Beth Kery's Blog, page 12

I have another exciting giveaway for you guys!

My good friend and wonderfully talented writer Tessa Adams (aka Tracy Wolff) has a book out! It’s a YA, and if you haven’t read Tracy’s sexy books yet, or Tessa’s YA’s, you should definitely dive in for a treat. I’m giving away a copy of SOULBOUND to ONE randomly chosen commenter on my FACEBOOK page of the same post you see here. (facebook.com/beth.kery)

Here’s a bit about Tracy’s book, SOULBOUND, out now!

As the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter—and a member of Ipswitch’s Royal family—Xandra Morgan should be a witch of incredible power. But things don’t always turn out like you expect…

While she hasn’t lived up to her family’s expectations, Xandra has come to terms with her latent magic and made a life for herself in Austin, Texas, running a coffee shop where she makes potions of a non-magical nature. While things aren’t perfect, Xandra is happy—until she runs into powerful warlock Declan Chumomisto.

Xandra hasn’t seen Declan in years, and though she’s still overwhelmed by his power, she doesn’t trust him. And when her own powers awaken one night and lead her to the body of a woman in the woods bearing the symbol of Isis—the same one that has marked Xandra since the day she met Declan—she’s filled with a terrible suspicion, soon confirmed: the woman is connected to him.

Xandra doesn’t want to believe that Declan is capable of murder, but as the body count mounts, and Xandra’s own powers spiral out of control, she’s not sure she can trust her own instincts.

***

Sounds good, no? Purchase Soulbound here.

and be sure to leave a comment for Tracy/Tessa on my Facebook page in order to enter for a free copy of Soulbound next week! (check here for winner).

Yes, you’ve already met Lucien in Because You Are Mine…but he’s not who you might think. His mysterious presence and mission in regard to entrepreneur Ian Noble puzzles Elise Martin, who knew Lucien as a child when they were both prisoners in the gilded cage of their privileged backgrounds. He’s enigmatic, drop dead gorgeous…and the only man in the world who can ever hope to control Elise.

Beginning 3/5/13 with each new installment coming out on Tuesdays: New York Times bestselling author Beth Kery’s blistering new novel of a man and woman bound by the scandalous secrets of the past—and by the sexual hunger that still fuels their uncontrollable desires…

Restaurateur and self-exiled heir Lucien Lenault’s first look at the breathtaking young chef trainee for his trendy Chicago restaurant is a shock. She’s Elise Martin, daughter of a wealthy French fashion designer. She’s also the holder of a secret that could explode his carefully laid plans.

Notorious for her flagrant exhibitionism, and for flouting the respectable façade of her aristocratic background, the coquine’s wild streak shocked most people. Not Lucien. He was tempted by it. It was a deliriously punishable offense as far as Lucien was concerned. But taking on Elise is more than a game. She’s a catastrophe waiting to happen, an inferno that’s burned many a lover. Lucien isn’t most men, however, and he won’t allow her to manipulate him. In order to control the defiant beauty—in order to see her submit—he’s going to have to willingly walk in the flames…

When I’m With You Snippet

He pulled on her, drawing her closer, so that her body brushed against his hard length and the fullness behind his fly. He scorched her with that almost otherworldly stare. She waited on a sharp ledge of anticipation, her breath burning in her lungs, when he lowered his head until their mouths were just inches apart.

“You’ve always tested me. You’ll always be that girl I remember, foolishly poking at a sleeping snake. You’d better get out of here. You’ve been begging without words to be disciplined since you were a girl, and you have no idea how much I’d love to give you what you so richly deserve . . . what you need.”

He noticed her wide-eyed, shocked expression and smiled grimly. “Not so sure of yourself now, are you?” he asked, his voice a low, purring threat. “What do you say? Do you want to stay with me and get what you need, ma chère?”

