April 30 The Groom Will Be Kidnapped

That's right on Friday Ellora's Cave releases Desiree Holt and Allie Standifer's latest work, Kidnapping The Groom.

Cameron Greeley had spent a lot of years trying to put the memory of Gabe Holder behind her. But now he is getting married to the wrong person and despite the way they'd parted she couldn't let it happen. Kidnapping him and taking him to an isolated cabin, she treats him to hours of the hottest sex either of them could imagine. In one all-too-short evening they indulge in every erotic act she can think of. And then she dumps him back at his house with the memory of those hours eating at her. Will he let her go, or will he come after her, taking her into his bed and into his heart.

Excerpt:

“Well.” She grinned at him. “I see you’re finally awake.” She looked at his groin. “In fact, I see all of you is awake.”
“Hi, Cam.” He tried to swallow as she walked slowly toward him, breasts swaying slightly. “Long time, no see.”
“Is that all you have to say, hot shot?”
She was standing less than six inches from the bed now, her pussy nearly at eye level. For a long minute he could barely say anything. Cameron Greeley. Suddenly he was assailed by a combination of regrets and lust. Why had he thought it was so smart to walk away from her?
“I don’t suppose you want to tell me where the hell I am? And what I’m doing here?”
She smiled, the smile of a temptress, and his balls tingled. “Rumor has it you’re getting married.”
His eyes widened. “And after fifteen years you come back to Heron Bay, shanghai me and strip me naked just to congratulate me? Wouldn’t a card do better? I didn’t think you’d ever want to talk to me again.”
For a brief moment the smile disappeared from her face and he saw the naked hurt in her eyes. Then it was gone. But it had been there long enough to make him feel like eighteen kinds of shit. He’d been a jackass, taking something precious she’d offered him, then telling her the world was bigger than Heron Bay and he was off to conquer it.
Could I have been a bigger asshole?
But the smile was back in place and as her eyes took in every naked inch of him he saw heat blaze in her eyes.
“Anyway, who am I getting married to? How come I don’t know about it?”
“We’ll get to that.” Her eyes took in every inch of him. “I see you haven’t lost any of your…assets,” she teased.
“Could I have that in writing?” he joked. He still had no idea what was happening here but he figured if he could keep her smiling he had a good chance of getting out of here with his skin intact, as well as other of his more favorite body parts.
“So what’s with the getting married thing?” she asked, hitching her naked self onto the edge of the bed.
“I could probably discuss it better if I wasn’t hung up in these things.” He yanked on the cuffs.
She shook her head. “Not gonna happen. I have big plans for you.”
“Plans?” He quirked an eyebrow. “After all this time you have plans?”
“I figured before you tied on that tramp’s ball and chain I’d give you a real good taste of what you’d be missing.”
www.allie¬_standifer.com
www.desireeholt.com
www.jasminejade.com

New Release coming...

Coming May 14, 2010

A standalone book in the Cougar Challenge Series...

Nothing but Sex

Fran Lee

Lee Blackhorse is hardly Cougar material, no matter what her friends over at Tempt the Cougar say. A forty-two-year-old woman who lusts after her thirty-year-old weekend helper is just plain nuts. Or is it? She’s been secretly hot for the man for years.

Mike Running Elk is the hottest thing ever to don tight jeans and a second-skin t-shirt…and he has no problem seeing himself in the role of lover. In fact, if he can just get the hot-as-hell woman to realize he’s plenty old enough to ring her bells, he plans to do more than just clean her barn and mow her grass. He’s waited for her long enough.

When her Saturday helper appears at her door with an injured hand, Lee can’t pull her eyes off his naked, ripped chest. And from her heated gaze, Mike can’t believe she’s as oblivious as she acts. The ice has been broken and he intends to heat things up even more…

An Excerpt From: NOTHING BUT SEX

Copyright © FRAN LEE, 2010

All Rights Reserved, Ellora's Cave Publishing, Inc.

Mike swore foully as he caught his glove on one of the murderously long barbs on the roll of wire fencing that he was trying to move and he tugged his leather work glove off to find that the barb had made it through to his palm. He shook his head and shoved his hair back from his face with his other hand before he tugged his unused handkerchief from his back pocket and wrapped it around his hand, which did very little to staunch the flow of blood. Swearing at his own clumsiness, he headed across the wide work yard to the back porch and stepped inside, knocking on the inside screen door.

She appeared from the archway to the living room, her face pink and her lower lip caught between her teeth as she caught sight of him and he realized that he hadn’t bothered to pull his damn shirt back on. He saw the way her eyes darkened as they slid over his body and he felt a shot of anticipation run from his gut to his cock. Her lips were full. Her eyes were smoky blue. A small vein throbbed in her throat. And it struck him forcibly that she most certainly was as aware of him as he was of her.

But before he could wrap his mind around her reaction to him, she was hurrying up the stairs to the bathroom and he was following, his appreciative eyes on the lush swell of her generous, gorgeous ass as he held the tea towel she'd just given him tightly to his bleeding hand. Sweet Jesus, but he loved her ass. He had loved it ever since he’d first seen her, when he was just eighteen, and he had asked her if he could do some odd jobs around the place to make some cash every week. Right after his dad had died. Watching her walk around in tight jeans had made him forget a lot of the pain in his life back then.

She filled a pair of jeans like they’d been poured onto her. His mouth watered and his cock grew impossibly harder. Even the stinging pain in his hand couldn’t distract his attention from that ass.

As she entered the bathroom and stretched up to the shelf above the toilet to lift down the first-aid kit, he almost whimpered. Was she trying to kill him? If she didn’t stop wiggling around, he was gonna blow.

“I can handle it from here,” he grated as she opened the box and started to take the soaked tea towel out of his grip. But she shoved his free hand away and gently placed his hand in the sink, rinsing it with icy-cold tap water that nearly made him yell at the pain. He stared down at her bent head as she probed and cleaned the wound and each time her body brushed his, he almost lost it.

He lost track of what was happening with his hand as every drop of blood in his body raged into his groin, threatening to explode. Maybe that was a good thing, because his hand might stop bleeding.

“I still think we need to get you to the clinic and get this stitched. It’s way too jagged to heal right, and it’s still bleeding.”

Her words were lost in the hot muddle of his emotions and body. But when she looked up into his face, he forced himself to pay attention. “Hold this clean towel in your palm. Press it tight. I’ll get my car keys.”

Muse Replacement Therapy

March 23, 2010

Dear Muse,

Where the fuck have you been? Do you realize that I’m flopping around like a fish in the wind? Fish on land? Leaf in the wind? And any other metaphor I can mix? I have deadlines. Everyone has deadlines. That means you have deadlines, too, so quit calling in “bored”, it’s not a legitimate excuse. Besides, if you’re bored, you could spice things up a bit and I DO NOT MEAN WRITING THE MUSICAL SONETS INVOLVING THE LOVE LIFE OF A BOX TURTLE SHIFTER AND AN ANCIENT VAMPIRE. While I’m sure there IS a market—as you keep insisting—it’s not through me. Yes, turtle skin is tough and therefore more likely to put off a fangy attack from a would-be suitor before he knows he’s a would-be. I get that. But (tapping my watch) can we move on to things I’m actually contracted for?

Listen, you and I have been a little off lately. I don’t like to dance. You don’t like my singing. If there were a way to trade in muses, I would so do it. Mostly because you asked me to and only a tiny bit because I think you suck as a motivational speaker. Plus I really hate your glitter fetish. It gets on everything and no, it doesn’t make my computer look better.

I really think we need to go our separate ways. In fact, if you want, my next letter can be a break-up letter. Say…does your older brother still work out a bunch? He had some pretty spectacular abs and I would find that VERY inspiring. You should ask him to come over for the auditions because if he has the right, erm, equipment, we could work very well together. Have him bring chocolate and some message oil. I’ll explain it when he gets here. Just think, he could totally get you off the hook! Hey! I really think this could work out for both of us. I’m so glad you thought of it, you clever, clever Muse. You do your job so well that it has totally inspired me to find new ways of getting rid of you and being reassigned to your stud-tastic brother. He’s single right?

Okay, so you get on that and I’ll release you from your “boring” contract. You’ll totally have one over on him for all the times he teased you as a young Muse-let. That’s right! Tell him it’s a great gig so that he signs up with me and you get to snicker as he gets bored out of his mind. That makes you happy, doesn’t it? Yeah, I know. He’ll just hate me. Hurry up and send him over. Hurry! The faster you get him here, the faster I’m done with you…erm, I mean, YOU’RE done with ME. Yeah, that.

Love you, too—in that can’tstandyou kind of way. Hugs!!!

Mia

Spring

We've had an odd spring so far in Northern California. Howling March winds alternated with calm and warm days. April arrived with January's chilly rain and snow. More rain and snow in the Sierra Nevada were predicted for today and--guess what?--it's raining here in the valley.

The flowering quincy and fruitless plum bloomed right on time--the end of January, beginning of February, but the roses are confused. Some have blossoms and buds while others have barely leafed.

The squirrels forgot where they hid their winter stash, emptied their feeder an risked scaling our wickedly thorny climbing rosebush to get to the bird feeder.

But, a sure harbinger that we'll wish for a day like Monday--mild and in the 70s--the little birds foraging on the ground. The mourning doves chasing each other all over the place--an annual courting ritual--which means we'll soon hear the males calling to each other during the night. The females sit on the eggs during the night while the fellas do what fellas do. The ladies shop and eat all day while their mates (I assume) catch up on their sleep.

And, of course, along with all the blooming, so come the sneezes and sniffles and…well, allergies.

Ahh, Spring.

Dee Brice

Food of the gods. Spain and France

Travel tips for moi! I need them from you.

Yes. Another couple and my husband and I are going to Spain for 2 weeks (renting a condo) and Provence for another (hotels and b&bs).

Provence is the place I have DOWN, baby, DOWN.

But your help with where to go and dine and just breathe deeply in Spain is what I am eager to know.

Post them, please!

I am up for Granada and Seville. Madrid, too.

After that?

Oh, and a great place to see flamenco would be divine!

Thanks!

And the man above? He COOKS for me.

Pretend With Me

I have a new release coming on the 23rd and I'm going to share a blurb and excerpt with you today.

Pretend With Me is Book 1 of 3 in my Freedom Fantasies series. So sit back and enjoy!

Blurb:
Make all your wildest dreams come true at Freedom Fantasies.
After threatening divorce Paige gives up her fantasy of hot sex with two men, especially when Tommy, the other man she wants to have sex with, is the reason for her divorce threats. When Paige confesses she’s considering leaving Jed to her best friend and owner of Freedom Fantasies, life takes an unexpected turn. Paige finds herself pretending she’s having a hot sordid affair.

Paige is appreciating all the pleasures she’s unable to find at home. Being spanked in the corner, tied to the bed or getting it on in the shower, Paige is experiencing more orgasms than she thought possible. To heighten the excitement her pretend lover brings in a friend.
Can pretending save Paige’s marriage?



Excerpt:

An Excerpt From: PRETEND WITH ME
Copyright © AMBER SKYZE, 2010
All Rights Reserved, Ellora's Cave Publishing, Inc.
Chapter One

“I want a divorce,” Paige declared. She slid her hoop earrings on for another day at the office.
“What?” She could see Jed’s look of shock from the mirror, but she didn’t care. She was tired of their non-sexual marriage.
“You heard me. I want a divorce.”
“I don’t understand.” He stopped adjusting his tie and walked over to her.
She turned and looked at him pointedly. “I’m tired of being second best in my own house. I’m tired of not having my husband!” As her voice grew louder Jed tried to hush her.
“Paige, he’ll hear you. Can’t you please keep it down?”
“I don’t give a rat’s ass who hears me! I’m tired of playing second fiddle to him. So I hope he hears me. I want a divorce because of him.”
“He’s had a hard time and you know it. Can’t you cut him some slack?”
“Slack? How about cutting me some slack. The two of you are inseparable. I’m always left in the lurch. When’s the last time we had sex, huh? Bet you can’t remember, because it’s been that long.”
“Is this what this is all about? Sex?” The disdain in his voice didn’t go undetected. This only fueled her anger.
“You bet your sweet ass it’s about sex. I’m a woman with needs and if you can’t fulfill them then I don’t need you. I have vibrators who spend more time with me than you.”
She knew her words were like a smack across the face, but it didn’t matter. Since his best friend Tommy moved in, over three months, ago their sex live went sailing out the window. Everything to do with their life went out the window and she was tired of it. She longed for her husband back. She wanted to go for long walks along the beach. She wanted the romantic dinners they used to share or a night out at the movies. Recently, her vibrator became her husband. Whenever she felt depressed she turned to her trusty pink friend. She’d used her vibrator more in the last few months than she had previously in their whole marriage. It was unacceptable as far as she was concerned.
“You’ve been pleasing yourself with your vibrators?” he whispered.
“Of course. Did you think I’d go months without sex?”
“I just thought…yes. I told you the reasons we aren’t having sex. I’d feel bad if Tommy heard us having fun when he’s so depressed.”
“Oh well. Too late, I don’t hide the pleasure I get from the vibrators.” She knew her words were bold and packed a punch. Maybe, just maybe he’d finally realize she was serious. She wasn’t waiting around for him to give her sex. And if he didn’t start acting like a husband she wasn’t sticking around for him.
Hurt covered his face. His brown eyes lost the sparkle they’d always had. She couldn’t stand the idea of hurting him this way, but she couldn’t continue to hide her pain and frustrations either. Something had to be done even if it meant a divorce. Jed had to make a choice—Tommy or her.
“I’m late for work.” She grabbed her briefcase off the bed and promptly walked out, leaving Jed with his mouth hanging on the floor.
He chased her out of the bedroom and down the stairs out the front door.
“We need to talk about this, Paige.”
“We’ll talk when you get your friend out of our house.” She threw her briefcase onto the passenger seat as she climbed into her car.
“I can’t do that.”
“Then I can’t talk about saving our marriage.”
She left him standing with his mouth hung open for the second time in a matter of minutes.

“I don’t know what to do, Kim.” She'd been pushing a tomato in her untouched salad around for the last half hour.
“You need to fix this, Paige. You can’t just let your marriage end because of a roommate.”
“Yeah, Kim’s right. Kick him out if you have to. Your marriage is way too important.”
Paige looked from one best friend to the other. She’d known Brooke and Kim since grade school when she moved to Melville. They were as tight as any two best friends could be, but they made room for her. Poor little shy Paige. The new kid on the block. Paige had come a long way from that shy girl. She’d grown into a confident woman who knew what she wanted and wasn’t afraid to ask for it.
“I don’t know. Jed isn’t going to throw Tommy out and truthfully I do feel sorry for him, but seriously using my vibrator is getting old.”
“I could hook you up with something fun at the Manor,” Kim offered. Kim was the proud co-owner of a club on the outskirts of town called Freedom Fantasies. She’d opened it as a place for women to live out their deepest darkest fantasies. Paige knew Kim’s biggest reason for starting Freedom Fantasies was to live out her own fantasies with David McKnight, her business partner. She figured if they spent enough time together they’d eventually fall into each other’s bed. So far her plan wasn’t working. David constantly talked about how happy he was to have a co-owner who he’d never slept with. David didn’t believe in mixing business with pleasure. His beliefs didn’t worry Kim. She wasn’t afraid to wait. She knew in due time David would be hers. Paige on the other hand always believed she was setting herself up for failure. She hoped she was wrong in this case, but so far it didn’t appear to be that way.
A room at the Manor was by appointment only and Kim had to approve all guests before they were allowed into her place. She didn’t want any crazies. She ran a well respected place and wanted to keep it that way.
During renovations, Paige had thought about how she’d live out her fantasies with Jed when Kim finally opened for business. She wanted to be first in line. Her fantasy was to be with two men. Two men who would cherish her body all night long. For the longest time Paige thought about how she’d broach the subject with Jed. She didn’t see him as the sharing type. She also didn’t know how to tell him she fantasized about being with him and his best friend. That was until he came to live with them. After a week of Tommy being in their guest bedroom all her thoughts of living out her fantasies went flying out the window.
“You mean like have an affair?” Paige bulked at the idea.
“You’re talking about leaving your husband and this comes as a shock to you?”
Paige studied Kim’s face. She looked dead serious.
“Maybe sex with a stranger is exactly what you need to recharge your failing marriage,” Brooke interjected.
Brooke was single too. The only difference with Brooke was she didn’t have any prospective partners. Brooke was still mourning the death of her fiancé Carl, who’d died in the war almost two years ago. She still wore his dog tags hidden under her clothes. Carl had died days before he was due to come home. A suicide bomber ended his life. For all intents and purposes, Brooke looked like a happy-go-lucky woman on the outside, but Paige and Kim knew she was still hurting on the inside.
“I’d have to give that some serious consideration. I’ve never thought about having sex with anyone except Jed. I don’t consider a vibrator cheating, though if you seen the look on his face when I told him how much I’ve been using it. You’d think I had cheated on him.”