As you can tell, I’m a big fan of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. I’ve seen the Johnny Depp version, but it’s the classic that keeps me coming back.

But, the title says it all. I have so much to do and such little time. I have a new release coming out on the 14th called Strained, which I’m Snoopy-dancing about. At the same time, I’m working on a trilogy, though all of the books are novella-length. I’m also releasing another book later this month under my other pen name. My world is filled with books and I love it. Speaking of which, I need to write up a review for a really cool anthology I read recently.

On top of that, there’s also the lovely holidays and preparation for that. I have to order the kiddo’s presents and make like they came from Santa. I have gifts to order for my nieces and nephews, too. I also have to figure out what kind of dish we’re bringing to my grandmother’s house for Christmas, in addition to what she wants under her tree other than a tree skirt. There are also the bills that will never go away, the possibility that we’ll have to look for a new house come February, and making sure there’s enough money in the budget for everything.

Now as for my desires, more time in the day to do everything I want. I know that’s not going to happen, so I might as well settle for a cup of delicious French Vanilla Cappuccino and let the chips fall where they may. At the same time, I’m going to pick up a good book and snuggle in front of a fireplace somewhere. If the house burns down around me, oh well. At least I’ll be happy and warm.

So I’m curious, despite everything hectic going on in your life right now (or not), how are you planning to enjoy yourself, more so than the holidays?

Thanks for stopping by. Always feel free to hangout in my cozy corner of the Internet at www.marciacolette.com or my blog at marciacolette.wordpress.com.

The secret to a healthy marriage: shoot first and ask question later.

Alexa is keeping a secret from her husband and being half werewolf isn’t it. After all, he’s a full-blood and doesn’t care that there are those who think their union is an abomination. Despite their abnormalities, the Yorks have settled into suburbia and gone out of their way to look like the couple next door.

Their rouse may have fooled an entire community, but not the Georgia Pack. The Yorks have encroached on their territory. Most interlopers end up dead, especially when the bounties on their heads invite stalkers, killers, and psychos to collect. Despite the trouble the Yorks have brought with them, the domestic suburbanites have intrigued the pack.

Alexa’s less domestic than she seems. Eight months ago, her bounty hunting club disbanded after several team members lost their lives in an ambush. Since then, the club has reemerged and is expecting Alexa to take her rightful place among the ranks.

Keeping the truth from her husband about her extracurricular activities will strain the Yorks’ marriage and risk everything they’ve worked hard for. But, that’s the price Alexa pays when her deception becomes deadlier than her aim. A deception that also keeps her alive.

I’ve written six series so far, plus a collection of books that takes place in my fictional town of Lanville, Texas, and another collection that is set at fictional North Texas Highland Hospital. I love revisiting my characters to let my readers know what those characters are doing ever since they received a happy ending in their own books.

My latest series—Anything Goes, about a sex club on the outskirts of Dallas, Texas—currently has five books in it. The idea for the first book—Anything Goes—literally popped into my head as I approached my birthday. I thought, what about a woman who’s recently gone through a divorce and wants to do something wild and crazy on her birthday? That idea turned into my heroine visiting Anything Goes, where she discovers the man she’s secretly cared about for years is one of the owners.

The 5th book—Three’s Perfect—is about two men who have gone through bad relationships, so are reluctant to get involved again. But love can find you when you least expect it.

Here’s a little taste of Three’s Perfect. I hope you enjoy it.

Sean sat back in his chair, at a loss as to what to say next. His friend had gotten married at a sex club. Sean had been out of town visiting his parents in Seattle when Gabe and Debra married. He’d hated missing their wedding, but his mother would’ve hurt him severely if he hadn’t gone home for Christmas and New Year’s.

He’d assumed the couple got married at a church or special wedding venue. Finding out his friend’s wedding had been at Anything Goes made him doubly sorry he’d missed the ceremony.

Sean cleared his throat so he could speak clearly again. “You and Debra had your wedding at a sex club?”

Gabe nodded. “Lisa Cline, one of the owners, works with Debra at the hospital. She offered the club as the venue, which included all the food, decorations, and a three-tier cake. We couldn’t say no to such generosity.”

“So, what’s it like in there?” He propped one elbow on the island, rested his temple against his fist. “I’ve heard it really is anything goes.”

“Like I said, I’ve never been a customer, but Lisa has told Debra about the club. If you can think of a sex act you want, you can do it there. Including bondage.”

Sean’s cock gave an interested leap at the mention of bondage. He’d never done that with a lover, but it had always been in the back of his mind as interesting to try.

“Want to go?” Gabe asked.

“I’ve heard it’s a closed membership.”

“I can get you an invitation as a guest.”

“Do you know if there will be other gays there?”

Gabe nodded again. “Lisa told Debra and me that several of the attendants are bi or willing to play with the same sex. Plus, a lot of the members like same-gender sex. There’s a huge play area where anyone can play with anyone. Or if you meet a member or guest you want to be with, there are private rooms available. You won’t leave unsatisfied.”

The thought tempted Sean. An evening of sex with someone—or someones—he’d never have to see again. No danger of having his heart trampled. Nothing but pleasure without any expectations of starting a relationship. “You really can get me an invitation?”

“Sure. Lisa is a good friend. So is her brother, Alex. They own the club together. Either of them would give you an invitation in a second. The club is open Friday and Saturday nights. I can get you an invitation for either day this week. As your doctor, I can verify that you don’t have any nasty STDs.”

Gabe held up one hand, stopping Sean before he spoke again. “Before you ask, everyone is tested yearly. All attendants, members, and guests have to supply a medical report proving they’re clean. The club provides condoms, and all the men are required to wear them.”

After five years with Mason, it would be weird to use condoms again. Sean loved the feeling of a guy’s cock sliding into his ass without any kind of barrier between them. However, he knew that could never happen with someone he barely knew. Common sense had to prevail over hormones.

“Do you want to go this weekend?” Gabe asked.

Why not? Maybe an evening of hot sex will wake up my muse. “Yeah. Set me up for Friday night.”

* * * * *

Lynn

Find out more about my series and connected books by visiting the special page on my website:
https://lynnlafleur.com/home/series-connected-books/

For many of us, the holidays are a time to reconnect with family, particularly if we don’t live near one another.  Our family is no exception to this, with folks scattered all over the States.  We were fortunate enough to be able to gather this Thanksgiving in Philadelphia and I couldn’t be happier.  It’s been a couple of holidays since I got to see everyone, and that made it even better.

It’s funny how moving and job churn can affect family time, isn’t it?

Well, okay, “funny” isn’t really the word, but I digress.

I got to connect with my sister-in-law, the lovely L…  She and I decided that we needed to make some cocktails and talked her husband into taking us to the grocery store.

On Black Friday.

Side note – I am not, in any way, shape, or form, a “shopper.”  In fact, I loathe the entire process and have been known to have anxiety attacks in front of the cucumber display.

Here, then, are some tips on surviving the market on days when every shopper, whether they like shopping or not, seems to decide simultaneously that they absolutely must try to disprove the law of physics that says two objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time.

First, know what you want.  Wandering around the aisles to browse means that you will probably get run over by people like me who are panickedatthethoughtofbeinginthestorewithyouandjustwanttheirstuffthankx.

Second, leave the family confab at home.  Now is not the time to clog the aisle of the Bloody Mary Mix and try to work out the solution to Life, the Universe, and Everything.

Third, I love my brother-in-law.  But one bottle of Bloody Mary Mix isn’t enough for ME, let alone several of us.  Be prepared, Boy Scout.  Buy more than one.

Fourth, you put celery salt in Bloody Marys, according to the lovely L…  And yes.  It’s as good as it sounds.

Fifth, when you leave the grocery store parking lot, getting your mini-van turned perpendicularly to everyone else, and the flow of traffic, is dumb.  Don’t do that.  Any more.

Yes, lady, I’m looking at you.  You know who you are.

And sixth, if you absolutely must head out on Black Friday, take an awesome sister-in-law with you and come home with vodka to which you add stuff.  It’ll make you a whole lot calmer about this whole thing called shopping.

Now.  Where did I put the celery salt?

Question for you, Dear Reader:  what do you like in your Bloody Mary?  Or, if that’s not your poison, what’s your favorite cocktail?

Thank you Delilah for hosting me today.

First I wanted to say my thoughts go to those who have lost their lives and been injured over these last few weeks. It really re-enforces the live every day to the fullest.

When I wrote under the name Violet Summers with a partner, I didn’t expect to sell much, or that anyone would be that interested in what I had to say. Lucky for me I was wrong and experienced some great years meeting wonderful readers as well as some of my favorite authors—blog Host included.

Then life happened and the bottom fell out of my writing. I fell ill, finally started healing and then bought a bookstore. My muse had taken off and I hated anything I attempted to write.

It’s taken me over a year to begin writing again but I’ve started.

I’m calling 2016 the year of the Reboot. The year of a new approach to my career as a solo writer. To finishing what I’ve started and to remember that everyone has to deal with something. It’s how we come out of it at the end that counts and you know you’re over the worst when you can see the good again.

To that positive end, I’m excited to announce a new series I’m working on—Tarnished Knights.

Dragon Shifters, motorcycles, tattoo parlors and dive bars all nestled in the small town of Wayne, Mi. Blue collar, gritty and ready to kill to protect what they love, the dragons will stop at nothing.

Cyn is the law in the dragon community and his life is getting way too complicated. First he has to deal with the Metallic clans trying to wipe his people out and then there is Ruby. A feisty barkeep who keeps everyone at arm’s length.

She’s hiding a secret behind her big brown eyes and the further she backs away, the more Cyn’s determined to discover what she’s hiding from. Add on top of that a case of serious dragon mating hormones shooting through his body every time Ruby smiles and you have a man ready to blow or worse a dragon willing to bring the whole world down.

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season,

Sierra Summers
Books by Sierra

Are you in the holiday mood? I have two Christmas books out—one new and one a little older. My earlier one, CHRISTMAS AT ANGEL LAKE, is on sale for only 99 cents! It’s book 2 of my Rescued Hearts series, and like all the books in the series, it stands alone. If you’re a dog lover, there’s a dog story in it that will touch your heart as much as the hero’s and heroine’s story. (There’s a cat, too, but the dog story is the one that will make you sniffle.) Get the book while it’s still on sale!

A LOVE & MURDER CHRISTMAS, book 3 of my Love & Murder series, is also a stand-alone. I just published it last week, and I’m so happy with it. This series is my contemporary romance/romantic suspense series. No paranormal. But early on in the book, I went to bed at night, and a word popped into my head: POOKA

I jumped out of bed, rushed to my office, and scribbbled down pooka. Sometimes you’ve got to listen to the crazy voices in your head. I’m so glad I did. I love the way this book ended up, even if it will be the only book with a five-foot cat pooka in my series.

Thanks to Delilah for inviting me to her lovely blog. 🙂

Below are the blurbs and links to the books, but I’m wondering what your favorite Christmas stories or movies are. I still love the Christmas scenes in LITTLE WOMEN, and my favorite Christmas movies are Love Actually and the original Christmas on 34th Street. What are your favorites? I’m giving away an ebook of A LOVE & MURDER CHRISTMAS to one commenter.

A LOVE & MURDER CHRISTMAS

Good will to all, and peace on Earth. Even to those trying to kill you.

Adam Donahue lives in the perfect vacation place – Door County, Wisconsin. But his life isn’t perfect. His wife was killed by a drunk driver three years ago, and his twelve-year-old daughter has type one diabetes. Now his daughter claims a mythical pooka, in the shape of a giant cat only she can see, is living in her bedroom. It scares him enough to do something he hates – ask for help from his late wife’s best friend.

Lauren Finney’s insurance agent husband disappeared four and a half years ago. Good riddance. Her Irish wolfhound is better company than he ever was. And she misses her best friend more than the missing husband, though Adam – her best friend ‘s widower – makes her heart beat faster. Now it’s time to initiate divorce proceedings against her husband, before the prenup restrictions expire and he comes back to claim half her considerable assets.

