Lucy Monroe's Blog, page 8
December 11, 2014
Throwback Thursday - Silver Bella
Silver Bellaby Lucy Monroe
Cowboy Contemporary Romance Novella
Electronic Re-Release of a novella originally published in print only
in the Merry Christmas, Baby Anthology
Samhain Publishing - December 4, 2012
ISBN 978-1-61921-542-9
CHAPTER ONE
Sexless mannequin.
The words reverberated through Bella Jackson’s head as she stepped out onto the catwalk.
“A man could get frostbite touching you. You’re all smoke and no fire, babe. If the world knew what a total fraud you are, you’d never get another modeling job again. Who wants the original ice queen modeling clothes for today’s sensual woman?” Curt’s vitriol echoed around her, drowning out the announcer’s modulated voice, even though the confrontation had taken place miles away and days ago.
She couldn’t forget.
Maybe because Curt had taken his story to the press and her face and body were plastered all over the tabloids with headlines that made her cringe.
Bella Jackson, Ice Queen or Sexpot?
Model Freezes Boyfriend Out of Bed
Lexi’s Creations Cover Model Fraud
Ex-boyfriend Says This Model’s Bed Needs an Electric Blanket to Stay Warm
And the one that had given her mother heart palpitations: Ex-boyfriend Speculates Bella is Gay.
She’d done hundreds of trunk shows in her ten year modeling career, but never had she been so nervous stepping onto a stage.
Had everyone in the audience seen the stories? Were they laughing behind their hands as she modeled clothes that only a woman extremely in touch with her own sexuality would wear?
That woman was not Bella.
She didn’t have hang-ups, no matter what that jerk, Curt had said. It was just that she’d been so career minded since her teens the whole man-woman thing had pretty much passed her by. Not to mention the fact that she wasn’t interested in getting intimate with a man who couldn’t see beyond her body to the woman inside.
She’d had her bad experiences with idiots who thought her bra size was equivalent to her I.Q. and men who wanted a trophy on their arm, not a living, breathing woman in their life, so she’d pretty much stopped dating. Until Curt.
When he’d pressed for sex, she’d been unable to share her secret with him...or her body.
The truth was, she hadn’t wanted to.
His kisses and what he’d wanted to do afterward had left her as cold as he’d accused her of being.
She was a twenty-six year old virgin with a reputation for extravagant sex and a supposed list of lovers the length of the Miami yellow pages. It wasn’t her fault that the press speculated, or that men who hadn’t made it to first base had bragged about their homeruns, but neither had she denied the rumors. Lexi said her reputation was good for the line and Bella had considered it another cost of her career.
Her bad-girl reputation had done its own job keeping her insulated from the type of men she could actually want. The men attracted to the persona she presented to the world were very rarely the type of men she could be honestly attracted to.
Curt had been different, or so she’d thought.
She’d found out too late that the conservative accountant had only wanted the bad girl, not the real Bella. He’d wanted to take a walk on the wild side with her as his tour guide.
The last daywear model was returning up the catwalk when the announcer introduced Lexi’s eveningwear and Bella began her signature glide down the Plexiglas stage, her hands damp and her heart beating too fast.
Subdued lighting made it possible for her to make eye contact with the audience, but that was the last thing she wanted. Still, she couldn’t help subtly scanning the patrons seated in the ultra classy Dallas hotel, looking for signs that the tabloid stories had done their damage.
But this audience seemed just like all the others, their gazes fixed on her shocking white silk dress.
She was halfway down the catwalk when her gaze snagged on a pair of green eyes. The color of new grass, they were set in a face as hard as granite and as sexy as sin.
The look in those eyes caught her as effectively as if the man’s hands had closed over her shoulders and halted her mid-step. She did in fact stop, her body freezing with a blast of sensations totally alien to her. Sensations that belied every one of the nasty headlines.
Her pause lasted only a second, but she felt the first blush she’d had in years crawling hotly up her skin.
The man’s thin lips quirked in a knowing smile.
Obviously aware that he was the cause of her hesitation, his expression reflected a mixture of mocking humor and blatant male approval.
She’d spent years learning to ignore the masculine admiration her body elicited. For her, the perfectly proportioned curves were a tool of her trade, nothing more, but this man’s look went zinging to the very heart of her.
Frissons of awareness skittered along her nerve endings, leaving goose bumps of sensation in unlikely places.
She stopped at the end of the stage, which happened to be right in front of his table while two other models wearing eveningwear came down the catwalk to flank her.
