Excerpt
The Legend of Arturo King by L.B.
Dunbar ©
I closed in on the last line of the
refrain and turned to look at Lans, signaling the direction of the crowd and
the shift of the song. I had been clutching the microphone on the top of its
stand, both hands wrapped around it, holding firm. I often told myself to think
of the mic as a woman. Caress it in passion or clutch it in lust. It made no
difference as long as this prop seemed an extension of my instrument, my voice.
I released the mic slowly and shifted my own body slightly to angle to the
right toward Lans. Glancing over the crowd, what I told myself would be one final
time before I pulled my head back into the gig on stage, I saw her.
She was a vision in white.
Literally. Her long flowing dress stood out amongst the crowd of dark T-shirts,
darker jeans, and occasional bare skin. Her skin was bare in places as well. Slender
arms hung at her sides, completely exposed. The pull of the dress bodice was up
around her neck in some fashion that also exposed her shoulders, an area that I
found could be very sensitive on a woman. Her shoulders just might redefine
sensual in my brief opinion as I further took her in. The dress fell to the
floor, but I could sense that those hidden legs were long, and the way the
dress hugged the undisclosed portions of her body, I knew she was slender,
sleek, and sumptuous in all the right places. Her hair looked dark, long and
wavy, but the blue glow of the floor lights hinted at some brighter highlights.
I couldn’t make out the color of
her eyes at first, but then she stepped forward under a light as if she were
coming to me. They were lake blue and I felt them pierce my soul. I saw a
sparkle in them as my own locked with hers. She stood still for a moment,
suddenly frozen in my trance. I watched her lick her lips and I felt that lick
in my pants. I didn’t want to look away as a wave of … something … crawled
through my body, but she did.
She turned to her left, but I
couldn’t see who stood there in the shadows. Her head returned forward and she
seemed to be listening to the guitar, taking in the stage, but refusing to look
again in my direction. I felt like I was willing her to notice me instead of
the blank stare she focused above the bands’ heads. I almost turned to see what
could be so interesting behind me. Almost, but I didn’t dare to look away from
her.
She moved after a slight shift
again from her left. She was obviously parting ways from someone near her and
she slowly made her way through the crowded pit floor. As if the audience knew
someone otherworldly was within their presence, the crowd parted slowly as she
approached each person, making a clean-cut line across the wooden floorboards
without another glance in the direction of the stage. Watching her walk sparked
an extra beat in my heart and a throb in my pants. If she was sensual just
crossing the floor, I dared to imagine what she would be like in my bed.
My vision focused solely on her
subtle movement. Silky, I would have described her. She moved slowly, as if she
were a ribbon sliding, slipping, through dark water. The white dress continued
to glow from the dim blue lights, accentuating her slither through the waves of
people. I was only vaguely aware of the guitar riff coming to an end at my left
and I reached blindly for the microphone. This was a move that took no thought
for me. It was as natural as breathing to hold the warm metal. I felt a slight
catch in my throat as the words were climbing to escape my vocal cords. Lans
hit his last note and I held my breath for the pause before a new cord was hit
and the words burst forth.
It was the last look, of last night
In the last moment,
That took my breath and made me see
You might be lost before you found
me.
You cried my name, as you came,
I took that pain and
Made you see, you might be lost,
But you found me.
My own words took on new meaning as
I trailed her final motion. This tune had a new emphasis and I knew I was
singing to her like a siren calls a sailor. There was just something about her
presence, even if I felt she was suddenly ignoring me. She seemed to pause as I
poured myself into those lyrics. You found me echoed in my head as I pinned her
with my eyes. She moved her long hair over one shoulder, causing me to suck in
a breath at the full exposure of her alabaster back. From behind, she was
completely revealed; only a slip of cloth at her neck must hold the dress over
those supple breasts I massaged with my eyes moments ago, and even without full
light I knew that toned back held dimples at the base above the low sling of
material that clung to her backside and draped down to the floor.