By Beth Kery

The phrase says it all: one day, two people go on a journey that takes them from one relationship to another. Friends to lovers romances have similarities to a travel adventure, where characters begin one place and end up in another, experiencing obstacle after obstacle. On the daunting path, they are sure to experience dangerous precipices, wicked bad weather and nights where all seems lost. Sometimes they choose that journey. More often than not, the romantic hero and heroine don’t. Uncontrollable emotion, life-altering circumstances and loss force them onto a path they would have preferred not to take.

For me, that’s the appeal of the friends to lovers romance. It’s a risky adventure told in terms of a relationship versus a map. All the while, a little question always hovers in the reader’s mind. Will they make it? Or will their longing for that old, familiar territory of a secure friendship make them falter on their path?

Rill and Katie in Addicted to You, are two such travelers. Katie has known Rill for years as her brother’s best friend. As an Irishman, Rill is a stranger in a strange land when he first comes to the UCLA to attend film school. Katie’s family takes him in with open arms. A young Katie acquires a serious crush on the brilliant young man with the easy charm and raw sexuality. Years later, when Rill begins to court her college roommate, Eden, Katie’s chances of ever forging a romantic link to Rill diminish even farther. Katie is glad to accept friendship with Rill, however. Friendship is a wonderful thing, after all. It’s the fear of sacrificing friendship that makes couples hesitate and doubt the journey to romance.

For Rill, there’s a ton of reasons he always held himself back romantically from Katie. Because of a dysfunctional childhood, Rill strives for control above all else in the arena of love and sex. Katie is that which cannot be controlled all tied up into one package. She’s a gypsy in designer jeans, a whirlwind with a heart of gold who is loyal to the bone. When Eden dies and Rill learns a heart-wrenching secret about his wife, he begins to fall apart. He’d been one of the most talented and respected film directors and screenplay writers alive, but one day he forsook everything. He got off a plane in a strange city and holed up in tiny, quirky Vulture’s Canyon.

One day, Katie drives across the country with one mission in mind: to save Rill. Here’s where the altered circumstances, volatile emotions and unquestioning loyalty and love come into play. Here, we have all the ingredients for two friends to be thrown on that thrilling, dangerous path of friends to lovers.

Rill and Katie survive their journey, of course. But that doesn’t mean they don’t have to survive some terrible storms and intimidating emotional landscapes first. Like all travelers in a good adventure, however, they survive to see the rainbow at the end of the storm, the promised land.

Friendship really is the perfect foundation for passionate love. The appeal of the friends to lovers story is that the hero and heroine have to earn that truth to deserve it.

Addicted To You

“A fabulous, sizzling hot friends-to-lovers story. You’ll be addicted from page one!”

Julie James, New York Best Selling author of Something About You!

All it takes is a moment for your life to change—one night of desire to make you feel alive…

Irish film director Rill Pierce fled to the tiny, backwoods town of Vulture ‘s Canyon, seeking sanctuary and solitude after a devastating tragedy. Once, his raw sex appeal and sultry Irish accent made women across the globe swoon. Now, he’s barely recognizable…

But Katie Hughes, his best friend’s sister, is not the type of woman to give up on a man like Rill. She blazes into Vulture’s Canyon determined to save him from himself. Instead, she finds herself unleashing years of pent-up passion. In a storm of hunger and need, Katie and Rill forget themselves and the world. But will Rill’s insatiable attraction to Katie heal his pain—or will it just feed the darkness within him?



Excerpt

She leaned back when he placed his hand at the side of her head. When she looked up at him, Katie abruptly became aware of how blue his eyes were, how thick his lashes were . . . how her belly pressed against the fullness between his thighs. Everett, Eden, Rill and Katie had been friends for years now. She’d hugged Rill countless times. She’d never had cause to feel ashamed hugging him before.

She stepped back now.

“It could have happened to anyone. Vulture’s Canyon becomes a dead man’s land at night. And Errol acts on impulse. He should have known better than to run in front of a moving car.”

