Announcing "Strange Bedfellows" Book 2 and Excerpt!

If you're a Facebook friend of mine, you probably know that I'm releasing Book 2 in the Strange Bedfellows series soon (I am aiming for by the end of this month at the latest). I haven't spread this news far and wide, however--not until now. To say I'm excited is an understatement. This Book 2 is titled "Three's a Crowd,"and it is a prequel and sequel in one. It isn't a formulaic Book 2, so to speak, but I think it works really well.

Please mosey over to Women and Words for a
Q & A on Book 2. And trust me when I say it IS a prequel and sequel, even though the blurb may not make it seem so.

Blurb and excerpt below!

Blurb: Carol Thomas is shocked when her fiance comes home late one night with an announcement: he’s gotten back in touch with a college buddy named Ennis Evans, and she's up for a threesome. Carol shoves aside her misgivings and tentatively agrees. She considers herself a prude in many ways and wants to break through her shell. As she gets to know Ennis and experiences an immediate, undeniable attraction, Carol keeps putting off the menage a trois. She begins to wonder if she's gay and falling in love with Ennis. Then the night of the threesome arrives and changes Carol for life. But Carol still has much to learn. She finds out the hard way that Washington is a city known for intrigue and double dealings. Many things aren't what they seem on the surface, and just what is Ennis's connection with Washington's most infamous call girl, Elena Marie Elise?

Excerpt from Chapter Six of "Three's a Crowd" (warning: excerpt may not be suitable for reading at work--and is subject to final editing)

