Dani Collins's Blog, page 34
September 4, 2017
Make-Over Underway
If you send me an email through my contact page, it will say Message Sent, but it's lying. I'm hoping to get it fixed in the next few weeks, but I'm in the awkward stage of changing over websites so that might not happen until the new website is up.
If you're trying to contact me, please message me through Facebook or email me directly at dani@danicollins.com.
Website Makeover
I took the above photos while I was getting my make-up done for new headshots for the new website. I had never had a professional make-over (or worn false eyelashes!) before. It's so fun. I didn't want to take them off. The artist, Jenny, and photographer, Suzanne, were a fabulous pair to spend the day with. A huge thank you to both of them for the awesome, quality girl-time!
I have a lot of work ahead of me with the new site, loading my backlist into it and other fun stuff. I probably won't be blogging much and will be quiet everywhere else. I have books to write around all this other nonsense so it's the usual chaos on this side of the screen and crickets on that.
But here's a Greatest Hits list if you're looking to browse my backlist. Last year, I started Bites Of Books to celebrate the milestone of publishing thirty books. (I'm now staring down forty.)
Note: I didn't post these in the order the books were published, but you can see the release date list in order below. Enjoy!
Proof Of Their Sin
A Debt Paid In Passion
Hometown Hero
Scorch
His Blushing Bride
Bought By Her Italian Boss
The Bachelor's Baby
Taken By The Raider
His Christmas Miracle
No Longer Forbidden?
More Than A Convenient Marriage?
An Heir To Bind Them
Seduced Into The Greek's World
The Ultimate Seduction
The Sheikh's Sinful Seduction
Hustled To The Altar
The Russian's Acquisition
Blame The Mistletoe
Vows Of Revenge
The Secret In Room 823
Mastering Her Role
Playing The Master
The Marriage He Must Keep
The Consequence He Must Claim
The Secret Beneath The Veil
Cruel Summer
The Healer
Not In Her Wildest Dreams
Only In His Sweetest Dreams
In order of Release Date:
1) Hustled To The Altar, Self, Oct 14, 2012
2) No Longer Forbidden?, Harlequin Mills & Boon, Jan 1, 2013
3) The Healer FREE on KindleUnlimited (originally pub'd: Mar 3, 2013)
4) Proof Of Their Sin, Harlequin Mills & Boon, Jul 1, 2013
5) More Than A Convenient Marriage?, Harlequin Mills & Boon, Dec 1, 2013
6) Shared Whispers, Champagne Books Sep 2, 2013
7) A Debt Paid In Passion, Harlequin Mills & Boon, Feb 1, 2014
8) An Heir To Bind Them, Harlequin Mills & Boon, Jun 1, 2014
9) The Ultimate Seduction Harlequin Mills & Boon Aug 1, 2014
10) Mastering Her Role HarlequinE Aug 4, 2014
11) Playing The Master HarlequinE Aug 4, 2014
12) The Secret In Room 823 Harlequin Mills & Boon Aug 4, 2014
13) The Russian’s Acquisition, Harlequin Mills & Boon, Nov 1, 2014
14) Hometown Hero, Montana Born, Sep 29, 2014
15) Blame The Mistletoe, Montana Born, Oct 13, 2014
16) The Sheikh’s Sinful Seduction Harlequin Mills & Boon Mar 1, 2015
17) The Bachelor's Baby, Montana Born, Mar 6, 2015
18) His Blushing Bride, Montana Born, May 11, 2015
19) Seduced Into The Greek's World, Harlequin Mills & Boon, Jun 1, 2015
20) Cruel Summer, Self, July 1, 2015
21) Vows Of Revenge, Harlequin Mills & Boon, Sep 1, 2015
22) The Marriage He Must Keep Harlequin Mills & Boon Jan 1, 2016
23) The Consequence He Must Claim Harlequin Mills & Boon Feb 1, 2016
24) Taken By The Raider, Holiday Books, Feb 11, 2016
25) Scorch: Montana Firefighters, Montana Born, Jun 14, 2016
26) Bought By Her Italian Boss, Harlequin Mills & Boon, Jul 1, 2016
27) The Secret Beneath The Veil, Harlequin Mills & Boon, Sep 1, 2016
28) His Christmas Miracle, Montana Born, Oct 27, 2016
29) Not In Her Wildest Dreams, Self, Jan 15, 2017
30) Only In His Sweetest Dreams, Self, Feb 1, 2017
31) Pursued By The Desert Prince, Harlequin Mills & Boon, Mar 1, 2017
I'm looking forward to the Big Reveal of my new website later this year. If you want to be notified when the new site goes live (as well as hear about all the other cool stuff coming up) sign up for my newsletter. Bonus! You'll get a link to download Cruel Summer as a welcome gift.
