Welcome to First Sight Saturday, where a new guest author shares an excerpt of a first meeting each week. Today I am happy to welcome Margay Leah Justice (awesome name) with The Scene of Humanity, her women’s fiction book that has some romance and suspense sprinkled in.
Here is the setup of the scene: Silvie and Nick used to be best of friends – until her brother died in an accident in a car that Nick was driving. Now Silvie has focused all of the blame on Nick. Fast forward several years and they meet up again when her niece is nearly kidnapped – and Nick is the lead investigator on the case.
EXCERPT:
Silvie was less than a block from home when she saw the distinctive flash of blue lights in her rearview mirror. On closer inspection, she could just make out the dark lines of an unmarked police car, riding up behind her. Damn! She cast a quick glance at her speedometer. Twenty-seven. Two miles over the residential speed limit. Was he for real? Pulling her over for going two milesover the limit when most people clocked at least ten extra miles through here on a daily basis?
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Silvie muttered to herself as she found a safe place to pull over and parked the car. She waited for the officer to follow suit in silence. Oh, no, she’d save the rest of her words for him…and, boy, did she have a few choice ones!
She watched from the side mirror as the officer stepped out of his car and approached hers. From that angle, she couldn’t get a good look at his face, but his body, dressed to perfection in slick, pale gray trousers and a light dress shirt, certainly held possibilities. Quit it, Silvie! she chastised herself. This guy just pulled you over – for no reason. Why’re you checking him out? So what if he had a pretty buff body that strained to be unleashed from the confines of those clothes? That didn’t negate the fact that he had no call to stop her. And that she was out of line for noticing the conditioning of his body. Damn, she needed a man – soon.
It wasn’t until he was nearly to her door that she got her first good look at his face. His rather familiar face. Oh, no, she thought, sinking a little in her seat, not him. Of all the people on the Feltonville Police Department, why did it have to be him? She felt the heat rise in her cheeks as she recalled the rather lascivious thoughts she’d just had about his body. Oh, God…
“Nick Fahey,” she greeted him in an ironic tone as she rolled down her window. But as she felt the old familiar tug of attraction to him, she couldn’t meet his eyes or look at his face; she was still too embarrassed by her own thoughts to do it without cringing. She wouldn’t give him that satisfaction. Not that he’d know the reason why, but she would. Still, it was hard not to look and she caught herself flicking a glance up at him. Even in the waning light of the late-summer evening and with the eerie lightning blue glow from the flashing lights of his car, he was devastatingly handsome. He always hadbeen, damn him – and her. To cover her reaction to him, she sniped, “To what do I owe this displeasure?”
With a smirk at her question, Nick placed a hand on the roof of her car to anchor himself as he leaned down to her partially opened window. He didn’t answer her question. “You ruffled some feathers, Silvie,” he said in an overly casual tone.
Well, that was an interesting opener. Not that she’d tell himthat. Oh, no, to him she played it cool with, “Really?”
“Really.”
He glanced about the tree-outlined neighborhood in a deceptively casual manner. But she knew better. Knew him better. There wasn’t a casual thing about Nick Fahey. Never had been; probably never would be. He always did take life seriously. It was interesting to see how that translated to his work when he was in cop-mode. If his present attitude was any indication, he was a formidable force, indeed.
“And how did I do that?” She matched his tone and manner. “Ruffle those feathers.”
“Take a guess.”
She didn’t have to. Barely suppressing a satisfied smile, she pointed out, “Well, if someone would stop screening their calls, or better yet, returnthem, there wouldn’t be an issue.”
“And you wonder why I screen my calls,” he countered.
“Meaning?”
“I can do without the poison tongue.”
“The poison tongue, that’s a good one,” she said, and there was actually a hint of laughter in her voice. Nick always did have a way with words. “Maybe I could use that to start a blog and vent all my frustrations on the Internet.”
“That’d be the only place you haven’t vented them.”
Silvie narrowed her eyes at him. Now that was getting personal. “I have a better idea,” she said, her voice hardening. “How about I just vent them on you?”
He sighed then; he actually sighed! Like she was a recalcitrant child he had to take to task over something. The bastard.
“Haven’t we already traveled this road, Sil?”
Silvie twitched in distaste at his use of her old nickname. Like he was still her buddy, or something. Well, he wasn’t and she’d be damned if she let him sway her with the use of her pet name. “Sil-vie,” she corrected. “And speaking of roads, did you have a legitimate reason for pulling me over or did you figure I wouldn’t make a scene in a public place?” She made a tsking noise with her tongue. “Really, Nicky, you think you would’ve learned by now I don’t care where I am when I vent.”
Like in the hospital emergency room, waiting for news on her brother. She didn’t have to say it out loud; she could see it in his eyes. He knew to what she was eluding. Good.
“Nick,” he said. “Or Detective Fahey. Only my mother and my friendscall me Nicky.”
“Only my brother called me Sil.”
“And we’re back.” He looked away, over the roof of her car, as he spoke. “Is it always going to come down to that between us?” He returned his gaze to her then. “Can you ever look at me without thinking of him or talk to me without this anger?”
“I don’t know,” she whispered. And for the first time since this unsettling conversation started, she was plagued by uncertainty. She didn’t like it.
END OF EXCERPT
The Scent of Humanity will be released soon. If you keep track of Margay at the following places, you’ll be among the first to know when it is available!
Margay’s blog: http://margayleahjustice.blogspot.com/
Another blog: http://moonlightlacemayhem.blogspot.com/
Pinterest:http://pinterest.com/margay1122/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/Margay
Margay and I welcome any questions or comments, and hope that you’ll come back every Saturday for a fresh first meeting excerpt. Thanks for visiting!
Thank you so much for having me on your blog!
You are certainly welcome, Margay. Thank you for visiting!