If you’re looking for a nice long, romantic read, you should check out my Dreamspinner novel WRECKED!
WRECKED takes place in 1859 Key West, Florida. That’s Pre-Civil War America, and it centers around the salvaging industry. Did you know that in the 1850s Key West was the wealthiest city per capita in America? That money was brought in by salvaging ships wrecked on the Florida Reef. With nearly one wreck a week, despite all the efforts to build lighthouses and update charts, wreckers patrolled the Straits by sailing back and forth between wrecking stations. They were on the lookout for vessels caught on the coral or beached in the shallows so they could hire out their services. The American wreckers were licensed by the US Federal Courts, offering a much-needed service to misguided seafarers. Months could pass idly at sea while waiting to find work during a wrecking sloop’s watch. These hearty sailors had a reputation as pirates in some circles, and rumors abounded that they tricked mariners into hiring them, or even had a hand in wrecking the ships to begin with.
Talk about a perfect setting for a romance novel!
But in my story, there are more things that have been wrecked besides ships. The hearts of my two heroes could also use a little salvaging.
Off the Key West coast, Rief Lawson works as a wrecker, salvaging ships and their cargo. Exiled to the outskirts of society because of his mysterious gift of sight, Rief’s only respite from his loneliness is painting an unknown blond man. When a merchant ship wrecks during a violent storm, Rief rescues a drowning victim and comes face-to-face with his destiny.
It is the man from his art!
Heir to an English barony, Mathew Weston entered the merchant trade with his greedy father and soon-to-be father-in-law. Dominated by his father and smothered by the people around him—including his sweet but tiresome fianceé—Mathew is terrified to follow his true desires. Marriage and obedience seem safer than a life of secrecy and possible prison.
After the daring rescue, a fire ignites between the two men. Powerless to resist his desire, Mathew learns what it means to be a man in Rief’s arms. With this newfound confidence, Mathew teaches Rief through gentle touch that he deserves the affection he’s long been denied. Yet their affair is doomed from the start. Two desperate men, wrecked in heart and mind, must find a way to salvage the chance at love fate has given them.
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Here is a scene where Mathew it watching the salvaging operation of his ship, The Lucky Clipper, and he gets an unexpected surprise. Enjoy!
Excerpt from WRECKED:
LATER THAT evening, one of the Sara Ann’s anchors dragged. The rigging off-loading the cotton collapsed, sinking two bales and knocking a man into the sea. It had been a terrible moment as she began to drift toward the reef, collision with the Lucky Clipper imminent. Just in time, they dropped another anchor and prevented her from striking. Thankfully, the man who fell overboard was uninjured and back to work moments after.
Mathew watched the entire event unfold from his seat on the Mirabella’s forecastle, out of the way of the men working. Despite Father’s and Torino’s complaints, Mathew was quite impressed with the willingness of these wreckers to put their lives on the line and the expert skill they seemed to possess.
Indeed, they must be the heartiest seamen in all the oceans.
Maggie had left him to check on an exhausted Mrs. Cohen, and he relished the reprieve from company almost more than the fresh air in his face. Sometimes he could scarcely hear himself think cramped on a ship with naught to talk to but Maggie.
In the fading daylight, three half-naked black divers were treading water near the hole cut into the hull of the Lucky Clipper. Two seemed to be working as a team, one tying a rope to his waist while the other held the end. The third fellow held the rope for what Mathew assumed was another diver already underwater. When the fourth head popped up, he was a bit surprised to see a white face among the black ones. The diver turned, and Mathew’s heart skipped several beats.
Rief!
Thrilled at a chance to spy on him, he fixed the spyglass on Rief and drank his fill of the shirtless figure, trying to commit the man’s tanned, well-chiseled body to memory for when he had a moment alone with his cock.
Gad, he really was hopeless.
After surfacing, Rief took his turn holding the rope as his partner dove. The diver stayed under an extraordinary length of time. Every now and then, a barrel would surface, sometimes two, while wreckers waited in quarter boats with hooks to retrieve the goods. When the diver eventually surfaced, Rief dove again. It went on like that for over an hour, and each time Mathew found himself holding his own breath, anxious until Rief surfaced.
He was amazed by Rief’s skill in the water. Mathew timed him at an average of almost four minutes per dive. It was no wonder Rief had been able to brave the treacherous sea and save his life. Witnessing such athletic prowess made his heart pound, along with other parts of his anatomy.
When the evening approached and visibility underwater had to be near impossible, Rief and the three divers finished. His strong, muscular back glistened in the setting sun as he hoisted himself into a quarter boat. Mathew’s hands actually shook as he tried to keep the spyglass locked on Rief.
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