Oh boy, oh boy. I’m so glad to have aspiring author and encourager-extraordinaire, Casey Herringshaw. Casey’s been a very big influence on the writing scene. As a ravenous reader, she gives loads of book reviews on her blog Writing For Christ and keeps busy authors encouraged and in prayer through her ministry blog, Operation: Encourage an Author.

Not only that, but she’s my buddy-blogger at The Writers Alley, providing great information for aspiring and published authors.

Casey has graciously given one of her excerpts from her wip. The story is about Jenna, a young woman who is in the middle of a terrible dilemma.  

A marriage on the brink, a love-child from another relationship, and a mysterious woman who binds all the secrets together.

Okay, Casey – let’s see what you have for us in this excerpt 🙂

*****

Oh, my heart cracked and I sank to my knees, legs as unsteady as my future. What was I going to do? I couldn’t lose my husband. What would I do without him? His love?

My life began the moment he walked into it, through the front door of Lawson and Benson, Attorneys at Law. Dark Levi jeans and his hair salted with sawdust, like he hadn’t brushed it all off after leaving the construction site.

He stood on the welcome mat and dusted his cowboy boots off against the back side of his pant legs. Those shoulders filled out every inch of his blue chambray, and his gaze filled up every inch of my heart. My pulse beat in my ears, drowning out my ragged breath – if I was even taking any breaths. They felt lodged in my throat.

I glanced at my blinking computer screen, the words a blur, trying to steady my nerves as he approached. When I looked up, captured again by his gaze and smile, I knew my heart would ever belong to a hunky cowboy with a slow smile and soulful eyes. Eyes that seemed to see right through me.

A tear rolled down my cheek at the perfect, unsullied memory, but I swiped the tear away. I loved Greg so much. Nothing like my mother’s love for my father – if you could even call it love. She abandoned him to temporarily lose all her feelings in the bottom of a liquor bottle. Leaving my father to fend for his own needs. I would not make the same mistake.

I wanted to supply my husband’s every need. Love him until his hair turned gray and hold his strong, callused hand for eternity.

But if he ever found out what I had done before we married, he would never be able to forgive me.

The doorknob on the apartment twisted and the door groaned open. I stood up, flinging the tears from my face, my heart in my throat. In one rush, I buried my face into Greg’s shoulder, determined to keep my secret as far away from my perfect life as I could.

*****

“Hey, babe.” His smile stretched wide and he welcomed me into his arms, holding me close. I wrapped my arms around him and clutched the fabric of his shirt. He smelled of the outdoors, grass and sunshine. And deer hide.

I wrinkled my nose and Greg laughed. “Don’t like my new cologne huh?” I shook my head, holding my lips up for his kiss. He obliged and tingles swept clear to my toes.

He deepened the kiss and caressed my back with his open palms. My hands moved with a power all their own to entwine themselves in his dark, sweat dampened hair. He broke for air and studied my face.

“How was the weekend with the folks?” His gaze swept over me, warming my skin as it went, and in my newlywed bliss I blushed

“Fine.”

He feathered my smile with kisses then drew me back into his arms to cuddle my neck.

“It’s been a long time since I held you woman.” He moved to cuddle my neck and I leaned into him. Oh how I had missed him.

“You were only gone three days, am I that invaluable?”

“HmmMmmm.” His lips hadn’t left my neck. “I don’t want to let you go.”

I pushed my hands against his chest and took a small step back.

“Well, you can get as close as you want after a shower.”

He let go of me and moved toward our bathroom. “All right, but I’m holding you to that and you better be waiting for me.” His smile was dangerous, but he kept moving toward the shower, untucking his shirt as he went.

The bathroom door clinked closed and a leaned against the wall. Greg was my life, had been since that first moment he asked me out for a date. I knew then that there was no one else for me. Why had I made the most fatal mistake of my life?

I shoved the thought from my mind. That was in the past, before I was married. It made no difference to my life now. Greg loved me for what I was.

Oh, who was I kidding? Maybe my mom was right. Maybe once you committed a heinous deed there was no going back. No rescue.

No! The word burst through my mind and surprised even me with its ferocity. My mom would not, could not be right. And I would do everything to prove her wrong. I would NOT lose my husband, no matter the cost.

I grabbed the wash cloth hanging on the drain board and scrubbed at an invisible stain on the stove.

Whew, Case, poor Jenna is in quite a predicament. I’m curious how you’re going to get her out of this with her marriage intact. Conflict oozes from this. Love it.

Thanks for being willing to share.

Check out Mary Vee’s excerpt on Thursday – for the last week of Sizzling First Encounters.