The ridiculous heat has fried my brain. If I were to write a blog post it would be mainly me moaning about suffering a British heatwave armed with nothing more than an electric fan. It would not be nice.
I’m offering up an excerpt from An Unexpected Truth. This little scene is centered around the premise that maybe you can’t always get a hint of someone’s personality from the appearance/state of their living space.
Or maybe you can. ;)
Brendan followed Adam back down the hall and into a long, bright room. Built-in bookshelves flanked the fireplace. Brendan knew enough about architecture to know that it was as old as the house itself. He sank onto an overstuffed chair and stretched his legs across a Persian-type rug. He felt as if he’d wandered into the center pages of an interior design magazine. There were no scattered piles of papers, or discarded newspapers. No empty mugs or plates. Not a crumb to be seen. Brendan glanced around, searching for clues about Adam. There were no photos on the mantelpiece or bookshelves. No bric-a-brac, apart from expensive-looking pieces of porcelain and one or two bronzes. It really was like sitting in a magazine spread. There was nothing wrong with the room. It just felt…empty. It cried out for touches of humanity, flaws, like a wonkily hung picture or a smudge of dust on a shelf, or ring marks on the highly polished coffee table. Brendan didn’t dare set his mug down, either on the little side table or on the richly colored rug. He held on to it. Almost afraid to move, to knock the carefully placed cushion at his back out of place.
Maybe it’s because he has so much time on his hands. Maybe he cleans this place every day.
He carefully sipped his coffee and stared out of the French doors leading to a long, thin back garden. Like the living room, nothing appeared out of place. There were no mysterious stains on the patio stones. Every bit of shrubbery had been pruned into submission. Empty clay pots spoke of bedding plants for every season. The patio furniture had been covered by tarp. No errant weeds poked up between the patio stones. What little lawn there was had been so meticulously trimmed that Brendan had a mental image of Adam on his hands and knees with a ruler and a pair of nail scissors.
“Are you up for a walk in the park?” Adam set his mug onto a placemat on the coffee table.
“Yes. I’d like that.” Brendan hated that he wanted to escape this sterile perfection, even if it meant a walk over a breezy hillside on a cold day. He couldn’t see himself ever relaxing in such a place. Guilt nagged at him. He wondered how he could find himself so attracted to Adam, but feel so uncomfortable in his home.
“Good.” Adam smiled. “Finish your coffee and we’ll stretch our legs.”
Brendan downed the rest of his coffee. “Right, I’m ready when you are.”
Buy Links: Pride (Early Download)| Amazon US | Amazon UK (Out July 11)
Length: 58,591
Publisher: Pride Publishing
Blurb
A trust destroyed is a trust that is hard to recover.
Brendan Matthews is happy training racehorses for a living. He thinks heís hit the jackpot when a wealthy orthopedic surgeon, Adam Ahmadi, sends six yearlings his way. Not only are the horses a cut above the rest, their owner isnít too shabby either.
But not everything is as it seems. Adam has many secrets, most of them dark and deadly. When Adamís past returns with a vengeance, he disappears, leaving Brendan confused and hurt.
If Adam survives, will his past destroy their future?
June 13 - The Novel Approach
June 16 - The Way She Reads, Jim's Reading Room, BookLove
June 22 - Diverse Reader
June 27 - BooksLaidBareBoys, Urban Smoothie Read, KeySmash, Inglorious Bitches
July 4 - Reading Is Our Satisfaction, Sarandipity Book Reviews, Love Bites & Silk, Out Of My Head
July 11 - Sinfully MM Romance
July 13 - Padme's Library, Book Lovers 4Ever
July 17 - Gay Book Reviews
July 19 - Books 2 Blog, Bayou Book Junkie, My Fiction Nook
July 21 - MM Good Book reviews
Author Bio
S.A. Meade lives in deepest Wiltshire with her son, a dog and two cats. She is still partial to gin and tonic and loves to cook. When she's not working, she stares at her laptop and waits for inspiration to strike, preferring that to mowing the lawn or weeding. When parked in front of a computer, she can be found wandering the streets of her village, dog in tow.