His eyes flared with pleasure as she stood in a mannequin still pose before him and his dark blonde head tilted slightly, as if he was adjusting his angle to look at her better.
An electric current vibrated across the space between them, inexorably connecting them. Unbelievably, her nipples grew hard and her breasts felt tight while her thighs trembled with the effort it took to maintain her pose.
She’d never reacted during a show this way. Not ever.
Only years of practice and discipline made it possible for her to move through her choreographed routine with the other two models. However, no matter which direction she turned, she felt that amazing connection.
It was scary.
Relief mixed with disappointment when the announcer cued her to return up the catwalk. She walked away from the green-eyed man, supremely aware of the almost non-existent nature of the back of her gown.
It dipped to a V that ended right above her bottom, the white silk semi-transparent. She wore minimal undergarments and if he was looking closely enough, he would see the shadow of her cheeks and the outline of her legs beneath the fabric. Shards of excitement speared her inner thighs at the thought.
For the first time in her modeling career, she felt exposed, as if her body was more than a living mannequin used to show off a designer’s creations.
That the dress was in fact showing her off.
She could not help wondering what he thought of an outfit that left so little of her body’s secrets to the imagination.
***
Jake Barton watched the beautiful brunette retreat up the catwalk with the biggest, most painful hard-on he’d had in years...maybe ever.
It was such an unexpected turn-on that he wanted to howl at the moon. “Damn it, Lise, you didn’t tell me this was going to be a lingerie show.”
“Shh,” his sister hissed from her seat beside him, not turning to look at him. “Haut couture tends to be more revealing. The lingerie comes later.”
“You’re kidding.”
“No, I’m not. It’s on the program if you’d bothered to look at it.”
He looked at it now and sure enough, there was a finale of nightwear by Lexi.
He didn’t know how he was going to stand seeing the model who had been introduced as Bella in anything sexier without coming in his pants.
That little lady was a walking work of art. A perfect pocket Venus. She definitely didn’t fit the current trend of boy-thin, Amazon tall models that graced most magazine covers.
The other models in the show for Lexi’s Creations designed especially for petite women were small in stature too, but none of them had this model’s voluptuous curves or the air of sensual promise her pouting lips gave her. Despite those sensual lips, her brown eyes had reflected an unconscious vulnerability that he found every bit as enticing as her sexy body.
For the first time since his sister had talked him into attending a series of trunk shows with her while she researched the professional world of fashion for her latest book, he thought he just might enjoy himself.
The program said the sexy beauty was the official cover model for Lexi Creations, which meant she would no doubt feature in all of the shows. Considering the number of them he’d promised Lise he would attend, he would have ample opportunity to meet Bella. He smiled, the prospect affecting his mood and his libido in a very definite way.
His dick was already making emphatic statements about what it wanted to do when they met and it wasn’t to engage in polite conversation.
Click here to continue reading.
December 10, 2014
Humpday Hottie - Soldier Heroes
December 8, 2014
Hot Holiday Reads
And you know what that means? Holiday themed romances!! Oh, how I love to read them and share them with my reading friends!
Here are a few for you to enjoy snuggled beside a cozy fire or deep under the covers on a cold winter's night:
A Bravo Christmas Wedding by Christine Rimmer has two of my favorite story elements (three if you count Christmas), a princess and a cowboy. Christine writes an intense, sexy story that is sure to be a new holiday favorite for me.
Rocky Mountain Miracle by Christine Feehan - No Christmas will ever be the same after Cole and Maia meet on a snowy western ranch… Find out why in #1 New York Times bestselling author Christine Feehan’s romantic holiday e-novella! Okay, can you hear the total fangirl squee from here that one of my ultimate faves has a Christmas story out???
Some fabulous holiday romance classics are repackaged in On the Naughty List by Lori Foster, Carly Phillips, Sugar Jamison & Beth Ciotta.
I love single author anthologies. Add in a holiday romance theme and I'm going to read it. That's the case with Nancy Warren's Sugarplum Trio.
A wonderful and engaging historical by Anthea Lawson, Mistress of Melody should not be absent from your holiday reading pile!
What would a romance list be without at least one Harlequin Presents? Christmas in Da Conti's Bed by the awesome and hugely talented Sharon Kendrick is sure to please.
Ready to give a new author a try? Read either of these charming stories by a couple of my friends: Three Christmas Ghosts: A Regency Christmas Carol by Lydia M. Sheridan and Bahama Christmas by Lavada Dee.
There you have it! A month's worth of holiday reading for some and a week's worth for others, but all stories worth your time!