As soon as she starts the proceedings, bad things happen. Very bad things.

Then Adam asks her help with his daughter, and good things happen. Very good things.

It might be their very best Christmas … or it might be their very last.

Amazon | AmazonUK | iBooks | BN | Kobo | GP

CHRISTMAS AT ANGEL LAKE

A kitten saved her…

Broke, pregnant and deserted by her boyfriend, Maddie Barrymore swerves to avoid a kitten while driving in a Wisconsin blizzard—and her life takes another turn. Like Puss in Boots, she stays in an empty house. She has the baby, the kitten, gets a job and a degree…yet every day she’s ready to flee if the real owner shows up.

Five years later, he does…

Dumped by the woman he loves, film producer Logan MacLeesh’s heart is as dark as one of his movies. He plans to hole up in his grandmother’s old mansion and throw himself into his work…until he discovers the sexy squatter and her four-year-old son. Before he can call the sheriff, Maddie’s tale of how she ended up there entertains him. They make a deal that as long as she tells him a story every night, she and her son can stay. Even the cat, though Logan’s always been a dog person.

A dog in need of saving…

Far away in another state, a homeless dog lifts his head, sniffs…and smells him. The human who’s meant for him. As he heads through the snow toward the scent, his journey seems impossible, even though it’s Christmas, a time when miracles happen.

Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Angel-Rescued-Hearts-ebook/dp/B00FG92FOE/?tag=ediram-20

Amazon UK | iBooks | BN | Kobo

Thanks for stopping by! You can find me at www.edieramer.com, my Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/edieramer.author/ or Twitter https://twitter.com/edieramer.

Hi Delilah fans! I hope you all are more ready for the season than I am—I haven’t bought a single gift yet. But I’ve got a list and am starting with a gift for you.

In keeping with the season, here’s a Christmas you’ve probably never experienced. Allow me to introduce masochist Jarrod Bancroft. In this first novella, A Gift for Jarrod, we meet him as he enters Stonybrook Academy for six weeks of training in submission. Here’s an excerpt:

Several days after his session with Madam, Jarrod noticed the rhythm of the house changed. It was close to the end of his stay, and that knowledge sat in his chest like a rock. He had no idea what he wanted after this. He felt stirred up, his emotions on the surface. He almost wanted to go to the dungeon and ask for a beating so everything going on in his mind would be set aside.

Most of all, he was haunted by thoughts of Madam. Ms. Fitzgerald. A woman he’d desired since the first time he’d seen her, back when he’d been an adolescent with nothing but silly girls and masturbation to relieve the craving that came with thinking of her. A woman who could never want him. Christ, she had to be at least ten years older.

But she didn’t look that much older. She looked beautiful, her body athletic and voluptuous and… He swallowed and forced himself to think of anything else—the fire, the condensation on the window. How much longer could he stay here knowing he might never see more of her?

Damn it, he would see more of her, he decided suddenly. He wouldn’t allow this all to end without reaching some kind of agreement with her. He wouldn’t call it a relationship. But there would be ‘something.’

The girl came to help him relieve his bladder, and his breakfast arrived soon after. Then he and the other subs were scrubbed and groomed until every hair and nail shone. After lunch, massage with fragrant oils, deep enough to relieve any lingering ache, left him blissfully relaxed. His brief glances out the windows found a light snow falling on the already deep layer that banked around the evergreens and along the distant rock walls. The snow only added to his sense of pleasure.

By late afternoon, they were taken to the third floor to a large central space framed in soaring timbers and natural wood with an enormous Christmas tree standing in the center and reaching almost to the high ceiling. It glittered with multi-colored lights and a profusion of ornaments, nothing like the sedate monochromatic trees his mother preferred but instead an almost gaudy explosion of every color and shape imaginable. Quiet strains of music played in the background, some of it recognizable seasonal classics. He grinned, walking around the tree with the other subs, all of them enjoying a surprising recess from their normal discipline.

