Plot Monkeys

I’m still in Florida, so I thought I’d leave you guys with an exclusive, Plotmonkeys-only excerpt of my new book SLOW HANDS.

The reviews have been great so far:

4 1/2 stars from Romantic Times
“Filled with humor and heart, Slow Hands (4.5), by Leslie Kelly, is a complete delight…. The cross-purpose conversations and situations that result are laugh-out-loud funny. The romantic entanglements are highly emotional, and the large cast is expertly handled.”

5 Stars and a “Recommended Read” from Missy at Fallen Angels Reviews
“Leslie Kelly…is a masterful storyteller and this book is one of her very best….. It’s so good to see Ms. Kelly writing Blazes again because this book is one of her hottest books to date. Jake is as sexy as sin and one that I wouldn’t mind running into one day soon, but also the most gentlemanly man I’ve read about in a while. I’m very anxious to see what this author can do with the next book in this series because the hero will have to be a very special guy to outshine Jake.”

I think you’ll like this one. Sure hope so!

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A bit of background…
Rich girl Madeline Turner has purchased a guy she thinks is a gigolo, to prevent her stepmother from cheating on her father. Determined to resist him, she’s soon worn down by his charm.

Paramedic Jake Wallace has no idea this sexy woman who bought him thinks he’s selling more than a single date. And by the time he figures it out…it’s far too late to get Maddy out of his heart. And his bed.

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Her place was unbelievably elegant. Dripping with expensive furnishings. Beautiful. Rich-looking.

And about as cold a room as he’d ever seen.

It was entirely suitable for the ice princess of the financial district. But not for the woman who’d grabbed him by the shirt and shoved him up against the wall of that pub to kiss the lips right off his face.

Maddy was watching him, having stepped inside ahead of him to punch a few buttons on a security alarm panel. There was a glimmer of hesitation in her expression, as if she really cared what he thought about her home. Why she’d care about the opinion of a blue-collar rescue worker, whose single piece of art in his apartment was a an eight-by-ten framed picture of a Dalmatian on a fire truck, he had no idea.

“Well?”

“Wow.”

She wrapped her arms around her waist and stared around the room, obviously noting his unenthusiastic response. “My sister decorated it for me,” she whispered. “I just don’t have the knack for that sort of thing. Or the vision.”

That figured. From what he’d heard so far, he had absolutely no interest in ever meeting the sister. Especially not if she envisioned this when she looked at Maddy, who she obviously did not really know at all.

“Great view,” he mumbled, meaning that. She did have an amazing view of the magnificently lit Chicago skyline. One entire wall of windows ran the width of the living room, laying out the city below as if he was looking at a galaxy of stars from above.

She perked up, smiling broadly. “Isn’t it? That’s why I bought it. Well, that and the bathroom.”

Bought it. She owned this icy masterpiece. Not her father, not her family. She didn’t just rent it. The woman he’d taken out for wings and beer had enough money to actually purchase a place like this.

He’d known that. Logically, he’d known. Still, the meaning of it had at last completely sunk in.

His feet suddenly felt leaden. For the first time since the moment they’d met, Jake felt the slightest bit intimidated. Uneasy at the stark, irrefutable evidence of how different they were.

There was no way he could keep up with this. Nor would he ever even want to try.

“What’s wrong?”

He threw off the momentary unease. Tomorrow maybe he’d think about how unsuited they were for one another. Tonight, well, they were perfectly suited in the only way that really mattered. He’d could definitely keep up with her in other ways.

Starting in her bedroom.

“Nothing.” He gave her a wolfish smile. “So where is this three-man bathtub?”

“Hey, none of that kinky stuff,” she reminded him with a saucy wink. Then she turned and sashayed down the hall, kicking her cute, strappy sandals off her feet mid-stride, as if not wanting to waste time once they reached the bed.

He followed, not in any hurry, because they had all night. But still unable to stop himself from lifting his shirt over his head and tossing it to the floor with her shoes.

She led him into a darkened room, flipped on the light, and spun around to gauge his reaction. But when she saw him standing there in just his soft, low-slung jeans, she froze as if she’d never seen a man’s body before.

“Oh, my God.”

The sexy woman actually licked her lips while her gaze greedily roamed over his bare chest and shoulders. She looked even hungrier than she had when their waitress had deposited a pile of nachos in front of her tonight.

“I never imagined,” she whispered, lifting her hand toward him. She didn’t step closer, merely scraping the tip of one finger down his throat, until reaching the hollow of his throat. There it remained, connected by the tiniest strand of static-charged air to his raging pulse. “I’ve never seen a more beautiful man.”

Jake half-groaned and half-laughed.

“I mean it. You’re beautiful. You should be on display somewhere, dipped in bronze. You’re so hard, so strong.” She ran her hand down his chest, letting her pink-tinged nails rake lightly across his abs. She didn’t pause, caressing him until she reached the waistband of his jeans, which hung low on his hips. Visibly swallowing, she added, “Yet so lean too.”

“You’re killing me. You know this, right?”

She ignored him. “I’d pictured…when I went to the auction, I’d figured you’d be skinny. Elegant. Not…not like this.”

He barked a harsh laugh. Skinny he was not. And elegant he’d never even tried to be. “I work out sometimes. Not out of vanity, out of necessity.” There was no way Jake would put somebody’s life at risk by letting himself get too out of shape to do his job. He lifted gurneys–usually with heavy bodies on them–every single day. He squeezed into small spaces in collapsed buildings, he often hauled around some back-breakingly heavy equipment. Those things mattered–possibly mattered enough to be the difference between life and death to an injured person. Staying in top physical condition was an absolute requirement for his own safety and for his patients.

“Is it a necessity that your shoulders are as broad as my legs are long?”

He chuckled, glancing down at those delicate, sexy legs, in such perfect proportion to the rest of her, despite her claim that they were too short. “I think that’s a bit of an exaggeration.” Then he reached for her hips, cupped them and drew her close. “But I’m willing to examine them, up close and personal, just to make sure.”

“I’d hate to ask such a sacrifice of you.”

“What can I say? I’m a nice guy.”

Maddy, who’d been inching closer as they engaged in the light, verbal foreplay, tilted her head back and watch him intently. “You are, aren’t you.”

“You make it sound like it’s a bad thing.”

She shook her head. “You’re a contradiction, that’s all. I don’t know that I understand you.”

“Understand this.” He said nothing more, bending down to cover her mouth with his. Slipping his hands into her hair to cup her head, he licked her lips, demanding access.

Maddy opened for him, her tongue meeting with his in a warm, slow exploration. Different from the crazy-hot kiss outside the pub. Different…but just as good.

Their bodies melted together in fluid grace, rather than heated, crazed grinding. Her softness cradled every hard place on him, molding to his chest, his groin, his thighs. Every delicate curve offered warmth and welcome and pure feminine invitation.

“Jake…” she whispered against his mouth, though he knew she had nothing to say. Nothing that really needed to be said.

They’d talked a lot since they’d met. Now it was time for their bodies to do all the communicating.

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This book won’t be in stores or at online retailers like Amazon until later this month, but if you just can’t wait and want it NOW you can get it right this minute from eHarlequin–at a discount! (And, like Amazon, they offer free shipping of orders over $25.)

And if you click the link below, it will take you to the eHq page where you can read an additional excerpt and “glance inside the book” a very cool new eHq feature.

Slow Hands Harlequin Blaze

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 6th, 2008 at 6:00 am and is filed under Leslie. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.