Laurel O'Donnell's Blog, page 94
February 15, 2012
Free ebook for your Sony Reader
The Bride and the Brute is now available as a free ebook for your Sony Reader.
You can read more about this medieval romance novella here: The Bride and the Brute.
Please note that The Bride and the Brute is a novella, so it is much shorter than a full length novel. This free ebook also contains excerpts and previews of other medieval romance novels by Laurel O'Donnell.
February 13, 2012
Lost Souls Resurrection now available for the Sony Reader
Lost Souls: Resurrection is now available on the Sony ReaderStore. Introductory price of just $0.99 cents!
You can read more about this urban fantasy series here: Lost Souls
Inspirational Quote Monday! #6 of 2012
Happy Monday! Here's the Inspirational Quote for the week in honor of Valentine's Day! – "Life's greatest happiness is to be convinced we are loved." – Victor Hugo
February 9, 2012
First Kiss Friday – A Wicked Beginning by Calinda B
Today's First Kiss Friday featured guest is Calinda B, author of paranormal romance A Wicked Beginning. Welcome Calinda! Here's the first kiss between Cherie Abella Manhattan and Cameron Delaney Tyson.
After they'd finished munching their sandwiches, they sat side by side, their legs stretched out, barely touching. "Glad the sun is going behind those trees," Cam commented. "It's starting to get tolerable out here." At least temperature-wise, he thought. He was oh so conscious of Chérie's nearness, and he pretty much knew that Chérie felt the same way. Finally, he couldn't stand it any longer and reached out to touch her soft cheek, red from the sun. "So, I recall you saying you missed my kisses."
"Mm hmmm," she uttered, closing her eyes.
"I could remind you of what they taste like…how they feel," he said, resting his hand on the back of her neck and pushing his thumb up and down along the muscles and veins.
"It's a possibility…" she said, eyes still closed.
"What do you think…want me to remind you?"
She opened her eyes, now drenched with desire, and just looked at him. God, she was "torch his shorts hot"…and he didn't mean from the sun. Her hair looked like a red sunburst in the light and her amber eyes –beholding her eyes was like falling into warm water after being chilled to the bone. A wave of passion pulsed in his cock. "Is that a yes, Chér?" His voice sounded all raspy and thick. She'd better give him an answer, or he was going to climax in his jeans.
Chérie bit her lip and continued to gaze at him. Cam sucked in his breath from the intensity pouring out her eyes. Time just seemed to hang there as his cock grew harder and harder – he wondered if there was a little dude with a bicycle pump jumping up and down on the pedal and pumping air into his shaft. He swallowed hard, afraid to say anything else, lest she say no. Chérie broke the gaze and looked away. Goddamn, was this a yes or a no? His manhood was straining against his jeans and realized he was holding his breath. Exhaling, he saw Chér look back at him. And the answer is…?
A simple word left her lips. "Yes."
Oh, God, he wanted to savor this moment, to make this the best kiss he could possibly give. He leaned over, gently grasped the back of her neck, parted his lips and connected with hers. Oh, sweet Jesus, sizzle and burn, this was fucking extreme. The craving pouring through him was more intense than anything he'd ever felt. Chérie responded to him, yielding to his mouth, opening hers, extending her supple tongue into his mouth. He swirled his tongue along the soft tissue of her mouth, savoring the taste of her, the feel of her, the everything of her. Unable to stop, he eased her back on the blanket and rolled on top, allowing her to feel the erection he had for her and her alone. "God, babe, I've missed you." He looked down, their eyes locked, the heat between them hot as the sun which was slipping behind the trees. He was in an energetic whirlpool with her, and it was dragging him deeper and deeper and deeper. His lips moved back to hers, and he kissed her again, long and slow. Careful not to press down too hard on her slender body, he savored the sinuous, muscular length of her underneath him. And then he experienced something strange…she was rippling, undulating with energy like the river they just ran. Fucking incredible… She started doing that "glow lit like a light bulb" thing she'd done so many moons ago when they were still together. What had freaked him out before now had this hypnotic effect on him.
"Goddamn, Chér, what are you doing?" he said in a thick voice dripping with desire.
