Last year’s RWA conference was so much fun on so many levels. Great workshops, wonderful book signings and most of all, getting to spend time with both old friends and new ones! It was great to see so many people in and around the conference hotel as well as at the Literacy Signing. It was also so nice to spend time with some buddies on a trip to Disneyworld where we got to see the awesome fireworks. I just love fireworks. Believe it or not, this photo was taken with my smartphone. The cameras in them are getting better and better every day.
This year’s conference is in Denver and if you’re in that area, I’d love to see you. The Literacy Book Fair is open to the general public and all proceeds go to a local literacy group so it’s for a good cause. For more info, you can visit www.rwa.org.
When you write it’s good not to have a self-editor that keeps you from putting certain words or scenes on the page. It’s important to let the story flow and then step back and see how a scene works and how it fits into the story you want to tell. That stepping back sometimes shows you that a scene doesn’t belong somewhere and Snip! It ends up on the cutting room floor. That’s what happened with this very sexy scene between Connie and Jonathan in WHAT HAPPENS IN SUMMER. It was just too much too soon sadly, but don’t worry. The story has other sexy and emotional and tender bits between Connie and Jon. LOL!
WARNING: For Mature Audiences
“I missed you,†she said as she tumbled back onto the mattress and brought him down with her, all earlier trace of playfulness gone as she stared up at him, her exotic green-gold gaze serious as she swept it over his face. Her wavy hair was a dark cloud against the bleached white of the linens.
“I missed you, too,†he said and knew it was more about the separation to come in a week and not about the long hours since last night.
He bent his head and kissed her, his touch tender and caring, and she answered in kind, her lips soft and coaxing. Inviting him to join with her.
Reaching down, he slipped his hands beneath the hem of the cotton nightshirt she wore and eased it off her body. He touched every inch he revealed, savoring the womanly curves. Bending to kiss the tan lines just below her navel and then higher, along the swells of her generous breasts. Feathering his lips across her passion-tight nipples. How he’d wanted to see and taste those breasts last summer when she’d first caught his eye as he’d been surfing down on the beach.
Although Maggie had been bringing her friends to the Jersey Shore every summer since they’d met freshman year in college, he’d never really paid much attention at first. He’d had his share of the girls from his high school class fawning over him.
But when Maggie and her friends had come back the next year, he had finally, gratefully, noticed what a real woman should look like. Like Connie, all luscious curves and gorgeous breasts, he thought as he bent his head and kissed the tips once more. Caressed them into harder nubs with his fingers and sucked them deep into his mouth.
She keened his name and threaded her fingers through the longish strands of his hair. Bumped her hips against his erection and he couldn’t be patient.
Neither could she as together they undid his jeans and peeled them off. He paused only long enough to pull a condom from his wallet and she took it from his hands, opened the packet, and rolled it down his length.
A shudder worked along his spine at her caress and at the knowing smile she gave him from beneath half-lowered lids.
“You’re a hard woman, Connie Reyes,†he teased.
“And luckily you’re a hard man, Jonathan Pierce,†she teased right back and her smile promised he wouldn’t be disappointed.
He slipped between her thighs as she lay on the edge of the bed, eager for him, but he didn’t want to rush. As impatient as he might be to make love to her, he wanted her to know how much this meant to him. How this wasn’t only a summer romance for him.
He leaned over her, his gaze locked on her face. He wanted to say the words, Lord how he wanted to, but they stuck in his throat and so he let every kiss and touch tell her what he couldn’t voice. He reaffirmed his love with caress after caress of her body until she was straining beneath him, wild with need. Begging for him to be with her, not that Connie was normally the kind of woman to beg.
His Connie was proud, smart, and independent. That she pleaded with him to take her only made him that much more aware of how careful he needed to be with the gift she’d given him. Slowly he entered, possessing her inch by tempting inch until he was buried deep inside her warmth. He watched her face as he took her, their gazes locked together as they lost themselves to the pleasure they could bring each other.
Her gaze became molten, golden, as her release pulled her upward and she moved beneath him. She ran her hands all over his body, her every touch a fiery brand against his flesh. Her hot hands smooth against his harder body.
Her breasts moved with each shift of his hips, enticing him until he could no longer resist. He bent his head and tasted and sucked as he drove into her over and over, forcing desire ever higher until her release burst over him.
She grabbed hold of his shoulders, digging her fingers into his muscles as she cradled him with her knees and pushed up, deepening his possession. Her body convulsed around him, embracing him until with a rough shout, he came, shaking and sweating from the force of his release.
He dropped onto her and she held him close. Ran her hands across his shoulders as he gulped in a few rough breaths. Against his ear her heart was pounding wildly beneath her passion damp skin. Her breath was shaky until little by little, peace enveloped them both.
