Plot Monkeys

You might have noticed last week that I posted the cover for my next Blaze, ANOTHER WILD WEDDING NIGHT, which comes out next month. I haven’t mentioned the book on here–summer just flew by and I can’t believe it’s time to talk about an October release! But since it’s already selling on eHarlequin, I thought I’d fill you guys in on this fun, sexy, trio of stories.

This time, the wedding in question is for Reese and Amanda, the hero and heroine of my February Blaze PLAY WITH ME. They schedule a destination wedding at an inn on Halloween weekend, and wrap-up the wedding day festivities with a big costume party. And three members of the wedding party have the time of their lives!

The book was fun to write, especially because I played around a little bit with my usual writing process and tried to make this one a little different. It’s best explained in my Dear Reader letter, which appears in the front of the book, which I’m repeating below. And beneath that, below the fold, is an excerpt from my favorite story, “Last Call”, which begins with the heroine dumping the hero! Warning…it’s definitely on the spicy side, as the heroine finally admits to the hero just what she wants in a sexual relationship and gets a very wild reaction from this normally very staid and proper man.

Hope you enjoy the glimpse of my process as well as the excerpt.

Dear Reader:

After I wrote my January, 2008 release ONE WILD WEDDING NIGHT, I heard from a lot of readers who loved the concept. Wanting to go back to it, I had it in the back of my mind when writing PLAY WITH ME—after all, Reese had a big family, and Amanda had one sister and one very outrageous best friend.

If you read the first wedding night, you might remember there were five stories in all. This one’s a little different. I wanted to go deeper into the lives of these characters, so I only included three complete novellas. That gave me a bit more room to explore their motivations, desires and those steamy moments.

I also put a lot of thought in the structure of this book. Each story reflects a different phase of one of my more typical stand-alone Blazes. The first, “First Kiss” is the opening—the first meet between strangers, the rise of sexual tension, leading to the love scene. The second story, “Halfway There” is the middle—these two people know each other and have been dancing around what they want for a very long time. The last story, “Last Dance” (my favorite, actually) is the end…in fact, the whole story starts at what I would consider the “black moment” in one of my novels, and sees the couple working through their differences and arriving at their happily-ever-after.

Hope you enjoyed this little glimpse into my process, and I truly hope you enjoy the book!

At the Halloween party, the costumed heroine, Abby Bauer, is finally admitting her deepest, sexiest fantasies to her fiance, Keith, whom she’d dumped earlier in the day! Keith is trying to win her back, and has dressed up as Westley, “The Man In Black” from The Princess Bride.

