Yes Yes Yes!!! I know I’m late. I know I’m super late. I was Christmas shopping. I should be given a pardon for that… For the next month!

Our theme today is Birthdays. My 40th is in a few months and I’ll be doing a HUGE party on my blog(s) and giving out fantastic prizes. I can’t wait to share it all with you and celebrate!

In the meantime, the following snippet is from my upcoming (Ssshhh) Ellora’s Cave novella, Ink Spots, wherein the heroine is giving an awesome birthday gift in the form of her fantasy man! Now, what gal wouldn’t want that?

Snippet 1:

Mandi dried her freshly washed face and looked into the mirror above the sink. She was naked save for her bra, hardly able to believe Jaz was there, standing on the other side of the room, waiting for her. She could hardly believe he’d just taken her from behind against one of the tables the other girls used to put on their make-up. She could hardly believe she’d admitted to crushing on him and that he’d admitted the same thing…

Turning forty wasn’t so damn bad, after all.

“So, where do you want to get something to eat from? Here?”

Jaz’s voice curled in her belly, warm and sexy. She’d never come across anyone like him before. He was a huge brick wall of a man covered in tattoos, looking every inch like a man that would just as soon rip you limb from limb as to look at you if you crossed him wrong. He had good friends, a couple of businesses, and Jackie thought the sun rose and set with him.

“No, not here.”

When Mandi first met him, she remembered being a little afraid to talk to him, what with the way he looked at her like he hated her on sight, but then watched her intently with lust burning in his dark blue eyes. Her own reactions bothered her a little at first, too. Every time she saw him she wanted to climb up his large solid body and never climb down. She wanted those strong arms around her, that deep voice rumbling through him into her, his lips on hers, his penis easing the ache inside her. And it all made her shy around him for fear she’d blurt out her feelings, her desires.

All that changed the minute he walked into the dressing room and now he was hers, for the entire twenty-four hours of her birthday. She was going to have to hug Jackie for making the move it seemed neither Jaz nor Mandi were going to make on their own.

“Then where? It’s not like we’ve got a huge selection of places that are open after midnight here.”

Mandi pulled a black sweater and a pair of jeans out of her bag, along with a new pair of panties. She always carried a duffle with her when she went to work with a change of clothes inside. Tonight she was doubly grateful for it. After snapping the jeans and pulling the sweater on over her head, she slid her bare feet into a pair of glittery flip-flops, grabbed her purse, her duffle now filled with her work clothes, her boots, and her wig, and walked back out to the main area of the room to a waiting Jaz.

His gaze took her in from head to toe, stopping in the center of her chest at the v-neck of the sweater. She hadn’t put any more make-up on, just a light tinted moisturizer and a little dab of lip gloss. It really wasn’t until right then, standing in front of him for the first time without her boots that she realized just how big a difference there was in their heights. He dwarfed her and she inwardly grinned at the odd picture they would make being out together.

“Pancakes.”

He raised his eyes to meet hers, one dark brown brow lifted in question. “Pancakes?”

Mandi nodded emphatically. “Yes. One of my favorite foods in all the world and a tradition on my birthday.”

“Well then, if it’s pancakes my birthday girl wants, then it’s pancakes she shall have.”

He stepped back and opened door for her in a grand gesture, sweeping his arm for her to walk out ahead of him. She couldn’t help or stop the smile knowing she must look goofy with it plastered on her face from ear to ear, but she didn’t care. She also wasn’t going to touch his comment, wasn’t going to ask about the possessive word ‘my’, she was just going to enjoy the unbelievable reality of having him all to herself for a while when she didn’t for a second imagine he would be interested in her.

Once in the hallway, she turned away from the noise coming from the front of the building and slipped out the back entrance to the employee parking lot. “I’ll take you around to your car and I guess… Do we want to take one car?”

Snippet 2:

Mandi sat backwards in the chair, straddling the seat, and reclined so that she was in a near prone position on her belly. She hadn’t planned on a tattoo for her birthday, but then she hadn’t planned on Jaz for her birthday either.

They’d agreed on her shoulder for the placement and he’d asked her to trust him as to what the design would be since she couldn’t seem to decide on anything herself. She hadn’t said she wanted to think about it, but he knew if he gave her chance to do so, she’d likely never do it. He was so in love with ink and what it looked like on a body, on the beautiful canvas of skin, that he had a hard time understanding others that didn’t see the same beauty in it. His words.

He’d delivered on every other promise he’d given her that night and she’d found she couldn’t deny him this. To give her something she’d have forever, something she’d always remember him by, remember this birthday and how very special and sexually awakening it was. And man oh man, was it awakening her. She was bright eyed and bushy tailed, she was so fully awakened. She—

“Owww.”

Behind her, Jaz chuckled. She didn’t know how long he’d been working on her, how long she’d been tense through the stinging pins and needles, how long she’d been trying to relax and breathe every time he told her to, how long she’d been riding the wet vinyl of the seat.

“You need to stay still.”

“I’m trying.”

“I know. I love that you’re aroused by this.”

“I’m not.”

He slid a gloved finger under her ass to tease and stroke her. “Liar,” he whispered.

She groaned her humiliation at being caught. At the same time, there was no way she could hide it. The entire shop smelled of sex and orgasms and the best birthday she’d had in years. She groaned again when he wiped her juice off on her butt cheeks and went back to tattooing.

“Maybe it’s not this that has me so aroused.”

“No doubt it’s not the only thing.”

“You think you might have something to do with it?”

“Only a few inches worth.”

It was her turn now. She giggled into the headrest her arms were wrapped around. “More than.”

“Good, then.”

Silence ensued for some minutes while Jaz worked. There was something profoundly intimate about getting a tattoo. She’d never given it much thought before, obviously or she’d probably have gotten one. Though at the same time, she’d have probably chickened out as she tried to do tonight.

It was permanent. It would always be there. And though she’d made the final decision, fully understanding, fully comprehending what she was doing, she wasn’t usually impulsive.

She smiled. But then, the last few hours had been anything but usual and every bit of it entirely impulsive.

End Snippets

You know, I love this book. The more times I read through it, the more I love it. I adore these characters and man oh man… I wish I’d had a birthday present like him… Just once in my life.

Don’t forget to visit these other Snippet Saturday authors for more wonderful, well, snippets!

Mari Carr
McKenna Jeffries
Taige Crenshaw
Vivian Arend
Ashley Ladd
Shelley Munro
Leah Braemel

Oh, and I have cover art to share with you Monday!!!

~lissa

Go Noles!!!!