Opening Night

By Lisabet Sarai

Let your heart be your compass

It’s January 1887, a few days before the opening of the audacious new operetta “Ruddigore”. As if librettist William Gilbert doesn’t have enough to worry about, one of the D’Oyly Carte stars breaks his leg doing the horn pipe. Fortunately, the understudy Frank Wilson turns out to be immensely talented, as well as devilishly handsome. Wilson has set his heart on Gilbert – and he’s not going to be swayed from his course.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lisabet Sarai
• Release date: Mar 8, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215446928

Lisabet Sarai

I became addicted to words at an early age. I began reading when I was four. I wrote my first story at five years old and my first poem at seven. Since then, I have written plays, tutorials, scholarly articles, marketing brochures, software specifications, self-help books, press releases, a five-hundred page dissertation, and lots of erotica and erotic romance – more than fifty single author titles including eight full length novels, plus dozens of short stories in various collections. My credits include contributions to the Lambda winner Where the Girls Are and the IPPIE Best Erotic Book of 2011, Carnal Machines. My gay scifi erotic romance Quarantine won a Rainbow Awards 2012 Honorable Mention. I have also edited a number of acclaimed erotica anthologies. Currently I am responsible for the charity erotica imprint Coming Together Presents, which as of December 2014 has published six volumes by top erotic authors, supporting causes such as Amnesty International, Planned Parenthood, and the Multiple Sclerosis Association of America.I have more degrees than anyone would ever need, from prestigious educational institutions who would no doubt be deeply embarrassed by my chosen genre. Aside from writing, travel is one of my most fervent passions. I’ve visited every continent except Australia, though I still have a long bucket list of places I haven’t been. Currently I live in Southeast Asia with my indulgent husband and two exceptional felines, where I pursues an alternative career that is completely unrelated to my creative writing.For more information about me and my writing, visit my website (http://www.lisabetsarai.com) or my blog Beyond Romance (http://lisabetsarai.blogspot.com). Join my VIP email list here: https://btn.ymlp.com/xgjjhmhugmgh I also hang out at Goodreads, (http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/83387.Lisabet_Sarai) because I love the idea of a social network focusing on the love of reading. I’m not on Facebook, because I don’t trust it.

Book preview

Opening Night

Lisabet Sarai

© Copyright 2023 Lisabet Sarai

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This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales is entirely coincidental. All sexually active characters in this work are 18 years of age or older.

This book is intended for ADULT AUDIENCES ONLY. It contains substantial sexually explicit scenes and graphic language which may be considered offensive by some readers. Please store your files where they cannot be accessed by minors.

Opening Night originally appeared in Time Well Bent, edited by Connie Wilkins, Lethe Press, 2009.

Contents

Opening Night

About the Author

Blurb: Dragon Boat Blues

X-Rated Excerpt from Dragon Boat Blues

A Final Message from Lisabet

Opening Night

19 January 1887

London

Blast! Rehearsals had been going so well. The director turned his eyes to the tableau on the stage. Durward Lely lay sprawled on the boards, his right leg twisted underneath his body. Jessie, Leonora and the female members of the chorus flitted around him, offering more sympathy than assistance. The tenor’s face was sickly white and distorted with pain.

Don’t touch him! Don’t move him! The doctor’s on his way. Gilbert pushed through the cast, took a flask out of his coat pocket and held it to Durward’s lips. Here, this might help. How are you holding up?

Durward groaned.

"Hang on, old man, shouldn’t be more