Star of Bethlehem (Flowering holiday novella)
Author: Sarah Daltry
Release Date: 11/18/2013
Publisher: SDE Press
Blurb:
Jack isn’t a rock star. He’s not the leader of a MC. He isn’t a
billionaire. Lily’s not the daughter of a mob boss, or a stripper, or a virgin
with a BDSM fascination. They’re just regular college kids, who somehow found
each other in the middle of all the crap and chaos of growing up.
“With you, Jack, it was the first time I ever felt real. It
was the first time anyone looked at me and saw substance. It was the first time
I wanted to make someone see me.”
Jack and Lily have navigated his past,
her desire to move on from her family’s demands of her, his depression, and her
loneliness. Now, on New Year’s Eve, they have an entire year laid out ahead of
them. First, though, Jack needs to meet Lily’s family, to be welcomed into her
life. It’s intimidating, but with a sweater that is way too hot and his
grandmother’s ugly car, he arrives at Lily’s gleaming house on a hill, ready to
open himself up completely to her.
Inside the perfect, sparkling house,
Lily waits for the boy she has come to love. But Lily’s house and family are a
lot like her – shiny and pretty on the outside, with a sad emptiness on the
interior. Lily wants to give Jack the one thing he has always dreamed of –
family and love – but can she keep him from seeing how hollow a lot of the
picture perfect life he fantasizes about really is?
This is a novella length work that
follows Forget Me Not and Lily of the Valley.
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Excerpt
“What? Tell me,” Jack whispers.
“Have you ever felt like your entire life is some
surrealist’s joke? That you think you’re in control of it, while really, you’re
probably just…”
“A melting clock?” he finishes and laughs. I look at him,
disappointed that I can’t explain it, but also relieved that he doesn’t care.
“All the fucking time,” he says. “I know you’re scared. I
know I’m scared. But I seem to
remember you telling me that I should remember what matters. I made you a
promise, princess. Yes, your house intimidates me. Your life intimidates me. Hell, loving you intimidates me. But I’m in
this. I’m here. Present. Entirely. I’m looking only forward. And all I see is
you.”
“Take the damn book,” I tell him. “I just wanted to show you
that I have faith in us. It was a conscious decision to give you something that
was a very special gift to me, to tell you that I trust you with it, because I
trust you to be there. Long term.”
He takes me in his arms and kisses me. I decide I won’t stop
him if he goes further, but he doesn’t. Our bodies crackle with the energy
between us, but as much as the sex thrills me, Jack does so much more for my
mind than his body could even do. I can’t believe how alive I feel when he’s
near me. Perhaps it’s selfish. Perhaps it’s desperate. But I want him here in
my life; I want him with me, because I love being this aware.
I speak against his cheek, while his hands slowly explore my
body. It’s sensual but not sexual. He’s studying me like a work of art. “I
don’t want to fall out of love with you. I thought Derek was all I ever wanted.
I don’t want to be in the same place with you a year from now.”
“You won’t be,” he tells me.
“How do you know?”
He kisses along my face, brushing his lips against my cheek,
my forehead, my nose, but never reaching my mouth. “I don’t know how. But I do.”
I love that he can put aside his doubts to ease my own. I
know Jack’s had so much trouble in his life, and the fact that he can comfort
me, when my problems are so petty and stupid in the scheme of things, is one
more thing I love so much. “I know I’m shallow. But I don’t want to be, Jack.”
“You’re not shallow. You’re not empty. Anything you think of
yourself – it’s crazy. If you want to talk about surreal, it’s the fact that
you think you’re less than something. Maybe you didn’t get shit on the same way
I did in high school, but clearly, people have underestimated you. They missed
out on you. And you have every right to be hurt. But, Lily? No one will ever
hurt you again.”
I smile. “Thanks. I’m sorry I’m being so moody. It’s
probably hormones or something. I think I’m just frustrated.”
“Yeah?” He laughs. “Well… I mean… I can help you relieve
some of that.”
He’s on top of me and I don’t care that it wasn’t exactly
what I meant. I don’t care that someone could walk in. Someone probably will walk in, since eventually they’ll
come looking, but I don’t care at all. I want to belong to Jack, and I don’t
know any other way to do so.
Sarah Daltry
writes erotica and romance that ranges from sweet to steamy. She moves around a
lot and has trouble committing to things. Bitter Fruits is her
first full length novel. Her other two novels have already been released. Forget Me Not and Lily of the Valley are simultaneous perspectives in the New Adult
contemporary romance series, Flowering.
Sarah also has three novellas (including Star
of Bethlehem, part of the Flowering series)
and several short stories available. She is currently working on Immortal Star and Daughter of Heaven in this series, and Orange Blossom, another novel in Flowering . When Sarah isn’t writing, she tends to waste a lot
of time checking Facebook for pictures of cats, shooting virtual zombies, and
simply staring out the window.
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