I'm late again with this week's Rainbow Snippet, after a busy weekend (one of these days I will manage to plan ahead properly again!).
The Rainbow Snippets group on Facebook asks its members to share six sentence snippets from their work each weekend. Check out the group's Facebook page to read all the snippets and add lots of great books to your TBR. You'll find all sorts of books with the common thread that the main character identifies as LGBTQ.
I'm switching over to sharing some snippets from The Artist's Masquerade this month. Cathal is cousin to the crown prince of Tournai and son of a royal duke, and is absolutely shocked when his father tells him he has arranged a marriage for him with a relative of the emperor of Ardunn, who has for some time wanted to add Tournai to his empire. A dutiful son, Cathal goes along with the betrothal despite his misgivings, but when his bride arrives, finds himself more interested in her companion, Flavia. What he doesn't know is that Flavia is really Flavian, an artist fleeing the empire in disguise as his friend's companion. He never expected to have to keep up the charade for so long, but complications keep getting in the way. Cathal and Flavian are pulled reluctantly closer and closer, tumbling into love and trust, but the situation—Cathal's betrothal, spies infiltrating Tournai, secrets and lies—is stacked against them. I've skipped ahead slightly again. After their kiss in last week's snippet, Cathal now knows who Flavian really is and tells his cousin, Prince Philip. Which leads to a serious discussion.
"You love who you love, Cathal.”
“I never said anything about love.” The protest was immediate and vehement. Attraction certainly, but he wasn’t in love with anyone and never had been.
“Say caring then. Connection? Feelings of some kind, because if this was just desire, you would have put it aside like you have every other attraction to a man before this. I’m sure there were some.”
“Of course there were.” Fleeting, momentary attractions ignored without another thought. “But it doesn’t matter now.”
“It does, because I want you to be happy. I want you to have more than a life of duty and responsibility. I want you to have love.” Philip gripped Cathal’s arm, his gaze boring into Cathal.
You can find more about The Artist's Masquerade here. Thanks for reading!
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