Excerpt: Perfectly Good Nanny by Paty Jager
Brock Hughes is a man juggling a mortgaged ranch, a preteen daughter, and a toddler. He’s lost two wives, one to a tragic accident and the other to the bright lights of the city. That’s the trouble with women. Sooner or later, by design or by fate, they leave a man high and dry. He doesn't want another one for his family--especially in the form of a beautiful nanny he didn't hire.Carina Valencia arrives on Brock’s doorstep determined to pull her life back together. As far as she's concerned, it doesn't matter who hired her. These children are clearly in need of a woman’s touch and she’ll not let another child down.
******
“You have no right to come here and criticize how I raise my children.” Brock took three long strides toward Carina. “Do they look abused or neglected to you?” Towering over her, he glared at her upturned face. How dare she question him?
She didn’t back away or down.
“Your daughter ordering a nanny screams of neglect to me,” Carina retorted with steel in her voice.
Her reaction puzzled him.
“She had help.” He did feel remorse his daughter knew what she needed and he didn’t.
“But you knew nothing about it.” Carina threw her hands in the air, turned away then swung back around. “If you supervised your children as you say you do, she wouldn’t have been able to arrange for a nanny and have one arrive without your knowledge.”
She was right, but he’d never admit it. He was a bad excuse for a father, but he loved the land and his children and was torn between the two. They both needed him.
Brock rubbed a hand over his face and backed away from the woman who made him see himself in an unfavorable light. “I know,” he mumbled.
“You know what?” she stepped close. He could smell her perfume and the scent of baby powder.
"I know I’m not around enough, but they also need fed and clothed and this god-forsaken land is what puts food on the table and clothes on their backs.”
“But they need you, too.” Her face softened. “Physical contact is just as important as food and shelter.” She reached out, rubbing his arm. “You’re a wonderful father when you’re with the children. And I’ve no doubt Maddie had a terrific time with you today.”
The energy her touch set off frightened him. God help him. Between the zing of her touch and the passion in her words, his body overruled his good sense.
Grasping her shoulders, he pulled her against his chest, breathing in her sensual scent. It felt good to hold a woman again. Especially, one who’d just given him such high praise, even if it was after raking him up one side and down the other.
When she didn’t pull from his embrace, he slid his hand down her back, forgetting all the reasons he’d built to stay away from a woman.
******
Paty Jager lives with her husband of twenty-eight years and a menagerie of farm animals. Her four children are grown and leading their own lives and providing grandchildren to spoil.She has been a freelance reporter for local newspapers and a 4-H program assistant over the years as she honed her writing. Nearly ten years ago she joined RWA (Romance Writers of America). After eight years of attending many conferences, workshops, and being a finalist in eight contests, she broke into the publishing industry with a new, small e-book and POD publisher, The Wild Rose Press.Soon to be the ex-president of the Mid-Willamette Valley RWA chapter in Salem, Oregon, she is also a member of the Hearts Through History RWA online chapter, and a member of the Redmond Writers group. She credits the RWA organization for helping her work on her craft to become a published author and giving her the contacts necessary to build her career. Two western romance historical books were published in 2006. Marshal in Petticoats and Gambling on an Angel. Her third romance novel, Perfectly Good Nanny, a contemporary western romance, is available in both print and e-book. The second book of the Petticoat series, Outlaw in Petticoats, will be available in print May 2008.
posted by Elisabeth Naughton at 9:39 AM
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:~: Thursday, November 15, 2007 :~:
Excerpt: Night Song by Sharon Cullen
Night Song He’s a centuries old vampire who doesn’t do domestication. She’s a single mother struggling to survive. Evil brings them together, but will their love be enough to keep them alive?
******
Aiden hadn’t lied. He had been walking in the woods. What he didn’t tell her was that he timed his walk to coincide with her nightly ritual of sitting on the deck with her glass of wine. She’d been late tonight and he’d almost given up, but his patience had been rewarded when the sliding door opened and she stepped through.
He’d been more than stunned to see the shimmer of tears on her cheeks and could no more have stayed away than deny his insatiable hunger for blood. He had to know what was wrong, what made her sad.
But she was reluctant to talk and her mortification was apparent, so he let it go for the time being. That thought alone should have been enough to send him running for the hills. She was human and she was a mother on top of it. A bad combination in his book. But this woman was different and that both drew him to her and made him step back.
