“An armchair in an empty apartment?” Quinn was teasing, and she loved how excited Lola was. Her heart felt like it could burst with the beauty and possibility her future held.
“Obviously. But also the seat in the uncluttered, quiet place in my heart where no one else goes because only you’re allowed in.”
Quinn moved into Lola’s arms and draped her arms around Lola’s neck. “I know you want to tell Holt and Isabelle our news,” Quinn said. “But dance with me first? Just like the night we met?”
Lola pulled her close and pulled up a slow song from her phone. They danced together around the bedroom. This was her place in the world, right here in Lola’s arms. She had never felt more loved.
“I want to dance with you forever,” Lola said. “I love you.”
“I love you too.” Quinn listened to Lola’s heartbeat as she leaned against her chest. A heart that beat for her. She usually found comfort in data and scientific theories and conclusions, but she couldn’t quantify or qualify or analyze what was between the two of them. It just was. Magnificent, beautiful, and theirs. And that was enough.
About the Author
Jesse Thoma is a project manager in a clinical research lab and spends a good amount of time in methadone clinics and prisons collecting data and talking to people.
Jesse grew up in Northern California but headed east for college. She never looked back, although her baseball allegiance is still loyally with the San Francisco Giants. She has lived in New England for over a decade and has finally learned to leave extra time in the morning to scrape snow off the car. Jesse is blissfully married and is happiest when she is out for a walk with her family and their dog, pretending she still has the soccer skills she had as an eighteen-year-old; eating anything her wife bakes; or sitting at the computer to write a few lines.
Data Capture is Jesse’s fourth novel and the third following the adventures of Holt and her crew. Seneca Falls was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award in romance.
Books Available from Bold Strokes Books
Between Sand and Stardust by Tina Michele. Are the lifelong bonds of love strong enough to conquer time, distance, and heartache when Haven Thorne and Willa Bennette are given another chance at forever? (978-1-62639-940-2)
Charming the Vicar by Jenny Frame. When magician and atheist Finn Kane seeks refuge in an English village after a spiritual crisis, can local vicar Bridget Claremont restore her faith in life and love? (978-1-63555-029-0)
Data Capture by Jesse J. Thoma. Lola Walker is undercover on the hunt for cybercriminals while trying not to notice the woman who might be perfectly wrong for her for all the right reasons. (978-1-62639-985-3)
Epicurean Delights by Renee Roman. Ariana Marks had no idea a leisure swim would lead to being rescued, in more ways than one, by the charismatic Hudson Frost. (978-1-63555-100-6)
Heart of the Devil by Ali Vali. We know most of Cain and Emma Casey’s story, but Heart of the Devil will take you back to where it began one fateful night with a tray loaded with beer. (978-1-63555-045-0)
Known Threat by Kara A. McLeod. When Special Agent Ryan O’Connor reluctantly questions who protects the Secret Service, she learns courage truly is found in unlikely places. Agent O’Connor Series #3. (978-1-63555-132-7)
Seer and the Shield by D. Jackson Leigh. Time is running out for the Dragon Horse Army while two unlikely heroines struggle to put aside their attraction and find a way to stop a deadly cult. Dragon Horse War, Book Three. (978-1-63555-170-9)
Sinister Justice by Steve Pickens. When a vigilante targets citizens of Jake Finnigan’s hometown, Jake and his partner Sam fall under suspicion themselves as they investigate the murders. (978-1- 63555-094-8)
The Universe Between Us by Jane C. Esther. Ana Mitchell must make the hardest choice of her life: the promise of new love Jolie Dann on Earth, or a humanity-saving mission to colonize Mars. (978-1-63555-106-8)
