Hi Elodie! Hi Elodie’s friends!
So I’ve got a question for you …
Have you ever been to a male revue
show? Up until four months ago, I had not. This is where it probably makes
sense for me to mention that I just recently turned 40. So it was time, right?
I agree, and long overdue. And of course I was with my mom who had the
wonderful idea that we not only take in one show, but two. And not just any ole
male revue but two of the very best, Chippendales and Australia’s Thunder From
Down Under! That was a weekend in Vegas I’ll never forget. For many many
reasons, but also because those two unforgettable nights are what inspired my
newest release, Stay for Me, and the
three upcoming books in the new series called These Three Words.
So I ask again, have you ever been? If so, what did you
enjoy most? I loved all the different quirks I noticed from each dancer. One
who mouthed “Hi” every time he looked into the audience and smiled. And another
who was the biggest guy out there whose dance moves weren’t the most polished
but had the best smile. And if you haven’t been yet, have I sparked your
interest? I hope so. Xoxoxoxo.
One
night to finally make it right before it all gets torn apart…
Two years ago,
best friends Emma Chester and Sam Jason tried being intimate. Due to Sam’s
massive size, it didn’t work. Emma was hurt. Embarrassed, they did their best
to move on. Now the day has come when Emma must suspend Sam as a dancer at the
club they work at, awakening the buried pain of that one night.
Sam has seen this day coming but is shocked when
Emma asks him to strip for her just once before he leaves the club. Allowing
himself to feel for her again is too dangerous but she’s clearly not in her
right mind and needs him.
Can he maintain his restraint and help her?
When she hands him his uniform to strip out of, is
she handing him her heart? Or is it too tattered to ever belong to him again?
Read an excerpt:
“Are you okay?” she asked as he felt his back move
against the wall.
No. In fact, he was ashamed of the slip in control
as the thrill of that shot of her breath reminded him. He’d once thought of
nothing else besides making love to her and had been pretty damn reckless in
going after it as a twenty-one-year-old man. Didn’t matter that they’d been
best friends since they were thirteen. In fact, that was what should have
stopped him. How much time she and her family had given to improving his home
life should have been his reminder not to touch. Not to kiss.
The sudden mind game didn’t stop there.
Tight knots shot up through his gut. Damn, he was
not getting aroused, except for damn, he was. It was her eyes and her hair and
what she’d been trying to do for him. He pushed down and adjusted the growing
and inappropriate bulge so it didn’t bust the overworked zipper of his
god-awful, tight pants. As soon as he did that, she finally spoke.
“You’re still in costume.” He watched her chest rise and
fall with her deep breath, wondering what exactly it meant.
God, was she responding to him? He’d lie if he
didn’t still have the clearest picture of her smile taking over her face when
he came off the plane to meet her and her parents. She’d even told him how good
he looked in his Army uniform. Haunted by the knowledge of how badly he’d hurt
Emma trying to make love that night, he prayed for her sake that he was wrong.
And now here he was thinking what? Two years he’d lived up to that vow. There
had to be a way to crawl back into the hole he’d dug where feelings for Emma
were buried.
Then she did the most dangerous thing of all. She crawled
over to the wall where he’d escaped, reached out, and touched his shoulder.
“Didn’t have time to take it off,” he said and came
out of his squat to rest on his knees, preparing to get up and leave before he
did something stupid.
He could not hurt her again, and he was dangerously close
to breaking his vow.
This was about quitting one job and replacing it
with another, finances, and upholding secret arrangements with her parents who
he loved like his own. Not drudging up the night he’d put everything on the
line and asked her to be his, how eager she’d been to say yes, and how he’d
screwed it all up. But now he couldn’t ignore the flood of fire as Emma’s brown
eyes did their best to lie for her, same as his tried on his behalf.
“Emma, I should go. Gotta clean out my locker.”
Get some fresh air and a pair of pants that aren’t so
damn tight.
He vaguely noticed the slight shake to the ends of her
hair before she said the words that rocked his world, taking this completely
off the playing field he’d been prepared to run around.
She rubbed at the tip of her cute little nose. “I only
took this job because I knew if you left without me that night, you’d find a
way to stay away for good. For my good. Just like you’re trying to do now. I’m
calling bullshit, on all of this. I’ve wanted to be yours since the eighth
grade, Sam. You tell me how to quit that. I’m tired of lying.”
Find Your Copy Here:
A
Bit About Carlene:
Carlene Love Flores is a big fan of the stars (especially
Orion), honest music (especially Depeche Mode), and her traveling family (no
favorites there-she loves them all). These things inspire her intimate style of
romance writing. She feels honored to be a member of Washington DC
Romance Writers (WRWDC), RWA San Diego (RWASD), and the Waterworld Mermaids. Carlene currently lives in the San Diego area where she
can often be found listening to live music and looking up at the sky on clear
nights. If she could touch someone’s heart with her writing the way
others have done for her, she’d say truly there never lived a luckier girl.
Carlene would love to hear from you, find her here:
