Blurb:
Mature and
explicit content. Not recommended for readers below 18-years-old. Yup, you’ve got to be that old to read my story. Consider yourself
warned.
I’m Dakota
Collins, a tough talking, eye patch wearing, workaholic photography student.
Why am I important? Well, maybe because I get to spend an entire month with
Vicious, only the sickest indie rock band out there.
You see, I
needed a subject for my Spring Showcase introspective in order to graduate.
During a chance encounter at a club I’d been sent to cover for the Daily
Gossip, our ironically named college paper, the features writer I usually
teamed up with introduced me to the band—by accident, I might add. It involved
a run in with a scary, bald bodyguard. Anyway, long story short, I signed a
contract to take pictures of Vicious.
I should have
known their handsome yet way too serious for his own good bassist, Luka
Visraya, wouldn’t be able to keep his hands to himself. He’s gorgeous and all,
but the way he smiles spelled trouble with a capital L. I’m in for a long month
with him around.
Crazy shit
happens and then some. So, if you want the skinny on Vicious and the events
revolving around my stay at Lunar Manor, read my story.
Again, refer to
the warning above.
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Author Bio:
When Kate
Evangelista was told she had a knack for writing stories, she did the next best
thing: entered medical school. After realizing she wasn't going to be the next
Doogie Howser, M.D., Kate wandered into the Literature department of her
university and never looked back. Today, she is in possession of a piece of
paper that says to the world she owns a Literature degree. To make matters
worse, she took Master's courses in creative writing. In the end, she realized
to be a writer, none of what she had mattered. What really mattered? Writing.
Plain and simple, honest to God, sitting in front of her computer, writing.
Today, she lives in the Philippines and writes full-time.Author Links
Website - Twitter - Facebook Page - Goodreads
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Savor Exclusive Excerpt
“Dakota Collins!”
I lowered my camera. The use of my full name never came
with good consequences. I blinked my vision back at her even if I wanted to
spend the rest of the night taking his
picture. Sweat rose over my upper lip. I may just have found my subject for the
Spring Showcase.
The only problem?
I had to find a way to convince him to be in my project.
Something told me this wouldn’t be easy. By the way my heart beat in my ears,
drowning out the music and Silvia having a fit in front of me, I wanted it too
much. I wanted him too much.
“This the guy you were saying?” I showed Silvia the
picture I’d taken. This seemed to pacify her because she sidled closer,
mesmerized like a moth to a flame.
“Luka Visraya,” she said with a moan like she’d just
tasted the most luscious chocolate beforetaking a long gulp of her cocktail.
The name didn’t register. Silvia must have noticed my blank expression because
she continued. “He’s the bassist for Vicious.”
Still no pings of recognition in my head.
She slapped her thigh. “Where have you been? It’s weird
that you haven’t heard of them. Their songs are on the radio like every
second.”
Of course I hadn’t heard of them. I liked listening to
country and I hardly kept up with current events.
“Name one?” Okay, I had a name. Luka. Exotic. A bassist.
Part of a band I should know about. So he’s famous. I slowly felt my chances of
asking him to be my subject slip from my grasp. If he was someone famous, fat
chance he’d say yes to a graduating photography student like me. I just about
deflated when Silvia mentioned one of their songs. “Oh, I know that one!” By
accident. It played in the radio of the cab I rode in to Sacrifice. I stared at
the picture of him then lifted my gaze to where he sat. “He’s gone.”
“What?” Silvia whipped around in time to come face to
face with a wall of man. “Whoa!” She pushed at him. “Watch it, buddy!”
“Give me the camera,” he said in a threatening tone.
Big. Beefy. Bald. The three Bs that made up the
quintessential bodyguard.
I clutched my DSLR closer to my chest and looked up at
him with my good eye. “And why would I do that?” The patch didn’t seem to
intimidate him because he just reached out. So much for my Bond villain
aspirations. I moved away from his grubby hand. No one touched my camera but
me.
Despite her size, Silvia came between me and the
mountain. “We’re here to cover Sacrifice for our college paper. You don’t have
the right to take away my colleague’s camera.”
Yeah! You give it
to him, Silvy.
Not that I couldn’t take care of myself. But if Silvia
wanted to play hero, I wouldn’t stand in her way.
“What seems to be the problem here?” a soft,
authoritative voice chimed in.
The bodyguard moved aside to reveal the Gothic Lolita.
She stood at just about the same height as Silvia, but she possessed an older
aura even if she seemed to be our age.