Hugs, happy holidays and happy reading!Lucy
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December 6, 2014
Winter Booklover Contest
December 4, 2014
Throwback Thursday - Million Dollar Christmas Proposal
MILLION DOLLAR CHRISTMAS PROPOSALHarlequin Presents - November 2013
© By Lucy Monroe
ISBN-13: 978-0373131914
Read an Excerpt
Buy: Amazon | B&N | Chapters | BAM | Harlequin
Two people need the most amazing holiday miracle of all: love.
Enzu is determined to offer his orphaned niece and nephew the family he’d craved but never known, even if he has to pay a few million for a “loving mother.”
Audrey learns of her CEO’s crazy scheme and sees it as an opportunity to provide the high end education her brilliant brother deserves. Besides, she knows you can’t buy love and those orphaned children deserve better than the women Vincenzo Tomasi is going to draw with his multi-million dollar offer.
December 3, 2014
December 1, 2014
Release Day Times Two
It's release day for myCorporate Information Systems Duoand I couldn't be more delighted!
Change the Game
In a high-stakes game of love, attraction, and desire, two people playing for all the wrong reasons are about to discover how delicious it can be when plans go deliciously awry and love is all that matters.
Like father, like daughter.
That’s what businessman Alex Trahern thinks about Isabel Harrison. If the prestigious headhunter thinks she can steal his top employee, just like her father stole his dad’s ideas, she’s dead wrong. Alex is always a man with a plan, and his plan is to get revenge on John Harrison through his daughter. But there’s no contingency plan for the impact Isabel’s sparkling green eyes and honey brown hair have on the decidedly non-business side of his brain…
If at first you don’t succeed, change the game.
After some relationship flameouts, Isabel’s decided to leave love out of it and approach her search for a husband like finding a suitable job candidate. And according to her list of requirements, Alex Trahern certainly has potential. He’s sexy. (Check.) Forceful and fascinating. (Check, check.) Also arrogant, obnoxious, and way too hot for her own good. (Erase. Start over.) Now, if only she could find out what he’s really after…
(NB: Re-edited with previously deleted scenes now included. Digital re-release of Come Up and See Me Sometime originally published in print only 2005 by Kensington Books)
Win the Game
It's another high-stakes game of love, attraction, and desire, but the players have a past and the stakes couldn't be higher. It's not just their hearts on the line, but secrets and the family neither ever thought to have with the other. Marcus Danvers is a man with a plan and that plan is to win, whatever it takes.
Surprise, surprise.
The last woman security business consultant Marcus Danvers expects to find at Kline Electronics is Veronica Richards. He’s supposed to be rooting out a corporate spy, not rehashing an old love affair—with the woman who sold out the company they both used to work for and then took off without so much as a kiss goodbye. All the clues point to Ronnie as the firm’s newest mole, which means he’ll have to spend time with the stubbornly reticent—and mouth wateringly sexy—woman he hasn’t been able to forget, and uncover every last thing she has to hide…
Fancy seeing you here.
It’s just Ronnie’s luck. The one man she’d hoped never to see again is suddenly everywhere she looks—and taking up a starring role in her daydreams, too. Remembering the passion she and Marcus once shared certainly isn’t going to help, though, not when she has so many secrets, and no explanation for the way she left him eighteen months ago—or at least not one he’ll want to hear. The problem is, when Marcus is around all her good intentions go up in smoke…
(NB: Re-edited digital re-release of Goodness Had Nothing to Do With It originally published in print only 2005 by Kensington Books)
Cover Artist: Chantilly White
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Change the Game
In a high-stakes game of love, attraction, and desire, two people playing for all the wrong reasons are about to discover how delicious it can be when plans go deliciously awry and love is all that matters.
Like father, like daughter.
That’s what businessman Alex Trahern thinks about Isabel Harrison. If the prestigious headhunter thinks she can steal his top employee, just like her father stole his dad’s ideas, she’s dead wrong. Alex is always a man with a plan, and his plan is to get revenge on John Harrison through his daughter. But there’s no contingency plan for the impact Isabel’s sparkling green eyes and honey brown hair have on the decidedly non-business side of his brain…
If at first you don’t succeed, change the game.