Touch by Kris Bryant. Can one touch heal a heart? (978-1-63555- 084-9)
Change in Time by Robyn Nyx. Working in the past is hell on your future. The Extractor series: Book Two. (978-1-62639-880-1)
Love After Hours by Radclyffe. When Gina Antonelli agrees to renovate Carrie Longmire’s new house, she doesn’t welcome Carrie’s overtures at friendship or her own unexpected attraction. A Rivers Community Novel. (978-1-63555-090-0)
Nantucket Rose by CF Frizzell. Maggie Jordan can’t wait to convert an historic Nantucket home into a B&B, but doesn’t expect to fall for mariner Ellis Chilton, who has more claim to the house than Maggie realizes. (978-1-63555-056-6)
Picture Perfect by Lisa Moreau. Falling in love wasn’t supposed to be part of the stakes for Olive and Gabby, rival photographers in the competition of a lifetime. (978-1-62639-975-4)
Set the Stage by Karis Walsh. Actress Emilie Danvers takes the stage again in Ashland, Oregon, little realizing that landscaper Arden Philips is about to offer her a very personal romantic lead role. (978-1-63555-087-0)
Strike a Match by Fiona Riley. When their attempts at matchmaking fizzle out, firefighter Sasha and reluctant millionairess Abby find themselves turning to each other to strike a perfect match. (978-1- 62639-999-0)
The Price of Cash by Ashley Bartlett. Cash Braddock is doing her best to keep her business afloat, stay out of jail, and avoid Detective Kallen. It’s not working. (978-1-62639-708-8)
Under Her Wing by Ronica Black. At Angel’s Wings Rescue, dogs are usually the ones saved, but when quiet Kassandra Haden meets outspoken owner Jayden Beaumont, the two stubborn women just might end up saving each other. (978-1-63555-077-1)
Underwater Vibes by Mickey Brent. When Hélène, a translator in Brussels, Belgium, meets Sylvie, a young Greek photographer and swim coach, unsettling feelings hijack Hélène’s mind and body—even her poems. (978-1-63555-002-3)
A More Perfect Union by Carsen Taite. Major Zoey Granger and DC fixer Rook Daniels risk their reputations for a chance at true love while dealing with a scandal that threatens to rock the military. (978-1-62639-754-5)
Arrival by Gun Brooke. The spaceship Pathfinder reaches its passengers’ new homeworld where danger lurks in the shadows while Pamas Seclan disembarks and finds unexpected love in young science genius Darmiya Do Voy. (978-1-62639-859-7)
Captain’s Choice by VK Powell. Architect Kerstin Anthony’s life is going to plan until Bennett Carlyle, the first girl she ever kissed, is assigned to her latest and most important project, a police district substation. (978-1-62639-997-6)
Falling Into Her by Erin Zak. Pam Phillips, widow at the age of forty, meets Kathryn Hawthorne, local Chicago celebrity, and it changes her life forever—in ways she hadn’t even considered possible. (978-1-63555-092-4)
Hookin’ Up by MJ Williamz. Will Leah get what she needs from casual hookups or will she see the love she desires right in front of her? (978-1-63555-051-1)
King of Thieves by Shea Godfrey. When art thief Casey Marinos meets bounty hunter Finnegan Starkweather, the crimes of the past just might set the stage for a payoff worth more than she ever dreamed possible. (978-1-63555-007-8)
Lucy’s Chance by Jackie D. As a serial killer haunts the streets, Lucy tries to stitch up old wounds with her first love in the wake of a small town’s rapid descent into chaos. (978-1-63555-027-6)
Right Here, Right Now by Georgia Beers. When Alicia Wright moves into the office next door to Lacey Chamberlain’s accounting firm, Lacey is about to find out that sometimes the last person you want is exactly the person you need. (978-1-63555-154-9)
Strictly Need to Know by MB Austin. Covert operator Maji Rios will do whatever she must to complete her mission, but saving a gorgeous stranger from Russian mobsters was not in her plans. (978-1-63555-114-3)
