Teaser Tuesay!

Kate pressed her legs together on the edge of the mattress, hoping to make her thighs look thinner. Downstairs she could hear Patrick moving around, talking to the dog. Nerves jitterbugged in her stomach.

She was cold. The skin of her arms and legs bumped like uncooked chicken. But her cheeks were hot. She could feel the blood heating there, and beating in her throat and in her chest, and pooling warm and liquid in her lower body.

Look before you leap. Think before you speak. Analyze before you act.

She would not be foolish like her mother or trusting like her sister, both of them mothers and alone before their thirties But how could she examine her options when all she could see was Patrick’s intent face? How could she hear herself think over the drumbeat of her blood?

He was the worst man in the world for her. A patient’s father, a grieving husband. A man too used to getting his own way and too aware of his effect on women.

But he had granted her rights, given her welcome, shared his house and his son and a piece of his soul with her. She admired him, perhaps more than any man she’d ever met. His utter reliability, the way he supported his mother and loved his son and was simply there for every member of his family in a way that no one had ever been there for her...Oh, she liked that a lot. It made her want him. It made her want to be there for him.

Kate might have held out against her own desire. She could not resist Patrick’s need.

She shivered, thinking of Wade Preston, the blond Apollo of Jefferson University Medical School. He’d told her he needed her. He’d even claimed to love her. But his need hadn’t outlasted their shared residency, and his love hadn’t survived the discovery of her background, so unsuitable for a doctor’s wife in Baltimore.

This is different, she thought, rubbing her hands nervously on the goose-bumped flesh of her thighs. Wade, pledging his future, had been miserly with praise and stingy in bed. Patrick promised her nothing. But she suspected, with a newfound feminine instinct, that he would be generous with his passion. At the very least, he seemed really to want her. And she wanted him.

The door opened, and he was there.

The Passion of Patrick MacNeill

Buy it now for Kindle!

and for Nook!

The MacNeills are coming!

I'm having so much fun revising my backlist for release in ebook format. But - gulp - I actually found my hero using a pay phone at one point. Lots of technology tweaks to do! The emotions, though...The emotions still feel fresh and true.

***

He rested one hand on the wall above her, close enough for her to feel the warmth emanating from his body, close enough for his breath to touch her face. She saw his eyes, with their thick, short lashes, his pupils nearly swallowing the blazing blue. Her stomach squeezed into her chest, crowding her lungs. She couldn’t breathe. She felt the warmth of his arm, close by her head. She heard her blood thundering in her ears, and the rasp of his quickly indrawn breath.

He kissed her.

It was over before she could say if she liked it, before she had time to react. He lifted his head, and she felt the absence of his mouth more keenly than she had felt its pressure a moment before.

“Well?”

She lifted her chin. She had to, to meet his gaze. “Well, what?”

His firm, well-shaped lips curved at the corners. “Are you going to object?”

She dug deep for a cool response, her hands pressed flat to the wall behind her. He was probably the most vital, potent man she’d ever met, and she was merely unattractive Katie Sue Sinclair, too smart for her own good and stupid with men. She couldn’t let him see how he got to her, how she was affected by his nearness. He would eat her alive.

Maybe she wanted him to.

--from THE PASSION OF PATRICK MACNEILL

So excited that my very first book, a North Carolina-set romantic suspense, is now (slightly) revised and available in ebook format! You can read a sample or download it here

for Kindle

and for Nook!

I'd be delighted if any of you who have read this book would leave a "like" or a comment.

For those of you who haven't read it :-), here's the blurb:

A crusading widow takes on the cynical cop next door in The Reforming of Matthew Dunn.

Golden Heart Winner for Best Romantic Suspense Holt Medallion Winner RT Bookreviews Best First Series Romance Nominee

"Virginia Kantra is an autobuy...her books are keepers and her heroes are to die for." – New York Times bestselling author Suzanne Brockmann

"With a genuine understanding of deep emotions, Ms. Kantra gifts the readers with an exciting plot with just-right pacing. Her protagonists are complex and learn about love and loving the hard way, which adds a touch of realism to this special love story." – Rendezvous

"Impressive newcomer Virginia Kantra makes a smashing debut as a beautiful widow takes on The Reforming of Matthew Dunn. Ms. Kantra creates a superb romantic tension between her reluctant lovers as well as a memorable cast of characters." 4 stars – RT Book Reviews

Clare Harmon believes in second chances for the kids and ex-cons she employs through her neighborhood garden project. But she won't risk her heart and future on any man again, especially one who gets shot at for a living.

Tough cop Matt Dunn doesn't want a dewy-eyed do-gooder like Clare complicating his recent assignment to the city's new community policing program. But when danger forces them together, these two wounded souls just may take a second chance...on love.

Next up? Well, it will be a race between the reissue of The Passion of Patrick MacNeill in ebook and the all new release of Carolina Home, in stores July 3!