Wicked thoughts about the chess pieces surround me. My set is an old-fashioned, expensive one. The pieces are big. I wonder what it’d be like to put the king—no, the queen—inside Ennis. The queen is smooth, but the crown might hurt. So, I’ll put the queen in backward.Goodness. Stop.“Looking forward to Saturday?” Ennis asks as we finish playing.“Mmm-hmm.” This track could be dangerous, so I shift topics slightly. “Ennis? What was it like, ah…losing your virginity? Was it with the circus girl? What was her name? Have you had sex with a man?”“Full of questions, aren’t you.”“Bursting.”“Tell me about your first time,” Ennis prods. “Was it good?”“No,” I admit. And boy, it was not. “He was an idiot boyfriend of mine in college. I…well, I come from a very strict Catholic family. I basically grew up thinking sex was bad. So, I was a virgin until I was twenty. That first time was bad. Really bad.” I chuckle at the memory; at least now I can laugh about it. “He didn’t know where to insert his junk, and the sad thing is that I wasn’t sure, either. We spent too much time figuring out the exact locations of holes.”“Nothing wrong with waiting until twenty. Sex is overrated.”The irony of Ennis’s statement hits me full force, and I snort. “Sex is overrated? You’re saying this? The free spirit who has had five threesomes? Who won’t settle down with someone?”She frowns. “Hey, hey. When did I say I wouldn’t settle down?”“You didn’t. I guess I…I don’t know. It’s a gut feeling.”“Ah.” Ennis picks up the black queen and stares at it.“Hey.” I take her free hand. “I’m sorry. That was rude.”“You’re forgiven,” she mutters.“Did you want to settle down with Christine? That’s her name, right? Your most recent ex?”Ennis swallows. “Let’s not talk about this.”I nod, but unease intensifies inside me. The fact is I barely know Ennis. Don’t even know where she lives except that it’s somewhere near Union Station. She isn’t in the phone book—I looked. Reminder: Google her. Did I really think I could trust her a hundred percent? What if she’s in love with Patrick? No. No. She definitely is not.Ennis rises. “I better go. It’s getting late.”“You’re okay?”“I’m fine.” She smiles and seems more her usual self.I don’t want her to leave. “What if I can’t please you?” I blunder. “I’ve never—and what if I’m bad?”Ennis says nothing. Just searches my face.Me bumbling again: “What’s that look for?”“Oh, Carol.” She takes my hand, the non-engagement one. A wry grin. “I just…no. No.”“What? What?”She sighs, keeps my hand in hers. Her usually pale cheeks are pink. She’s cute when she blushes—and to know I am the cause of the blush—I dunno. I like her more and more.“Well.” She only halfway meets my gaze. “That was a very sweet thing to say. Really sweet. You’re sweet.”“It’s sweet that I’m worried about pleasing you? Why wouldn’t I be?”She shrugs and lets go of my hand. Walks a few steps off and examines a book on the coffee table. Some murder mystery.“Do you…” More clumsiness on my part. “I’m an amateur with women. I don’t know much about…” Shut up. Shut up.“Carol,” Ennis says gently, “don’t worry about pleasing me Saturday. Focus on pleasing Patrick.”“I’m in the threesome too. It’s going to happen.”“Looks like it.”“I’d like to get all I can out of it, and that means making sure you have fun, too.”“I appreciate that,” Ennis says. “But remember it’s just sex.”“I know. I won’t get possessive and clingy with you. I won’t fall for you. That’s what you’re worried about, isn’t it?”“Everyone will have fun,” she replies tersely—and completely off point.I need to regroup, so I wander into the kitchen and rinse dishes. According to Ennis, I am sweet. I said a very sweet thing. So why do I feel as if I’ve committed a grievous error? No wall separates the living room from the kitchen, so I continue watching Ennis as I rinse. That murder mystery book apparently fascinates her to no end. She’s thinking furiously, isn’t she—wondering what she got herself into? With this clumsy, worrywart Carol?Ennis looks up, meets my eyes. Smiles. She’s so beautiful… My heart skips a beat, and then two. Ennis places the book down and ambles over to me. Behind me.“Hey,” she says.“Hey.” Ennis is a different person now. No tension; she is all confidence.“What do you like?” she asks. “In bed? Anything you want to explore with me?”Thud. Thud. Thud. That’s my heart. Anything I’d like to explore? Sure…a lot. Everything. Ennis reaches around me for my dishtowel and dries the dish in my hands. Her breasts press into my back. We are close, very close. Like we share the same body.“Put the dish down. It’s dry,” she says.I obediently lay down the dish, and Ennis intertwines our fingers. She rests our hands on my stomach. “Where’s your ring?” she wants to know.My gaze shifts to the countertop where the engagement ring rests. “I took it off. I always do for dishes and showers. Stuff like that.”“Hmm. So. Answer me. What do you like in bed? Anything you want to try?”Her breasts still press into my back. Her lips are practically on my neck. I can’t think. I really can’t, not with her doing this to me, not with my pulse spinning out of control, not with my pussy all warm and tingly. And insistent. More insistent than it has been in a long time. Maybe ever.“Problem?” she asks playfully. Baiting me.I close my eyes. Take a deep breath.Ennis whispers, “Do you masturbate?”I open my eyes and drop my gaze to the kitchen sink. I can’t believe how my body is reacting to her touch—to her. “No,” I say—admit? Confess? “Not really.”“Not really?”A semblance of coherent thought finds me amid my hormones run amok. “I told you my parents are strict Catholics. Bad things happen to boys and girls who touch themselves.”An amused laugh. “That explains why you turned out so good.”“Ha. Ha.”“Mmm.” Ennis nuzzles my neck—as if it’s the most natural thing in the world. As if we’re already lovers, as if we are already expert on the crooks and crevices of each other’s bodies. “Masturbation’s good, you know, Carol.”CarolCarolCarol“I know,” I admit. “I’ve done it a few times. My first time was when—” I stop, embarrassed. Ennis will find me pitiful.“Tell me,” she urges.“I was twenty-one. It was my first orgasm.”“And it was good?”“Oh yes. So I kept doing it for a while. I felt guilty, of course, but why not keep doing it? Then I met Patrick and stopped when we got serious. It felt like I was cheating.”An Ennis-chuckle. “I’m sure he does it himself.”“I know he does.”“So you ought to have your own fun too.”“Yes.”More neck kisses from Ennis. Her right hand leaves mine. Sneaks into my jeans. I unbutton them. Good God. I unbutton my jeans—to give her hand more room. She kisses my neck yet again; her lips are impossibly soft, impossibly smooth. She knows what she is doing, she definitely does.Her fingers reach inside me. “You’re wet,” she groans. “Fucking wet.”I am powerless to stop her; I am under the spell of this seducer. “Am I a challenge to you?” I ask. “Another notch on your belt?”She finds my clit, and I press against her finger. I arch my back.“Yes,” she says. “But you like that, don’t you?”I do. I do. Who wouldn’t? To be under the attentions of this roughish, rakish, complicated woman?She withdraws her hand. “That’s enough for now.”“Hey!” I howl. I face her accusingly. She is licking her wet fingers.She winks. “Preview.”“That’s mean. You’re mean.”
END OF EXCERPT