Where To Find It
// The Florencia Lozano Homepage
Excerpts courtesy of The Florencia Lozano Homepage
Excerpt from Chapter 3
“Carlotta, I’ll go and get some coffee and come back when you’re done,” said Tea as they wheeled Carlotta’s bed out of the room. Tea follow and waved to Carlotta then headed for a coffee vending machine at the end of the hall.
He watched her from around the corner, contemplated her slender softness in a wine-colored sweater and jeans as she bent down to take her coffee and began walking slowly toward a small lounge that was near-by. The last time he saw her, her hair just touched her shoulders, now it was long, the way he loved it. The sharp pain in his stomach ate ravenously away at him as he approached her.
Tea leafed through a magazine carelessly, before she looked up suddenly and turned toward the lounge entrance. Golden hair and hazel eyes leapt out at her from the doorway--Todd was standing there just watching her silently . The magazine slipped out of her trembling hand and fell to the floor by her feet as she stood up and faced him for the first time in two years--the first time since she left him.
Excerpt from Chapter 24
In the midst of all this hypocritical fanfare and sincere mourning Todd noticed the Vega family. Cristian and Antonio were wheeling Carlotta down the sidewalk toward the entrance when he noticed Tea walking beside them. Many acknowledged Carlotta politely, but the one they all notice was Tea Delgado, beautiful and scandalous, specially Blair who’s mouth dropped open at the site of her.
Todd watched her as she got closer in her simple elegance, wearing a tailored, sleeveless black dress with a delicate strand of pearls and a black shawl with tiny red roses embroidered on it draped softly over her shoulders and her hair neatly pinned up. In the midst of all this grief and death, among all this somber pomp and circumstance, he was astounded at his desire for her, struggling to keep from running to her and kissing her ripe, red mouth, that skilled and beautiful mouth that had driven him into virtual madness only a few hours earlier. He noticed the small, red embroidered roses on her shawl, a touch of beauty in the blackness, like the blanket of red roses covering the ebony coffin that Ben Davidson laid in--life and death.
Tea tried not to look in his direction but when their eyes met they held their gaze just a little too long, too longingly, and it didn’t go without notice. RJ Gannon who stood by with Lindsay noticed it immediately and turned his back on them with a bitter sneer. Andrew Carpenter who stood by the church door in his purple, ceremonial stole saw that look between them, that look that had once destroyed his own happiness with Tea and he felt a twinge of jealousy and regret in his all too human heart. But it was Blair who was most aware of their exchange.
Excerpt from Chapter 48
Tea ran blindly, past the olive and fig trees that traversed her path, that image of Todd and Blair...and Starr floating beyond her...sealed in the theater of her brain...playing over and over again. Finally she stopped. Hysterical and exhausted she leaned against the bark of an old fig tree, it’s bark cool and smooth as she embraced it and stroked it and cried uncontrollably. As her grief turned to rage she began hitting it with her open hand, than her fist, before a hand came up behind her and held her back...stopping her from hurting herself.
She turned slowly expecting Aaron and ready to hit him...but it was Mikos, with his kind dark eyes...and his gun. Turning slowly she leaned back against the tree as she watched him pull a white handkerchief from his pocket and wipe her face gently with it. His shiny bald head and olive skin gleamed in the afternoon sun as he examined her bloodied hand and wiped it with the handkerchief. Tea watched him, moved by his kindness before she noticed the gun tightly embedded in a brown, leather holster wrapped around his shoulder.
She smiled up at him sweetly and he smiled back. It was the first real communication between them...he had never been this close to her...probably on orders from Aaron and she noticed something that hadn’t quite occurred to her before. Mikos was a man! A man with all the weaknesses and natural urges of a man and the look in his eyes was very revealing...unmistakable.
Tea reached up and touched his mustache lightly, fingering it delicately before she reached up and pulled his head down to her...kissing him hard, with all the passion she could muster. He tasted of onions and smelled of old sweat but she persevered, letting her tongue slide into his mouth seductively, until his large, heavy body responded urgently and shoved her brutally against the tree behind them, grinding his hips against hers before Tea ended the kiss and quickly slipped out from beneath him. When she turned around he was leaning against the tree, panting and breathless, staring at her with a dark, forbidden desire. It made her smile coquettishly and as she lifted up her head she realized her power...he was hers now...not Aaron‘s.
She turned and walked away from him as he slowly followed, lumbering in her path a few yards behind like a faithful dog as she headed back to the main house. Feeling strangely reenergized, powerful, her head reeling with new possibilities, she smiled as she glanced over at the sea and all that water. She was sick of water...and sick of tears...and sick of waiting....