by Mlissa | Jan 22, 2011 | Sugar Rush, Uncategorized
Bad mood. That is the theme today. I swear I need to set these up for the next month so I don’t keep posting so late. I am so sorry, readers… I’ll do better, I promise. I’m spending so much time getting organized and such, so, this is going to change…
And being this late puts me in a bad mood, but we’re gonna blame DH for it since he left me alone in the kitchen section of the Kohl’s today. He knows I have no willpower when it comes to the kitchen section. You can leave me in almost any other section, well, maybe not the jewelry or purse section, but any other section and I could really care less. The kitchen section though… Yeah, I’m a lost cause, I know this.
So, who do I have that’s bad mood material? Hmmm… Why don’t we go with Jane from Sugar Rush… She spends a lot of time in a bad mood in the book.
Snippet:
“How did the delivery go, honey?”
“‘Honey’? What’s with people today? That’s the second time I’ve been called ‘honey.’ I wasn’t his honey, and I’m not your honey.”
“People? Did something go wrong with the client?”
Jane snorted, quite unladylike, and agitatedly unzipped her snow jacket. “Right. As if you didn’t know.” The drive back to the city had been better than the drive to the mountains. The roads were not quite as slick with the sun out, and she’d had ample time to fume not only about Edward sending her on a long-ass delivery but a bogus one at that.
However, if she were honest with herself, she’d admit that that wasn’t what had her so on edge. It was that thoughts of the cowboy wouldn’t go away. He was all tall, tanned skin, rugged hands, and sun-streaked, dark blond hair reminiscent of a surfer. She shook her head. Great, a cowboy surfer. Perfect. Neither of which would ever be interested in her.
She’d never wanted a man so much in her life as she had wanted him the moment he’d opened the door. His grin was cocky, and his eyes were dark and lustful. His skintight jeans had hugged his hips and hidden nothing, and his soft black sweater defined every muscle in his chest. His feet had been bare and while she’d never paid much attention to a man’s feet before, his not being covered by socks or sneakers or boots had been so homey, so casual that she’d found it incredibly sexy. The thought then and now gave her pause. Sexy feet? She’d heard of men loving a woman’s painted toenails, but she’d never thought about a man’s feet before. God, is this how low she’d sunk? How long it had been for her without her having realized it that not only was she looking at his ass in a pair of jeans and his upper body in a sweater, but she was now thinking a man looked hot and sexy with bare feet?
She groaned and took off her snow jacket, then hung it up on the hook behind the door. She licked her lips, which brought to mind his kiss. His lips had been so soft and so rough at the same time when he’d had the audacity to briefly touch them to hers. His fingers on her face had made her feel all warm and fuzzy inside, and she didn’t like it. Not one little bit.
It meant that she was starting to feel again and soon she would start to want. In that moment though, she would ignore the fact that she already wanted him. A lot. In a very big way.
Besides, he was young. Way too young for her. No wrinkles creasing his face, no gray at his temples. He had the smooth edges of a younger man, and she had no business fantasizing about him, wanting him. But damn oh damn oh damn…
“What’s wrong?”
She whirled toward Edward and planted her hands on her hips. “What’s wrong? You sent me out there with an empty box of truffles. You sent me way the hell out there to a gorgeous hunk of man with an empty box of truffles. Why, Edward? Why on earth would you do that to me?”
He didn’t even look chagrined. He didn’t look surprised that she’d figured it out. He didn’t even look at her with a hint of embarrassment at having been caught setting her up. He just gave her a straightforward look, and she knew she wasn’t going to like his answer.
“Do you want the truth, Jane? Do you really want the truth?”
“Of course I want the truth.” She did, didn’t she? Yes, yes, yes. Truth was a good thing. Right? Right.
“All right, then. I did it because I am tired of you sitting in that chair, staring out at nothing, watching all those awful reality shows. You’re eating truffles and junk food and, quite frankly, it’s depressing. I am tired of it. Phillip’s gone. He broke up with you and yet the world still goes round and round. Let it go. Move on with your young and wonderful life because he sure as hell moved on with his.”