Katie sighed. “Well, it’s done. I’ll have to pay for his hospital stay and his rehab. He doesn’t have any insurance. He doesn’t have a car, either. I’ll have to drive him to all his appointments,” she added, not realizing the truth of her words until that moment.

“I’ll be driving him.”

Katie glanced up in surprise at Rill’s resolute tone. “Don’t be ridiculous. You didn’t hit him.”

“That may be, but Errol will likely require rehab for weeks on end. There’s no way you’re staying in Vulture’s Canyon that whole time.”

Katie straightened to her full height. “Who says?”

“I do.” He seemed to reconsider his bluntness. “I can imagine Morgan and Watkins might have a say in the matter as well.”

“I’ve taken a vacation from Morgan and Watkins,” Katie said, referring to her former employer, a large law firm that did taxes for the rich and famous.

“You took a vacation and came to Vulture’s Canyon?” Rill asked incredulously.

“I told you I did.”

“That’s just stupid.”

Anger rose from her belly to her brain like mercury in a thermometer stuck in boiling water. “Don’t you call me stupid. I’d say what you’re doing these days is way off the idiocy scale, so I guess you can put up with me for what’s left of your miserable life.”

Katie paused when she saw how the color left his face, but she didn’t relent. Suddenly, the idea of this beautiful, talented man wasting his life felt like a personal affront, like a slap to the face. It surprised her a little to realize she shook with emotion. Or perhaps it was some culmination of the bizarre events of the past fifteen hours and a sleep-deprived brain that was finally getting to her.

“You’re not going to chase me off like you did Everett, Rill,” she said in a quiet, vibrating voice.

His lips flattened in irritation. “I wouldn’t be too sure about that, Katie. You haven’t seen how I live.”

She swallowed convulsively. There it was: proof positive that he definitely had been too drunk to recall her being at his house last night, let alone remember what they’d done. A feeling of mixed relief and sadness swooped through her.

She stepped toward him and tilted her chin up, meeting his glare. “You call what you’ve been doing the past eighteen months living? We both know you’re flirting with the opposite, Rill. It’s gonna stop here and now, too.”

“Oh, yeah?” he asked belligerently. “How do you know that?”

“Because Eden would be ashamed of you. I figure you just need someone to remind you of that.”

His eyes flashed in fury at the mention of Eden’s name; his jaw clamped tight. Katie recoiled slightly in her own skin, the evidence of his hurt paining her, as well. She stepped back.

“You can come up to my place and get rested up for your drive back to California. You’re not welcome here, though. I want you gone as soon as you’re rested,” he said stiffly.

She stalked past him toward the nurses’ station, wondering why having Rill say out loud what she already knew with perfect clarity could hurt so damn much.

ADDICTED TO YOU, Novel #1 in the One Night of Passion series available now

My lovely author copies of Addicted to You for the UK, New Zealand and Australia market! This, along with the novella ebook only Bound to You, releases on January 3! Addicted to You will be available in print and ebook!

Here’s a blurb and excerpt of Addicted to You, Katie and Rill’s love story.

All it takes is a moment for your life to change—one night of desire to make you feel alive…

Irish film director Rill Pierce fled to the tiny, backwoods town of Vulture ‘s Canyon, seeking sanctuary and solitude after a devastating tragedy. Once, his raw sex appeal and sultry Irish accent made women across the globe swoon. Now, he’s barely recognizable…

But Katie Hughes, his best friend’s sister, is not the type of woman to give up on a man like Rill. She blazes into Vulture’s Canyon determined to save him from himself. Instead, she finds herself unleashing years of pent-up passion. In a storm of hunger and need, Katie and Rill forget themselves and the world. But will Rill’s insatiable attraction to Katie heal his pain—or will it just feed the darkness within him?

Read an Excerpt

No real woman existed like the one in front of him in Vulture’s Canyon, Illinois. Rill was left with the intoxicated conclusion that a sex angel had been dropped on his doorstep, and God had packaged her in a tight tank top and even tighter jeans. If there was a deity looking out for him—something Rill seriously doubted, considering he was sin personified—then said omniscient being would know how he loved nothing more than a woman in jeans that hugged every tight curve.

