Valentine’s Day Blog Hop…Day One

Hello everyone! Welcome to Behind Closed Doors and the first day of the With Love Valentine’s Day Blog Hop! I am one of over 200 authors participating over the next four days. Each day you have a chance to leave a comment for an entry in my contest and others in the hop. Each author is giving a way a prize so make sure you comment each day and click on the graphic above to take you to the main hop page to find more authors to visit!

I will be giving away a print copy of my book of poetry Follow Me: Poetry from the Heart and Soul as well as a hand crafted piece of jewelry made by my best friend Deadra Wagner.

It is a heart with with wings pendant that will look similar to the one  pictured.

For my posts, I’ve decided to share a preview of one of my works in progress. It is part of my series The Kayne Legacy. The first book in that series will be called The First Borne. I hope you enjoy it and keep coming back each day of the hop to find out more.

Abigail Matthews stood in front of the full length mirror in the third outfit she’d tried on that morning.  Nothing looked right to her critical eye. The first blouse was cut too low. The last skirt was too short. The gray dress made her look like an elderly school teacher instead of the sexy forty year old reporter for Time Magazine. “Fuck it.” She unzipped the dress and let it fall to the floor without another thought. She went right to her favorite ensemble and instantly felt at ease again. The deep wine colored tailored blouse clung to her breasts enough to be classy, but not trashy, and was the perfect contrast to the soft black dress pants and leopard print pumps she quickly slipped into. “Perfect.”  A quick glance at her watch made her smile. She still had a few minutes before the limo was due to pick her up to take her to the interview that could ultimately make or break her career.

No one, least of all Abigail, expected that she would land the most sought after interview in the world.  She was thrilled when she heard her magazine had won the interview, but was shocked to learn that it would not happen unless she was the one to do it.  The Kayne Foundation had been very specific in their response. It was either Abigail or no interview.  Of course there was the friendly and not so friendly ribbing by the other reporters and questions about who she slept with to get such a request. She didn’t care. She was finally going to meet the CEO of the largest investment group in the world.  There was not a country on the planet that didn’t have at least one of their hospitals offering top of the line medical care for those in need. They funded research projects that ranged from finding new treatments and cures for various cancers as well the pipeline used to transport the oil from Alaska down to the lower forty-eight and all over the world. The same materials were used for piping water into to more arid regions of the world enabling crops to grow for the first time in several decades.

Before heading up his family’s foundation, Michael Kayne was famous in his own right as a specialist in the fields of infectious disease and blood borne illnesses.  His work in formulating the vaccine against AIDS earned him the Nobel Prize.  Abigail was fascinated by him and the entire Kayne family and couldn’t wait to ask all about them. Just Michael’s immediate family members alone could fill the pages of several magazines with their accomplishments, but there was one question that she hoped she would get answered today.

Why me? She remembered the day when she found out that all of her schooling was funded by the Kayne Foundation. Every single grant and scholarship was provided by them including a monthly stipend for her living expenses while she attended school.  Sure she had fantastic grades and test scores, but she never remembered applying for anything from the Kayne Foundation. She had asked her adoptive parents if they knew why, but they knew even less than she did. 

A knock on her door brought her back to the present. She looked out the window and caught a glimpse of the black limo in her driveway as well as another round of butterflies in her stomach.  “I’ll be right there.” She grabbed her computer bag and purse and moved swiftly to her door and her destiny. 

* * * * 

“Dr. Kayne? Ms. Matthews has just arrived. Shall I send her in now?”

Michael smiled. He had never been one to look forward to being interviewed, and shied away from publicity whenever possible, preferring his lab and field work over answering probing questions. But this time, he felt like a little kid on Christmas. As soon as his grandfather gave him her file, Michael wanted to know more about Abigail Matthews.  Now was his chance. “Thank you, Mary. Send her in and please make sure we aren’t disturbed.”

The heavy doors to his office slowly swung open. Michael’s breath caught in his throat.  The woman walking through the doors was so much more than he expected. Her curly strawberry blonde hair was pulled back into a large clip, letting loose tendrils fall down her neck. Her ice blue eyes reflected the lights in his office giving them an extra sparkle. His heart pounded and he fought the urge to rush toward her and take her in his arms and kiss her. What the hell is the matter with me?

