Excerpt & Giveaway: Silver Lining by Chris T. Kat

Silver Lining by Chris T. Kat
Dreamspinner Press
Novella: 73pgs

Blurb:
Riley doesn’t understand why his relationship with Scott went downhill overnight. For weeks, he’s been trying to get the other man to talk to him, but Scott is distant—most of the time he just ignores Riley completely. It isn’t until a mutual acquaintance arrives at their home that Riley understands the pressure Scott has been under—and the danger they’re both in.

A Bittersweet Dreams title: It's an unfortunate truth: love doesn't always conquer all. Regardless of its strength, sometimes fate intervenes, tragedy strikes, or forces conspire against it. These stories of romance do not offer a traditional happy ending, but the strong and enduring love will still touch your heart and maybe move you to tears.

Excerpt

Chapter 1

Nothing was right between Scott and me anymore. Nothing. I lived in a nightmare, with no exit in sight, with no clue why my whole world had collapsed around me.

Everything was fine between us until I suddenly received the silent treatment. From one day to the next, Scott stopped touching me, stopped talking to me. He never listened to anything I said, just stalked off. Nothing I did could placate him, absolutely nothing.

Even the slightest touch made him jerk away whatever body part I dared to touch. His dark-blue eyes blazed at me, the furious expression on his face sending shivers up and down my spine. Never in our entire time as a couple had he looked at me this way. It was almost… hostile.

It broke my heart, literally. I felt it shattering into tiny little pieces, every shred of it piercing through me, making it difficult to breathe, to think, to be.

Somehow, I managed. Though it became harder every time he pulled away from me. The more he withdrew from me, the more I clung, or tried to cling. I can’t say I grew indifferent to his rejection, but I lived with it.

His sadness added to my concern. Scott came home and went straight to the sofa in the living room, where he spent hours staring into nothingness. It scared the living hell out of me.

This wasn’t the Scott I knew. The Scott I knew and loved would never ignore me, nor would he ever let a fight get out of hand. In the beginning of our relationship I had been, uh, a tad on the campy side. Whenever something hit me the wrong way, I stomped or flounced off, expecting Scott to follow me and beg me for forgiveness. He never did.

He did, however, tell me to grow up and come back to him when I was ready for a serious relationship. I wasn’t impressed and vowed never to talk to him again.

I avoided him as much as possible, an achievement in itself since we shared a dorm room. My avoidance lasted two days, then he caught me by surprise. He waited for me behind the door, pulled me in a tight embrace, and carried me over to his bed. There, he dropped me and lowered himself on top of me. “We do not run out on each other, Riley, is that clear?”

I shoved against his chest with both hands, enraged and indignant, but he didn’t budge an inch. Leisurely, he grasped both my wrists in one hand and put them above my head. The first time he did this, I struggled madly, only to end up crying that I didn’t want him to leave me while at the same time battling against the horrible feeling of embarrassment.

“I’m not going to leave you and the same goes for you. You’re it for me.”

He said it with so much conviction, so much compassion, that I burst into tears. Scott was all I’d ever wanted. He was fun to be around, had an easygoing attitude, and it didn’t hurt that he had a body to die for. I never got what he saw in me. I was a whole head shorter than him, skinny, and never found the time to get a haircut, which naturally led to my curls growing into a barely tamable mane.

“You can’t say something like that,” I whined. “We’re only nineteen. All nineteen-year-olds promise each other to stay together forever. It never works.”

“That’s not true and even if it were, then we’ll be the exception to the rule.”

“You can’t just—”

He silenced me with a kiss. He deepened the kiss and the whole incident ended in us doing more fun stuff. I still flipped from time to time, but after a few months I stopped running. Scott told me he was proud of me when I stayed for the first time. I jumped him for that, muttering, “I don’t get why you put up with me.”

“I have a thing for drama queens,” he deadpanned.

For a fleeting second his comment hurt, then I discovered the mischievous twinkle in his eyes. “Asshole.”

He grinned at me before he lavished my asshole with attention.

I got better at the not-flipping thing, though I never got the hang of the not-being-jealous thing. To be fair, Scott never gave me a reason to be jealous. It was merely the way other guys or girls looked at him, the open hunger in their eyes. The man was mine and mine alone. I never failed to make this clear to whoever dared to sidle up too close to him.

“Ri, cut it out, it’s not a pretty sight,” Scott always said in those moments.

I made a show of batting my lashes at him, all fake innocence. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Scotty. Aren’t you the one who always tells me I’m the prettiest thing you ever saw?”

“You’re a scamp.”

I gasped in shock, put my hands above my heart, and widened my eyes before I gazed up at him. “Me?

You’re wounding me.”

“I am? Hmm, would it help if I tell you that you’re the prettiest scamp I’ve ever seen?”

“I don’t know, big guy, I really don’t know.”

Scott pulled me into his arms, kissed me thoroughly, and asked, “You made up your mind now?”

“Yeah, I’m keeping you even if you suck at giving compliments.”

That was how we worked. Scott was the calm one, grounding me, loving me in a way I never fathomed anyone would. If anything, we grew closer over the years. We forged a bond that nothing could ever destroy. Or so I thought.

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