Teaser Tuesday! The Temptation of Sean MacNeill

Now available on Nook!

There was a strange man in Rachel’s bedroom, in Rachel’s bed. A naked man, she guessed, by the hard curve of shoulder that showed in the light from the hall. A strange, naked man.

Her mother must be thrilled.

Rachel wasn’t. Not at 2:00 a.m. Not after driving half the night with her two children sleeping in the back seat of a rental truck. Desperation and caffeine were the only things keeping her going. At this moment a naked Brad Pitt couldn’t have thrilled her.

Heart sinking, she regarded the long, well-muscled body tenting the flowered sheets. What on earth was she supposed to do now? She couldn’t put her kids to bed in that firetrap of a spare bedroom. She couldn’t even see the room’s twin beds beneath the piled cartons. A hotel room—even if she were willing to drag the children another half hour down the road, which she was not—was beyond her means. And waking her mother... No, she couldn’t cope with her mother right now.

Bad enough that the break-in had forced her home. She certainly wasn’t explaining it to her mother in the middle of the night, as if she were some teenager caught sneaking in after curfew.

The only solution, the only practical, adult solution, was to rouse this naked stranger and oust him from the only available bed. Any minute now an accusing Lindsey and a sleepy-eyed Chris would come stumbling up the stairs, and she needed a place to put them.

She cleared her throat. “Excuse me?”

He didn’t stir.

She took a cautious step forward. “Hello?”

The stranger shifted onto his back, revealing a threequarter profile that could have made Penelope abandon her weaving or Juliet forget poor Romeo. A muscled chest, its nudity emphasized by a perfect pattern of dark hair, stretched above the sheet. A small gold hoop like a pirate’s winked from his exposed earlobe.

He was young, she noted. Her stomach sank to join her heart in her neatly tied running shoes. Young, unshaven and outrageously good-looking. Oh, help. What was her mother thinking?

She pressed her lips together, light-headed from hunger and trembling with fatigue. After Carmine Bilotti’s threats, she should be able to take one half naked stranger in stride.

She opened the door wider, hoping the light from the hall might wake him. It sliced through the room and fell across the pillow.

The man in her bed opened his eyes. His dark gaze jolted her heartbeat. And then a slow smile curved his wide mouth and he dropped his head back onto the pillow. “Sweet Mother in Heaven, please don’t let me be dreaming.” He raised his hand, stopping Rachel’s interruption before she could get properly started. “Or if this is a dream,” he continued, “then don’t let me wake up. Amen.”

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Teaser Tuesday!

“What do you think you’re doing?” Allison hissed.

Matt glanced back down at her, his lids heavy. A corner of his mouth kicked up in a smile. “Kissing you. I’ve wanted to since you got here.”

Another dark thrill chased through her. “Your whole family is downstairs."

“Well, that’s why I waited,” Matt said reasonably.

She bit back a smile. “What will they think? Your mother. Josh.”

“My mother will think we’re involved. Which is why you came, remember? And Josh already knows.”

It was hard to remember anything with her blood still pumping, her head still spinning from his kiss. She pressed her lips together. She could still taste him on her mouth. “If you invited me to save my reputation, you’d better get downstairs.”

“I didn’t . . .” Matt stopped.

Her heart drummed in her chest. She held her breath in anticipation. “You didn’t . . . what?”

“Nothing.” He smiled again crookedly. He glanced down at his wet shirt front and then at the bed. “Need help changing?”

From CAROLINA HOME

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Teaser Tuesday!

"What do you want, Dixie?" Conn asked.

Opening her eyes, Val looked at him, relaxed and confident, as if all he had to do was stretch back on the picnic blanket and smile that slow, collected smile and women would crawl all over themselves to get to him.

She sighed. Probably most women would.

“I want my independence. I want my restaurant to succeed. And even if I’m not the status symbol they want me to be, I’m trying very hard to reconcile with my parents right now.” She shook her head, making her earrings jangle. “Though it’s tough building a mature relationship with a man who calls you ‘punkin.’”

“I can imagine,” Conn said dryly.

His blue eyes were bright with humor and dark with understanding. She felt his regard deep in her midsection, sweet as raspberry trifle and comforting as bread. A woman could learn to depend on the sustenance of that warm regard. Briefly, Val hungered for...what? His support? Approval? Love?

No.

“What I don’t need,” she continued, “is a...a boyfriend looking over my shoulder and telling me what to do.”

“Or a lover?”

His deep, rough voice plucked at her nerves, making her insides quiver. “I tried that. I’m not some little innocent, you know. It didn’t work. It wouldn’t work.”

“Why not?”

“Expectations. You let somebody into your bed, and all of a sudden he wants the keys to your apartment and a chance to run your life.”

“Your life? Or your business?”

“Either one.” Bravely, she met his eyes. “I won’t give up control, MacNeill.”

His thumb rubbed his jaw. “You know, it’s possible you’re letting your prejudices blind you to a good thing. You’re stuck with me, anyway. Why not use me? I’ve got expertise and I’ve got experience. Hell, I can get you references if you want.”