Want to see a sample of my newsletter? This one has an excerpt from my upcoming October release, Bound By The Millionaire's Ring.
cheers,
Dani
August 6, 2017
It's the heat...
I'm not blogging much these days - mostly sticking in my writing cave, hiding from the heat andtrying to earn some time off here and there. Sometimes that's a dip in the lake, one weekend soon it will be a wine tour with my girlfriend.
You're probably busy with summer fun, too, so I won't feel too guilty for not being here. I'll be back with some #SampleSundays soon and other news, but until then, enjoy your summer!
July 23, 2017
Coming Soon...
I've been in my writing cave all week, just hit The End on a whopping 104,527 word manuscript for my upcoming Blue Spruce Lodge series. More details to come in my newsletter as things are ironed out. Meanwhile, here are a few other treats to look forward to...
Goodreads Giveaway
Bound By the Millionaire's Ring releases October 1st, but you can enter here for a chance to win one of three advance reader copies I'm giving away on Goodreads.
Giveaway starts on Thursday, July 27th. Open internationally.
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Goodreads Book Giveaway
Bound by the Millionaire's Ring
by Dani Collins
Giveaway ends August 04, 2017.
See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.
Enter Giveaway
Want to just buy Bound By The Millionaire's Ring and have it deliver auto-magically when it releases? Buy links are here.
Prince's Son Of Scandal
I don't have the cover for Trella's book yet, but her title is Prince's Son Of Scandal. I love this description from the back cover:
Carrying the prince's secret heir!
For one night, reclusive heiress Trella Sauveterre throws off the fear-ridden shackles of her childhood abduction—succumbing to a sizzling seduction, she falls unexpectedly pregnant! Deeply uncomfortable in the spotlight, Trella can't bear a high-profile pregnancy and keeps the identity of her baby's father hidden…
Then a tabloid photo of a scorching kiss implicates Crown Prince Xavier of Elazar in the scandal. He'll do anything to claim his shock child—even kidnapping Trella! Now Xavier must legitimize his son. And it'll be his pleasure to make Trella his royal bride!
Amazon US | CA | UK | Nook | Kobo | iBooks | GooglePlay
Want it in September? Buy from Harlequin.com!
Sneak Peek - Sauveterre Siblings
Did you know there's a sneak peek at the first chapters of all four books in the Sauveterre series here? You have to sign up for my newsletter, but you can unsubscribe anytime. Bonus! You'll also get a link to download Cruel Summer as a welcome gift.
I want the Sauveterre Sneak Peek!
I'm sure there's more I should be sharing, but whenever I finish a book, I have to completely reconfigure my brain. I take stock and clean up everything I ignored while getting those final words on the page. I'm also already thinking about the next books, trying to schedule them while starting to think about the actual stories. I barely know where to start! My husband calls this 'chore blur' and I am in the thick of it.
I'll be back when I know what I'm supposed to be saying. Until then, have a great weekend!
July 15, 2017
A Year Of Love - 99¢
A homecoming reunion, a mistletoe kiss, a Valentine’s Day bachelor auction, and a casual romance during wedding season: Love comes to Marietta, Montana, in this delightful box set of four heartwarming small-town romances!
Amazon
US | CA | UK | Aus | Nook | Kobo | iBooks | GooglePlay
Hi, friends!
I realize I've been off-grid a lot. You'll see my last post was a short vacation in Winnipeg. Since then I've genuinely had my nose to the grindstone. I received and finished some revisions for a Harlequin Presents that will come out middle of next year titled Consequence Of His Revenge. I've also been working (and working and working) on a new series for Montana Born.
More on that soon. Today I wanted to tell you that you can get the first four in my Love In Montana series for 99¢. This bundle contains exclusive content not available in the original books, so you'll want to grab it even if you already have the books.
If you haven't heard of this series, here's what you get:
For every love, there is a season...
Spend a year in Marietta, Montana with ranchers, teachers, ballplayers and even a drifter ready for roots, all discovering their soul mate at a different time of year.
Hometown Hero
Skye Wolcott didn’t have the confidence to so much as smile at Chase Goodwin in high school. Then Chase left Marietta for a career in the big leagues but now he's back to help his kid brother. It’s a second chance for both of them, but can Skye convince Chase that Homecoming is more than a game and he’s back where he belongs?
Blame The Mistletoe
When Skye and Chase host a Christmas cocktail party, Liz Flowers bumps into her former brother-in-law, Blake Canon. They haven’t seen each other for fifteen years, they’re both divorced and alone for the holidays… A kiss under the mistletoe starts a romance, but when family secrets are revealed and their children arrive home early, will they be able to keep the season bright?
The Bachelor’s Baby
Meg Canon is in town to clean out her old bedroom for big brother Blake’s growing family. She doesn’t mean to embroil his new neighbor, Linc Brady, in a Valentine’s Day Bachelor Auction—or to win him! Linc can’t forget his one night with Meg, but he’s a loner by choice. When she tells him she’s pregnant, they both wonder if they can make a home here, together, in Marietta.
His Blushing Bride
It’s wedding season in Marietta, but Piper Tierney is wrapping up the school year, feeling overlooked. Sebastian Bloom wants to reassure himself his sister Liz isn’t rushing fences, marrying a local rancher. He’s definitely not looking for a bride, but Piper is cute, funny, and wants to move on from her ex. They agree to a no strings affair, but will they wind up tying the knot?
Amazon US | CA | UK | Aus | Nook | Kobo | iBooks | GooglePlay
All of my books can be read as stand-alones, but they are linked with common characters so you might also want to check out:
Scorch, Firefighters of Montana
His Christmas Miracle
I call Scorch book number 5 1/2. It takes place in Glacier Creek, not Marietta, but Piper and Bastian from His Blushing Bride come for a visit.
Then we go back to Marietta for His Christmas Miracle. Nicki and Quincy are new to town, but Liz befriends them and soon it's like they were all born there.
I'm heading back to my writing cave. I hope you have a wonderful summer. Enjoy your visit to Marietta!
Dani
July 4, 2017
Proof Of Life
I've skipped a couple of weekend blogs due to family commitments and over-all summer busy-ness. If you've been following my newsletter, you know what I've been up to, but the latest has been a visit to my sister and her husband in Winnipeg. Here's a quick recap:
Our first morning was Canada's 150 celebration. We took part in the human flag event at Portage and Main. Watch the time-lapse video here.
The rest of the day we were in and out, checking out markets and street fairs and finally the fireworks. In between it all, we took her dog to the park for some frisbee.
FUN FACT: I'm writing Murphy into my WIP, which will be a series so I expect he'll be a recurring character.
Check him out chasing a frisbee here.
Sunday was a bucket list item for me: a spa. We accidentally stayed most of the day. It was wonderful.
Monday we caught up with some of my husband's relatives, since my son is with me and he's never been here to meet them all. We had ice cream at the Forks - can't beat that, I must say!
Today we toured the Royal Canadian Mint, where coins from over 70 countries are made. It was really interesting. And then we popped into the Picasso exhibition because, why not? I wouldn't get many opportunities for something like that and it was really interesting.
I leave tomorrow. It's been a whirlwind, yet very relaxing. Barbecue for dinner and movies in the evening, walking the dog and oh! A terrifying rainstorm for about twenty minutes. Aside from that downpour, the weather had been wonderful. Just a fabulous trip all around.
If you don't hear from me Saturday, I'm working. But check out my newsletter from July 4th. Turns out that loads of deals and sales came up to keep you in books through the summer.
I hope you've been able to have some off-grid time lately, or are looking forward to some down time very soon. I highly recommend it.
Take care,
Dani
June 10, 2017
In My Writing Cave
I've been running around a lot lately. We went to Yellowstone (view photos here), spent a weekend in Vancouver to see our daughter (below) and pick up our son (he's elusive.)
Then my sister came to town and had a bunch of family birthdays, including our son's. Yep, no photo. So elusive.
Yesterday I was out of town with my mom, visiting my aunt. Sorry, no opportunities for landscape photos, which is a shame because she lives in wine and orchard country. With all the rain, everything is so green and so, so beautiful. Cherries were coming on strong! Yum!
Actually, I did take a few photos of my aunt. She's in treatment and the 'wig lady' was fitting her. Shout out to Laurie and Karen and all the people who help those in treatment feel like themselves again. My aunt wasn't feeling one hundred percent, but we had a fun day playing make-over which felt really good.
She eventually picked out one that looked a lot like her regular hair, but also one that was a gorgeous silver. You'll just have to take my word for it that she looked fabulous!
Our daughter is coming to visit in a couple of weeks, and I've just booked to visit my sister at the end of the month, in Winnipeg. Watch all my social media for photos there. I'll be taking millions. #Canada150
All of this to say, I hope to have at least a first draft finished before I leave. If you don't see much of me online, that's why. I'm heading into the writing cave.
Fun Fact: this is actually my daughter going into this cave at VanDusen Gardens. I wasn't smart enough to get a photo of myself doing this when we were there. Next time...
Have a great weekend,
Dani
June 2, 2017
Xenakis's Convenient Bride - Available Now!
My Secret Billionaire is finally here!
Amazon: US | CA | UK | Aus | Nook | Kobo | iBooks | GooglePlay
I've been traveling (Yellowstone!) and caught up with family stuff (son home for summer, family birthdays). I'm also on a strict diet of two thousand words a day, so I actually missed posting this yesterday, which was my official launch day.
I did manage to get my newsletter off. You can read it here. It has the link to my photos from our trip and some other insider news. I hope you'll consider joining. If you do, you'll auto-magically receive a link to download Cruel Summer as a welcome gift. Join here.
And I really hope you consider getting Xenakis's Convenient Bride. I'm so thrilled with the reviews so far!
"This is one of those books you read in one sitting, it’s just impossible to put down. Dani Collins is fast becoming one of my favourite authors. Her ability to weave a story around horrible circumstances and creating something fresh and pure from it is just mind blowing. Her insight into human emotion is probably one of the reasons her books are so amazing. You can’t help loving her characters and their quirks."
~Adel, Goodreads
"This book has got to be one of the best books iv read recently, fast paced great dialogue couldn't put it down and read it in one go. Highly recommend this."
~Zeest, Mills & Boon website
"This is the best book I've read in a long time! Stavros and Callie were sooooo good together. The passion, the storyline OMG. Dani you out did yourself!!"
~Senta, Harlequin website
Xenakis's Convenient Bride is Book Two in the Secret Billionaire's trilogy. This sexy, exciting series features jaded tycoons making a wager they can go two weeks without their fortunes.
Book One is Rachael Thomas's Di Marcello's Secret Son. Antonio goes undercover as a mechanic and discovers Sadie had his baby after their brief affair four years ago.
Book Three is Jennifer Hayward's Salazar's One-Night Heir. Alejandro disguises himself as a stable groom to wreak revenge on Cecily's family and accidentally has an affair with her--one with consequences.
My hero, Stavros? He poses as a pool boy! He's sent to his childhood home in Greece where he falls in lust for Calli, a housekeeper/nanny whom he marries to take control of his grandfather's business--then discovers Calli has a secret of her own. A son. One who was stolen from her.
If you missed the #SampleSundays, you can read the first one here and here's another one.
Back to work for me. We still have some family commitments this weekend so I have to get my word count in. I'm hoping June settles down, but I've already pinky-sweared with my sister that I would come visit her in Winnipeg. How is your summer shaping up? Busy? Fun?
May 26, 2017
Bad Blogger
I'm being a bad blogger, I know. We took off to Yellowstone last week, to scratch Old Faithful off our bucket list. It turns out, when they say there's not wifi, they mean it. Like, you can't even buy it at the hotel. Zero. Zilch. So you have to make do with the view out your window for entertainment.
We managed. The glass of wine helped. If you'd like to see more photos from our trip, check out the album on Facebook.
Now I'm away again, scooping up our son from his first year of post-secondary. Next weekend we have a 40th party to attend (not ours - we're significantly past that.) Then our daughter is talking about coming to stay with us mid-June.
Forget blog posts. I'm struggling to find time to write books. That have deadlines. (Full disclosure: I hit 'send' on a manuscript yesterday. But still.)
This is just a quick Proof-Of-Life post. I'll have a proper one in a few days when Xenakis's Convenient Bride launches.
Meanwhile, I hope you're having great weather and a wonderful weekend....
May 13, 2017
#SampleSunday - Xenakis's Convenient Bride (2)
How was your week? I've been head-down writing, trying to finish a book so I can take a few days for some family commitments. Read on for your next instalment from Xenakis's Convenient Bride, available now on Mills & Boon and Harlequin.
Amazon: US | CA | UK | Aus | Nook | Kobo | iBooks | GooglePlay
Xenakis's Convenient Bride is Book Two in the Secret Billionaire's trilogy. This sexy, exciting series features jaded tycoons making a wager they can go two weeks without their fortunes and names. They go undercover and lose their hearts.
Book One is Rachael Thomas's Di Marcello's Secret Son and Book Three is Jennifer Hayward's Salazar's One-Night Heir.
Last week I posted the prologue. If you missed it, you can read it here.
SampleSunday
CHAPTER ONE
Four and a half months later…
She floated in the pool on a giant ivory-colored clamshell, the pattern on her one-piece bathing suit a stark contrast of pink and green geometry against her golden, supple limbs. Her black hair spilled away from her face, a few tendrils drifting in the water. She wore sunglasses and red toe polish.
She was fast asleep.
As Stavros took in the way her suit painted her breasts and cut high over her hips, then smoothed over her mound to dip into the fork of her thighs, he stirred with desire. A detailed fantasy played out in his mind of diving in and coming up next to her, rolling her into his arms like an ancient god stealing a nymph and having her on that wicker sofa in the shade, behind the curtain of water on the far side of the pool.
The only sound in the high-walled courtyard was the patter of the thin waterfall. It poured off the edge of the ivy-entwined trellis that formed a roof over the lounge area and bar. The raining noise muffled his exhale as he set down the box containing power tools, a sledgehammer, trowels and adhesive compounds.
He stood and drank in another eyeful.
Perhaps being cast as a pool boy wasn’t so bad after all.
Last night, he’d stood in a tiny, stuffy, not air-conditioned bachelor apartment cursing Sebastien with sincere vehemence.
His two-week challenge had started and his new “home” was a walk-up over a coffee-roasting operation. The smell was appalling. He couldn’t decide which was worse: window open or closed. He had left it open while he compared his inventory of supplies with Antonio’s photo from two weeks ago.
At least he’d had a heads-up from his friend as to what this challenge entailed. Given Antonio had been sent to Milan, Stavros had suspected he would be sent to Greece, and here he was.
Which had given Stavros a moment of pause. He didn’t care if he lost the boat, and even Sebastien’s grand gesture was one he could make himself if it came right down to it. He had stepped off that many cliffs and platforms and airplanes at twenty-thousand feet, he shouldn’t have hesitated to step off a ferry onto the island of his birth.
But he had.
Which made him feel like a coward.
He had forced himself to disembark and walk to his flat where he had discovered that, like Antonio, he had been provided a prehistoric cell phone and a stack of cash—two hundred euros. Lunch money. But where Antonio had been given a set of coveralls, Stavros had been given board shorts.
They were supposed to go two weeks without their wealth and reputation, but apparently his dignity had to be checked at the door, as well. At least his costume wasn’t one of those banana hammocks so popular on European beaches. The uniform was tacky as hell regardless, pairing yellow-and-white-striped shorts with a yellow T-shirt.
Squinting one eye at the logo, Stavros had read the Greek letters as easily as he read English, and was offended in both languages. Zante Pool Care. Sebastien had told him to book vacation time, ensure his responsibilities were covered, then had sent him to work as a pool boy.
His phone was loaded with exactly three contacts: Sebastien, Antonio and Alejandro. He had texted Antonio a photo of his supplies along with the message, Is this for real?
If it turns out anything like mine, you’re in for more surprises than that.
Antonio had discovered a son. How much more astonishing could it get?
If Stavros had a child living here, it would be a miracle. He’d left when he was twelve and had only kissed a girl at that point. Once he moved to America, high-risk behavior had become his norm. His virginity had been lost at fourteen to a senior at the private school he’d attended. She had favored black eyeliner and dark red lipstick—and young men with a keen interest in learning how to please a woman. Scrappers were her favorite and he’d been one of those, too.
