If you browse my website, you’ll find that these cover place holders are all over the place. Between all the Ellora’s Cave books, several Loose Id books, and now the Samhain Publishing books, along with new books being written, there are many, many Cover Coming Soon images. More than 18…
I was not planning to have all these books returned to me in such a short amount of time (though to be fair, the Loose Id books are because I opted to not renew the contracts). However, there are more books now NOT available with my name on them than there are available with.
I ask for your patience as I write new books, revise these older titles, and work on coming up with a plan for it all. I had a plan at the beginning of the year. With Samhain closing it’s doors, that plan went out the window as most of my plans do.
The additional books that will be re-released as soon as I can fit them all in and get them re-covered are:
Pink Buttercream Frosting
Sweet Caroline (Blue Jeans and Hard Hats)
Cracklin’ Rosie (Blue Jeans and Hard Hats)
Twisted Up
Malachi’s Word (The Bar Next Door)
Eli’s Promise (The Bar Next Door)
Arctic Shift (Denali Heat)
Abe’s Law (The Bar Next Door) has been started.
Denali Heat #2, #3 have been started as well.
Forever In Blue Jeans (Blue Jeans and Hard Hats) has been written and finished. It was self-published, but I removed it to wait for Sweet Caroline and Cracklin’ Rosie to come available from Samhain (sooner than planned, apparently).
Things are in the works and I’ll keep you updated when titles will be re-published.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.
We’ve all had this happen, haven’t we? Boyfriends, lovers, even friends. They come and go and come and go and at some point (hopefully) we get to the point where enough is enough and we scream and yell or just tell them to go. Our hearts can only take so much and we need to heal and they need to stop draggin’ it and us through the mud.
And then again, sometimes, we’re the ones draggin’ our own hearts around…
Justin liked exposing her where they might or might not get caught. The thing that made it okay, made it better, made her want it more was that he was willing to expose himself too. He would stand by her, stick with her and take the brunt of anything if someone caught them.
He was slowly, or rather not so slowly, showing her the risk of being vulnerable. The pleasure of such was high if she trusted him, and his protection of her was worth everything.
“I want them to smell sex on you. I want them to smell me on you.”
“It’ll single me out. I don’t like that.”
“Why not?”
“Because you won’t be with me.” That was the crux of the matter. She was helpless and hopeless in the best of ways when it came to him, especially when he was with her, but when he wasn’t, when she was on her own, she was shy, uncertain in most things save her job. Divorce had been a big personal chance she had taken on her own and she’d made a life by herself, but she honestly didn’t want to live alone or exist alone. Sure she had friends, but what she really wanted was a lover, a man to share life with. She’d had a man, but not a lover and well, hell, she needed and craved and hungered for the lover part of the equation. It was as important as talking and communicating. At least to her. She’d lived enough years with just talking and no real communication, no intimacy or physical affection that being lonely had been inevitable.
She didn’t want that again. She didn’t want to be alone. She’d learned she could do it—she just didn’t want to. She didn’t want the dating scene either. Her single friends from work had enough horror stories about trying to date that Ella didn’t want to venture into those waters.
“I’m always with you, baby. Every word I’ve ever said to you is either inside your head or just a push of an app button away in your email.”
And that was true. “But you won’t be there holding my hand or there for me to hide my face against.”
“Why would you want to hide? Hell baby, you know how many people would be envious of what we’ve been doing the last few days?”
She didn’t know, but she could remember when she had been envious of people that had that same kind of wild and crazy sex life. If anyone had told her a year ago that she’d be sitting in the lap of a twenty-nine year old bartender-fireman in an airport parking garage having sex, she’d have told them they were just shy of admittance to the nut house.
Yet here she was.
If anyone had told her a year ago that she’d be divorced and free to be having sex in the lap of a twenty-nine year old bartender fireman, she’d have told them they were a few watts short of a light bulb. She’d have immediately hoped for and wanted it, but she wouldn’t have believed it possible, wouldn’t have believed herself fed up enough with mediocre and status quo.
Yet, there she was.
“I need to go,” she said.
“I don’t think so, Ella.”
“Justin, the time.” She looked at her watch. “I—”
“Not that.”
“Then what?”
His hands gripped the hair that framed her face. He twisted his fingers in the strands and held her head immobile, his gaze intense and dark, mesmerizing. She was once again amazed at the many different facets of her cowboy’s personality. “I don’t think I love you. I don’t think you think you love me either. I know I love you. I’ve known for a long ass time that I loved you, and we’ve both known you loved me too.”
