UPDATE: The winner of the free download is…Galina Sulaiman!
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My day will be full of diapers and Spongebob today! I’ll have my feet propped up on the ottoman and my laptop on my knees. But it will be flung aside a dozen times as I chase down the 19-month-old—she tends to put things in her mouth that don’t belong there. Her favorite “food” right now is her Honest Company diapers. At least she’s no longer eating her crib—we traded the wood one for an industrial metal crib. 😯
Anyways, my day will be exhausting. So I thought about what to do for a blog today, and I’ve got nada. It’s 6:10 AM, and there is no inspiration. Yes, I have new releases to talk about, and if you want to know about them, just click on the covers below, but for right now, I’ll ask a simple question and offer you a bribe to answer it. 🙂
Post a comment today, and you’ll be entered to win a free download from either my Lone Star Lovers series or my Delta Heat series! Here’s the question…
Which month of the year has the best aromas?
LOL. Easy right? If you love the scents of honeysuckle and pina colada tanning lotion, you might love July. Love the smell of roasting turkey…? You get the drift.
And just a reminder, I do have two sexy, fun-as-hell stories out there right now…
Here’s a short excerpt from Johnny Blaze!
Johnny Blaze stood, framed by the curtain, his fireman’s hat tipped low in front, the stage lights gleaming on the shiny top and shadowing his features. His tanned chest and ripped abs were bare except for red suspenders–thankfully, attached to yellow turnout pants. His large feet were encased by black boots. He raised a finger and curled it–twice.
I shook my head, glancing behind me to find the stairs, but gentle pressure on my shoulders forced me to my knees.
“Gotta crawl, Bridget,” biker dude drawled. “All the way on your knees.”
He knew my name? Kneeling, I cut him a quick glance. “I’m in a skirt.”
His smile gleamed white against his darkly tanned face. “I know. Sweet how that worked out.” Read the rest of this entry »
Thanks for your help earlier this week with deciding which cover we should use for the Viking book. The authors had too many opinions, and I thought, why not ask readers? You tend to make more instinctual choices than we do, because we way overthink. 🙂
So it’s Friday….! Yup. New shorty. This one was in Penthouse magazine! If you look at the Penthouse cover below, it’s the “Raunchy Road Trip.” Such a proud moment. 🙂 And the story has some naughty, light S&M. Remember, it’s free to KU readers and just $0.99 for everyone else. I hope you’ll pick it up. Click on the cover to check it out on Amazon!
The Long Ride Home
Ride along with two soldiers, just returned from war, who find sweet release in the long ride home…
Note: This book was previously published in Penthouse Magazine and the Duty and Desire anthology, but has been revised and expanded.
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Excerpt:
Glancing toward Sergeant Maddox, I noted the hard edge of his jaw, the hand wrapped so tight around the steering wheel that the muscles in his forearm tensed. I didn’t have to crawl inside his head to know he didn’t want me there. So why had he told me to get in?
Was he attracted, too, but reluctant to act on it because he was still my superior? Like I’d ever tell a soul. He should have known me better than that. We’d been through hell together, and yet I’d never presumed on the bond, never asked for favors.
Did he want me to make the first move so he’d know my expectations, know just how far I wanted this to go? I smiled at the thought of all the fantasies I’d stored up over the months. And I was finally here–alone with a man who was still feeling edgy and angry.
Maybe I could help him out a bit. And maybe, he’d see me as more than a fellow soldier who’d shared the bench seat of a deuce-and-a-half truck a time or two. One I’d been driving when he’d had to talk me through a hail of gunfire as our transport convoy had come under attack.
I unbuckled my belt, ignoring his deep frown. I turned in the seat and reached for the buttons of his jacket, flicking them open then parting each side.
He didn’t say a thing, but his nostrils flared, his jaw sawed tighter.
I gripped the front of his t-shirt, bunched it in my hand, and tugged it from his ACU trousers.
His stomach jumped, and he sucked it in, making just enough room for me to get my fingers behind the waistband as I unbuckled, unbuttoned and tugged down the zip.
“Dammit, Hollister,” he said, his voice rough as gravel. “You’re gonna get us both killed.”
