Wouldn't you love to pack a bag and go away somewhere quiet? A place where you could renew and refresh sounds marvelous. If you're like me, however, you can't at the moment so I'll suggest the next best thing - a virtual trip through the pages of my new contemporary romance, Heart of the Ozarks just out from Rebel Ink Press. Here are all the details and a kiss excerpt as well....for Sunday Snog!
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Heart
of the Ozarks
Contemporary
romance/drama Ebook
ISBN:
RIP 0001112
Rebel
Ink Press $5.99
Blurb:
After St. Louis TV weathercaster Cole Celinksi
loses his almost estranged wife and three children in a car crash, his boss
orders him to take a leave of absence.
Against his will, Cole leaves the city in late May to find the rest and
relaxation everyone else thinks he needs. Without anywhere else to go, Cole
heads for Lake Dreams, a resort on the quiet side of Lake Taneycomo in the
Ozarks he visited each summer as a child with his grandparents. Some of his best memories were made in the
lakeside vacation haven with his summer friend, Maggie.
Upon his arrival, Cole learns Maggie now runs
the place. Twenty years have passed but
from the minute he returns, they reconnect and soon their mutual attraction
ignites. He fishes in the lake, takes
Maggie to visit some of the places he remembers and begins to find out who he
truly is. Before he can heal, he must learn to deal with his loss and to see if
he can create a new family with Maggie and her children. It’s a task he’s not
sure he can handle but if he wants to be with Maggie, he must. A near tragedy
brings them all together into a close knit unit and afterward, Cole may be able
to make his dreams reality.
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Heart of
the Ozarks “kiss” excerpt
Cole’d almost forgotten how pleasant kissing a
woman he cared about could be until he kissed Maggie.
Her lips yielded to his unexpected
kiss, warm and silky beneath his mouth.
Something sparked between them, old and familiar but new too. The kiss kindled desire, his want surging
strong and rich through Cole’s body and with it, he felt renewed. Fiery electricity danced through his nervous
system, tingling and reviving him. When
Maggie touched him and placed her hands on his body she stirred the embers
almost faded in the ashes of his soul.
His living force within soared, catching fire with a whoosh rocketing
from his feet to his head.
Cole didn’t think, just
experienced. He inhaled the essence of
her shampoo, caught a whiff of her perfume, and tasted lingering coffee on her
lips. Her slender body shifted so she
stood so close a thin sheet of paper couldn’t pass between them and warmth
filled the space. His years, the months of tragic induced agony, the maturity
of his third decade, more than halfway to his fourth melted like candy in the
rain until Cole felt the wild, heady intoxication of youth. A carnal yearning rose in him like a wild
animal’s need to mate and yet something else tempered, a caring sense of connection. He wanted to ravish her and yet nurture her,
all at once. He ached to use her like a
whore and own her but deeper, Cole longed to become one with her, to twine not
just bodies but merge souls.
He deepened the kiss until his
tongue worked into her mouth and Maggie moved the rest of the way until her
breasts rubbed his chest. She made a
soft little mew of pleasure and he knew he could have her, take her there on
the living room couch, her body supported against the pillows she’d chosen at
Wal-Mart or JC Penney’s. He didn’t
doubt it and because he knew, he didn’t.
Cole let the kiss wind down, slow and easy. He allowed one of his hands to crawl from her
back to fondle her full breasts with a gentle caress. He almost lost control again when she arched
her back like a satisfied kitten but he eased back to normal, his breath a
little quick and grinned at her. Maggie
smiled back with an unfocused gaze. She
looked the way he felt when he came out of a movie he’d really gotten involved
with, dreamy until he walked into the sunlight and a jolt of reality.
“Oh, Cole,” she breathed, her tone
filled with appreciation and what he thought might be affection.
“I guess you liked it,” he said,
without planning. “I’m glad. I thought you might slap my face for that.”
Maggie laughed with a musical
quality so sweet it ramped up his blood pressure a few notches. “I wouldn’t,”
she told him, “But, oh, Cole.”
“What?”
She shook her head and her hair
floated around her shoulders in a cloud. “I’ve been ready for you to kiss me
again for twenty years but I don’t know if you are.”
His scarred heart skipped a
beat. Hell, he wasn’t sure either but he
wanted to be and just that alone equaled a miracle. “If you’d asked me a week ago,” he said, “I’d
have said no way. Yesterday I’d thought
maybe in a distant future.”
“What about now?”
“I don’t know,” he said, “But I want
to find out.”
She’d always been mercurial, a creature of
many moods and faces so he wasn’t surprised when she put her hands against his
chest and said, eyes smoldering, “Kiss me again and see what happens.”
Cole almost did but rational thought
stayed him. “If I do,” he told her, without any bullshit, “I won’t be able to
stop this time at just a kiss.”
Maggie’s eyes met his and hers were
filled with the naked yearning of a hungry bird and the innocent trust of a pet
bunny rabbit. “I don’t care, Cole. I
want you.”
Everything he longed for in this
moment she offered but he shook his head. “I want you, Maggie, in every way a
man can want a woman but it’s not the right time. If we do this now, it’ll end up bad. You’re vulnerable and the last thing I want
to do is hurt you, honey.”
“You won’t.”
“I might without meaning to do it,”
he said, his voice husky with emotion. “We’ve brought something to life so let’s
don’t ruin it before it has time to grow.
We’ll be together when its right, I promise.”
Tears shimmered in her eyes and he thought
she’d cry but Maggie didn’t. She nodded
and put her fingers against his cheek. “You’re being sensible, I guess, Cole. Just tell me it’ll be soon.”
“God, yes,” he said with feeling,
enough she laughed.
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