“Justin, I—”
“You’re just scared to say it without qualification or justification and that’s okay. You’ll get there.”
“It wasn’t supposed to be like this,” she said, leaning her forehead against his.
“It was supposed to be exactly like this. Now, you’re right. You do need to go. I don’t want you to miss your flight. Your job is important to you, and that makes it important to me.”
“What about after, though?” The worried tone was back in her voice.
“You’ll know what to do and whatever you decide is best, I’ll be here to support you.”
At first, she wasn’t sure they were talking about the same thing, but as she stared at those eyes, crystal clear but for the love shining back at her, she realized they were talking about the exact same thing. He was leaving it up to her, the direction or not, of their relationship.
She nodded, and he kissed the tip of her nose before opening his door and helping her down from his lap to the ground. She leaned against the inside of the door and adjusted her skirt, and did her best on the wrinkles in her top. She might need to make a few shopping stops once she got to New Orleans. She turned to him in time to see him adjusting his jeans. She hated to see his cock put away. He was gorgeous enough that he should walk around naked all the time.
She giggled at her fanciful thoughts. Must be the after hot sex in the truck giggles.
He handed her her purse and reached back for her laptop and carry-on bag and handed both of those to her as well. “You ready?” He got out of the truck and shut the door, locking it behind him.
“Yeah.” She wasn’t really. She didn’t want to leave him, but at the same time, she needed to get away from him. When he was near, it played tricks on her mind and all she wanted was him, day and night, night and day. She needed a break, her body needed a break, her head needed a break, but damn…. Leaving him again was hard. Leaving him again without knowing what was going to happen next was hard.
She took one step and another and had just started to take another when a gust of wind blew through the garage. The scent of sex coming from her was stronger than she’d imagined it would be. It was as though he held his come-coated fingers right beneath her nose.
Heat crept up her neck and into her cheeks. She dared a look up at him, and the grin on his face told her that he’d caught a whiff of it too. Damn.
He took her hand. “C’mon baby. I don’t want anything to delay you coming back to me.”
She didn’t budge when he tugged. He turned to her with a raised brow. The challenge was there in his green eyes, and she hoped there was challenge staring back at him from hers. “Coming back to you? I thought you said it was my decision where we went from here?”
“It is your decision.”
“Then why did you assume I’d be coming back to you?”
He tugged and she started walking, her hand firmly clasped in his and though she might be a bit irritated at him, she didn’t want him to let go of her. Not by a long shot. Instead though, for good measure, she huffed out an irritated sigh.
“I wasn’t assuming anything.”
“You said coming back to you. That’s assuming that that’s what I will decide.”
It’s been a long weekend, y’all. San Antonio was awesome. I definitely want to go back, rent a car, and drive around. It was green and lush and beautiful. It was busy and vibrant and completely not what I was expecting but exactly what I’d hoped for. I’m feeling inspired and curious and ready to get back to work on the Lone Star Sweets series…
But before that… I’ve always had musical inspiration on all my writing, even the pieces that are stuffed in the back of cabinets and drawers and file boxes. Most know that Keep It Together came from Miranda Lambert’s Mama’s Broken Heart. Twisted Up came by way of a SheDAISY song, 360 Degrees of You.
The song Famous In A Small Town is what hit me as a great theme for my short story, Small Town Famous…
Twisted Up might have come from a line in the SheDAISY song, but Justin (the real Justin) loved Sugarland and so as I wrote the book, those two groups played the entire time.
I love music and it keeps me sane, keeps me feeling young even. One of the reviews I glanced at for Trouble In The Making commented that Liz and Johnny talked/acted younger at times than their ages and yes, they probably did. I don’t talk for my age either. Not always. I feel old a lot of times, but certain music makes me feel different, years younger and maybe that translates into my books. A lot of the musicians I loved when I was in my teens are in their 50’s and 60’s and they act, talk, play younger now than when they were 20 years younger.
In our 40’s we’re still insecure, still emotionally unsettled, still uncertain, still trying to find our way. When the younger set is our age, they’ll be the same… Hell, there are many 18-19 year olds who act like they’re still 10, so…
Music and laughter help us feel younger, act younger, even play younger, especially when we get around people who are younger or who we knew in our younger days… I definitely don’t want my characters, who are in their mid-30’s-early 40’s to come across as old and stodgy 😉
Before I go, I think I like this song. This girl… damn, I wish I had her body, but LOVE the title, Giddy On Up..
