Friends, it’s one of my favorite days of the year: World Toilet Day.
I know what you’re thinking. There’s absolutely nothing, nothing sexy about toilets.
Oh, how wrong you are.
Did you know that “aid worker” is consistently voted one of the sexiest professions in the world? (Don’t ask for my source. I read it once, I swear.) Well, my novel Knowing the Score features a heroine who’s a specialist in building sanitation systems after disasters.
Yep, she digs toilets – toilets of all kinds. Deep-drop latrines. Cement toilet blocks. You name it, and she’s built it.
She’s skilled, courageous and clever – all things that make her irresistible to the novel’s hero, a professional rugby player.
So, in honor of World Toilet Day, here’s an exclusive excerpt from Knowing the Score. It takes place in Spencer’s bedroom as he’s taking care of the blisters she got from wearing high heels (she’s more a workboot kinda gal). Caitlyn’s sitting on his bed while he kneels at her feet.
Enjoy!
He left the foot he’d treated on his thigh and picked up the other one, bending over to examine the back of it. Another violently red blister stared back at him, but his gaze also caught on a wine-colored blemish staining the side of her calf, too dark to have been caused by the shower’s heat. He trailed his fingertips over it, making her leg twitch.
“It’s a scar from a snake bite.” Caitlyn sounded almost breathless, her voice turning husky in a way that sent every cell in his body humming until her words broke through his pheromone haze.
“You’ve been bitten by a fucking snake?”
“I worked in Thailand after the tsunami. Stumbled across a pit viper—literally. Fell right over it. Fortunately it didn’t hold much of a grudge and only bit me quickly before trying to escape the scary red-and-white beast that nearly crushed it.”
His heart picked up pace. “You could’ve died.”
“Not likely. Not from a pit viper, anyway. And we had a field hospital nearby, so I got antivenom quickly. Believe me, the country was teeming with aid workers getting into all sorts of trouble. We probably outnumbered snakes ten to one.”
Jesus, her job sounded so worthy. And he’d practically bragged about surviving a broken leg so he could go on to play more rugby. Unable to restrain himself, he pressed his lips to the scar, his hands bracing both of her feet against his thighs. Her body froze, and he glanced up to see her hands tightly clasped in her lap, eyes closed and a slight smile curving her lips.
With only a second’s hesitation, he stroked a palm over her calf and kissed her bare knee.
Aaaand I’ll leave it there. If you want to read more, you can find out where to buy it at the bottom of this page.
Now be thankful for your toilet! Not everyone’s got one. In fact, go give your toilet a kiss and a cuddle. (No – that was a joke. Don’t do it. Gross.) Instead of doing that, go read this blog post by one of my best friends, “Where will you take your next poo?”, about her experiences as an aid worker promoting good hygiene in poor communities. It’ll change the way you think about toilets, I swear.
Knowing the Score by Kat Latham
Book one of the London Legends
Rugby player Spencer Bailey is determined to win a spot on England’s World Cup team. But with a month break before the selectors start watching him, he’s eager to have fun with a woman who knows the score: the relationship will end when rugby season begins. The lovely American Caitlyn Sweeney seems perfect for the role of temporary lover, since her visa will run out soon anyway.
Caitlyn works for an international disaster relief organization and can handle the world’s worst crises, but she flinches from her own. Her past has left her with a fear of intimacy so deep that she has trouble getting close to anyone—until she meets sexy Spencer. His hot body and easygoing nature are too much for even her to resist.
Neither Caitlyn nor Spencer expects to fall hard for each other. But with their relationship deadline approaching, the old rules of the game seem less important than before…until past secrets surface, challenging everything they thought they knew about each other.
“This is one of the best contemporary romance novels I’ve ever read.”
– The Season for RomanceBuy it at Amazon.com | Barnes & Noble | iBooks | Audible.com | More buying options
LOLOL Happy Toilet day to you too Kat!
The headline is awesome, and it kept getting better. Bravo.