Welcome back to WIP IT UP WEDNESDAY. If you are new to this hop or are just deciding that joining this hop would be a great idea, visit the WIP IT IP WEDNESDAY blog home page at: http://wipitupwednesday.blogspot.co.uk/ to read the sign-up instructions. Also on that page, you will find links to other wonderful authors and their WIP.
This is my twenty-first week on this blog hop. Just a little heads up. I might not be around much until July. I have a number of events, graduations, baby showers, etc. taking up a lot of me time, on top of getting my latest edit of Resistant ready to go back to my editor, we changed a large chunk of the last hundred pages, so I am definitely going to have to go back to editing.
I’m continuing this week with an excerpt from my current romance WIP, Resistant. Resistant is a romance set in the middle of the zombie apocalypse. I am roughly 250 pages into my latest read-through of the novel with my editor’s notes in mind. The novel is roughly 350 pages. Everything was moving smoothly until I got to where the largest changes started. I trudging my way through them. I’m still on track to get the novel back to her by the end of the month or the beginning of the next. If everything movies as quickly as I hope over the next few months, I’m looking for the novel to go on sale in August or September. I don’t have a cover yet, which I’m okay with because of the changes. I think I’m going to wait until late June or July to get with the photographer to finalize everything.
Anyway, on to the excerpt. This scene is a continuation from last week’s. I hope you enjoy it. J
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I don’t know exactly how long I slept, but I woke a few hours later with a desperate need to urinate. To my disappointment, I didn’t wake with Daniel’s arms around me. He had turned so that his back was to me and was sleeping soundly. I understood that this position was probably more comfortable to him, but I missed his arms around me.
As quietly as I could, I got out of bed, got dressed, and grabbed my bag of toiletries. He didn’t move. I stepped out of our sleeping area. Aaron, one of the new guards from Dimitri’s group, was heading toward me. Everything was quiet and few people were out and about, but I knew there was still a rule against going to the bathrooms by oneself.
“Hey, Sahara, you need something?” he asked.
“Yeah, I’ve got to go to the bathroom and Daniel is asleep. Is anyone about than can stand guard for me?”
“I think Divya is still up. Hold on while I call her.” After a few seconds, he nodded. “She’ll be here in a minute.”
“I can meet her at the bathrooms.”
“That isn’t a good idea.”
“Why not?”
“Daniel would have my ass. Whereas we the rest of the men that came in with Marcus seem to be trustworthy, or at the least have decided they don’t want any trouble, we aren’t taking any chances and not just with those men. Anybody, male or female, could be capable of anything. We trust each other but this is the apocalypse and anything can happen.”
“With that logic, I shouldn’t be out here with you.”
“No, you shouldn’t be.”
I jerked back at his words. He laughed.
“I didn’t mean it like that. I’m not going to do anything. I’m not that kind of person. I have all that I need in someone who will remain nameless for the time being. I’m just saying, don’t make this a habit. Though with Daniel so close, a person would be a fool to even look at you let alone touch you inappropriately.”
I looked toward our sleeping area and smiled, thinking about Daniel naked under the covers. Aaron cleared his throat to get my attention. My face flamed, and I didn’t want to turn back to him, but I made myself.
“Uh huh,” he said, smiling. “So the two of you finally, uh, um…”
“Shut up. And what do you mean finally. Most people have assumed we’ve been together since the day we met.”
“Yeah, I know, but I knew better. When I asked, Daniel was honest about it.”
“What do you mean you asked? Why did you ask?”
His faced flushed a deep crimson, but this didn’t stop him from answering. “I was sure he wasn’t gay. Yet, one night about a month or so ago, I just asked. I asked him if the two of you were seeing each other, and when he said things were complicated. I asked if that meant he wanted something with you, and he said yes, but he wasn’t sure how you felt. That told me all I need to know about your relationship and about his sexual orientation.”
I was floored. I hadn’t known, hadn’t even assumed Aaron was gay. That just goes to show that you can never really know someone.
“I know others had asked him before,” he continued. “Most people didn’t believe him. I could tell he was telling me the truth. I knew after you were kidnapped that you two would finally come together. I saw the look on his face when he realized you were gone. He had finally made the decision.” He didn’t go on because right then Divya walked up looking way passed exhausted.
“About time,” I teased. “My bladder is about to explode.”
“Sorry,” she said, drawing out the word tiredly, then laughed. “I’m just getting off sentry duty. I’m resisting the urge to fall asleep right here.”
“Well, I’m perfectly capable of urinating by myself. It isn’t my fault we have this rule.” I regretted the words as soon as they were out of my mouth. I was trying to make light of everyone blaming me for the entire incident, but Divya’s unamused look said that my comment was not funny. “Seriously, though, we can call someone else if you prefer to go on to bed,” I said, trying to smooth things over.
“Nah, I’ve got go myself, and I want to brush my teeth before going to bed, so you can watch out for me as well.”
“Good, let’s go. I really gotta go.” I bounced up and down, dramatically doing the pee-pee dance. She laughed and shook her head. We waved to a smirking Aaron and headed to the restrooms.
We talked as we walked. She didn’t ask about Daniel or our relationship. A part of me really wanted her to. I wanted to have that girl talk with a friend. Wanted to tell someone about how happy I was. About how good the sex was. To tell them that Daniel said he loved me, but the days of girl-talk were long gone. Divya was a good friend, but we’d never shared our emotions or stories of our love lives, and sadly, I feared our lives would never settle down long enough for us to ever get to that point.
No, we talked about mundane things like training sessions, scouting missions, zombies, and other nonessentials. She updated me on people’s opinion of me. Although, Divya believed that most of the initial anger was blowing over. They wouldn’t trust anyone I tried to bring into camp for a while, but since Desmond and the others were slowly acclimating that fear would wear off as well.
She let me go into the bathroom and pee first when we got to the restrooms. After doing my business, I brushed my teeth. I had plans for when I got back to our sleeping quarters, and I didn’t want to have morning breath when I implemented them.
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