Good morning all and happy Tuesday! Today I’m sharing a Teaser Tuesday snippet from my story His Kind of Woman, which was published in 2013. It was previously available only at the publisher site, but has now gone wide. It’s now available to purchase at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other e-retailer sites. I’m proud of this story and others liked it, too: in fact, it was nominated for the DABWAHA (sponsored by the Dear Author/Smart Bitches book blog) in the GLBT category.
The story is a M/F romance, but a bit different in that the heroine is transgender. It’s also a story about bullying and its after-effects on its victims. Is forgiveness possible?
When Roy Girard went looking for Victor Varrano, he never expected a woman to answer the door. He soon discovers that Victor is now Venetia. Roy’s startled, but even more surprised by his attraction to her. As they spend time together, he doesn’t want to let her go. But she’s sure to dump him when she learns his secret.
Venetia’s falling hard and fast for Roy. But when she learns that his brother was the bully who tormented her in high school, she’s shattered. She can’t wrap her head around the fact that the man who made such amazing love to her could so completely betray her trust.
Excerpt:
Venetia studied the slip of paper in her hand. Roy Girard? She didn’t know him. He wasn’t the type of man a woman would forget. A big man, but not fat. He didn’t look like a gym rat but someone who kept in shape with physical labor. His blond hair was a bit shaggy—it needed a good trim. And a mustache. She didn’t much care for facial hair on men, but on him it looked good. Damn good.
He liked her looks too. There’d been nothing creepy in the way his gaze had drifted over her. She’d felt admired. There’d been a spark between them.
She shook her head to clear it. Hold on, you have no clue about this guy. Now is not the time to be thinking with your panties. Focus, girl, focus.
He wasn’t someone from the past. God knew there wasn’t much she could forget about her youth, though she’d tried to wipe it from her memory. But try as she might, she couldn’t forget the time when she was known as Victor.
But she’d never really been Victor. She’d known that, or at least had known that she was somehow different, since she was a child. And as she grew and that difference made itself clear to others, her life had become a nightmare.
At home, there was no way to explain it. Her parents wouldn’t, couldn’t, understand because she had no words to tell them: Mom, Dad, I know I look like a boy, but I’m really a girl.
She tried for years to pretend. Tried to be the son her parents wanted. Tried to fit in at school, so no one would guess her secret. Never muscular enough to be a jock, she’d managed to join a few clubs and garner some good friends. But she’d still ended up being a target. She’d been taunted and bullied mercilessly, called every dirty name in the book, shoved into lockers, punched and kicked in the locker room, beaten up with regularity off school property. Her friends had been as helpless against the mean kids as she was. And when adults had intervened, the bullies just got sneakier.
And the saddest thing was the feeling that somehow she’d deserved it. That the creeps had in some way figured out that she was a boy who wanted to be a girl. The cruelty and beatings were punishment that she had coming, for being a freak.
She remembered every one of the bullies. Their names were burned into her brain. Sam Ennis. Gabe D’Annunzio. Travis Lemcke. She hated their guts. People might say forgive and forget, but Venetia just couldn’t do it. They’d made her life hell and had driven her to the brink of suicide.
She shook her head. That was the past. She knew who she was, and those boys couldn’t hurt her anymore. But this Roy Girard. Who was he? And what did he want with her?
His Kind of Woman, now available at all retailers!
Amazon: http://amzn.com/B00RWGL21Q
Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/his-kind-of-woman-nona-raines/1121004266?ean=9781623004101
Have a terrific Tuesday, everyone!
Nona
Raines
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