He unglued his eyes from the tempting juncture of shapely thighs and looked up. He grinned like the town idiot when he saw a glorious spill of brown and gold-streaked hair and thrusting breasts pressed snugly against white cotton.

“Well, well, well . . . what have we here,” he mumbled thickly. He reached and ran his hands over the back of the woman’s thighs. His cock lurched when he encountered her tightly encased buttocks.

He’d finally gotten drunk enough to hallucinate. He was getting good at this wastrel business.

“Rill, what are you—”

She abruptly stopped talking when he kneaded her two round ass cheeks in his palms. His face hovered next to paradise. It was amazing what a guy who had no future and who daily tried to forget his past might consider heaven, but there you had it. He closed

his eyes and inhaled, catching the scent of cotton mixing with the subtle spice of woman in his nose.

No, it wasn’t just his whiskey-soaked brain. It wasn’t just the fact that he hadn’t inhaled the scent of pussy in his nose in a god-awful long time. Drunken hallucination or not, his angel was sweet.

He kissed her with an open mouth at the bottom of her zipper.

She gasped.

“And here that doctor was preaching to me about rehab,” he mumbled. “You’re just what the doctor ordered—least you would be if I didn’t have a wanker with a rod up his ass takin’ care of me. Come ’ere.”

He spread his hands on her hips, liking the way he encompassed all those tight curves in his grip. He pulled. She fell onto his lap and thighs with a cock-tugging thud. He buried his face in fragrant hair and soft, firm breasts and nuzzled. Inhaling her scent was like breathing in a potent opiate. He could get lost in this unexplored territory—

Lost . . .

“Rill . . . what the hell are you doing?”

Did angels stun, because that was exactly how his sounded. He turned his head, drowning in the arousing sensation of wedging his face in the valley of delicious breasts.

“I’m enjoying my hallucination to its fullest,” he mumbled as his hands came up to cradle those firm breasts. He held her against his face and twisted his nose in a fleshy nirvana.

His angel snorted.

“You’re not hallucinating. You’re stone-cold drunk. There’s a difference.”

She’d sounded derisive, but he’d heard the telling tremble in her voice when he pressed his lips against a distended nipple.

“One and the same, if you can get drunk enough,” he muttered.

He cupped one ass cheek and rode her jeans-covered pussy against the ridge of his cock. She inhaled sharply and froze. He knew why. A powerful jolt of lust had torn through him as well. He’d thought his cock had been tamed with a combination of whiskey and his own hand for the past eighteen months, but he’d thought wrong.

It had just awakened, and not with a whimper but with a bang.

Read the Reviews

Romance Novel News Recommended Read

As much a story about recovering from grief and self-discovery as it is about the unquenchable desire between Katie and Rill, ADDICTED TO YOU has a well-rounded plot, plenty of steamy sex scenes, and a complicated romance between fascinating characters.

Romance Reviews Today

Addicted To You is a story I thoroughly enjoyed, it provided laugh out loud moments along with scenes that provoked significant emotion.

5 Bookies – Book Lovers Inc

Addicted To You – Really packs an emotional punch along with some very erotic scenes.

B+ – Smexy Books

Addicted To You–an erotic romance that definitely delivers, this book had both smoking hot sex and emotional connection between the characters.

Dear Author

The writing is impeccable. Addicted To You is addictive in every possible way!

5 Hearts, Another Look Book Reviews

Rill is sex personified…you’ll be adding Bethany/Beth to your to-be-bought list once you experience her brand of sinful sizzle.

B+–The Good, The Bad, and the Unread

“I cannot remember the last time I was yanked into an erotic story like I was with Addicted to You.”

5 Angels, Recommended Read! – Fallen Angels Reviews

Beautifully written and smokin’ hot scenes between Rill and Katie.

5 of 5 Stars, Snark to Finish

Powerful stuff…just gorgeous. I couldn’t tear myself away from Rill and Katie.