He’d never had such peace with anyone else before. Okay, maybe his brother Owen, who always stood up for him and had his back.
But never anyone else. Never a woman, especially one like Connie.
Order
You can purchase WHAT HAPPENS IN SUMMER at the following locations:
I’m excited to have with me today my dear friend Chris Redding who is going to chat about football and also share her new release with us!
I’ve known Chris for a long time and am excited about her latest release. There’s just something enticing about magic and faeries and gargoyles! Please take a moment to check it out!
I Love Football
I know. That’s not a huge revelation. No, I’ve never wanted to play football, but in high school, the football coach thought I had a great punting leg and said if I’d been a guy he would have recruited me for the team. I had played soccer, fullback, so yes, I could kick far for as little as I was.
No, my dream is for one game, to be the person who squirts Gatorade into the players’ mouths.
The problem?
I’m only 5 feet 2 inches.
My husband says I wouldn’t be able to reach their mouths. I’d squirt them in the belly buttons.
Can you see the conversation among the players?
“Why is that woman squirting us in the belly button with Gatorade?”
Sigh.
I see myself running around with a stool. Dropping it, stepping on it, then squirting the Gatorade.
Why not? It could work.
Okay maybe not. I do know just how tall these guys are. I went to Penn State and you did actually see the football players going to class.
And they are huge.
I guess my dream will go unrealized unless someone sees this blog post and offers me a position. Honorary Gatorade Squirter.
Coach Franklin?
Destiny of a Gargoyle
Donal Foley was born in a time when magic ruled the Earth.
Gargoyles protected fairies from goblins. His family was a group of elite gargoyles who were assigned to protect a specific fairy. His father’s dereliction of that duty cursed his sons to become stone and wait.
Now reawakened in the twenty first century where no one believes in magic how is he going to convince his fairy that she is one and that she is in danger from a goblin?
He must do that without falling in love with her.
About the Author
Chris Redding is a paranormal romance author who has written 9 novels and novellas that will transport you to other worlds. She lives in New Jersey with her family. When she isn’t writing, she walks and does yoga.
It’s always nice to do lunch with friends, but it’s even more fun when you’re celebrating something special – like the launch of a new book! Today’s throwback is to release day for WHAT HAPPENS IN SUMMER. My friends and I (and my sis who works with me!) all went out to our favorite place to celebrate.
Thanks to everyone for their support of WHAT HAPPENS IN SUMMER and the marvelous reviews you’re leaving! They really do help an author and we appreciate you taking the time to read and leave a review. If you haven’t read #2 in the At the Shore Series yet, WHAT HAPPENS IN SUMMER is available at these retailers:
Good morning! Thank you all for your support of the At the Shore series! You have really made it special for me! Today’s teaser is from Chapter 1 in WHAT HAPPENS IN SUMMER In this scene Connie and Jonatha are about to see Jonathan for the first time in many years. They are both still the same in some ways and very different in others. They are both still wondering about the “What if?” I hope you enjoy this teaser!
Excerpt
Chapter 1
Jonathan Pierce stared hard at the mirror, wondering what Connie Reyes might see tonight when she and her friends came over for the dinner his brother Owen had arranged. What Connie might think after so much time had passed.
The teen she had known seven years earlier was gone as was the man she’d run into shortly after Hurricane Sandy. That man had been replaced by one who had known his share of hardship and success. Barely perceptible laugh lines that hadn’t been there that last summer bracketed his mouth and eyes. There was a thin scar above one brow thanks to a crash while testing a new vehicle prototype on the Bonneville Salt Flats. Another jagged white line on his jaw was courtesy of shrapnel when a hydrogen fuel cell had unexpectedly exploded in their lab.
He looked away and leaned heavily on the edge of the vanity, noting the other assorted nicks and scars on his hands. They were the hands of a man who had lived life to the fullest and made himself what he wanted to be and not what others expected. He knew he’d sometimes hurt people with his choices, especially his older brother Owen, who’d had to shoulder the burden of the family business as well as their father’s ire whenever one of Jonathan’s escapades caught the attention of the media.
He’d gotten used to the interest the press had in him. After all, he was the renegade son of a wealthy family. A self-taught inventor who had sold his first small invention for millions. He was now revolutionizing the motor vehicle and battery industries with his innovative designs, unconventional methods, and fearless experiments.
He had brought idea after idea to life with detailed research and hard work. There had been failures along the way, but that had only made the successes that much more enjoyable. He had celebrated those successes with his team, his brother, and a bevy of actresses and models who were only too keen to be seen on the arm of a rebellious multi-millionaire who might soon be a billionaire if his company’s stock prices continued to climb.