Dammit. She didn’t like the truth. She’d have preferred he lie through his pearly whites. She didn’t like the truth because he was right. Phillip had dumped her and moved on with his life and his lovers. What was her problem? It wasn’t like Phillip was really worth pining over, not like, say, Cowboy Surfer would be. If ever there was a man worthy of moping and crying over, it was him, not some GQ cover model wannabe like Phillip who had the emotional depth of a shot glass and probably not even that deep.
But that was all beside the point. Edward was in the wrong here.
“You’re not even going to deny trying to set me up with him? Jeez, Edward.” Jane honestly didn’t know if she should hit him or hug him. Deep down, she knew he had her best interests at heart. “Oh, and speaking of young lives…how young is he?”
Oh now his cheeks turned a little pink. Interesting. “I don’t know.”
He was trying to ignore her by busying himself with wiping the kitchen counters, tidying the canisters, fiddling with the edges of recipe pages. She wasn’t buying it. “Don’t give me that. You do know. How young is he?”
“In his twenties.” It took a second, but when she didn’t say anything, he looked up and was met with her stare. They both knew she could outstare him any day of the week, so she stood there with her hands on her hips, tapped her toe, and waited. “Oh fine. He’s twenty-six.”
Jane closed her eyes, hung her head, and groaned loud and long. “Twenty-six?” Oh God, she was robbing the cradle. “I can’t believe you set me up with a…a…kid.”
Edward sighed dramatically, and it brought her head up. “He’s not a kid. He’s an adult, barely ten years younger than you. A beautiful adult too, in case you hadn’t noticed. Do you know how many women and men would just die for him to look in their direction? And he’s interested in dating you.”
“Well, he’s too young, and I don’t want to date. Don’t you remember me swearing off men? And as for the interested in dating me comment…please,” she scoffed. “He hadn’t even seen me until today and for all you know, this little meeting you arranged could have gone horribly wrong and he’s no longer interested in me.”
She spun away and finished undressing. Her shoes; her lovely, sexy, Carrie Bradshaw-esque shoes were long gone and carelessly tossed into a corner with the word ridiculous echoing through their laces. The bottoms of the snowsuit were flung over the back of the chaise, and she walked across the loft into her bedroom in her long underwear.
end snippet
Oh yes, Miss Jane here is just fit to be tied…grins. I loved her.
Please check out (though I’m quite sure you already have given what time it is…) the snippets from the following authors:
Leah Braemel
Mari Carr
McKenna Jeffries
Taige Crenshaw
Delilah Devlin
Eliza Gayle
TJ Michaels
Lauren Dane
Jody Wallace
Shelli Stevens
Have a great weekend!
~lissa
by Mlissa | Nov 27, 2010 | Loose Id, Sugar Rush
Bad dates. We’ve all had them. We’ve all gone drinking after them. We’ve all called our best friend and cried because of them. We’ve all laughed at them.
Now, the whole date doesn’t have to be bad, but how it ends can turn it into one all within the span of a few seconds. I’ve had some great dates until it was time to say goodnight and well, then everything just went downhill. An entire date can be ruined in hindsight if he doesn’t call back. It’s all in the perspective. At least that’s how I look at it.
So, let’s take a snippet from Sugar Rush, shall we…
Snippet:
“…willing to pay you if…”
Jane didn’t want to hear anymore. She was numb, speechless. She’d heard Edward and Graham talking out in the kitchen while she’d been in her room getting dressed and wanted to know what they were saying. In hindsight, she wished she hadn’t. Or at least a part of her wished that.
She stomped her way into the living room and glared at the two men that had turned stunned looks her way. She’d known better, but damn, all it had taken was his sexy voice, his even sexier kisses, and his… Best not to go there.
“Jane?”
“Oh don’t you ‘Jane’ me, Edward. You would have paid him? Am I so hideous that you would consider paying a man to be set up with me?”
“You came in at the tail end of a conversation. And I’ve never said anything about you being hideous.”
She almost felt bad at catching them in their very enlightening conversation. “But, you would have. How could you, Edward? Do you have any idea how humiliating this is? Not only were you setting me up on a blind date, you were willing to pay him to date me if…”
“Jane…”
Graham no longer looked stunned at her entrance. No, he looked ready to take her up against the wall and fuck again. He was so beautiful she just wanted to stamp her feet in righteous anger. And hurt. She couldn’t forget hurt. Anger she would get over; hurt had longer and better staying power “And you!” She rounded on Graham. “Were you willing to take money to take me out?”
