Sunday Snippet: Follow Me (Scorched Galaxy)

Can't believe Juneis almost over. This year is flying by so quickly. Or maybe it's just so muchis out of control it seems that way.

Great week of work.I'm finishing up two big projects and hopefully setting up the groundwork formore. I'd love to find some balance between big jobs and smaller ones.

Had a decent weekfor viewing. We had some weather roll through, and I took the precaution of notstarting anything when we might lose power.

I started a newtwo-parter of Silent Witness. Kind of an interesting premise and I'm notcompletely sure where this one is going. I like that.

Caught another episodeof Death in Paradise, and it's one I hadn't seen yet. I do love watchingthe series in chronological order.

Continued my rewatchof Battlestar Galactica with "Final Cut," which is one of myvery favorite episodes. There's a lot going on in this one and it's all amazing.

Finished the secondseason of Only Murders in the Building and, holy hell, I loved how itended! Can't wait for season three!

Also managed tocatch another episode of Classic Rugrats. It brought back some memoriesbecause my kiddos wanted to try flan because of this one.

And that's prettymuch it for the life update this week. Tonight's post is from Follow Me,the opening book of an epic space saga trilogy. I hope.

Here's the mini-blurb:

A will they or won't they wager spurs Molly and Sloan tosee how long they can without getting caught.

And a sneaky peek…

Molly pondered Sloan's prediction.With their history with MacNeill, he might begin with the should've knownbetters, but he wouldn't end there. Her mind ticked off several follow-upscenarios, each one worse than the last.

She'd caught a glimpseof the disappointment on the commander's face just before he'd slammed thehatch shut. Damn. She hated letting him down.

Her head snapped up."You don't think we'll end up in hack, do you?" Wouldn't be anythingnew for her—between her temper and her mouth, a first-name basis had beenestablished with the marine guard.

Sloan on the otherhand? Usually so squeaky clean he farts bubbles.

He shrugged again."Who knows?"

The night's events werecatching up with him. He looked so weary.

She put her feet up onan adjacent chair. "Yeah. Let's just deal with whatever happens, when ithappens." She could almost feel the dull throb he must've had behind hiseyes … the one where the buzz wore off and the hangover kicked in.

He closed his eyes amoment. "My head hurts too much to think about it right now." Heleaned forward, elbows on the table and steepled his fingers to put pressureagainst his forehead, gently rubbing in a circular motion.

He continued to massagehis head and she let the comparative silence draw out. Watching his fingerswork, she flashed to having them on her … and in her … in the commander'squarters. Who knew it would be like that with us? They'd been friendsfor a long time … hell, she'd been engaged to his best friend before he'd beenlost on the recon mission.

As different as nightand day, Sloan and Lachlan were opposite sides of the same coin. She couldn'treally make a comparison between them, and, in her mind, that probably countedas a good thing. Things are weird enough without adding my former fiancé tothe mix.

Gods, how long had itbeen since she'd thought of Lachlan? Such a big part of her life. The first manshe remotely considered as more than a great lay. The first to break throughand reach her on a personal level. Then meeting Sloan and finding anotherfriend for life? Molly counted herself lucky to be the recipient of suchblessings.

She shook herself outof that train of thought. She couldn't think about Lachlan right now. Pickingback up on Sloan's fingers, she got warm pondering all the things she'd lovehim to use them for. Long and lean, they shouldn't fit with the rest of hisbody. But they did. Compact, solid, and certainly built, Sloan stayed in shape.Always. Much to the hatred of the other pilots.

Molly grinned. One ofthe first directives Sloan sent through as CAG, a new fitness program, stillmade them grumble. Sloan turned a deaf ear to the complaints. In his mind, aslong as they were on the run from an enemy that outpaced them in every wayexcept the physical, his men would be as fit as possible.

That directive countedas the only thing he continued to have significant trouble with since assumingthe position of lead pilot. The former CAG, well-seasoned major that he'd been,let the pilots skate on the physical side as long as they could fly planes.Molly supported Sloan's efforts wholeheartedly and agreed with his reasoningcompletely.

It slayed her that theone thing that set off Sloan's usually calm demeanor was a group of pilotsbitching about keeping fit for duty.

Talk about a matchto powder.

A riled-up Sloan? Whew.Something to behold. The man elevated a scathing set down to an art form. Usinga few well-chosen words to get his point across, he left no doubt howunpleasant the repercussions would be for anyone not on board with the regimen.The pilots might not like it, but he'd earned their grudging respect for notfolding under the initial barrage of very vocal feedback.

Molly had the advantageof knowing Sloan prior to the attacks. She knew what lay beneath the surface.How difficult being thrust into a position he wasn't ready for made things.She'd had firsthand experience with the slow burn of Sloan's temper. He rarelyreached a hard boil but watch out if he did. And once he reached meltdown, hisanger ebbed as slowly as it built. Giving him some distance for a few daystended to be a good idea.

In contrast, push herbuttons and she lashed out fast and her temper faded quickly. Opposite ofSloan. They were on opposite ends of the spectrum. Which turned out to be agood thing. If she'd known how explosive they'd be together, she would haveplotted a way to set up a good hard screw a hell of a lot sooner.

Even wigged out, shecouldn't deny the sex had been damn good.

Speaking of … Sloanmentioned about that, didn't he? And, well, they had some time to kill.

She snapped her fingersin front of his far-away gaze. "Sloan?" Waited until he focused blueeyes on her. "Didn't you say something about mind-blowing sex?" Kindof weird to talk about it but reliving it in her head had her blood heatingagain, which made her uncomfortable.

Sloan glanced away,coloring slightly. "Fuck, Molly. I should have known you wouldn't let thatone slide." His voice went a little sheepish like he hadn't meant to sayit out loud.

But he had and theymight as well talk about it.

Molly picked up on thehumor, used it as the ice breaker. "Let it slide?" She shook her headback and forth. "No way. Sloan MacNeill mentions mind-blowing sex and I'mgoing to let it slide. I don't think so." They usually teased each othermercilessly when one of them got laid.

Except … it'd neverbeen quite like this.

"The fact you werereferencing me is the kicker. Never would have thought that possible."Molly chuckled awkwardly, desperately trying to keep things light.

Then she bracedherself.

Whatever Sloan saidnext would set the tone between them from this point forward. She honestly didn'tknow what she hoped for.

This story is soclose to my heart, and I've been working on the three books to iron out all theintricacies. Here's hoping I get it all right.

 

That's it for thisweek. Catch everyone on the flipside.

ML Skye