Welcome back to the
Tuesday Tease! Guess what? TOXIC Part One is back in my hands! And shockingly,
the edits are less than minor. It’s going to be ~quick~. Then all I need to do
a series of psychotic read-thru’s. That’s where I lose sleep and forego food so
I can marathon read until my eyeballs bleed. And guess what else? My husband
came through and finished the covers for both Part One and Part Two~! I
should be debuting both those in the next few days. *happy dance* It’s all
finally coming together. As soon as I kick Part One out the door I’ll attack
Part Two (it’s mostly all edited).
Okay, I have a really BIG
surprise and I’m hoping you’ll love it as much as I do. I’ve completed one of
my secret projects…ETHEREAL KNIGHTS (The Olivers). It’s ETHEREAL retold from
Logan and Gage’s perspective and it’s…well, a bit steamy. I let the boys run
wild so turn up the AC ladies, Gage is not shy. I’ll send it to my editor as
soon as I can. It’s a full-length novel and ideally I’d like to put it out back
to back with TOXIC Part Two.
BTW, my contemporary
romance is with one of my editors as we speak and hopefully I’ll do a jacket
blurb and cover reveal soon.
On to the teasers! Here’s
one Marshall tease and then an entire scene from ETHEREAL KNIGHTS from Logan’s
perspective. It’s the scene where he and Skyla visit the Falls of Virtue. It
falls right after this scene: click here.
Enjoy~!
(Skyla and Marshall discussing her biological mother )
“She is insane,” I
scream, standing in the middle of Marshall’s living room.
He jabs a finger in the direction of the fireplace and it
roars to life in one giant blaze.
“Of course she’s insane. That would be your genealogy by the
way.” Marshall points to the ceiling and the lights dim, music filters in
through the air. He holds out a hand and I absentmindedly take it.
“She just basically declared open season on my vagina,” I
say, leaning into Marshall’s chest as we begin to slow dance. “I mean one
conjugal visit and we’re as good as married?”
“It needs to be consensual.” He insists. “Of course, the
bride price still needs to be paid but these days all that amounts to is a
clerical fee at the county court house,” Marshall rambles.
ETHEREAL KNIGHTS (An Oliver Novel)
Logan’s POV
The Falls of Virtue are a testament to
the Master’s glory like nothing else I’ve ever seen—until I met Skyla.
The fog skirts by our feet at this
heightened elevation as I lead us down to the waterline where the view is best.
There they are—three falls, each
perfectly spaced across the back of the hillside. We watch as they rain down
with fury and passion into the open mouth of the lake. It’s a heated exchange, pulsating
and throbbing, something just this side of erotic. It’s so blatantly beautiful
here. It makes you feel as if you’ve accidentally landed in paradise.
“Wow.” She looks up at a rainbow just
beyond the peak and a laugh gets trapped in her throat. “It’s…”
Skyla struggles with words. Her lips
part. It takes all of my self-control not to dive down over her mouth and cover it with my own.
“You have unicorns here too?” She laughs.
“Not at this location. They prefer the
higher elevations where it snows.” I bite my lip until it feels like I might
draw blood. I’m having serious withdrawals from kissing her, and yet, I don’t
want her to think I dragged her all the way up here to maul her. But God, how I
would love to maul her.
“So that’s where the water comes from?”
“Year round.” I knock my head back trying
to ignore the fact I’m starting to get the shakes just looking at her.
She heads out toward the edge of the
lake, the water nearly lapping over her shoes. I step beside her and wrap an
arm around her waist, safely from her skin so she doesn’t feel like I’m trying to
listen in.
“This is where I want to get married
someday.” Her face ignites with color. She swallows hard as if realizing what she
just let slip. “Gage said I was going to marry him.” She averts her eyes as if
the theory were more than laughable.
Everything in me goes numb—the expression
bleeds from my face.
A thousand thoughts assault me all at
once.
“So it must be true,” I whisper.
Gage—this was his girl—his dream come to
life. He knew it and he didn’t tell me. He gave her the knife and she gutted me
without even knowing. But this is Skyla, the Celestra that stole my heart with
one bat of her lash. The minute she set foot on Paragon, she lit up my universe
with her smile. To hell with Gage and his weepy eyed dreams. I’m not letting
go. If he wants her—if he wants his unblemished “prognosticating” track record to
continue, he’ll have to go through me to get her.
“I’m not marrying Gage.” She spits it out
as if it were a fact—as if she had any say in it at all. “I thought it was
funny,”—she shakes her head—“Brielle thinks maybe he has a crush on me.”
“He does.” I can’t seem to break my deer
in the headlights gaze.
“Anyway,” she breathes, “I’m not into
him.” She pauses, waving her hand over my face to capture my attention. “I’m
into you.”
And there it is. Just the words I needed
to break the spell. A smile curves on the edge of my lips and everything in me
aches to kiss her.
“I’m into you,” I say,
pulling her in close.
