Sunday, April 28, 2013

As If You Never Left Me--Sunday Snog

Another Sunday--another excerpt. And since As If You Never Left Me comes out TOMORROW from Crimson Romance, this Sunday's snog will give you another glimpse at Rey and Joely's story.



The snowballs flew crazily for several frenzied minutes. She screeched and he hollered, she laughed and he let out great howls of mirth. She barely missed his head; he came within inches of hitting her square in the face with a slushy projectile. Finally, emboldened by laughter and adrenaline, she slipped out from behind her fort, then darted across the snow to sneak behind his fort and dump her last three snowballs down the back of his shirt.
He howled in protest and grabbed her, pinning her arms behind her. “I don’t even have a decent coat and you do that to me?”
Immobilized against his strong chest, she could do nothing but look up into his laughing face. “I’m sorry.”
“No, you’re not.”
“You’re right, I’m not.”
“Then neither am I,” he said, and kissed her.
His lips were icy cold but the inside of his mouth was warm, his tongue hot as it stroked against her lips. She opened to him, pressing hard into his heat. Snow and cold forgotten, she sought only that warmth, that union. His mouth on hers, soft and mobile, his tongue pressing softly against hers. He pulled her close, his hands sliding down her back.
She clutched at his coat, so absorbed it was a few long seconds before she registered the cold, the wet. As she pulled back, he ducked forward, his mouth still seeking hers even as she ended the kiss.
“You’re soaked,” she said. “We should get you inside.”
He dipped his head one more time toward her, and when he missed, he smiled a little and said, “Yeah. My shoes are full of snow and my jeans are soaked.”
“You’re going to catch pneumonia.” Fighting the reluctance of her entire body, she took a step back. Her hand sought his, unwilling to break the connection totally. “Come on. I’ll make you some hot cocoa.”

Sunday, April 14, 2013

Sunday Snog--As If You Never Left Me


Today's Sunday Snog is from As If You Never Left Me, coming April 29th from Crimson Romance:

She paused, looking at him, then found herself walking back to the bed. She bent over him and caught his mouth with hers.

She thought she’d forgotten. But as her lips touched his, she was flooded with the taste of his mouth, not only in reality but in her memory. Her closed lips remembered the touch of his tongue, remembered surrendering, opening to let his mouth take hers utterly, but in the real moment, the kiss remained carefully chaste.

This was not an easy thing to do.

After what seemed an eternity of hovering on the edge of complete surrender, she drew back. Looking down into his soft smile, her face went hot. With desire or embarrassment, she wasn’t sure. At least he didn’t look smug.

She straightened, clearing her throat. “I’ll see you later.”

This time, she forced herself to leave.



Saturday, April 13, 2013

April PAD Challenge--Day 12

Yesterday I finished my taxes, and the theme for the PAD challenge was "broke," so for most of the day all I could come up with was this:

I just did my taxes and now I am broke
All of my money just went up in smoke.

But I couldn't figure out where to go from there. Which is too bad because that really could have been poignant and literary and eventually made me the Poet Laureate of Colorado.

Anyway, later in the day I came up with something else:

April PAD Challenge--Day 12
Prompt: "broke" or "broken"

Pieces of broken hearts lay
All around where he sleeps at night
And he doesn't understand
Why even now
At ninety-six
He can't get anyone to stay as long as breakfast.

Thursday, April 11, 2013

PAD Challenge--Day 11

April PAD Challenge
Day 11
Prompt: "In case of______"

In case of apocalypse there will be
17 cans of Spaghetti-Os
14 boxes of Muesli
47 cans of beans
In case of apocalypse, break the glass.
Behind it is the can opener.
In case of apocalypse gather
All the guns
All the dogs
All the knives
And go to the second-floor bedroom
Where you will eat beans
And Muesli
And Spaghetti-Os
Until the fallout starts.

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

More Poeming--PAD Challenge Prompts 7-10

I got hung up on Day 7 of the Poetic Asides PAD Challenge and ended up backlogged once I finally came up with something for that one, so I'll just post a few at a time here instead of backposting to put them all on the right day, because that's kind of annoying, anyway. So here we go:

Day 7. Prompt--Sevenling (this is a particular poetry form, which is why I got hung up on this prompt)

A gold ring
A silver chain
A locket

The cash
and the cards
From his wallet

She tosses them in after his body.



Day 8. Prompt--Instructional

This is how it works:
If you turn the crank to the right
The heartbeat slows.
To the left, the constriction is lifted.
Turn to the right, farther and farther,
and the bands tighten.
The pressure is even, so
The heart does not exactly burst.
It is only compressed
Until
Finally
It becomes incapable of human emotion.


Day 9: Prompt--hunter and/or hunted (twofer Tuesday prompt)

The soft whiff of denial hits the air
And she knows she is on the wrong path
But she presses forward.
The branches tangle around her.
Thorns tear her skin.
She knows it's the wrong way.
She keeps going.
Going.
Into the darkness, through the swampy quicksand
Until finally
There he is
Entirely the wrong man.


Day 10: Prompt--suffering

How much longer can it hurt this much?
How much longer before the body rebels completely
And organs shut down
The blood stops flowing
The breath stops breathing?
How much longer?
Six more years
Then five
Then four.
Then they're counting down to three
Because then it will be
Their silver anniversary.


Humpday Hump

Sharing an excerpt from my upcoming release from Crimson Romance: As If You Never Left Me for Marteeka Karland's Humpday Hump blog hop.

***********

With the Jeep in low gear, she trundled over the uneven, snowy ground until they were shielded by a stand of evergreens.

“Back seat?” he said, mischief in his eyes.

“Damn straight,” she answered, adjusting the driver’s seat as she spoke, moving it forward as far as it would go.

Braving the cold, they got out and climbed into the back seat. Before Joely had quite closed the door, Rey had caught hold of her, dragging her across the back seat, half into his lap. He kissed her, devouring her mouth while his hands slid down her back, cupped her ass. His tongue pressed in, tangling with hers.

Joely laughed. "What?" Rey said, almost as if in protest.

She shook her head, unable really to explain. It just struck her funny, that they were about to make love in the backseat of a car, like teenagers afraid of getting caught by their parents.

He grinned at her, eyes twinkling, and she sensed that he understood. She smiled back. That was the way they had always been—in synch, practically reading each other's minds. It felt good to have that back.

She grappled with the snap on his jeans, with the zipper, finding it quite difficult to get them unfastened while he was sitting. But she managed to get them open, and to work the jeans down his hips and partway down his thighs. He was already firmly erect, and as she worked the jeans down, he worried a rather bent condom package out of his pocket and laid it on the seat next to him.

She smiled up at him, not sure why that particular gesture touched her so much. Maybe because it proved he'd planned ahead, or maybe because it proved he was thinking about protecting her. Either way, it made her warm. Made her love him.

She maneuvered into an uncomfortable sitting position on the floor between the driver's seat and the back seat. She'd positioned the driver's seat to its farthest forward position, so there was some room, but it wasn’t quite enough. Still, she could make do. She adjusted until she was relatively comfortable, sitting between Rey's open knees. He looked down at her, heavy-lidded, lips slightly parted, and put his hand on her head, combing his fingers into her hair. He knew what was coming. Not forcing it, but obviously anticipating it.

She smiled. Tenting her fingertips against his knees, she traced them up his thighs, then back down. His eyes closed and he let his head settle back against the headrest with a soft sigh of contentment.

She slipped her fingers again along his thighs, up to his belly, dropped a fingertip into his navel, lifted it back out again, carefully circumnavigating even the dark curls of his pubic hair. Then, with no preamble, she bent and took him into her mouth. He jumped, gasped, and she chuckled, licking him.

He filled her mouth as well as he did her body, and the taste of his skin brought back memories of other back seats, other blowjobs, quickly going down on him behind bushes at dusk on the college quad. She took him in, deep, all the way to the back of her throat, smiling at the way he fit perfectly against the back of her palate. She had missed that. They fit together like puzzle pieces. His hands fisted gently in her hair and he began to pulse his hips. It felt good. He tasted good. Faster, deeper, and she brought up a hand to curl her fingers around him as he thrust, working his skin, feeling the hardness beneath it. Then, abruptly, he stopped, and drew her head up.

"Inside," he said. "I want to come inside you."

Saturday, April 6, 2013

PAD Challenge--Day Six

April PAD Challenge
Day Six
Prompt--"Post"

There was a day when
We waited by the mailbox
Wondering what treasure the day would bring
A postcard, a note, a letter, a check
Now we hunch over flickering screens
And hit refresh
Again
And again and
Again


Friday, April 5, 2013

PAD Challenge--Day Five

April PAD Challenge
Day Five
Prompt--"plus"

Who is your + one?
It asks on the invitation and you
Hesitate wondering what to say
Because your + one is you
Your heart your soul your life
The identity you've carved since you became one on your own
Who is your + one?
You write in the blank: Not Applicable

Cover Reveal--As If You Never Left Me--Coming Soon from Crimson Romance

I'm a bit behind on this, and if you follow me on Twitter and/or Facebook, you've seen this already, but here's the cover of my upcoming book from Crimson Romance, As If You Never Left Me. This is a reprint of a book that was originally released by Ellora's Cave. If you didn't read it in its previous incarnation, I hope you'll check it out!

Rey and Joely Birch had what they thought was a perfect marriage. Then, suddenly, it all fell apart. Joely left Rey in a fit of anger, moving halfway across the country to make a new life for herself in Colorado.

Now, fourteen months later, she’s happy with how things are going, running a classy boutique in the mountains, creating ceramic art, and seeing her business already in the black. But then one day she looks up and Rey is standing in the middle of her shop. Sexy as ever and asking for a second chance. The last thing Joely wants is to let herself be hurt again. But he’s still Rey, still the man she fell in love with, still the man who can send her heart racing with a look. And Joely’s having a very hard time resisting him.

Rey knows he screwed up the best thing he ever had when he let Joely slip away. Now he has a chance to prove to her he can be the right man for her again. He wants time to be her husband again, to show her how he truly feels. And it looks like she’s going to give it to him. She’s willing to accept a date—even willing to let him sleep on the couch in her tiny mountain cabin. Bit by bit, he’ll chip away at the wall she’s built around herself. A piece at a time, he’ll put his heart back together for her.
But will his carefully laid plans disintegrate when she finds out what really brought him to Colorado?

Thursday, April 4, 2013

PAD Challenge--Day Four

April PAD Challenge
Day Four
Prompt--"Hold that ___"

Hold that
Tighter it might get away
Slip through your fingers
Fly off the curve of your open hand

Hold that
Tighter; don't let it go
If you let it move
Or breathe
It won't be yours anymore

Hold that
Tighter
And when you open your hand
It will stare at you
With glassy eyes

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

PAD Challenge--Day Three

April PAD Challenge
Day Three
Prompt--"tentative"

There's always that moment
Before
The thumb cocks the trigger
The fingers loose the arrow
The nib strikes the paper

When you wonder

Why

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

PAD Challenge--Day Two

April PAD Challenge
Day Two--prompt "dark/light"
This was a twofer prompt--we could write a dark poem or a light poem. I put 'em both in there.

God said let there be light
So in the beginning there was only dark
And out of the dark crawled everything
All the bugs and worms and tentacles and the dark slime that birthed everything.
So we are all children of the darkness
Because the dark came first
And it's still there.

Monday, April 1, 2013

National Poetry Month--April Poem a Day Challenge

I've been waffling about doing this, but I think I'll take the plunge. I'm doing the April Poem-A-Day Challenge over at Robert Lee Brewer's Writer's Digest blog, and I'm going to post my poems (eek!). These are first drafts, please be warned... Basically I'm just barfing up a poem based on the prompt and hoping something cohesive comes out of it at some point. I did this challenge last year and came up with thirty poems of varying quality, one of which I actually sold, so hey! Success!

Anyway, on with the poeming:

Day One
Prompt--"new arrival"

In the beginning was the word
What word was it?
Words tangle and scrawl and earthworm their way across blank paper
Becoming something
Something new
Something that has never existed before
Words define and delineate, limit and logic
Words break you and batter, query and question and turn things inside out and outside in and challenge every belief we've ever held dear.
Words are the matter at the heart
The Higgs boson
The God particle
The graviton

God said let there be...
And there was.
I say let there be...
And there it is.