UGLY DUCKLINGS FINISH FIRST snippet, STARTING FROM SCRATCH news, + Giveaway!

Whew! I’m officially DONE with STARTING FROM SCRATCH. *happy dance* I stayed up until three in the morning doing a final read-through, and I'll admit I cried so hard at the end, my eyes are still red and puffy.  But I’m happy with it.  Really, really, happy.  I have that feeling of wanting to dust off my hands and say, “I did my best. Now where’s the wine?”

There was a funny moment in these edits.  For the most part, all I had to do was a final read-through.  But there was one comment my editor left in that she tweeted about, she was so thunderstruck.  The copy editor wanted to know why the hero, Sully, couldn’t remember someone.  Well, Sully has RA, or retrograde amnesia, due to a TBI. 

 

 

Ha!  Just thought I’d share. :D  (To learn more about SFS, please feel free to take a peek at its unofficial blurb on my Latest Projects page)

Also, UGLY DUCKLINGS FINISH FIRST is doing great! I’m thrilled that people seem to really enjoy the explosive chemistry between Wiley and Payton, so I thought I’d share a bit of it with you.  Enjoy!

***

He moved until the sun-heated steel of the pickup pressed into her back. He leaned into her as though he hungered to tattoo himself with the imprint of her body. Hungry for that herself, she pushed past his suit jacket with greedy hands to flatten them against his back, her fingertips dipping in beneath his waistband. A sound between a growl and a moan grated deep in Wiley’s throat, and that purr of approval made her shudder as his pleasure heightened her own. Restlessly his hands roamed down to the swell of her bottom, before his fingers curled on the folds of her skirt as though frustrated by the barrier. It was a frustration that was contagious, resonating inside her until the need for flesh against flesh was a physical ache. Without a thought she rubbed her body against his until every nerve threatened to spontaneously combust.

A groan rippled from Wiley as if he was being tortured, and he ground his hips against hers in wordless demand to merge into her hidden depths. Her mind drained of every coherent thought when she felt the iron-hard thrust of his manhood, pulsing against her with an urgency she understood all too well. She wanted him outrageously, more than she wanted air, more than she needed water, and she didn’t even care they were a breath away from making love in broad daylight in a public parking lot.

Then a horn sounded in the distance, followed by a testy shout, and only then did she realize they weren’t alone in the universe. “Uh…Wiley? This…this is—”

“Right. This is so right, Payton.” Lifting her just a little, he balanced her weight between the side of the pickup and his legs, pressing his hips closer. A helpless whimper of pleasure escaped her as the position parted her legs until her inner thighs clamped over his hips. There was an unmistakable gleam of triumph in his eyes a moment before he buried his mouth against her throat. “I’ve never felt anything more right.”

Logic told her she shouldn’t believe him. But with his hips pumping against the veiled juncture of her thighs and his mouth sampling the flavor of her pulse in her neck, she wanted to forget all about logic and just believe. Believe he felt the same overwhelming wave of passion that was engulfing her, believe that what had come before had merely been a prelude for this moment. Everyone had a history. What mattered was now, this moment.

In a parking lot behind a greasy spoon.

“Dear God, Payton, I want you now. Right now.”

“Now?” Urgent, demanding, he rocked his hips against hers, and there was no way she could stifle a low moan.

“I love the noises you make.” His voice was rough with need, a velvet rasp that could have seduced the devil himself. “I could have you right here.”

“Wiley… Oh God, wait.” Somewhere along the way she had pulled his shirt out from the waistband of his pants. It took most of her strength to stop herself from stroking her hands over his lower back, and the remainder of her strength got eaten up by the willpower it took to push him away. “Please, just…wait a second.”

“Wait?” He repeated the word like he’d never heard it before. “We’ve waited too long already. Years.”

“But—”

“I love the taste of you.” Dragging the strap of her dress from her shoulder, he let his lips trail to the exposed skin. “I think I’m addicted.”

***

BLURB:

Metal Mouth. Queen Geek. Dr. Payton Pruitt heard it all growing up. But she’s over it, and attending her ten-year high school reunion is the perfect way to prove it to herself. Even if there’s only one person she’s interested in seeing in Bitterthorn, Texas: Wiley Sharpe.

Now a respected lawyer, Wiley didn’t live down to the label Most Likely to Be Slapped with a Paternity Suit. But recent acts of vandalism suggest someone still sees him as a heartbreaker, and the reunion seems a likely place to find the culprit. Instead, Wiley comes face-to-face with his old pal Payton—and is wowed not only by her transformation into a ravishing swan, but by the connection they still share.

Payton is pleased the playboy she used to tutor has grown into an honorable man, but she’s too smart to fall for a guy with roots in a place she couldn’t wait to leave. But while Payton is an academic genius, Wiley is the one with the PhD in pleasure, and he intends to use it to convince her to stay…

63,000 words

 

FYI: Be on the lookout for the second Bitterthorn book, STARTING FROM SCRATCH, a Carina Press holiday novella coming this November and edited by the amazing Angela James!

 

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Buy links for UGLY DUCKLINGS FINISH FIRST:

Carina Press, Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Google Play, ebooks. com, Kobo, BAM (Books-A-Million), ARe, iTunes

 

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