A year later, he’d been making conquests of his grandfather’s secretary and the nanny looking after his youngest sister. He wasn’t proud of that, but he wasn’t as regretful as he probably should be. Sex had been one of the few things to make him happy in those days.
Sex with that woman right there would certainly take the sting out of today’s situation. The next fourteen days, in fact.
Another rush of misgiving went through him. This challenge was not a simple two weeks of pretending to be an everyman. Sebastien had left him a note.
You may remember our conversation last year, when you came to visit me as I was recovering from the avalanche. You opened that excellent bottle of fifty-year-old Scotch whiskey in my honor. I thank you again for that.
At the time you told me how losing your father had given you the strength to dig through the snow to save my life. Do you remember also telling me how much you resented your grandfather for taking you to New York and forcing you to answer to your American name? I suspect you were really saying that you didn’t feel you deserved to be his heir.
Sebastien had chided Stavros for not appreciating his family and heritage, since Sebastien hadn’t had those advantages. In his note, he continued:
I grant you your wish. For the next two weeks Steve Michaels, with all his riches and influence, does not exist. You are Stavros Xenakis and work for Zante Pool Care. Report at 6:00 a.m. tomorrow, three blocks down the road.
Antonio lasted two weeks without blowing his cover, so I have committed the first third of my five billion to the search-and-rescue foundation. Do the same, Stavros. It could save a life. And use this time to make peace with your past.
—Sebastien
Stavros had stayed up later than he should have, some of it jet lag, but mostly conjuring ways to get out of this challenge. Besides, he couldn’t sleep in that hot room, tossing and turning on the hard single bed. Old-fashioned honor had him accepting his lot and falling asleep.
Then, even earlier than he needed to rise, the sun had struck directly into his eyes. Large trucks with squeaky brakes had pulled in beneath the open window.
Disgusted, Stavros had eaten a bowl of dry cereal with the canned milk he’d been provided. He’d bought a coffee from a shop as he walked to “work.”
His boss, Ionnes, had given him a clipboard that held a map, a handful of drawings and a work order. He had dangled a set of keys and pointed at a truck full of supplies and equipment, telling him to be sure to unload it since he wouldn’t have the vehicle tomorrow.
Stavros might have booked a flight home at that point, but he had left his credit cards in New York, as instructed. He’d been completing Sebastien’s challenges since his first year of university. None had killed him yet.
Nevertheless, as he’d followed the map, he had recognized the dip and roll of the road through the hills, eighteen years of changes notwithstanding. His heart had grown heavier with each mile, his lungs tighter.
Perhaps he wasn’t defying his own death with this challenge, but the loss of his father was even more difficult to confront.
He had sat in the driveway a full five minutes, pushing back dark memories by focusing on the changes in the home they’d occupied until their lives had overturned with the flip of a boat on the sea.
The villa was well tended, but modest by his current standards. It had been his mother’s dream home when she married. She was a local girl from the fishing village on the bottom of the island. She had insisted her husband use this as his base. It had been a place where he could enjoy downtime. Quality time, with his children. She had called him a workaholic who was losing his roots, spending too much time in America, allowing the expanding interests of the family corporation to dominate his life.
The villa hadn’t been new. It had needed repairs and his father had enlisted Stavros to set fresh paving stones at the front entrance while his mother and sisters had potted the bougainvillea that now bloomed in masses of pink against the white walls.
The memories were so sharp and painful as Stavros sat there, he wanted to jam the truck in Reverse and get away from all of it.
But where would he go? Back to the blaming, shaming glint in his grandfather’s hard stare? Back to the understudy role he hated, but played because his father wasn’t there to be the star?
Cursing Sebastien afresh, Stavros glanced over his work order. He wasn’t cleaning the pool, but repairing the cracked tiles around it. Déjà vu with paving stones. The mistress of the house would direct him.
He blew out a disgusted breath. After two decades of bearing up under his grandfather’s dictates, and now facing a demand that he marry, he was at the end of his rope with being told what to do.
No one answered the doorbell so he let himself in through the gate at the side and went down the stairs into a white-walled courtyard that opened on one side to the view of the sea. His arrival didn’t stir Venus from her slumber.
Damn, but his tension wanted an outlet. He let his gaze cruise over her stellar figure once more. If she was a wife, she was the trophy kind, but she wasn’t wearing a ring.
