch sometimes with daddy. He had a tanned, buff chest, chiseled abs, and the bulge between his legs that was covered by the thin cotton material, was quite large and very noticeable.

“Oh,” was all I could say. I felt a little a little silly and embarrassed that I’d ran up in here like a mad woman and hit him over the head. “I’m sorry for hitting you; I thought you were a burglar.”

He pushed past me, bumping my shoulder as he walked by, still holding his head. “Whatever. If you’ll excuse me, I need to go find something for this headache I have now, thanks to your freaking paranoia.”

“I said I was sorry,” I yelled as I watched him as he walked out of the kitchen. He has a nice butt, too. Wait, what am I doing? I don’t know this boy from Adam. He could be lying. I headed upstairs in search of my cell phone. I needed to talk to daddy, ASAP.