BOYS OF BEACHVILLE AND CONTEST!

I’m very excited to be here today to tell you how my Boys of Beachville series came about.  Good at Being Bad and A Lick of Flame are both now available at Samhain Publishing with Bad Girl Therapy coming in December!

Last Christmas I was walking through our local market and spotted the cutest (youngest!) firefighters selling calendars to raise money for the burn unit here in our hospital.  I stood back (after I got my autographed copy of course) and watched the way they interacted with passing women, and as they engaged the crowd I started to wonder more about these guys.

Who were these local heroes when they weren’t working?  What were they like when not in their uniforms?  And most importantly, what kind of woman would these guys fall for?

With those questions in mind, I sat down and plotted out three stories, for three different local heroes who were all involved in a charity calendar event.

In my first story, Good at Being Bad, my hero is a cop and my heroine is a public relations specialist in charge of the marketing campaign.

Public relations specialist Allison Cooper is more than ready to handle a career make-or-break assignment: to develop and market a charity calendar featuring hot men. Her only problem is Mr. July, a sexy cop who happens to be her ex-lover.

Trying to keep his image squeaky clean—a must for her promotion—raises all sorts of challenges, especially when this bad boy is throwing a little kink into her plan.

Image is the last thing on Carter James’s mind. He agreed to be Mr. July on one condition—that during his promo month, Allison never leaves his side. He wants her back, and to make that happen he needs her undivided attention to teach him good from bad. Unless bad is what the lady wants….

In A Lick of Flame I had to have my firefighter, of course, and the woman he falls for is an ex cop who is now a private body guard.

No man lights Madison Kelly’s fire quite like Sean Adams, the firefighter she’s been hired to guard during the Boys of Beachville calendar shoot. Though he stars in her hottest, steamiest fantasies, he’s the last person she’s going to tell. An accident left its mark on her, body and soul. But when she catches Sean looking at her like she’s water for a man dying of thirst, she wonders if it’s possible he might see the girl beneath the scars.

Ever since he pulled Madison from the fire that injured her, Sean’s been hot for her. Too bad she clearly has no interest in him-or so he thinks, until he sees a spark in her eyes that says she burns for him as much as he does for her. No more tiptoeing around the matter-a blatant seduction is in order.

Soon they’re igniting the sheets, but come morning Madison’s old fears and insecurities threaten to snuff the flames to ashes. Except Sean’s fuse has been lit, and he has no intention of letting her put it out. Ever.

In Bad Girl Therapy my hero is an injured sports star and the girls he falls for is his rehabilitation therapist.

Pro soccer star Cole Landon has women at his fingertips, but there’s always been one who was untouchable. Haley Jones, the high-school crush from the right side of the tracks—and way out of his league.

Sidelined with an injury, he’s cooling his heels in Beachville when he discovers his physical therapist is none other than the perennial good girl herself.

Bored with men who pay more attention to their smartphones than her, Haley longs for a summer fling that won’t risk her reputation. When Cole shows up in town, her hormones tell her he’s the one man who will scratch her itch without tarnishing her good girl image.

No one’s more surprised than Cole when Haley suggests his private beachside cottage is the best place to begin his…therapy. Apparently money really can buy love. She wants to play? Then play he will.

As hot days turn to scintillating nights, Haley begins to realize there’s more to this playboy than meets the eye. Until Cole gets news that could put them once again on opposite ends of the playing field.

For more information please visit, www.cathryfox.com and for a chance to win an ecopy of Wet in Whispering Cove, please leave a comment!

Sad, sad, sad… Summer’s over. No more pool time. How about one last taste of sweet summer heat before you unpack your sweaters?

Post a comment today, and you can win a free copy of this short story!

Afraid to spoil their friendship, Emily had been reluctant to act on her attraction to the two sexy men next door. However, when she’s caught spying on them, the men decide a little punishment is in order…

From National Bestselling Author, Delilah Devlin, comes a sexy little story sure to become one of your favorite one-handed reads!

Warning: This 6800-word short story contains elements of voyeurism, m/f/m ménage sex, oral sex, and light BDSM.

Beads of condensation, glittering jewel-like in the sputtering candlelight, ran in rivulets down the sides of Jason’s ice-cold beer.

Detail I shouldn’t have been able to note, given the fact I was thirty feet away.

As I lowered my nephew’s toy binoculars, I reflected that I had indeed sunk to a new low. You see, my bedroom window conveniently overlooked Jason and Robert’s backyard. A fact that probably never registered with the previous tenants, but one that proved too delicious to ignore after the arrival of the handsome duo. Privacy fencing, which ran down to the pier that jutted into the lake, separated the row of houses where we lived. It was high enough the neighbors on either side of ours couldn’t see into their yard, but lucky me—I had the perfect view.

Upon discovering this, I had began a furtive surveillance. One that had me cringing in embarrassment each time I greeted them in passing and feeling even more ashamed when we struck up a friendship.

We’d shared meals, drinks, late afternoon swims, watched football games together on their wide-screen TV. And still, I peeked into their backyard, waiting for those moments when they popped outside to mow the lawn or catch a few summer rays. Their bodies gleamed with sweat while raw lust warred inside me, along with the fear that I’d mess up our relationship if I let the guys know how I really felt.

My convenient perch on the windowsill afforded me a window into their private lives, and from the very beginning, I was hooked. They’d become an obsession, one frustrated by the fact they treated me like a kid sister, rather than a woman one of them might desire.

And therein lay another problem. I’d resisted the urge to seek a deeper relationship because then I’d have to choose. My libido was completely fickle, lusting after Jason’s muscled physique, then sighing over the possibilities of what Robert’s tall, bony frame and large feet hinted at. That their personalities were perfect bookends, fierce and funny, confused my heart as well.

Lucky, lucky me. I licked the sweat gathering on my upper lip while this night one of the handsome men living next door tilted his bottle and took several long sips. The look of pure bliss that softened his otherwise stern features made my chest ache.

I watched the movement of Jason’s throat as he worked it down, imagining him sipping at my overheated flesh. My skin began to tingle. My nipples beaded, crowding uncomfortably against my lace bra. My thighs clenched as a delicious wash of arousal seeped to wet the crotch of my plain panties.

The sigh he emitted as he set the bottle on the table was echoed by my own painful groan. Watching either of them had never caused my heart to skip a beat like that hint of a moan sliding on the tail of Jason’s long exhalation.

Sure, it was hotter than hell out there. I too felt the effects of the enervating heat. Record temperatures had strained the region’s resources and planned service interruptions began that night. But something about that sigh felt…un-subtle, exaggerated, maybe even dramatic. And Jason was too straightforward a man for that.

I blotted sweat from my forehead, asking myself again, What am I doing?

Only this time, my peeping hadn’t been deliberate. I’d rushed home from work and showered quickly to beat the scheduled brown-out. Then I’d stripped to my underwear, pulled back the curtains, and opened the window, hoping for a breeze to cool my skin. Sitting limply on the sill, I waited for the world to flicker into life again.

That’s when I’d noticed him, sitting in a lounge chair alone in the dark.

He wore his usual work “uniform”—khaki trousers, white shirt and a tie. Tonight, the tie hung loosened and askew, his collar opened beneath it.

Despite the lack of electricity, I could see it all. Moonlight silvered his dark hair and reflected bright as a beacon against the white shirt. The golden light from the large Citronella candle leant warmth to his skin and the amber bottle he held between his hands.

As always, he was lovely to watch, but tonight, his expression drew my attention more than his breath-stealing features. A sullen slanting of his brows, a bit of pout plumping his masculine lips, an edgy energy to his slight movements—he was either irritated or aroused. Read the rest of this entry »

When I write sexual tension I hope my readers will want to push the heroine aside and take her place. In the first scenes I have a woman who doesn’t want to desire/love her ex-husband. Their history would make having sex with this man unwise. Therefore I wanted to make him difficult to resist. 

Scene 1

I got the cake, thin layers of cake with raspberry mousse fillings between. A loud flapping sound and a rough ride announced the death of a tire as I neared Dee’s school.

Well, Hell. I’d planned to wait in the car. Some days Dee saw me as an okay mom. Others she didn’t want to be seen with me. I popped the trunk and prepared to lug the spare and the jack out. My cell rang in my pocket. What now? I half rose, banging my head on the trunk lid. Stars filled my vision while pain made me feel faint, a tad nauseous.

“Need any help?” A deep voice resonated near me, the masculine drawl familiar as my own.  God, I really hit my head hard. That voice can’t belong to Jay. Most of the men in this part of Georgia had the same charming drawl, so much more pleasing than some I heard every day. Other drawls didn’t send shivers up my spin the way Jay’s did.

I opened my eyes and saw long, muscular, denim-clad legs

near the back fender. Heat spread over my face as my attention followed the legs to thick thighs, then the worn placket over the zipper. What a package, so far. I should straighten and look the man in his eye, but my stiff back had been bent too long.

A deep, masculine chuckle made me blush as I placed my hand on my back and tried to escape the position that made studying his lower body too easy. By the time I managed to straighten, the man’s chuckle stopped.

“Sonovabitch!” His expletive wasn’t loud, but he hadn’t whispered it.

Jay looked shocked. I felt like climbing into the trunk and pulling the lid closed.

Now I’d bet I had no color. “What the hell are you doing here?” Of all the people I’d have expected to see here, he wasn’t one. He wasn’t supposed to be in town on leave yet.

He glared at me as if I were in the wrong place. “Rose asked me to pick her sister up from school and bring her to …”

“Why would she send you here? I took the afternoon to get Dee and the cake and gifts to Mama’s house for the party.”

“Rose …”

I interrupted him, using my superior teacher’s voice. “She’s called herself Electra for the past six months.” Don’t you know anything?

He frowned, as if he knew nothing about that. “My daughter’s name is Rose and that’s what I’ll call her. You let her get by with way too much.”

I didn’t have time to argue with GI Jay, so I reached for the jack again, but one large, tanned hand reached past me and grabbed it first. The man’s other hand grabbed the spare tire as if it were a donut.

“I can do it,” I insisted.

He shook his head at me, loosened the lug nuts in a few twists, then positioned the jack and raised the car in seconds.  “You don’t need to do it with me here to help.”

I glared at him. “I work out. I’m not helpless.” With my hands fisted at my waist I felt like a kid throwing a tantrum, but I couldn’t back down. I’d have let any other man change the tire and thanked him, but it bugged me that my Ex didn’t think to ask me if I needed help. While other men would have offered, he just took over, as he always did.

“Don’t argue,” he said as he made quick work of changing the tires faster than I could have jacked the car up.

He tossed the flat tire into the trunk as though the thing weighed nothing. I knew better, since I’d changed tires before.

He closed the trunk and eased around the car.

I heard books hit the ground and Dee’s squeal. “Daddy!”

My heart ached when my daughter threw her arms around the waist of the man who didn’t believe she was his child. Dee’s heart was in that hug and I was willing to hit him with the tire. Read the rest of this entry »

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Then mosey on over to Magical Musings to see you can win a free book!

Cheaper than Therapy, but Loads More Fun!

Thanks, Delilah, for letting me hang out at your place!

Don’t know about you, but books have always been my friends – a solace and a refuge when Real Life was bleak. But it wasn’t until I started writing that I realized that fiction was cheaper than therapy – not to mention a helluva lot more fun. *grin*

To illustrate… Many years ago, when I was a baby writer taking my first tentative steps onto the page, I met a Very Senior Manager (from another section) at a work function. Very Senior Manager was good at his job and respected for his ability and ruthlessness. He was also on the short side and suffered from one good lunch too many, so he resembled a well-groomed toad in a business suit. I recall that his tie was an odd green/yellow colour.

We were chatting politely, as one does, when I noticed that he wasn’t looking at my face, but at my chest. He appeared to be counting – one…and ah, yes, there’s the other one. Yay, two!

I guess I’m naïve, but I tend to take people as I find them. I glanced down, expecting to see that a button had popped or that I’d dropped a blob of chocolate cake on my front. Nope, all buttoned up and pristine.

Very Senior Manager met my startled gaze and smirked. He didn’t say a word, he didn’t need to, the creep! In fact, I think he was looking forward to blandly denying any assertion I made.

Fuming, I excused myself and made sure I was surrounded by others for the rest of the event.

I seethed over that incident for months. I’m perfectly well aware that on the harassment scale, it was a flea bite, and that I hadn’t been injured or even threatened. He didn’t belong to my part of the organization, so he had no direct power over me. But, oh my goodness, I was sooo incensed – especially when I discovered that he only played this trick on subordinate women. I think it was the nasty smirk that really did me in, knowing how much he’d enjoyed my discomfiture. I’d say it was adolescent, but that gives decent teenagers a bad name.

What did I do? I wrote Very Senior Manager into my first manuscript (it still lives in the sock drawer). Unlike my place of employment, that book was a place where I had complete control, where I was the puppet mistress and the deity all rolled into one. I didn’t make him the villain, oh no, I made him the villain’s inept sidekick. The character was fat, complacent and clammy-handed. He was also stupid, cowardly and came to a Very Bad End.

That’s right, I killed him off and it was wonderful! From the moment I typed the last word in that scene, all my fury and frustration just…evaporated. Pfft! Gone! It was amazing how different I felt.

Since that day, I’ve loved living through and with my characters. The good guys are infinitely more resourceful, braver and stronger than I’ll ever be – and so much sexier and better looking! The bad guys all come (eventually) to horrible ends. Ah, I love the fantasy that is a good romance!

In The Dark Rose, the fourth in the Four-Sided Pentacle series, we have a heroine so exquisitely lovely Very Senior Manager would have slobbered all over her, but Rose is as devious as she is beautiful. She would have made him pay, I know it!

Here’s a short, sexy excerpt, but you can read the whole first chapter on my website.
Purchase from Amazon  or Barnes & Noble.

Denise Rossetti
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Simple Pleasures – Draw by the Fireside

As Delilah gets ready to give her Plotting Bootcamp in Oklahoma, Rachel and I got to thinking about the opposite of traveling: the pleasures of staying home.  While travel is tremendous fun, and there are some lucky folks in Oklahoma with Delilah, there are many good things to be said for the fireside – especially if you’re fortunate to live somewhere with an actual fireplace!

When I talk to people about doing things like crafts, the biggest complaint I get is that folks have no time to do crafts, even if they wanted to.  As any crafter knows, this doesn’t have to be a deterrent.  While there are, of course, wildly complicated crafts, there are also simple but fun things one can do as a pastime that are enjoyable and give you a finished product you can display afterwards – a double win.

Here are five suggestions for fun but simple things you can do by yourself, with friends, or with your family as the year winds down toward the holiday season – and, if you think ahead, you can use some of these for gifts!

1.  Coloring Books

I know, I know; not really a “craft” in the strict sense of the word, right?  But give it a shot.  Think about it: you don’t have to think a whole lot, you can just color in the designs.  There are some amazing books available – have you seen the Dover Stained Glass Coloring Books?  If not, check them out – well worth the investment of a few dollars (most of them are under $10 USD).

2.  Knit or Crochet a Scarf

Knitting and crochet are easy to do and have the advantage of being inexpensive and portable.  If you, like me, have trouble sorting out three-dimensional stuff from two-dimensional, consider taking a quick class at JoAnn’s or Michael’s.  Or, to really get into it, check out your friendly, neighborhood LYS (Local Yarn Shop).  You can find listings of them on the internet or, if you’re in the states, look at the TKGA site (The Knitting Guild Association).