The mistress of the place, his employer had said. He would just bet she was a mistress. How disappointing to have such a beauty reserved by his boss’s client.
In another life, Stavros wouldn’t have let that stop him from going after her.
This was another life, he recalled with a kick of his youthful recklessness.
Crouching, he scooped up a handful of water and flicked it at her.
~ * ~
Want to read the rest? You can buy now from Mills & Boon and Harlequin.
Or you can pre-order and it will auto-magically deliver on June 1st:
Amazon: US | CA | UK | Aus | Nook | Kobo | iBooks | GooglePlay
Prequel
In case you missed it, there's a prequel to this series that shows why Sebastien is so keen to make his wager with his friends. It's called The Secret Billionaire's Mistress and you can read it here.
Want to be notified with an email when one of my books is released? Follow my newsletter! You'll receive Cruel Summer as a welcome gift.
Have a great weekend,
May 6, 2017
#SampleSunday - Xenakis's Convenient Bride
I've been in my writing cave all week and just realized I owe a post! Fortunately, Xenakis's Convenient Bride arrived on Mills & Boon and Harlequin this month.
Amazon: US | CA | UK | Aus | Nook | Kobo | iBooks | GooglePlay
Xenakis's Convenient Bride is Book Two in the Secret Billionaire's trilogy. This sexy, exciting series features jaded tycoons making a wager they can go two weeks without their fortunes and names. They go undercover and lose their hearts.
Book One is Rachael Thomas's Di Marcello's Secret Son and Book Three is Jennifer Hayward's Salazar's One-Night Heir.
Here's the blurb for Xenakis's Convenient Bride:
The challenge: two weeks without your billionaire fortune!
Greek magnate Stavros Xenakis must go undercover to win a bet—and escape his grandfather's demands that he take a bride. Until encountering deliciously tempting housekeeper Calli proves that a wife is exactly what he needs!
Calli's baby being taken away robbed her of the ability to trust anyone. Now Stavros's offer to marry her gives her the chance to finally find her son. But Calli doesn't expect their honeymoon to be so sinfully sensual—and for life as the temporary Mrs. Xenakis to be so exquisitely satisfying…
SampleSunday
Here's the prologue. I'll be back next week with Chapter One.
PROLOGUE
Stavros Xenakis threw his twenty-thousand-euro chips into the pot, less satisfied than he usually was postchallenge, but it had nothing to do with his fellow players or his lackluster hand.
His longtime friend Sebastien Atkinson had arranged his usual après-adrenaline festivities. It had wound down to the four of them, as it often did. Many turned out for these extreme sports events, but only Antonio Di Marcello and Alejandro Salazar had the same deep pockets Stavros and Sebastien did. Or the stones to bet at this level simply to stretch out a mellow evening.
Stavros wasn’t the snob his grandfather was, but he didn’t consider many his equal. These men were it and he enjoyed their company for that reason. Tonight was no exception. They were still high on today’s exercise of cheating death, sipping 1946 Macallan while trading good-natured insults.
So why was he twitching with edginess?
He mentally reviewed today’s paraski that had had him carving a steep line down a ski slope to a cliff’s edge before rocketing into thin air, lifted by his chute for a thousand feet, guiding his path above a ridge, then hitting the lower slope for another run of hard turns before taking to the air again.
It had been as physically demanding as any challenge that had come before and was probably their most daredevil yet. Throughout most of it, he’d been completely in the moment—his version of meditating.
He had expected today to erase the frustration that had been dogging him, but it hadn’t. He might have set it aside for a few hours, but this niggling irritation was back to grate at him.
Sebastien eyed him across the table, no doubt trying to determine if he was bluffing.
“How’s your wife?” Stavros asked, more as a deflection, but also trying to divine how Sebastien could be happily married.
“Better company than you. Why are you so surly tonight?”
Was it obvious? He grimaced. “I haven’t won yet.” He was among friends so he admitted the rest. “And my grandfather is threatening to disinherit me if I don’t marry soon. I’d tell him to go to hell, but…”
“Your mother,” Alejandro said.
“Exactly.” They all knew his situation. He played ball with his grandfather for the sake of his mother and sisters. He couldn’t walk away from his own inheritance when it would cost them theirs.