Only… none of those women could hold a candle to Connie.
Connie, who he would see in just a few hours thanks to his brother. Owen had finally decided to fight for Maggie Sinclair, and he was happy that his brother was following his heart. But while Jonathan would do almost anything for Owen, he wasn’t happy about having to spend time with Connie.
Smart and beautiful Connie, he thought with a sigh and a shake of his head.
He’d managed to avoid her for the last several years. Sure, he’d seen her after Sandy and occasionally from afar when Maggie and her friends had come down to Sea Kiss. Or every now and then when he’d gone to some business event in the city.
He’d tried to tell himself he didn’t like the sleek professional woman she’d become. That she wasn’t prettier than ever. He tried not to imagine peeling off those elegant business suits to reveal the real woman beneath. But he was lying to himself.
He had never really gotten over the Connie Reyes that had emerged that summer they had shared. The woman who had learned to live for the moment and have fun. Who had been carefree and willing to explore their love. He doubted he would ever forget that women and wondered if she was still there, trapped inside her very prim and proper suits.
Maybe he’d find out tonight, he thought, and prepared himself for what might be a very difficult dinner.
***
Connie Reyes splayed her hand across the nervous butterflies in her stomach that were beating their wings so violently, she felt like throwing up. She was tempted to beg off from dinner with the Pierce boys, only Maggie needed her moral support and Connie never disappointed a friend. Especially Maggie, who was like a sister. She’d do anything for Maggie, even suffering through a meal with Jonathan Pierce.
“You feeling okay? You’re looking a little . . .†said Emma Grant, her other BFF. Emma eyed her intently, her green-eyed gaze inquisitive.
“I’m just fine,†she lied, but it was clear from Emma’s meaningful stare that her friend suspected something was up as they followed
Maggie onto the patio and to the long row of tall privet hedges that separated the two Jersey Shore mansions.
She tamed the flutters much as she did when arguing a case before a judge and trudged along behind Maggie as they eased through the hedges and approached the entrance to the Pierce mansion. They had barely reached the front porch when Owen threw open the door, a big friendly smile on his handsome face.
He welcomed them warmly, but Connie couldn’t resist mumbling to Emma, “Said the spider to the fly.†As much as she wanted things to work out with Owen, she still worried about how Maggie would be hurt if they didn’t.
Emma jabbed her in the ribs and luckily, it seemed as if Owen either hadn’t heard her comment or if he had, was choosing to ignore it. She gave him props if it was the latter, since it indicated he was truly trying to be nice for Maggie’s sake.
They quickly walked through the foyer and living room and back to the dining area. Jonathan was in the kitchen, an apron over his jeans and T-shirt. The T-shirt hugged his broad, muscled chest and laid bare the powerful muscles of his arms. His light brown hair still had the kiss of the summer sun and was tied back from his face, revealing the sharp lines of his features.
He looked older, but still so handsome.
She had thought she could handle this dinner for her friend’s sake. That she could face Jonathan and not get caught up in the emotions from years past. But it was impossible to forget the way he’d held her in his arms, a dimpled smile on his lips, his sea-blue eyes bright with humor and love. With that memory, the flutters in her stomach were replaced by an ache in the region of her heart.
Please also take a moment to explore WHAT HAPPENS IN SUMMER at these retailers:
I’m very excited to be doing a takeover on Instagram with the fabulous The International Women’s Writing Guild!
I am also very psyched to be attending my first IWWG conference in July! I’ve wanted to go for so many years and am honored I get to teach a course on writing Commercial Fiction as part of the conference. I hope to share with you all the info I’ve gleaned in nearly 20 years as a published author.
In all those years I’ve helped launch two imprints, have become a NY Times and USA Today bestseller, and have faced the challenges of a rapidly changing publishing market. If you’re attending I hope you’ll enjoy the different classes I’ve prepared for you!
Since it’s #ThrowbackThursday, how about a toss back to my very first book signing. That’s my daughter with me (who has also written a book). It was a very happy moment after many years of writing and trying to get published.
Please take a moment to check out the conference at http://www.iwwg.org/summer-conference #IWWGtakeover #womenwriters #womensvoices #womensstories #writersofinstagram #poetsofinstagram #writingconferences #writingcommunity #muhlenbergcollege #authorsofinstagram #amwriting
Today’s toss is back to October 2017 and a video of my typical life and the release of ONE SUMMER NIGHT! Don’t forget that the ONE SUMMER NIGHT ebook is now free for download at the following retailers:
Donal Foley was born in a time when magic ruled the Earth.
Chris Redding is a paranormal romance author who has written 9 novels and novellas that will transport you to other worlds. She lives in New Jersey with her family. When she isn’t writing, she walks and does yoga.
