NEW RELEASE from Lily Harlem

The newest release from author Lily Harlem arrives today from Ellora's Cave!!

TEAMWORK: Book four in the Hot Ice series. (May be enjoyed as a stand alone read.)

What I know about hockey could fit on the back of a stamp. So my latest patient may be one of the NHL’s hottest defensemen, but I’m not exactly blown away by his stardom. Add in the fact that he’s a surly, growling grump, and I’m more than happy to work my magic on his battered body and then hot-foot to my date with his teammate, Todd “Pretty” Carty. 

Todd is sex on a stick, a slice of man heaven and I want a bit of the action, preferably of the bedroom variety. But when Raven emerges from his bad mood and throws his energy into blowing my mind with just one kiss, I find my head spinning and my libido raging. 

What I didn’t bargain on is these hard-training, hard-playing hockey players working as efficiently off the ice as on it when it comes to getting results. But who am I to complain when satisfaction is their ultimate goal? 

Reader Advisory: Contains m/f/m. Go on, you know you want to indulge!

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Cindy Jacks: SMUGGLER'S BLUES

SMUGGLER'S BLUES

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Blurb:

Book two in the Pirates at Heart series.

The year is 2017 and all is quiet on the eastern front. Good news for the war-weary Republic of Texas…bad news for weapons smuggling–pirate Captain Brett Logan.

Logan’s been a surly handful since war’s end—not to mention a rather perfunctory lover—and his wife Kate has had about enough. When an illicit business venture falls in his lap, Logan is eager to get back to outrunning and out-gunning the enemy navy.

Kate becomes an unwilling participant in Logan’s criminal enterprise, but in his element of excitement and danger, he’s the roguish daredevil she fell in love with. Their passion for each other burns hotter than ever—spurred on by the thrill of the chase. As she learns more about Logan’s wild side, Kate finds herself craving him body and soul as love, sex and adventure finally rid Logan of those pesky smuggler’s blues.

An Excerpt From: SMUGGLER’S BLUES

Copyright © CINDY JACKS, 2012

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

The familiar ping of rain falling onto a tin roof startled her. Thunder rumbled, louder this time. The storm had begun.

“What’s wrong?” He tilted her head up to look at him. His brow was furrowed, gaze studying hers. The concern in his expression disarmed her. Heavy raindrops beat a tattoo on the tin roof, adding to her fear and exhaustion.

She shook her head. Everything was wrong.

Seeming to read her mind, he nodded. “Stupid question, huh?”

Kathryn nodded and sighed. She wanted nothing more than to collapse into his arms, to fall into a dreamless sleep until this was all over. But it was nowhere near over. This ordeal continued to get more and more complicated.

Leaning her head against his chest, she listened to his strong heartbeat. “Do you—do you really think Dale killed someone because of my mistake?”

“No, not if he didn’t have to. Have some faith in basic human greed.” He jostled her.

The remark struck her as funny. She gave a weak smile. Maybe Brett was right. Or maybe he was trying to make her feel better.

“I really screwed up.”

“I screwed up. You’re only here because I… I should’ve stayed home when you asked me to pass up this deal.”

Home. It was all that she longed for, but the thought only brought on another wave of anxiety. Her chest grew tight and his words from the night before flooded back. He’d stolen the comfort of home from her too. Silent tears dripped down her cheeks.

“But you’re bored with me.” She huffed.

Lightning flashed outside, the wind picked up force. It swept through the poorly constructed shack, the oil lamp light flickering.

“Kate.” He smoothed her hair and pressed her into a hug. “Kate, I didn’t mean that you bore me.”

“Don’t try to sugarcoat it now.”

Tilting her chin up, he cupped her face in his hands. “I’m not. I bore me when I’m at home. This life—” He motioned to the shelter and the storm outside. “This is all I’ve ever known, and I just don’t know how to entertain myself otherwise.”

“I know I’m busy with the boys.” She went on as if she hadn’t heard what he’d said. “And I’ve never been the kind of woman who gets all dolled up—”

He cut her off with a kiss, his hand sliding around her waist.

“Stop.” She turned away.

Tangling a hand in her hair, he exposed her neck and planted a trail of kisses.

“You are—” He kissed down to her cleavage. “The most exciting woman I’ve ever known.”

His growing erection indicated the truth in his words.

“And that’s saying a lot,” she teased, his affection chasing away her self-doubt little by little.

Her pulse and respiration quickened, her sex grew warm and tight. He slipped a hand beneath her shirt, letting it roam over her bare skin as if it had a mind of its own.

“It’s not every woman who’ll assault me with my own wallet.”

Kathryn chuckled, holding back a squeal as he stroked the ticklish spot at the cleft of her ass.

“We can’t do this here.” She tried to extricate herself from his embrace.

“Why not?” Skimming his lips over her jawline, he pressed her closer.

“Because we’re fugitives.”

Oh God, they were fugitives. Strangers in a strange land. Well, it didn’t seem all that foreign to Brett.

Hand to his chest, she stopped his advances. “I didn’t know you could speak Reformlandish.”

Eyes heavy-lidded, he grinned slowly. “I speak a couple Reformlandish dialects. And Spanish. Some Cajun French.”

She arched an eyebrow, shaking her head. “How is it I didn’t know that?”

“Not much cause to use my language skills around the house.”

“What else don’t I know about you?” She leaned forward, inhaling his musky scent and the sweet whiskey on his breath.

His lips were so close that hers tingled, but he didn’t move for a kiss. Not yet. “I couldn’t say. You’ll just have to find out as we go.”

Running her fingertips up his arm, she imagined the landscape beneath his clothes. Since the day they’d met she’d made a road map of his body in her mind. The tattoos and scars, each ripple of muscle, every freckle, the tantalizing trail of hair that led from his bellybutton down to his cock.

Yes, she knew every inch of him. And she knew just how her body would react to his touch, his scent—her pulse pounding, her pussy swollen and wet. It was all delicious, but predictable. Even the routine they’d gotten into, making love right before bed. The song he’d sing her as she fell asleep.

But here, in the one place she never wanted to find herself again, she’d learned something new about her lover. She’d gotten to see the part of him he kept separate from their comfortable life at home. And though some of it shocked her and threw her off balance, there was something intoxicating about the outlaw whose arms wrapped around her.

Heat flared inside her, licking at her cheeks, her nipples, her sex. She surged forward, kissing him hard, her tongue invading his mouth. Caught off guard, he tumbled backward, chuckling, but spurred her on, his hands stripping off her sweater and shirt.

The cool evening air swirled around her breasts, her nipples drawing painfully tight. He leaned forward, capturing a bud between his teeth and rolling his tongue over it.

She gasped, pleasure rippling through her. Since they’d come ashore, he’d been in command of the situation, never once losing his cool. Now she wanted him in command of her body. She longed for him to tease her, overwhelm her and take her. Own her.

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Take A Little Byte

Take A Little Byte Blog-Hop

So, technology is an amazing thing, it closes gaps wider than the oceans now and brings us together from all over the world. I've used it as a basis for a couple of stories-as well as the device of a journal. But, for this presentation, I'll introduce you to the...

Games of Seduction…

It all began as a conversation, with a man on another continent…

Any man who can seduce a woman’s mind owns her body long before he ever possesses it….

It is a simple enough concept, but is so alien to so many.

He taught me that in the space of a few hours. From a man half a world away, I learned more about myself in one night than I had from anyone I had ever been with. And I wanted more. I wanted to know how far hunger and need can be stretched before possession is all that matters, and surrender is all that remains.

He created a game that he said never ends - a bit like life and the learning we do each day. “Truth” is the name of this game, but it’s more accurately called “Seduction.” When one party wins, both claim the prize.

Under his shrewd eyes, my truths have never looked so bare and so small. They make me crawl inside myself. He doesn’t intend to let me hide behind my walls, though. I wondered if I should be afraid or entranced? Both, perhaps.

The first question: “what do you like in a man?”

How do I respond to that? I was looking at what I like in a man, and I choked on the awareness of it… So, I struggled and replied with sublime idiocy that I didn’t know the answer. To my great amazement, he didn’t end the game, but pointed out that stupidity didn’t appear to be a problem, so why was I giving him stupid answers. At this time, any other man would have been staring at a blank screen, but not this one, his honesty was enchanting.

What do I like in a man? What do I notice first? They seemed like easy questions. I’ve answered them before, but they weren’t usually being asked by the physical embodiment of the honest reply. I noticed his eyes, his smile, his shoulders, and most of all, his presence and the way he carries himself - the strength of his personality and his confidence. This should have been an easy thing to answer. It wasn’t.