“Not if you keep your eyes on the road,” I said, tilting up my chin. Then I leaned over his lap, folded down the elastic band of his boxer briefs and pulled his cock upright.
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The Contest
Leave an answer to the following question in the comments and you’ll be entered to win a copy of any of the shorties in the Amazon carousel below EXCEPT The Long Ride Home. That one, I hope you’ll purchase on your own!
If you wrote a naughty story for Penthouse,
which friend or relative could you never tell?
I know f/f isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. But I’ll tell you, sometimes the sexual orientation of a story doesn’t really matter. It’s the story. Straight up. Even if it’s short. Catnip is a lesbian paranormal that I wrote originally for the anthology, She Shifters. I like to joke that it’s one part Practical Magic and one part Josie and the Pussycats. The story’s just plain fun and naughty. And isn’t that what you want from one of my stories?
I’m nearing the end of my Friday spree of short stories. Just three more to go. I’m thinking I might want to continue with a monthly release after that, but I’ll need to write new stories. And I’m thinking, I should write some naughty taboo stories. You know the kind… The young heroine has been dying to do her stepfather, and now that her mom and daddy are divorced, well… Or he’s my cousin, and if it ain’t illegal it ought to be because it’s so damn hot we’re gonna burn the barn down…
Okay, so I’m just thinkin’ about tawdry ideas. And they’d be all about the sex, which is something I love to write. Man, I could write the hell out of those! But in the meantime, I hope you’re enjoying my series of shorts. It’s been fun revising/revisiting the stories. I wanted them all to be at least 5000 words so no one would feel cheated by the word count. Next Friday, it’s a sexy prison short, Pitch Black.
Catnip
A cat-woman doll found at a garage sale reveals a lonely woman’s magical destiny…
Note: This 5000-word short story was previously published as part of the SHE SHIFTERS anthology. It may be short in length, but it’s not short in passion!
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Excerpt:
Mallory set “Miss Kitty” on the bookshelf beside her computer. She’d brushed away as much dust as she could before sponging away the grime. She’d reattached the tail with tiny stitches.
While she’d worked, she’d admired the craftsmanship of the strange little doll. The fur suit was seamless and molded to the figure. The small face wasn’t hard plastic, but something softer, with the texture of real skin. The lips, with their cat’s cleft at the center, were parted with a row of individually attached teeth beneath them. She’d stroked her thumbnail over the soft lashes surrounding those shining eyes–each lash appeared to be embedded in the lids.Perhaps there was more to the doll than what she’d originally believed. Promising herself to do a little Internet search in the morning, she turned off the bedroom light and climbed into bed.Her head no sooner hit the pillow than she heard something drop to the floor. The sound was soft, but solid.
She sighed and reached to turn on the bedside lamp. Glancing in the direction of the sound, she scanned the floor, but found nothing out of place. Only mildly perturbed, Mallory reached for the light then paused. Her gaze flicked to the bookcase. Her new doll wasn’t on the shelf where she’d placed it.
Dammit. She’d never sleep until it was back where it belonged. She crawled from the bed and searched the floor beneath the shelf. Nothing. She pulled out her desk chair to see if it had somehow tumbled beneath her desk. “Weird,” she said under her breath as she pushed the chair back into place.
A skittering sounded in the closet beside the shelf, and her heart rate accelerated. “What the hell?” The sound was too small to be a hidden intruder. Wary, she approached the closet. The door was open only a crack. Did she have a mouse? The mystery over the doll was forgotten as she worried how she’d trap it. Inching the door open, she reached inside for the string attached to the lamp on the ceiling.
A loud thump came from the back of the closet, and Mallory jumped back. Too freaking big to be a mouse. Fuck! She backed up two steps, and then ran for the bedroom door.
Before she’d gone three steps, something pounced on her back, taking her to the carpet. Hands wrapped around her wrists, pinning them to the floor. Mallory bucked, panic making her breaths come in short, shallow sobs.
“Don’t be afraid,” purred a feminine voice from right beside her ear.
The raspy quality of the voice caressed nerves Mallory chose to ignore. “Get off me,” she ground out.
