M. S. Spencer ~ Tale Spinner

Tuesday, January 1, 2019

For the Love of a Spy: A New Excerpt--Tailed

When Maris Graystone, author of the political column The Scrivener, and the mysterious Michael Kinder, meet, sparks fly. Their love affair intensifies against the backdrop of the dramatic world events of 1991. Michael appears and disappears at unpredictable moments, leaving Maris limp and lovelorn. Looking for safe harbor for her emotions and her body, she accepts the advances of a dashing French diplomat.

Torn between the luxury and comfort of Émile and his Paris flat, and the romance of international intrigue with Michael, she must choose…but which one?

To celebrate the release of For the Love of a Spy: the Scrivener and the Handyman I thought I’d treat you to an excerpt.

Our heroine, Maris, is in Paris when she gets a strange telephone call telling her a man is dead. She fears it’s the man she loves, but the caller did not specify. She is distraught, then afraid.

Excerpt: Tailed

She had to get out of the apartment. She grabbed her purse and stumbled down the broad circular stairway, running blindly down the street. At the end of the block, she turned left, heading toward the Place de l’Opéra. She crossed the busy square before the Opera House and made her way down the Boulevard des Capucines to the Madeleine. She found a bench and tried to calm down.

She regarded the Napoleonic-era church with sad eyes. Normally, its perfectly balanced Greek lines soothed her. Not today.

As she worked on her breathing, a tall man in a heavy, fur-trimmed coat sat down on the bench next to her. He stared straight ahead. Maris watched him, a little perplexed that a Frenchman would ignore a beautiful woman sitting beside him. Oh well, I’m not exactly well-coiffed this morning.

She stood up abruptly, and the man rose as well. She turned down the Rue Royale, heading toward the Place de la Concorde. Something made her turn around. The man was right behind her, matching her stride. She went right at the circle and headed up Avenue Gabriel. He still followed her. She noticed he wore dark glasses—hardly necessary in the pale autumn light. She quickened her pace. Her heart pounded. What is going on? Could this be the man who had called her? Why hadn’t he spoken to her then? Should I stop and see what he wants? No! Every instinct screamed. Don’t let him catch up with you.

She ducked into a linen shop, people crowding in behind her. They were apparently having a sale. Maris sidestepped a diminutive Frenchwoman with hennaed hair towering in outrage at the proprietor’s unwillingness to come down on the price of a tablecloth, and crouched behind a display case, hoping no one would draw attention to her strange behavior.

She waited a full ten minutes, panting raggedly. When at last she steeled herself to peek over the case, the man was nowhere to be seen. At the door, she peered right and left. No sign of him. She insinuated herself into a crowd of tourists heading down the avenue de Marigny. A sign on her right said Le Marché des Timbres. I remember this. It’s the open-air stamp market I used to go to that year I was in school at Sèvres. She turned into it.

The kiosks were closed. Oh, right—it’s open on Thursdays. That was my day off from school. What day was it, anyway? Friday. Friday? Now, what…Oh no. She’d almost forgotten the state dinner with the Russian delegation tomorrow night.

Émile had told her to find a suitable dress, a formal gown. She took one last sweep of her surroundings. Whoever her stalker was, he must have given up. Hopefully for good.

Wait...is that???

For the Love of a Spy: the Scrivener and the Handyman

I Heart Publishing, Dec. 27, 2018

Romantic suspense; Action/Adventure; Contemporary Romance; Spies/Espionage

220 pp.; ebook 74,000 words

Spicy (PG-13); 3 flames