The giveaway today may only be one little book, but it’s a special book for me. Today is the release date for Breath of Heaven, my Christmas story featuring the characters from Afterburner. It’s also the release day for Cupid Christmas, my other gay rom Christmas story, but I’ll be giving away Cupid Christmas on Christmas Eve. Breath of Heaven is the poignant story of how tragedy changes the lives of my flyboys from Afterburner. It’s also a tale of two very different families. One family is accepting while the other couldn’t be more opposite. The extended Marchetti family’s unconditional acceptance of Bas, his husband Ryder and Ryder’s brother’s family will warm your heart.  On the flip side of the coin, Ryder has to come to terms with how his father turned his back on him when he came out. The tragedy that befalls Ryder’s brother stirs unhappy memories for Ryder who must finally lay to rest the ghost of his father’s rejection.

I hope that those of you who don’t win this story will consider picking up a copy. If you ever wanted your family to just love you for who you are, you should read this story. So it’s happy release day to me and one lucky winner will reap the rewards of that! Here’s some information on Breath of Heaven.

Breath of Heaven

MLR Press

M/M erotic contemporary romance

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Blurb:

Sebastian Marchetti and his husband Ryder Beckett are flying high since their retirement from the Air Force. They’re still young, still hot for each other and enjoying life as a married couple and members of the Flying Marchettis aerobatic team. When tragedy strikes their extended family, the couple become parents overnight and the demons of Ryder’s past return with a vengeance. With the Marchettis and the entire town of Forza pitching in to help, Bas and Ryder strive to make Christmas unforgettable for a special little boy and his newborn brother while laying to rest past and present pain.

Excerpt:

Ryder pushed the shovel into the dirt with more force than necessary to loosen the sandy soil. He could have used the small backhoe that Sebastian had borrowed from his brothers-in-law who owned Todd Brothers Construction, but he needed the physical activity to help slow the spinning of his brain. He worked for the better part of three hours until his muscles burned and protested. He ignored everything except the staked out areas that needed to be dug. The rain had let up for a few hours but storm clouds gathered darkly once more. Ryder never noticed. When the sky began to pelt him with huge drops of water, he ignored it. Not until hard hands closed over his biceps did he jerk himself free of the stupor he’d been in.

“You’re soaked.”

Sebastian’s flat tones alerted Ryder to his husband’s concern. Bas very obviously held himself in check, keeping his emotions to himself in what Ryder knew was an attempt to be supportive and not add to the turmoil of the situation.

“Yeah. We should probably go inside.” Ryder turned his head toward the house, staring unseeingly at the windows that spilled golden light into the deepening gloom.

“There’s no lightning. No danger,” Sebastian said quietly, rubbing his hands down Ryder’s arms in a soothing manner.

Heaving a sigh, Ryder pushed the shovel deep into the ground in front of him and let go of the handle. The tool stood like a lone beacon in the rain soaked night, a symbol of Ryder’s confusion and pain.

“I can’t imagine what Ryan is going through,” he murmured. “If I lost you, I would be done. I don’t know how he picked up the phone and called me. After his first few words, when he practically screamed that Kat was dead, he sounded so calm, so unemotional, so…together.”

Hard arms came around him as Sebastian drew him back against his body, the rain pouring over them, drenching them through their t-shirts and jeans.

“Everyone deals with grief differently, Ryder. Your brother seems to feel the need to put his house in order, to take care of things,” Sebastian said in Ryder’s ear. “Maybe being busy and focusing on what needs to be done helps him to channel his grief into productive outlets. Maybe he’s hanging by a thread and he’s just waiting until he gets here to let go and lose it. Maybe he needs your support and your love to help him deal with his grief. After all, he called you, not your mother and father.”

Ryder closed his eyes on a stab of pain. “My father wouldn’t tolerate any show of emotion. He’s an Army man after all, a Ranger. And my mother would make up for his lack of emotion by an overabundance of it.” He shook his head. “No, Ryan wouldn’t call them first. They would only make him feel worse.”

Sebastian brushed a kiss to Ryder’s ear. “Well then, your brother called the only person he trusted to help him deal with this devastating blow. You.”

A rush of emotion swept over Ryder and his legs gave out, dropping him to the ground. Caught off balance, Sebastian was pulled with him and the two of them tumbled into the hole Ryder had dug which was fast becoming a mud pit in the downpour. Ryder twisted around, pressing his body against Sebastian’s, ignoring the mud that caked them both.

“Ryan’s loss made me realize what you went through when my plane went down,” he said hoarsely, tears forming in his eyes and trickling out to mingle with the rain on his face.

He dug his fingers into Sebastian’s hard shoulders, holding him tightly with a frantic sense of their mortality fueling his strength and urgency. Their bodies cleaved together and they rocked into each other’s hips, mud coating every inch of them as they rolled in the flower bed. Seeking Sebastian’s mouth, Ryder kissed him hard, pushing his tongue between his lover’s lips, demanding a response. He slipped his hands beneath Bas’s t-shirt, spreading slick mud over the hard muscles he loved to touch.

