Phantom Pleasures - Chapter Five
Saturday, March 29th, 2008
Hello, everyone! If you haven’t been visiting Plotmonkeys this week, you might not know that I’ve been running a series of excerpts from my book, PHANTOM PLEASURES, which will be released on TUESDAY, APRIL 1. If this is your first visit, you can catch up by reading here.
If you’ve been with me all week, THANK YOU!
I did warn that the server that hosts this site is undergoing maintenance, so there is a chance that your comments won’t show up, which messes up my contest. If you don’t see your comments show, please drop me an email at julieleto at gmail dot com. This is a different address than I normally use…but the other one goes through the server that is being changed.
Enjoy today’s excerpt. I have a special treat at the bottom of this post, along with the winner of yesterday’s contest. Don’t forget to click the cover if you want to preorder from Amazon!
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-5-
“Clearly, you’re a man who likes a challenge,” she assessed. “Should make life in this little dream world of yours very interesting.”
His chuckle echoed off the bare stone all around them, then injected directly under her skin. The sound skirted the edge between sinister and genuine mirth. Perhaps she should have heeded both Cat and Jacob’s warnings for caution. Maybe–just maybe–for the first time in her life, she was in over her head.
“I assure you, Miss Chandler–”
“–Alexa,” she corrected, ignoring the sudden acceleration of her heartbeat.
“Yes, of course. Alexa.”
He exploited every vowel, his accent emphasizing the keen feminine sound of her name even as he stepped an inch or so closer. Her instincts battled between running like hell and leaning in those last few inches, to see if his skin was indeed as warm and his muscles as hard as she imagined.
“I assure you that this dream world, as you call it, can be very real if you so wish.”
She locked her feet in place, determined to remain unaffected by his proximity. And yet, anticipation thrilled through her, electrifying the space between them with a raw, natural magic that she understood very, very well–even if she hadn’t experienced it firsthand for a long time.
To cover her attraction, she eyed him with as much skepticism as she could muster. “A moment ago you told me you didn’t know how the magic worked here.”
“’Tis true,” he said, “but I did not say I would not attempt to manipulate the magic to my advantage.”