3.   Makit and Bakit

These are a lot of fun and I wish they were more popular, because they’re super easy.  Some of the designs are cheesy but if you poke around you can find some cool ones (my favorite, personally, is the coyote howling at the moon with a cactus in the foreground).  Tip:  use your toaster oven tray, and line it with tin foil.  Use a tweezer to place the little color beads into the frame.  When you bake it, the plastic melts and you have a real, live, stained “glass” ornament.

4.  Polymer Clay

There are so many kinds of polymer clay available now that your choices are endless.  The two biggest brands are Femo and Sculpey.  They both can be baked in your toaster oven.  You can make figurines, buttons, beads, and all sorts of little animals.  If you have no idea how to do anything with ceramics, this is a great book to try:  The Incredible Clay Book.

5.  Check out Klutz Press

If you think you’re all thumbs when it comes to crafts, and that the nearest 8-year-old has more talent than you, then you owe it to yourself to check out the offerings of Klutz Press.  You can find stuff on all sorts of topics.  Have some fun and let your inner child out to play.  All you have to lose is your skepticism.

—
“It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.”
– E.E. Cummings

Noony’s links:  Blog | Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Amazon | LinkedIn | Pandora

Knoontime Knitting:  Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Ravelry
Noon and Wilder links: Blog | Website | Facebook
Team Blogs: Nightlight | The Writers Retreat Blog | Beyond the Veil | LGBT Fantasy Fans and Writers
Publishers: Samhain Publishing | Torquere Press

Check out BURNING BRIGHT, available from Samhain Publishing.
Check out EMERALD FIRE, available from Torquere Books.

Check out “Taking a Chance“, part of the Charity Sips 2012 to benefit NOH8, available from Torquere Books.

Orgasm in your Mouth

I want to thank Delilah for letting me jump between her blog sheets to play today.

Coming up with a fitting topic for this blog was tough. You see, I’m a children’s writer—middle grade (8-12 year olds)—and I just don’t touch on erotic topics, and my hubs would prefer it if I kept our sex life in our bedroom. It’s far more comfy there, doncha think? Soft bed, pillows, porn. . . . er, never mind.

So what do I blog about?

With the weather finally giving us a break and becoming cooler, my thoughts turn to making candy. I love making candy. I think I made 55 pounds of candy to give away last Christmas, everything from four types of fudge to sea salt caramels to English toffee to peanut brittle, and molded chocolate truffles. The truffles are the hardest, but the most satisfying to make. They are time-consuming, back-breaking, delicate (entire batches have cracked and thrown out), and temperamental, depending on humidity. Very finicky stuff, but well worth the hassle.

About five years ago, I started experimenting with making truffle fillings. I now have fifteen flavors that are the epitome of an orgasm in your mouth.

Peppermint Schnapps, Strawberry Margarita, Frangelico (hazelnut), Amaretto (almond), Whiskey Toffee, Bäranjäger (honey), Key Lime (gin), Chambord (raspberry), Buttershots (butterscotch), Rum Raisin, Grand Marnier (orange), Black Forest (kirshwasser–cherry), Limoncello (lemon), Porto, and Gingerbread.

Gingerbread is my most recent invention using a vodka-based filling. Hubs came home from work and he sampled the remnants in the saucepan and asked, “How did you get gingerbread in there?”

Yeah, I’m that good.

I know all of you have eaten a piece of chocolate, done the little happy dance, moaned a little, maybe allowed a shiver of pleasure to tingle all your naughty bits, or had your eyes rolled back in your head as you experienced a climax of endorphins shooting throughout your body.

And, odds are, that was from a mass-produced, grainy piece of chocolate. Can you imagine the orgasm you’ll have eating one of these lovelies?

What makes chocolate so sensual, so sexual? The velvety texture? The smell as it floods your senses? The visual stimulation? The flavor as you roll it around in your mouth? The contrast between sweet and salty?

