First line finalist--veinglory

My first line came from a piece of erotica I wrote for Phaze, published under their Heat Sheet Snuggler line in 12/06. It's called "The Ice Butterfly" and more information can be found on my website (though I like the excerpt on Fictionwise better; I should probably get around to changing that, lol):

viviendean.com/ice.html

Contrary to what it says on the Phaze website, it's *not* romance. There's no HEA. It's a 10k mini-adventure with erotic interludes, so I always just think of it as erotica. As for the first line...I knew I was working with a shorter word count and I wanted to create a visceral response from the get go. The main character is Tomas Dalmau, a sentinel who polices the paranormal world, and his mood at the start of the story is very on edge. I wanted the reader on edge, too. That slight sense of annoyance and weariness that his circumstances would evoke. He also has a very definitive worldview, and I wanted to try and hint at that.