Hi and Happy Holidays to all!
My latest book release Melting A Frozen Heart happened today. So I wanted to share a small teaser Excerpt for you to read! Enjoy! Smooches.
Excerpt
To Buy a Copy (www.amirapress.com)
Jack blinked slowly as he surfaced into consciousness. He tried to focus on one thought in his head that felt like it was filled with feathers. Christmas, cold, soup and green stuff Lucy made me drink. It was all coming back to him now. By the gods he never should have taken it. How would mortal medicine affect his abilities to control the winter? His nose felt like someone had stuffed it full of cotton balls. The pressure behind his eyes was like a steel vice. He had never been sick a day in his life. Not even as a child. Now at the age of two thousand and some change he had a cold.
Jack felt something shift beside him and heard a gentle snore. He looked over to see Lucy asleep still in her clothes on his bed. He vaguely remembered how he woke up in a frenzy, and she had soothed him and got him lie back. He thought it was all a dream as he faded in and out of sleep throughout the night. Her cool touch and gentle voice was there each time, coaxing him to relax and to rest. She had stayed with him through the night. The knowledge of this kind gesture from Lucy made something flutter in his chest. The sensation was not something he was familiar with, and it felt almost like pain as he tried to push it away.
Her features were relaxed in sleep, and her full lips slightly parted. She always looked like she was wearing some kind of pink lip gloss, but Jack knew she kept her make up to a minimum. This was natural Lucy, with pink luscious delectable lips which were meant to be kissed. Whoa! Jack wondered when his thoughts shifted toward Lucy in that kind of way. It had to be the cold, he tried to explain to himself. But yet he couldn’t help his fingers as they trailed across the smooth skin of Lucy’s cheek, and the pad of his thumb caressed her full bottom lip.
Her eyelids fluttered, and she opened her soft chocolate brown eyes to stare at him. She didn’t even question why his hands were cupping her face or why his thumb still trailed along her soft lips. Instead her lips parted just a little bit more, and her tongue touched the tip of his finger. Jack couldn’t resist the tempting offer.
He slid his hand behind her neck, and he settled his lips on hers. By the gods, Jack felt his temperature rise with the first taste of Lucy’s mouth. She was so receptive already her soft purr was fueling the fire of his desire. Her tongue touched his tentatively as if she didn’t know if it was what she should do. Jack told her it was exactly what he wanted what he needed by letting his tongue mate and duel with hers. Kissing her was unlike anything he had ever experienced. She kissed with naiveté. Her expressiveness at every sensation sent shards of pleasure to his core. This was what a kiss was supposed to feel like. This was what kissing Lucy felt like. Lucy.
The recognition of what he was doing filtered into his brain. She was his assistant, his right hand man. Jack pulled away, and Lucy opened heavy lidded eyes. The sensual curl of heat in her gaze made him want to go back and sample her some more. But she wasn’t some girl he could just play with then buy a few thousand dollars worth of useless goods to reciprocate in replace of actual affection. It sounded cruel he knew, but each woman that he ever got involved with knew exactly where he stood in the relationship and what they would be getting out of it. But this was his sweet Lucy who ran his life like a smooth running steam engine. He couldn’t afford to lose her for a few hours of pleasure. If he slept with her, it would ruin everything. She deserved better than what he could give.
The uncomfortable silence between them seemed to go on forever. He watched the silent acknowledgment of what they had done register on her face. Lucy sat up suddenly and was out of the bed in a flash. Jack was disappointed to see the look or surprised hurt on her face before she masked it with business-like detachment.
“How do you feel this morning?” Lucy asked. Before he could answer, she continued in a rush. “You had a pretty restless night, and I fell asleep here. Um, I’m sorry for that. I should go make you breakfast. I’ll change in the other bedroom. I still have some clothes here from when we had the dinner part and stuff.” She took a long deep breath. “I’ll be out front when you’re ready to . . . eat.”
Lucy was out of the room in a flurry. She opened the door and grabbed her shoes with an apologetic smile before the door closed again.
The door opened once more, and she popped her head inside. “I forgot to mention the roof collapsed last night on a family because of the snow. They are at the Red Cross, and I was thinking we could . . . well you could help them out for Christmas. Think about it okay?”
Jack cursed under his breath and flopped back against the rumpled sheets of his bed. He felt guilty about everything, about kissing Lucy, the snow and now a homeless family because of him. There would be a lot more if he didn’t get control of his powers soon.
Outside his sky light view, he could see the clouds sending snowflake after snowflake raining down on the city. The only reason that they did not stick to the gall of his roof was because of the heat sensors he had built in to always keep them clear of ice building up on them. He tried once more unsuccessfully to reign in the snow which seemed to increase instead of clearing up. He would have to contact his mother sometime soon to let her know what was going on. She might know what to do. Plus it was better to speak to her than to his father, Odin.
He got up from the bed and made his way to the bathroom, hoping a hot shower would alleviate some of the symptoms plaguing him. He came out of the steamed up room fifteen minutes later feeling only a tiny bit better. Nothing prepared him for the scene that greeted him when he walked into his living room.
Lucy had turned his penthouse into a candy cane Christmas nightmare. Light glittered at him, and the tree in the corner screamed holiday cheer. Jack could hear his teeth grinding together in his head. It wouldn’t be fair to take all the things she carefully put up and throw them out would it? After all she did give up her holiday to come take care of him. He would have to grin and bear it until he got better. Right now holiday decorations were the least of his worries.
He went to the kitchen to grab some juice and stepped on a mat in front of the refrigerator that promptly began to sing Deck the Halls. Jack groaned and let his forehead lean against the cool stainless steal of his fridge.
“I’m in hell,” he muttered. “Pure Christmas hell.”