“She’s been taking pictures,” Baldy said.
Lolita’s kohl eyes landed on me then shifted to my
camera.
“As I was saying to the big guy,” Silvia explained. “My
colleague and I are covering the opening of Sacrifice.”
“For what paper?” Lolita asked without taking her eyes
off me. I clutched my camera like an extra appendage. In some ways it was.
After losing half my sight, I relied on my camera like an extra eye, seeing the
world through its lens. I would rather die than lose it.
“The Daily Gossip,” I said before Silvia could answer
just to relieve some of the awkward tension building in me under her gaze. “We
study at Wexler U.”
She tilted her head, crossing her arms.
“Okay,” I quickly stammered out. “I get that the name of
our paper sounds like a tabloid, but the Daily Gossip is a cool campus paper.”
The last part maybe only I believed since Silvia raised her eyebrow at me, but Lolita
and the mountain didn’t have to know that.
No one spoke after that. Even in a noisy club, the silence
in our group rang in my ears. Not waiting for the situation to get any more
awkward, I plowed forward with my own selfish intensions.
“You know Luka.” I said it more as a statement, but it
came out like a question.
Lolita nodded.
“I’m Dakota Collins and I’m graduating this spring. I was
wondering if Luka would be interested in—”
“What would I be interested in?” a smooth voice joined
our group.
The walls of my throat closed, chocking the rest of what
I had to say. All eyes turned to Luka. Silvia dropped her empty glass. It
bounced off the bodyguard’s shoe and landed in a clatter but didn’t break. Even
with my height, I still had to look up at him.
“What are you doing here?” Lolita admonished. “You should
be backstage.”
One side of his lips came up. God. Without the scowl, his
face lit up. I had to stop the urge to lift my camera and start snapping away.
And his eyes were piercing blue. The kind that stretched over my mother’s farm
in the summer. Damn.
Seeing him up
close, I knew I’d give any one of my kidneys for a chance to take his picture
in a formal shoot.
“We have five minutes. Chill, Yana.” He tugged at one of
her pigtails.
“Luka,” Silvia managed. “I’m a big fan. Will you sign my
chest?”
Bypassing my petite colleague, Luka’s intensely blue gaze
studied me. He reached out and I flinched back. His fingers almost grazed my
patch. What the hell was the matter with him? Trying to touch my eye patch was
tantamount to poking a bandage over a wound and asking the person if it hurts.
Gothic Lolita—Yana—yanked Luka’s arm down. “I’m so
sorry!” Her whole aura changed. She went from all business to panicky. “My
brother sometimes forgets his manners. He didn’t mean anything about touching
your…” She bit her lower lip, maybe trying to keep herself from saying the
wrong thing.
That little faux pas cleared my head of the Luka haze and
spurred me into action. “Luka, will you let me take your picture for my final
project?” I didn’t know where my courage came from, but I knew if I didn’t take
this chance, I’d regret it. I had to have him as my subject.
Still not removing his gaze from my face, like my patch
transfixed him, he tilted his head to one side very much like his sister did
earlier.
“Luka, don’t!” Yana said, but from the consideration on
Luka’s face, she was too late.
“You’re a photographer?”
“Yes.” I nodded, in case the word wasn’t enough.
“And you’d like me to be the subject of your project?”
God yes! This time, I could only nod. I didn’t want him
to see how eager I was. And I couldn’t live with myself if I embarrassed myself
further.
I waited with baited breath.
It seemed everyone in our group waited with baited breath
for what the golden god had to say about my brazen request. I soon realized
when Luka spoke, everyone listened. The way he pronounced every word precisely
yet still spoke so smoothly, like butter on warm toast, captured everyone’s
attention. To say he captivated us was an understatement. Something in me
certainly wanted to hear him keep speaking. He could read from an accounting
textbook in that voice and no one would get bored.
“I need to know that you’re good,” he finally said.
Something about his words seemed to hold a different
meaning. I must have missed the alcohol in the soda Silvia had given me. Maybe
I was drunk and this was all a blackout dream.
“What are you saying?” Yana faced Luka all the way now,
her petite form all rigid.
He unleashed a full on megawatt smile my way. I almost
had to cover my eye from it. At my side, Silvia gasped. Her long nails dug into
my arm. Like staring at the sun, I couldn’t take my gaze away from him no
matter how bad it was for me.
“We’re about to perform. I want you to take several
pictures then send them to Yana. If she approves, we’ll see about your
request.”
Then, like smoke, he disappeared into the crowd.
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