She walked up to him and extended her hand. “Dr. Kayne, thank you so much for agreeing to meet with me today.”  Abigail tilted her head to the side and smiled. “Did I catch you at a bad time? You look a little pale.”

Michael chuckled. “Not at all, Ms. Matthews. I’ve been looking forward to your visit for some time now.” He took her hand and immediately felt a jolt throughout his entire body. Her grip tightened and she pulled in her lower lip. Did she feel it too? “Why don’t we set up over near the window? The chairs are quite comfortable and there is an outlet for your laptop. I’m sure you have a lot of material you wish to cover today.”

Abigail smiled again. “That I do, Dr. Kayne.”

“Dr. Kayne is so formal. Since you are about to learn everything you wish to know about me and The Kayne Foundation, I would feel a bit more comfortable if you’d call me Michael. Would you prefer Abigail or Abby”

She eased herself into the dark green leather over-stuffed chair opposite his, tucking one of her legs underneath her.  “Abby is fine, although no one has called me that since I was a freshman at Michigan State.”

Michael wished he chose the couch to sit on so he could be closer to her. Her scent was making him a bit punch drunk. His mind kept wandering to what it would feel like to hold her close, dancing in the moonlight on a beach somewhere exotic. The sound of her voice made his stomach flutter.  He had never had these kinds of reactions around any woman let alone someone he had just met.  “Abby it is. Where do you want to start?” Abigail tilted her head to the side and Michael fought the urge to bite his lower lip.  Lord, this woman is killing me!  

“What the hell happened when you shook my hand? For a moment there, I thought my knees were going to buckle.”

“Ah. You felt it too.”  She nodded and her eyes were open wide, pulling him in deeper and deeper. There was no getting around it. He was going to have to tell her everything. Hopefully she would believe him. Her future, their future depended on it.  

* * * *

“You came here today hoping to find out your connection to my family, right?”

Abigail swallowed hard. “Yes. Is there one? Why was I singled out?”

“Can’t you feel it?” Michael sat back in his chair and held her gaze.  “When you walked into the room, the moment we met, you felt at home.”

Abigail’s eyes widened a bit more. “How could you know that?”

“Apparently, we are meant to be together.”

She laughed. “What? We’re destined to be together as a couple?” She shook her head. “This doesn’t make any sense. Why me and why now?”

“I am the first borne of my parents’ brood. On my fortieth birthday, I have to make a choice– accept the family legacy, or continue on as I am. For the legacy to continue on through me, I have to marry a fae.”

“A fae, as in a fairy? All of the dreams she’s had lately, could this be what they were trying to tell her? “But I’m not—“

“Yes, you are. You are and have always been fae. Now at forty years old, you too have to decide.  Join our families or go without your powers that are currently lying dormant.

Abigail’s mind reeled. “I don’t have any special powers. I’m just me.”

“Really? Have you had dreams that ended up coming true? Have you touched someone and could hear their thoughts?”

She flushed from her head to her toes. “I’ve always had little bits of that over the years, but the last three years it has been getting stronger and stronger, especially the last couple of months.”

“And you’ve dreamed of me?” Michael’s gray eyes appeared to sparkle. At first Abigail attributed it to the overhead lights, but there weren’t any in that area of his office.  Her spine tingled. “How?”

“I’ve dreamed of you every night for the last year. It wasn’t until my grandmother showed me your picture did I put two and two together.”

“You believe in all of this fairy tale stuff?”

Michael nodded. “So do you, otherwise you wouldn’t be here.”

“I’m doing a story on your family, Michael. Nothing more.”

“Oh really? So you’re not interested in finding out if the legend is true?”

The jolt flew up Abigail’s spine once again. She realized there was no hiding anything from him, and she didn’t want to. She felt safe with him. “Is it real? Are you all descendants of the biblical Cain?”

“I’ll do you one better. How would you like to meet him?”

“Stop! You can’t be serious. Cain is alive, in the 21^st century?”

“He is and right behind you.”

Abigail slowly turned around and looked into another set of steely gray eyes. The middle aged man before her smiled, Michael’s smile, and held her hands in both of his callused ones. “Abigail?  Meet my grandfather, Adam Kayne, or as you may know him Cain, the First Borne.” 

* * * *

Make sure you stop back in tomorrow for the next installment and please leave a comment each day for chances to win!

Have fun exploring the other sites in the hop!