Hope your spring is full of mild weather and fabulous reads!

Cover reveal!

Author squee! I just received the cover for my April ebook, The Reforming of Matthew Dunn.

This is the revised reissue of my very first book, my Golden Heart winner in romantic suspense, a North Carolina set contemporary romance about a crusading widow and the cop next door.

Loving the colors!

Handouts - Deep POV

Liberty States Fiction Writers, March 2012

From CAROLINA HOME, Virginia Kantra, July 2012

Virginia Kantra - Deep POV Handout 1

They were talking about her like she wasn’t even there.

Fine. Direct internal thought Taylor stared Proper name, anchoring verb.at the plate of cookies until they blurred. Her throat ached. Not “She’s crying, ” but how does it feel to cry?It’s not like she wanted to be here anyway. She wanted to be home in her little blue bedroom in the house she shared with Mom.Internal thought. Communicates not only mental response, but attitude.

But she couldn’t think about her mother without crying. She swallowed hard.

“Taylor.” Luke—she wasn’t going to call him Dad, no matter what the letter said—touched her shoulder. “Say hi to your Uncle Matt.”

Uncle.Direct internal thought.

The word thumped into her like a fist. Visceral response. And if it the image is from her experience, it should force the reader to wonder. She already had an uncle. She didn’t want another one.

“Hi, Taylor.” He had a nice voice, deep and kind of quiet.

She shot him a look from under her cap brim. He was wider and older than her... than Luke Her thought patterns, her attitude, with darker hair and eyes and big hands. Taylor looked at the jagged white scar running across his knuckles Significant, specific detail and felt kind of sick and out of breath, like she’d had the wind knocked out of her on the playground. Age appropriate simile

She didn’t say anything. Because we are feeling what Taylor feels, seeing what she sees, I don’t have to explain why

He regarded her silently a moment. “I can see a resemblance.”

Tess nodded. “She has Luke’s eyes.”

“I was thinking she had his attitude,” he drawled.

Stung, Taylor jerked her gaze up. Her Uncle Matt smiled at her crookedly. She observes this. She doesn’t know/I don’t have to say how Matt feels. Her stomach cramped. She ducked her head. Visceral response/physical cue.

She didn’t want him smiling at her.

She hunched her shoulders, slumping deeper in the chair. She didn’t want him noticing her at all. Why not? Create suspense. Maintain secret. Set up character goal.

***

The kid was scared, Matt realized. Internal thought, proper name, anchoring verb.

Not just nervous at meeting her new family or grieving at losing her mother but as angry and anxious as one of the island’s feral cats Simile appropriate to environment and as determined not to show it.

Poor kid. Direct internal thought.

Matt looked at Luke. “Where’s she been the last four weeks?” The last ten years. “Who takes care of her?” White lines bracketed his brother’s mouth. Matt sees this. He doesn’t know/I don’t have to tell you how Luke feels. “I do now. She’s been staying with her mother’s parents. Until the will was probated.”

“You remember the Simpsons, Matt,” Tess said. “Ernie and Jolene?” Back story revealed here and below through dialogue and deep POV.

Dare Island had a year-round population of fifteen hundred souls. Matt knew most of them. Ernie Simpson had worked at the fish house until it shut down, eight years back, and he moved off island with the rest of his family. The son, Kevin, was a few years younger than Matt and a real tool. Matt's vocabulary. The daughter . . .

“You dated Dawn Simpson,” he said to Luke. “Back in high school.”

Dated being the nicest word Matt could think of for screwed every chance you got.

“Did you know about . . .” Matt’s gaze cut to the kid in the chair.

Luke shook his head, still looking grim around the mouth. Observation “Not until the lawyer contacted me in Kandahar a month ago.”

Well, that was something. The situation still sucked, but at least his brother was taking responsibility. The way Matt remembered, Luke had been pretty broken up when Dawn dumped him their senior year and started banging Bo Meekins. More backstory

Matt wondered if his brother had demanded a paternity test. Create suspense.

Not a question he could ask in front of the kid. Anyway, she looked like him, same clear blue eyes, same kiss-my-ass chin. Significant, specific detail

Luke, a father.

Matt could hardly believe it.Sets up character dilemma

All rights reserved.

A Meme for Romance Writers!

I've seen these for other professions. I thought romance writers should have one of our own!

Carolina Home - First chapter!

I just uploaded the first chapter of Carolina Home (Berkley, July 3, 2012) to my website.

Hope you enjoy!

Matt Fletcher didn’t go looking for trouble. Most times, it just found him.

His life was changing around him, slipping away like the sand of the Carolina coastline, and there wasn’t a damn thing he or God or the Army Corps of Engineers could do about it. But a day working on the water gave him something to hold on to. Sweat and salt cured everything in time.

Read the rest here.