Her laugh drew him even closer. "I think we've awakened the ka'kriyayaga. It's been a while, but it's back."
"Oh, baby, is it back," Cam uttered.
February 6, 2012
Inspirational Quote Monday! #5 of 2012
It's Inspirational Quote Monday! Here's the quote for the week – "The most wasted of all days is one without laughter." – E. E. Cummings
February 5, 2012
Free ebook on the Diesel eBookStore website
The Bride and the Brute is now available as a free ebook on the Diesel eBookStore website.
This is a novella, so the story is much shorter than a full length novel. This free ebook also contains excerpts and sample chapters from the full length medieval romance novels written by Laurel O'Donnell, including The Angel and the Prince, A Knight of Honor and several others.
February 2, 2012
First Kiss Friday – This Heart For Hire by Elysa Hendricks
Today's First Kiss Friday featured guest is Elysa Hendricks, author of western historical romance This Heart For Hire. Welcome Elysa! Here's the first kiss between Jake Gallagher and Christina Goodwin.
"You did just fine. I'm living proof." Jake watched with pleasure as a smile lit up her face. He returned it. "Tell me how your brother came to hire me? Where we met? Maybe you can help jog my memory."
A panicked looked crossed her face and she went suddenly pale. "I-I, w-we…" Her gaze darted around refusing to settle on him. Then with an audible breath she regained control. "I'm not sure how or where Christopher met you. He never said. I was staying in, um, in Ramblin waiting for him. He brought you there and we headed out for St. Louis."
Jake listened to the girl's lies. Like before, she didn't do it well. Her nervous plucking at her skirt and the way her gaze avoided his gave her away. "If we met in Ramblin for me to guide you north to St. Louis, how did we end up in Peaceful which is southeast?"
Color crept into her cheeks as she stared at him in horror. "You remember?"
For some reason she didn't want him to remember, which made him more determined to do so. "No, but I know where Peaceful is and it isn't on the way to St. Louis from Ramblin. So how did we end up there?"
"You had some business there." Her chin came up, but her eyes didn't quite meet his. "I don't know what it was. You didn't say. But that's where Christopher died. Can we not talk about this anymore? Please." Her voice broke on the last word and she bent her head to hide the tears he saw gathering in her eyes.
As much as he needed the truth, he found himself unwilling to push her. Her tears softened the hard knot of anger inside him.
A tendril of hair fell forward across her face and he reached out to brush it away. His knuckles touched the tender skin of her cheek and lingered. She looked up with startled eyes, her lips parted in question. Her lies forgotten, his gaze locked with hers. He caressed her face then threaded his fingers through her hair. Like silk it flowed over his hands.
Cupping the back of her head in his hand, he leaned toward her. The tempo of her pulse increased beneath his fingertips. Her breathing grew shallow and her eyelids fluttered shut. At his gentle tug, she swayed into him. His other arm went around her back and pulled her into his embrace. With a soft sigh she surrendered to his caress. Without hesitation he slanted his lips across hers.
Sensations swamped him, his own hot, pounding hunger and her sweet, warm yielding. His arms tightened as he deepened the kiss. With a gentle probe he urged her lips apart. After a slight hesitation, she allowed him entrance and his tongue explored the moist recesses of her mouth.
Take it slow, gentle, Jake warned himself. One hand massaged the small of her back and molded her slim frame to his harder one. The other anchored her head so she could not escape his kiss, even though she showed no signs of wishing to. With difficulty he held his passion in check.
He filled his nostrils with her scent, the smell of warm, willing woman. Pulling his lips from hers he buried his face in her hair and struggled to control his desire.
"So sweet, so soft," he whispered. "Do you know how I want you?"
How he longed to strip her of her clothing. The urge to lay her in the fragrant grass and drown in her velvet warmth beat like a drum in his blood.
Her hands clutched his shoulders, her fingers kneading his flesh as she pressed herself against him. Her lips sought his. She whimpered when he pulled back.
"Slow and easy, Kitten."
