Goddess Fish Party Pavilion: An Excerpt to Send You Off to Dreamland

Sunday, September 8, 2013

An Excerpt to Send You Off to Dreamland

Hi Partiers!

It was fun spending the day with you. Thanks to Goddess Fish for allowing me to join in on the fun. Here is another excerpt from CAPE CURSED to send you off to dreamland with good thoughts.

Bliss looked over at The Keeper’s House. It was dark. She walked up onto the porch, and called Parker’s name into the screen door. No answer. Perhaps he’d gone out for dinner.

Disappointed, Bliss walked back down the porch steps and headed toward the Explorer. From the direction of the ocean, she heard a faint barking. Parker and Beau must be down on the beach.

She quickened her pace and headed down the path that led over the dune, toward the pounding surf.

Bliss trudged in her heavy boots through the sand, and as she stood atop the dune, she saw Parker and Beau swimming in the frothy sea. They were gray figures in an inky ocean, and she could barely make out Beau, his snout pointed in the air, as he paddled parallel to the shore.

The white cap of a large wave barreled in, and Parker standing in waist-high water joined his hands together and dove into the bottom of it, letting it wash over him. He rose, his back to her, as the wave crashed upon the beach. As Bliss was about to call his name, the words caught in her throat. The wave spent itself on the shore and rushed out quickly, leaving Parker in thigh-high surf. Naked.

Silhouetted against the darkening sky, she could make out the carved muscles of his back, the narrow waist, and his chiseled butt perched upon his strong legs. The same dark shade of the ocean, he looked like some water-God rising out of the waves. She stood there mesmerized by his unbridled masculinity, her mouth agape, admiring him. If he was cursed, every many should be so unfortunate.

Beau barked, snapping Bliss out of her reverie. The dog emerged from the surf, his coat dripping, and after shaking off a cyclone of water, he ran up the beach toward the dunes.

Not wanting to get caught ogling Parker, Bliss quickly turned and hurried back toward the house, her heavy boots kicking up sand behind her.

She trotted toward the car, deciding that she’d give Parker the medallion later. It was much darker on the path to the parking lot now making it difficult to find her way. The sound of small animals scurrying frightened her. Bliss stumbled over a tree root. An owl hooted above, and as she looked up, someone leaped out of the woods, slammed into her, throwing her to the ground.

She managed to let out a squeal before she landed hard on her side, knocking the air out of her.

Her first thought was that Beau hadn’t been barking at her but someone lurking in the woods. Terrified and with her hair in her face, she squirmed beneath the weight of her attacker, beating at him with her fists. Her mind raced. The threats weren’t idle. If only I could get my breath back so I could scream. I wish Parker had seen me.

As her attacker wrestled her onto her back, in her mind, she appealed to Beau. Please, Beau. Help! Get Parker. I’m going to die.