Muffled moans of pleasure came from Bas as he returned the caress, his fingers finding the curve of Ryder’s ass and digging into the muscle through the layers of denim and mud. Ryder ground his crotch against Bas’s, uncaring that they were out in the open lying in a growing pool of mud in the middle of a December rainstorm. He needed Bas. Needed to feel Bas around him, in him, loving him, sexing him. He needed to feel alive so that the specter of his brother’s loss would go away. So that death would go away. So that the fragility of life was held at bay by the love he felt for Bas and that Bas felt for him. Ryan’s wife might be dead but Ryder’s husband wasn’t and Ryder needed Bas as he had never needed him before. Right there in the mud of their yard.

He pulled at Bas’s clothes, popping open the buttons of his lover’s jeans. Bas murmured a weak protest and Ryder kissed it from his lips. He brushed his fingers over Bas’s cheek, streaking it with mud. Then he smiled sadly.

“I knew how hard it was for you when my plane went down and you had no right to even ask how I was or what happened,” he whispered, his gaze holding Bas’s. “I knew, but I didn’t understand. Hearing Ryan tell me that his wife had been killed gave me that understanding.  For the past few hours I’ve thought of nothing but what my life would be like if something happened to you. If tragedy can strike the golden boy Ryan Beckett then where does that leave me?”

“It leaves you with me. In my arms, safe in my love,” Sebastian said promptly, hugging Ryder tightly despite the squish of the mud between and beneath them. “No one, not even death can take that love from us, Ryder. Life holds no guarantees. You know this. You’ve been to Afghanistan. You’ve punched out of a disintegrating jet. And so have I. Either of us could have been killed by that. I could have died in Iraq, but I didn’t. We survived war zones, we survived the stupid ass policies of our government about being gay. Our love has transcended so much that I can’t imagine death would take it from us.”

More tears squeezed from Ryder’s eyes at Bas’s words and he nuzzled his husband’s throat, trying to burrow into his warmth. “Don’t leave me,” he moaned, shivering with emotion. “Don’t ever leave me, Bas.”

Tenderly, Sebastian kissed him, staring at him with solemn eyes. “I won’t. My love will always be with you, Ryder.”

With a deep, shuddering sigh, Ryder eased his grip on Bas. “Maybe we should take this into the house.”

Bas chuckled. “Why? I was enjoying the slipperiness of the mud, weren’t you?” He cocked a brow at Ryder as a wicked grin began to turn up the corners of his mouth.

Ryder slipped one hand between their bodies, snaking his fingers into the open fly of Bas’s soaked jeans. “I’m a dirty boy. I always have been.” His hand closed around hot, hard flesh. “God, you better be dirty too, Bas cause I won’t be responsible for corrupting you.”

A full-blown laugh filled with love and lust and amusement escaped Sebastian as he snaked his hands into Ryder’s jeans seeking Ryder’s hard flesh. His dark eyes held more emotion than Ryder could ever remember seeing in them, even when they first confessed their love or when they’d gotten married. In the face of tragedy, their love blossomed, he thought with savage satisfaction, his hand stroking Bas’s cock in time with Bas’s strokes of Ryder’s cock. He smiled as lust swamped his senses. Their love triumphed even when covered in a thick coat of mud.

For a chance to win a copy of Breath of Heaven, leave a comment on this post by midnight Pacific time tonight. Happy Holidays!

Day 21 – 30 Days of Christmas is a post from: Lex Valentine, Author

Now, I give you a taste of Sebastian and Ryder and Sinclair and Gianna…

Honorable Silence

MLR Press

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BLURB:

Our men and women in uniform sacrifice daily to serve our country. But what about the additional, voluntary sacrifice that each gay person in the military makes when they don their uniform? We ask these men and women to not only serve their country but serve in silence and denial, sacrificing not only their physical lives but their emotional ones too by denying them their right to love. Four talented authors weave tales that describe how living a lie pulls at the hearts and souls of good servicemen, whose only desire is to do their duty to their country…honorably.  In AFTERBURNER, two fighter pilots let their hearts soar despite regulations. THE LOSS OF INNOCENCE STORE provides a glimpse into the U.S. Army prior to the institutionalization of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. A sniper and infantryman find that love eases the pain of being forsaken in FORSAKE NOT. And STRATEGIC MANUEVERS reveals the intricate steps that can lead to love while in uniform.

Afterburner Blurb:

Sebastian “Bas” Marchetti has spent his life doing two things, hiding his sexuality and flying. Born into an aerobatic family, Bas learned to fly long before he could drive. After a stellar career in the military that encompassed a turn as a U.S.A.F. Thunderbird and a test pilot, Bas leaves the service when his father dies in order to take over operations of the Flying Marchettis. Fully out of the closet and unwilling to return to it, Bas struggles with the demons of his past military career when he meets test pilot Ryder Beckett. Together, Ryder and Bas find a love that neither is willing to give up. With Ryder living the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, they struggle to have a normal relationship. Bas loves Ryder enough to be his dirty little secret. However, that’s not enough for Ryder who loves his man so much he’ll risk court martial to be with Bas.

EXCERPT:

“So you’re my replacement.” Bas flashed a smile at the other man before crossing the room toward the door. “They were quick.”

As he spoke, a hand gripped his elbow and spun him around. Surprised, he got a glimpse of dark blue eyes sparkling with excitement before a hard mouth came down on his. A bolt of sheer lust rocked him. As Ryder’s tongue pressed for entrance, Bas opened his mouth, thrilling to the taste of the other man. Minty, smoky, and fueled with high octane arousal. Hard hands swept his back, his shoulders, and finally his buttocks. Involuntarily, Bas thrust against Ryder’s body and through the layers of their clothes he felt the erection that rivaled his own.

And then the kiss ended.

Standing with chest heaving, two full feet between them, Sebastian stared at Ryder Beckett in pure shock. An Air Force officer, a jet pilot, had kissed him. Blatantly. Sexually. Forcefully.

“I figured I should just get that out of the way before we went any further,” Ryder said, his voice deep and husky with arousal.

“What the hell do you mean?” Bas demanded, confused.

Ryder ran a hand through his already ruffled hair. Then he stared hard at Bas. “I could see you were thinking the same thing I was. You’re attracted to me. I’m attracted to you. I just thought I’d show you that your feelings were reciprocated.”

“You’re a pilot. An officer.” Bas stared at Ryder, feeling a little shocked.

“I’m gay.”

The words hung in the hot, musty air between them.  Bas felt his heartbeat increase. Air Force officers did not say the word gay. Not to someone they didn’t know and trust. And Bas didn’t know Ryder. Despite being a civilian now, he could not say the word to the man. Twenty years of holding it in, twenty years of repression, twenty years of yearning, held him back.

Anger flickered on Ryder Beckett’s face. “You’re such a die hard,” he muttered, shaking his head. “Somehow, I didn’t expect that. You’re retired, aren’t you? They don’t own you anymore.”

Bas swallowed hard and watched Ryder’s gaze flick over his throat, the color of his eyes deepening to midnight. “Technically, they don’t. But…I don’t…I can’t…” he broke off. He frankly didn’t know what to say to a man who was still in the military but who’d admitted to being gay.

Ryder nodded crisply. “I get it. I know it’s hard to admit to when you’ve lived your life in the Air Force. Everyone expects jet pilots to be macho men who fuck anything in a skirt that comes into range and then suit up and shoot ten MiGs out of the sky.”

“That’s putting it mildly,” Bas muttered, leaning back against the apartment wall as he stared at the pilot. The other man, despite being younger, had much more confidence in himself and his sexuality than Bas ever had.

“I’ve never hidden who I am, Sebastian,” Ryder admitted in a low voice. “I’ve used caution and exhibited extreme discretion to avoid the witch hunt ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ can be sometimes. Usually, people just assume I’m straight, and I let them. It frees me up to be who I am in private. I’ve never been with a woman. I don’t want to. But I’ve been with quite a few men. You’d be surprised how many of us there are in the service. And you’d be surprised at how many people actually know what your real preferences are, but would never turn you in for being a homosexual.”

After a moment of hard thinking, Bas realized Ryder probably had the right of it. Why he’d never picked up on it, he didn’t know. It had just been ingrained in him to hide his sexuality. Only in the last year had he begun to loosen up a little and not worry so much about others finding out. Only in the last year had he decided he needed something more than his hand, gay porn, and furtive encounters. And his first and only try at a relationship hadn’t been anything to write home about. When it ended badly, he knew he needed to get out of the service and get a real life. Hiding didn’t cut it any longer.

Drawing a breath, he stared into the very dark blue eyes of the man he’d just met and said, “I’m gay too. And yeah, I’m very attracted to you.”

A gorgeous smile broke out on Ryder’s face. “So what are we going to do about that?”

With a short laugh, Bas pushed off from the wall and pulled the door open. “Right now, we’re gonna agree on a price for this apartment. Then I’m going home to make lunch which you are invited to. Unless you’d rather just start moving in.”

Ryder laughed and the sound made Bas’s breath catch in his throat. “I think I’ll give it some soap and water before I bring my stuff over from the motel,” he admitted. “But lunch sounds great.”

Rock My World

Ellora’s Cave

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BLURB:

Rock star Gia Santora is at the height of her career when a frightening brush with a psychotic stalker changes her life. Three years later, she’s ready for more than a string of one-night stands on the road, but finding a date isn’t easy for a woman with a bodyguard. When she meets her sexy young opening act, he pushes all her buttons, sexually and emotionally.

Sin Carstens is rock’s hottest new guitar god with a body and a voice to match his name. He takes Gia on a wild sexual ride that has them literally rockin’ the tour bus. But Sin’s got priorities other than music and sex. He wants a relationship with the commitment-shy Gia. When the stalker gets loose and their lives are on the line, Gia pushes Sin away. But Sin’s willing to fight Gia’s fears in an effort to win himself the sexiest woman he’s ever known, and prove that he can rock her world.

EXCERPT:

Fresh from the shower, Sin threaded his way through the groupies that always seemed to fill the backstage area. He slipped away from everyone and headed for the spot he’d found Gia standing in earlier. From that vantage point, he could watch her on stage. He’d somehow sensed her standing there during his set and it had fueled his performance. He played for her, sang for her…rubbed his aching cock against the body of his Strat for her.