It was insane to get to know her.
Yet he couldn’t stay away even if he wanted—and at the moment he didn’t want.
She left the deck to get his wine. He followed and stood just outside the sliding glass door, surveying her kitchen. It was everything his home was not. Lydia’s drawings covered the front of the refrigerator held there with big, colorful magnets. An overlarge calendar was taped up, each day marked with different colored pens. Papers had been pushed off to the side of the kitchen table. Cooling loaves of bread littered the small space. Aiden took a deep breath and held it. Lemon bread, if he wasn’t mistaken.
He rarely ate food, and only then to appease the human he was with, but the scents coming from Amy’s kitchen made his stomach grumble. His gaze went to her as she bustled around the cluttered kitchen. Just like the other night, he wanted to step inside and just be with her. But, as a vampire, he wasn’t allowed inside unless invited.
Amy shot him a warm look over her shoulder as she pulled more loaves from the oven. “Come in,” she said with a smile. “Sorry about the mess.”
He stepped inside, savoring the smell of warm lemon bread, entranced at the sight of her rear end bent over the open oven door. His breath caught in his lungs and he stepped even closer. She closed the door and opened the refrigerator, pulling out a bottle of wine.
“It’s so hard to keep the kitchen clean,” she said. “Seems every time I straighten it up, it’s a mess again.”
She chuckled and turned around, then gasped when she knocked into him. Wine splashed out of the glass and splattered her hand.
“Oh.” Her face turned red. “Sorry.”
He took the glass in one hand and her fingers in his other. Lifting her hand to his lips, he kept his gaze trained on her wide, amber eyes. Slowly he sucked the sweet liquid from her fingers and palm, running his tongue along her palm. He closed his eyes, biting back a groan at the salty-sweet taste of her skin. He skimmed his fangs across her palm and she inhaled. His gaze flew to hers where a desire mixed with trepidation and a longing that nearly matched his shone back.
Quickly, before he lost control, he let go of her hand. She held it to her body, cradling it close to her breast. Aiden licked his lips, wanting more. Wanting it all. He took a step back and sipped his wine, studying the rise and fall of her breasts, hearing the small little pants that escaped from between her lips. He could smell the heat rising from her body, the woman scent that had him rock hard.
Not tonight. If he were smart, not ever. But sometimes his intelligence took a back seat to other, baser instincts, and he had no doubt this would be one of those times.
She wanted him. He could see it in her eyes and in the way she leaned toward him. But she also didn’t want him. That was in her eyes as well, evidenced by the confusion. He placed his glass on the kitchen table and took a step in her direction. She held her ground but her eyes grew wider and the pulse in her carotid picked up speed. Keeping his mouth shut, he licked his incisors, nearly tasting her warm, sweet blood. Would it taste like she smelled? Vanilla and flowers? God, he wanted to know.
He reached her in another step and stood so close her warm breath heated him through his shirt. With slow movements, he lifted his hand and caressed her neck. There. Right there he could kiss her, feel her pulse, know that her blood flowed through her. His mouth watered. She licked her lips and he groaned, bending his head and taking her mouth with his, licking the line where her upper lip clamped over her lower, asking for entry.
She opened and he dove in, tasting her, testing her. He was a master at kissing while hiding his elongated and very sharp fangs. His hands cupped the sides of her face. Tentatively, slowly, she raised her hands and placed them on his waist. Her fingers stroked little circles, making his skin tingle where she touched him.
“Mama?”
With a gasp, Amy pushed away, staring at him with wide eyes, her lips rosy and soft. She swiped a hand across her mouth and tore her gaze from his. With a muttered curse, Aiden ran a shaky hand through his hair.
“Lydia, what are you doing up?” Amy asked her daughter.
“Why are you kissing the boogey-man?”
**********
BIO: After reading Black Beauty when she was ten, Sharon had two dreams—to own a horse and to write books. She still doesn’t have the horse, but she does write. Nowadays she divides her time between the every day duties of a mom with three busy kids, a husband, a Labrador Retriever who occasionally makes an appearance in her stories, and writing. Contact Sharon at sharon@sharoncullen.net
Visit Sharon’s website at http://www.sharoncullen.net/
posted by Joan Swan at 3:04 PM
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