He glanced around the massive room. Wreaths hung on four glass doors that led to a snow-covered deck which overlooked the same view he saw from his bedroom. Comfortable couches and arm chairs clustered around coffee tables in conversational groupings. Red candles burned here and there, sending off a tantalizing aroma of cinnamon and spice. Flames leapt from logs in an immense fireplace at the far end of the room where a long mantle hosted a row of colorful stockings, dishes of candy canes, and more evergreen boughs. He wanted to laugh out loud.

Platters of food spread over a large table draped in white cloth and positioned near the tree: smoked meats and salmon, trays of cheeses, fondue pots with bagna cauda, creamy rarebit and a smooth Swiss mixture, platters of crisp fresh vegetables for dipping, caviar and fresh crusty loaves of dark and light bread, olives and pickles, nuts and candied dried fruits. On the end under heat lamps were a ham wreathed in pineapple glaze and a roast partially carved to reveal the succulent pink interior. Bottles of wine, sparkling crystal glasses, ornate silverware and heavy china—he’d never seen such an elaborate set-up even at his parents’ home where they prided themselves on outdoing their friends. Two or three uniformed helpers worked in an open kitchen area at the end opposite the fireplace and more delectable smells escaped from there.

Ordered to kneel along the wall near the fireplace, he and the others watched as guests began to arrive. Surprisingly, none of them wore masks. Evidently they all knew each other. They were laughing and talking, wearing exotic flowing clothes of silk and velvet, supple fitted leather, or immaculately tailored suits of the finest tweed or worsted. The stream of arrivals amused and satisfied him in a way he had never expected. No one seemed to notice that he and the other trainees were without clothing. Anticipation fired through him. He felt free.

Madam—Ms. Fitzgerald—appeared along with workers he recognized from his stay. She looked incredibly beautiful, her dark hair piled up high, her cheeks pink with excitement. She wore a navy fitted suit, its jacket fastened with one button and evidently nothing underneath. The skirt hugged her hips and thighs and ended just above the knee. At her feet were very high heels in shiny black, and a wave of emotion rolled over him so strongly he felt weak.

How had six weeks flown by so quickly? How would he live now, away from here, away from her?

She circulated among the guests. Everyone talked in excited voices, standing in energetic knots or sprawled around on the chairs and couches. They were drinking, laughing, some of them passing joints. Jarrod tried to think whether he had never seen people like these. Maybe there had been a subtle undercurrent of such things at his parents’ parties, or at college, or at the firm—but he couldn’t recollect any specific details that would have hinted at such. It made complete sense that people like this—like him—had to be in a safe place before they could let their truth show.

He watched them touch each other’s bodies in casual ways in expressions of pleasure, attraction, fondness. Some of the women’s breasts were exposed, but after what he’d experienced here for so long, the sight of nipples no longer seemed like a big deal. Most of his attention followed Ms. Fitzgerald, and more than once, she caught his stare and the air between them sparked with something almost palpable. He resisted the urge to stand up and walk to her, damn the consequences.

He and the others who had been through the same training session had remained kneeling at the side of the room. At times, he felt one or another guest’s eyes raking over him. His and the other men’s cocks remained hard most of the time now, and he accepted that with a certain amount of pride, just as he felt sure that the women trainees felt satisfaction with the moisture rimming the inner crease of their denuded pubic mounds and the enlarged clitorises peeking from those enticing slits.

There were sixteen of the trainees and the guests many times more not counting the staff. The room buzzed with conversation, laughter, the clink of glasses. The faint scent of marijuana came to his nose every so often, and he inhaled with the hope of catching a bit of the high. He tried to imagine how he and the others would be of service in what was clearly meant to be a holiday celebration. So many delicious scents roiled in the air, so many beautiful lights dazzled his eyes, and the rise and fall of familiar musical strains tugged at his emotions.

You lucky cocksucker, you’ve gone through hell and emerged on the other side.

With an order to stand, one of the staff began working his way down the line of trainees with a bowl and a brush, painting the women’s breasts and mounds, the men’s nipples and cocks with some kind of solution. The freedom to look around had emboldened Jarrod, and Carson gave a quick grin at his questioning look.

“Peppermint candy,” Carson murmured as he stroked a drippy layer over Jarrod’s cock.

The effects came soon enough, a tingling sensation at first and then a deeper burning agitation that made him long to touch and rub. The guests drifted in their direction, and soon the row of subs were under assault as mouths sucked at the liquid candy. Oohs and moans rippled through the room, and in spite of the order to stand without moving, he couldn’t avoid the roll of his hips as one after another mouth closed over his swollen cock or nibbled on his sensitized nipples. The atmosphere became charged with sexual energy.

Soon the entertaining diversion ended, though, and the guests wandered off to cluster around the food table and pour more wine. His gaze, hungry for the visual feast after so many days of blindfolds and keeping his eyes cast down, roamed over the assembly finding one after another remarkable activity that only added to his excitement. One of the men leaned back in the couch as another man unzipped his pants. He looked away, not sure if he should be looking. Intrigued, he glanced back. The man’s cock stood in the air with the other man’s tongue sliding up and down it. Absurdly, he felt nothing but jealousy and desire.

Around them, people laughed in excited conversations. Other intimacies were underway, he realized, all very casual as if part of every-day life. Wine glasses clinked, drinks rattled over ice.

Someone approached him, and he realized it was Ms. Fitzgerald. Her skin glowed in the golden light of the room, all the reflections of ornaments, candles, the fire. Her green eyes sparkled as she neared. At the lapels of her fitted jacket, he could see the curve of her breasts. His chest burned as he struggled with how to express the avalanche of feelings coursing through him, how to thank her, how to make the connection he now felt desperate to make. If he had been alone, he would have seized her arms and crushed her lips with his own.

“Jarrod,” she said, smiling, “I trust you’re feeling well today.”

A shock wave ran over him at her use of his name. Instantly he was in a too-small desk in her classroom.

“Yes, Madam,” he stammered. “Thank you.”

Ignorant wretch, say something meaningful.

“How…are you…look beautiful,” he stammered.

Her gaze glimmered and narrowed, and for an instant, he allowed himself to think that some of the desire he felt might be reciprocated. But then, she backed up a few steps and addressed all the trainees.

“Congratulations on your successful stay here at the Academy, students. You’ve been excellent trainees, and I hope what you have experienced will serve you well. And now, I trust you’ll enjoy your evening with our guests.” She smiled. “We move on to the games,” she announced. And she signaled the staff.

The male students were lined up in what turned out to be a game of tossing wreaths. The small padded wreaths, less than a foot in diameter, were tossed by the guests with the objective of landing on erect penises. A line set by a long green ribbon held the guests ten feet away from their targets, and the room dissolved into laughter and catcalls as guests took their turns. Despite careful aiming and effusive advice, the contestants often failed to land their wreathes successfully even with three permitted tries. It then became a contest of how many wreathes would collect on any male’s particular cock. Less well-endowed males suffered a disadvantage, and the weight of the padded wreathes caused the organs to droop. More than one trainee lost his collection as gravity took its toll. Ultimately the length of the cock determined how many might fit.

Jarrod shuddered with the increasing need to ejaculate as the firm, cottony circles assaulted his groin and upper thighs. His long deprivation rose like a monolithic burden no longer to be endured. Each throw of a wreath resulted in some form of physical contact, even though few of them actually caught on his cock. The laughter of so many observers only heightened his humiliation which in turn added to his arousal.

At the end though, seven of the narrow rings collected on his still-upward pointing organ as its swollen tip oozed pre-ejaculate. To much applause and dressed in fine black leather pants and an open leather vest, Carson came over to hold up Jarrod’s hand and declare him the winner. As the wreaths were removed and his loins throbbed for release, he cast his glance around the room for Madam.

By god, he wouldn’t let this night end without having her.