“I think I’ll stay here for a moment. I don’t want you bolting again, because I wouldn’t like to hurt you. You smell good.”
“What the fuck were you doing in my closet? What do you want?”
The body covering her back resettled, curves molding to Mallory’s. “I’m not sure why I’m here. Are you a witch?” The woman’s hips undulated, grinding against Mallory’s ass.
Which made it very hard to think. “Am I a wha–”
A snarl sounded. “Just shut up a second. I can’t think.” A rumbling purr vibrated against her, growing louder as the woman on her back nuzzled her neck.
“What are you doing?” Mallory asked in a very small voice, wondering if she was going to be raped by the woman and why that thought didn’t terrify her more.
“Mmm… I’m doing what I couldn’t when you groomed me.”
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The Contest
Hope you enjoyed! Leave an answer to the following question in the comments and you’ll be entered to win a copy of any of the shorties in the Amazon carousel below EXCEPT Catnip. That one, I hope you’ll purchase on your own!
So if I decide to write some really naughty, taboo stories, what themes would you love to read? I’m taking orders! 🙂
UPDATE: The winner of one a free shorty from among those stories spinning in my carousel is…Carey Sabala!
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It’s Saturday, but I’m up early today. I’m going to a Gelli class at 9 AM with my dd and my mom. What is Gelli you might ask? It’s a printing plate made of this wiggly gel that you brayer on paint, texturize the paint with stencils or your own scribbles, then you place paper over the painted/scribbled-on plate and “pull off” a colorful printed image that you can use in mixed media art. Whew. Taking a breath after that really long sentence! And for most you, what I said didn’t mean a thing. But that’s okay. We’re going to have fun.
What can you do while I’m off playing with Gellis and paint? How about read a naughty story or two. There’s time if the story’s short! And you know what I’m going to talk about now…
I started at the end of January publishing a short story a week in the Kindle store. For Kindle Unlimited subscribers, they are free. For everyone else, they are $0.99. I have all these shorts I’ve written over, and other than grouping them in collections, and publishing them that way, I had no way for you to enjoy them. Until KU made it possible for me to get a little compensation for my effort and a nifty way for readers to “sample my wares.” It’s been fun getting each of these short stories ready for publication. I hope you’ve tried a few. Or if you have a really dead weekend, you could sample them all!
If you’d like to savor the pretty covers, I have a web page devoted to my “shorties.”
Here’s yesterday’s new addition:
The Pleasure in Surrender
After the lady of the keep bars her gates to the barbarian the king commands she wed, the half-Viking knight scales the walls of her heart…
Excerpt:
A draft brushed her face. She’d closed the door and latched the pigskin curtain over her narrow window. A scuff of a foot had her stiffening, but she heard no more above the pounding of her heart. She wasn’t alone. “Who’s there?” she whispered.
“I think you know,” came a deep, rumbling drawl.
She drew a deep breath and came up slowly, scooting to the far side of her bed. Her knife was on her chatelaine’s belt hanging from a peg beside the door. She was weaponless. “My people?”
“Your man Geade surrendered as soon as he realized the keep was overrun. No one was harmed.”
“How?”
“Does it matter? I’ve taken this castle. The only question now is one I want answered: Why did you bar the gates?”
Edwina shivered at his graveled voice. “I was promised time to grieve before I accepted another husband.”
“Alred suspected you would grieve until you were old. Did you really think he would defy the king’s order for you?”
She lifted her chin although she knew the gesture couldn’t be seen—not unless Vikings had eyes like cats. “I expected him to honor his promise. I paid for the privilege.”
“About that—he returned the gold. To me.” His footsteps drew nearer her bed. “But that doesn’t answer the question. Why, Edwina?”
Her mouth grew dry at the rasping texture of his deep voice. She swallowed and set her back against the wall. “I wed once for political expediency. This time, I wanted a choice.”
He remained silent for a long moment. “And yet you have turned away every suitor who approached you.”
“None were worthy.”
“You hold yourself in such high esteem?”
“I worried for my people. Warriors don’t make the best farmers.”
His footsteps scraped closer.
She pressed harder against cold stone.
“I will admit, I’ve little experience with farming. But I understood you were competent. That I could rely on you to teach me.”