Let’s switch to a quickie anatomy 101 lesson. The reason you are enjoying chocolate so much has to do with the more than 10,000 taste buds you have in your mouth. Not all of your taste buds are on your tongue; they also reside inside your cheeks and in the roof of your mouth.

1–find a piece of chocolate.

2–roll that velvety smoothness around on your tongue,

3–and inhale through your nose.

4–savor the moment until the last bit of goodness slides down your throat.

So what happened?

The essence of the chocolate scent glides over soft palate and into your sinus cavity where the olfactory cells will detect the aroma, thus increasing your satisfaction of eating chocolate. In one simple bite, you will have experienced taste, touch and smell. Before you take the bite of chocolate, you will have the visual stimulation. And so we don’t forget our sense of hearing, your moans and groans of delight as you experience an orgasm in your mouth, further release the endorphins of happiness.

Since y’all were so kind to put up with me, I’d like to share a little something-something with you–my recipe for Sea Salt Caramels. The sweet is countered by the crunchy saltiness, while the creamy caramel blends beautifully with the chocolate coating.

Now, you can make an orgasm happen in your mouth.

SEA SALT CARAMELS

1 1/3 cup heavy cream (whipping cream)
2 cups sugar
½ cup light corn syrup (Karo)
½ cup honey
6 Tbls. butter, cut into small cubes
1 tsp. vanilla extract (Madagascar real vanilla)
2 tsp. sea salt (if you have fleur de sel great, but I used Alessi coarse sea salt)
Dipping chocolate (Merkens or Ghirardelli dipping chocolate)
1 tsp. sea salt for decorating

Line 8-inch square Pyrex baking dish with aluminum foil. Spray with non-stick cooking spray.

Place cream in large saucepan over medium-high heat and bring to a boil. Stir in sugar, corn syrup and honey; continue stirring until mixture comes to a boil. Cook candy, swirling occasionally, until it reaches the temperature of 257 degrees Fahrenheit on a candy thermometer. Remove pan from heat and add butter, vanilla, and salt. Stir until ingredients are incorporated; take care not to scrape sides where sugar has crystallized.

Pour into prepared pan. Scrap out caramel, but again, take care NOT to scrape areas where sugar has crystallized. Set at room temperature to harden. Lightly cover with waxed paper after it has cooled if you are letting it set overnight before you make your caramels.

Melt chocolate until it is smooth. Place waxed paper sheets on counter for dipped chocolates. Place sea salt in small container to be sprinkled (about 5-6 grains) on top of caramel.

Remove caramel from pan by using the foil ‘handles’. Carefully remove foil, as it can tear. Cut caramel into 1/2- inch squares, dip into chocolate until coated. Lift out with dipping fork and place on waxed paper to dry. Dip a few pieces (I can do about 10 without the chocolate hardening too much, but I’ve been doing this awhile) and then, sprinkle decoratively with salt. Let dry.

Take a sharp thin knife and trim excess chocolate puddling around base of caramels. Place in paper cups or store in air tight container until ready for giving or eating! Enjoy!!

HINT: I used orange blossom honey.

HINT # 2: If you forgot to wash your saucepan out and the sugar solidified, don’t freak. Just fill it with hot water and let the magic happen! The sugar will dissolve away.

HINT #3: Hot, boiling sugar is like napalm! If it splashes you place the body part under running cold water. This is the only way to get it off since it adheres to your skin. Yes, I have a quarter-sized scar to prove this.

M. A. Golla’s Amazon page

Gnome de Plume blog

BIO:

Margaret Golla (M. A. Golla) has been writing since 2000, but in 2007 she realized she never grew up and wanted to play with her imaginary friends again, only this time she calls it ‘writing’. MAG’s lives in Oklahoma with her two kids—oops, make that one hubs and one child—one large fuzzy-butt Old English sheepdog, Maggie (yes, she knows the dog was named after her!) and one small fuzzy-butt guinea pig, Scruffy.  She’s plotting book four in The Goblin’s Apprentice series, DRAGON DAYS OF SUMMER, writing a non-fic blogagraphy (what else would you call taking your blogs and making them into a book??) about her weight-loss journey, and developing an adult paranormal series.

