Everything's comin' up cowboys around here today with the release of Return to Delight from the Lawless line at Ellora's Cave. When I found out my friend Mari Carr's book, Inflamed, was set for the same date (and it's ALSO in the Lawless line) we couldn't resist teaming up for a cowboy contest! Beginning today and lasting until midnight on Friday, we'll ask you some pretty simple questions and the winners will win a book from our backlist.Mari and I both have a 'cowboy question' to pose. While you're on my blog, take a look at my question but head over to Mari's blog and leave the answer in her comment box. While at Mari's blog, read her question but answer it on MY blog by clicking HERE. Easy right? We'll each name a winner on Saturday morning at our respective blogs.
My question: What is the downright sexiest thing about a cowboy?
Important! Answer this question in the comment section at Mari's blog
Buy it HERE!
Blurb:
Harley June Baker left Delight thinking never to return, but when circumstances draw her back to this tiny town and straight into Cooper’s strong arms, she knows she’s in deep trouble. The man she’d loved and left behind is now one sexy devil-in-denim and hotter than a Texas summer night. With his every wicked touch throwing her senses into overdrive, how could any sane woman resist?
Cooper Dobbs is a man on a mission. He let Harley get away once, but never again. Knowing it’s time to burn up some sheets with the delectable woman, Cooper plies her with a raw, savage passion that threatens to incinerate them both. It’s gonna take plenty of panty-drenching sex and a fair amount of sweet-talkin’ to make Harley his, but Cooper reckons he’s up to the challenge.
An Excerpt From: RETURN TO DELIGHT
Copyright © REGINA CARLYSLE, 2011
All Rights Reserved, Ellora's Cave Publishing, Inc.
Chapter One
Harley June Baker tightened her grip on the steering wheel of her candy-apple red Mazda Miata and pressed a booted foot on the accelerator as she swept past the powder blue sign that read Welcome to Delight! Serving up miles of smiles deep in the heart of Texas!
Yeah, right.
She did the whole mental eye roll thing. All the town of Delight ever served up was a healthy dose of boredom. Around these parts, the citizens of this tiny Hill Country town called the place Dee-light with a heavy emphasis on the “e” but as a starry-eyed teenager with a thirst for excitement and adventure, all she’d really wanted was to get the hell out. Back then the place was one dead-end road to nowhere but now she wasn’t so sure. Childhood memories rolled slowly over her threatening to take her under.
The blast of nostalgia hit her, quite unexpectedly, and she blinked back tears as she thought of her mom and how much she missed her. Deborah had died a few months ago leaving Harley June a million good memories along with an aging Victorian that had been in the family for countless generations. For as long as she could remember it had just been her and Mom. She didn’t know her dad. He’d hung around long enough to name her after his favorite motorcycle and then one day, he’d gotten on it and driven away never to return.
What a shithead!
Her mom had been a wonderful woman but he’d been too young and stupid to see that. She and Mom had done okay though. When she reached adulthood, she realized that not only did she look like Mom but that she’d inherited a sassy streak of independence and a hard-work ethic that was pure Deb Baker.
Harley stopped at a red light in the center of Main and flipped on her right turn signal. Leaving Mom a dozen years ago to chase her dreams had been one of the hardest things she’d ever done. She turned at the First Methodist Church and drove the three blocks to Austin Road. Her hands began to tremble and tears filled her eyes when she took in the long, tree-lined street with its neatly paved sidewalks. When she was little, she’d mastered bike riding and in-line skates on those concrete paths. In the distance she spotted the big Victorian that had been in her family for generations. She shouldn’t sell it! She should keep it and see if she could make a different kind of life for herself in this small town that held her childhood memories.
“No! I can’t stay. There’s nothing for me here,” she argued aloud. Then her eyes narrowed as she saw the shiny black bad-boy truck parked in front of the house. Next to the vehicle sat a giant-sized toolbox and several cans of paint. Harley June pulled up behind the truck and turned off the ignition. She’d hired Connelly Brothers Construction to do an eensy face-lift on the house to make it more attractive to potential buyers. Obviously they’d followed her instructions and had sent someone over to begin work. She had emailed several days ago telling them she’d be in town and it was good to see they’d gotten a start on things.
Grabbing her purse from the passenger seat, she stepped out and walked to the sidewalk, stopping to take in the wide, old-fashioned veranda with its large round pillars and the high gables of the roofline. Someone had repainted the double front doors a dark charcoal and had planted bold, red geraniums in the iron urns flanking the entrance.
Why?
It was beyond strange considering she was selling. Yes, they were lovely but who would do such a thing?
Frowning a little, she advanced, her boot heels knocking smartly on the front walkway. As she headed up the wide steps to the porch, she stopped then caught her breath and held it. Nostalgia mixed with bittersweet longing curled tightly in her chest as Cooper Dobbs stood there looking at her through a pair of heavily lashed smoky-colored eyes. Bare-chested and holding a well-used paintbrush, he grinned broadly. A pair of dimples dipped into his bronzed cheeks and his blacker-than-night hair was mussed as if he’d repeatedly raked his fingers through it. A portion of that sexy black stuff drooped over his forehead. His eyes crinkled at the corners as he dropped the paintbrush onto a broad swath of canvas on the floor of the porch. “Well, hey Harley June! It’s about damn time you came home,” he drawled as he reached into a back pocket to grab a crumpled blue bandanna. He wiped futilely at the pale gray paint smears on his deliciously mounded chest and dragged it over a set of washboard abs.
Was there drool on her chin?