He said the words slowly, and she tried to read his intentions in the inflections of his voice. Could he be telling her the truth? Would he allow her to continue as steward of her land? “Are we…negotiating?”
After a long moment, he cleared his throat. “You wed young.”
“I had no choice, but Malcolm was malleable and a drunk. We came to an arrangement that suited us both. I managed the estate. He drank and caroused, spending from a generous budget. We were both satisfied.”
“You managed him and the estate.”
“Yes.”
After a pause, he said, “I’m not malleable. Nor will I be managed.”
She heard the steel in his tone. She forced a derisive note into her own. “I was afraid of that. It’s why I closed the gates and prepared for a siege.”
He strode closer. His large shadow was inky black, ominous. “You do realize this is our wedding night? You are already my wife by the king’s decree. Only consummation awaits.”
Alarm rattled through her. “But there must be a wedding. The banns should be read.”
“No, Edwina. Your resistance ends tonight.”
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The Contest
Hope you enjoyed! Leave an answer to the following question in the comments and you’ll be entered to win a copy of any of the shorties in the Amazon carousel below EXCEPT The Pleasure in Surrender. That one, I hope you’ll purchase on your own!
Are you artistic, or like me, do you wish you were? And like me, do you dabble?
Psst! If you haven’t subscribed to my newsletter, now’s the time!
A new one’s coming today! Signup
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This never happens. Me, here at the end of the month. But it does give me a great opportunity to recap. 🙂
What’s my February been like? Snow, snow and more snow. Oh, and ice. And babysitting kids who should have been in school. Good news there is that menopausal women who babysit little ones have less chance of developing dementia. The problem is, if I spend any more time with them, I’ll want dementia!
But February’s been productive. Lots of stories spinning in my mind. Not any new stories actually started, but I did revise/expand/polish some things I’ve had lying around doin’ nuttin. If you missed them, here’s what released in February!
Short Stories!
One a week, as promised. Free for Kindle Unlimited subscribers and just $.099 for everyone else! And more are coming in March! So if you like a quick romantic/erotic fix—a story that gets straight to the point (er,his point), then these are for you!
The Obedient Wife: Find out what really happened between The Beauty and The Beast. Hint: It’s not your children’s fairytale!
Drive Me Crazy: She’s out for one night of passion in a trucker’s big rig…
Dr. Mullaley: She’d been warned the doctor was eccentric, but this nurse discovers his cures are of a mechanical nature…
Dreaming by the Sea: A mysterious man rising from the sea awakens a woman to her past…
Longer Stories!
Rules of Engagement (Lone Star Lovers)
This SEAL’s back in Texas and asking her to marry him one last time…
Callie Murphy’s never been one to moon over a man. Fairytale romances don’t exist outside of books and she’s seen first-hand how transitory love can be after watching her mother fall in and out of marriage.
Derek Tilden hammered home that truth when he joined the Navy to become a SEAL—he was the boy who couldn’t wait to see the world and she was the girl ready to plant deep roots. Now he’s back and asking her to marry him one last time…
Something’s on the rise in Two-Mule, Texas. And it ain’t just the temperature.
1880, West Texas
Honey Cafferty lives a happy, if precarious, existence as a traveling saleswoman. She sells her elixirs and potions while searching for the one thing she hasn’t been able to brew from the back of her colorful wagon—a sense of belonging. She arrives in Two Mule, Texas, with her Elixir of Love, a potion that improves a man’s libido but might just get her run out of town.
Sheriff Joe Tanner is protective of his little town. Downright hostile toward anyone who might take advantage of the fine folk under his protection. Any snake-oil salesman who rolls into town better just keep right on rolling.
Honey isn’t what Joe expected, from her vibrant red hair and cat-green eyes to her curvy mouth and hips. And when the men of the town begin to plead exhaustion—and place the blame squarely on her sweet-smelling shoulders—Joe has no choice but to launch an investigation. A very, very deep investigation…
Because I’m lazy like this, my contest is going to be super simple!
Answer me this (I love this ungrammatical phrase!) for a chance to win a free download from among all my currently available short stories listed here:
Have you been dreaming of summer—hot days with sweat trickling down a cold glass of tea, you in a swimsuit beside a pool/the lake/the beach?
This is a quick fly-by! I’ll be working at my dd’s shop for half the day, and then heading out to hit a flea market a couple of towns away. I love flea markets! So many hidden “treasures!” Be sure to check out the contest details at the bottom of this page!
Friday’s New Shorty
I promised a new short story every Friday until April. Here’s this week’s new release, Dr. Mullaley’s Cure.
For now, these 5000-word stories can be found only on Kindle. They are free to Kindle Unlimited readers and just $.99 to everyone else!
She’d been warned the doctor was eccentric, but this nurse discovers his cures are of a mechanical nature…
Be warned! It’s medical erotica (do you want to play doctor?)—not romance! Get it at the Kindle store!
I have a brand new page on my website devoted to the shorties. If you’d like to see what’s already out, as well as what’s coming, check it out! The Short Story Page
An excerpt:
I’d been warned the doctor was a bit eccentric. That he dabbled in machinery and had been ostracized by others in his profession for the lengths he went to please his patients.
“You’ll never find another employer,” I was told. “Not once they see your only reference is Doctor Mullaley.” The mad Irishman. The charlatan who promised cures to bored housewives and whose waiting room hadn’t been empty since I’d arrived for my first day’s work. If I hadn’t already been turned away at every other respectable physician’s practice, I might have heeded the advice. However, those warnings only served to stir my interest.
I was intensely curious about the nature of the doctor’s cures. Even more so about the conditions he treated, but they were only spoken of in whispers and never in the presence of an unmarried woman. Which made me wonder why he’d hired me. Not that I was going to complain. One glance at his tall rangy frame, frosty blue eyes and dark, slicked-back hair, and my misgivings evaporated.
However, my curiosity about the man and his practice wasn’t to be satisfied at that moment, because the doctor waved me toward the reception desk where I worked at fitting in patients who arrived without an appointment. A task I found akin to cinching in the waist of a corset. There was only so much ribbon one could pull before something gave.
That something was the inimitable Mrs. Davies. She arrived in a dudgeon. Cheeks flushed, eyes a little wild. The afternoon was very balmy, and the painstaking curls at the sides of her cheeks had wilted and stretched toward her jaw like earthworms. I couldn’t help staring while she tapped the counter with a sturdy finger, insisting her needs were of the highest import. If she didn’t receive a treatment that afternoon, somebody would hear about it. Read the rest of this entry »
It’s Saturday morning and I slept in just a little. So I’m running just a little behind. I was going to post something mind-blowingly clever, but now I only have time for this.
There are TWO chances to win something today. Look for ’em!
A Random Scavenger Hunt
I just completed updates to my website, and since I went to that expense, someone is going to darn well enjoy it! (Do you hear the maniacal laughter?)
Following are the questions. You can find the ALL the answers on my website. Be sure to email me your answers DIRECTLY to me at delilah@delilahdevlin.com. Do not help everyone else by posting your answers in the comments! For everyone who sends me their answers, they will be entered to win a $5 gift certificate from Amazon.com! So, not a lot of money, but hey—that could get you five $.99 stories on Amazon!
The Questions:
1) What three stories appear on my Bookshelf page?
2) Which story cover on my Upcoming/Coming Soon page depicts a woman wearing a monocle?
3) Have you signed up for both my newsletter and to get my blog emailed right to your inbox? *hint* Glance down the left-hand column of this blog.
4) What book is coming April 15 and is ready for pre-order now?
Friday’s New Shorty
Just FYI. I promised a new short story every Friday until April.
This week’s new release is Drive Me Crazy. For now, these 5000-word stories can be found only on Kindle. They are free to Kindle Unlimited readers and just $.99 to everyone else.
She’s out for one night of passion in a trucker’s big rig…
I have a brand new page on my website devoted to the shorties. If you’d like to see what’s already out, as well as what’s coming, check it out! Shortie Page
Contest
Win a free download of either Wet Down or Watch Over Me! All you have to do is answer the following questions in the comments!
Which covers on the Shorties page most appeal to you?
