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Bill Newman
Venture
In her hometown of Sydney, Australia, bio-chemist and DNA expert, Lydia
meets John, a British scientist working on a top secret navy project. After
an intense couple of weeks together, he is called back home, and learns he
has been fired.
Lydia persuades John to return to Sydney to develop a radical new
invention of his. She helps him get his invention working. Life seems sweet
until she discovers she must contend with his former girlfriend and a shady
Russian outfit posing as venture capitalists who are trying to steal the
invention.
When the Russians play hardball, Lydia realizes she must literally put
her life on the line to save everything they have built for themselves.
Genre: Contemporary Romantic Adventure
Length: 68,000 words
"When I told my friend Mark I was thinking of writing a novel he
suggested a few plot lines. I went with one of them and set it Sydney,
Australia, where he lives. This gave me the excuse to visit him and to
research the locations. The heroine, Lydia, is a composite of several
intelligent, beautiful, single-minded women I have known.Venture is a fast paced and
often humorous romance story set against the background of industrial
espionage." ~
Bill ~ |
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Cover Art by Jinger
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VENTURE
ISBN: 1-60601-127-8
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EXCERPT
“You haven’t told me
much about where you live,” John said.
“Avalon? It’s a beautiful place.
Surf beach on one side and the Pittwater harbor on the other.
The best homes in Avalon are along the ocean frontage on the
east side, or have the Pittwater views on the west. I live in
between in a ‘weekender’ that my family bought twenty years ago.
I have many happy childhood memories of our little weatherboard
house with the tin roof that sings in the rain. It’s only a
ten-minute stroll to the village or to the beach. You’d love
it.”
“Yes. It sounds great,”
John said.
Lydia had already made
up her mind to invite him to stay with her. Was this the right
moment? “Anyway, my favorite part of the whole house is the
deck. It’s where I work best. Have I painted a good enough
picture?”
“Perfect. I can see it
now, little Lydia coming off the beach and treading sand into
the house. And your mom and dad saying, ‘There’s more sand in
here than the Sahara Desert.’”
“My mom and dad are divorced.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
She grinned. “I said
they were divorced, not dead. The house belongs to my mom now.
I’ll show it to you before you leave.”
“Yes, I’d like to see
the sun coming up over Avalon.”
Lydia dug him in the
ribs. “That would require...” She left the sentence unfinished,
but noted that he blushed.
“Why don’t you come
over here and work? You might even be able work for our Navy.”
“You’d have me?”
“I could do worse.” Oh God, did I say that?
Before John could think
of a suitable riposte, Shirley interrupted them. She clomped
into the bar covered in snow. Some of it even followed in behind
her, as if to let those inside know that Mother Nature was in
charge.
“Has the storm ended
yet?” Lydia said.
“Duh! Does it look like
it? Anyway, I’m sorry to break up your tête-à-tête, but I
just got a call from Hetherington.”
“He was coming but got stuck in the snow?” John asked.
“No, he wants you to call him.”
“What did he want?”
“Well, it didn’t sound
like he wanted you to make up a fourth for bridge this weekend.
Here’s his number,” Shirley said, handing him a piece of paper
and her cell phone.
“Damn! Why do I think
this is going to be bad news?” John said.
Lydia looked worried,
too, but didn’t say anything. John made the call. The two women
listened to John’s half of the conversation.
“Rupert, it’s John.
What’s up?” … “Couldn’t they wait another week?” … “What’s the
problem anyway?” … “They couldn’t tell you!” … “Okay. I know,
just following orders, right?”
“Fuck it! They want me
back in England a week early. Flight’s booked for this Saturday
at noon. Hetherington has kindly checked me into a hotel at the
airport for Friday night, and he’ll be here tomorrow morning to
pick me up.”
“I’ll take you back
early Saturday morning,” Lydia said. “If we leave at five we can
make it. Call him back and tell him.”
“You’ll miss a day of skiing,” John said.
“Better than missing a day with you,” Lydia replied.
Shirley snapped her
head around and stared into Lydia’s eyes. Lydia met the stare
with a smile. “I need to go to the loo,” Shirley said, nodding
her head in the direction of the washrooms.
Lydia followed her.
“Make the call, John,” she said, over her shoulder. It sounded
more like a plea than a command.
The two women were the
only ones in the washroom. “So, what’s this all about?” Shirley
asked.
“I was kidding.”
“Oh, were you? The
dreamy look in your eyes didn’t tell me that.”
“He’s nice.”
“Yeah, and in
forty-eight hours he’ll be ten-thousand miles away.”
* *
* *
The
others had gone out for the evening on a tour of Thredbo’s bars.
Shirley had engineered it. She realized Lydia wanted the time
alone with John and headed off complaints from the less
sensitive members of the group that they were being
party-poopers.
“I
thought they’d never leave,” Lydia said, as she closed the door
on the departing group of eight.
“They were just teasing us. You don’t have to be a rocket
scientist to figure out that we wanted to be alone.”
“I’m
not very good at this, John.”
He
said nothing but brought his lips close to hers. They came
together like the north and south poles of two magnets. She
opened her mouth and they savored the
sweetness of each other. Their tongues met, feeling each other
out.
Lydia broke off. “Come on. Knowing that lot, they’ll want to
turn in early tonight.”
She
led the way to her bedroom. “Let me undress you,” he said. He
undid her belt, then the waist-button, next the zipper, and
pulled her jeans over her hips.
“Now
my turn,” she said.
They
alternated until she wore the only item of clothing he didn’t
have. He pulled her close to him and ran his right hand up her
back to release her bra. The garment dropped to the floor.
Lydia wondered what he thought of her body. Did he like big
breasts? Hers weren’t. Did the rest of her make up for it? And
what about him? Some of her boyfriends had small penises. His
wasn’t. Far from it. Her gaze moved to the rest of his body.
Hmm, pecs and abs are sharply defined.
He
pulled her into a tight embrace, her tits against his chest and
his protruding penis against her stomach. She put her hands on
his bum and he tightened his gluts.
“Whoa, everything is rock hard.”
John
laughed. “That kind of compliment is difficult to beat.”
“Your compliment to me is implicit,” she said, rubbing her
stomach against him.
He pulled back the covers and got into bed.
Lydia joined him. He put one arm around her neck and pulled them
into a face-to-face embrace. She found it impossible to resist
his cute lips, and opened her mouth to plant a sloppy kiss on
him. He moved his free hand down between her legs.
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Cannot be reproduced in whole or in part in any form without expressly permitted to do so in writing from the
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