I want to thank everyone who has participated in this blog tour. The comments on the blogs have been incredible and fantastic. There’s been so much support and fun ideas shared and I feel truly blessed.
With Twisted Up being my first solo print book, and with the release of Malachi’s Word this week as well, I’ve been a bit in…OMG land. I’ve tried to stop at every blog and comment back to the readers who have been wonderful enough to comment in the first place.
This book is special to me for different reasons. The hero is a character fashioned from a dear friend of mine. As I mentioned, it is my first solo print book. It’s the last book my former editor at Samhain Publishing, Bethany, and I worked on together. And it was the first Samhain Publishing cover my friend Kendra Egert designed for me. I love this book.
This is a blog tour and it’s also a giveaway. The different blogs had a different post. Music, characters, rope, sex toys, coffee, etc… So, the way the giveaway part of this will work is that whichever topic a particular blog had, the prize will have something to do with that.
So, for instance, All I want and more… That post was about coffee and coffee bowls. The prize: A coffee bowl.
I often write themed topics for my guest appearances on blogs and often it’s more than just about the book because I want to have some way to connect with the readers who stop by. Below you’ll find the list of other giveaways:
I really do want to thank everyone for participating, be it hosting the blog tour or being a reader commenting. You’ve all made this fun for me and it’s been awesome. I also have to thank Brandy for taking care of the details and contacting the blog owners and asking if they’d host me. She’s done such a great job for me and deserves the shout out.
Now, how ’bout an excerpt? It’s a little…naughty.
“I’m not taking no for an answer.”
“You can’t force me to go with you.”
“No. You’ll come willingly enough.”
Her head shot up. “And you think that, why?”
“You want me, and I want you. This is real, Ella. You know it, you felt it.”
“Sex, Justin.”
She didn’t even believe her own words. He could see it in her eyes—hear it in the lack of conviction in her voice. “More than, Ella.”
Her gaze drifted from his face to his hand on his cock again. She watched him stroke the skin over the shaft and licked her lips. He wasn’t sure she was even aware of the move or that she moved her own hand up over her belly to her breast. She toyed with a nipple for a few seconds then stopped. She shook her head and looked him in the eye.
“I can’t come to Texas. I’m on my way out to catch a flight for business to New Orleans.”
“But you don’t have to be there for your training classes for another two and a half days.” She started to say something but shut her mouth before anything else came out. Justin smiled. Caught. “You forgot you’d told me about that, didn’t you? That you like to get to the location a day early to prepare yourself, to gauge the hotel’s surroundings?”
She nodded.
“So, cancel or change your flight and come back home with me.”
“Justin…”
“You’ve not given me one good reason, Ella. So, if you can’t follow the simple command of changing or canceling your flight today, then…” He reached into his back pocket and pulled out the piece of rope he’d coiled before knocking on her door and let it unwind in front of her face. “I’ll have to tie you up until you agree.”
“You wouldn’t?” she whispered.
He raised a brow and smiled, just a slow stretching of his lips. “No?”
“Dammit, Justin.” She stomped her foot. “This is not how friends behave.”
“Friends? That’s what you think we are?” He stalked forward and pressed her against the wall with his body, his hand leaving his cock to let it rest against her belly. He put both his hands on the wall beside her head and leaned in, the rope dangling over her chest and between her breasts. “We are so much more than friends, Ella. Your body and mine know that, even if your brain is unwilling to admit it.”
She was silent for so long, just stood there between him and the wall, her breathing erratic, her fingers toying with the edges of his shirt, every so often brushing against his skin. The bright green rope against her skin, alongside the pink of her bra and the spring colors of her clothes did dirty things to his mind. He loved the innocent, sweet, outward appearance she presented, but when you stripped her to her bras and panties and even further to her nudity, she was more sex kitten than he’d ever imagined. She was his fantasy.
The rope turned her on. The thought of him spanking her until she gave in turned her on too. He didn’t need her to tell him that. Not again, at least. They’d emailed at length about those naughty desires after their first time together. They’d explored them a little the next few times they met up. Being kinky in those swanky hotel rooms she’d gotten them into at no charge because she worked for the company was like a dirty little secret.