Blurb:
Stuck in a rut in every way possible, Keri decides her first step in a bid for change is moving back to the Texas home she left years ago. The second step? Spicing up her sex life with the crazy-hot cowboys she left behind. Too responsible (and smart) to touch her way back when, Max and Shaw filled Keri’s hottest teen dreams. Now she’s older, wiser—and more than ready to make up for lost time.
Max and Shaw were always fond of Keri, but the stunning woman strutting back into their lives is a far cry from the serious, studious teen they remember. She wants to take a walk on the racy side—with both of them—and the cowboys are only too happy to oblige. As they suspected, the sex is explosive, though Max and Shaw aren’t sure Keri can really handle everything they have to give.
Nor do they know if she can handle the sexy secret they’ve yet to divulge.
Copyright © MARI CARR, 2011
All Rights Reserved, Ellora's Cave Publishing, Inc.
Shaw tossed back the last of his beer and then waved the waitress over, asking her to set them up with another round. They’d danced up a sweat, Max and Shaw each taking turns with Keri on the floor.
“Thought you said you couldn’t two-step,” Shaw said. She’d more than held her own, twirling to the music like a professional dancer.
She laughed. “You were right. I’d never had the right partners before.”
Shaw considered her answer and the way she looked at them. Her gaze was hungry, inviting. He glanced at Max, but his friend shook his head slightly. Obviously Max was going to be stubborn. Shaw was tempted to pull him outside and tell him how often Keri’s hand had grazed his ass when they were dancing. She was putting out more than a few signals, and his pigheaded friend was pointedly ignoring them.
Shaw looked at her flushed face and decided it was probably time for a break.
“How about a game of pool?” he suggested. “There’s a small room off the back of the bar that doesn’t get used much.”
Keri nodded quickly. “Sounds like fun. I haven’t played pool since college.”
Shaw rubbed his hands together as they rose and started toward the back room. He gave her an appraising look. “Is that right? Hmmm. Maybe we should come up with a wager then.”
Max shook his head, laughing. “He’s a shark, Keri. Beware.”
“Oh, you don’t have to worry about me,” Keri replied. She stood and let Shaw tug her toward the pool room before continuing. “I may have been gone awhile but I have a very long memory. Don’t think I’ve forgotten about you scamming me out of two weeks’ allowance while teaching me how to play Texas Hold ’Em my sophomore year.”
Shaw laughed at the memory. “Hey, darlin’. I warned you before you joined that game, if you played with the big dogs, you were bound to get bit.”
“Maybe so, but be warned, sometimes the puppy bites back.”
Her sexy innuendo was accompanied by a quick glance below his waist. Shaw reconciled himself to the fact that his cock—which had been residing at half-mast most of the night—was finished fooling around and had made a full-fledged appearance. Nothing short of sex or a quick hand-job in the bathroom was going to cure that affliction. Keri noticed his problem and gave him a wicked grin.
“By the way,” she said, “you can’t claim that as a handicap.”
Shaw’s mouth went dry at her red-hot tease and he looked around to see if Max had heard. Sadly, his friend was still at the table handing the waitress some money and grabbing their fresh beers. Fuck. It was going to be a long night.
They walked into the back room and claimed the pool table just being vacated by a couple of cowboys. The room was dark and dingy and the table wasn’t exactly level, which explained why no one ever used it. Shaw was simply using it as an excuse to get Keri alone for a little while. The loud music was dimmed by the walls, so there was no way Max could continue to pretend not to hear that she was coming on to them.
Shaw narrowed his eyes as one of the men leaving the room slowed his departure to check out Keri more thoroughly. She was wearing a miniskirt that was two inches too close to baring too much for Shaw’s comfort. While he hadn’t minded getting a good look at her long, luscious legs in the truck on the way here, he’d been battling the impulse to pulverize every man who’d leered at her since they’d entered the bar.
“So how do you want to do this?” Keri asked as she picked up a pool cue. “Kind of hard to play pool with three people.”
“You’re on my team,” Max replied, entering the room and setting the beers down on the lone table. “We’ll take turns shooting against Shaw.”
Shaw narrowed his eyes. “How come you get Keri? Maybe I want her on my team.”
Keri laughed. “Believe me, I’m going to be the weakest link. Personally, I think you two should be fighting over who has to take me.”
Shaw suppressed a groan. He wanted to take her, all right. “I don’t think that’s ever gonna be a fight Max and I will have.”
Max threw him a warning glance as he bent down to rack the balls. “We’ll take turns. I get Keri for the first game. You can have her next time.”
“Or,” Shaw said, rubbing chalk over the tip of his cue, “we could share her. She’ll play with both of us.” Shaw walked up behind her, bending her slightly over the table. “In the interest of sharing our vast experience with you, of course.” He handed her the stick and wrapped his arms around her, pretending to show her how to hold the pool cue. The move was purely sensual. Shaw ignored the daggers he could feel Max shooting in his direction as his friend finished racking the balls. Shaw was done pretending so that Max could soothe his guilty conscience. She may still be sweet Keri, but she wasn’t an innocent by any stretch of the imagination. Time to take off the kid gloves.
Keri grinned as she looked over her shoulder. His wicked intentions weren’t lost on her. She bent lower and pushed back slightly, her ass rubbing against Shaw’s cock.
“Like this?” she purred.
He gritted his teeth in an attempt to withstand her sneak attack. She’d taken him down with his own weapon. There was no way to mistake her movements as anything other than a pure come-on.
All bets were off.
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