“I didn’t agree to anything beyond meeting you, but no, I wouldn’t have taken money. You’ve taken it out of context.”
She sighed and buried her face in her hands. When she looked back up, it took all she had not to cry, or scream, or run across the room and jump his bones. “I can’t believe this. You,” she said, looking at Edward, “set me up with him and were willing to pay him for it if you couldn’t get him to agree. A gorgeous, and God, he is gorgeous, isn’t he…younger man, by a good ten years and…this is almost laughable, this part…I fell for him.” His age really didn’t bother her. He didn’t seem as immature as a man in his midtwenties might, but she was grasping at straws, and the age argument was a damn good one for the moment.
“Jane…” Both men spoke her name together, and she just shook her head, not wanting to hear from either of them.
“No. I had almost gotten over the embarrassment of being set up in the first place, as though I couldn’t find a date on my own. But, that I was so pathetic as to have my best friend willing to shell out cash for a date for me… I need some time. I need to think about this.” She looked at Graham and had to steel herself against crawling across the floor to him and undoing his jeans. He was that potent a draw to her. “Thanks for the fuck, but you really need to leave this time. I may not have meant it last night when I kept telling you to go, but that was just to keep me from making a fool of myself because I wanted you so much. I guess I didn’t do a very good job. I made a fool of myself anyway.” She couldn’t look at him anymore. Not when all she really wanted was to look at him every hour of every day for as long as he’d let her. She turned around and went back into her bedroom.
“Jane, honey…”
She stopped in the doorway and drew a shaky breath. “No, Edward. I don’t want to talk anymore, not until later, maybe tomorrow.” She walked in and slammed the door to her room, turning the lock. She had never felt so alone, so… At least after Phillip dumped her, she’d had Edward to turn to, Edward’s shoulder to cry on. This time, she had no one, dammit.
Looking over at her bed and the rumpled sheets, she just wanted to cry. They would smell like him. They would smell like sex. She closed her eyes against the wave of anger that roared through her body. Where in the hell was the hurt she was counting on? She needed the hurt, the pain… It would keep her safe. Anger would just…well, it would just piss her off and still allow her to want him, and want him she did. Naked and hard so they could have angry sex that would lead into makeup sex that would lead into the “let’s fight more often so we can fuck and make up again and again” sex.
She didn’t know what the hell to do with being mad.
She yanked the sheets from the bed. She wanted to toss them out the window onto the street below. She wanted to take them out into the living room and throw them at Graham. Humiliation still burned and tears still threatened to fall, but instead of what she wanted to do, she simply wrapped the sheet around her body and crawled onto the mattress, buried her head in the pillow he’d slept on, and screamed for all she was worth.
End snippet…
Don’t forget to check out these awesome authors and Bad Dates snippets:
Mari Carr
McKenna Jeffries
Taige Crenshaw
Vivian Arend
Ashley Ladd
Delilah Devlin
HelenKay Dimon
Shelley Munro
TJ Michaels
Shelli Stevens
Jody Wallace
~lissa
by Mlissa | Oct 23, 2010 | Sugar Rush
I have a few secondary characters that people have liked, however, the one that most have talked about or written to me about, is Edward, the gay best friend from Sugar Rush. So, he’s my snippet for today.
Edward is Jane’s business partner in their spicy chocolate truffle business. They met in a candy making class and became fast friends. They share a loft, share a business, and share everything else, except for sex. He is the best gay friend, and yeah, I know, cliche, but he’s wonderful. And Jane would be LOST without him.
Snippet:
“What’s wrong?”
She whirled toward Edward and planted her hands on her hips. “What’s wrong? You sent me out there with an empty box of truffles. You sent me way the hell out there to a gorgeous hunk of man with an empty box of truffles. Why, Edward? Why on earth would you do that to me?”
He didn’t even look chagrined. He didn’t look surprised that she’d figured it out. He didn’t even look at her with a hint of embarrassment at having been caught setting her up. He just gave her a straightforward look, and she knew she wasn’t going to like his answer.
“Do you want the truth, Jane? Do you really want the truth?”