The damp strands of his expensively cut hair fell into place automatically as Sin ruffled them with one hand and watched Gia. Dressed in a black leather bustier and matching skintight pants, she had the rock-star look down cold. Her black hair cascaded down her back in loose waves and ringlets like the mane of a show horse. She swiveled her hips and his heart thudded against his rib cage. Sweat trickled down her breastbone and he ached to lick it from her skin. She beckoned to the crowd with long slender fingers tipped with black-lacquered nails and all he could think of was how those fingers would feel wrapped around his cock. The cock that currently strained against the placket of his worn jeans.

From the moment his manager had told him Firewire wanted him to open for them, he’d dreamed of fucking Gia. Of course, he’d dreamed of fucking Gia since he was seventeen years old. Firewire had just burst onto the music scene fronted by the twenty-five-year-old bombshell and his adolescent hormones had done nothing but constantly wonder what she looked like naked. Twelve years later, his thoughts hadn’t changed much but his opportunities had.

Sin watched her undulate in the spotlight, her red lips pursed as if she were about to suck on the microphone attached to her headset. God, how he wanted those lips sucking on his cock. The past few weeks had been torture. He’d seen her in passing numerous times but hadn’t yet had a chance to speak to her alone.

Usually flanked by James Fox and Derek Vanguard in public, Gia otherwise kept to herself. He’d discovered she had no boyfriend, husband or significant other of any kind. Her bandmates–all big men with as much muscle as the group’s bodyguards–closed ranks and protected her from the advances of strangers pretty much 24/7. He understood why. A stalker who’d held her at knifepoint three years ago had taken her straight out of the dating limelight. Her personal life had gone one-hundred-percent underground at that point. If he hadn’t been part of the tour, he wouldn’t have found out she was unattached.

He watched Firewire’s entire set, his gaze glued to Gia’s writhing body. At thirty-seven, she looked spectacular. Maybe not quite as hot as she’d been a dozen years ago, but she’d aged well. Her hips might be rounder, her body not as angular, and crow’s feet and laugh lines adorned her face now, but Sin didn’t care. She sent his temperature soaring.

The lights came down at the end of the last song, but within five seconds, a backlight came on, outlining Derek Vanguard’s drum set. A roadie poured water over him as he drank from another water bottle. A low, driving backbeat from his bass drum rumbled through the auditorium. The lights began to pulse with the beat.

Sin blinked in surprise as Gia suddenly appeared in front of him, sweaty, breathless and wide-eyed. Her roadie unzipped the leather bustier and stripped it from her, swiftly pulling a white tank top over her head. For the space of a few heartbeats, Sin saw her naked breasts, the stiff pink nipples thrusting toward him. The roadie stepped behind Gia to pull her hair into a ponytail. Gia drank down a bottle of water, her gaze locked with his.

Fire licked at his groin as he stared at her. He didn’t notice the black smears of her eyeliner or the way she couldn’t seem to catch her breath. He did notice that her eyes watched him with undisguised lust. Sin took a step closer. Anticipation rushed over him. He grasped her chin and slanted his mouth over hers, smearing her lipstick. She tasted like cherries and he twined his tongue with hers, pressing his throbbing cock to her belly. She rubbed her tongue against his, her eyes wide open, watching him cautiously.

Hands pushed him and he stepped back, breaking the kiss. Gia’s roadie hissed angrily at him but he ignored her, keeping his eyes on the woman whose taste still lingered on his mouth.

“Break a leg, baby,” he said, touching her bare shoulders in a swift caress.

For an instant they just stared at each other, then the roadie hissed again and Gia took a step backward. As she spun toward the stage she glanced back at him, one eyelid dropping in a wink. Sin’s heart stumbled, then began to beat faster. Fuckin’ A. He’d kissed Gianna Santora. And she’d winked at him. He felt seventeen again.

Sin took a few steps forward, watching intently as Gia began to sing the band’s signature song, a ballad that had every cigarette lighter in the arena lit like ten thousand candles in the night.

Lay with me

Close to my heart

Breathe my air

Let my love start

To heal your wounds

Our love unfurled

You hold me tight

And just rock my world

He held his breath, noting that at least twice she glanced toward him and both times her voice soared, the smoky, sexy tones washing over him, making him ache. He watched and listened as she segued from the ballad into their final encore of the night, a rousing, foot-stomping, fist-raising anthem of pure rock.

By the time she flung her arms around her bandmates and took a bow, the sweat-soaked white tank top had become transparent, outlining her round breasts with their tight nipples. She jogged off-stage, her face incandescent with performance high. She headed straight for him, slamming her whole body into him, crushing her breasts against his chest. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she ground her pussy against his thigh and moaned.

Electrified by her touch, Sin kissed her hard. Just as he thrust his tongue into her mouth she pulled back, her violet eyes wide, her gaze intense.

“I’m not a cheater and I don’t share,” she growled, her voice raspy from sixty minutes of singing and screaming.