I noticed her breathing was slightly
accelerated as her graceful shoulders lifted like a shrug and it certainly
couldn’t be from overexertion crossing the crowded bar floor. She moved as if
she floated. She had not returned my gaze, which I knew she must feel caressing
across her soft skin. It could only mean one thing to my veteran assessment of
women. She wasn’t interested, and that never happened to me. Women were always
interested in me.
I realized suddenly where she
stood. She had paused before a door to the left of the bar. I knew this door.
It was made to blend seamlessly into the wall, looking like heavy olden bricks,
like the surrounding walls. Only the keypad to the right gave away any
semblance of a passageway. A person needed a special access code to pass
through that door into the hall behind.
I watched her press her fingers
deftly across the silver numbers and push the door gently inward into a
darkened passage beyond without a single glance back over those sexy shoulders
in my direction. I had to know who she was as the door closed, cutting off my
view of her. It was almost instantaneous that I knew I wanted her, but this
whole scene could only mean two things were true: she was somehow connected to
Leo DeGrance, and she didn’t want me. And I believed them both. Almost.
My Review:
Arturo King has lots of secrets. Secrets that make him who he is. Some things that he regrets, some thing that he wishes were not true, and some things he just doesn't care about. His life has been an adventure of sorts, always finding out little pieces about himself at a time, rather than having all the answers up front. At the start of the book he's just sort of functioning as a man, putting forth most of his effort to his music. Until he spots a girl like none he's ever known.
Guinevere DeGrance, daughter of a man famous in his own right, has had an easy life. If she wanted it, her father secured it for her, or did his best to. But she wants to grow up and she wants to prove to the world, she's more than just Leo DeGrance's daughter. When things don't go the way she had planned she's a little lost at how she's going to proceed in life. And then Arturo King takes an interest in her and that leaves her even more confused because she knows all about Arturo. She knows how he works. Or does she really?
The Legend of Arturo King is not like any other Rockstar Romance book I've read. It definitely sucks you in from page one and leaves you on the edge of your seat wondering what is coming next. Arturo is an interesting character, one who keeps having skeletons pulled from the closet and just when you think you've figured him out, here's another secret. Guinevere is a sweet and shy character at first, sort of lost in herself, but she really grew on me.
I loved that this story was full of surprises, some sort of expected, while others were not. It was defintely not your typical romance tale either, but as a whole, the story fit together and brought the characters to life and I enjoyed each aspect.
I’d like to say I was always a writer. I’d also like to say that I wrote every day of my life since a child. That I took the teaching advice I give my former students because writing every day improves your writing. I’d like to say I have my ten-thousand hours that makes me a proficient writer. But I can’t say any of those things. I did dream of writing the “Great American Novel” until one day a friend said: Why does it have to be great? Why can’t it just be good and tell a story?
As a teenager, I wrote your typical love-angst poetry that did occasionally win me an award and honor me with addressing my senior high school class at our Baccalaureate Mass. I didn’t keep a journal because I was too afraid my mom would find it in the mattress where I kept my copy of Judy Blume’s Forever that I wasn’t allowed to read as a twelve year old.
I can say that books have been my life. I’m a reader. I loved to read the day I discovered “The Three Bears” as a first grader, and ever since then, the written word has been my friend. Books were an escape for me. An adventure to the unknown. A love affair I’d never know. I could be lost for hours in a book.
So why writing now? I had a story to tell. It haunted me from the moment I decided if I just wrote it down it would go away. But it didn’t. Three years after writing the first draft, a sign (yes, I believe in them) told me to fix up that draft and work the process to have it published. That’s what I did. But one story let to another, and another, and another. Then a new idea came into my head and a new storyline was created.
I was accused (that’s the correct word) of having an overactive imagination as a child, as if that was a bad thing. I’ve also been accused of having the personality of a Jack Russell terrier, full of energy, unable to relax, and always one step ahead. What can I say other than I have stories to tell and I think you’ll like them. If you don’t, that’s okay. We all have our book boyfriends. We all have our favorites. Whatever you do, though, take time for yourself and read a book.
