New Release! Only a Good Man Will Do Book 1 of
the Good Man Series by Dee S. Knight (@DeeSKnight)
Blurb:
Daniel Goodman is one of a set of
triplets—natural, identical triplets, a rare kind of birth. He is a serious
man, often feeling estranged from his wild and carefree brother Jonah and his
free-spirited parents. He's also distanced from his other brother Mark, a
genius who might or might not realize that he's unlike most other people and
doesn't seem to care.
Daniel Goodman is a man on a mission. For years
he has striven for perfection, fighting for the pinnacle achievement in his
world of academia, Headmaster of Westover Academy. Westover, established before
the American Revolution, is still one of the most prestigious schools in the
country. They accept only boys whose parents fit a certain mold and only those
teachers who hold to a stringent set of mores, on and off campus. Jonah
considers his brother a prig. Daniel sees himself as doing his best to serve
his students. How much better can he serve them as headmaster? That is what he
seeks to find out.
Suddenly, into his cut and dried, strictly
black and white life of moral and upright behavior, comes Eve Star, formerly
one of Europe's foremost exotic dancers. Her life is anything but cut and
dried, black and white. Bad enough that she's enrolled her son in Westover
Academy under false pretenses. More, she runs the town's most disreputable bar.
Worst, much to Daniel's dismay, he finds himself drawn to her like a kid to
chocolate. Nothing good can come of this attraction. Or can it? He is after
all, a good man.
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Excerpt:
Daniel walked into the parlor of the
headmaster’s house Saturday afternoon seeking first the food table and second,
his friend, Stan Baxter. He spotted them both near the front window.
“You’re late,” Stan said.
“Lots of people wanted to chat.” Parents’
Weekend, when teachers sat in their classrooms to meet their students’ mothers
and fathers, meant mandatory tea afterwards for all professionals at the
Academy. Board members and parents attended at their own discretion, and the
boys—the reason the school existed and they were all there—mostly stayed out of
sight and hearing.
“Fortunately for me, a good many parents now
have grabbed their progeny and left campus, so I have access to the snacks
unimpeded,” Daniel said, examining the finger food on display before making his
selections. The challenge was always how to load his plate while appearing to
take a socially acceptable portion. “Did I miss anything?”
“Only an angel.” Stan turned toward the
window.. “Holy Mother! Look at that,” he muttered.
“What?” Daniel asked, fitting a cucumber
sandwich beside the smoked salmon-topped cracker on his dessert plate. “Am I
missing a table of fare? I swear, every year the offerings at these teas are
more meager than the last.”
Stan chuckled and answered in the same low
voice, “Is your stomach all you think about? I was talking about another kind
of dish. One you can have fun eating in bed, if you catch my drift. And she
just slipped out onto the lawn.”
“Is your libido all you think about?” Daniel
bit a carrot stick in two and sighed. Only three more hours and he could order
a pizza. With all of his charges gone from the dormitory for Parents’ Weekend,
he had a rare, private, two-day holiday ahead of him. With the tiny plate full,
he joined Stan at the large windows. “Where is this goddess?”
“There. In the red dress and hat.”
Daniel saw nothing but the shapely form of a
woman walking away. Slender ankles topped three inch heels. A dress of some
kind of lustrous material hit her mid-calf. The style was soft and feminine,
and berry red. Not many women showed up at Westover in a color sure to make
them the focus of attention. Not that most of them didn’t expect to be the
focus—didn’t demand it, in fact—but they usually weren’t so obvious. The breeze
at her back molded the material to the curves of her hips and ass, and
fluttered the dress’s full sleeves. A wide-brimmed hat hid her hair, but based
on what was visible, Daniel easily imagined a long column of neck designed for
kissing.
“If the rest of her matches the back view,
you’ve got reason to be drooling down the front of your gown.”
Frowning, Stan glanced down as though to make
sure the drool comment was only facetious. “Can’t afford to drool on this. I
had to use my tax refund to pay for the thing and show off my Master’s
chevrons. I don't know how you afforded to pay for your Ph.D. paraphernalia.”
“The new degree looks sharp on you. Now, why
are you mooning over a woman you see at the headmaster’s tea, when you know
she’s some student’s mother and off limits?”
“She looks young enough to be a sister, so
it’s not a given she’s out of bounds.”
At that moment, a young boy wearing the school
uniform and a big grin ran up to the woman. She bent to catch him in her arms.
When she straightened, she ruffled the boy’s hair. His expression and his
wagging finger showed that he chastised her, but then he laughed and
finger-combed the mussed hair back into place. She took his hand and they
walked toward the circle where most of the parents parked. Looking up at the
woman, the boy’s lips moved the whole while, carrying on a steady monologue.
Something in her actions captured Daniel’s
attention. They were artless, performed naturally and with unabashed love. The
child fairly skipped beside her and the frequent turns of her head showed she
looked at him as though hanging on every word he spoke.
“How wonderful,” Daniel murmured, impressed
with her total attention to the boy. “Did you see that?”
“Oh, yeah. I didn’t think her hips would ever
stop swaying, and it’s a crime they make hemlines so long.”
Daniel laughed. “You’re such a hedonist.”
“And proud of it. But you were right. Looks
like she’s a student’s mother after all. Damn the luck.”
For once, Daniel agreed with his friend. But
not just because of the woman’s obvious good figure. More because she seemed to
love her son and didn’t care who knew it. He normally kept his distance from
flashy women, as this one appeared to be, based on her dress color, but her
easy manner with the boy would be enough to make him ignore his own inclination
toward the conservative. If she weren’t also a patron of the school. Assuming
the gods smiled on him and he became headmaster, he and the woman would be on
business terms, and nothing good ever came from mixing business with pleasure. Pleasure
is what every male instinct in him screamed she would be.
Bio:
A few years ago, Dee S. Knight began writing,
making getting up in the morning fun. During the day, her characters killed
people, fell in love, became drunk with power, or sober with responsibility.
And they had sex, lots of sex. Writing was so much fun Dee decided to keep at
it. That's how she spends her days. Her nights? Well, she's lucky that her
dream man, childhood sweetheart, and long-time hubby are all the same guy, and
nights are their secret. For romance ranging from sweet to historical,
contemporary to paranormal and more join Dee on Nomad Authors. Contact Dee at dsknight@deesknight.com.
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