Don’t Talk Just Read Blogspot

I’ve been sneaking out a cover or two whenever they appear at retailers, but I have yet to show off the entire set of 8. Here are the gorgeous covers for my second serialized novel, WHEN I’M WITH YOU. (Click on the cover for a pre-order link. I realize that one or two parts are not yet up at every retailer, but they will be soon.) I don’t have all the blurbs yet from the publisher, so stay tuned. Information is trickling in, and as soon as I have it all, I will have a WHEN page similar to the BECAUSE page.

This is Elise and Lucien’s story, but Ian and Francesca play a big part in it. In fact, WHEN opens the door for more Ian and Francesca in BECAUSE WE BELONG, out later in 2013.

So with no further ado:

WHEN I’M WITH YOU

Serial Novel, presented in weekly installments beginning March 5

Contemporary Erotic Romance

Berkley Intermix

WHEN WE TOUCH

WHEN YOU DEFY ME

WHEN YOU TEASE ME

WHEN I’M BAD

WHEN YOU SUBMIT

WHEN YOU TRUST ME

WHEN I NEED YOU

WHEN WE ARE ONE

My second book in the Princes of the Underground series from Samhain is now available in print! Here’s a bit about it!

When Blaise Sevliss, Lord Delraven, rescues a young woman from the clutches of his vampiritic clone the sheer amount of soul energy blazing from her unconscious body stuns him…and awakens a primal, parasitic hunger he has fought for centuries to quell.

Determined to keep her safe from the ravenous Scourge horde, Blaise must hide her in his underground stronghold. Where the powerful urge to consume her gnaws at the last shreds of his control.

With a touch, Isabel Lanscourt can divine the darkest of secrets. Her ability is little help, though, when she awakens in a lush world where sensuality rules. Her shining spirit is a beacon to all the powerful immortals in Sanctuary, but only one can touch her. The enigmatic Lord Delraven, whose brusque coldness is belied by the heated need in his eyes.

In a dangerous zone between temptation and memory, desire ignites an explosion of luminescent beauty. And Isabel’s healing touch begins to fill his emptiness with an impossible gift: a soul. But Blaise holds a dangerous secret, one that could extinguish Isabel’s inner light. And cast his lonely world into eternal darkness.

Warning: Step into a sensual world of vampires who love to feed and love to…er…feast, where sexual variety is the spice of their lives. No sweetness and light here, this is one vampire who can put the “B” into “bad guy” without batting an eye.

Order Silken Rapture in print:

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Greetings! I hope everyone in the states had a wonderful Thanksgiving on Thursday! I’m still recovering from carb overload, but other than that, it was a warm, wonderful holiday with family. I’m very lucky.

I have been busy working nonstop on my next serial, out in March at the same time as the print version of the complete Because You Are Mine! When I’m With You features Ian and Francesca, and their love story is furthered, although the main hero and heroine are Lucien and a newcomer, Elise Martin. I noticed that Barnes and Noble is already listing Part One, so I guess I’m clear to show off the first of eight covers. I’m telling you…they are gorgeous, so rich and sensual. I haven’t got a website page up yet because I haven’t received official blurbs, but I’ll keep you updated as to when I can share more.

Oh…and by way of explanation, the heroine is a bad-girl, spirited heiress turned chef, thus the fork, along with the hallmark pearls. :)

Book Signings and Readings: Be sure to check out the two events listed just to the left of this blog: The Fifty Shades of Naughty book signing in the St. Louis area on December 1, with myself, Jaci Burton, Sylvia Day, Shayla Black, Shiloh Walker and more! I hear it’s already sold out, and promises to be a fun lady’s night out. The other event I have upcoming is at Lady Jane’s Salon in Naperville, Illinois, Dec 4 at 7 p.m. I’ll be reading from Exposed to You and will have several book giveaways! I hope I can meet some locals there. It’s being held at a chocolate shop, so it can’t be all bad, right? There will be another signing around Valentine’s Day here in Chicago with several local authors. I’ll put up more details as I get them.