Tailor-Made by Yolanda Wallace. Tailor Grace Henderson doesn’t date clients, but when she meets gender-bending model Dakota Lane, she’s tempted to throw all the rules out the window. (978-1- 63555-081-8)
Time Will Tell by M. Ullrich. With the ability to time travel, Eva Caldwel
l will have to decide between having it all and erasing it all. (978-1-63555-088-7)
A Date to Die by Anne Laughlin. Someone is killing people close to Detective Kay Adler, who must look to her own troubled past for a suspect. There she finds more than one person seeking revenge against her. (978-1-63555-023-8)
Captured Soul by Laydin Michaels. Can Kadence Munroe save the woman she loves from a twisted killer, or will she lose her to a collector of souls? (978-1-62639-915-0)
Dawn’s New Day by TJ Thomas. Can Dawn Oliver and Cam Cooper, two women who have loved and lost, open their hearts to love again? (978-1-63555-072-6)
Definite Possibility by Maggie Cummings. Sam Miller is just out for good times, but Lucy Weston makes her realize happily ever after is a definite possibility. (978-1-62639-909-9)
Eyes Like Those by Melissa Brayden. Isabel Chase and Taylor Andrews struggle between love and ambition from the writers’ room on one of Hollywood’s hottest TV shows. (978-1-63555-012-2)
Heart’s Orders by Jaycie Morrison. Helen Tucker and Tee Owens escape hardscrabble lives to careers in the Women’s Army Corps, but more than their hearts are at risk as friendship blossoms into love. (978-1-63555-073-3)
Hiding Out by Kay Bigelow. Treat Dandridge is unaware that her life is in danger from the murderer who is hunting the woman she’s falling in love with, Mickey Heiden. (978-1-62639-983-9)
Omnipotence Enough by Sophia Kell Hagin. Can the tiny tool that abducted war veteran Jamie Gwynmorgan accidentally acquires help her escape an unknown enemy to reclaim her stolen life and the woman she deeply loves? (978-1-63555-037-5)
Summer’s Cove by Aurora Rey. Emerson Lange moved to Provincetown to live in the moment, but when she meets Darcy Belo and her son Liam, her quest for summer romance becomes a family affair. (978-1-62639-971-6)
The Road to Wings by Julie Tizard. Lieutenant Casey Tompkins, Air Force student pilot, has to fly with the toughest instructor, Captain Kathryn “Hard Ass” Hardesty, fly a supersonic jet, and deal with a growing forbidden attraction. (978-1-62639-988-4)
Beauty and the Boss by Ali Vali. Ellis Renois is at the top of the fashion world, but she never expects her summer assistant Charlotte Hamner to tear her heart and her business apart like sharp scissors through cheap material. (978-1-62639-919-8)
Fury’s Choice by Brey Willows. When gods walk amongst humans, can two women find a balance between love and faith? (978-1- 62639-869-6)
Lessons in Desire by MJ Williamz. Can a summer love stand a four-month hiatus and still burn hot? (978-1-63555-019-1)
Lightning Chasers by Cass Sellars. For Sydney and Parker, being a couple was never what they had planned. Now they have to fight corruption, murder, and enemies hiding in plain sight just to hold on to each other. Lightning Series, Book Two. (978-1-62639-965-5)
Summer Fling by Jean Copeland. Still jaded from a breakup years earlier, Kate struggles to trust falling in love again when a summer fling with sexy young singer Jordan rocks her off her feet. (978-1-62639-981-5)
Take Me There by Julie Cannon. Adrienne and Sloan know it would be career suicide to mix business with pleasure, however tempting it is. But what’s the harm? They’re both consenting adults. Who would know? (978-1-62639-917-4)
The Girl Who Wasn’t Dead by Samantha Boyette. A year ago, someone tried to kill Jenny Lewis. Tonight she’s ready to find out who it was. (978-1-62639-950-1)
Unchained Memories by Dena Blake. Can a woman give herself completely when she’s left a piece of herself behind? (978-1-62639- 993-8)
Walking Through Shadows by Sheri Lewis Wohl. All Molly wanted to do was go backpacking…in her own century. (978-1-62639-968-6)
Data Capture Page 31