After some relationship flameouts, Isabel’s decided to leave love out of it and approach her search for a husband like finding a suitable job candidate. And according to her list of requirements, Alex Trahern certainly has potential. He’s sexy. (Check.) Forceful and fascinating. (Check, check.) Also arrogant, obnoxious, and way too hot for her own good. (Erase. Start over.) Now, if only she could find out what he’s really after…
(NB: Re-edited with previously deleted scenes now included. Digital re-release of Come Up and See Me Sometime originally published in print only 2005 by Kensington Books)
Win the Game
It's another high-stakes game of love, attraction, and desire, but the players have a past and the stakes couldn't be higher. It's not just their hearts on the line, but secrets and the family neither ever thought to have with the other. Marcus Danvers is a man with a plan and that plan is to win, whatever it takes.
Surprise, surprise.
The last woman security business consultant Marcus Danvers expects to find at Kline Electronics is Veronica Richards. He’s supposed to be rooting out a corporate spy, not rehashing an old love affair—with the woman who sold out the company they both used to work for and then took off without so much as a kiss goodbye. All the clues point to Ronnie as the firm’s newest mole, which means he’ll have to spend time with the stubbornly reticent—and mouth wateringly sexy—woman he hasn’t been able to forget, and uncover every last thing she has to hide…
Fancy seeing you here.
It’s just Ronnie’s luck. The one man she’d hoped never to see again is suddenly everywhere she looks—and taking up a starring role in her daydreams, too. Remembering the passion she and Marcus once shared certainly isn’t going to help, though, not when she has so many secrets, and no explanation for the way she left him eighteen months ago—or at least not one he’ll want to hear. The problem is, when Marcus is around all her good intentions go up in smoke…
(NB: Re-edited digital re-release of Goodness Had Nothing to Do With It originally published in print only 2005 by Kensington Books)
Cover Artist: Chantilly White
Visit Lucy's Website
And Follow Her On:
Google+
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November 26, 2014
November 20, 2014
Throwback Thursday - Delicious
Buy the bookDELICIOUS by Lori Foster et. al.with Moon Magnetism by Lucy Monroe
Originally published May 2005 in STAR QUALITY
Kensington Brava Mass Market - December 2013
ISBN-10: 0758295251
ISBN-13: 978-0758295255
Small town life can be quirky, magical ...
With a full moon hanging over the apple orchards of Delicious, Ohio,
romance is in the air, and three couples are about to experience the
magic of falling in love.
Down on Jonathan Avenue, the shy proprietor of the quaint bookstore can’t seem to keep her fantasies about a famous writer to herself. While at The Old Orchard Inn the tempting smell of spiced hot cider lures an out-of-town investor to investigate the magnetic attraction of his sultry but strangely old-fashioned manager. And over at Apple of My Pie a play-by-the-rules accountant wants much more than tasty treats from the pop up food truck’s on-again-off-again baker.
LUCY MONROEMoon Magnetism
Ivy Kendall dreads the full moon. For generations, women in her family have been extremely magnetic on that day—which was fine fifty years ago but not in the age of hard drives and cell phones. That’s why the hotel manager has resisted the technological improvements her boss wants her to implement. Now, the sexy, dynamic Blake Hawthorne is coming to insist on the upgrades in person. Shoot, he’ll probably fire her. Being around Blake makes her body go as haywire as a full moon, maybe even more. And as long as she’s going to be out of a job soon, there’s no reason not to use a little of that magnetism to her advantage, luring him into an elevator where the only electricity that will work is the kind they generate themselves... Read an exerpt
LORI FOSTEROnce in a Blue Moon
It’s all because of that stupid blue moon. That’s what Stan Tucker thinks as he walks through Delicious, Ohio, suddenly privy to everyone’s innermost thoughts, a gift courtesy of a rare blue moon. What most people have on their minds is boring—grocery lists, work woes, appointments. But not Jenna Rowan’s super-private thoughts. The pretty, shy bookstore owner is having decidedly hot thoughts about Stan...naked, sweaty, not-for-primetime thoughts. Stan’s lusted after Jenna for ages, but he never thought the proper lady was interested. Now that he knows, he intends to do something about it, and this time, he won’t be the only one howling at the moon...
SARAH TITLEApple of My Pie
Mona runs a pop-up bakery in Delicious, Ohio. Dan has a small accounting office in town, with a nice view of the town square — where Mona parks her mobile bakery every month or so. Dan is a hardworking guy who has built his business up from nothing, and he can’t stand the way Mona flits in and out of business whenever the mood strikes her. Still, he can’t deny her popularity, or her clever business sense. Or her figure under those Full Moon Sweets t-shirts. But Mona’s not just capricious — there’s a reason she can’t run her business full time. Will straight-laced Dan be able to handle the truth? Or is he too sweet to be true?