Heart hammering, Sin thrust his hands into her damp hair, dislodging the ponytail holder. “Me either. I broke up with Shanna two months ago. She couldn’t handle me yelling your name every time I came,” he admitted.

His palms absorbed the shock that rippled through her. She grasped his hand.

“Let’s get out of here.”

The next few minutes passed in a haze of lust and anticipation. Gia pulled him through the throngs of people toward an exit. Vaguely he realized she’d muttered something to her roadie and to Fox as they passed. Derek smacked him on the ass and Ray-Ray hooted. Next thing Sin knew, they were sprawled in a limo, lips locked and bodies rubbing urgently together as the car sped toward their hotel. He palmed her breasts through the damp tank top.

“Oh God, I’ve dreamed of this since I was seventeen years old,” he mumbled against her mouth.

Gia froze, her lithe body pinning him to the leather seat. She stared at him with emotion-dark eyes for several seconds. Then, with a visible swallow, she thrust herself away from him, sitting up.

Sin levered himself upright, his stomach lurching. Damn his stupid mouth. He wasn’t a kid anymore but excitement at being with her made him feel and react like one. It had been years since he’d been so gauche with a woman. He looked into her stony face and his stomach fell. Shit. It would take some fancy footwork to get back to the point where they were sucking face and humping on the limo seat again. Sin figured he’d better start dancing.

Back to Back is a post from: Lex Valentine, Author

It’s Getting Hot in Here is a post from: Lex Valentine, Author

First, let me welcome you to Lex’s world of wild writing adventures! Well, maybe not too wild and adventuresome unless you count the fact I write about vampires, dragons, werewolves and other creatures.  Your last stop on this blog tour should have been #12 Kate Richards at http://katerichards.wordpress.com/ and I’m the 13th stop.  To be entered to win prizes on this tour, you need to start at 1RomanceEbooks.com and REGISTER. The grand prize is a Sony eBook reader and there are lots of other prizes as well so make sure you register, visit all the stops on the tour, and comment! The more you comment, the better your chances are to win the ereader.

Normally, I’m not much into blog tours and heavy promo. For one, I just don’t have the time. But it’s fun to do once in awhile and since I have a brand new book out, I thought this might be a good vehicle to maybe find some new readers for the Darkworld.

My newest release is Common Ground, Tales of the Darkworld Book Five.  This series has been growing in popularity and I like to think that it’s fueled by the fact that I don’t really write about shifters and vampires the same way that other authors do. My books are contemporary in nature. My characters would fit right into our world for the most part. Coming from the Darkworld just means they are a species other than human.

These characters have jobs and homes, families and responsibilities, passion and angst. The vampires walk in the sun. (Well, they prefer overcast days since they’re sensitive to direct sunlight and get sunburnt easily.) The werewolves don’t get furry with the full moon.  The Magia (the magical race) don’t use wands. (They can, but they don’t have to.) The dragons don’t lay eggs. (They have live births.) And so on.

The first four books in the series focused on the dragons. This book shifts the focus to the vampires and werewolves. In fact, it’s really the introduction to the werewolves because until now, they’ve only been mentioned in passing and I’ve not written about one of them.

This is also a turning point in the series. Up until now, the books have truly been stand alones. With this book, which is stand alone as well, the tide begins to shift toward readers needing the rest of the series to fully know and enjoy what’s happening to these characters and families. There’s a very big picture drawn by this series as a whole. The Tales of the Darkworld is a series about family, relationships, friendships, and love. Every story is a tale of courtship and love that revolves around three friends who help each couple find their happily ever after. There are no boundaries in the series as it goes from couple to couple, male/female to male/male, from BDSM to menage, from those who are alive to those who are dead…and everything in between.

The fifth book in the series is the story of one of the three friends who helps orchestrate the HEAs in the other books. Marius Granville is a broody vampire who thinks love has passed him by. Then he meets a freedom loving werewolf who is involved in a menage. Sair McCallan’s love teaches Marius that love doesn’t have to be strictly monogamous and that there is great freedom in indulging your passions – whatever they may be – with your mate.

Common Ground, Tales of the Darkworld Book Five (M/F/F/M, menage a quatre)

BUY LINK

Blurb:

Werewolf Sair McCallan escapes the confines of her brother’s pack with the help of a mated werewolf couple who believe in open sexuality and relationships. With Weylyn and Keir Randall, Sair experiences freedom in all things for the first time in her life. When she meets her mate, she’s shocked to find he’s a boring, broody vampire. Uptight Marius Granville has his staid and orderly life completely shattered by the arrival of his bloodmate, a beautiful werewolf who steals his heart and expects him to join in her kinky play with the Randalls. Marius is forced out of his hum drum existence and opens himself to new sexual experiences to please Sair. As her new mate strives to give her everything she needs, Sair battles internal demons that threaten their fragile new relationship.

Warning: This book includes sex on a washing machine, a make out session ala From Here to Eternity, sex between best friends (F/F), double penetration of a female (oh, baby!), and the best blowjob in the world (M/M) all within the confines of the hottest ménage a quatre the Darkworld has ever seen.

I hope you enjoyed this look into the Darkworld. Please leave me a comment to be entered in a drawing to win a pdf copy of Common Ground. Don’t forget to leave comments all along the tour stops to up your chances of winning a Sony ebook reader. And now, off you go to stop #14, Bryn Colvin at http://blogspot.loveyoudivineinfo.com/!

Thanks for coming by and participating in 1RomanceEbook’s anniversary blog tour. Have a great time along the tour!

An Anniversary! is a post from: Lex Valentine, Author

I am hoping that everyone loves Zander and Voth. This is an action book almost opposite in nature to Rousing Caine. In Caine, it’s all about what’s happening inside Jason and all about Caine’s emotions. In Smoke, it’s all about the action. My heroes are on a mission and there are those who try to stop them. There’s an out and out battle with cobra shifters where the heroes are greatly outnumbered. In this book, it’s the action that lends poignancy to the emotional moments.

If you would like to win a copy of Where There’s Smoke and other books in the Phoenix trilogy, (Deeper Than the Ocean by Dee Carney and Playing Wolf by Mina Carter) head on over to Liquid Silver’s SEx Blog and comment on my post about my first release with this publisher. You have until about 7 am Monday morning to do this.

Here’s the info on Where There’s Smoke. I hope you enjoy it!

Where There’s Smoke, Book Three of the Phoenix Prophecy

Molten Silver Title

Buy Link

Blurb:

A murderous father. A son with a price on his head. Zander’s year-long affair with a mysterious woman ends when she tells him that her abusive mate is the father he’s never known. The woman, a prophesy-dreaming immortal known as the Phoenix, explains that Zander has three brothers and that his father killed their mothers. Now, the Phoenix has dreamt of her mate’s death and Zander’s destiny. Voth is the Phoenix’s successor and Zander’s true mate. The two set out to find Zander’s brothers while eluding the assassins sent after them by Zander’s father. Passion burns hot between them, sealing their fate, as their journey leads them to fulfill the Phoenix’s prophecy

Excerpt:

Zander followed Nix to the fire pit where the flames rose a bit higher than they should have for an ordinary fire. They swelled when Nix came closer, and he realized they were responding to the presence of the Phoenix. A draft of cold air brushed his face, and he looked up, his eyes tracking the movements of the pale brown bird with the long tail as it circled the campsite.

“Why are we here, Nix?” he asked quietly.

Seating herself on a smooth boulder, she looked at him across the width of the fire pit. “Because it’s time for you to know the truth and meet your destiny. Your path no longer lies with mine,” she said simply.

Anger poured through him in a rush and heated his cheekbones. Silently, he cursed his pale skin and hair. “I hate it when you go all phoenix on me. What truth and what destiny?” He stomped closer to the fire pit, and the flames leapt higher. The bird circling above swooped lower.

“My mate is your father, the demi-god Ancelin.”

Nix’s words hit him like bullets, and he recoiled, taking several steps back from her. Cold air swirled around him and the brown bird dove toward the fire pit, the long tail brushing his cheek. As the bird entered the flames, a small explosion occurred, and the flames swelled higher, out of control for a split second. Then they calmed, burning with an eerie glow Zander had never seen before.

“So you’re my step-mother.” Zander’s jaw clenched.

At first, he wasn’t sure what to make of Nix’s confession. He’d always known his father was an asshole. What decent man seduced a presumably innocent girl then abandoned her once she was pregnant with his child? It didn’t matter that Zander’s mother had used her more-than-considerable shape-shifting powers as well as her magic to deceive his father into thinking her innocent. To Zander’s knowledge, his mother had never had a chance to show his father her true face. The man had simply appeared every night for a week, got his rocks off, and then bailed.

Nix grimaced. “I dislike that term. It implies I’ve treated you in a motherly fashion as befits the wife of your father. My position with regard to your father is tenuous at best. When I mated Ancelin, I thought he would be faithful to me and treat our bonding as sacred. I thought he respected and cared for me a little. I suppose I was naïve, because I was wrong on all counts.” She shrugged, her slender shoulders rising and falling gracefully. “It doesn’t matter now. Ancelin’s fate has been decreed. The Phoenix has spoken to him in his dreams. He lives on borrowed time.”

Zander pondered her words. He had spent the past year since his mother’s death searching for his father. Almost the entire time he’d been searching, the answers had lain in his arms. He’d been fucking Nix for a year, and she’d never told him the truth. Fury lashed him, but he tamped it down. After all these months, he knew a little something about Nix. She had reasons for her silence. Apparently, the time had come to find out those reasons.

“So my father mated you and then cheated on you. Now, he’s dreamed of the Phoenix and knows his death is coming, is that correct?” he asked, drawing the words out slowly and thoughtfully.

“Yes, but there is more,” Nix replied.

The cool tone of her voice told Zander she held her emotions on a very tight rein. She sat as if relaxed, but her pose didn’t fool him. A maelstrom of emotions rode her hard. He walked around the fire pit and sat on a rock near her, looking into her turquoise eyes.

“Tell me,” he whispered, his mind racing. So far, her revelations had been only a little shocking. Whatever else she told him couldn’t be nearly so surprising.

A flicker of anguish registered on her face momentarily. If Zander hadn’t been watching her closely, hadn’t known her so well, he wouldn’t have noticed that spasm of emotion at all. “Your mother was not the only girl Ancelin seduced after he mated me.”

Nix hung her head in a shamed manner, almost as if her mate’s acts of infidelity had somehow been her fault. Zander’s eyes narrowed. Why the hell would she feel responsible for what that bastard had done? Had she rejected him, leaving him to seek pleasure with another?

Her head shot up, her eyes flashing fire. “Of course not!” she exclaimed. “In the beginning, I loved him. Until he betrayed me with your mother. Even then I forgave him and welcomed him to my bed. But he didn’t want me. He spurned me yet again and left to seduce another. When his seed took root, he left her and took another lover. He stayed away until he had impregnated her as well. Only then did he return to me, bragging of the fertility of these women.”

Nix’s long, slender fingers stroked her flat abdomen. “The Phoenix sometimes cannot procreate. There is always another waiting in the wings should this be so. I have no children, therefore, my successor has been chosen,” she murmured almost to herself.

The flames in the fire pit swelled once more, and Zander frowned at them wondering if Nix controlled them. He knew she had the ability. Every phoenix controlled fire. It was as if they were fire.

“So you’re telling me I have siblings. Brothers? Sisters?”

“Brothers,” she whispered, her eyes closing for a split second.

His mind tried to sort out her confessions. Three women, three sons. One prophecy. Leapfrogging from one set of ideas to another, a sickening truth occurred to him, and his eyes widened.

“Fuck me,” he breathed. “Did my father kill my mother?”

Nix bit her lip, then she nodded. “The prophecy said that three hands reached for his throat. He took that to mean that each of the women who bore him sons would try to kill him. So he killed them first.”

A fury greater than any he had ever experienced began to grow inside him. “You knew I’d been searching for my mother’s killer, yet you kept this to yourself.” The flat tone of his words conveyed absolutely no emotion. He knew it would tell Nix just how angry he really was. “Why would he kill the women? Why wouldn’t he think it was his sons after him?”

With a sigh, Nix stood and paced around the fire pit. “Your father easily believes women will betray him. In your mother’s case, she truly did, although not out of maliciousness. When he discovered the truth of who she was, her days were numbered despite the prophecy, Zander. Your father does not take betrayal well.”

Irony rode her expression as she paused in her pacing. “He must always control everything and everyone around him. Betraying him in any way is a death sentence.” She shook her head a little, her long ponytail swaying. “He has no trust in women so his first thought after the prophecy came to him was that I arranged for it because of his infidelity. His second thought was that I would use the three women who bore him sons as the instrument of his death.”

“He doesn’t have much imagination, does he?” Zander muttered sourly. The whole story left a bitter taste in his mouth. He knew what his mother had done in order to have him and had wondered if her deception had brought about her death.

A soft bark of laughter escaped Nix. The rusty sound told him that her amusement wasn’t the pleasant kind.

“Once he killed the three women, the prophecy came to him again. It was then that he began to seek out his sons. Even if he knew the truth, you and your brothers would not be safe.” She waved her hand toward him, and his skin burned with power where her mark lay. “The truth is that your father has four sons not three. One woman bore twins. You have three brothers, Zander. Already there is a connection between you in part because of Ancelin’s blood and in part because you all bear the mark of the Phoenix. I am not sure if your brothers feel this connection, but I know that you do. You have dreamt of them.”

Zander sucked in a breath. Over the past six months he’d had dreams of a merman and two werewolves. Men who also bore the mark of the Phoenix on their bodies, but in different places. The werewolves were marked on the opposite sides of their chests. The merman was marked on a bicep. His own mark was more personal, caressing the skin at the side of his throat. His gaze caught and held Nix’s.

“You marked us.”

She nodded. “The night your father had the Phoenix prophecy. The marks help protect you from him.”

“He wants to kill us.”

Again, she nodded. “I marked each of you more than a year ago. Your brother Danyl’s mark did not physically appear until I met him and touched the spot where I knew the mark lay. Your brothers, Jayce and Ryder, had their marks appear when Ancelin tried to kill them.”

Zander narrowed his eyes thoughtfully. “Mine appeared the first time I made love to you. I thought you did it,” he murmured.

Nix smiled. “I did. But not then.” She sat on the rock beside him. “After Ancelin killed the three women who’d borne him sons, the prophecy again came to him as he slept. Once more, it told him of three hands reaching for his throat, that his death drew near. So he knew he had not stopped anything by killing those women. That is when he decided to kill his sons.”

“Why are you telling me now? Why didn’t you tell me when I met you for the first time?” Zander’s head ached from the info dump. He’d fantasized of taking Nix from her abusive mate and keeping her for his own. Now, he knew it would never happen. Best a demi-god and take the man’s mate? No way. Zander had a lot of gall, but tempered it with the wisdom to know when he faced a losing battle.

“It will never happen, not because you cannot best your father, but because I am not destined to be yours, Zander,” Nix said with quiet emphasis. “Your mate is another.”

Zander’s breath hissed in sharply. Her tone conveyed a gravity that spoke to him of prophecy. Yet, the Phoenix had never come to his dreams.