Enjoy!
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“You like to watch other people have sex?” he asked, the words almost choking him.
“I don’t know. Maybe. There’s so much I haven’t done, I don’t know what I’d like.”
“That’s a crime against nature,” he growled.
“Not knowing what I’d like?”
“Never having the chance to find out.” He brushed his lips against her ear, hearing her sigh at the contact. “Why don’t you tell me what you want to try, in your quest to find out what you might like?”
She hesitated. “I’m not used to talking about things like that.”
“Another crime against nature,” he admitted, mentally kicking himself all over again. “Please Abby,” he added, “please talk to me. Give me chance.”
“A chance to do what?”
He answered with his heart. “To save us.”
“It’s…”
“Don’t say it’s too late,” he ordered. “Don’t say everything went wrong without at least giving me a chance to show you why you and I are so right.”
She stared up at him, searchingly, as if trying to see the real man behind the mask. Hell, maybe she’d never seen him. Maybe he’d never let her see him.
He knew he’d never let her see the man who’d wanted her so desperately. “Please,” he urged. “Open up. Share your fantasies with me. Tell me what you want. You can trust me.”
There could be no more hesitation, no more holding back. Abby did trust him, in every other way, he knew that. Now he was asking her to take a gamble and trust him with her most erotic longings.
Her eyes drifted closed. She fell silent. Then, maybe it was the mask, or the music, or the plea in his voice or the fact that she’d dumped his ass today, something made her open up about things they’d never discussed. Her voice sounding almost dreamy, she said, “I want everything. Just everything.”
He wanted to know more. He needed to know more.
“Specifics.”
She hesitated for a second. Licking her lips, she admitted, “I want to be tied up.”
Holy shit. He missed a step in the dance and almost landed a boot-clad foot on her toes.
“I’m not into serious bondage or S&M—at least, I don’t think I am….”
Thank God for that.
“But I think I could like being gently restrained, unable to do anything except feel every sensation and accept every bit of intimacy I can get.”
Keith’s teeth clenched and he hissed each breath between them. The woman was killing him here. Absolutely killing him.
“I see,” he finally mumbled. “Go on.”
She did, without any hesitation, as if now that she’d opened the floodgates she couldn’t hold back against the current of her feelings. “I want to have sex in a public place, where there’s all kinds of risk of exposure.”
He almost tripped again. Exhibitionism. Abby. Unreal. “Anyplace in particular?”
“It doesn’t matter. The fear of discovery is the key part.”
Catching the vision himself, he said, “During a game at Wrigley.”
She let out a sound like a purr, deep in her beautiful throat. “In the backseat of your car while it’s parked at the stadium.”
“I’m liking this idea,” he told her. “And I also liked the first one. So far, we’re two for two.”
“I also want…”
A couple dressed as Fred and Wilma Flintstone danced a little too close, and she snapped her mouth closed. He suspected that whatever she’d been about to say, it was very naughty.
He could hardly wait. Edging her closer to the edge of the floor, as far away from the cave-couple as he could get, he said, “Go on. What else?”
Her voice low, she replied, “I want oral sex to be only foreplay—an appetizer rather than an entire meal.”
Wow. Direct hit. That hadn’t just been a fantasy, it had been an accusation, aimed right at him. And he couldn’t deny that it stung. “I thought you liked…”
“I do like it,” she insisted, nodding as she stared into his eyes. “I love it. I love getting it, but I’d like to be on the giving side, too.” Her throat quivered as she swallowed and her voice fell to a sultry whisper. “I’d also love to both give and get at the same time.”
“God,” he muttered, his mind flooding with those images. The idea of Abby’s perfect mouth wrapped around his cock as he licked her into insanity almost had him exploding in his stupid pirate pants. “I never thought you’d be into that.”
“You never asked.”
“My mistake. And believe me, I regret it.” He definitely did, especially now when those images continued to play in full Technicolor glory in his brain. Not to mention engorging his cock.
“The point is,” she told him, “I want that to be just about arousing each other til we’re out of our minds before we have sex.” She sounded earnest. Serious. “I might come, but I’m still left almost desperate with wanting you inside me.”
She thought he didn’t feel the same way. Thought he hadn’t felt like his heart would rupture every time he’d pleasured her and then walked away to a lonely shower and a tight fist.
“I want sweet sex, like we’ve had, Keith. It’s been wonderful. But I also want it wild and hot and intense.”
“Again, I didn’t know.” he whispered.
“Would it have mattered if you did?”
“Of course!”
She shrugged, looking almost helpless and her eyes were moist. “Well, I didn’t know if you were even interested, if you were holding back, if you had to force yourself to do as much as you did, if there was someone else…”
“No. Not once. Not ever.”
She nodded in acknowledgement of that. “Okay. Still, I’m just telling you what I’ve been thinking. I never knew and I was so damned frustrated. I actually had to buy myself a battery-operated boyfriend and read the hottest romance novels I could find just to get some relief, and it still wasn’t enough. Because I wanted you.”
He closed his eyes, both incredibly turned on, but also feeling like utter shit for having left her so desperate.
“I’m sorry.” Keith was barely moving, not even really pretending to dance anymore. Neither was Abby. She seemed completely intent on her every word. All around them the dancers continued; the music changed, the tempo sped up, but they slowed, and slowed, until they were utterly still. “You can’t imagine how sorry, Abs.”
“Let me put it bluntly.”
“You mean you haven’t been so far?” he asked, still mystified and shocked at the way they’d been at such cross-purposes, both wanting the same thing, neither opening up enough to admit it. And his head continued to swim with incredibly vivid sexual images—all the things he’d wanted to do with her for so long…she’d wanted, too.
She didn’t laugh. “The truth is, I like being who I am in public, and I can even stand to have a man who won’t flirt with me or give me deep, wet French kisses when anybody else is around.”
Yeah. That’d be him. Though, not for the reasons she might think.
“But in private, in my bed, I want to be someone’s sexual obsession.” She pressed her lips into the nape of his neck, licking, nipping a little. “I want sex that lasts for hour after hour, in all kinds of positions. Sex that feels so good it’s almost painful. Rough and sweaty and intense and possibly illegal in some states.”
He let out a sound, half-laugh, half-groan, so incredibly turned on he didn’t know if he’d be able to remain on his feet for much longer.
“I want it in every way it’s possible for a man and a woman to have it,” she said. “And then I want it all again.”
He nodded, unable to speak.
“Most of all,” she said, “I want the man I’m with to be just as desperate for all those things as I am. To want me with every ounce of his being.”
“I do,” he said, the words torn from deep inside him, an admission he’d been holding back for far too long. “I swear to you, I do.”
She shook her head sadly. “How could a man who wanted me that much be able to strip my clothes off and give me pleasure and then just walk out the door?”
“Like checking an orgasm off a to-do list?” he asked, remembering what she’d said earlier.
“Yes.”
“Only a very stupid man who couldn’t see what was right in front of him would do that.” He lifted a hand to the back of her head, twining his fingers in her silky brown hair that she’d curled into long, Goddess-like ringlets. Tugging it slightly so she had to tilt her head and look up at him, he admitted in a hoarse voice, “You and I have got a lot to talk about. A lot to clear up.”
He bent down and brushed his lips across her, sliding his tongue between them, sharing a breath, a heartbeat, a silent promise.
“I thought we were talking,” she whispered against his mouth.
“It’s a start. But there are some things you need to know. And I intend to tell you. Only, right now, Abs, if I don’t get you alone somewhere and f*** you until neither one of us can move, I’m going to embarrass myself right here in the middle of your sister’s party.”

Like it? Click on the link to order the book now from eHarlequin, or to read another excerpt!

Another Wild Wedding Night