January 30, 2012
Inspirational Quote Monday! #4 of 2012
It's Inspirational Quote Monday! Here's the quote for the week – "History shows us that the people who end up changing the world - the great political, social, scientific, technological, artistic, even sports revolutionaries - are always nuts, until they are right, and then they are geniuses." - John Eliot
January 26, 2012
First Kiss Friday – Explorations by David Russell
Today's First Kiss Friday featured guest is David Russell, author of Explorations. Welcome David! Here's the first kiss between Janice and Cedric.
Sure enough, it was Cedric! Quite impressively dressed in the black of his hair colour—cords, suede shoes, velvet jacket and fine polo. In spite of blushes on both sides, recognition did not falter.
"Well, well. Worlds are ridiculously small. How come you're here?"
Cedric fumbled a few moments for words . . . at length to come out with the routine truth… "I left a book here a few days ago. I just came to collect it. But fancy us both knowing Marcus!"
"We follow life's currents, its winds and waves…come on, sit down."
* * * *
How ideal! Everything laid on! It would havereally spoiled things if either of them had overstepped their customary manners and tried toarrange a meeting, as the telephone advisers always said, in a neutral public place.
Janice put on an album of Beethoven String Quartets and kept the volume low, but with quite a lot of bass. The music blended, unobtrusively, with their sensations. Its sombre explorations penetrated their minds, their hearts, their groins, punctured their inhibitions, free their breath. Ripples registered on both sides. Their dark outfits made a spectral blend, poised to melt into each other. The non-verbal was sustained, as they mentally undressed—first each other, then themselves, down to their bathing suits, at the water's edge, ready for the plunge.
* * * *
"Well," she giggled, "first leading question, what do you do? You give the impression of having quite an exciting occupation."
"I'm a journalist, articles about fashion and health products. And how about you?"
"The dreaded legal profession, highly stimulating at times, but it does stress me."
"You're not alone; one does need things to counteract the stresses."
She gave him a sustained gaze. "Hmm, hope I'm not being intrusive. I've been keeping an eye on you in the swimming pool for some time. You're looking really good now—got into swimming well…must admit I was a bit worried about you before. You seemed a bit head-heavy, imbalanced. But now you've accepted your body, toned it up and relaxed the tensions. It's the best exercise, you know involving all of you."
"I guess I've conquered some fears. I'm so glad to do it properly…" he grew a bit shy and hesitant. "It started… when you bumped into me and gave me those tips on how to improve that really clinched things for me, and…"
"Don't be shy," Janice patted his knee to assuage his hesitation.
"I had seen you before! At that party here . . . you did that beautiful dance; your skirt billowed."
"And?"
"Then to see you in your bathing costume."
"And when you did, you took the plunge, bless you."
"I just had to come in the water with you. And then, when I saw you at the art class, I was just dying to pose for you. I was secretly longing for the model not to turn up so that I would have my chance."
Janice unbuttoned Cedric's jacket, felt his shoulders and his chest. "You've got your body in trim and you can really carry yourself in trunks. Clothes look good on you, but your height of fashion is around your loins."
* * * *
The jacket dropped to the floor. Elation welled up in them both. Chemistry and magnetism made their chain-reaction. Slowly edging their heads towards one another, lips meeting eyebrows, eyelids, cheeks, chins, each other. Two deepdrawn breaths were held for an ecstatic clinch with tongues. Her hand rose to his crown, massaged him through that full, drawn-out embrace.
His left hand unbuttoned her jacket, feeling her shoulder pressing from waist to hip. Breeze-like, his right raised her skirt, to rest on her thigh as high as was aesthetic at that moment. Her centre took the signal, hips pressing forward. The two of them had dived and surfaced in love's stream. What a catch for her—this controllable gentleness combined with fathoms of passion—and for him, this beauty of experience that he could now match. Aquiver, they drew back.
"You're so lovely," he panted, "I want to see you undressed."
January 23, 2012
Inspirational Quote Monday! #3 for 2012
It's Inspirational Quote Monday! Here's the quote for the week – "Why compare yourself with others? No one in the entire world can do a better job of being you than you." - Unknown
Laurel O'Donnell's Blog
“What do you want from me?”
Perhaps it was ridiculous, Ryen thought. Men never seemed to have a problem with taking what, ...more
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