I wanted to change things up and offer you something fun that will hopefully get you looking forward to the end of Friday and a fabulous weekend! It’s chilly today in NY/NJ, but we are looking at weather in the 80’s. There are some fun things happening this weekend. Taking a walk with a girlfriend to check out the British Car Show in Ocean Grove. I love cars, especially those little MG roadsters.

Going for a run with my daughter on Sunday. She’s been doing the From Couch to 5K workout and I’ve been stepping up my game since we made a deal to run a 5K together next year. Wish us luck!

Excerpt Wars are still going strong at the Tall, Dark and Paranormal Fan Page. Please visit the page for details on how to win a $100 Gift Card or e-books.

For those not on Facebook, please leave a comment here or tweet this phrase:

Excerpt Wars Tall Dark & #Paranormal .@CaridadPineiro #99cent #Boxset http://bit.ly/1btXKrp

I’ll share my excerpt down below, but for now, today’s Fun Friday is a playlist for songs that get me going! Sometimes it’s just the catchy beat, other times the theme, but for whatever reason, these songs are on my must listen to playlist. So here goes!

Caridad’s Playlist

A-Punk by Vampire Weekend: http://youtu.be/_XC2mqcMMGQ

I Kissed a Girl by Katy Perry: http://youtu.be/tAp9BKosZXs

My Immortal by Evanescence: http://youtu.be/5anLPw0Efmo

Story of My Life by One Direction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-TE_Ys4iwM

Dare You to Move by Switchfoot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jE-Krlqi4fk

Into the Rush by Aly & A.J.: http://youtu.be/TLKiKJ8FYoA

The Path of Thorns by Sarah McLachlan: http://youtu.be/r-AL3QuZAy0?list=UU_nbZ-HuskIqkICebzYX_0w

Excerpt Wars!!

Here’s my excerpt for today’s Excerpt Wars! This is from SINS OF THE FLESH, my contribution to the box set.

“Easy, Cat. They’re just memories,” Mick said softly.

She grabbed hold of his t-shirt, her hands fisted tightly into the fabric as she keened like an animal. Only the press of her body against his was very human and very womanly.

Too much so, Mick realized, fighting his visceral reaction to her proximity.

“Why is this happening?” she murmured against his chest, rubbing her head there as if by doing so she could erase the images.

He cradled the back of her head with immense restraint and tenderness, sifting his fingers through the thick curls. “They gave you small doses of LSD in addition to a bunch of other hallucinogenic drugs. It may take a little while for all that medication to work out of your system.”

“What’s a ‘little while’,” she said and wagged her head more forcefully, as if trying to dislodge the visions.

As he glanced down, he realized she had gone all camo on him again. Her hands were the color of his dark blue polo shirt and the rest of her was beginning to blend into the rust brown of the over-sized t-shirt he had offered her to wear.

“A couple of days or even weeks. It’s hard to tell with LSD, but try to focus, Cat,” he urged, recalling the mantra she had used the day before to regain control.

She listened to his command. She repeated the word over and over and as the tightness left her body, so did the color, but not before she caught a glimpse of herself in her altered state.

She released him and raised her hands. Held them before her and examined them while her skin slowly faded back to normal.

“What am I?” she asked, puzzlement in the stormy ocean blue of her eyes when her gaze skipped to his.

He could have lied. Tempered his words with tenderness, but he had a limited quantity of that and holding her had expended most of it.

“A science experiment,” he said, released her, and returned to his spot in the chair.

Her eyes narrowed as she considered his statement. The soft curls of her hair bobbed back and forth with the motion of her head as she said, “They were supposed to help me.”

“You’re not blind anymore,” he reminded, although he wasn’t sure she would consider that a worthwhile trade-off to becoming someone’s lab rat.

He wouldn’t.

She leaned back against the headboard, raised slender elegant fingers to her temples and rubbed tiny circles there. “Toward the end, when I was sick, I couldn’t see. But it was the pain in my head . . . ”

Meeting his gaze directly, she said, “It was the pain that stole the music.” Tapping a spot above her heart with one hand, she added, “My music.”

The passion in her words was unmistakable.

He understood it. Admired it.

He couldn’t allow those sentiments to change what he had to do. “Someone killed Wells. Do you know who?”

“If I did, don’t you think I’d tell you so you’d let me go?” she shot back.

“Not if you were the one who did it,” he replied calmly, barely controlling his smile at her show of spunk. He liked feisty Cat much more than the mewling weak Cat the drugs had created.

She threaded her fingers into her hair, pulling it back off her face. Releasing the long locks to fall back onto her shoulders as she said, “Why don’t you turn me over to the police? Let them decide.”

He shrugged and intentionally kept his tone neutral. “Because I’ve been paid to return you to Edwards.”

Her skin paled for a moment before a bit of the t-shirt’s rust color leaked onto her body.

Fight or flight, he thought again.

“You’re afraid of Edwards. He hurt you?”

“Morales. Edwards,” she admitted, looking downward at the sheet covering her body. Plucking at the folds of it nervously before she asked, “Are you going to give me back to Edwards?”

“Do you think that’s what I’m going to do?” he said, perversely intrigued to hear her initial thoughts about him.

She slowly lifted her head and tilted it at a slight angle. She examined him intently, but the look wasn’t one like he generally received from most women. This one reminded him of the look from one of his elementary school teachers.

Exasperated described it best. That brought a disappointment he didn’t understand, so he arched a brow and said, “Well?”

She raised her chin a defiant inch. “I think that if you were going to do that, you would have done it already.”

Her slightly rebellious response roused his smile once again. “So what do you propose I do?”

Her chin shot up another tiny bit, but there was nothing tiny about the determination in her voice.

“Help me find out who killed Dr. Wells.”