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.
With the new month, I decided to switch to a different book! In April, I'll be sharing snippets from The Artist's Masquerade. The Artist's Masquerade is my second book, published back in 2015 (and rereleased in 2020 with its pretty new cover). This book is the story of Cathal, a royal duke's heir who has spent his entire life doing what is expected of him by his father, putting aside his own needs and wants to do so. When his father tells him that he has to marry—and that his father has chosen his bride for him—Cathal goes along with it but then finds himself far more fascinated by his intended's companion, Flavia. What Cathal doesn't know is that Flavia is in reality Flavian, an artist in disguise and on the run from a bad situation in his home country. His friend—Cathal's intended bride—came up with the ruse to disguise him as her companion and smuggle him out of the country so he can disappear into a new life. Only everything doesn't quite go as planned, and Flavian finds himself trapped in his role and pulled into intrigue. I'm jumping in at the beginning of Chapter 7 with Flavian and Cathal's first kiss. Cathal doesn't know Flavian's real identity yet, but he soon will...
Flavian froze, his mind going utterly blank the instant Cathal’s lips touched his.
Because Cathal was kissing him.
Cathal was kissing him. Flavian never, ever, expected it to happen, or for it to be like this. A passionate, uninhibited kiss with Cathal’s firm body pressing against his, pushing him into the unyielding surface of the door. Who would have thought a man like Cathal would kiss like this? And for an instant Flavian drowned in it—the feel of Cathal’s smooth lips on his, the firm grip of his hands on Flavian’s waist--as Cathal devoured him.
But then reality came back in a flood.