Skyla with her out of the box wicked
beauty. I want to run my tongue over every inch of her, devour her in one quick
bite—swallow her down.
I sweep my lips over hers and an
involuntary groan wrenches from me. We kiss in waves of heated passion. We
drink down the wine of new love by the vat full. This is meaningful. This is right,
and for damn sure it’s meant to be. Every angel on earth and in heaven can
testify to the truth of what’s unfolding between us.
I
love kissing Logan, Skyla’s
mind reels with lust. Kissing Logan at
the Falls of Virtue is like stepping into a fairytale. Suddenly I’m transported
to a land with dragons and villains. Of course, I’m the princess, which in turn
makes Logan the perfect prince.
I pull back and dot the tip of her nose
with my lips.
“You up for a swim, princess?”
Her mouth falls open at the realization I
read her thoughts.
“I don’t have my bathing suit.” She gives
a sexy as hell smile and the bulge in my jeans rises to salute her.
“Swim in your underwear, or without. Your
choice.” Choose without. I relax my grip around her sweater, too bad she didn’t
hear my preference.
“I don’t have a towel.” It comes out
pressured and gives away the fact she’s not so hot on the idea.
“I have a few in the truck for
emergencies.” No point in letting her off so easy. I try to hide the grin
wanting to take over.
Skyla licks her lips, slow in one clean
sweep, like she’s trying to seduce me. “Does this qualify as an emergency?”
“It’s the only one I know of.” My jeans
tighten just below the hips and I turn slightly so I don’t stab her in the leg
with my newfound protrusion and send her running for the hills. “I’ll stay in
my boxers.” I hold up a hand, swearing to my declaration.
She takes a heated breath as if a preview
of what’s to come just swirled through her mind like some wild porno flick. Not
that I plan on doing anything wildly pornographic with her. In fact, I plan on
taking it slow—doing things right. This isn’t some dime a dozen girl I’ve
latched onto at one of Ellis’s VD Petri dish get-togethers. Skyla is special—a
princess, someone to build a life with.
“Sure.” She finally concedes and starts heading toward the
truck.
I whip out my cell to send a big FU to
Gage and my thumb hits “camera” instead of messages, so I go with it. I aim
high and snap of picture of Skyla’s arms in the air, her sweater knotted up by
her wrists.
I’m mesmerized as her golden hair falls
against her bare skin. Her pink bra straps set my body on fire, and I groan
pushing off my jeans. I’m already testing the resolve of my boxers. I’d better
get control, and fast.
I land my phone and jeans on the hood of the
truck, take off my T-shirt and hook it over the windshield so it doesn’t fly
away.
Skyla walks over slow and methodical,
swiveling her hips like a well-polished vixen. Her pink toenails call to me
like candy. Her tans legs rise like skyscrapers that I long to climb. I ride my
gaze up her body and trace out her yellow lace underwear, her hot pink bra with
a diamond cut jewel shining between her cleavage. If I didn’t know better, I’d think
swimming in our underwear was a well thought out plan on her part.
Her face turns ten shades of red as she
sweeps her eyes over me, she blinks down at my boxers and bounces her gaze
right back to my face.
I pull her in by the hand, pressing my
lips against her and land her stomach over mine. My body seizes with the touch
of her hot skin and a strangled sound of pleasure gets trapped in my throat.
“You think the water’s cold?” She lands
her cool hands over my chest and pushes me back a good twelve inches.
“I hope so.” For the sake of my sanity
it’d better be.
I walk her over to the “diving board”, a
granite ledge that hangs over the top of the falls, and smile over at her as we
jump in hand in hand. The lake swallows us down, engulfs us with its sharp icy
sting—fire and ice all in one. This is what it feels like being with Skyla, a
delirium of sensation, the logic of up and down, hot and cold is all erased in
her bewitching presence.
Skyla and I cement our feelings for one
another under each of the three falls by way of our lips, our arms—her legs
riding over my back. These are lust-born kisses, mysterious kisses that stretch
back and forth in time, explosive lingual exchanges that just might be illegal
in all fifty states. We set the water on fire—turn the entire lake into a
boiling cauldron as we drop beneath the surface, our mouths interlocked,
exchanging the air from our lungs like currency.
Skyla coils her legs around me. Her
fingernails dig into my back as she pushes in with great intensity. There’s no way I would ever become Gage’s
anything. Logan has me totally and completely. This is something that surpasses
the length of years, the ladder of time. We’re building something eternal. I
can feel it.
We pop to the surface and gasp for air as
laughter trembles from our lips.
Something catches her attention off in
the ebony pines and I follow her gaze.
Nevermore.
I let go of her for a minute and dive
back under. Gage won’t let her out of his sight and I finally know why.
I’m about to prove Gage and his gift of
knowing wrong. I’ll be damned if I let him get in the way our love.
Skyla and I will get our happily ever
after, with or without destiny’s approval.
***I hope you enjoyed it~!***
And I still can't thank you guys for all of your support for EPHEMERAL!
Here are the links if you need them:
