Heading out of town today and I’ll be gone for the weekend. There’s a big signing in Cincinnati this Saturday, June 7th. It’s the annual Lori Foster/Dianne Castell reader & writer get together. The signing itself is on Saturday at the Cincinnati Marriott North, just off I-75.
The event is held at the hotel and the bookfair will take place in the hotel as well. I can’t imagine trying to get that many authors in a bookstore. :-O
Details…
Booksigning *open to the public*
Saturday, June 7, 2008
3-5pm
Cincinnati Marriott North
(Just north of Cincinnati on I-75 at Union Center Blvd, exit 19)
West Chester, Ohio, 6189 Mulhauser Rd, West Chester, OH 45069-4842
If you live in or around the area, I’d love to meet you!
Since I’m taking off for the weekend, going to post an excerpt from my recent ebook release, Hunter’s Edge. FYI, yes this is part of my Hunters series, but it was written as a standalone.
“I remember it.”
Shit, did he remember. You need to find something else to talk about, man. Fast.
But before he could wrest his attention to something other than that first night they’d made love, her lids lifted, revealing heated, hungry eyes.
“I remember.” She laid her hand on his cheek. “Are memories all I’m ever going to have of you, Kel?”
“Angel…”
She shook her head. “Never mind. That’s answer enough.” She started to wiggle away, but the dog’s weight kept her from moving away too fast. He brushed a hand over her shoulder but she jerked away. “Move it, Rufus.” At the sound of her curt voice, the dog shoved his mammoth weight upright and leaped off the bed.
Kel watched as she headed toward the door, the rational voice of common sense telling him to let her go. Disappear from her life. She’d be better for it.
He didn’t remember leaving the bed. He didn’t remember crossing the room, or barring the doorway. He didn’t even remember reaching for her, but he must have, because she was pressed up against him, his hands gripping her upper arms. She had her palms pressed against his chest, keeping him at bay. He held back but it took a measure of control he wasn’t sure he had.
“Go ahead, Kel. Disappear. I know that’s what you want.” She stared at him, her blue gaze icy and cold. She tried to twist away from him but he wouldn’t let go—couldn’t seem to manage it.
“You think that’s what I want?” he rasped, dipping his head and pressing a kiss to her neck, just below her ear. Her scent was strong there, warm, soft and female and he wanted to lose himself in it. The rapid beat of her heart was a siren’s song and he could almost imagine how she’d taste, could imagine pressing his mouth to her neck, his teeth piercing her silken skin…
Instead of doing it, though, he lifted his head and stared down at her. “Can you really believe, even for a minute, that I’d wouldn’t do anything to have you back in my life?”
His words had little effect—if anything, her gaze became more aloof. She flashed him a hard-edged smile. “Doesn’t look that way from where I’m standing. Let me go, Kel. Despite what your nudist friend thinks, I’ll be fine.”
“Nudist… Toronto.” Narrowing his eyes, he studied her face. “You heard him.”
“Yeah, Kel. I heard him—sort of. I took a mental trip but that doesn’t mean I’ve completely taken leave of my senses.”
I only wish I had…maybe life would be easier that way. Insanity sounds a lot easier. That or just plain dead.
Angel never spoke the words aloud. But those words echoed between them. She paled and jerked against his hold as his eyes flew wide. He snarled and wrapped an arm around her waist, locking her against him as she struggled. “Damn it, Kel, let go of me.”
“Not going to happen, babe,” he growled. Reaching up, he fisted a hand in her hair and jerked her head back, forcing her to meet his eyes. “You don’t think like that, Angel. You hear me?”
A sneer curled her lip. How such a derisive expression could be so damned appealing, Kel would never know.
“You can’t tell me how to think, babe.” Her voice was deliberately scathing, deliberately insulting.
His control stretched tight, he tried to let her go. He needed to do just that—get some distance between them before need, love, lust and fear got the better of him.
But his body wasn’t listening to his head’s commands and instead of letting her go, he shifted, turned, pressed her back against the door. Leaning into her, he slid one hand up and rested it over her neck. His thumb lay in the hollow of her neck, feeling the silken softness of her skin, the warmth of life rushing just below.
“I said, don’t,” he muttered as he dipped his head and pressed his mouth to hers.
She gasped…and it was like she was breathing him in—absorbing him, their bodies melding into one. He slanted his mouth more firmly against hers, licking the seam of her lips. Angel moaned and opened for him, rising on her toes and hooking an arm around his neck, pulling him closer.
In the back of his mind, a faint voice tried to warn him to stop now before it was too late. But Kel knew it had been too late from the moment he started down this path. Coming back into Angel’s life could have only led to one place…right here. All the self-denial and rambling about self-control had been nothing but a waste of time.
Slowly, he pulled back, watching her. Angel’s lids lifted, revealing turbulent blue eyes. But for the life of him, he couldn’t pick up anything from her. She had her mental shields locked down so tight, she could have been silently ranting at him and he wouldn’t know. He extended his thoughts, tried to touch hers, but she deflected the mental probe, throwing it back at him. A look of surprise crossed her face, but she said nothing.
He curled his hand over her neck and lowered his head, pressing his brow to hers. “Let me in, Angel,” he whispered. He felt so broken without her.