“Of course I want the truth.” She did, didn’t she? Yes, yes, yes. Truth was a good thing. Right? Right.
“All right, then. I did it because I am tired of you sitting in that chair, staring out at nothing, watching all those awful reality shows. You’re eating truffles and junk food and, quite frankly, it’s depressing. I am tired of it. Phillip’s gone. He broke up with you and yet the world still goes round and round. Let it go. Move on with your young and wonderful life because he sure as hell moved on with his.”
Dammit. She didn’t like the truth. She’d have preferred he lie through his pearly whites. She didn’t like the truth because he was right. Phillip had dumped her and moved on with his life and his lovers. What was her problem? It wasn’t like Phillip was really worth pining over, not like, say, Cowboy Surfer would be. If ever there was a man worthy of moping and crying over, it was him, not some GQ cover model wannabe like Phillip who had the emotional depth of a shot glass and probably not even that deep.
But that was all beside the point. Edward was in the wrong here.
“You’re not even going to deny trying to set me up with him? Jeez, Edward.” Jane honestly didn’t know if she should hit him or hug him. Deep down, she knew he had her best interests at heart. “Oh, and speaking of young lives…how young is he?”
Oh now his cheeks turned a little pink. Interesting. “I don’t know.”
He was trying to ignore her by busying himself with wiping the kitchen counters, tidying the canisters, fiddling with the edges of recipe pages. She wasn’t buying it. “Don’t give me that. You do know. How young is he?”
“In his twenties.” It took a second, but when she didn’t say anything, he looked up and was met with her stare. They both knew she could outstare him any day of the week, so she stood there with her hands on her hips, tapped her toe, and waited. “Oh fine. He’s twenty-six.”
Jane closed her eyes, hung her head, and groaned loud and long. “Twenty-six?” Oh God, she was robbing the cradle. “I can’t believe you set me up with a…a…kid.”
Edward sighed dramatically, and it brought her head up. “He’s not a kid. He’s an adult, barely ten years younger than you. A beautiful adult too, in case you hadn’t noticed. Do you know how many women and men would just die for him to look in their direction? And he’s interested in dating you.”
“Well, he’s too young, and I don’t want to date. Don’t you remember me swearing off men? And as for the interested in dating me comment…please,” she scoffed. “He hadn’t even seen me until today and for all you know, this little meeting you arranged could have gone horribly wrong and he’s no longer interested in me.”
She spun away and finished undressing. Her shoes; her lovely, sexy, Carrie Bradshaw-esque shoes were long gone and carelessly tossed into a corner with the word ridiculous echoing through their laces. The bottoms of the snowsuit were flung over the back of the chaise, and she walked across the loft into her bedroom in her long underwear.
Self-consciousness and modesty were long gone between her and Edward, both knowing the other couldn’t care less about being seen in underwear or naked. She stripped down to her pink cotton underwear, unhooked her matching pink bra and tossed it into a corner, then put on her most favorite outfit of late: gray sweats and purple wooly socks. “How did you meet him, anyway?” she called out, loud enough to be heard from the bedroom.
Once changed, she returned to the main room and curled up in her favorite, aforementioned chair. It, too, was purple. She had spent way too much time moping, pouting, and crying over a jerk that hadn’t even had the decency to end their two-year relationship in person. He’d sent her an e-mail, of all things, the day after they’d gotten back from a Labor Day weekend trip. A day later, she’d found a box outside the loft door full of stuff given and shared between them. He wanted no reminders of their time together and for some dumbass reason thought she did.
Calling him a jerk was really far too generous.
“A bar.”
Jane’s attention was back on Edward. She swiveled around in the chair and knelt on the plush cushion, with her gaze riveted on her roommate, both her eyebrows lifted in surprise. “A bar? You were in a bar? A non-gay bar?”
“Yes,” came his exasperated answer. “Why are you so surprised?”
“Are you serious? Edward, I’ve known you for a long time now and while I don’t pretend to know everything about you, I do know that you don’t go to straight bars.”
“Very well. If you must know, I was there with a…friend.”
Edward left the kitchen with a truffle in his hand and came toward her. She held hers out to receive the confection. “What kind of friend?”
“None of your business. I thought you wanted to know about my meeting with Mr. Hunky.”
“I do, it’s just… Okay, okay, you met him in a bar. And?”
She broke the truffle apart and slipped half of it in her mouth. Her eyes closed as the candy melted on her tongue and a small bit of heat kicked the back of her throat. She moaned in pleasure. They never got old, these truffles. She would bet her heart alone had healed because she had been consuming them in mass quantities every day for the last few months. What they were doing to her hips was a different story, one she would deal with later. Much, much later.
“And I thought that he might be good for you. He’s a solitary guy, normal. He’s new to the area, not looking for anything, not running away from anything either. He seemed nice enough that I had to try.”
She popped the other half of the truffle into her mouth. Edward really did love her, but… “Did he know you were setting him up?”
“Yes, but he didn’t know when. I didn’t tell him anything about you. Except…well, except that you were getting over a breakup. Nothing else, though. I mean, at least not the humiliating way it happened, not even that you’ve been dragging out the recovery for months.” Another piece of candy was deposited in her hand as he walked by and into his bedroom. “Now, if you don’t mind, I have a date tonight, and I’d prefer not to be late.”
So not only had he set her up with the Hunk of the Month, he’d also spilled how pathetic she’d been. Fabulous.
Wait a second. “A date? You have a date? Oh my God. Who else have you set me up with, Edward? And what time is he showing up?”
“No one,” he called from the other room.
Great. Just great. “I hope he doesn’t mind sweats because I’m not changing clothes again. I might even go scrub the makeup off my face so he gets the au naturel vision,” she mumbled.
Edward walked back in, and she turned in her chair, snuggling down into its comfy plushness. “Did you record my show?”
He slipped into his black trench coat and wrapped a bright blue scarf around his neck. “No.”
“Why not? I asked you before I left. I said please and everything.”
“Those shows are awful, Jane. They have nothing to do with reality.”
“Exactly. Why do you think I watch them? They’re stupid and funny and not at all like my life.”
“Your life is wonderful.”
“Right.”
“Take care of yourself tonight. No more sweets. Eat a salad. Drink some water. And don’t wait up. I hope not to be back until morning.”
“Not until morning? Edward, no date of mine is going to last so long that you can’t come home.”
“Jane, I do have a date. I am going out. I have not set you up with anyone else tonight.” He winked at her and blew her a kiss as he left.
She sighed and looked around the empty room. “Well damn, now what?”
End Snippet
Now, don’t forget to visit the other wonderful authors and read their snippets on secondary characters:
Mari Carr
McKenna Jeffries
Taige Crenshaw
Vivian Arend
HelenKay Dimon
Lauren Dane
Shelley Munro
Shelli Stevens
Jody Wallace
TJ Michaels
Ashley Ladd
Have a great weekend, y’all!!!
~lissa
by Mlissa | Feb 22, 2010 | Birthday Blog Party, Cowboy, Loose Id, Sugar Rush
Genre: Contemporary BBW
Length: Novel
Available from Loose Id: http://www.loose-id.com/Sugar-Rush.aspx
Blurb:
Graham Hall is twenty-six and has a dream job as a travel writer. He’s come to Colorado for work and a little personal down time. With his article done and the six-month lease up on the small cabin in the valley, he’s stayed around until his next assignment. In a downtown Denver bar, Graham meets Edward and after a short conversation agrees to a blind date with Edward’s business partner, Jane. After all, what could it hurt?
Jane is completely oblivious to the machinations of Edward and Graham and shows up at Graham’s cabin to deliver a box of handmade chocolate truffles. From the minute Graham opens the door, Jane falls head over heels in lust. A plus size, mid-thirties woman, Jane isn’t sure what Cowboy Surfer, as she’s dubbed him, sees in her or why he’s so tenacious in his pursuit and tries throwing him off at every turn.
The inability to say continue saying ‘No’ leads to hot, scorching sex and a lot of follow-up phone calls opening Jane’s eyes to the realization that maybe life doesn’t have to revolve around chocolate truffles, but rather around a delicious, well traveled younger man.
Publisher’s Note: This book contains explicit sexual content, graphic language, and situations that some readers may find objectionable: Dubious consent, voyeurism of male/male sexual interaction.
Excerpt:
“Why are you sitting down? I said you should leave.”