I felt like I was a love-struck sixteen-year-old in the throes of her first infatuation. I’d known him about an hour at that point. Can you understand how overwhelmed I was and how ridiculous I felt? He made me blush like a schoolgirl, and that hasn’t happened in a very long time.

Question two: “tell me something you’ve never told another person about what you want from sex.”

This was even more difficult and where I had the internal heart attack. I wondered how much more he could rattle me without even trying. If my first answer was inane, this one was worse. The game was going badly, and I was losing all credibility as a woman with intelligence and passion. Oddly, it hurt to know just how foolish I was being, but faced with this man’s candour and honesty, I couldn’t let myself speak words that should have come easily. Why was putting those words onto the screen for someone who is watching me – someone who is the answer to those very questions – why was that so impossible to do? I knew why. I wanted him. I wanted to be possessed by him in a way no other man has ever known me. I wanted a stranger to own me because I knew he had the strength to do it. That was very frightening. The enormity of it made me want to run, but I had no idea if the answer was to run toward him or run away? I wondered if I should ask.

How do I tell this handsome and passionate man that if he wanted my fantasy, he would have to tie my hands and blindfold me, then talk to me as he does whatever he wants with me to make me his? That, in return, I would want to do the same thing to him, leaving him breathless and aching as I decided how best to tease his lust?

What was going on in my mind that made me want to know what it was to belong to this man. Why I suddenly wanted to be his and only his? Other men have tried to make me bend, and failed, but I knew this one could make me beg, and leave me more fulfilled, more alive than I thought was possible, even in my romantic dreams.

I wanted the touch of his hands and the whisper of his words, while he held me captive to his desire. I stared at the computer screen and my heart was pounding a wild timpani in my ears, but still the words would not come forth.

I discovered that I knew nothing about a man’s idea of beauty, that I saw myself in a very different way than he did. He saw more deeply than I believed was possible - even through the fear that kept me struggling to play my part of the game, knowing I was failing badly.

He upped the stakes when he told me he wanted to see me… really see me… naked, in all ways. It was easy for him, he’s had more lovers than I want to think about. I’ve had few real moments of passion in my life. And I was a different person then, a woman barely aware of what desire was, and playing at being in love. I looked different then, but even knowing that time had not so much aged me as improved me, I was desperately afraid to let him see me. My first glimpse of him is burned into my mind. Beautiful as only a strong man can be, vital and vibrant, at ease with his sensuality and his potent sexuality.

“I’ve been told I am not the kind of woman who inspires passion.”

When I admitted that, it made me fear deeply. He asked me why I would believe such a thing from a man who clearly wanted to cause me pain. Once again, he reminded me that I did not appear to be a stupid woman, yet I persisted in the belief that words intended to hurt could be true in any way. He did not hold back his truths, nor did he make them gentle when he forced me to see them. I took a leap of trust, and I did what he asked. Each step into his vision was rewarded by an equal exposing of his body. I wondered if he saw how badly my knees were shaking when he looked at me – how much my heart leapt when his response was a simple, but appreciative “Wow” when faced with me.

I still shake, inside and out, when I permit my mind to relive that moment.

Want to read more? It's all here, and the nice part - the book is FREE and filled with this and other stories:

Snap-Shots

A collection of Erotic Passion and Nocturnal Cravings

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Thirteen stories of sensual seduction, discovered passion, and the shadows in the night that call to our darkest desires. Many of these stories have appeared in various venues over the past five years, but this is the first time they’ve been collected in a single volume. So, enjoy the temptations in these sizzling tales:

Games of Seduction

New Year’s Eve

Beloved Stranger

Haunted

Eternity Awaits

Cold Wind in the Night

Because I Am Yours

Ancient Magic

Pipe Dreams

Rage... And Vengeance...

Anticipation

Behold, My Rahve

And How Was Your Day?

***Contains both erotic and non-erotic material.

HIDE AND SECRET

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Alone with her journal, Bella examines her feelings and passion for Quinn Lockharte, a man who charged into her life in a storming fury and changed it forever. Quinn's duty to his family has him engaged to his childhood sweetheart, and though the promise is an old one, Quinn feels bound by it.

A surprise knock at her door brings Bella face-to-face with her destiny…but can she trust what her heart so desperately wants—especially when Quinn is determined to keep her naked and screaming his name? Mind-blowing sex has been their relationship’s strongest bond, but Bella’s tired of being his secret—and Quinn’s not willing to let her go.