I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying a holiday weekend of family…and reading, of course!

~Beth

Exposed to You was a story of the heart for me.

Many of us have encountered first hand or witnessed a loved one battling cancer. For Joy Hightower, cancer has eclipsed her life. She watched her mother succumb to it over five painful years as a child. When she was diagnosed as an adult, it altered her completely. That–and the fact that she encountered the love of her life, Everett Hughes, on that fateful day, even if she didn’t recognize it herself at the time.

She’s healthy now, but an experience like that leaves not only scars on the spirit, but the seeds of growth and love in the heart.

It all sounds sort of dark, doesn’t it, for a romance? But Exposed to You is light and effervescent; the reason being Everett Hughes. Here is a force of nature, a man who sweeps a reluctant, but inevitably bowled over Joy off her feet. The lovely thing about Exposed to You is that Everett is one of the few men on the planet who could have broken through Joy’s gray barrier and brought her into the light.

And he does. Does he ever. He does it with raw, challenging sex. He does it with his confident, unguarded persona. He does it my loving Joy like no one else could.

Some early reviews for Exposed to You, out now!

With the wealth of erotic stories popping up everywhere, Kery dethrones them all with her latest — a real eye-opener. This well-written story is original, refreshing and hot enough to generate third-degree burns.

4 1/2 Stars – RT Book Reviews

5 Stars Book Lovers Inc. “A beautiful, memorable love story.”

5 Stars and a “Purest Delight”, Guilty Pleasures Book Reviews. “This book has it all. A definite re-read for me!”

Recommended Read from Dear Author: “Offers a well-blended romance with eroticism”

Rating: A- Romance Book Forum: “Exposed to You was fantastic. An amazing tale.”

Here’s a blurb and excerpt for Exposed to You!

“What would you do if the sexiest man in the world was bent on bringing you unbearable pleasure again and again? Joy Hightower wasn’t sure she could survive the experience…or live without it.”

It’s not often you’re hired to paint a body tattoo—and what a body—on a total stranger at a Hollywood film set. A reserved and careful art teacher, Joy would never forget it. In a rare fit of raw desire she gave herself completely, knowing she’d never see him again, or ever repeat such a shameless, naked impulse.

Little did she know, the man with whom she shared that lightning bolt of lust was star Everett Hughes. For Everett, women and sex came as easily as fame. But how could he hope to convince the guarded Joy that beneath the hard body and sexy façade of celebrity was a real man who wanted only one, real woman?

In the heat of an intoxicating affair, Everett endeavors to break down her barriers, gain her trust, and expose himself as the real deal. But can Joy do the same, and reveal to him the vulnerable woman who longs to be loved, wanted, and desired forever?

RT Book Reviews Top Pick!

Read an Excerpt

She never looked at his face once while she worked, but she was highly aware of him. Her knuckles brushed occasionally against warm, dense flesh. Her nose was just inches from his body. The alcohol base from the body paint filtered into her nostrils. Beneath it, she smelled the musk of his skin like a subtle, living thread twining through the chemical artifice. The fragrance was potent somehow, sending a loud, clear message of male virility to some ancient part of her brain.

Only a stretchy, seaweed-like boxer brief costume covered his genitals. Joy couldn’t help but be conscious of the fact that her chin was mere inches from the fullness behind the flimsy material. She worked steadily, but a dull, pleasurable ache began to grow at her core.

A light glaze of perspiration dampened her brow and upper lip by the time she leaned back. She glanced up at him, a calm—entirely fake—expression plastered on her face.

“You’ll have to lower your briefs enough for me to make the transition look natural,” she said.

The air-conditioner made a loud, chugging sound and then resumed its typical hum. She saw his throat convulse. Was he as uncomfortable with this situation as she was? He held her stare with those striking eyes and moved his hands, folding down the seaweed brief and exposing the stretch of skin just above his genitals.

