My Sexy Saturday - July 6 - The Unseen - Book 2 of Love in the Labyrinths

Every Saturday, a group of talented authors post 7 words, 7 lines or 7 paragraphs from a published book or work in progress. You can read some other My Sexy Saturday author posts by clicking here.   My post this morning comes from my soon-to-be-released (August 1) contemporary romantic adventure, The Unseen (second book in the LOVE IN THE LABYRINTHS series).
In this scene, Rich Cooke, a war veteran is leading a group of soldiers on an assault against murderous gemstone smugglers in the Vietnam jungle.  He meets archaeologist, Roberta Lawson, and his plan to keep a cool head disintegrates.

The door to the helicopter opened and a tall, leanly muscled woman hopped down onto the grass dressed in cargo pants and a yellow blouse. Her face slightly weathered from the sun, smile lines wrinkled the corners of her eyes and lips. She’s only mildly attractive, Rich told himself, as his heart rate steadily escalated. His male hormones begged to differ. As his gaze wandered over every inch of her long, lean physique, they kicked into overdrive. He shifted uncomfortably on his feet, looking away from her to refocus. But his eyes refused to cooperate. He watched as she strode toward them with a confident, shoulder blades retracted stride, intelligence shining in her blue eyes. She extended her hand toward him first. “Hello. I’m Roberta Lawson.”

The way she said Lawson, he figured the woman must be from Jersey. “Rich Cooke. It’s a pleasure to meet you ma’am.” His face flushed when their hands met. The high voltage electricity the touch incited jumped straight to his cock. This isn’t good. He cleared his throat and did his best to don a stern expression.

“Oh, I have to say, the pleasure’s all mine. Any man who served our country is someone I’d like to meet. But I must say, you look a bit out of sorts.” She leaned in toward his ear and whispered, “If you’re all stopped up if you know what I mean, I’ve got a little pill here that will do the trick in a hurry.”

Rich frowned and stepped back, crossing his arms over his chest. “I’m just fine, thank you very much. Now let me introduce you to the others.”

“Oh, yes them,” she said, flapping her arms awkwardly at her sides. She turned her back to him to greet the crowd she seemed not to have noticed before.

After introductions, Kent brought Roberta up to speed on their plans. “This cave where the smugglers stashed the gems is a couple of miles from here. We think the hieroglyphics are in that cave as well. You might want to soak your boots with DEET before we get started.” Kent handed her a bottle from his backpack.

“I’m way ahead of you big guy. I’ve been out in these jungles once or twice myself. I soaked myself just a minute ago before getting off the copter.”

If you want to download the first book in the series, Dangerous Descent, it's now available from Extasy Books and should be on Amazon Monday.