Her cheeks scorched. “Are we still talking about the restaurant here?”

He went very still. His stillness was an active quality, as unmistakable and expressive as another man’s shout. And then his slow grin sizzled clear down to her toes. “I was. But feel free to take advantage of any services you want. I won’t be in town forever.”

From The Comeback of Conn MacNeill

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Teaser Tuesday!

from The Comeback of Conn MacNeill

Conn leaned forward out of the deep leather chair. “Look, Miss Cutler... I’ve got a Harvard degree and ten years’ experience. I advise small businesses, I put together plans for them, I help them secure funding and ensure they’re on solid-enough financial footing to succeed. If you’ve got a cash flow problem, odds are I can help you.”

He honestly thought she might be...not grateful, exactly, but...impressed. But the restaurant owner was made of stronger stuff than Conn had given her credit for.

“How nice,” she murmured. “Do you wash dishes, too?”

“Only if you need me to,” he replied.

Startled, she looked at him, really looked at him, for the first time since they’d sat down. Slowly, those clear gray depths warmed and filled with amusement. Her pale pink mouth curved in a wry smile. Conn’s breath rushed to his throat and lodged there.

Edward Cutler drummed his fingers on his desk. “My other offer still stands, punkin.”

The girl didn’t blink at the repeated use of the demeaning pet name. Maybe she was used to it. It set Conn’s teeth on edge.

She stood, surprisingly dignified in her flirty skirt and clunky heels. Conn did the same, keeping his hands quiet at his sides, although the tension in the room had him balancing on the balls of his feet like a boxer.

Val Cutler tugged thoughtfully on one of her long silver earrings. “So, my real choice is between the devil I do know, or the qualified devil I don’t, is that it?”

“Unless there’s a door number three nobody’s told me about,” Conn agreed, straight-faced.

Edward stiffened.

His daughter laughed, and the sound loosed something warm in the center of Conn’s chest.

“We open for lunch at eleven,” she told him. “Why don’t you stop by around ten tomorrow and I’ll give you the tour?”

“Ten o’clock,” Conn confirmed.

“You call your mother,” Edward said. “She’s waiting to hear from you.”

“Yes, Daddy.”

Conn watched her exit with small, firm steps, her short skirt riding those curvy hips and flirting with the tops of her thighs. She looked even better in the Lady of the Lake getup than she had in jeans.

He was out of his head to even notice such a thing. His interest in her was business, he reminded himself. Strictly business.

In the back of his mind, he could hear his brothers laughing.

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Teaser Tuesday! More Carolina Home

“Your father thinks I’m a good catch,” Allison said.

A slight flush stained Matt’s cheekbones. “You heard that?”

“I’m a teacher. I hear everything.”

Hooked, Tom Fletcher had said. The prospect left her oddly breathless.

Of course, their parents’ generation thought that way. Allison wasn’t trolling for some trophy husband to stuff and mount over her fireplace.

“My mother always claimed to have selective hearing,” Matt said. “That way she could pretend not to hear Luke and me when we bitched about doing chores.”

“Your mother is a wise woman.”

“She likes you. She doesn’t give her family recipes to just anybody.”

Allison’s heart gave a happy little hop. “Too bad I get my cooking skills from my mother.”

“It’s not that hard.”

She tilted her head. “You cook?”

He smiled his lazy smile. “I learned to, for Josh. I can manage more than peanut butter sandwiches and scrambled eggs, anyway.”

There was no one in Allison’s life to cook for. To care for. But she didn’t have to be defined by her family. Isn’t that what she’d come to Dare Island to prove?

“I guess if I can read, I can follow a recipe. I’m up for trying new things.”

“Good.” He stopped under the blooming crepe myrtle. Took her by the shoulders and drew her in. “Try this.”

He kissed her.

She was prepared for the familiar rush of blood, the blast of heat. But his mouth was warm and soft on hers, testing, tasting, tempting her with little bites. Not a demand this time. A question. Her body loosened, moistened, as his tongue coaxed hers to play. She sucked in her breath and kissed him back, yes, answering with her body and her mouth, yes, promising him everything she had, yes, please, yes. His arms tightened. She felt him, the hard, lovely planes and angles of him hard against her breast, belly, thighs. Matt.

“Matt . . .” She opened her eyes to a pink haze of crepe myrtle and lust, a sweet, melting ache inside her. “Where are we going with this?”

“I don’t know.” He kissed the corner of her lips. “Does it matter?”

from Carolina Home

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CAROLINA HOME - More giveaways!

I'm continuing the Great Blog Slut Tour and Book Giveaway for Carolina Home. At Guilty Pleasures I'm talking about the Top Ten Beach Essentials.

Drop by and leave a comment before July 16 to be entered in a drawing for a signed copy of Carolina Home. Or just come say Hi!

And there's a lovely new review of Carolina Home at The Romance Dish with another giveaway! Today only - Friday, July 13th. Hey, it could be your lucky day!

Good luck!