She lifted her tattoo pen and paused.

Seth had used the airbrush below the brief, but not in a thorough manner. Joy could see several patches of naked, golden skin along with a smattering of light brown hair. Pubic hair was usually several shades darker than hair on the head, which meant he must be blonde beneath the beautiful headpiece affixed to his head.

Below that strip of skin, the flimsy material barely contained a virile package. The vision was nearly as striking as that of the man’s eyes peering through the elaborate mask. What was it about that stretch of skin below the belly and just above a man’s cock that spoke of sensitivity…vulnerability?

His arm muscles clenched tight. He kept his hands on the material of the briefs, as if he wanted to be prepared to jerk the garment back into place at the slightest provocation. Joy didn’t know whether to feel compassion for him or annoyance. He was the six foot four inch tower of brawn here, not her. She was hardly going to attack him. She disliked this intimate aspect of her work, but the human body wasn’t something that could be ignored when it came to art. He was just a backdrop, not any different from the canvases in her studio.

Her expression hardened at the thought. She leaned forward and continued her design, the tip of her marker slipping across firm flesh. She was doing fine for the next minute or so until she noticed the brief was stretching and expanding to contain his erection. His cock rode along his left thigh. The column of it was clearly delineated beneath the insubstantial garment.

Shit.

She glanced up at him anxiously. He looked down at her. She’d known he would be. She’d sensed his stare on the crown of her head the entire time. He closed his eyes briefly. She sensed his regret even through his half-mask.

“I’m sorry,” he said in a gruff voice. “Just…just ignore it.”

Heat flooded her cheeks and she looked away.

How mortifying.

It wasn’t uncommon for a model to occasionally experience an unwanted erection during a make-up application, but the evidence had never been so…close to her before. Nor had it ever been so appealing.

For a few dreadful seconds, she felt like she couldn’t expand her lungs. They finally released, however, and she reached for a pot of paint.

“Do you want to take a quick break?” she asked, striving to keep her voice even.

“No. Go ahead.” His voice sounded so strained, she glanced up at him in concern. She saw the rigidness of his angular jaw. His eyes blazed through the prosthetic mask.

“I’m not sure that’s such a good idea,” she said.

“I can take it if you can.”

She wasn’t quite sure she could take it. Things had gotten warm and wet between her thighs. She looked down at her lap and used her forearm to wipe at the thin layer of perspiration on her upper lip. Her heartbeat segued from a throb to a roar in her ears. She swirled her paint–twice right, once left, twice right, once left–the familiar task of moving the brush through the thick liquid striking her as rich for some reason…sensual.

She lifted the brush to his skin and began to paint. It was a little like working while a ravenous lion raced toward you in the periphery of your vision. She was acutely aware of the power in him, the incipient energy, like a giant spring that was being held down tight with effort. She worked steadily for the next half hour or so in the area of lower abdomen, creating the impossible–a flare of fire in water.

The realization hit her as she moved to the lower left quadrant of her design that she should have told him he could release the garment until she began to work in that area again. He’d kept his hands on the sides of the brief the whole time, however, exposing that strip of sensitive skin. Something about his pose excited her for some reason. It was as if he was frozen in the moment of offering himself to her…

…giving her a taste.

Her cheeks burned at the uncontrollable thought. She leaned away from him, feeling the loss of his subtle, radiant body heat on her cheeks and lips. She exchanged her paints and went back to work.

What was wrong with her? She’d never had this reaction before while she’d been working. Her skin felt flushed and prickly with awareness. There seemed to be some strange, inexplicable connection between where her paintbrush stroked his taut skin and her clit.

Why did she want to hold onto that brilliant flare of lust that the stranger’s fierce eyes and hard cock promised? Maybe because you were told today that life and a future aren’t a certainty, that both of those things were as ephemeral, as difficult to hold onto as an unexpected lightning strike of desire?

Joy didn’t want to let go. She wanted…no, she needed to hang on.

