Good morning! It’s day 4 of our Blog-Birthday Celebrations and today we’re super excited to welcome Ada Maria Soto on Queer Books Unbound. She brought an excerpt of her upcoming FF-romance with her!

Triple Windsor is a trilogy of short stories about the couples from Tactical Submission celebrating their anniversaries. Kintsugi is the story of Lydia and Amalie’s anniversary intersecting with a bad day at the office.

The late-afternoon sun glinted off the edge of the first plate, delicate china, rimmed in gold (or at least something gold-like), with faux hand-painted floral designs—Lydia had been saving them for a special occasion. They were part of an industrial-sized set.

She’d eaten at the restaurant the set came from. It had marketed itself as an elegant, luxury dining experience, and it had been, with gold-trimmed plates, fresh orchids on the table, comfortable chairs, and an imported European wait staff. But the actual food had been dull and mediocre at best, and the whole place had gone under in six months. She’d bought the plates for pennies a piece and put them into storage.

With a deep growl, she flung the plate into the cement-lined pit, then watched it shatter, with a tingle of satisfaction. She picked up the next plate. She had a deal with the guys at the recycling center: she slipped the foreman a few bucks, and they all kept out of her way. And no one was dumb enough to catcall the woman in spiked heels who showed up to reduce stacks of plates to razor-sharp shards.

She flung another plate, which bounced on its edge once before splintering into dozens of pieces on the second landing. She hated losing. That she hadn’t been the lead on the case made it worse somehow, since it put a loss on her record that wasn’t even the fault of her hard work. She could have argued the case better. She certainly could have handled the witnesses better.

Lydia tossed the next plate like a Frisbee, so it shattered on the opposite wall of the pit. The crack was a satisfying sound, even if it was faint under the rumble of sorting machines and heavy trucks. The next few she hurled straight down with all her strength.

She hated cases involving money. Murders were easy. She just had to go “this guy is dead, and this guy did it.” With financial cases she was often stuck explaining to a jury that a crime had even happened. The defense had managed the “honest man, trying to make an honest living, who made a paperwork mistake” argument, and it had worked.

She screamed in frustration as she demolished the stack of gilt plates one at a time.

“May I?”

Lydia turned toward the voice. Amalie was standing a few feet away, holding out a hand.

“What are you doing here?” They had dinner reservations at seven. Lydia had planned to smash some plates, then go home and wash the smell of trash and diesel exhaust out of her hair before getting into a little black dress and heading to the restaurant.

“Saw the verdict. Thought I’d find you here.”

Of course. Amalie had never been to the recycling center with her before, but she knew. There was nothing about Lydia she didn’t know.

Lydia handed Amalie a plate.

She turned it around in her hands a few times, examining it from all angles, then flung it down with the rest. A little shiver went through Amalie’s body. “Oh, that feels good.”

Lydia grinned. “Wanton destruction.”

“Hell yes.”

Lydia handed Amalie another plate and picked up one for herself. She didn’t hold back. Her current mood was mild compared to previous boiling fits of rage and frustration that Amalie had witnessed. And this was far cheaper and more efficient than talking it out with some professional.

Amalie didn’t seem to be holding back either, her own screams clashing with the heavy machinery. Lydia wondered if it was something in particular. She’d ask later, when the plates were gone. The private sector could be hard for a scientist if their specialty wasn’t discovering meds to give guys boners, getting around drug patent law, or forcing plants to grow to maturity in a third of their usual rate.

When the stack of plates was down to the last few, Lydia opened a second box, this one filled with gold-rimmed champagne flutes. She took one and flung it toward a pile of beer bottles. It shattered beyond any dream of repair.

Amalie tossed one across the rubble like a bridal bouquet, and it smashed against the far pit wall, the shards falling like a deadly snow. They both giggled. She tossed another, and they started laughing in between the last of their frustrated screams. Lydia knew that what they were doing was absurd, but she didn’t care, and she doubted Amalie did either.

They made short work of the champagne flutes, with Lydia kicking the empty cardboard box into the pit with a petty grunt.

Amalie was breathing hard and her cheeks were flushed. If it weren’t for the truly, spectacularly bad location, Lydia would have kissed her right there.

“Are we still on for dinner tonight?” she asked instead, raising her voice over the beep of a truck reversing. She would have understood if Amalie wanted to skip dinner and go directly to more interesting parts of the evening. Lydia could feel her own blood pumping.

“Absolutely,” Amalie replied.

“I’ll see you there then.” At least Lydia would get a chance to change.

Triple Windsor will be released mid February.  Tactical Submission will be leaving Kindle Unlimited February 2 and going wide shortly after that.

Ada Maria Soto is a Mexican/American expat living in the South Pacific. She’s a veteran of the theatre and film business as well as all the lousy jobs that come with two liberal arts degrees. A psychologist once told her she has a fantasy prone personality, but since she’s trying to be a writer that’s not a bad thing. She is a fan of rugby, cricket, and baseball, who loves to cook, knit, and poke around her garden.

You can find her online at http://adamariasoto.com/ and on most social media platforms.

To keep updated on current releases and free stories join her mailing list.

Her previous, award winning work, can be found on most online book sellers.

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Genre: Contemporary Identity: Polyam Orientation: Bisexual Orientation: Lesbian Pairing: F/F Queer Books Unbound 3rd Birthday Extravaganza! Self Published Tag: BDSM Tag: Guest Post Tag: Part of a series Ada Maria Soto Kintsugi Tactical Submission Triple Windsor