Guest Post, Excerpt, and Giveaway: Kairos by Mary Calmes

We’re so pleased to have author Mary Calmes joining us today to celebrate the imminent release of her latest book from Dreamspinner Press, Kairos. She’s giving us a little insight into the meaning of the title, offering up a little tease from the book, and there’s also a fantastic giveaway up for grabs, so be sure to check out the details below. But hurry, time runs out on this one at midnight Eastern time tomorrow, the 15th!

Welcome, Mary!

Perfect Time, Perfect Place

I love the idea that a single perfect, or perhaps horrible, day can make all the difference in a life. What appears to be just an ordinary 24-hour period can move a person from one place to another, and not physically but also mentally or emotionally as well. And even though it feels fast, it’s not because everything was aligned for a change. The definition of kairos is the perfect, delicate, crucial moment of time and place that creates the opportune atmosphere for action, words or movement. In life those moments happen in chance meetings where two people cross paths. In books it happens sometimes because a character has grown enough to love for the first time, or even again. What I love about the idea of the perfect, pivotal moment is that they are ripe for both epiphanies and confessions. It’s one of my favorite things to write, the build-up to the declaration of love. It’s the big moment, and, big or small, I love them.

In my new novella, Kairos, the whole story only spans a single day, but that one day just turned out to be thee one for Joe Cohen and Kade Bosa.

About the Book

Sometimes the best day of your life is the one you never saw coming.

Joe Cohen has devoted the past two years of his life to one thing: the care and feeding of Kade Bosa. His partner in their PI business, roommate, and best friend, Kade is everything to Joe, even if their relationship falls short of what Joe desires most. But he won’t push. Kade has suffered a rough road, and Joe’s pretty sure he’s the only thing holding Kade together.

Estranged from his own family, Joe knows the value of desperately holding on to someone dear, but he never expected his present and past to collide just as Kade’s is doing the same. Now they’ve stumbled across evidence that could change their lives: the impact of Kade’s tragic past, their job partnership, and any future Joe might allow himself to wish for….

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The Excerpt

“Oh, for God’s sake, Kade, I would never— I could never leave you. I want you so bad it physically hurts not to touch you.”

The words fell out of my mouth without thought, and I was raw, gutted, my heart there for him to see, open, nothing hidden, my desire and love all there on display. It was terrifying, and I held my breath, waiting to see if I’d just ruined everything.

He traced his thumbs over my cheeks and under my eyes as I wrapped my hands around his wrists, holding on. “It’s like you’re addicted to me, right? That’s what it feels like?” he asked.

I nodded slowly.

“Yeah, see, me too. That’s why I don’t crave drugs anymore. I told people this in my group. I told them I only crave my buddy now, and so I don’t think about drugs and I don’t think about drinking too much or putting a gun to my head and blowing my brains out or—”

“No!” I gasped, choked, the fear washing my body in ice water.

“No,” he agreed, shaking his head before leaning into me, touching our foreheads together, staying quiet until I calmed, breathed, and whispered his name. “It hasn’t been like that in so long, ever since you invited me home with you that first night after we were at the police station together. I haven’t thought about it since, I swear to God.”

“I couldn’t—I wouldn’t recover from that,” I confessed, my voice garbled, just the thought spinning me for a moment into a place so dark I knew I would never find my way out of. I couldn’t lose Kade. Being without him was not an option.

“And I could never do that to you ’cause I know you love me.”

My heart dropped out of my chest, and I could feel the stillness, the silence as it settled around me, the quiet before the storm. I lifted my head so I could see his face. “Kade?”

I had no idea what to do or say, but everything in me screamed to grab him, hold him, keep him, don’t let him go. I couldn’t remember ever wanting anything more than Kade Bosa.

He shook his head. “C’mon, Joey, I’m not stupid, right? I see how you look at me. I know you’re careful not to touch me too much and that you avoid me when we got nothing to do so you don’t do something that’ll tip your hand.”

There were no words. I had nothing.

“And I’m the same, right? All I wanna do is kiss you and fuck you and just have you be fuckin’ mine. But what if I mess it up? I mean, I do that with everything. Every fuckin’ thing. My life is total shit if there’s no you, and already I’m just—whenever you talk to guys, when you go out and come home all… like you just got outta their bed, I…. It’s like an exposed nerve. I feel electrocuted, and then this shit with fuckin’ Pope, I—”

I wasn’t proud of the kiss I laid on him. I should have wanted to make it better, bigger, more romantic, not just a mauling, but my brain shorted out, and a primal urge to make him mine overwhelmed me. To kiss him stupid so he’d never think of running from me was the only thing in my heart. My head checked out, leaving pure animal instinct the only thing driving me. I had to show him he was all there was for me, and to express with each ravenous, devouring kiss that I was in the exact same place he was, the same boat, same everything. He was it, the beginning, middle, and end of what I had to have in my life.

He wrapped his arms around my waist and clutched me so hard, so tight… being crushed against him, finally, was almost more than I could bear.

I sucked on his tongue, on his lips, grinding the kiss in deeper, the yearning ratcheting higher with every moan, every cry, the whine from the back of his throat in answer the sweetest sound as I took and took and took, not caring, needing to deplete him, to sate him, so there was nothing to give anyone else and no desire in him to do so. All of him was just for me, for only me, and I needed to burn that knowledge into him so I didn’t go out of my mind. This was my fear, then, as well: if I ever had Kade, even once, could I let him go?

No was the answer, and I feared it and wanted it without question.

About the Author

Mary Calmes believes in romance, happily ever afters, and the faith it takes for her characters to get there. She bleeds coffee, thinks chocolate should be its own food group, and currently lives in Kentucky with a five-pound furry ninja that protects her from baby birds, spiders and the neighbor’s dogs. To stay up to date on her ponderings and pandemonium (as well as the adventures of the ninja) follow her on Twitter @MaryCalmes, connect with her on Facebook, and subscribe to her Mary’s Mob newsletter.
 

The Giveaway

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