THE RADICAL by Sarah Michelle Lynch

Hello RWPPs!

Today we have Author Sarah Michelle Lynch visiting us with an excerpt of THE RADICAL.

Ryken gestured for us to head to the back of a carriage and for me to look as inconspicuous as possible. Yeah, like how was I gonna do that? 

We held our breath and kept a watch on the carriage doors throughout the journey; our hearts racing each time the train creaked to a stop at a station along the way. 

When a suspicious character started wandering toward us, Ryken turned his body to mine in my window seat, eclipsing me. Protecting me.

‘Play along,’ he said. 

I saw new intent in his eyes and it frightened me. His warm palm came up to my cheek while his other slid its way under my skirt to grab my thigh. 

‘No‒’ I tried to protest.

His mouth came down on mine and he sucked on my top lip, pulling savagely so that my flesh hit the underside of my nose. I heard the sound as he pulled back and he grunted after letting me go.

‘No?’ he countered.

I grabbed his cheeks and brought his mouth back on mine, slicing my tongue between his lips to enter his mouth. We both had terrible breath and his stubble grated. However, my blood started pumping faster than ever before. I relaxed into my chair and he took over, pressing his chest against mine, lifting my thigh into his hand to stroke the underside. 

Shit, I wanted to fuck him so bad. 

‘Seraph, Jesus…’

When I felt relaxed, I put my arms around his deluxe shoulders, allowing him to continue kissing me passionately. My hand strayed into his hair and a thumb rubbed the edge of his ear, while my leg moved in sequence with his touch. I was almost lost to deep, sensual yearning. When he slowed down to plant a delicate butterfly kiss on my bottom lip, we eyed each other closely and I felt a seismic tremor shudder through me. 

‘This cannot be happening,’ I pleaded. I looked into his eyes and saw a rich passion I wanted to find out more about.

‘I just needed some praise. That will give me enough bolster to get by with. Put your faith in me, angel.’

I nodded and gave him a smile, tugging gently on his silky hair. When a guard started walking down the aisle, Ryken went back to assessing whether there was any danger and I merely stared out of the window as though I was just another ordinary woman on a day trip. As soon as we heard over the tannoy that the next stop was King’s Cross, we stood together and he took my hand, his fingers through mine tender and reassuring. 

I began preparing myself for London – that heaving metropolis of sweaty, agitated bodies crammed into as many tight spaces as possible. There was absolutely no population control. From what I had seen on that video in York and online, the skyline was littered with dozens and dozens of tower blocks, skyscrapers and multiple recycling plants. 

Room was so tight people could no longer afford bathrooms of their own and had ended up having to use public baths to cleanse themselves. Most of these establishments had turned into centers for drug runners and small-time hoodlums to doss about in. 

Traffic jams were never-ending, black smog left the place in perpetual darkness, and the river clung to itself in a congealed cesspit of excrement and fly-tipping. It is going to be hell itself, I thought. We would be lucky to escape. Lucky to survive the radioactive abyss.

BLURB:

In the first instalment of S.M. Lynch's dystopian adult romance series...

The year is 2063 and Big Brother has control; 40 years previously Officium took over global intelligence, government, supply and policing. In the wake of viral disaster they offered to return the world to order, but at a cost.

New York journalist Seraph Maddon has been trying to link the death of her British parents to the group that has rinsed the world of all hope - but more than ten years of investigations have turned up nothing. It is only when she leaves her job behind to travel to England for a funeral that she starts to unpick her family’s involvement in a movement known as UNITY.

Someone intends Seraph to cross paths with Dr Ryken Hardy and when they meet, it is not long before they are running for their lives - their combination a significant threat to those who believe themselves beyond surveillance.

Seraph’s rollercoaster journey of reawakening and newfound love is a battle to finally break free of the shackles of oppression. Secrets and lies are the norm amongst a frightened population and the truth may be best kept hidden.

But someone is determined… the truth will out, for better or worse…

The story continues in UNITY Vol.2, THE INFORMANT