She knew he wasn’t teasing about tying her up. She knew it was more than sex between them too. He’d made his feelings for her clear countless times over the last nine months and every once in a while she’d slip up and drop the walls around her heart, admit she had feelings for him too. For some reason he couldn’t put his finger on though, she was skittish about trying to have more.
That’s what he needed to find out. That’s what he was hoping having her in Texas would do. Give him some advantage over her. Give him some way to make her more vulnerable, at least enough that he could figure out what in the hell spooked her so. He knew about her failed marriage, her divorce, but both were done and over with. At least, that’s what he thought. Maybe feelings for her ex still lingered.
The groan that inadvertently slipped from his lips brought him out of his thoughts. He looked down to find that she was caressing the head of his cock with her thumb. He dipped the head on his shoulders down a little to find a small smile on her lips, conspiring and teasing. Drive. Him. Insane.
One minute guarded and defiant. The next trying to get her way. “Naughty girl, Ella.”
“Please, Justin. Just let me come once, please and I’ll go with you.” Her voice was a breathless whisper against his chest, her teeth nipping at his right nipple.
He tightened his lips and grunted. She played so damn dirty. “You’ll go with me regardless of whether we screw once or half a dozen times before we get out the door. But, you’re not in charge here.” He brushed his lips against the edge of her hair at her temple and carefully stepped back again. It was harder than he thought. He wanted that touch so bad he could literally taste it on his tongue from her last kiss.
“You’re impossible,” she grumped.
He grinned. “That’s what you said the first time you saw me naked and looked down.”
Twisted Up is being released in print. On Tuesday. November 6th.
I’m excited. I’m nervous.
It’s my first print book, that’s all my own. Cowboy Lust is in print and that was a thrill. But this one is mine… I don’t read print much anymore. I’ve become an ebook addict. Almost as much as a coffee addict. 😉 There are many who do love print still. Heck, there are some books, some authors who I desire autographs from… For the most part though, I’m blowing my book budget (insert hardy laugh here) on ebooks because Amazon and Barnes and Noble make it so damn easy. And yes, it is their fault. All of it.
Anyway… What does Twisted Up coming out in print have to do with you? Other than the fact you want the book? Well, we’ve put together a little blog tour. I’m visiting and talking about real characters, musical inspiration, coffee, rope, sex toys… And yes, there are giveaways too. Books, rope, coffee, gift cards…
The way this is going to work, is Brandy and myself will pick winners from all the blog stops. One name at each blog at the end of the tour which will be Thursday, November 8th. Leaving comments on each blog isn’t going to increase your chances, but it will make me happy! My readers, YOU, are awesome and I am more thankful for your support than I can say. It’s because of you that any of the books I’ve written, exist and why I continue to write…
Below are the names and links to the blogs… Stay tuned to my Facebook page and Twitter for updates, or just mark your calendar for all the dates.
So, if you’re at all interested, come visit me and these blogs. We’ll be having a great time and would love for you to be a part of it. The giveaway is International.
Blurb:
One rope. Three days. And two hearts on the line.
Justin has had enough. Ella, the woman who healed his broken heart, has been cancelling on him for two months straight. Sure, she’s busy with her job, which has her traveling far and wide. But that never stopped her from sharing nights of trivia, long conversations and blazing hot sex—until now. Truth to tell, he misses their easy friendship, the way her sighs fill his ear as he fills her body.
What he can’t figure out is, what’s changed?
At work, Ella finds it easy to talk to rooms full of strangers. Once back at her lonely apartment, though, she’s back to her painfully shy self—until Justin. Their chance meeting grew over the months into a year-long affair, but she can’t shake the feeling that rejection and pain are just around the corner. Best thing to do? End it now, before their intimacy digs too deep.
Suddenly he’s at her door with a length of neon-green rope and a naughty proposition, daring her to say no. Just how good could it be? There’s only one way to find out…
Warning: The sheets are tangled, the hat is crumpled, and the jeans are worn low on the hips. The cowboy is hot, determined, and helpless in the face of bunny slippers. Readers may need extra batteries to get this one out of their system.
It’s been a long weekend, y’all. San Antonio was awesome. I definitely want to go back, rent a car, and drive around. It was green and lush and beautiful. It was busy and vibrant and completely not what I was expecting but exactly what I’d hoped for. I’m feeling inspired and curious and ready to get back to work on the Lone Star Sweets series…