The winner of yesterday’s contest, chosen by random number generator, is… Stacy Wilson! Stacy, congrats and email me!

Laying Down the Law

Thanks to everyone who bought a copy of this book last week! It’s currently #3 on Samhain’s new release calendar. I appreciate your support!

And I hope that if you’ve read it and loved it, that you will mention it to a friend, and/or post a review somewhere to tell someone else about it. I’d love to write more of this kind of book!

For Writers!!

Don’t forget! There are only 15 days left before my current Call for Submissions for my alpha manthology closes!! Check out the details here: Cleis Press Sex Objects: He-Man Erotica for Women

Contests

I have two contests running right now. Both end on September 27th! There will be tons of winners, so be sure to pay attention to how to enter! Rules for entry and descriptions of both contests and their prizes are located on my Contest page!

Guests

I have a ton of guests scheduled to play here. My sister and I are traveling to Oklahoma next week to conduct a plotting bootcamp weekend with the RWA chapter there. I’ll be busy getting ready for it, then going, so I thought I’d better line up some guests to keep you entertained.

9/17 — Margaret Golla
9/19 — A. Catherine Noon and Rachel Wilder
9/20 — Denise Rossetti
9/21 — Mary Marvella
9/22 — Me, I’ll prepost a snippet!
9/23 — Cathryn Fox
9/24 — Wendy Soliman

Coming Soon

I haven’t decided when to publish this one. Maybe this week, if I get time to put it up on Amazon and Nook, or maybe next week when I get back. But I thought I’d go ahead and share the cover and a snippet with you today. Hope you like it!

His need becomes a knight’s quest and a virgin’s gift.

An ancient, cursed creature, Drago, Lord of Drakkenberg, dreads the anniversary that marks the moment he must devour a virgin or visit a plague of destruction on the world around him. Once every century, he becomes a dragon…

Only now that his castle has moved to the U.S. in a vain attempt to break the curse, suitably mature virgins are hard to come by. In the midst of his transformation, he sends his loyal knight, Guy D’Alba, in search of a woman during the Renaissance Faire they are hosting.

Guy understands his duty well, but chafes against the curse that binds him in servitude to the dragon.  Until he meets a sweet young reporter who meets his overlord’s requirements—young, blonde and beautiful—and lo and behold, a virgin. But the moment he discovers her fitness, he knows he must relinquish her to Drago or their small mountain community will suffer the dragon’s wrath.

Angela Bowman is smart, young…and a lonely virgin ready to find an adventure. The moment she sees Guy, she falls beneath the spell of his smoldering sensuality. When he asks her to meet Drago, and then produces a blindfold, she finds herself so intrigued she consents.

She’s ready to surrender her innocence—but to which man? The sexy and attentive Guy—or Drago, the mysterious and dominant man she hasn’t yet seen but whose dark aura calls to the woman inside her, yearning to break free?

The woman shivered as she sat on the chaise, her head swiveling side to side to follow the sounds his minion made as he prepared the room.

She was lovely, skin like ivory, hair like burnished gold, lips…

Lovely, yes, but did she have the one thing he needed to end his curse for all time? He shifted his stance, his boots scuffling softly on the floor.

Her head jerked toward the sound. “Is this necessary?”

“I told you his requirements,” Guy murmured from where he stood beside her.

“Why the blindfold?” she whispered. “Is he hideous?”

Drago, Lord of Drakkenberg, snorted. Most women found him desirable. So much so, they’d throw themselves into his path, heedless of any dangers. But he was careful to hide his true nature, successful most of the time with suppressing the monster inside. Not so, today. Not on the first day of the full moon.

Guy pulled the leather restraints from beneath the bolster pillow and laid them silently behind the girl in case they were needed. Then he nodded to Drago and faded toward the stone wall of the bedchamber, his duty done. Read the rest of this entry »