She smiled at him, the corners of her bowed mouth curved upward with a spark of amusement. “I came to you in person, Zander, because a prophecy came to my dreams. The Phoenix is your destiny, your mate, but I am not.”

He hadn’t thought she could surprise him any more than she already had, but her words stunned him. Shaking his head as if to clear it, Zander deliberately caught her gaze with his and held it.

“How can that be, Nix? You are the Phoenix.” He kept his voice pitched low, hoping it didn’t give away the turmoil within him.

“But Zander, did I not say that the Phoenix has come to my dreams? It has foreseen my death. The one who takes my place is your mate.”

The soft cadence of her voice washed over him, and he shuddered. The finality, the surety in her words rocked his world. Nix was going to die. The reality of it made his chest ache. His lungs burned with every breath he took. His father would bring about her death. Every cell in his body knew it, and his hatred for the man who gave him life flared anew.

“I cannot deny your reasoning, Zander. Ancelin does figure into my end.” Her smile gentled as she shifted on the rock, leaning forward slightly as she spoke. “We are all part of a larger destiny, you know. Every life is entwined with another, affects others. Each act of destiny affects many. The universe is much more than the sea and shore before you. Beneath the waves lie things you have never seen, and beyond the stars lie things you cannot comprehend. Each thing is a piece of the puzzle that knits together the fabric of this universe and beyond. What your eyes see is a miniscule part. What your heart feels is a much larger, grander portion. What your soul knows is infinite.”

Zander clamped down on the urge to tell her being cryptic and going phoenix on him wouldn’t stop him from trying to prevent her death. Instead, he focused on the words that had the potential to fuck with his carefully balanced existence.

“Since you know who my mate is, why don’t you clue me in?” He tried to keep his words from sounding edgy with the sense of betrayal that had crept into his emotions.

The fire glowed brighter, and the flames rose impossibly high. Zander suddenly wondered why the nondescript brown bird he’d seen earlier had done a kamikaze into the fire. Realization sparked inside him, and his eyes went from Nix to the strange glow in the fire. The outline of the bird appeared and morphed into the shape of a person. A man stepped from the flames.

Phoenix Contest! is a post from: Lex Valentine, Author

Sunday’s Child – The Wise Guy releases on Sunday the 22nd at Noble Romance Publishing. It is the last book in their Child of the Week series. However, the book is also my first story about the magical community of the Darkworld. I’m still working on the Darkworld’s creatures page, but I should have some info up there on The Magia before I head to bed tonight. The Magia are the people with magical abilities in the Darkworld. Powers can be inherited, but only if you were born a Magia to begin with. So basically, you had to already be a witch or warlock.

Here’s the blurb for The Wise Guy:

Randall Wise is the quintessential good guy. However, all of his friends are married and he’s still single. Rand is positive that good guys finish last at love and decides he needs to change if he’s ever going to find a woman of his own.

Brenna Thorne is a klutzy but cute would-be witch who moves in next door to Rand. Men always think of Brenna like a sister. They never see her as girlfriend or mate material. Brenna longs for a man of her own who sees her sexy side and all the love she has to give.

A little magic from Rand’s godparents, a familiar who isn’t a familiar, and a host of well-meaning but surprising friends help Rand and Brenna see that all you need to find your mate is a heart that is open to love.

On my download page you will find Wise Guy wallpapers and a screensaver. If you would like a chance to win a copy of the book, I’m going to give you three chances! First, you can head over to my social commentary blog Sunlight Sucks and enter the comment contest there. Second, you can attend my release party at the Amethyst Winters Yahoo group all day on Sunday the 22nd. Third, you can come to The Jester Show on Wednesday the 25th at 7 pm Pacific time on Talk Show Radio and either call in with a question or be in the chatroom. Three chances to win a FREE copy of The Wise Guy! If you prefer just to buy a copy so you don’t have to mingle, you’ll find the book at Noble Romance.

This book features a black cat named Rambo whose name was taken from my daughter’s cat. In fact the real Rambo is in the trailer. Also in this book are Tyler and James who are patterned after my vision of what Nikki’s boyfriend Tyler and his best friend James will be like at 30! LOL

The Wise Guy is dedicated to Nikki and to author Dee Carney. I wouldn’t have even thought to submit something for this series if it weren’t for Dee. Then, she and L. Shannon pushed me unmercilessly in Word Wars to finish it on time. No one cracks a whip better than those two! And then, when the book was finished, and edits complete, I get the cover from Bree Bridges, half of the writing team that is Moira Rogers. I swear, I almost cried. I think it really hit me when Bree sent me the cover… OMG. I’M BEING PUBLISHED!

Some people never see the realization of their dreams. Tomorrow, I will. Then again on March 5 when Pink Petal Books releases the first books in the Tales of the Darkworld series. I swear I’m numb. I’m just really overcome by all of this. And on top of it all, author Eliza Gayle got me interviewed at All Romance eBooks, just in time for this release. It’s all beyond amazing!

Thanks for coming by and supporting me. I sincerely appreciate all the support I’ve received from friends and fans!

Release Day! is a post from: Lex Valentine, Author