Turnbull House
by Jess
Faraday
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BLURB:
London
1891. Former criminal Ira Adler has built a respectable, if dull, life for
himself as a confidential secretary. He even sits on the board of a youth
shelter. When the shelter’s landlord threatens to sell the building out from
under them, Ira turns to his ex-lover, crime lord Cain Goddard, for a loan. But
the loan comes with strings, and before he knows it, Ira is tangled up in them
and tumbling back into the life of crime he worked so hard to escape. Two old
flames come back into Ira’s life, along with a new young man who reminds Ira of
his former self. Will Ira hold fast to his principles, or will he succumb to
the temptations of easy riches and lost pleasures?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Excerpt
“So,” Goddard
said, taking a long sip from his glass. “You never told me why you decided to
contact me after all this time.”
“Well…” As I
searched for the right words, he quietly set his drink on the polished wood
floor. “It’s funny you should—”
The kiss came
as such a surprise that I scrambled backward across the divan and almost
tumbled over its rounded arm. Whiskey sloshed over the rim of my glass,
splashing silently onto the Chinese rug. What remained I belted back in one go
before setting the glass on the floor and wiping my shaking fingers on my
trousers.
It wasn’t
that I was averse to the idea of kissing him, but I really hadn’t expected it.
In fact, if I’d seen him start toward me in the first place—he was remarkably
quick for a man in his mid-forties—I’d have assumed he was going for my throat.
Goddard
chuckled under his breath. “Sorry. Did I startle you?”
“You might
say that.”
I was also
taken aback by the presumption. I had always liked it when he took control, and
the hard, whiskey-flavored slickness of his mouth had left me aroused. All the
same, I was no longer his plaything. Part of me felt as if he should have at
least asked permission.
I forgot my
objections when he leaned in a second time, slowly, and cupped my face in his
smooth, muscular hands. Now that I was expecting it, the kiss felt like coming
home after a long, unpleasant journey. For just a moment, all of my troubles
dissolved, and nothing existed except his fingers in my hair, the traces of his
jasmine and bergamot cologne, and the smooth, familiar contours of his mouth.
And then as
suddenly as he had moved in, Goddard pulled back, leaving me confused,
disappointed, and blinking in the gaslight and shadow.
“Why did you
come, Ira?”
“To ask you
for money,” I said.
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Jess
Faraday is the author of the Ira Adler mysteries and the standalone steampunk
thriller The Left Hand of Justice. She also moonlights as the mystery editor
for Elm Books.
http://www.jessfaraday.com
Twitter:
@jessfaraday
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/jess.faraday
Buy
link: http://www.boldstrokesbooks.com/9781602829879.html
Jess will be awarding a two-book set (paperback) of Turnbull House and its predecessor, The Affair of the Porcelain Dog to a randomly drawn commenter between this tour and the NBtM Review Tour.
Follow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better your chances of winning. The tour dates can be found here:
Follow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better your chances of winning. The tour dates can be found here:
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