 (More…)

Read what happens before and after this night for only 99¢ (free with Kindle Unlimited).  If you like the heat and kink, you’ll love the full collection of five novellas in Jarrod Bancroft: The Novel.

A Gift for Jarrod, Book 1 — https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GYGE3ZM

Jarrod Bancroft: The Novel — https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00QR2SDKE

Sign up for my free monthly newsletter, Liz’s Hot News, at https://eepurl.com/bHOyS9 Newsletter signup by midnight December 13 enters you in a drawing for a surprise gift package!

Follow me for free erotic short works on my website https://lizzieashworth.com/

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Thanks for having me as your guest today, Delilah!

I’ve always been intrigued by post-apocalyptic worlds, whether in the style of Mad Max or the more somber visualization of McCarthy’s The Road. Since I’m also a big fan of kissing and happily ever afters, writing a ménage romance set in a world devastated by alien attack was a lot of fun!

PAIRED PURSUIT releases December 1. It’s my first published novel, and I’m already hard at work on the third in the series (the second will release in May).

Here’s the blurb (and the delicious cover!):

Danger rises in the night…and so does desire.

Matched Desire, Book 1

Her last living relative dead, Mari is evicted from her shipping container and leaves Flagstaff for the first time in seven years. Boarding a train for Scar City (formerly Reno), she keeps a white-knuckle grip on her debilitating panic attacks.

When the train lurches, she loses that grip—and is picked up, calmed down, and turned on by the only other passengers in the car.

Finn and Gareth are under orders from their superiors to follow a slim lead on a stolen alien device. At first Mari is only a pleasant distraction, but through their telepathic Twin link, the brothers discover they both sense a powerful attraction to her that goes far beyond pheromones.

With dawning horror, Mari learns the Twins are after the same device she’s seeking, her only hope to get money for a better life. Once they reach Scar City, the three realize they’re living on borrowed time—unless they can discover the device’s secrets before attacking aliens bring the city walls tumbling down.

Warning: Contains two genetically modified warrior heroes, a woman whose worst nightmare is wide open spaces, and distractions of a vibratory nature.

Available for pre-order: Samhain Publishing, Amazon, Kobo, Nook, AmazonUK

Excerpt from Paired Pursuit

Copyright © 2015 Clare Murray
All rights reserved — a Samhain Publishing, Ltd. publication

“I’m not brave, though.” She cast them a confused look. “The moment we left the gates, I felt like hyperventilating.”

“Yet you continued all the same,” Gareth said, reaching into his backpack for what he required. He palmed the small vibrator, turning back to Mari.

“I did, but I’ll be on the edge of panic until we get back. Something might happen to the bike… We might get stranded out here, and it’s already nearly noon.”

“I have something that’ll help distract you.” Gareth held up the vibe. It had been state-of-the-art in pre-Invasion time, top of the line, with an external part that stimulated the clitoris. He’d always wanted to use it but had been saving it for someone special.

Mari’s eyes widened. “Is that…?”

“Not a threat. A promise.” Gareth grinned wickedly, tucking it back into his pocket. “So if you start panicking, you think about me pulling over and sliding that into you.”

“You’d do that?” She eyed him sidelong, but he saw the flare of excitement she couldn’t hide.

“It vibrates,” he said, leaning forward to speak into her ear, “and I have the remote control in my pocket. So if I see you getting all nervous again, I’m going to bring you to orgasm. Right there in my sidecar.”

Her expression—a mixture of anticipation and shock—was priceless. Gareth gave her no chance to argue or back out, bundling her into the sidecar and handing her a helmet. As he and Finn mounted the bike, Gareth made sure Mari was looking, and patted his pocket.

In response, her hand curled around the metal handlebar, but it wasn’t the white-knuckled grip she’d employed on the way out here. Good. She was calmer, much calmer than she had been on the way out. It was so much damn fun, playing with Mari.

Author Bio:

Clare Murray was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, living aboard a boat in her early childhood. She has a degree in Journalism and has worked in libraries in both California and London. In 2006 she moved to England, where she now lives happily with her husband and two children.

Find her here: website, Twitter, or Facebook