The air around them seemed to have taken on a weight. She forced her lungs to move as she exchanged brushes and reached for a paint she’d deposited at the far end of the table. When she touched him with the wet tip just below his hipbone, his taut abdomen muscle twitched. She glanced up and saw a small smile on his mouth.

“It’s colder than the other ones,” he said.

“I’m sorry. The paint was sitting right in front of the air conditioner.”

“It’s okay.”

His mouth moved, but no sound came from his throat. Some instinct inside her told her this man didn’t typically become speechless.

She felt a surge of liquid heat at her sex.

She swallowed with difficulty and resumed painting, the feeling of moving in a dream only amplifying. How long would this surreal sensation last? When would the reality of her diagnosis of cancer really set in? Her grim future seemed impossible to grasp as she sat there, flushed with arousal, painting a brilliant tattoo on a beautiful, virile male she’d never seen before that moment, and would probably never see again.

“It’s finished,” she murmured minutes later, as she placed the solvent that set the paint on the table. From the corner of her vision, she saw that he didn’t move his hands, keeping his briefs lowered. The fullness behind the seaweed design hadn’t dissipated during the past forty-five minutes.

“Joy.”

She glanced up slowly, both hesitant and anticipatory at once at the sound of his hoarse voice.

“I hope you don’t think I’m a complete jackass for saying this, but that had to be the most erotic thing I’ve experienced since Peggy Barton let me touch her breasts when I was fourteen years old.”

She just stared at him in amazement for a second before she laughed. The strangling sexual tension fractured slightly, letting her breathe. He smiled, full-out and brilliant.

Her laughter ceased.

Oh my God, she thought, stunned. Her sunburst tattoo would be considered dim next to that smile.

Suddenly, unaccountably, fear broke over her. She stared at the very image of vibrant life. What would it be like, to be snuffed out of existence, no longer able to see, to hear…to feel?

Her gaze sunk over him. She absorbed his image hungrily, drinking it like an elixir that vanquished terror.

*******

Order Exposed to You, November 6:

Amazon

iTunes

Barnes and Noble

Happy Sunday!

I hope you are all relaxing and are enjoying a cozy day of reading or hanging out with family and friends…or even better, both!

I’m still getting lots of messages about the One Night of Passion series with Exposed to You coming out on Tuesday. (Hurray!) To add to some of the confusion, the first novel in the series, Addicted to You, was written under the pen name Bethany Kane, while the two novellas and Exposed to You are written under Beth Kery. A couple important points:

–There is no break in the story tone, content or characters because the pen name changed. It was just a legal thing and the publisher was unable to change it, so don’t worry about story flow or anything.

–You do not need to read the books in order necessarily. Each stands alone, each about a separate hero and heroine and their love story. However, you might get the gist of the people and setting better if you read in order. Since there’s been some confusion on Shelfari, and therefore the Amazon Exposed to You page (which I can’t alter, btw…grrrr) I wanted to repost the series reading order, in case you are the orderly type. :)

Click on each title for a blurb and spicy excerpt!

1. Addicted to You (novel)

2. Bound to You (novella)

3. Captured by You (novella)

4. Exposed to You (novel, releasing November 6)

I’ve received a lot of questions about when my books will be made available in the UK, New Zealand and Australia. Headline Publishing has bought my entire backlist, including the serials Because You Are Mine and When I’m With You. I thought you guys might like to see the gorgeous new covers that are available (I haven’t seen the Headline Publishing’s When I’m With You cover yet) Where I know of a release date, I’ve included it. Please note that I don’t control release dates, or the fact that they may change.

BECAUSE YOU ARE MINE, the complete novel, March 2013

ADDICTED TO YOU, January of 2013

BOUND TO YOU, February of 2013

WICKED BURN, February 14, 2013

CAPTURED BY YOU, March, 2013

EXPOSED TO YOU, April 2013

DARING TIME

SWEET RESTRAINT

PARADISE RULES

EXPLOSIVE

RELEASE