But “settle down?” His grandfather had been trying to fit Stavros into a box from the time he was twelve. Lately it had become a push toward picket fences. Demands he produce an heir and a spare.
Stavros couldn’t buy into any of that so, yet again, he was in a power struggle with the old man. He usually got around being whipped down a particular path, but he hadn’t yet found his alternate route. It chewed and chewed at him, especially when his grandfather was holding control of the family’s pharmaceutical conglomerate hostage.
Stavros might be a hell-raiser, but his rogue personality had produced some of the biggest gains for Dýnami. He was more than ready to steer the ship. A wife and children were cargo he didn’t need, but his grandfather seemed to think it would prove he was “mature” and “responsible.”
Where his grandfather got the idea he wasn’t either of those things, Stavros couldn’t say. He upped his ante to a full hundred thousand, despite the fact his hand had not improved. He promptly lost it.
They played a little longer, then Sebastien asked, “Do you ever get the feeling we spend too much of our lives counting our money and chasing superficial thrills at the expense of something more meaningful?”
“You called it,” Antonio said to Alejandro, tossing over a handful of chips. “Four drinks and he’s philosophizing.”
Sebastien gave Stavros a look of disgust as he also pushed some chips toward Alejandro’s pile.
“I said three.” Stavros shrugged without apology. “My losing streak continues.”
“I’m serious.” Sebastien was the only self-made billionaire among them, raised by a single mother on the dole in a country where bloodlines and titles were still more valuable than a bank balance. His few extra years of age and experience gave him the right to act as mentor. He wasn’t afraid to offer his opinion and he was seldom wrong. They all listened when he spoke, but he did get flowery when he was in his cups. “At our level, it’s numbers on a page. Points on a scoreboard. What does it contribute to our lives? Money doesn’t buy happiness.”
“It buys some nice substitutes.” Antonio smirked.
Sebastien’s mouth twisted. “Like your cars?” he mused, then flicked his glance to Alejandro. “Your private island? You don’t even use that boat you’re so proud of,” he said, moving on to Stavros. “We buy expensive toys and play dangerous games, but does it enrich our lives? Feed our souls?”
“What are you suggesting?” Alejandro drawled, discarding a card and motioning for it to be replaced. “We go live with the Buddhists in the mountains? Learn the meaning of life? Renounce our worldly possessions to find inner clarity?”
Sebastien made a scoffing noise. “You three couldn’t go two weeks without your wealth and family names to support you. Your gilded existence makes you blind to reality.”
“Could you?” Stavros challenged, throwing away three cards. “Try telling us you would go back to when you were broke, before you made your fortune. Hungry isn’t happy. That’s why you’re such a rich bastard now.”
“As it happens, I’ve been thinking of donating half my fortune to charity, to start a global search-and-rescue fund. Not everyone has friends who will dig him out of an avalanche with their bare hands.” Sebastien smiled, but the rest of them didn’t.
Last year, Sebastien had nearly died during one of their challenges. Stavros still woke from nightmares of reliving those dark minutes. He’d wound up with frostbite burns on his fingers, but he’d been frantic to save Sebastien, unable to watch a man die again. A man whose life he valued. He felt sick recollecting it and took a sip of his whiskey to sear away the nausea.
“Are you serious?” Alejandro charged. “That’s, what? Five billion?”
“You can’t take it with you.” Sebastien’s shrug was nonchalant. “Monika is on board with it, but I’m still debating. I’ll tell you what.” He leaned forward, mouth curling into the wicked grin he always wore when he proposed cliff diving or some other outrageous act. “You three go two weeks without your credit cards and I’ll do it.”
“Starting when? We all have responsibilities,” Alejandro reminded.
After a considering pause, Sebastien canted his head. “Fair enough. Clear the decks at home. But be prepared for word from me—and two weeks in the real world.”
“You’re really going to wager half your fortune on a cakewalk of a challenge?” Alejandro said.
“If you’ll put up your island. Your favorite toys?” He took in all three men. “I say where and when.”
They all snorted with confidence.
“Easy,” Stavros said, already anticipating the break from his grandfather’s badgering. “Count me in.”
~ * ~
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Prequel
In case you missed it, there's a prequel to this series that shows why Sebastien is so keen to make his wager with his friends. It's called The Secret Billionaire's Mistress and you can read it here.
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