When he looked over at her, she emphasized her words by gesturing to the door with her thumb. His smile both irritated her and made her want to beg him to tie her to the bed and ravish her day in and day out. He was sin in real live breathing color and too freakin’ tempting. He really had to go because she didn’t know how many more times she could say no and mean it.
None and never.
“You see, I don’t give up like that. You can’t tell me to go and expect me to do so when I know that’s not what you want me to do at all.”
Figured, but then, she already knew that, didn’t she? The man was damn persistent, and it secretly made her smile. Blind date or not, he was charming. Full of himself but charming. “Well, since you know so much, tell me then, what do I want?”
“I answered that already. Come here, Jane, and stop trying to get rid of me. On the other hand, if you’d rather, I can come over there and get you. I won’t bite hard, and you’ll be glad you gave in.”
She crossed her arms over her chest and leaned against the edge of the open door. “Let’s say, for argument’s sake, you’re right. Let’s say I do want you.”
“I am, and you do.”
“Uh-huh. I know Edward told you why I’ve been a pill for the last few months and maybe it doesn’t make sense to you but, romantically, I’ve never been really successful. I have dated, but there’s never been a lot of real interest, on either side. And when Phillip dumped me… I don’t want to go through that kind of thing again. It was awful. I thought I’d found someone special, someone that I could maybe spend my life with, but I was just a stop along the way.”
“I understand. I really do, but hiding away from your feelings and your desires isn’t going to make the first step any easier no matter how long you wait, Jane. There’s always going to be an excuse not to move forward. You’re too damneddamn beautiful and sexy to just sit and let life pass you by.”
“You make me sound like an immature teenager that’s still holding out hope her first crush will realize his mistake in letting me go.”
“No. You’re just caught in a place between not wanting to be hurt again and let’s get it on. I’ve dated women your age, my age, and younger, and no one is immune to hurt. We all just process it differently.”
“Wow. You’re wise for twenty-six. Far more than I am at the ripe old age of thirty-six.”
“I told you I write for other publications. Well, one of the things I write about is relationships, usually from a romantic getaway perspective, but relationships just the same. Kind of like how to revive the spark stuff. I have a degree in creative writing and a minor in psychology.”
Jane was stunned. Really and truly stunned. So not only was Cowboy Surfer hot as hell, he was also a deep thinker, a pseudoexpert in relationships and travel. While she was just a candy maker sans formal college education. At the same time, she loved the company she and Edward had created for themselves. She might not have the degree, but she had solid business sense, creativity, and the ability to make decadent truffles that melted on the tongue. She truly loved her work. How many people could say that?
However, this between them had disaster written all over it.
He was right about one thing. No matter how long she waited to discover herself post-Phillip and let go of the past, it wasn’t going to be an easy step. Phillip hadn’t been the love of her life, but he had been special to her. If she were honest with herself, she’d admit that it had been more of a comfort thing with him. At first, at least. Toward the end, he’d begun to pressure her to lose weight, to change the way she dressed, to move the business out of the loft. It was then she’d begun to doubt herself. And now that she thought about it in those terms…
“I’m not leaving, and you have until the count of five to come over here, or I’m coming to get you. Naked. One.”
Those words brought her out of her little reverie. “What? Wait a second. You can’t be serious.” But even as she said the words, he started pulling off his boots and socks. He then stood and reached into his back pocket, took out a condom packet, and laid it on the table beside the chair. She inhaled sharply, and he looked up, smiling.
“You might want to close the door. You don’t want any of your neighbors to happen by and get an eyeful. Two.”
His hands grasped the bottom of his sweater and pulled it up, giving her a glimpse of his tanned abs. She slammed the door the second his head was free and swallowed once then swallowed again. There was a smattering of chest hair and a flat, rock-hard stomach. There was the trail of dark hair that disappeared inside the waist of his jeans…Oh God.
“Jane? You okay, darlin’?”
She shook her head but never took her eyes off him. She was definitely not okay. He was perfect and beautiful and sexy as all get out. She took an unconscious step toward him.
“That’s it. Come on. Three.”
Bad mood. That is the theme today. I swear I need to set these up for the next month so I don’t keep posting so late. I am so sorry, readers… I’ll do better, I promise. I’m spending so much time getting organized and such, so, this is going to change…
