Maybe Next Time - Softcover

Kallmaker, Karin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1931513260 ISBN 13: 9781931513265

Publisher: Bella Books, 2003

Synopsis

Lambda Literary Award Winner!

Sabrina Starling doesn't need love. She has fame as a brilliant violinist and unlimited options for female company. Nothing can shake her -- except the memory of her very first love. Knowing that neither the teenaged nor adult Jorie will ever return her feelings, Sabrina has escaped into her music and the arms of other women.

When injury leaves her temporarily unable to perform, Sabrina finally finds the one woman who could free her forever from the memory of those stolen Hawaiian nights with Jorie. There's one problem. The object of Sabrina's desire, Diana, is deeply in love with Pam, the woman who has shared her life for the past eighteen years.

A family funeral calls Sabrina home to the islands, but she no long believes that the gentle breezes and possible welcome in Jorie's eyes can repair the lives she's shattered, including her own.

Karin Kallmaker's searing novel of innocent first love and dangerous seduction joins an unparalleled string of critically acclaimed bestsellers that earned her the title of Undisputed Mistress of Lesbian Romance.

About this title

About the Author

Karin Kallmaker's two dozen and counting lesbian fiction novels include the Goldie and Lammy award-winning The Kiss that Counted, Above Temptation, Just Like That and Sugar and span lesbian romance, erotica and lesbian fantasy/speculative fiction. Translations include Spanish, French, German and Czech. More than five dozen short stories have appeared in anthologies and collections from numerous publishers. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her partner and their two children.

From the Inside Flap

The violin slipped under her chin and her bow arm flexed as she snapped out the fingers on her left hand. If they laughed she would be humiliated. But she couldn't have stopped if she had wanted to. The violin had her now.

Carefully, heart pounding, she let the first line of the melody soar out. There could be nothing tentative about it. For Jorie, her favorite song, "Stairway to Heaven." After the first recitation of the striking melody line she bridged to the Fantasia in F-minor, and strove to bring out the classical patterns that progressed just as the modern piece did. When the music began to dance and climb toward its climax she forgot about the rink, and the grownups, and the kids. It was just the violin. The violin let her head fill with Jorie and from there she could weave any dream. From the Fantasia back to the rock melody, slowing finally, and fading away.

Applause, she had learned, was hard to gauge. The adults clapped enthusiastically, but she could have played "Happy Birthday" and they would have done the same. The other kids--they didn't know anything about music, only what they liked. They had no idea why they liked it, that Led Zeppelin wrote their music on the shoulders of giants.

But it still hurt, it still felt like a knife when she heard Cici say to Jorie, "Way to ruin a good song."

Jorie came around from behind the table. Remembering the moment it seemed to Bree that the world took a deep breath right along with her.

Maybe, after all these years, she--and the world--had never exhaled.

Jorie said, "Thank you, Bree. That was great."

And kissed her.

A sweet kiss on her cheek, that's all it was. A sweet kiss...

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Jorie was very still. Bree thought she could hear the rhythm of Jorie's heartbeat, rapid and uneven. "Maybe living away from home makes it easier to look back and realize I could have been different. I was pretty mean to you--"

"No, you never asked for me live with you."

"It's not about that," Jorie snapped. "That was just the way it was. A kid resents sharing her stuff and her space. I didn't mean that. I'm not a kid!"

Mystified, Bree tried to interpret the flare of anger in Jorie's eyes. "Then what?"

"It's about...Jesus Christ. About this, you idiot."

The kiss took her by surprise. For a split second Bree felt frozen, then heat swept over her, a fire of pent up anguish and need. She fiercely kissed Jorie back, desperate to take all she could, as fast as she could, and tuck the moment somewhere inside of her where she could always have it, unmarred by any pain that might follow.

All that mattered was the sound of Jorie's ragged breathing and the warm aniani that swirled around their bodies. Bree's shoulders were hot with the sensation she began to realize was her ancestors. Notice this. Remember this. This is Important.

Edition details

• Publisher: Bella Books
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1931513260
• ISBN 13: 9781931513265
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 246